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What Are Link Insertions and How Do They Affect SEO?

SEO is constantly changing, which means that website owners everywhere need to keep pace with various updates and the best practices that will keep their pages at the top of search results. Through all this change, it can be difficult to know what SEO element to focus on. However, there is one aspect that will…
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SEO is constantly changing, which means that website owners everywhere need to keep pace with various updates and the best practices that will keep their pages at the top of search results. Through all this change, it can be difficult to know what SEO element to focus on. However, there is one aspect that will always be relevant, and that’s link building.

Growing relevant, high-authority, and quality links to your pages is a reliable way to increase your online visibility and leapfrog your competitors in the rankings. Link building is a tried and tested method that should not be ignored when it comes to your SEO strategy.

The thing is, traditional link building methods can be a time-consuming and tricky process that can take a while to bear fruit. After all, you’ve got to think about quality content creation and outreach. The good news is that there is a much quicker way to build quality links that you can benefit from, and this is through the link insertion method.

Our team has put together this helpful explainer on what link insertions are, the benefits of this link building style, and how to build a campaign for them. Keep reading to learn more.

What Are Link Insertions?

A link insertion, also known as link placement, niche edit, or curated link, is when one of your backlinks is added to an existing piece of content on a relevant website. This linking SEO method is popular because you don’t have to create a fresh new guest post and wait for it to be indexed before your backlink profile benefits. Instead, most times, all you need to do is create a few sentences of contextually relevant content that contains your link to be inserted into a website’s existing blog post. As you’re getting your link included in an existing post, you don’t have to wait long for it to be indexed, meaning it’ll work to increase rankings almost immediately.

So, what’s the catch? There isn’t one really. You just need to get in touch with the owners of the websites that you want to include a link to your web page and convince them to include it.

Why Are Link Insertions An Important Part of Link Building?

Every link in SEO or backlink that you build back to your site acts as a little vote of confidence for your authority, quality and trustworthiness, which means Google and other search engines are more likely to trust you and feature your content in their top spots.

What’s more, any content or blog linking from a high domain authority site to yours is an even bigger signal of your credibility and will pack a bigger punch when it comes to your rankings in the SERPs (search engine results pages).

For link insertions or any type of link building to be effective, your backlinks must come from sites that are relevant to the industry you are in. For example, there is little point in getting a link insertion from a gaming website if you run a hair and beauty business.

The Advantages of Link Insertions

The link insertion method is a great addition to your current link building strategy. The outreach tends to be straightforward, you don’t have any content creation to worry about, and it’s a quick way of connecting with many quality websites in your niche.

The more blogs linking to your website, the better, so there is no reason why you shouldn’t add this to your link building arsenal.

Still need convincing? The following are some of the biggest benefits of using link insertions as part of your SEO strategy:

  • More Flexibility of Websites

Not every website will accept guest posts, which can put a limit on the websites from which you can get backlinks. With link insertions, however, you don’t always need to create any fresh content to get links included to your site, which opens up many more website options. If you find a blog post on a relevant website that you think your link will fit into nicely, all you need to do is contact the owner and prove that your content brings value to their reader.

For example, you might target a blog post on a cookery website, which might briefly mention a certain rare ingredient. You run a spices business and have an in-depth guide on this particular ingredient. In this case, adding your link will benefit the host site and you.

  • Easy Outreach

For link insertions, outreach is much easier than guest posting. As long as you explain to the site owner why featuring your link will benefit them (e.g. give their users a better experience), you will avoid a lot of the back and forth that is sometimes the case when building relationships for guest posting.

  • No or Little Content Creation Needed

Insertion link blogging saves you a lot of time and resources compared to other types of link building. The main reason for this is that you don’t have to create a full article’s content. At most, you may have to provide a few contextual sentences containing your link to be inserted into the existing content.

  • Faster Indexing

Google can take weeks to index a new web page. The great thing about link insertions is that you’re adding a link to a page that is already in its index, so you don’t have to wait to reap the rewards, which gives you a near-instant lift in the SERPs.

  • No Penalties When Done Right

Link insertions are a white-hat SEO technique when done properly, which means you can build these types of links without facing a Google penalty. If your link adds value to the existing content, then you can rest assured that you won’t face the wrath of Google.

3 Steps To Link Insertions

There’s no point in getting any old blog linking to your website. For link insertions to be effective, you need to take a targeted approach. These are the 3 steps you should follow for link insertion success:

1. Find Suitable Websites

Your links need to be relevant and come from an authoritative site within your niche to be effective. Not only this, even if you find an appropriate website that ticks all the boxes in terms of relevance and authority, you need to ensure you are only linking from quality, relevant content. If their content isn’t up to scratch, your link insertion strategy could backfire. It’s also worth looking into the linking site’s performance, usability, on-page SEO and presence, as these can signal how highly Google views it.

2. Do Outreach To Website Owners

Once you’ve identified suitable websites and content to target, the next step is to reach out to the website owners. The best way to do this is by personalising your email approach to them, as it helps you build a relationship that is very important for this type of blogger outreach and link building. Be sure to address the website owner by name if you can, highlight that you are familiar with their content and clearly explain to them how including your link in one of their articles will be mutually beneficial. At this stage, it’s important to keep an open mind and be prepared to be flexible as the site might have certain criteria that you need to fit.

3. Optimise Anchor Text For Link Placement

Finally, you need to consider the anchor text you want included in the content. The anchor text is the clickable text that contains a hyperlink, and it’s important that you get this part right because they are an important ranking factor for Google. Your anchor text needs to be relevant, informative and contain keywords. It needs to describe the page you want to link to and should tell the user (and Google) what to expect by following your link.

Wrapping Everything Up

Link insertions are a clever way to boost your backlink profile. You don’t need to spend hours creating new content or wait weeks for your links to be indexed. Instead, link insertions speed up the entire process, meaning you can see the benefits in the SERPs quicker. Link insertions are also known as curated links or niche edits, and we offer a link insertion service that can handle the entire process for you. Sound good? Reach out to our team today to see how our extensive link building services can help you.

Rebecca Drew, Copy Editor

A baking geek who loves long walks and hanging out with the cows.

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