Link building is a search engine optimization (SEO) technique used to increase the number and quality of inbound links to a website with the goal of improving search engine rankings.

This technique involves acquiring hyperlinks from other websites to your own website.

The more high-quality websites linking to your website, the more trustworthy, authoritative and reliable it appears to search engines like Google.

Effective link building strategies include creating high-quality content, guest blogging, influencer outreach, broken link building, and link reclamation.

However, link building must be done ethically to avoid getting penalized by search engines, such as being tagged as spam or receiving a low ranking for participating in link schemes.

Nowadays, link building involves quality links and not the number of links as it was the case before.

If you are creating links for your website, it is important to understand that link building is a gradual process.

The pages where you link to play a pivotal role in determining how powerful a link will be and its effect on your ranking.

This why blogging while you build links is important because you will get to build a lot of inbound links.

In addition to blogging, there are other proven ways of building quality links that can propel you on page one of search engines, and this is what we will talk about.

Here are 13 proven link building strategies you can use today;

[1] Be Strategic With Your Guest Blogging:

Businesses and marketers are realizing the benefits of blogging and, thus, are embracing it.

With blogging, you can build more inbound links and increase your site visitors tremendously.

In the same manner, guest blogging is gaining popularity as well, and you can take advantage of this.

By being strategic, it means having a clear goal. If you want to drive traffic to your blog, you need to target websites that send you traffic.

Since you want more links, search for blogs that are not accepting blog posts, but whose owners and readers are likely to share your guest posts on social media platforms.

You want your blog post to appear on trusted platforms in front of potential blog owners who are likely to link to it.

Therefore, look for a topic most blog owners you are targeting have covered. and consider looking for a complementary topic to theirs.

This way, they will find it logical to link to it. Make sure that their target audience will find it helpful and interesting.

Keep in mind that when you understand the audience you are targeting, it will be a lot easier to know the content gaps in their niche and what they will like.

Therefore, contribute regularly to reliable sites in your niche to get noticed by big wigs.

[2] Create Infographics:

Infographics are still loved even today, especially with the rise of social media marketing, where businesses prefer to share infographics to their social media pages instead of text content.

By creating and distributing infographics, you can build links easily.

Going by the fact that infographics are expensive, creating them for other businesses can act as a bargain for getting links.

Do your research about a website you are targeting, and look for infographics that can suit them then make a few for them.

[3] Create a Name On Social Media:

With social media revolutionizing marketing, you can benefit by honing your brand and making it known to potential audience and authority in your niche.

Therefore, share new images, updates, and posts. This way, you will build new relationships with prospects and customers.

Help your target audience get answers and solutions easily by sharing them in places where they hang out most of the time.

When you are active on social media, you boost your engagement and consequently boost your brand awareness so that more of your target audience gets to know you.

[4] Spy On Your Competitor:

Most of the sites that rank high in search engines are those with quality links.

To explain this, we can say that the more links a website gets from high-authority sites with related content, the more search engines see you as an authority site and thus ranks you higher.

This is the reason you should check your competitor’s backlinks.

For you to leapfrog them from their ranking position, you will need to get better links. You may discover that they are getting links from news outlets. Therefore, learn how you can earn the links too and also request the sites linking to your competitor’s site to do the same for you.

When spying on your competitor, determine the keywords they are ranking for, where they are getting the best links, and what is it that they are doing to remain top of search results. In other words, this is called competitive analysis.

How do you analyze your competitors?

Step 1- you need to identify your main competitors:

• It is easy to point your competitors based on their ranking on search engines. However, to be sure, you can use a simple tool such as SEMrush and enter your main keywords.

• Scroll down to see the web pages that are ranking for the keyword and how much traffic they are getting.

Step 2- analyze backlinks:

• After pointing out your main competing pages, go to Open Site Explorer and enter one of the page URLs and analyze the links and referring web pages.

• Analyze the authority of the links. This should give you the reason why the authority site linked to the page, and you can do a better job.

• You can use convince and convert to know page authority and domain authority.

By knowing where your competitors have gotten links from, you are already halfway the race because you will know what to do more or better to earn the links.

In addition, where you see where their links are coming from, you will know the strategies they are using.

For instance, when links are coming from related blogs, it is pretty obvious they are doing guest blogging.

Links from corporate sites means they are getting them through networking and outreach.

Links from high-value sites such as Forbes, Entrepreneur, etc. know that the editor was involved, and possibly money exchanged hands.

[5] Replicate some of the Best Links From Your Competitors:

After knowing where your competitors’ links are coming from, you need to replicate some of them.

Try to avoid links that will likely raise a red flag.

Embrace links from high-value content that has massive social engagement.

Replicating your competitor’s success is not a difficult task because the resources and tools for the job are readily available.

Once you find the best links your competitor has used, you can take advantage of them.

Keep in mind that the best links are those coming from a site that has high page authority and domain authority.

An easy way of getting links from authority sources is to create a high-quality resource page.

With a resource page, you can link up to different blogs and websites that relate to the resource and request them to link back to you.

You can also opt to share infographics to get links as well, but we will talk about this later in greater depth.

Keep in mind that replicating your competitors’ link strategy might not be the easiest way to build links.

In fact, you may find out that your competitor earned their link from their relationship with an editor from a trusted site where the link came from.

But you should not give up. Make your content helpful such that editors and influential bloggers will gladly link back to you. Quality is key when it comes to building links.

[6] Create Resource Pages:

You need to start using resource links from reputable sites.

A resource is a guide that has been created to help your target audience get most of the information they need from one point.

It offers a great way of driving traffic and generating quality links for your blog.

Several authority sites and blogs such as Entrepreneur, Forbes, Social Media Examiner, CopyBlogger, and Huffington Post have resource pages you can tap it.

If an authority site in your niche has a resource guide that visitors easily find solutions and answers to their problems, you can aim to create a better and bigger resource article.

You can expand and make it better by adding fresh ideas and expanding on the ones already covered.

This resource can be a great tool not only for your marketing efforts but also for getting links for your site.

You can email the blogs and websites that have linked to the resource you expanded on and request them to link to you since you have written a more in-depth version of the resource.

The reason this method will work is because your extensive resource will help you establish trust with other website owners, and they will link to it as a way of showing appreciation.

On top of that, most of them will reciprocate your generosity by linking back to your web page.

[7] Grow Your Brand:

One of the best ways of building links is by growing your brand and making it known.

When it comes to link building, people will naturally link back to you if they know your brand. By natural, we are talking about a link that you have organically earned or editorially earned.

You didn’t request for it. Often, a natural link is where you are given credit for the job well done.

To build your brand and earn link naturally, you need to have quality content.

Your content and your blog represent you.

To grow your brand, you need to do something consistently, and in this case, it involves doing blogging consistently.

Therefore, if you are building links, you need to get serious with blogging.

Because not only will you increase your inbound links with blogging, you will also improve your ranking on search engine since Google loves fresh, relevant content.

 

[8] Target Broken Links:

If you are too busy to write guest posts or newer content for your blog, broken link strategy may work for you.

This old-school strategy was neglected when the quantity of links mattered more than quality. However, as more marketers turn to white hat strategies for building links, the use of broken link building has resurrected.

Busy marketers may not have enough time to write content on a consistent basis. That’s why using this strategy will be an easier way of getting backlinks.

Find web pages with links that no longer work and request the website owner to replace the content in the link with another link to similar content.

This will not only mean more traffic to your site but also a valuable link, which can pass SEO juice to other pages.

You can check for several in-depth guides on how to find broken links and how to use this strategy. Look for these broken link building resources online to learn more about this strategy.

 

[9] Create Link Roundups:

You must have heard about the principle of reciprocity and the law of persuasion.

This means that if you want to get the right links, you need to give links first.

Don’t be selfish by only linking content to your internal pages only; link out to other blog posts as well.

Keep in mind that Google will penalize you if you only build internal links, and that’s why your safest way is through networking.

When another blogger has linked back to your website, it is easier for you to show appreciation and link back to them.

Link roundups are a great way of building links and networks. In other words, you get the attention of other marketers when you show them some attention.

This work on the principle of reciprocity, whereby you are rewarded for your act of kindness from someone to whom you have shown kindness- give and take.Before you do this, find blog posts that are relevant to your pages.

In other words, link back to other sites so that they can reciprocate the favor back to you.

This will do well when you have a resource page because they will link back to it when you link to their pages.

[10] Create Content Pillars:

People normally take content seriously when it inspires them, adds value to their lives, change their lives, or blow them away with its usefulness.

Content is the blood of your online business, and you have to give people that if you want to sell anything online.

Whether you are selling digital products such as software and eBooks or physical products such as hard copies and digital cameras, you need to give people great content.

With high-quality content, you can generate leads and boost your sales. However, you don’t have to bombard your customers and prospects with new content now and then, as this will lead to information overload.

Of course, there are those who will appreciate reading fresh content every day. However, the best way to do this is to create pillar content.

Pillar content is a tutorial-style article that is aimed at teaching your audience something- they have actionable tips and advice.

Pillar articles generate traffic on a consistent basis, and thus you will not need to publish a lot of content- you will just be doing promotion more.

Your pillar content can be a how-to article, X number of tips to solve something, etc.

[11] Monitor Your Backlinks:

Many people don’t spend time tracking their backlinks.

If you don’t track your links, how do you know when they are enough or people who have withdrawn them?

You may have a 1000 links pointing to your different web pages, but when you check after 30-40 days, you find some links missing.

If you engage your fans on social media sites and actively contribute to other blogs, you will gain links on a consistent basis.

Some of your links will be removed since you don’t have control over authority sites and blogs that links back to you; they can remove your link from the resource page or post without notifying you.

You can use Monitor Backlinks tool to find this information. To know the number of links your site has, you can use the Majestic tool.

By monitoring your link’s status, you can tell the blogs to avoid and those to retain.

[12] Earn Editorial Links:

These are links earned by providing value. Editorial links are the most sought-after links because they are freely offered by sites that do not want anything in return.

To earn these links, you have to offer compelling content that people will link to.

These links are acquired manually, and thus you will struggle to retain them.

Also, Google may penalize you for this, which is why you have to create quality content first.

Begin by blogging strategically- this means creating content that will help people move from one point to another.

Create more pillar content and tutorials and ensure you include accurate data in your content.

Create lengthier posts that engage people and ensure that you integrate pictures and infographics if possible.

[13] Fix Errors and Reclaim Links:

You can look for 404 pages that people are linking to and point them to another relevant page while fixing the error. Use Google Webmaster Tools to find broken links.

When you share an infographic and insert your link or code for sites to link back to you, you expect them to use the link so that you can get the backlink. However, when site owners download your infographic and upload it as their own, how can you reclaim that?

Step 1- use Google Images Search to look for your infographic.

Step 2- click on your infographic and visit the pages it has appeared. Check whether or not you are credited. If you notice they have not linked back to you, ask them for a link.

For those who have credited you, ensure that your URL or blog name was used as anchor text. However, be careful because you may appear demanding, especially if someone did that out of their generosity.

You can begin to create a relationship with site owners that have used your infographic without linking back to you correctly and forge a relationship.

Later, you can politely ask them to link back to you in the right way.

Conclusion:

Link building is an effective way of boosting your ranking in search engine results.

Keep in mind that Google cares more about the quality of your link rather than quantity.

Therefore, aim to get quality links through SEO, creating detailed, relevant content, and promoting your content on social media.

We do hope that the above 13 link building strategies will help you in your efforts to build links for your website.