Beginner
Mention Audit
If your brand gets mentioned without a link, you’ve got an easy link opportunity staring you in the face.
All you need to do is email that person and gently ask them to link to the brand. That way, people can easily find the website.
Gap Audit
In the Backlink Gap tool, you can compare the backlink profiles of up to five competing websites at once. Enter the domains and SEMrush will list all of the referring domains that are sending links to these sites. Filtering makes it easy to identify the websites that are linking to your competitors but not you.
This helps you identify gaps between competitors’ link building strategies and plan their own outreach to build links.
Find People Using Your Images (Reverse Image Search)
You can easily find other websites using your images or infographics with a reverse image tool (like Google Images).
If people are using our client’s images, politely ask them if they could link back to the original source (your site). Most people will be happy to hook you up.
Partners / Associations
Is the client a member of an association or organization? If so, find out if they link out to their list of members. And ask them to add you to their list. In fact, it’s sometimes worth joining an organization just to get a link, or at least worth it to mention it to the account manager.
Member directories and lists are one thing. But if you want to take this to another level, most organizations run posts on their members that highlight what they’re up to (just like with Alumni associations). So if you have an interesting story to tell, ask them for a feature.
Resource Links
Resource pages are a link builder’s dream. After all, the point of the resource page is to link out to useful content.
So if you have a piece of useful content, you’re in a good spot.
Unfortunately, getting links from resource pages isn’t as easy as it sounds.
Your content (and outreach) really needs to bring it. Otherwise, it’s not worth the person’s time to add your link.
(It also helps if you know the person that runs the resource page)
With all that said, resource pages remain one of my favorite ways to get links.
Guest Blogging
Guest blogging doesn’t work as well as it used to for two main reasons:
First, bloggers are sick of guest blog pitches.
Second, Google has largely devalued links from guest posts.
That said, guest posting still has its place as a link building tactic. Assuming you follow these caveats:
- Only guest post on sites that are VERY picky about what they publish. If they accept anything, you probably don’t want a link from that site.
- Don’t use exact match anchor text in your external links
- Focus on publishing on relevant sites (even if that means compromising on Domain Authority)
- Don’t rely on guest posting as your sole (or main) link building strategy. That’s a footprint you don’t want
Intermediate
Offer an Award
Badges work great if you’re giving out awards. Just make sure to include a link back to the awards page in the embed code.
Your badges/awards can be just about anything. There’s the obvious “top X blogs” in a niche. But you can also do a list of top local venues, restaurants, service providers, etc. Or the best products in a category that doesn’t get a lot of social attention (like water pumps or CRM software).
These untapped awards usually work better because these organizations haven’t been featured anywhere before. Which means they’ll be pumped to spread the word.
Give Something Away
This is pretty simple: you give someone with a decent DA your product and ask them to review it. There are hundreds of potential blog targets in most industries. Which makes this one of the few link building strategies that is actually scalable.
The one catch is that Google doesn’t want you to exchange your product for a backlink. Instead, just send your product out and let each blogger decide whether or not to link.
OR
Reach out to bloggers in your niche that run contests. And offer up your product or service to the winner. They’re usually more than happy to accept. And 99% of the time, they’ll link to you from the contest announcement page.
Make a Podcast Appearance
Podcasts >>>> guest posting.
Why?
They’re faster.
They’re easier.
And your link isn’t a devalued “guest post link”.
Create a Press Releases and a Press Release Section
Google has said that they “ignore” links from press releases.
That said:
A newsworthy and timely press release CAN lead to legit, dofollow links. That’s because syndication can get your release in front of journalists… journalists that can pick it up and write about your story.
Interview an Expert (and put it on your blog)
Interviewing an industry expert can net you a handful of decent links.
Get an influencer in your space to write a guest post for your blog (or sit down for an interview). Not only will they share the content with their audience, but people are more likely to link to it because it’s from an influencer they know and respect. This is especially helpful if you’re just starting out.
Advanced
Guestographics
So you created an infographic. Now what?
Well, you need to actively promote it. And I don’t mean spamming your infographic to 1000 blogs. Instead, try Guestographics. It’s a way to strategically promote your infographic… without being spammy.
Here’s the step-by-step process if you want to learn more.
Newsjack Hot Topics
Instead of trying to cover news first, take advantage of hot topics. In other words: you find a big story and write a blog post on that topic. There are a few different Newsjacking approaches:
- Just the story itself – If it’s early on in the story’s life, you can basically curate the information that’s out there (and keep it up to date).
- Quick commentary – Give a new spin or commentary on the topic.
- Delayed recap – Now that all the details are out, write a full recap of the event or story.
- Detailed analysis – Once the dust has settled, do a deep dive into everything that’s come out, and analyze each point. Do your homework to uncover new, interesting facts that are out there, but not tied to this particular story.
There are a few other post tactics for this, but these are by far the most popular. For a more detailed review of newsjacking, see this.
Setup up a Booth or Speak at Conferences
Yes, you usually get a link from the conference website.
But more importantly, you get links from people that write about the event too. In fact, you can sometimes get 10+ links from a single conference.
Plus, if you crush your talk, people that attended will mention your talk in blog posts, podcasts and videos.
Develop a Survey and Post its Results
Using surveys for content and link building is a two-step process:
The first step is getting people to participate. If you have an audience, and you’re not picky about who responds, you can ask people to participate in your survey. If not, there’s always Google Surveys.
The second step is to collect and release the results. Do you find something controversial? Highlight that in your survey. Controversial or interesting findings are KEY if you want your survey to get featured on news sites.
For example, one survey found that YouTubers were more influential to US teenagers than musicians or actors.
Create / Join a Blog Network
Here’s where you build a “network” of similar non-competing blogs. Agree to share each other’s content, swap strategies, and leave comments. This helps get your content in front of more peeps.
Important caveat: this isn’t a link exchange because you’re not swapping links. It’s more of an Avengers-type relationship. You’re all independent. But once and a while you come together to help each other out.
In fact, some of my best strategies and insights have come from a little group of bloggers that I’m friends with.