Our Favorite Link Building Strategies in 2024
Our Favorite Link Building Strategies
Navigating the ever-changing landscape of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be a challenging task, but one thing remains consistent: the power of effective link building. Welcome to my latest discourse on this critical topic - "Our Favorite Link Building Strategies in 2024." As we delve into this rich field, I will unravel why link building is still central to your online presence and share my cherished strategies that would help enhance visibility with search engines.
Also read:
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The Value of Link Building in 2024
Simply put, link building enhances your website's credibility and drives organic traffic. It entails securing hyperlinks from other websites to yours. In fact, hyperlinking is akin to casting a vote or vouching for another website's content, thereby improving its reputation with search engines like Google.
In this digital era where competition is rife, establishing strong backlinks has never been more essential. Here are some key reasons:
Authority: Quality inbound links signal authority to search engines, essentially suggesting that others trust and value your content enough to connect their users with it.
Visibility: Consistent high-quality backlinks gradually increase your site's visibility during searches as search engine algorithms favor sites deemed reputable by numerous other sources.
Building Relationships: Engaging with relevant industry influencers within your niche via link building often lays the foundation for mutually beneficial relationships which further opens up opportunities for growth.
Referral Traffic: Links on popular websites undoubtedly attract a steady stream of traffic- representing potential customers who wouldn't have otherwise discovered your brand.
Ultimately, investing in efficient link building strategies can well uplift long-term SEO performance benefiting growth significantly in today’s increasingly congested digital marketplace. Let me walk you through my favorite strategies gleaned from my experiences over the years dealing with virtual terrains!
Our Favorite Link Building Techniques
1) Make "Shareable" Content
“Build links organically with quality, engaging, and SHAREABLE content.”
If you wish to see impressive results from your link-building efforts in 2024, 'shareable' content is an indispensable strategy. Now let's understand why that’s crucial.
Engaging & Interactive Content
In the digital age, content saturation is a real problem. To stand out, your articles or blogs must offer more than just text — they need to be interactive and engaging. This could involve deploying quizzes, polls, or even games that may compel the user to interact with your page. Compelling interactive content not only increases engagement but also motivates users to share it wider circles, thus organically building links for you.
Engaging & interactive content ideas:
How-To Guides
Lists
Current or Trending Events
Engaging Media
Equally significant are various forms of media — images, infographics and video clips can all boost user engagement dramatically. By explaining complex topics through attractive visual content or concise videos, you ensure that viewers stay hooked on your page longer which enhances their likelihood of sharing the material.
Engaging media ideas:
Custom Images (like the ones you see in this post)
Videos
Infographics
Carousels (see above)
Accurate Data-Driven Studies and Research
Nothing assures credibility better than precise data straight from research or case studies. Consequently, when creating shareable content, I strongly suggest incorporating evidence-based data and results wherever possible; this brings substance to your narratives helping them earn readers’ trust in addition to expanding organic shares owing to their authoritative nature.
2) Build Directories
“The lowest hanging fruit for generating backlinks.”
In this technique, businesses develop niche-specific directories where others operating within that space could list themselves often along with a link back to their website. It serves dual purposes: companies benefit from directory participation by gaining visibility while simultaneously earning a credible backlink useful for SEO optimization.
Build, claim, create, and optimize 3rd party directory sites like this:
Industry Specific Sites
See our Directory on DesignRush (this link)
3) Generate Reviews on Review Sites
“Sites with reviews are more likely to generate backlinks organically.”
Reviews go hand-to-hand with optimizing directory sites that have review ratings. Online reviews hold immense power today; consumers almost always explore them before making purchase decisions. Therefore actively encouraging customers to rate and review your products on popular network platforms not only builds brand reputation but also establishes beneficial SEO backlinks.
Ask your best customers to leave you a review on sites like:
Industry Specific Review Sites
See our reviews on Clutch
“Our favorite review site is Clutch. You can see our Clutch badge throughout our website. A majority of our backlinks at SpearPoint Marketing have come from being a top ranked agency on Clutch.”
4) Unlinked Brand Mentions
“Can you please add a link with my brand name?”
Stay alert for any unlinked brand mentions across digital spaces - blogs, social media. Whenever you spot such a mention without a link back to your site, reach out and request them kindly to insert one; it’s an easy yet effective way of gaining more links.
5) Industry Related Guest Posts
“What all guest bloggers do… Except. Focus on industry specific sites.”
Writing guest posts on niche and industry-relevant blogs allows you to establish yourself as an expert in the field while earning worthwhile backlinks from high-authority websites. Keep your content informative, unique and make sure it delivers value to readers for best results.
How we do it at SpearPoint:
Find SEO service sites
Network with SEO service sites and ask if we can provide a quote or blurb with a link on their blog
“My favorite link building strategy is guest posting. It’s quick and you know exactly where your link will be placed.”
6) Reverse Engineer Competitor Backlinks
“Steal link ideas from your competitors.”
One clever tactic is to examine your competitor's backlink profile closely and identify opportunities where you can also earn a link. Tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs can simplify this process by tracking down all the sites that are linking back to your competitors.
Our favorite tools for evaluating competitor backlinks:
7) Ego Bait Content
“Stroke someone’s ego by featuring a brand within your content.”
Creating ego bait content essentially involves developing content that features or praises industry influencers and or brands, who are then likely to share this material with their followers subsequently aiding in link-building.
How we do it:
This works very well in Saas and E-commerce where we feature the best or top 5 brands that do “X”
We then notify the brands that they made list.
Then, they usually share that content on their channels and/or mention it on their blog.
8) Be a Podcast Guest
“Podcasters always need guests and content.”
Continuing trends predict even more popularity for podcasts in 2024 so appearing as a guest on them ensures wide visibility quite effortlessly. Besides reaching hundreds maybe thousands of listeners directly, podcast appearances frequently result in worthy link-backs from these platform's websites too!
All you have to do is reach out to an industry specific podcast and ask for a guest spot. - Yest, it’s that easy.
Tips:
Usually best if the podcast also has a website.
Ask the podcast to provide a link on their website and/or in the description of their podcasting platform.
““Podcast guesting is one of my favorite types of link building. Those show notes have highly relevant content - PLUS a link back to your site...and that’s golden!””
9) Host Virtual Events or Webinars
“A good webinar topic is sharable content.”
Virtual events and webinars offer an excellent space for engagement and knowledge sharing — granting participants great value which they might share further hence generating brand exposure along with potential back-links.
10) Public Relations: Links from the Press
“Not easy to earn, but probably the most valuable link you can get.”
Establishing connections with members of the press could lead up to feature articles about your organization thereby creating robust authoritative links. Make sure any press release regarding business milestones, product launches or innovative initiatives reaches relevant journalists or reporters timely.
Phew! That was quite some ground covered, wasn't it? Remember quality trumps quantity every time when it comes to link-building. Let's now take a peek at what separates useful practices from the ones you should avoid like plague and some favorite tools for this trade in 2024!
“Reverse Outreach is like talking the language journalists love. We create content with keywords they care about—stats, and industry insights. They use our stuff in their blogs. It’s not just about links; it’s about making friends in the right places with good stories.”
Good Link Building vs Bad Link Building Tactics
Before delving into the specifics of good link building strategies, it is indispensable to understand whether your strategy abides by Google's guidelines or not. After all, what use would a strategy be if it only serves to harm your website in the long run? Therefore, evaluating and distinguishing between both good and bad link building tactics becomes crucial.
Good Link Building Strategies
Good links are not easy to earn. They come organically or depend on the website’s owner if your content is worthy of a link. Here are some common but good link building strategies:
Create Shareable Content: One of my most preferred strategies involves creating high-quality content that naturally attracts backlinks from other websites. This could involve writing informative blog posts, creating images or infographics, offering insightful industry reports, or any form of engaging content suited for your audience.
Industry Related Guest Blogging: Providing valuable insights on websites that are relevant to your niche is another impressive technique. However, ensure you aim only for well-reputed sites with proper editorial standards and avoid spammy platforms.
Influencer Outreach: Collaborating with influencers who boast higher domain authority than yours can significantly escalate the prominence of your website through trusted backlinks.
Broken Link Building: Reaching out to webmasters about broken links on their site and suggesting one from your site as a replacement can be a win-win proposition for enhanced SEO value.
Bad Link Building Strategies
While chalking out a robust link-building plan is vital, being mindful of detrimental practices is just as important. Here are some tactics that I personally advise against:
Purchasing Links: Buying links might seem like an easy way to gain quick visibility but let me reiterate – It violates Google's guidelines! Additionally, this approach usually results in poor quality backlinks which end up damaging more than benefiting.
Excessive Article Directories or Bookmark Sites Submissions: While article directories or bookmarking websites were once popular methods to acquire backlinks, Google now regards them as low quality due to their lack of editorial standards.
Link Exchanges or Reciprocal Linking: Similar to purchasing links, Google perceives excessive reciprocal linking as an attempt to manipulate page rank and is therefore best avoided unless truly justified by context or relevance.
Automated Programs: Using automated programs to create backlinks can lead to a surge of low-quality inbound links that may raise red flags with Google. This often leads to penalties, damaging your site's credibility and rankings in the SERPs.
By distinguishing between right and wrong strategies clearly, we ensure our link building efforts are effective, ethical, and sustainable over time while also aligning reliably with search engine guidelines. Remember, good link-building strategies focus on quality, not quantity!
“Good and bad, I’ve used all of these strategies within my 15+ years in SEO and digital marketing. Good and Bad link building strategies might sound harsh but there is a quality and risk outcome associated with each of these. It is up to the SEO or marketer to determine what’s the best solution for the site.”
Link Building Tools in 2024
The practice of link building can be a daunting venture, but with the right tools at your disposal, it becomes significantly streamlined. In 2024, there are several paramount link-building tools that have proven incredibly effective for content creators and marketers alike.
SEMrush
Firstly, we cannot overlook SEMrush. This dynamic SEO tool delivers advanced capabilities to uncover backlink opportunities via its comprehensive 'Backlink Gap' function. More so, it allows users to keep track of their competitors' linking strategies effectively while carrying out audits on their own links.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is another indispensable piece in our toolbox. Renowned primarily for its precise backlink analysis feature, Ahrefs also boasts features such as 'Content Explorer,' which helps identify well-performing content in your niche, and 'Link Intersect,' that draws insights from your competitors’ backlinks.
Moz Link Explorer
Similarly noteworthy is Moz's 'Link Explorer.' The intricate tool possesses a wealth of functionalities designed for efficient link prospecting and systematic competitor analysis.
BuzzStream
In addition to these, BuzzStream shines brightly when managing link-building campaigns and organizing outreach efforts coherently. Aside from assisting users stay organized throughout the process via useful project management features, BuzzStream simplifies email outreach through personalized automated responses based on recipient feedback.
Majestic
Lastly, let's consider Majestic - a robust analytical SEO tool that analyzes domains extensively for those deep-diving into their backlink strategies; perfect for mapping out link portfolios in detail whilst contesting penalties or auditing links thoroughly.
Others…
Various other fantastic options available encompass NinjaOutreach (for influencer marketing), Pitchbox (for outreach automation and scaling), Hunter.io (for locating email addresses), and JustReachOut (primarily aimed at PR).
Ultimately, effective usage of these pioneering tools can increase the efficiency of your link building procedures considerably by automating manual tasks like tracking down potential contacts and analyzing competitor strategies. Remarkably though, while embracing technology smartly can amplify results significantly, remember that the primary force driving your link building success is still a well-crafted, engaging, and valuable content strategy. Every tool in your arsenal is simply complementing this main player.
The Future of Link Building Tactics in 2024 and Beyond
In the evolving landscape of SEO, key trends like the growing use of AI in link building, the need for localized links due to improved geographical targeting by Google, and the rise of voice search optimization are reshaping strategies. AI can streamline routine tasks like link prospecting and outreach personalization, while human creativity remains essential in content creation and partner relationships. Localized links boost relevancy for specific regions, enhancing brand visibility. As voice-assistants become more popular, optimizing for voice search queries is important. However, the core of effective link building remains in delivering real value and high-quality content that resonates with the audience, and there is no better way to do this organically than with Digital PR (Digital Public Relations).
“Link building in 2024 needs to be 100% focused on brand building. Every link needs to be on a page that gets seen. Why? Because we need to maximize link effectiveness. We need to tell people your business exists and we need to explicitly tell search engines what we are experts in. Digital PR is the future of link building.”
