2 Link Building Tactics That Actually Work for building Authority
Link Building Tactics
Link building remains to be one of the foundations of a successful SEO strategy. But the simple fact is that you’re here reading the article searching for the best link building tactics to use.
Why backlinks? Links are like tiny votes on your content.
Backlinks give Google the impression that people or sites find your content to be useful and informative. And with enough backlinks from “authoritative” or “quality” sites, you can surely propel your website to the top of search engine results.
How do you create a link building strategy
Best Link Building Tactics for Quality Backlinks
For more information on the best link building tactics, below are two of the top link building strategies you could use.
1. Skyscraper Technique
Ready to reach new heights with your link building strategy? Then the skyscraper technique can be the strategy you’re looking for.
The Skyscraper technique simply means finding the best content for your topic and building a better (higher, taller) version. This can be done by searching for your topic (using keywords) and locating the article located at the top position for search results.
Read Also: How to rank higher on Google first page
Your ultimate goal? To establish yourself as an expert and get other site owners building backlinks to your content, ideally, without you asking for them.
Here is how to do it:
GET YOUR TARGET KEYWORD
The first step is to find the most popular, most shared content for your topic. So how do you search for it? Keywords are the backbone of any SEO strategy.
When doing keyword research you will look into the average monthly searches (indicates popularity), the level of competition, and other related keywords you could potentially target for your niche. We recommend using the Google AdWords Keyword Planner. Click the “Get Ideas” button, and you’re off to the races.
FINDING VIRAL CONTENT
After identifying your target keyword, the next step is to find the most popular content for the topic. Here we can use BuzzSumo to find the best-shared articles for the keyword.
This tool gives you valuable information such as the number of unique domains linking to it and how many times it has been shared on social media.
Read Also: How to build backlinks with infographics
BUILDING A BETTER VERSION
Now that you have a target, its time to make a better version. The first thing you should consider when building better content is to check your competitor’s word count.
Content quality is hard to measure, but quantity also helps you build quality. Check for other signals such as adding images or videos to spruce up your content.
Read Also: How to increase Google crawl rate to crawl your site more.
Other signals that can help you build quality is by linking to authority sites. This indicates that you have done some serious research into making your article credible and trustworthy.
You could also create a better layout that uses well-placed headings and bullet points to make it easier for readers to get the salient points of the article.
All in all build a better, longer and more user-friendly piece of content.
SEARCHING FOR OUTREACH TARGETS
Remember the goal for your Skyscraper efforts is to build backlinks to your content. I particularly found SEMrush to be very useful for this. Just enter the site’s name into the search bar and click backlinks. Immediately, it displays sites that are currently sending backlinks.
It also provides essential information such as trust score and page score, which indicates the quality of sites linking back. Select the best sites, sifting from the top.
Once you’ve got a decent list, it’s now time to start pitching your article.
MAKING THE PITCH
This step is similar to when you start sending requests for guest blog opportunities. The only difference is you’ve already published the article and the site you’re requesting to have a similar topic on their website.
The key here is to create personalized emails. Learn as much about the site owner and go the extra mile by making contact through their social media accounts if possible.
A tool like BuzzStream can help with this.
2. Broken Link Building
This is a link building technique that involves actively searching for content with links that are no longer live. The process involves asking webmasters to replace their “broken” or missing links with an article on your site.
This can be beneficial both you and for the site owner as it helps them clean their link profile while allowing you to get that much-needed backlink.
PROSPECTING
Ever wondered why broken link building is one of the least used link building techniques? This is because many link builders find it to be complicated compared to other link building strategies. But if you’re up to the challenge then let’s start with prospecting.
Direct URL Targeting
This involves focusing on a single website where you actively search for broken link opportunities. Look for the most authoritative sites in your niche where getting backlinks can provide the most traction for your backlink campaign. However, this is somewhat limited and time-consuming.
Searching for broken link opportunities can be very tedious. Good thing, some tools could be used for these purposes. You could always check Ahrefs to make your broken link building efforts easier.
Keyword Based Prospecting
This is the most popular method for building backlinks using the broken link strategy. This involves using Google for searching relevant keywords and finding the best pages using the keyword. After getting a list of resource pages, you then check all the links contained in these pages and search for broken link opportunities.
After identifying the best keywords, the next step is to pair them with prospecting phrases. These search terms help you identify relevant resources and link pages. You could match your keywords with search terms such as “intitle:resources” or “inurl:links” to find linking opportunities.
CONTENT CREATION
The next step after gathering your list of broken links is to create relevant content where webmasters would be linking to. This involves understanding the content located at your target website and replicating the content on the original link location.
This can prove to be a ton of work as you must create specific content for each site you’re targeting. And this without a guarantee of your content being approved. The trick is to create content that is useful for your site even if you don’t get the link.
OUTREACH
After collecting your list of potential sites for link building and creating the content, the next step is to collect the contact information of the webmaster. The key to a successful outreach campaign is to spend some time crafting your messages.
Here is an example that I have used:
Conclusion
These two link building tactics are great for building authority and are being done by the best marketers online today. Share some of your experiences with these below in the comments!
About The Author
Rodney Warner is the founder of Connective Web Design. You can find him on his company website or Instagram.
