How to Maximize a Link Building Campaign
SEO experts have been saying it for years: backlinks are one of the most important factors for ranking in search results. So it’s no wonder that you’re exploring your options and putting together a strategy for building quality links to your website to get more traffic.
But building links is not easy, in fact it’s hard work. Surely there must be some shortcuts you can take to speed up the results. Maybe you should drop five bucks for 1,000 backlinks on Fiverr? Or perhaps you should buy 100 of those cheap link packages on Black Hat World? Surely all those links will skyrocket your blog to the top of the search results!
Yeah, right.
As with many other things in life, there’s a right way to do things and a wrong way. You get what you pay for, and building backlinks the wrong way will get your site penalized so hard that you might never recover.
So forget about the shortcuts. Hang that black hat back up on the coat rack. Roll up your sleeves and get ready to do some real work. Here are three of the right ways to build links that will get you solid traffic results for months and years to come.
1. Focus on Quality Over Quantity
It wasn’t very long ago that you could easily spam a bunch of forums and blogs and create thousands of backlinks on autopilot — and get great results! But those days are over, and nobody should be surprised about it.
Still, it’s amazing how many SEO “experts” are still pushing low-quality spam links. Do they not realize that that ship has sailed? Do they really think that they can escape Google penalties while doing stuff like that?
If you want to get more traffic for the long term without destroying your reputation and rankings, then you need to focus on getting backlinks from high-quality websites with content that is relevant to your own.
Start by reaching out to blogs in your industry and in related niches. Then go for top media sites and blogs with massive traffic. You can also do press releases with local media sites and bloggers, if your customer base is geo-targeted to your local area.
2. But Also Focus on Quantity
While it’s far more important to seek out high-quality links from authoritative websites with high levels of traffic, it’s still important to get as many of them as you can. The web pages that rank in the top spots in search results not only have high-quality links pointing at them, but they also have a large quantity of such backlinks. So if you are going after high-volume keywords with tough competition, then you need to get a lot of quality backlinks.
This is going to take a lot of work. There is no getting around this fact. You need to actually interact with editors and staff at these blogs. You need to offer them something of value, such as high-quality guest posts, infographics and relevant brand mentions.
Yes, it will take a lot more work to get links like these — especially to get a lot of them — but the good news is that once you start landing high-quality links, it then becomes easier to get additional links from other high-quality sources.
For instance, landing your first guest post on a site like Entrepreneur.com might take a lot of time and effort. But once you have that clip under your belt, it will then become a lot easier to land guest posts — and backlinks — on other authoritative sites like Forbes, FastCompany, Wired and Inc.
3. Build Your Personal Brand
One of the keys to landing backlinks and guest posts on high-quality blogs in your niche is to build your personal brand.
When your reputation precedes you, you’ll find that guest post opportunities actually come to you. Quality sites and media outlets will actually start reaching out to you and asking you to contribute to their publication. At this point, things really start to pick up momentum.
But getting to this point is the tricky part. You have to commit to a consistent campaign of outreach, real networking and non-stop guest posting. You’ll need to get your name out there however you can in the beginning, and it can be frustrating if nobody has heard of you yet.
Don’t let that discourage you, though. Every top business leader was once a nobody. Every industry expert in your niche started out as a no-name guest poster. But if you commit to putting in the work, the results are yours for the taking.
Building backlinks that will stand the test of time is a lot harder than it was in the past. You really have to work for those links. But one strong link from a reputable site is worth thousands of links from lesser-known blogs. So make up your mind to go all in on backlinking. Then make a plan incorporating the ideas above and then spend time every week putting the plan into action.
If you link it, they will come.
Author Bio
James Gorski: In addition to being the editor at designrfix and writing about tech, web and graphic design among other subjects, I love “unplug” and be outdoors hiking and enjoying nature. If you can’t reach me, it’s probably because where I am at doesn’t have cell phone reception.
Have any specific link building questions?
Let James and I know in the comments section below!