Similar to building business relationships, effective link-building strategies work. Only that with link-building, you get to improve your website ranking and drive traffic, rather than sign business cheques.
According to 92 percent of marketers, link building will remain an essential ranking factor in five years. Therefore, link building is a continuous and relentless process for any organization seeking online success. But you can’t be successful at link building if you’re using outdated strategies.
So, if you’re looking for a link-building strategy worth your time and effort, this post is for you.
1. Write High-quality Guest Blogs
You can build brand awareness and backlinks to your website by publishing articles on other websites.
However, when you write guest blogs, make sure they’re well-written, unique, and not promotional. They should be valuable to the audience you’re targeting. The first step in guest blogging is finding blogs that accept guest posts. You can do this in many ways:
Check out other blogs in your niche (or related niches) and see if they have a “Write for Us”, “Submit a Post” or “Guest Post” link in the navigation or footer.
Alternatively, use Google to search for phrases like:
- Your topic + “Write for us.”
- Your topic + “Guest Blogging Guidelines.”
- Your topic + “Submit an Article.”
Your results should bring up a page (similar to the image below) with detailed guidelines on how to be a guest writer on that website.
Additionally, tools like Ahrefs Content Explorer or Buzzsumo can help you find top-performing articles in your niche. Here are a few examples of queries you can use:
- Buzzsumo: Most Shared Content in [Your Niche]
- Ahrefs Content Explorer: Top Pages in [Your Niche]
When writing these blog posts, corroborate bold claims and facts with data and statistics to show your posts are credible, unique, and original.
2. Create Linkable Assets
A linkable asset is any part of your website that can be linked. This could be a blog post, an infographic, a video, or an ebook. Most importantly, it should be something people naturally want to link to.
If you have nothing on your site that fits this description, create something! It’ll be worth the effort in the long run. Writing a well-crafted piece of content isn’t just about including a relevant keyword, but also creating one that is of high relevance and value to your market and industry.
Examples of link-worthy assets include:
- How-to articles.
- Statistics and trends.
- Original research and studies that benefit your industry.
- Case studies.
- Infographics.
- Evergreen content.
Mashable’s 2010 State of B2B Social Media Marketing infographic still serves as a valuable linkable asset, with blogs like Marketo linking to it years later.
Image: Mashable
If you need inspiration, try looking at some of the most successful companies in your sector. See what types of content they offer on their websites or blogs.
You can also turn to Google’s autocomplete tool or AnswerThePublic for ideas about what types of content could be helpful for your audience members. This can serve as a linkable asset for your website.
3. Replace Broken Links
Find broken website links in your industry. Reach out to them to offer a replacement article with a link to one of your high-quality assets. You can use an email finder to find the publisher’s or blog owners’ contact details.
The strategy should center on relevant keyword research. Furthermore, look for opportunities to create valuable content that will provide real value to another website’s audience.
To replace broken links, you’ll need to find them first.
Here’s how to do this:
Use an SEO tool like SEMrush Backlink Audit tool to locate broken links. Select “Backlink Audit” to launch the tool and insert your domain. After the audit is complete, navigate to the targeted page tab. You can now see any backlinks that return errors on your website.
Image: SEMrush
Another way to do this is by checking resource pages because they are likely to contain broken links. After all, resource pages are filled with links that are easy to find. Use search operators in Google with relevant keywords relating to your niche:
- Intitle:resources + “keyword”
- Inurl: links + “keyword”
For example, if you were targeting an area about B2B marketing, use search operator with your relevant keyword: [Intitle:resources + “B2B Marketing.”]
Create a spreadsheet with the top ten resource pages you found for that search operator and the relevant keyword combination that you searched.
After sorting out the list, it’s time to look for broken links on those pages. Use a tool like Check My Links for Chrome to crawl the page and identify broken links for you. Navigate to a page, click the Check My Links icon on your Chrome toolbar, and it will highlight all broken links in red.
Even though it may sound like a lot of work, finding one broken link and replacing it with your own can be an excellent way of boosting your search results and generating traffic to your site.
4. RoundUPS and Listicles
Another popular B2B link-building strategy is to round up a bunch of experts, influencers, or industry thought leaders and ask them all questions. Then, feature their answers in a blog post.
Why? Because it creates expert, shareable content that is valuable to readers. Furthermore, it allows you to get expert opinions on trending matters from subject experts in your field. Their comments and insights can be a great addition to your article.
Source: UnboundB2B
These individuals appreciate the exposure and are likely to share it with their followers and fans, making your roundup more likely to go viral.
Tools like Voila Nobert can help you find emails of thought leaders in your industry. Once you publish your article, email each featured person, letting them know your piece is live. Most will share it with their network, meaning links back to your website from theirs.
5. Social Media Links
B2B companies often use social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to build relationships with their customers.
However, these platforms are also helpful in attracting more traffic, generating links, and growing sales. The strategy is simple — publish high-quality content on your social media accounts.
You can get high-value social media links by:
- Generating valuable content (infographics, photos, videos) for sharing on specific networks.
- Targeting influencers with the most followers in your industry and sharing your content with them directly (not just to their followers).
- Establishing relationships with industry influencers through Twitter chats, meetups, or roundups of experts in your niche.
- Developing content with relevant keywords that appeal to a broad audience and encourage sharing (e.g., lists of tools, interviews, or guides).
HackerEarth, for instance, created a webinar on “how to create an effective social recruiting” on LinkedIn that appeals to a broad audience. An expert in recruiting is interviewed, and his advice is presented. This was an excellent opportunity to add new links and gain exposure through this expert’s network.
Source: HackerEarth LinkedIn
The more followers you have who share your content, the greater the chances that they’ll post it to their networks. That said, encourage your followers to share your content with other relevant users. Once people share your content, you’ll increase your reach and earn more links.
Wrapping Up
There’s no magic solution for link building. And it isn’t always a simple task. What might work for others in your industry may not work for you.
You must put in the work to figure out what works best with your business. You do not need to be an expert in link building nor know everything about SEO. So, as you build your campaign, remember it’s all about building relationships that you can leverage for valuable backlinks.
SEO is a long game, and most campaigns take anywhere from three months to a year before they see any serious results. However, following these five steps will ensure you have the right strategies to succeed with your B2B link-building objectives.
