I’m an SEO freak!
Yes!
The primary intention of crafting every piece of my blog content is to grab a bunch of ORGANIC traffic.
How to drive search engine traffic to a blog? – It is a million dollar question!
Now you too may ask: can we get first page results for a keyword without building links?
As I have been surviving in the Blogosphere for more than 8 years, I can answer your question.
You can get organic visitors (targeted audience) by
1. Doing Keyword Research
2. Building High-Quality Backlinks
However, I should admit that if you have discovered a low competition niche, then you don’t need to focus much on creating the backlinks as you can rank TOP with the quality content that contains LSI Keywords.
On the other hand, when you prefer to blog about the congested niche like Health, Beauty, Technology, Social Media, Make Money, Fashion, Lifestyle, WordPress, Hosting server, etc. then, you have to build backlinks through the legit methods and stay for the long run.
Let’s come to the key topic!
There are a ton of articles you can find on Google that talk about link building strategies. But do you know what works best?
First things first: link building is NOT a sprint, it’s a marathon.
You need to build links for the long term instead of depending on shortcuts like buying links from Fiverr or other such platforms.
Did you know that Google gives priority to the pages with more external links?
Look at the following illustration below (research was done by Moz team) to know the relationship between Google rankings and backlinks.
As you can see from the above image, 99% of the top 50 results (first 5 pages on Google) had at least 1 external link (links from other websites) pointing to the site. So what’s the bottom line?
If you want to boost the search traffic and better rankings on Google, you need to build high-quality backlinks.
I took an excellent opportunity through a guest post to discuss 5 of the best link building strategies you can implement in 2018.
5 White-Hat Link Building Techniques To Skyrocket Your Search Traffic!
1. Blogger Outreach
One of the greatest link building strategies that work like a charm is blogger outreach. Even if you don’t have too many connections online, you can still connect with a handful of bloggers in your industry for help.
But don’t get it wrong: blogger outreach is NOT about asking for links. It’s all about helping other bloggers first. Then taking help from them.
You can consider blogger outreach strategy as a win/win approach where you give first before seeking help.
If you want more backlinks from other sites,
- Start linking out to them first.
- Then reach out to the bloggers through email or social media.
- Instead of directly asking them for links, ask for small help such as sharing, tweeting or commenting on your content.
Once you start doing it repeatedly, sooner or later other bloggers who are getting links from your site will start noticing your content and link back to you if your content is informative.
That’s how blogger outreach works. Make sure to write compelling and short emails instead of writing spammy and boring emails if you want to get replies from other bloggers.
Here are the helpful outreach templates to reach the passionate bloggers!
- Hi [name],
My name is [your name] from [Blog]. I’ve been following your blog since [Year].
Your latest post [blog topic] is fantastic and resonated with me. I thought it was something my audience would appreciate, so I shared it with my social media and email subscribers.
I want to get in touch with you to discuss [topic] further, and see if we can work on something similar together.
Regards,
[Your Name]
After started networking with the active bloggers and got a reply to the previous email, then you may reach them again for link building!
- Hi [name]
I’m [your name] from [Blog] again, and I’ve been a fan of your blog since [year].
I have just read your recent post on [topic], it is really beneficial. I have noticed that you included a link to [source].
I know quite a lot about [topic], and I was hoping that you could link to my content in your upcoming article on this subject. I feel it would be a useful resource to connect with your audience.
I’ve included my blog post here [link]
Please let me know if you’re interested. Thanks, and have a great day!
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Quick tip: Ask for backlinks when you’re trying to build links for a new site. You can think of asking links from friends, bloggers, influencers, and co-bloggers who are already running blogs or websites. Most of them will oblige to your requests if your site is relevant and useful for their audience.
2. Broken Link Building
Broken link building is the most popular and effective link building technique which is still used by thousands of SEO experts worldwide to attract more links to their sites.
It involves finding broken links to other sites and recommending your links replace them.
Make sure the links you recommend are highly relevant and useful to the broken links you find on other sites. Also, write really compelling emails while using broken link building method instead of sending bulk emails.
One of the best ways to find broken links of other sites is to get access to the best backlink analysis tools such as SEMrush, Ahrefs, and SERPSTAT so you can easily find broken links and replace them with your own website’s relevant links. You need to build links for the long term instead of depending on shortcuts like buying links from Fiverr or other such platforms. However, if you decide to buy backlinks, use reputable sources.
You can use the backlink analysis tools mentioned above for finding all kinds of things such as
- 301 errors
- Broken internal links
- Broken external links
- Links with “nofollow”>
- Pages blocked by robots.txt
- 404 errors
You may also use the Check My Links Chrome Extension to find out the dead links to a web page.
Check the below image! I found the invalid links on an active blog and yes, it is a good link building opportunity for my blog.
Quick tip: Build prior connections with blog owners before using broken link building method for building links. That way you can quickly ask for replacement of your links with broken links on their site.
3. Skyscraper Technique
Skyscraper technique was first coined by SEO expert Brian Dean from Backlinko. It quickly became one of the smartest link building strategies ever since he coined the term.
Skyscraper technique involves 3 simple steps.
- Finding popular content in your industry
- Creating great content (10x content) around it and
- Promoting that content to the right people (so you can get more traffic and backlinks)
You can use tools like Buzzsumo for finding high performing content in your industry by entering any keyword of your choice.
Then, spend as much time as possible to create 10X content around those topics.
The more in-depth and visually appealing your content is the more natural it can generate you more traffic, social shares, and backlinks. The key here is to focus on creating everlasting blog posts which are worth linking to.
The final step is to reach out the people who already have linked to the high performing content (see step 1) and ask them to share or link to your content.
That’s how you can generate more links and social shares to your content using Skyscraper Technique.
Quick tip: Skyscraper Technique works best if you create “long form and highly informative content.” Don’t expect better results by rehashing content or creating mediocre articles.
#4. Internal Linking
The internal linking is one of the successful link building strategies to be followed in 2018. Because
- It passes the link juice to your other blog posts.
- It Improves the keyword search results ranking.
- It decreases the overall bounce rate of your blog.
- It enhances the crawl-ability and fast index in the search engines.
Here is a detailed article by the industry expert, Neil Patel on Internal Linking.
Have it in mind; Google appreciates a good site structure that follows SILO.
SILO – Are you hearing it for the first time?
No worries!
Have a look at the below images; you will understand how to implement the SILO structure for link building.
Quick tip: To internal link your blog posts in a better way, you may use Google Webmaster Tools.
GWT > Search Traffic > Links To Your Site
Identify the blog posts with the most inbound links and you may use those links (if they are relevant to the current post that you are making the internal links) with proper Anchor text to distribute the ranking power to your other website content. However, make sure that you are not over optimizing the Anchor text.
#5. Spy On Your Competitors Backlinks
Competitor research is one of the most effective link building strategies that you can use in 2018 for building more links to your site.
You can use tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs for a detailed competitor analysis to find all the backlink sources.
They might have a ton of backlink sources in common which you don’t have yet. That’s where you need to go out and start attracting those links.
You can capture those links in many ways such as;
- Guest posting
- Broken link building
- Reciprocal linking
- Skyscraper technique
- Giving testimonials
- Creating infographics exclusively for them
Quick tip: Start doing competitor analysis as soon as possible. Not only it helps you find a ton of new backlink sources, but you can also come up with a variety of potential keywords that can generate you more search traffic and sales to your sites.
Bonus Idea To Build Backlinks: Brand Mentions Method
Do you track who is mentioning your name or website online? Do you know you can easily turn your mentions into backlinks?
If you’re not tracking your online mentions, you should be doing it from now on if you’re serious about link building.
You can use Google Alerts with your name, or blog’s name, and whenever someone mentions them, you’ll get notifications.
If the people who’ve mentioned you forgot to add links, you can reach out to them either through social media sites or email for links.
The chances are, they will gladly include links to your site which is the most accessible method of attracting new links to your site.
Quick tip: Use tools like Moz for getting instant notifications for real-time keyword and mention tracking so you can easily turn your mentions into links.
Things To Be Avoided While Creating Backlinks
- Do not focus on Over Optimized Anchor Text when you do guest blogging.
- Do not include your blog to the web directories that offer no value to the internet users.
- Do not leave the thin comment with link/signature in the Forums just for the sake of creating backlinks.
- Do not buy links. Instead, you may invest the money in getting the content written by the professional writers.
- Do not exchange excessive links with your partners/co-bloggers.
All these practices would make a negative impact on your blog ranking in the search results, so be safe and make sure to generate the quality backlinks.
Conclusion About The Best Link Building Approaches
Do Links Matter Anymore?
Of course, yes!
Building links to your site are the fastest way to increase your overall traffic from search engines like Google.
Unfortunately, most of the bloggers don’t spend much time for link building; instead, they create more content.
If you want better results, find the best link building strategies that work better for you and keep attracting as many links as possible from the Social Media and Blogging Communities.
So what are your thoughts on these methods to build backlinks? Do you have any more link building tactics to execute? Share your priceless viewpoint in the comment section, let’s discuss.
Nirmala is a WordPress enthusiast, focused on sharing interesting things she comes across during her online journey with this great CMS. She loves to write the useful stuff on her blog, wpglossy.com for the passionate bloggers. You can find her on Google Plus.
