One of the most important parts of SEO in today's world is link building. Actually, Databox reports that link building is the third most important SEO ranking factor after keywords and content. In fact, a study by Backlinko has shown that many of the top-ranking results on Google have 3.8 times more links than the others. You would probably say that this has come by chance, but you cannot negate the fact that pages with more links stand a better chance of being the top-ranking sites on search engines.
However, link building might not be the easiest thing for companies to do. For instance, a report by Conductor has shown that around 41% of companies believe that this SEO aspect is the most difficult. And actually, they are not wrong! Link building can be quite hectic, considering that you rely on the owners of the other sites to agree to link to you, which is not the case with other SEO branches. However, there are a number of techniques that experts have been applying that are proving to be good for link building campaigns.
Reverse engineering
This is one tactic that is putting websites on top of Google searches. You see, the best places you can find good quality backlinks are your top-performing competitor websites. Yes, you heard it right! You use your competition to get ahead of the game. And mark you, this is not illegal! If they are ranking that high, then they must be doing something right.
To start with, run the websites through an SEO tool to make an analysis of their backlink profile. After you find the domains that link to them, make them your prime candidates for making outreaches. Try to find out how they are linking to your competitors, whether it is through guest posts or reviewing the SaaS. You can then do what is needed, whether it is coming up with posts that are unique to these websites or having them review your SaaS.
Once you make connections with prospects, ensure that you are making the connections genuine. Offer value by maybe offering a free backlink or any other gesture that shows goodwill. Within no time, these prospects will be able to reciprocate by offering backlinks that will help your rankings improve.
Write valuable guest posts
Many people nowadays have understood the benefits of guest posting. You get to build a relationship with a website that could potentially help your site rank higher. However, many of these guest posts are low-quality articles that look like they have been generated by AI. These ones do not add any benefit to the websites.
But you can make sure that you are bringing value to the website in question and getting your pitch accepted. To start with, use your favorite SEO tool to identify the keywords that your prospects would benefit from when ranking is done. Then, create a pitch explaining how your post will benefit their site. By doing that, you are increasing your chances of getting an opportunity to make guest posts. Also, ensure that the content of your post is well-researched and that it offers valuable information to the clients of your prospects.
Write link bait content
Link bait is content that is specifically designed to attract backlinks. It is content that is so valuable that bloggers and journalists cannot help themselves but just want to link to it. This type of content helps you rank higher on search engines as well as get more organic traffic to your website. Examples of link baits include:
- Original research
- Detailed infographics
- Industry trends reports
- Detailed surveys
These attract content writers more than ordinary blog posts about definitions or product reviews.
But why does link bait work? In short, it utilizes the psychological principles that call people into linking to it. According to Prof. Jonah Berger in his book "Contagious," these principles are called share triggers. They include:
- Social currency - People want to share things that make them look good
- Triggers - People share things that are at the top of their mind
- Practical value - People love information that is helpful to someone else
- Stories - Apart from passing information, people also want to share stories
- Public - People are good imitators, and they do what they observe others doing
- Emotion - For someone to share something, they must have felt something about it
When you take all these principles into consideration, you are able to come up with content that is unique, opinionated and emotional. And if you can make your content newsworthy, then you can be sure to attract lots of bloggers and journalists who are always looking for stories to cover.
For example, Nulab published a post in 2020 that contained detailed surveys concerning remote work. Within a short time, the post had earned 103 backlinks from 80 unique websites. In fact, the post received links from major publications like Yahoo, Refinery 29, and Huffington Post, among others.
Wrapping up
It is a sure thing that link building is among the most precious branches of SEO. If you are able to hack link building, then you are on the way to become a legend in the content writing world. However, you are aware that it requires a lot of effort, and following the above-mentioned strategies among other proven strategies might be the key for your site ranking high on Google.
