The Secret Strategies to Successful Link Building

Lately I’ve been compiling link building techniques to share with everyone, and also a way for me to even prove that link building still has its value in spite of the growing numbers of SEOs believing that it’s dead, it’s not going to bring you to the top, and it’s better to focus on content alone.

I respect that, and of course I’ll forever agree that content matters, but the truth is link building, like I mentioned on my previous blog, will always have its worth. It will always serve a big role in SEO – link building is never dead, it’s just improved.

In this article I will show you some of the common link building strategies that I use, and how to even develop your execution.

1. Blog commenting

Blog commenting is the most common way of building links, one of the easiest and perhaps one of my favourites too.

The reason why many think that it isn’t effective anymore is because many had become aware of the real meaning behind it – to build links, to sort of get some PageRank juice.

This awareness launched the creation of plugins like Disqus, and the ability to “nofollow” links from comments really helpful. Relax. It’s okay. We all want dofollow, but over the years I learned that gaining traffic is actually more important than getting PR juice.

So how do you actually get traffic from commenting?

• Ask questions. When you ask questions instead of a simple compliment, you’ll most likely get a better chance of approval because you obviously show interest in the topic, and that is already a good thing especially if it’s a dofollow link. But, even if it’s not, your question could still trigger webmasters or other commenters to check on who you are, and why you might be asking such interesting questions. This is also a great way to build connections. Here’s a great example. Check the complete discussion here.

• Answer questions. You understood the article, and you saw somebody ask a question – answer it.

• Compliment. Who doesn’t like to be complimented? I still find this helpful especially if you really mean all the kind words you said.

2. Guest posting + interlinking

We have 4 great link builders in our SEO team. All of them know how to prospect well, come up with topics and pitch, but what they do that most link builders don’t is to interlink.

Here’s a quick guide to higher chances of getting accepted:

Step 1: Prospect. Prospecting is not just about searching for sites with good PR or DA. It has to be relevant to your niche, gets good traffic and is credible enough.

Step 2: Study the website, and the founder (or his team). Most link builders neglect to do this part. They think that reading the homepage is enough, sorry but it’s not. Spend a little time browsing recent posts, categories and even the profile or about section. Doing this will make steps number 3 and 4 a lot easier.

Step 3: Pitch. If you follow step 2, you probably know the names of the CEO and his team, and you won’t start your email with “Dear webmaster”. Knowing your prospects’ site well will also help you come up with good and related topics.

Step 4: Interlink. Let’s assume your topic was accepted, and you’re done writing the article. Now, it’s time for you to put links.

Aside from your personal links, take time to link to some related posts of your prospect. The site owner or his editor will most likely interlink, so do this for them instead to save their time, and to show that you know about their site. This will surely bring good relationship.

3. HARO

HARO or Help A Reporter is where you can ask for sources to help you with your project by asking questions, or available content to support whatever your assignment is. The good thing about this is that you can also be the source.

I find Nishank Khanna’s guide on how he personally does this really helpful.

4. Content strategy to get links

Uploading content is not just actually for you to have something to post on your blog – it’s more than that. It is always important to post great, compelling articles because it gives you a greater chance of being mentioned to social media sites, curated blogs or even link you as a source.

Few days after I wrote “What Everybody Ought to Know About Link Building”, it was mentioned in Vertical Measures and Inbound.org.

5. Social media referrals

Most links from these channels have nofollow attributes, but still bring good traffic and conversion, so don’t take this strategy for granted.

Your social media sites should be an avenue of useful stuff, so don’t just put links from your site, you can also mention others’ posts, as long as it’s worth sharing.

Using hashtag is good too – I get good numbers of favourites and retweets when I put hashtags.

6. Testimonials

Giving quick reviews and testimonials to applications, tools or software that’s related to your theme is also a good way to build links. Try out some tools, reach out to developers, and ask if you could be part of their testimonial page. It’s a win-win scenario.

There are so many ways to build links, and this page won’t be enough. Perhaps this interview with 20 SEO experts on best link building strategies will help you learn even more about it. You can also sign up at SEO Hacker School and learn more about link building for free. Just don’t be afraid to test them out.

What link building strategy do you mostly use and how effective is it? Share it to us by commenting below.