We’ve been building links for a long time, for a lot of different clients, in a lot of different niches. We’ve seen link building tips come and go (and some that have refused to go which definitely should).
In the below article, we’re going to give you what we feel are the 13 most valuable pieces of link building advice we think you need in order to build high quality links, stay on the winning side of Google core algorithm updates and really build serious authority and trust off-page.
TL;DR
- Relationship building is vital: Leveraging existing connections and establishing genuine relationships for successful link building.
- Personalized outreach makes or breaks success: Crafting tailored emails and pitches that resonate with recipients' interests and needs.
- Diversified strategies are crucial for ROI: Employing multifaceted prospecting and considering various avenues for link acquisition beyond traditional methods.
- Content quality is non-negotiable: Emphasizing the creation of high-quality, valuable content that naturally attracts backlinks.
- Strategic focus hones skills: Prioritizing one link building tactic at a time to avoid spreading efforts too thin and maximize effectiveness.
- Diverse link targets are search engine-friendly: Ensuring a natural backlink profile by varying target URLs across different types of pages on the website.
Manual Link Building Tips
Manual link building refers to the process of actively seeking out and acquiring backlinks to a website through direct outreach, relationship building, and other intentional efforts.
This typically involves tasks such as identifying potential link partners, reaching out to website owners or editors, negotiating link placements, and ensuring the links are placed on relevant and reputable websites.
Manual link building requires time, effort, and strategic planning to effectively build a strong and authoritative backlink profile for a website, which is why it is typically the most impactful type of link building and why it is the one that most people seek out the help of a good link building service for.
Below we’re going to discuss some of the most effective manual link building tips and why we think they are so high impact.
Tip 1: Utilize existing network connections
Your existing connections are almost always going to be your best bet when undertaking manual link building because link building is so competitive and most cold outreach goes completely ignored.
Think about it – your friends, colleagues, and industry peers already know who you are. They're more likely to pay attention to your message because you've already built some level of trust with them. And let's be real, it's easier to ask for something from someone you have a relationship with than from a total stranger.
When you ask your network for backlinks, it's not just about getting a link – it's about supporting each other's work and strengthening your connections. You scratch their back, they scratch yours – it's a win-win situation, plus, you're showing genuine interest in what they do, which goes a long way in building stronger relationships.
Tip 2: Practice writing bespoke emails
The most surface level recommendation out there when it comes to manual link building is to "personalize." This is such a non-helpful and ubiquitous tip that it's almost not worth paying attention to anymore.
What we mean when we say "bespoke" emails entails a lot more than just telling Mailshake to include the recipient's name in the subject line by using a piece of HTML code.
We're talking about crafting emails that feel like they were tailor-made for the recipient. It's about understanding who they are, what they care about, and why your pitch or request is relevant to them specifically.
This entails understanding their content and their business model. What are they missing? What can you add to make their topical authority more complete and reliable?
Tip 3: Consider relevancy beyond industry
When it comes to manual link building, it's easy to get tunnel vision and focus solely on industry-related websites for backlink opportunities. But relevance isn't just about sharing the same niche or market. It's about finding common ground, shared interests, and complementary audiences.
Consider this scenario: You run a fitness blog, and your immediate instinct might be to reach out to other fitness-related websites for backlinks. But what about lifestyle blogs, health and wellness influencers, or even local community websites? These platforms may not be directly related to fitness, but they still attract an audience that could be interested in your content.
Tip 4: Employ multifaceted prospecting
A lot of the link prospecting we see and hear about when talking to clients tends to be quite one-dimensional. Bad prospecting means you are not targeting the sites that are going to be most receptive to your approach, which means wasted time and money.
Instead of just focusing on one approach, like scouring competitor backlinks or targeting specific keywords, it’s always a better idea to diversify your strategies. Start by analyzing your competitors' backlinks to identify potential targets, but don't stop there. Expand your search to include websites that rank for relevant keywords, industry directories, social media communities, and even offline events or networking opportunities.
Tip 5: Prep link building with social signals
Social signals refer to the engagement that your content, business and posts get across social media channels. A like; a share; a comment, all qualify as social signals, and, in addition to playing a role in SEO; they can play a vital role in manual link building if you know how to leverage them.
Start by promoting your content on social media platforms and encouraging your audience to engage with it and you will increase the chances of success for your link building campaign. It's a simple yet effective strategy that can give you a competitive edge in the world of manual link building.
Tip 6: Establish a content syndication network
You've put your heart and soul into creating valuable content for your website, but who’s going to read it?
That's where a content syndication network comes in.
It starts with identifying potential partners and platforms where your target audience hangs out–including industry blogs, niche forums, social media groups, and content aggregation sites–and then reaching out to the owners or administrators to propose a content syndication partnership. Explain the benefits of sharing your content, such as providing valuable information to their audience or enhancing their website's content offerings.
Tip 7: Target competitor backlinks
This is definitely the most tried and true manual link building tip, and it's one that has served us at dofollow well for a long time. When it comes to finding high-quality backlink opportunities, targeting competitor backlinks is a strategy that consistently delivers results.
We principally use SEO analytics tool Ahrefs, for this and they have published a great article explaining how you can use the tool.
Your competitors have likely already identified reputable websites in your niche that are willing to link to similar content. By analyzing their backlink profiles, you can uncover a goldmine of potential link partners who are already predisposed to linking to sites like yours.
Start by using SEO tools like Ahrefs to analyze your competitors' backlink profiles and identify their most valuable linking domains. Look for patterns or trends in their backlink sources, and prioritize opportunities that align with your own website's goals and target audience.
Once you've identified potential targets, reach out to these websites with a personalized pitch that highlights the unique value proposition of your content.
Tip 8: Implement tiered link building
Tiered link building is a foundational concept in manual link building, and it consists of strategically creating a network of interconnected links to enhance a website's authority and relevance. At its core, tiered link building involves building links in multiple tiers, with each tier serving a specific purpose in strengthening the overall link profile.
In the first tier, you focus on acquiring links from high-quality, authoritative websites that directly link to your site. These first-tier links serve as the primary sources of authority and relevance for your content.
Moving beyond the first tier, you would then build second and third-tier links that reinforce the authority of your initial links. While these secondary and tertiary links may not individually possess the same level of power as first-tier links, collectively, they contribute to the overall strength of your link profile.
The goal of tiered link building is to replicate the natural link structure of the web, where websites often link to each other in a hierarchical fashion.
Natural Link Building Tips
Natural link building differs from manual link building in that it focuses on acquiring backlinks through organic, non-solicited means rather than through deliberate outreach or manipulation.
In natural link building, backlinks are obtained naturally as a result of creating high-quality, valuable content that naturally attracts links from other websites.
The above image is from a fantastic link graph report article from Majestic.
This process relies on the merit of the content itself, as well as factors such as relevance, authority, and trustworthiness and they are the gold standard as far as Google is concerned when it comes to link building.
Tip 9: Focus on one tactic at a time
Another fundamental link building tip is to focus on one tactic at a time, especially if you are just starting out. Think of link building like playing an instrument. You learn one piece of music theory at a time and then start putting it all together.
Whether it’s infographic link building or broken link building, by focusing on one tactic at a time, you can dedicate your full attention and resources to mastering that particular strategy. This allows you to gain a deeper understanding of how the tactic works, identify what works best for your website, and refine your approach for maximum effectiveness.
Tip 10: Build early links to the homepage
When you start building links, it's always a good idea to focus on building early links to your homepage. This is because your homepage serves as the entry point to your website and is often the most authoritative and high-traffic page.
Consider HARO link building for this.
By prioritizing early links to your homepage, you establish a strong foundation for your website's overall authority and relevance. These initial links help to increase your site's overall authority in the eyes of search engines, making it easier for other pages on your site to rank well in search results.
Additionally, directing links to your homepage allows you to funnel link equity and authority to other important pages on your site through internal linking. As your homepage gains authority, it can pass some of that authority to other pages on your site, boosting their search engine rankings as well. This is what Google refers to as good site architecture.
Tip 11: Vary target URLs for a natural profile
A mistake that a lot of new SEOs make is sending the vast majority of link equity to one type of page on their or their client's site. However, to cultivate a natural backlink profile, it's essential to vary the target URLs of your links.
Search engines value diversity in the types of pages that attract backlinks. By distributing links across various pages on your website, such as the homepage, product/service pages, blog posts, and resource pages, you create a more natural and balanced link profile and ensure a broad spectrum of page with high PageRank.
Bonus Link Building Tips
The below tactics are here for your consideration, and they are definitely ones that can yield big results if you know what you’re doing, but we’re calling them “bonus” link building tips because they can require a substantial amount of previous infrastructure in place in order to make them work.
Tip 12: Host Joint Events or Webinars
One thing you see a lot of established businesses and websites doing is hosting joint events and webinars because these allow you to collaborate with other industry experts and influencers. By hosting joint events or webinars, you can tap into each other's networks, reach a broader audience, and establish your authority in your respective fields.
These events provide valuable opportunities for creating high-quality, engaging content that can be repurposed and shared across various platforms, extending its reach and impact. This not only helps to attract new audiences but also strengthens your brand's reputation as a thought leader in your industry.
Tip 13: Create Interactive or Collaborative Content
This is a link building tactic that will only continue to pick up steam as standards for web design become more interactive and UGC (User Generated Content) content continues to dominate the online landscape. Creating interactive or collaborative content not only enhances user engagement but also attracts natural backlinks from other websites.
Interactive content, such as quizzes, polls, calculators, and interactive maps, encourages user participation and sharing and, the more likely some is to share your content with their networks, the greater the likelihood of natural backlinks from social media, forums, and other websites.
Additionally, when contributors share the content with their audiences, it can lead to additional exposure and backlinks from their websites and social media channels.
Wrapping up
In conclusion, the strategies outlined in this article provide a comprehensive roadmap for effective link building across diverse avenues. From leveraging existing connections and personalizing outreach efforts to embracing multifaceted prospecting and prioritizing content quality, each link building tip has been included to help you improve and build out your off-page SEO.
By incorporating these 13 link building tips and tricks, website owners can navigate this volatile search and SEO landscape with confidence and drive sustainable growth online.
Why Trust Us On SEO
Eric Carrell & Sebastian Schaffer have been working in SEO for over a decade, building their own projects - understanding and testing SEO strategy, along with building hundreds of white hat links per month for our projects. They take their learnings and experience and apply them to the strategy that drives our link building strategy for our clients.
Eric & Seb have always believed in quality over quantity, doing things the right way so we future proof our client’s websites against future Google updates and the evolving industry of search.
While Seb handles the company strategy around culture, processes and structure, Eric is constantly working to improve our service offering, customer experience, and following the industry in parallel with Google’s Quality Guidelines so that we are always one step ahead of our competition and aligned with what Google wants to see for your site to rank higher.