It's a war. The war to survive in the digital world. If you have an online business, you have to fight with other websites and secure a position among the top 10 websites in search engines.
One way to rank higher in Google is to develop an effective link-building strategy. However, the problem is that Google has evolved into a search engine.
In 2024, Google shifted its focus. The search engine now prioritizes high-quality backlinks from credible websites.
What Is Link Building?
Link building is the process of gaining hyperlinks from other websites to your own. A hyperlink, or simply a link, is a way for users to move from one page to another on the Internet. Search engines use links to crawl the web; they will crawl the links between the individual pages on your website, and, oftentimes, they will crawl the links between entire websites.
Why Is Link-Building So Important In 2024?
When thinking of search engine optimization, the first things that come to mind are keywords, website speed, and content optimization. However, link development is yet another integral component that most people ignore.
This happens merely because creating links takes a lot of time and is labor-intensive. Still, there is just too much potential that goes unrealized.
In 2023, 67.5% of SEO experts understood how backlinks affected their article ranks. Even with such difficulties as changes to the Google algorithm, link building has seen an average annual expenditure of $10,000.
Why Is Link Building Important?
- Improves Search Engine Rankings: Search engines, especially Google, use the number and quality of links that point back to your website as major ranking criteria. More quality links could mean better exposure for any site in search results.
- Opens the gate to more referral traffic: Links from other websites have the potential to drive direct traffic to your website. Since this is referral traffic, it could be very relevant and targeted, hence driving better conversion rates.
- Establishes Authority and Credibility: This tells search engines and users that the site is authoritative and reliable for information libraries when top sites link back to your content.
Link-Building Strategies For 2024
1. Submit guest posts on authentic websites.
Guest posts help to get quality backlinks. But the catch is to submit guest posts on authentic, high-authority, and relevant websites. For example, if you have a financial blog, try to submit guest posts on websites related to your niche. This implies that you have to search for financial websites first and then try to publish articles there. Target websites that have a high domain authority. Any website with above 50+ reading is good to go.
Set a goal to publish articles on websites that give 'do follow links' from the body of the content or author bio.
Please keep in mind that you have to write valuable content. Otherwise, the top-notch websites may not be interested in publishing your content.
Second, refrain from inserting keywords blindly. If your target keyword is on how to set a budget and pay off debt. Your keyword should be related to budgeting or paying off debt. Make sure you are linking the article to a relevant landing page. If your keyword is how to set up a budget and your landing page on bipolar disorder, it doesn't make any sense. You won't get any value from that link. It's a waste.
Choose a topic related to the keyword. This will help you insert keywords naturally into your content.
2. Write content based on user search intent.
Content is an integral part of the backlink strategy. Develop content that provides users with the information they are looking for. There are various types of content. Choose your niche. It can be infographics, website content, ebooks, podcasts, blogs, case studies, listicles, whitepapers, etc. Research well and add statistics and figures to the content.
Give insightful data in the article. Highlight your expertise in the article. Develop lengthy content and provide an in-depth analysis of the article.
Make sure you promote your articles through social media. You can use an effective email marketing strategy.
3. Develop content that you can share on social media.
One article can do a miracle for your website. Choose a topic that invokes people's curiosity. Keep user search intent in mind and develop content accordingly. Promote your content on social media to grab the attention of users. If your content goes viral, there is a great probability that your article will get backlinks organically. Several websites may give reference links to your website.
4. Retrieve Unlinked Mentions
You have reached out to people and established the beginnings of a relationship with influencers. However, often, a post or article mentions your company or website but does not include a link.
You might be surprised at how often this occurs.
We've all been there before: sometimes, the link was just plain forgotten, and at other times, well, the author just resisted efforts to insert one. Anyway, here's a chance to claw back that mention and turn it into a workable backlink.
Typically, that would mean looking for online mentions of your business and then emailing the site owners asking for a link.
5. Reach out to Thought Leaders
Thought leaders, industry experts, and influencers have huge followings and corresponding levels of impact. The relationships will net many kinds of backlinks from the sites, social posts, and even content collaborations of these individuals.
Social media will play an intrinsic role in this strategy.
One can connect directly to them on platforms like X, LinkedIn, and niche forums. Getting familiar with them means engaging with their content through thoughtful commentary and discussion.
As these relationships grow, opportunities like this regularly pop up:
- Content sharing
- Guest posts
- Backlinks to your site
In this way, you are building up valuable relationships with them while not actually "building links" yet with them. These relationships will later turn into natural, high-quality backlinks themselves.
6. Fix Broken links
One way of improving search engine optimization is through broken link fixing. This involves checking your website for external links to pages that do not exist and contacting the web administrators to have them updated. In addition to restoring lost link value, this improves website reputation and user experience.
The first step of the procedure involves finding broken links with tools such as Ahrefs or SEMrush.
After confirming a broken link, contact the webmaster of the website that is connecting to your site. You must supply the correct URL in a friendly and clear manner.
7. Hire fresh university graduates.
Here is an original strategy, a little forgotten by link-building consultants: using the networks of new university graduates. The principle is to use the alumni networks and other facilities that universities can provide.
This is how you can proceed with this technique:
- If you have recently hired fresh blood, that is, fresher graduates, contact their colleges and check if they maintain a job section on their website where only alumni success stories are posted.
- Get in touch with those colleges and explain the advantages of hiring their alumni to your company. Ask them to label this success story on their website with a backlink to your website.
- The vast majority of colleges' career centers are trying to feature their alumni in successful jobs.
When providing them with an engaging story about the graduate's achievements and position at your company, you obtain a very nice backlink from a .edu domain.
8. Internal linking
Scan your website for its internal linking structure so that assets, posts, or pages within it are related to one another by relevance.
Link your product pages to buying guides and pertinent blog content, link blog articles to related service pages and links within navigation menus, and site footers to other relevant content.
As you begin creating internal links, not only will the user experience improve, but so will the job of search engines to navigate and understand your website architecture.
9. Participate in Connectively and Qwoted
Getting your work published in media such as Forbes and Huffington Post never hurts. Big websites are always looking for new content to present to their readers, so be at the forefront of relevant content issues.
Services such as Connectively and Qwoted are great for any journalist or writer seeking sources to quote. You can, of course, sign up to get notifications so that you can respond to topics waxing poetically relevant to pitching your own work.
But this is absolutely not a "pitch and forget" type deal. As a matter of fact, for the best success, you do need to play by certain rules:
- Respond Promptly: Check queries in the Connectively app daily, and try to respond to relevant questions as soon as possible.
- Demonstrate Your Authority: Mention explicitly that you are experienced in the subject matter.
- Stick to the Point: See that your response precisely answers what the journalist wants.
- Avoid Asking for Backlinks: Focus more on providing value rather than backlinks.
- Provide detailed responses: Detailed responses along with your short bio and your contact information.
10. Content Repurposing
Repurpose your content into an infographic, video, or other form that will help attract different link profiles. Turn your content into slide decks and share them on SlideShare.
11. Community Engagement
Participate in forums and Q&A websites like Reddit, Quora, and Stack Exchange, among others. Respond insightfully and link back to your content where appropriate. Share content on social media to get more shares and links.
Conclusion
It does sound like a hell of a lot of work to do all this. Yes, it is. You can always outsource to SEO link-building services, so don't sweat it.
You can take your time focusing on other areas of your organization by freeing up important time through the outsourcing of SEO link-building services. These services are also highly required in any organization. Other options open to you similarly also include independent outreach experts and link-building company areas.
Whichever route you choose, make sure you do your homework and find a reputable provider.
Use this simple checklist:
- Proven History of Success: Ask for evidence of their previous success stories in managing effective link-building programs.
- Transparency: The company should be open about its reporting and link-building methods.
- Ethical Practices: To keep you well out of trouble, ensure that they only use white-hat SEO techniques.