Post By Vlad Mkrtumyan
Link building remains a popular method for scaling the ranks in Google SERPs. However, using antiquated link building strategies will just waste your time and resources, and possibly even damage your web reputation.
Forget about black hat link building, serious businesses should focus on acquiring and earning quality links as part of a broader digital marketing strategy. In this post, we’ll be talking about link building techniques that have stood the test of time, and will work well going into 2019.
Each of the strategies we’ll be discussing requires a concerted effort, so be sure to integrate them into your overall marketing goals for the year.
Tactic #1: Leverage Guest Posting (The Right Way)
Owners of decent websites are all too familiar with the ubiquitous ‘guest post request.’ Yes, guest blogging is still a popular way of building links.
Back in 2016 Moz conducted a survey via survey software asking freelancers and agencies whether they still used guest posting. 90% of the respondents to the survey answered yes to using some form of guest posting. Many entrepreneurs have used this strategy at an accelerated pace to gain recognition, authority and of course, backlinks.
But judging from the emails you’ve probably seen, most people still don’t know how to approach this strategy the right way. Sending out a single script to thousands of email addresses might work for some, but this is a waste of valuable leads in my opinion.
Just think about it: you’re asking someone to give you valuable web real estate. A generic script certainly will not help your case. A better strategy is to first engage with the website on social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are all great for this. Reply to their tweets, sign up for their newsletter just to know that you’re interested in what they’re doing.
By going with this strategy, we’re putting emphasis on each website lead and treating it as a valuable commodity.
Qualifying Factors for Website Leads
To get quality links, you’ll need to guest blog on quality websites. To judge if a website is really worth the effort of creating a guest blog for, here are a few factors to consider:
We have used this technique to get links for our Wix vs Shopify blog post as well as the main website. Really, you can use this to get links from niche-relevant sites while also providing value to their audiences.
Tactic #2: Run Interviews on a Podcast
Making a podcast appearance can not only help bring awareness about your business but also earn you genuine, high-quality backlinks. This is a strategy that is often overlooked in most link-building strategies.
Making podcast appearances serves many purposes, but let’s just focus on the possible backlinks you can acquire through a single podcast appearance:
- Backlinks through podcast transcripts
- Backlinks in blogs quoting you
Go to any previously-aired podcast and you’ll usually a description for the podcast, which will usually feature a link to the podcast guest’s website.
Podcasts are an excellent inclusion, not just for your link building strategy, but your overall marketing strategy as well.
Just think about it: if you land an appearance on a podcast that is listened to by hundreds or even thousands of people, such as this top leadership podcast, your brand will get exposure to the right audience.
It’s also an opportunity for you to share knowledge with the listeners and build authority in your niche.
Pitching for Podcasts
We discussed in our previous section for guest posts how each lead should be considered valuable. Podcasts leads should be treated as even more valuable, simply because there will be less of them.
Moreover, a podcast appearance serves more valuable marketing purposes than a guest post so you really have to put an effort while pitching.
Start off by doing some research on the podcast you’re pitching. Look at what topics they’ve discussed previously and figure out if they’ve got a theme going on. If you can think of similar topics that they haven’t touched yet, you’ve got your opening.
Be sure to make your pitch relevant to the specific podcast that you’re pitching, and address people by their first name.
Tactic #3: Spying on Competitors
You can make some serious progress in your overall ranking goals by spying on competitor backlink profiles. Sites that are linking to your competitors are likely to link to you, as you’re in a similar industry.
To do this you will have to use tools like Moz and Ahrefs. You can do this either on a per-page basis if you’re looking to rank a specific page or their main website. Go to the referring domains and check what sites are linking to them.
At this point, you’ll have to make judgment calls on sites you deem worthy of getting a link from. We advise creating a spreadsheet listing the best sites. Once you have the sites, it’s all just a matter of contacting them either via email, or social media.
This strategy has worked time and again for us and is highly time-efficient. You don’t have to send hundreds of emails to sites hoping that they’ll give you links. Using this strategy, you already know which sites are more likely to link back to you.
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