A successful link building strategy in 6 easy steps

Link building is extremely valuable for SEO. This means that it should definitely be included in your SEO strategy. More importantly, building links should contribute to your growth strategy. Your website can generate more traffic and attract new audiences when you use social media. Be sure to stay away from unethical practices.

Even though they are tempting, they will only harm your ranking. In this post, we will discuss how to create a successful link-building strategy. Make sure your website is attracting the right audience by developing a proper link-building strategy.

Link building is an important part of your growth strategy

Getting links from other websites is the key to link building. Links can help your pages rank higher in Google's search results when done properly and holistically. However, links do more than that:

The primary purpose of a good link is to drive traffic to your website.

You will gain more (referral) traffic to your website if you have high-quality links. Consider that links were created to move readers from the current page they are viewing to other pages that they might like when developing your link-building strategy. Link building is a strategy that you can use to reach the right audience and gain links from sites that will drive traffic to your own website

In order to create effective links, follow these 6 steps

Link building is an important part of your growth strategy

1. Get to know your audience

The two most important things you need to know about your website's audience are who is visiting it right now and what your ideal audience looks like. Your current audience will be kept and expanded as well as new audiences interested in what you have to offer will be reached. 

Find out who your audience is by doing some research. It will not only help you understand them better, but it will also enable you to determine who your intended audience is and if you're reaching them right now.

As an example, Yoast began with an audience that was primarily composed of web developers. In addition, we wanted to broaden our audience to a more general WordPress audience (while keeping our initial audience). 

As a result, we adapted our content to appeal to a broader audience. Nevertheless, we need to get links from other websites where these WordPress users can be found in order to reach our new audience.

2. Make a list of sites that you think your audience might like

Once you know who your target audience is, you can make a list of websites that can help you reach them. Research the websites that already appeal to your target audience. You can use these links to reach people who might be interested in your website, but don't know about it yet.

Please note that you do not want a link from every website on the Internet. Links from spammy websites or websites that have no connection to your niche are of no value. Sometimes, they can even damage your rankings.

Stay away from spammy websites, buying links, and other link-building DONTs. There is more to link building than tricks. Link building should feel like a normal marketing effort and form part of a holistic SEO strategy.

3. Create engaging content

You need content that makes other websites want to link to your page in order for them to link to it. This means you must create quality content. The problem is that this isn't always easy. 

However, be aware of what will appeal to your audience, what they want to know, and what unique point of view you have to offer. Write more than just why it's awesome and why they should definitely get it if you sell products or services. 

Your content should answer your audience's questions and solve their problems. As other websites see the value of your content, you'll get more links to your page by providing the information they're looking for.

Additionally, you need to consider your content's readability. Ensure that your articles and pages are well written and well structured. 

To help you create high-quality content, we have lots of blog posts on content SEO and even a training course on SEO copywriting.

4. Create content that matches your websites

As soon as you're happy with the content you've written, it's time to dive into the list of websites you've created during the second step. Will your content be linked to any of these websites? 

You may be tempted to send your content to every website on your list, but this will probably harm your chances of getting people to link to your content. You might come across as spammy if you ask people to read 5 blog posts and then decide which one they like.

Make sure you pick a website that fits the topic of your post or page and chooses wisely. As your blog post pertains to their content, these websites are more likely to link to it. 

In addition, those visitors who come to your website following that link are likely to be very interested in the content you offer (leading to more conversions and recurring visits). 

You should also know that there are very few sites that will be a right fit for you if you are using long-tail keywords (writing about small, niche topics). This isn't necessarily a bad thing, since very specific content can also mean that fewer websites will link to your content.

5. Get in touch

Once you've decided which website(s) you want to contact, it's time to communicate with them. Aside from sending emails, you can also use social media like Twitter to contact people.

 Knowing the website and its audience will increase the chances of you getting the backlink. In this way, you can reach out in a personal way, which is what you want. Do not send automated emails or direct messages. 

Please send a polite email telling them about your content and requesting that they place a link to it. Many times, you will not receive a response at all.

You need to explain why your content is unique to improve your chances of getting a link to your page. Providing unique content is more likely to succeed than asking for a link for a post that is extremely basic and could be written by anyone. 

Your website should have content that people cannot find anywhere else. Additionally, don't make your email too long, as this will result in people not reading it at all.

6. Utilize social media

Links to your content can be obtained by reaching out to specific people or websites. Using social media is another way to get links and reach new audiences at the same time. 

Make sure you share your newly-created content on social media platforms like Twitter. You may even want to tweet your article to a particular audience that you think may find it informative. 

In addition to getting exposure for your articles on Facebook, you can also promote your content and reach wider audiences. You are bound to receive some more links when people like, share, and discuss your content on social media.