A Google Search Quality strategist concluded that link building and content quality were the two most important signals when it comes to ranking.
If you want a successful SEO campaign, you need an effective link building strategy. This strategy must be sustainable over a long-term and deliver good results. This requires a lot of careful planning.
This article has 5 effective strategies to help build a sustainable link profile over time.
1. Plan For The Long-Term
Link building and profile maintenance isn’t a set-and-forget strategy. You need to monitor it, upgrade links, and keep track of link profile health. That means you need to build a setup for a sustained linking strategy. Here are some tips that can help with that:
- Decide who is responsible for link building. It is always a good idea to have a dedicated team of strategists working on a link building campaign. They can build a good link profile, maintain it, and make sure there are no problems down the line.
- Create a plan for identifying and selecting link prospects. Quality is much more desirable than quantity. It is better to have two or three great links than a dozen bad links in your content.
- Create a plan to ensure the links fit in seamlessly into the content. The last thing you want is for the links to stand out or not be relevant to the content. That will hamper user experience and cause more problems than needed. Make sure none of the links draw any penalties from Google or other such engines.
This foundation will help you get great links down the line and ensure there are no problems with your profile. A good foundation like this will simplify the link building process.
2. Look At Individual Pages Instead of The Full Domain
Most people consider domain authority and the website’s reputation during their link building outreach process. While these are important factors to consider, it helps to look a little deeper at individual pages. Here’s a look at what you should consider:
- Find Specific Content – Look for content that is relevant to your interest when you browse through the site. For example, if you’re a fabric retailer, look for fabric related content in a fashion design website. Finding specific content makes gaining successful links easier.
- Look at the Backlink Profile of the Page – Consider the backlink profile of the page to see what kind of websites the owner has linked their content to. If you find your competitors in these links, it’s likely that you will gain a backlink from the site.
- Assess Domain Trustworthiness – Once you have the articles and pages you want to link to, analyze the domain trustworthiness and analytics. There are several tools available only that can help you conduct an in-depth analysis of the website.
This process will help you find high-authority websites without wasting too much time. You can then focus on other factors like creating great content for your backlinks.
3. Create Durable Partnerships
Most people hesitate to establish partnerships for link building. They worry that it this strategy might be mistaken for link farming. Link farming is a group of unrelated websites sharing links with each other. There’s no purpose to this link profile and it doesn’t contribute towards a good user experience.
Partnerships with content creators, authoritative websites, and bloggers aren’t the same as link farming. You are working with people in your industry and content that is relevant to your users. () For example, if you’re an electronics retailer, it is understandable to set up a partnership with a tech blogger.
As long as the links from the website are relevant and enhance the user experience, you won’t have to worry about facing any kind of penalty from Google. This strategy yields great results if it is used in moderation.
It is important to keep expanding your pool of partnerships. Source links from a wide variety of platforms for the best results. An expansive link profile from a wide range of platforms will help you establish a great reputation.
4. Send Link Prospect Emails to A Large Audience
Some people send their emails to just a couple of websites. This isn’t an effective strategy, especially for the long term. If you’re lucky, one of those websites will link to your website. If you’re not lucky, you might miss the opportunity. That’s one of the reasons why it is important to send your outreach emails to a large audience. Here’s what you can do:
- Send out emails to at least a dozen websites in the industry after thoroughly analyzing them. Websites with great link profiles often send outreach emails to at least 100 websites for every article.
- Make sure your outreach emails have some personalization. You can mention specific articles so increase your chances of getting a link.
- Automate your outreach emails. This ensures you won’t have to send out dozens of emails for every article manually.
Once you have this system set up, it is easy to reach out and gain an audience. This can save both time and money.
5. Focus on Creating Link-Worthy Content
Your link building strategy won’t be successful unless you have good content. Here are some factors you need to keep in mind to create great content:
- Make sure the articles are well-written with proper grammar and flow.
- Focus on creating long-form content with at least 1,000 to 1,600 words. Long form content is more likely to attract links.
- Include lists, subheadings, and bullet points in your content.
- Use different kinds of content mediums like graphics, infographics, videos, etc., in your content. Infographics are the most attractive link prospects.
Great content will not just bring more links and traffic, but also help you establish a great reputation over the long term.
Some inexperienced marketers use “shortcuts” and get links from link farms, buy links from different sources, and use other similar strategies. These techniques can get you into trouble because they’re deceptive. Once Google notices these blackhat strategies, it can penalize your website.
Following the strategies mentioned in this article can help you develop a sustainable link profile effectively.
