Link building is a difficult task. It's quite difficult. Which is why, regardless of the strategy, most people struggle to build needle-moving links to their site.
Does this describe you? You've arrived to the right location.
This page does not provide a laundry list of link-building tactics.
Instead, I'll show you a few strategies that actually work. EASY-TO-IMPLEMENT strategies for YOUR website. Techniques that generate needle-moving links, resulting in increased traffic and revenue for your company.
Do you have any doubts? Here are some of the Ahrefs links we've created utilizing these strategies:
link to content explorer
From a DR 77 site, link to Ahrefs' Content Explorer.
link ahrefs
From a DR 65 site, link to Ahrefs
SIDENOTE. Check out the all-new Ahrefs SEO Toolbar if you're curious about the Ahrefs metrics in the photos above.
But first, let me clarify something. Before I explain what these strategies are and how to employ them, let me clarify something else.
A link-building primer for beginners
Are you new to link-building? Take a look at our
A link-building primer for beginners
Strategies vs. techniques for link development
There is a significant distinction between tactics and strategies.
The term "strategic" refers to the overarching plan.
The exact technique by which an objective is achieved is referred to as a tactic.
Only ONE link-building strategy is required: Make something that is "link-worthy." That may sound like advice you've heard a million times before, but it's true.
That isn't to say you have to write enormous blog entries or interactive tutorials like some people would have you believe. Some firms' products or services are "link-able" in and of themselves.
For example, we get a lot of links from the tools we make rather than the articles we write.
Take a look at the number of links to our Keywords Explorer tool we have:
links to keyword explorer
Consider your strategy to be the engine that drives your link-building efforts, and your methods to be the pistons that keep it going.
Let's move on to the tactics now. (Note that I said TACTICS, not STRATEGIES.)
1. Extend your reach
Outreach is at the heart of almost every successful link-building strategy.
What is the definition of outreach?
It's where you reach out to folks in your industry and tell them about your content.
But here's the key: You don't need any "content" at all. All you need is something worth linking to—it might be your product, service, company, brand, or even your personality.
As I previously stated, many people link to ahrefs.com because they enjoy and find our tools beneficial. Here's an example of a link that resulted as a result of it:
At 13:11 on September 13, 2018, a screen shot was taken.
Site Explorer from Ahrefs
Ahrefs is one of the 300 cool things for entrepreneurs and businesses on the list.
This is fantastic information for developing a marketing strategy. It indicates that our technologies are beneficial to this group of people (entrepreneurs) since they assist them in solving a certain problem (SEO).
Why don't you reach out to entrepreneurs and startups and tell them about Ahrefs? They may mention us in future stories if they find our tools useful. If they don't, they'll most likely tell us, and we may use that information to fine-tune our future targeting.
But I'll be honest with you: linkable assets are almost always the greatest option for outreach.
This is reaching out to people in your niche and informing them about stuff that they are likely to find useful—big blog pieces, tools, infographics, and so on.
To whom should you send a message?
People that have used your desired term as a keyword in their posts;
Those who have linked to related articles on the subject.
The best way to identify people who fit the first requirement is to use Content Explorer. Simply enter a word or phrase, and it will search nearly 1 BILLION web pages for results.
Let's see how it goes with "guest blogging."
blogging as a guest
There are 37,726 results. If you check the "one article per domain" box, you'll effectively have a list of unique sites to contact.
All you have to do now is look up their contact information and send them an email.
This is also simple for those who have linked to comparable articles on a topic. Use Content Explorer's built-in filter to find sites having at least 50 referring domains.
content explorer ref domains for guest blogging
To examine all the sites referring to a specific page, click the caret and pick the Referring domains report.
content explorer with caret
site explorer referring domains
Ahrefs' Site Explorer provides a report on referring domains.
These are your possibilities.
PRO HINT
Do you wish to get links from well-known websites? To become a source for journalists, join HARO and Muck Rack.
It's simple: they send you source requests several times a day, and you pitch the ones that are appropriate. If the writer chooses to cite you as a source, they will include a link to your website in their story.
Here's an example of a source request I received earlier today in my inbox:
haro's inquiry
This request comes from a well-known website (DR 92). As you can see, all you have to do is reach out and provide a fun Halloween gift idea.
These sites efficiently provide high-quality outreach prospects to your mailbox on a daily basis.
ADDITIONAL READING
How Do We Promote Content And Build Links With Blogger Outreach?
I didn't read your outreach email and just deleted it. And, no, I'm not sorry. (Evergreen)
2. Guest blogging... with a difference
Guest blogging is one of the most well-known link-building strategies.
What is the mechanism behind it? You provide an article to a related website. They make it public. You include a link to your own website in that article. That's all there is to it.
Here's a guest piece I published for Convince and Convert a few years ago:
guest post persuade and convert
In the author bio, you'll find a link to my website.
How do you go about identifying potential guest post contributors? You can use the same way that everyone else does, which is to use Google search operators to identify sites that are actively seeking guest bloggers. Here's an example of a question that meets the bill:
"Write for Us" as a topic + intitle
This reveals "write for us" pages, which website owners build in order to recruit guest bloggers.
write a result for us
However, this is something that EVERYONE is doing. Every day, those prospects receive a slew of guest post pitches.
So, here's the kicker:
Look for sites that don't advertise that they accept guest posts. Simply search for relevant websites and pitch them anyway. Even if they don't specifically state it, most websites welcome guest postings.
Consider this: why on earth would a website refuse a well-written, free piece of content that has the potential to bring in new visitors? They were not going to do it.
Do you need proof? Take, for example, the Ahrefs blog. We make no mention of the fact that we accept guest blogs on our website. However, if someone approaches us with a great idea, we almost always accept.
a guest writer
So, how do you go about finding sites that are topically relevant? Use the Content Explorer from Ahrefs.
Quick refresher: Ahrefs' Content Explorer is similar to a mini search engine. Enter any word or phrase, and we'll search our database of nearly 1 BILLION web pages for any mentions of it.
Let's put it to the test in terms of "link building."
content explorer for link building
There are over 121K results. Isn't it amazing?
But for the time being, all we have is a list of web pages. This is inconvenient because we don't want to contact the same sites twice. We want a list of distinct websites, which we can get by checking the "one article per domain" box.
Finally, use the built-in filters to filter out any unwanted sites, then click "export" to download your prospects as a CSV.
Filters for one article per domain
You should now have a list of hundreds of sites for which you could write guest posts. It's now just a matter of reaching out to them, pitching your ideas, and getting your first guest post published.
In our comprehensive guide to guest posting, you'll learn how to do it on a large scale.
3. Creating broken links
There are three simple steps to repairing a broken link:
On a website, look for a relevant broken link;
Make a resource that is similar to the one that is broken;
Request that anyone who is linking to the defunct resource instead link to your live resource.
Let's take a look at how this process might work in practice.
Here's a dead link I discovered in a Quicksprout post:
quicksprout has a dead link.
It looked like this before the page died:
wayback machine 2016 backlinko broken link
SIDENOTE. To see how web pages used to look, use the Wayback Machine.
If you have a website in the SEO niche, you could use this to your advantage by:
Making your own guide to avoiding Google penalties is a great way to start.
I'm contacting Neil to suggest that he replace the dead link with yours.
I'm sure you're thinking:
"That appears to be a LOT of effort for just ONE backlink."
True. But here's a clever workaround:
You'll notice EVERYONE who links to the broken page if you paste the URL into Ahrefs' Site Explorer (or Ahrefs' Broken Link Checker). There are 39 links referring to the defunct resource in this scenario.
backlinks pointing to a broken page
That's an additional 38 people who might be willing to trade their broken link for a working one.
The difficulty is, where do you start looking for suitable broken link building opportunities?
There are a few options, but the simplest is to search for broken pages on competitors' websites. You may do this with Ahrefs' Site Explorer's Best by Links report.
Enter a competitive domain in Site Explorer > Best by links > Add a "404 not found" filter
Links are the greatest way to find 404 errors.
You can quickly and easily identify a goldmine of chances because this analysis reveals the number of referring websites connecting to each broken page.
Here's a CRAZY example from the travel sector that I came upon a while back:
opportunity for a broken link
That broken page has 900+ referring domains, so your eyes aren't deceiving you.
For someone in this industry, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
To learn about three other strategies to locate broken link building chances, see our complete guide to broken link building.
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