How To Scale Link Building

This blog was first published on clickintelligence.co.uk.

When it comes to online content, the only thing that matters is organic reach. You can artificially increase site visits or reads. You can add in plenty of fake likes to your account. You can buy followers, and so on. Artificial engagement means nothing. Without real users reading, engaging, sharing, and buying your business or site will not be the success you want it to be.

There are three main methods to boost engagement.

1. Through marketing
2. Through conversion tactics that help users revisit your site many times
3. SEO

Of all the main options, SEO is the only one that offers both expansive reach and long-term benefits. Google itself sees over 69,000 searches every second. Cashing in on these searches will improve your reach, traffic, engagement, and reputation. People trust the results that Google provides for them.

To get to that top position on Google, you will need an ongoing commitment to two things:

1. Content
2. Link Building

While yes, many other factors affect your ranking on search queries, content and link building have been referred to as the two of the most important ranking factors that Google uses by Andrey Lipattsev, a Search Quality Senior Strategist at Google.

Why Do You Need to Scale Link Building?

At the end of the day, of course, link building is the main goal. Great content is meant to organically gain you citations and backlinks from users who have shared or cited your content. It is not, however, the fastest nor more effective way to boost your ranking. That is where link building comes in, but before you get too excited, you need to know how link building has changed over the last few years.

How Has Link Building Changed?

To put it simply, before the Penguin Update, it was the quantity of links that mattered. Today, it is the quality of the links (and how many of them you have). This has put more pressure on the link, the content surrounding the link, and the site where it is published. The better the site, the more it will weigh in your favour. 

A great link building scheme should be done with the goal of appealing to real readers. A link by itself will get you nowhere, but if that backlink can also help you boost your organic reach and visibility, you have a winner.

How to Scale Link Building

According to Google, the best way to gain backlinks is through merit. While this is not strictly the only way, it should be focused on as a priority. Content marketing is key not just to boost your ranking on Google, but also to encourage repeat visits and even sales. Getting to the top of Google is easy through AdWords, but if you don’t ensure your site is optimised for engagement as well as SEO, that money will be wasted.

That’s why the first step to link building is to improve your content and your site.

Improve Your Content and Site

Before you start sending more users to your site, you want to give them a product that they will actually engage with. How they engage will depend on your goals. Do you want more reads, subscriptions, shares, or sales? Perhaps you want a bit of everything. You need to revamp both your site and your content to do this.

Done right, your content should be something that users find interesting and informative. You want them to share it, cite it, and spread the word about your content. The more it is engaged with, the greater your organic reach and the better your backlink profile.

How do you go about improving your site?

• Start with an SEO Audit. SEO audits are critical to improving the look, feel, and function of your site. Without one, you won’t make the changes that matter to both users and search algorithms. It will help you clear up behind-the-scenes issues, point out security issues, and help your site be mobile-friendly.
• Not sure why this matters?
• When was the last time you bought anything from a website you didn’t trust? When was the last time you used a site that wasn’t easy to navigate on your mobile device? Google wants to provide their users with the best experience, and so should you. Especially when you consider 96% of mobile search traffic and 79% of desktop searches are done through Google (Jody Minetz Co., 2018). When it comes to SEO, improving your site with Google and the users in mind is a must.

How do you go about improving your content?

• The next step is to improve your content. Here, topic, quality of writing, ease of reading, length, and engagement matters. On average, the first result on any search is 1890 words (backlinko.com, 2016) and content that contains more than 1000 words repeatedly gains more shares and engagement.
• Improve the quality of content, improve its functionality, and consider adding an infographic. Do whatever it takes to make your content more relevant, more interesting, and more shareable.
• Only once your site is something worthy of engagement should you begin your link building.

How to Manually Increase Backlinks

Improving your content marketing is all well and good, but it won’t address the issue of backlinks right away. It is the necessary backbone to any link building campaign, but to scale your efforts, you are going to need a few extra strategies working in conjunction with your content.

Start first with links you already have

• When you want to improve your backlink profile, the best place to start is with links that you already have, whether you know about them or not.
• For example, if your website has been active since before the Penguin Algorithm Update in 2012, you might have invested in an outdated link building campaign that is more or less damaging your online reputation today.
• If, on the other hand, you have adopted a new domain name that was once registered to another webmaster, you could similarly face the same issue.
• To scale your link building, you need to use tools like Ahrefs to find and locate where your links currently are. You will then want to test the sites for quality. They need to have several factors working in their favour, from domain authority to page authority, even to Trust Flow. The better the site, the better the backlink. If the site does not reach your standards, then you need to contact the webmaster and have that link removed. If they do not respond or refuse, you will need to disavow the link with Google.

Boost links by finding brand mentions

• Next, it is time to start building your links. If your brand is already well established, then, of course, you have plenty of opportunities to immediately boost your backlink profile. All you need to do is find sites and posts that mention your brand and contact the webmaster to see if they will link to your site. As the content is already about you or mentions you, they shouldn’t have a reason to say no. This is still completely manual, of course, which is why your link building efforts will not stop there.

Find expired domains that you can replace

• Another option that you can use that is similar to the two previous mentioned is replacing expired domains in a post. You will need to use tools like Ahrefs or Majestic to find content within your niche and to run a check on all the links within it. The goal here is to find links within content whose domains have expired. If the site is quality, the webmasters should have a vested interest in replacing these links which are causing what is known as “link rot.” Have a great site yourself, and you can encourage them to replace said link with your own.

Rule at using Help a Reporter Out (HARO)

• HARO is a useful tool when you know how to use it. To start, don’t assume that you are a specialist in anything. You need real information in order to appeal to journalists and to get your content and link published. To do this, contact specialists or use freelance sites to gain the information that you need. It’s an easy way to provide relevant information and boost your chances on getting posted to news sites.

Get your infographic out into the world

• When it comes to content, infographics regularly outperform all other types of content. They are fun, easy to read, and highly informative. By investing in infographic creation, you can enjoy more engagement and see your infographic be reposted and shared across the web.
• In reality, it is wise to combine all link building tactics in order to scale your link building efforts.

Link Building Methods to Be Wary Of

Link building has been around for as long as search engines, but that does not mean every tactic that exists is a good one. Private Blog Networks, for example, can be useful in boosting your ranking, but they are also dangerous. If one website in the network is marked and penalised by Google, they could all suffer. That is why quality link builders don’t use the practice and instead spread your links on as many different sources as possible. By doing so, it reduces risk and improves ranking with time.

Remember to Be Clear About Your Goals

The clearer you are about your goals, the better your efforts will pay off. For example, if you are a local business, it is perfectly okay to direct your efforts towards local SEO. Not only is it easier, but it also pays off faster.

To put this in perspective, “near me” searches on Google have doubled in popularity in the last few years. These local searches also translate into real customers, with over 72% of local searches translating into in-store traffic for local business (Search Engine Watch, 2016).

There is a lot to be gained from local SEO, so if you have a physical store, this is how you should direct your link building efforts.

If you are a global company, try to narrow your efforts down by niche. The more specific the search, the more your niche audience will be able to find you.

Conclusion

Link building is one of the most important aspects to any website’s digital presence. Even the goal behind great content and content marketing is to gain backlinks through merit. When done correctly, a backlink campaign should boost your search ranking on Google and other search engines, and it should also increase the organic viability and engagement from users.

As quality is the goal, your guest posts will be read by real people. The better the content, the more it will be read and shared and the more likely it will be that users click through to your site. If your site is also high-quality, easy to use, and attraction, the visitors will be more likely to stay and explore. Combine this lead with conversion optimisation tactics and you can truly benefit from a well-rounded digital marketing campaign.

SEO is not separate from marketing.

Link building is not something you can sweep under the rug as a back-handed technique.

By putting in the effort to improve your content, guest posts, and link building campaign you can improve the results. By following this guide, you can scale the link building process and really start to enjoy increased search engine ranking on the keywords you have chosen.

Use Link Building From a Reputable SEO Agency

Of course, this requires a full-time commitment. If you do not have this time nor the budget to finance an SEO specialist, then consider using our managed SEO services. We can help you improve your SEO from the ground up, and our link building tactics include fully manual outreach of bloggers. Our relationship building and years of experience have made our link building services some of the best in the business, allowing you to benefit from white-hat link building and scaled efforts all at once.