Link building can be one of the biggest burdens for many SEO experts. Sadly, as much of a pain as it is, it’s absolutely crucial to implement in your SEO strategy! There’s no getting around it! 

High quality links = rankings. 

Link building is one of the oldest, and most consistent, ranking factors there is. Although algorithm updates have changed the tides of fortune for some black hat SEOs, gaining “votes of confidence” from other websites is something that most of the digital marketing industry would agree will not be changing any time soon!

So, if link building is such a crucial SEO task – how can you go about getting your first links back to your website?!

 

1. Broken Links

First and foremost, you should be analysing your competitors backlink profile to discover some quick-win opportunities. More often than not, your competitors will have some broken backlinks, which point to 404 pages on their websites floating around somewhere in the web. 

 

Capitalise on the opportunity!!

The first step is to use a tool like Ahrefs, punch in one of your competitors websites and away you go. Repeat this step for the top competitors which rank above you, reach out to the owners of the websites that you’ve found a broken link on, and offer them one of your URLs (Which is most relevant) as a replacement.

All website owners understand how important user experience is. Replacing a broken link provides a more positive experience for their readers. 

 

2. Manual Outreach

Now this is where a lot of today’s SEO professionals get stuck… It’s important to refer to that cliche saying here. The one that you’ve heard time and time again, yet it still hasn’t struck a chord with you!

 

“Nothing worth having is easy!”

It’s ridiculously tempting to visit dark parts of the web and purchase links from shady resources claiming that you can get 50 high quality backlinks for $10. But 99% of the time, it’s only going to damage your SEO efforts. Especially, in the long run! 

The best way to build and maintain healthy, profitable rankings on Google, is to gain ethical, white hat links. And the only way you can achieve this is through manually reaching out to website owners.

 

Now that being said, there are many blogs and websites that will welcome guest posting – so how do you find them?

 

Head over to Google and ue the following search command:

“Your niche keyword/topic” + “Write for us”

Your search will return with a number of results for websites that you can pitch to include your content & links.

 

Where do you go from now?

As you’re aware by now, achieving quality links on high authority domains is no easy feat… But with patience, hard work, manual outreach and a sound overall SEO strategy to back you up – link building will be an almost automated process.

Try out some of the link building tactics above, let us know about your results in the comment section below!