10 Tips to Bring Your Link Building Strategies to the Now

Link building has been and still is one of the non-negotiable tactics in SEO. In this new era of internet marketing, the question is not whether you still need to build links or not. It’s whether you are capable of capitalizing on advanced link building strategies or if you’re still stuck in the antiquated pre-Penguin and pre-Panda link building practices.

If you’re still a bit lost on how you can elevate your strategies when it comes to building links, here are 10 recommendations we put together for you.

1. Only Use Quality Link Building Sites

It was a common practice among marketers before to build links across a multitude of websites. The principle was simple – it’s all about the quantity and not the quality. All that shifted when achieving an organic link profile became necessary to achieve high rankings. Only build links on authoritative sites that are relevant to your niche. Part of answering the question how to get natural links is selecting link building platforms with the highest level of discernment.

2. Maximize Tools But Don’t Be Lazy

While there are tools that are available to help you select the best link building opportunities, you still have to do your due diligence and verify the quality of these sites yourself. While most tools are extremely reliable, it’s still up to you to decide whether building links on these venues does make sense.

3. Don’t Trust Link Building Sites that Don’t Have a Manual Preview Process

One of the things that Google really focused on curtailing is automated link building. Similar to the previous point, advanced link building strategies need to have a high level of “humanity” – links built and reviewed by humans for humans. Sites that don’t have manual checkpoints to ensure quality are most likely spammy sites and you can be penalized for using them.

4. Strengthen Your Content Marketing Strategy

Almost all of the time, a link is just part of a bigger marketing story. Simply put, a link cannot stand alone and is usually embedded within a piece of content. As recent search engine algorithm updates give a high value great content, make sure that bolstering your content is part of your advanced link building strategies.

Further, don’t be confined with articles. There are other forms of content you should maximize including:

• Whitepapers
• Videos
• Infographics
• Demos
• Screencasts
• Explainer videos
• Slide shows and many more

Use as many content executions as appropriate to keep your audience engaged.

5. Remember the 40-30-30 Ratio in Anchor Text Diversity

This is a basic and standard rule of thumb on how to get natural backlinks. Google has penalized and will continue penalizing sites that are over optimized for any given anchor text. In this regard, you may use the 40-30-30 ration to diversify your anchor texts:

• 40% – anchor texts based on your URL, domain and business name
• 30% – anchor texts that use your company name incorporated with your target keywords and partial keyword matches
• 30% – anchor texts based on exact SEO target keywords

Further, it would be good to check out your competitors and the level of their anchor text diversity as this may vary from one industry to another.

6. Don’t Build Tons of Links in One Go

There’s nothing natural about getting hundreds of backlinks overnight unless of course this is a result of viral content marketing. This will definitely trigger Google’s spam alarm and you can be penalized for spamming. Building links should be paced logically and should appear as organic as possible.

7. Take Full Advantage of Social Media

The search engines have recognized the growing impact of social media on how internet users consume information and factors in social cues in its ranking algorithms. Advanced link building strategies should be integrated with social media tactics to increase the level of social activity around a specific content or website. Further, you would want your audience to share links to your content and the fastest and easiest way to do this is through social media marketing.

8. Keep Track of Your Backlink Profile

Constant monitoring is a crucial element in any form of internet marketing given the dynamic and ever-changing nature of the Internet. Keeping track of your inbound link profile will tell you where your links are coming from as well as alert you if you’re already bordering on being spammy.

9. Learn A Thing or Two from Your Competitors

Here’s a disclaimer: we are not advocating that you completely replicate the methodologies of your competitors. However, it would be great to get “inspiration” from them, especially those who are performing really well. This will also serve as your barometer to gauge the direction your niche or industry is heading to in terms of practices on how to get natural backlinks.

10. Earn Links by “Building Human Links”

Lastly, it’s time for internet marketers to realize that link building is about humans using the Internet to share information about common interests. As such, it is just fitting that advanced link building strategies should include the need to build relationships with people online. Find influencers in your niche and create meaningful ties with them. Through building links, develop a lasting relationship with your audience.

At the end of the day, links should not be built for links sake. Building links should connect like-minded individuals.