Using a comprehensive link building strategy can help you increase your site's domain authority and rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).

What does it take to rank high in Google search results? According to one study , the first result in Google search results had, on average, nearly four times more backlinks than the results ranked 2nd to 10th.

Backlinks play such an important role in rankings, but how do you drive links from other sites to your site without buying or exchanging links or violating Google’s spam policy ? Here’s how to build a solid link building strategy for your website.

What is Link Building?

Link Building refers to increasing search traffic by getting links to your website through more quality inbound links. Link building is a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy used to improve rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Developing a link building strategy that utilizes a variety of internal links within your website and external links posted on other websites can make a big difference in the likelihood that potential customers will find your website when searching online.

Why is link building important?

Link building is an essential element of a company’s content marketing strategy. Search engines consider the number and quality of external links (links from other websites) when deciding which web pages to include at the top of search results pages.

Google's PageRank algorithm uses links to determine the importance of web pages and ranks them on search engine results pages. Ranking high on search engine results pages (SERPs) can make a big difference in driving traffic to your website.

Best Link Building Strategies

• Guest Blogging
• Create useful content
• Resource Page Link Building
• Replace broken links
• Forum and social media postings
• Link to existing mentions
• Internal link building

Here are some of the best link building strategies you can use to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) and get your brand in front of potential customers:

Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is a link building strategy where you write and post content on someone else's website. By guest posting on relevant sites, you can earn quality links that drive traffic to your website.

High-quality, original guest posts can also help you build your online reputation. Writing guest posts on reputable websites is a great way to make new connections in your industry and get natural, quality links to your company’s website.

First, research relevant websites that accept guest posts. Send them a proposal that clearly explains the value your brand offers. When you write a guest post, you can direct readers to relevant pages on your site. The more useful, specific, and engaging your content is, the easier it will be to get quality links from reputable websites that rank high on SERPs.

Creating Useful Content

The basic SEO strategy to keep in mind when starting link building is to create content that is unique, engaging, and helpful for your industry’s target audience. By writing relevant content, you will be able to get natural editorial links that are generated based on high-quality information.

One way to generate links from relevant websites is to create highly shareable content, such as infographics, surveys, and statistics. By gathering valuable data and presenting it in a visually appealing way, you can generate high-quality links from a variety of web pages.

Resource Page Link Building

Resource page link building is a strategy to gain quality links by getting links from resource pages. A resource page is a list of high-quality articles, blog posts, products, tools, or other resources on a specific topic. When a trustworthy website includes your content or tools in their resource link list, it improves your online reputation and earns you valuable backlinks.

Replacing Broken Links

One effective link building strategy is to find broken links (also known as dead links) and replace them with new links to drive traffic to your site. Broken link building is asking site owners to replace broken links with their own branded links. If your content is useful and relevant, it can help keep backlinks active on other websites.

For example, if you have a company that offers resume writing services, look for sites that talk about job search and how to improve your resume. If you find a page with a dead link to a non-existent company, you can contact the site owner and suggest an alternative link to a blog post about their resume service.

Posting on Forums and Social Media

Social media and online forums are great resources for merchants looking to expand their link building strategy and interact with other brands in their industry. Post useful content online with backlinks to drive traffic to your website from social media platforms. Google’s algorithm may not consider links on social media as valid backlinks, but they build brand awareness and increase the likelihood that content creators will link to your site.

Find industry-related forums, offer research-based solutions, and answer questions, including backlinks to your website. Providing useful information to your potential customers on forums and social media is a great way to increase organic traffic to your site.

For example, Reddit has thousands of subreddits covering every topic and industry. If you’re a company that makes bags and accessories for board games, you might post your solutions on r/boardgames. If you’re a B2B or consulting provider, you might consider being active on LinkedIn’s business-related Skill Pages.

Linking Existing Mentions

Search online regularly for mentions of your company, brand, product, service, or SEO content. You may find unlinked mentions that aren’t sending traffic to your website. In this case, you can email the site owner and ask them to include a backlink to your site based on the mention.

Linking to existing mentions can be beneficial to both brands’ backlink strategies, and can create new opportunities to connect with brands and content creators in your industry. If you’ve created a shareable infographic, do a simple Google Image search to see which websites have shared your content and linked to it.

Internal Link Building

Internal link building strategies involve creating links within your website that drive traffic to other pages. Quality internal links help customers stay on your website and learn more about other areas of your brand.

Search engines like Google scan your website’s internal link structure when determining search rankings. By building links that direct customers to useful articles, blog posts, infographics, videos, etc., you are not only improving the user experience of your content, but also the experience that search engine bots use to scan the data and influence your ranking on SERPs.

Tips for Developing a Link Building Strategy

• Identify your target audience
• Audit your content regularly
• Writing clear anchor text
• Optimizing your content for mobile
• Focus on quality over quantity

There are many ways to improve your link building strategy, including identifying your target audience, optimizing for mobile, and updating your content regularly. Here are some tips to keep in mind when developing your link building strategy.

Identify Your Target Audience

Determine the target audience that is most likely to interact with your brand, research the types of content they visit and the websites they visit to identify potential link partners. One of the best ways to get links that rank high on SERPs is to listen to what your audience wants and what they are asking, and then answer those questions with content.

Audit Your Content Regularly

Audit tools allow you to evaluate domain authority and page authority. These metrics are used to predict where your website will rank on search engine results pages (SERPs) based on the quantity and quality of sources linking to your site. These scores are an easy way to measure the performance of your backlink strategy and track how you compare to your competitors.

Write Clear Anchor Text

Using simple, clear anchor text (the words that users click to follow your link) makes it easier for potential customers and search engine crawlers to understand the information you provide. For example, an active anchor text like “How to Start a Clothing Brand” is more appealing than “Click Here.”

According to Google , "Good anchor text is descriptive, reasonably concise, and relevant to both the page it's on and the pages it links to."

Optimize Your Content for Mobile

Since mobile traffic accounts for nearly 75% of online traffic to ecommerce retail sites, it is essential to optimize your website and content for mobile. Make sure both your content and the sites you link to are mobile-friendly.

Focus on Quality Over Quantity

Prioritize creating content that provides valuable information to your target audience, and only link to reputable websites that provide value to your readers. High-quality content that gets relevant links from sites with high domain authority will rank higher on SERPs than content that gets a lot of backlinks from sites with low reputability.