Get a guide to effective link building and learn how you can improve your website’s authority and visibility in search engines.
Ieva Treiliha
Why am I not ranking at the top of Google’s search results? My website looks great! If this is a question you recognise and have been struggling with, it is most likely because you have not optimised your website for search engines. As described in a previous post, search engine optimisation consists of a range of disciplines, including link building, which together help you achieve higher rankings for your primary keywords. Thorough on-site optimisation should always be your first priority – meaning your site should, among other things, meet requirements such as fast load times, responsive design, an SSL certificate, and sharp, content-rich landing pages. Read more about search engine optimisation here.
But once you have ticked off your on-page optimisation, you are faced with another equally important and nuanced discipline: link building. Strong inbound links can make the difference between treading water on page 5 of Google or looking down at your competitors from the top of page 1, bringing more visitors to your site and increasing your earning potential.
Link building is a discipline within search engine optimisation that is, in most cases, managed by agencies. This is partly because it requires up-to-date expertise, and partly because it can be tricky to navigate between good and bad link building. But what exactly is link building? And why is it so vital for other sites to link to you? Here is an overview of how to do effective link building in 2022.
As with so many other terms in this industry, the English term link building is used. In simple terms, it means working to acquire or build inbound links to your own website. But why do this? Well, in Google’s eyes, a link from another website is the same as a recommendation. If I link from my site to yours, it must mean I recommend your content, service, or products.
Google’s foremost task is to provide users with the best and most relevant results for their queries, and beyond an optimised website, inbound links are a crucial factor. But how do you do link building, and how do you distinguish between good/beneficial and poor/harmful link building? The distinction can often be very subtle, as “best practice” in link building has evolved significantly in recent years. Today, we have a fair idea of the type of link building strategies that can improve your keyword rankings.
You might think that the number of recommendations/links is what matters for Google to value your site. It was like this at first, when the goal was to hoover up as many links as possible, questionable or not. In other words, quantity was the decisive factor for whether a site ranked well in search results. This strategy no longer works. In the worst-case scenario, Google may penalise you if your link profile consists of inbound links from poor or irrelevant sites.
Quality has become the keyword in modern link building, which makes perfect sense. If you had two books – one recommended by an author and the other by 10 children who cannot yet read – would you choose quality or quantity?
Now that we know Google rewards sites with relevant, high-quality inbound links, what does this actually mean? Relevance in this context means that you receive a link from a site that is, in some way, in the same category as your website. For example, if you run a webshop selling menswear and you receive a link from Euroman, this would be a highly valuable link, as it comes from a site focused on your core products – in this case, men’s fashion. Relevance, however, is not only about industry; it can also be geographical. If you have a carpentry business in a specific town, a link from the local newspaper can also be very strong.
In addition to relevance, Google also assesses the strength of the domain linking to you. If the domain has a high domain rating, i.e. strong trust from Google, this will also benefit your site if you get a link from it. It sends a strong signal to Google that reputable sites are linking to you, meaning you must have something of value to offer. Furthermore, Google places great importance on receiving links from unique domains – that is, different domains and not just many different pages on the same domain.
Looking further, there are other parameters that determine how much value you gain from a given link. For example, the placement of the link on the page is significant. A link in the footer does not carry the same weight as one placed at the top of the main text. Again, placement helps Google understand how relevant or important a link is.
Another factor is the anchor text used – that is, the word or phrase that forms the link itself. If, for example, you have a page selling heat pumps at competitive prices, an anchor text such as “cheap heat pumps” would be effective. There is then a clear connection between the link and the website. However, it is important to vary your anchor texts, so that you include the relevant keyword, full sentences, and generic phrases like “see here”, “read more”, and so on.
In summary: It’s about getting links from relevant and authoritative sites, considering the link’s placement and the anchor text. That all sounds good, but how do you actually obtain these links in practice?
There are countless ways to acquire inbound links for your site, but it’s not always easy to get links of the necessary quality. If you combine creativity, diligence, and optimism, you have a good chance of developing a successful link building strategy.
It’s worth noting that you should use a variety of link sources, as it’s optimal to have a varied link profile – meaning different types of links shape your profile. At the same time, it can be risky to suddenly acquire 100 links at once, as this makes your profile look unnatural, which Google may penalise. Below are examples of where and how you can acquire links for your site, so you can eventually reach the top positions in Google.
Natural links
Not all businesses are fortunate enough to receive a wave of natural links – links that come to you simply because you have great products that make waves in your industry and people want to acknowledge with a link. However, you can increase your chances of natural links by creating sharp, valuable content on your site. Who knows, maybe it will be so good that people reward you with a link?
Network and supplier links
Some of the easiest and strongest links you can secure are via your network. Network can be defined in many ways, but it is especially relevant in relation to partners and suppliers. For example, if you run a webshop selling products from an external brand, it’s certainly possible to get a strong link here. Or if you sell flooring, your floors probably come from an external supplier who is also interested in people finding your site and buying their products. You may also support others through sponsorships, whether for charity or as part of a local club. These are all great link opportunities. Systematically review your network and secure strong, inbound links.
“Sell” your content for links
Another strategy that can often generate strong links is to create high-quality content and have it published on, for example, blogs. You undoubtedly have a wealth of knowledge within your industry, and you should use this to create outstanding content that benefits the blog, its users, and yourself. Start by finding a suitable site to publish your content, then create informative and well-written material. Once that’s in place, it’s all about outreach – contacting relevant sites and convincing them to publish your content with a link back to you. This can be a challenging process, and it may not succeed at first. In that case, you’ll need to refine your content and practise pitching it.
Press and advertorials
On a related note, press work can be a highly effective link building strategy for several reasons. You have the opportunity to share a positive message about your business, and online media are – almost without exception – highly authoritative and trustworthy domains. Your press strategy will largely depend on whether you are a small business or a major player. If you have a well-known brand, the right story can get you featured in national media and potentially earn you a very strong link. If you’re a smaller business, don’t give up – it’s much easier to get your story featured in local media, even if you are relatively unknown. This is partly because local media have far fewer resources and are often happy to receive a good story ready to publish.
It doesn’t need to be a ground-breaking news story for you to get featured. A small success story or an upcoming event can often be enough. If your story is published, you gain valuable local exposure, but remember, we are also after strong links. Contact the journalist afterwards and ask if they can include a link to your website in the article, as it will also benefit their readers. Below is an example of a story that could be of interest to a local newspaper.
Another, more recent, method for obtaining links from the media is through so-called advertorials, which have become more popular in recent years. Advertorials are a blend of advertising and editorial content – advertising disguised as journalism. The article is presented in the same format and style as any other piece in the publication, with the only difference being a small label at the top reading “Advertisement” or “Sponsored content”. Most media now offer advertorial opportunities – either you provide the content, or they write it for you. Still, many media outlets are torn between the financial incentive and their journalistic integrity.
Media outlets are generally under financial pressure, and advertorials are an easy source of income. At the same time, it can be difficult to distinguish between genuine investigative journalism and an advert for a random business. Nevertheless, both media and businesses benefit from this option, making it a popular strategy for acquiring links. Advertorials can be expensive, depending on the media outlet, but they present a unique opportunity to have your story published and obtain a link from some of the most reputable domains in the country.
Link directories
Link directories were once almost the primary source of inbound links in the early days of search engine optimisation, but today they are almost considered a dirty word. Link directories are sites where you can manually register your business and get a link to your website. With a few exceptions, link directories are weak domains with little value, so you must be cautious when using this strategy. That said, it is not a completely useless method – it mainly depends on whether the directory is relevant to your site, such as a restaurant category if you are a restaurant. In this case, there may be some value, but as previously mentioned, it is essential for your link profile to be varied. A link from a directory now and then can be fine, provided it is followed by other strong links.
Links from competitors
One of the first things you should do when starting with link building is to analyse your competitors’ link profiles. There are several tools, such as Ahrefs, that show where your competitors get their links from. Analysing competitor links is an easy and quick way to spot where strong links may be waiting for you. If your competitors can get an inbound link from a particular site, chances are you can too. In this way, you pick the low-hanging fruit first and establish the foundation for ongoing link building.
Revive dead links
The final link opportunity we’ll mention here requires some detective work. The method involves identifying relevant sites that link out to other pages – perhaps even your competitors – but where the link is dead, i.e. a 404 error. The site owner is unlikely to want to link to a page that doesn’t work, which is where you come in. Once you have identified a 404 error, assess how you can get the site to link to your site instead. Sometimes, simply alerting the webmaster to the issue is enough, and as thanks, you may get the link if your content is relevant to the original. In other cases, you may need to create new content specifically targeted to the original link.
If you succeed with the above link building strategies, there is a strong chance you will outpace your competitors. However, acquiring inbound links from external sites is far from the only aspect of link building. Before you begin with supplier links, content outreach, and so on, you should ensure your own internal link structure is in order.
As part of your initial on-page SEO work, you need to make your site easy to navigate – both for your customers/visitors and for Google. With a carefully considered link structure, you can guide visitors to the parts of your site you want them to see. You can do this, for example, by including links in the text on your homepage that direct visitors to specific landing pages you want to prioritise. By setting up these internal links, you are also telling Google that the landing page in question is important, which Google will note.
In many cases, users can access various landing pages via the menu, so does that count as internal links? In theory, yes, but there is still value in integrating them within the text itself. You probably also have content that is several clicks away from the homepage. Here, internal links can shorten the path to your valuable content, which will undoubtedly result in more traffic. Google also looks at the distance from the homepage when determining the value of a landing page. The closer your content is to the homepage, the better your chances of ranking for your primary keywords. Once again, it’s all about signalling value. If visitors have to click eight times to reach the content, Google assumes it is not prioritised or important.
There is no doubt that external link building and internal link structure are the most important disciplines for improving your rankings in Google’s search results. But there is also another method that many often overlook – linking out to external sites. For years, there has been some doubt about whether linking to other sites provides value, but if you do it properly, there is definitely something to gain.
When you link out to others, you ensure users can access even more information. Google values this, as it makes your site appear trustworthy. However, it must make sense to include an outbound link – it should be to other authoritative sites and ideally improve the user experience, otherwise it may be wasted effort. Should you link to your competitors? Not necessarily, but to sites related to your industry and content. This can also increase your brand awareness and create opportunities for you to receive a link in the future.
Many are afraid of losing visitors when creating outbound links, and there is indeed a risk that this may happen. However, the positive signal value you send to Google can be worth much more in the long run. It’s a good idea to have the link open in a new tab, so users can quickly and easily return to your site. And they likely will, if they feel you have been the source of further useful information.
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