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Johannes Larsson is the founder and CEO of Financer.com, an SEO geek, and affiliate marketing expert. He’s been practicing entrepreneurship and digital marketing for over a decade and runs a global remote team.
In his blog, he shares his expertise in SEO, affiliate marketing, and finance with a wealth of free resources for digital entrepreneurs.
In 2022, it’s essential that you have a solid backlinking strategy if you want to rank well in search engines.
Not only do backlinks bring new customers and visitors to your site, but they’re the ultimate vote of confidence in your brand. They say to the likes of Google that your business is worth visiting, ranking, and promoting.
But building links isn’t always easy. Ideally, you should be mixing up your strategy from time to time to trial new ways of building links and seeing what works best for your website. These three link strategies are tried and tested and have soared our rankings over the years.
Guest posting
One of the most effective backlinking strategies you can try is guest posting. While it involves some effort and time, it comes with great rewards.
Guest posts involve writing a blog post for another website, usually in return for a backlink to your own site. Sometimes sites will pay you to write guest posts for them, which can be done on a freelance basis to help you gain experience as a writer. Other times you’ll be asked to pay a fee to write the guest post because the link and exposure you’ll gain is so valuable. For this backlinking strategy though, I recommend offering your services in return for a link – this way no money changes hands but both parties get a great deal.
This method of sourcing backlinks is a great way to get featured on quality sites with high domain ratings, just make sure you follow the steps below for a smooth transaction.
How to secure guest post links
- Start by writing a list of all the brands you would like to write for. Usually, these are websites that are actively looking for guest posts, as they’ll be easier to pitch to, but you can also try other sites that write about topics you can add value on.
- Pitch your guest post idea in a polite, professional email. If the website mentions a list of requirements, such as word length, topics, or rules about adding images, then make sure you read these carefully and show in your email that you know what is expected from you.
- Before you get started on writing your guest post, it’s important to agree on the terms of your deal – this avoids disappointment on either side later on. You need to check whether your link will be no-follow or do-follow, how many links you’ll receive, and whereabouts in the article they’ll be.
- Some sites will agree for you to go right ahead and write your chosen article, in which case make sure you hand this in as soon as possible to keep the editor happy. For longer articles, it’s best to start with an outline first that the editor can check over before you spend too much time researching and writing your guest post. Include the headers and keywords you’ll be using, as well as the general context of your guest post.
- Think carefully about the value of the guest post link you’ll receive, and how much time it makes sense to spend on it. But regardless of how much the link is worth to you, it’s essential that the site is happy or they will simply choose somebody else.
- Once your article has been uploaded, make sure your link is as expected before thanking them for the collaboration and moving on. If the link isn’t what you agreed on, question this and quote the original email – they’ll usually be happy to make small changes when required.
Answer journalists questions
Another great backlinking strategy is to answer questions for journalists using sites such as HARO, Source Bottle, and Terkel.
Getting links through journalist answers
- Sign up for all three of the above sites. The process is slightly different for each one, but it’s quick and easy to register your interest in specific areas that you can give value to. You can also create preferences of how often you would like to be notified of new questions.
- When a question comes up that you have a good answer for, take some time to craft a thoughtful response. It’s very important that you follow the instructions from the journalist to make sure you have a high chance of getting chosen, including sticking to the requested word limit.
- It’s important to get the right balance of spending time on your answer and making it the best that it can be, and answering quick enough for the journalist to read it. The competition is high and once a journalist has found an answer that fits their brief, they won’t have time to scroll through the rest.
- Make sure you’ll receive a do-follow link before spending too much time on your answer, this information should all be displayed clearly. It’s also worth checking out the site to make sure it’s a worthy investment, bearing in mind that not every answer you write will be chosen. However, when you get your answer published on a credible site and a do-follow link, you’ll be glad you made the effort.
- As we’ve already covered, competition is high with these sites. Because of this, you need to answer regularly to get a good return of links. Try to dedicate at least 30 minutes a day to this strategy, or if your marketing budget allows then hire somebody to take responsibility for this and you’ll really start to increase your links.
Link exchanges
Link exchanges are a great way to create a mutually beneficial partnership with another site, and because you’re offering something in return, you’ll usually get a higher response rate with these kinds of deals.
Tips for successful link exchanges
- Two-way link deals are simple and easier to organize, but they’re not as beneficial for SEO. Because of this, you should always look for options for a three-way link exchange where possible. It isn’t essential for every link, but try to get creative and add a third party to your link collaborations from time to time.
- All links are beneficial, but they’re not all equal. Use sites like Ahrefs and Semrush to check your domain rating, traffic value, and other important analytics. Only this way can you see how you compare to other sites. While you always want to aim for the highest value links you can get, you’re unlikely to get a 90+ DR link if your site is brand new and has no other backlinks – because there is nothing in it for them. Just like any negotiation, you both need to bring something to the party. That means looking for sites within your range, or when approaching much bigger sites, offering value in other ways like sharing on your social media, email list, or anything else you can.
In summary
These are just three popular backlinking strategies that will help you grow traffic, get exposure to your site and create partnerships with others.
Link building can be a tiring process, but it’s absolutely worth the time investment when you see your SEO rankings explode. Try to enjoy the process and see it as a collaboration, giving you the chance to expand your network and work with all kinds of other brands.
If you want to learn more backlinking strategies and other ways to grow your site, check out The Complete SEO Checklist today.
