In this post, I’ll teach you how to extract your competitors backlinks.
It’s a simple process that allows you to mine for the link profile of other sites.
However, the biggest challenge is knowing what to do with your competitor backlinks.
But don’t fret – we will detail everything about this SEO process.
Let’s start, shall we?
Table of Contents 1. Why Keep Track of Competitor Backlinks? 2. How to Track The Backlinks of Your Competitors? 3. What to do with Competitors Backlink Data? 3.1. Identify your Competitor’s Best Backlinks and Acquire Them 3.2. Check Where Competitors Publish Guests Posts 3.3. Check Where Your Competitors Leave Comments 3.4. Capitalize on “Lost” Backlinks 3.5. Make Your Content 10x Better 4. Conclusion Why Keep Track of Competitor Backlinks?
Monitoring your competitor’s backlinks brings lots of benefits.
For starters, tracking your competitor’s backlinks allows you to analyze their link profile.
By monitoring their backlinks, you’ll see how many sites are linking to them.
Having this information in your fingertips will be beneficial to you as a site owner.
Because here’s the kicker:
You can get a holistic view of how they reached the top of the SERPs!
Of course, and as mentioned earlier, there’s more to monitoring backlinks. The list of backlinks won’t mean much if you don’t do anything about it!
What does this mean?
So you have a list of sites that link back to your competitors.
Next, you must filter the results to only see the authoritative sites.
Last, you must then find a way to get a backlink from the same sites as well.
Here’s one thing going for you regarding competitor backlinks:
Since they already linked to your competitors, there’s a good chance they will also link back to yours!
Spying on competitor links plays a critical role in building authoritative backlinks to your site. It is a scalable and sustainable technique to help improve your site’s SEO performance.
Gone are the days when building links is a numbers game. Nowadays, you have to work hard and smart to churn out high-quality backlinks to your site.
For instance, a single link from a site like Mashable or TechCrunch possesses more valuable than thousands of links from mediocre sites.
So by focusing your efforts on gathering competitive backlinks, you can fast-track your site to success!
How to Track The Backlinks of Your Competitors?
Now that we’ve established the value that competitor backlink research brings to the table, it’s time to discuss the exact process of finding them.
In particular, we’ll discuss about the most basic way to find backlinks of your competitors using Google search.
On the search bar, type the following:
Link:[competitor URL] -site:[competitor URL]
For this search query, we are using Google search operators to help us filter the results.
“Link” refers to the site that links back to the competitor URL.
Keep in mind that this search operator has been deprecated since 2017. However, it remains a useful alternative for finding backlinks on Google.
“Site” shows you indexed pages of the competitor URL.
The “–” sign before “site” means that we are excluding pages from the competitor URL. This way, we only see pages from other sites that link to your competitor.
When using this search query, replace competitor URL with your own.
Running this query, we’ll check out Neil Patel’s link profile:
On the results below, you will see sites that link to Neil Patel’s. The search query also hides pages from Neil Patel’s site.
Also, to generate 100 URLs for every page, click on Setting > Search settings from the page.
Then you need to toggle to results per page to “100.”
Once done, go back the SERPs to extract the backlink information for easy reference.
To do this, you need to download SEOQuake.
It’s a Chrome extension and Firefox add-on that helps you break down SERPs and web pages according to different SEO metrics.
Once you’ve downloaded and installed SEOQuake, you should see this section on SERPs:
Click on “Export CSV” to download the sheet.
Once done and after you open the file, the data would look like this:
It doesn’t make any sense because the formatting of the sheet is off.
Therefore, before opening the file from SEOquake, make sure to convert it first into .xls or .xlsx so you can open the file using Microsoft Office or Google Sheets without problems.
After converting the file correctly, the data should look like this:
Each link is broken down into SEMrush’s different metrics.
When building links, you want to focus your energies on acquiring links from sites with high SEO scores.
For example, if the site where your competitor got a link from has an SEMrush Rank within 100, then you need to find a way to get a link from that site.
By working on getting links from the best sites, you can accelerate your SEO growth soon!
However, we’ve just downloaded the top 100 results. Neil Patel has over 503,000 backlinks that you can check and review.
To move on to the next 100 links, go to the next page and repeat the process.
Now, I’ve detailed this process for you to understand the difficulty of spying on your competitor backlinks using the manual way.
Because I don’t recommend you doing this at all!
As mentioned earlier, Google discontinued the “link” search operator and no longer returns fresh results.
Also, repeating the exact process for every 100 links from SERPs is a futile exercise.
There’s so much more you can do with your time than by extracting backlinks from competitor sites!
So what do you do?
SEMRush: A Better Alternative for Competitor Backlink Research
For SEO specialists, SEMRush needs no introduction.
This all-in-one SEO software has been around a long time and trusted by experts. It has proven to be one of the best backlink audit and analysis tools over the years.
Best of all, you can generate data and filter them with just a few clicks of a button!
No need to repeatedly save the results on a spreadsheet which could rob hours of your precious time!
EXCLUSIVE 14-DAY TRIAL OFFER
As readers of Master Blogging, I am giving you an opportunity to be better than your competitors by spying on their SEO!
Click here to sign up for a prolonged trial of SEMrush to boost your blog’s SEO performance!
So how does this tool work, you ask?
Typing the domain name on the Domain Overview bar yields you a wealth of information not available from free tools.
A quick search of a domain immediately shows you impressive data about organic search, display advertising, paid search, and more.
As a backlink research tool, SEMrush doesn’t disappoint one bit. It provides an exhaustive list of backlinks broken down into different metrics.
The first two columns of the results are the Page and Trust Scores. The higher they are, the more authority the site wields.
Therefore, if you want to organize the authority of your competitor backlinks, then list them down from highest to lowest.
This removes the process of finding out which site is the best place to get a backlink from.
You can also see organic competitors that have a similar link profile as yours. It lists down sites that share the same referring domains as you do.
The table also shows the Competition Level. The higher the level, the more similar you are with that site. It’s a good index to see which sites to watch out for when running your link building campaign.
Another feature that makes SEMrush unique is the Backlink Gap.
List down your competitor sites to see if you have backlinks from the best sites.
If not, use this as an opportunity to learn how they got the link from the site so you can replicate it!
Now, I’m not going to lie to you. I’ve covered other backlink checker tools in this post to help you spy on your competitor’s link building strategy.
But I’m featuring SEMRush in this post alone as my most recommended backlink analysis tool.
That’s how much I trust and believe in this tool. And so should you!
Again, click here to sign up for a 14-day trial and give this tool a spin. Cancel your subscription anytime.
Now, let’s see…
What To Do With Competitors Backlink Data?
We’ve discussed the things you could do with all the backlinks you’ve gathered using SEMRush.
But what’s more important is knowing what to do with all that data.
The goal is to use your competitor’s link profile to build yours. You may even need to “steal” most of them by getting a link from the site where they have one.
But all is fair game in link building! It’s just a matter of putting the data to good use.
Below are some ideas you can turn competitor backlinks into yours.
1. Identify Your Competitor’s Best Backlinks and Acquire Them
This could be done through any other backlink checking tool. But, to be frank, none are more effective than SEMRush.
In particular, SEMRush has a feature called Backlink Gap that works best for this purpose.
What Backlink Gap does is compare the backlink profiles of five competing websites at the same time.
All you need is to supply the URLs and SEMRush does its thing. Doing this would reveal sites that are linking to your competition but not to you.
As more backlinks are discovered, you’re able to identify the “gaps” or links/sites you could be capitalizing on.
In the example above, four of the biggest shoe brands are put head-to-head to see where each brand’s backlinks are coming from.
There is even additional information when you click on specific dates. You’re shown a brief summary of the day’s backlink activities. That’s incredibly useful for anyone interested in daily reports.
So what do you do when you have a list of missed backlink opportunities?
Simple:
You reach out to these sites (the high-quality ones, anyway) and you try to get your links added.
You analyze the backlinks and figure out why your competitors are being mentioned while you are snubbed.
In most cases, you’ll be surprised at how your link can be added by getting in touch with the author.
For example, if your competitor was linked in a post that curates a list of products related to your business, ask if the author would consider adding yours as well.
The same goes in scenarios where your competitor is giving direct quotes about your industry. You can offer to add a different perspective in exchange for a link.
How frequently you reach out is entirely up to you. What’s important is that you remain courteous and never come off as annoying.
2. Check Where Competitors Publish Guests Posts
Doing guests posts is definitely not dead. You’ll be surprised at how many of your competitor’s backlinks are byproducts of guest posting.
So why not capitalize on it?
Your competitor’s backlinks are a treasure trove of guest post opportunities. You need to get on top of that right away.
To find opportunities using SEMrush, type in the domain of your competitor and click on Backlinks.
From here, you need to filter the results using these options:
Search by anchors – [name of blogger] By Type – Text Click “Follow” instead of “All links”
Once you set up the filters correctly, you should see something similar like this:
Again, not all results will show you sites where your competitors published a guest post or two. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to run through the list to see sites where you can potentially place your own guest post.
Because here’s the thing:
If your competitor was somehow able to land a spot at a high-quality site that accepts guest posts, then so can you!
Every site is different but there’s nothing wrong with sending the site an email introducing yourself and offering your services.
If they are interested in the types of subjects your competition has to offer, then there’s a good chance you have something of value to add.
>> Check out my detailed guide to learn how to leverage guest blogging.
3. Check Where Your Competitors Leave Comments
Backlinks can come in the form of comments.
Your competitor will leave comments in online forums, blog posts, and other places online.
And, sometimes, these comments make for amazing backlinks.
By looking at your competitor’s backlinks, you’re able to see where they have been leaving comments. And if you’re smart, you’d use this opportunity to leave comments as well.
To do this on SEMrush, go to Domain Analytics > Backlinks then click on Anchor on the menu.
Next, scroll down and locate the name of the blogger or person who owns the site.
We want to see the backlinks that use the name as anchor text. It is what most blogger use when leaving comments on a site.
You should see something something like this after clicking:
Read more: masterblogging.com
Posted by kelseyreaves
Editor's note: This post first appeared in December of 2015, but because SEO (and Google) changes so quickly, we figured it was time for a refresh!
The link building world is in a constant state of evolution. New tools are continually introduced to the market, with SEOs ready to discover what works best.
In 2015, I wrote an article for Moz about how our team switched over to a new email automation tool that drastically improved our overall outreach system — we increased our email reply rates by 187 percent in just one month. Which meant that our number of attainable backlinks also drastically increased. I wanted to see what's changed since I last wrote this post. Because in 2019, you need a lot more than new tools to excel in link building.
But first...
Looking back, it was pretty ingenious: Our link building program had automated almost every step in the outreach process. We were emailing hundreds of people a week, guest posting on numerous websites, and raking in 20–30 links per week. If anyone has been in the game long enough, you’ll know that’s an insane amount of links.
With its success at my first company, I took the concept and applied it to several freelance link building projects I was working on. It proved to work for those sites, too. Later on, I built out a similar system for the second startup I worked for. And again, it proved to be just as successful. Every link building project I took on, my thinking was: How can I scale this thing to get me 10x the number of links? How can I email 5x the number of people? How can I automate this as much as possible so I can create a link building machine that’s completely hands off?
Well...at least for a period of time.
While I had the best of intentions, this thinking is what ultimately got me in trouble and lead to the inevitable: I was hit with a manual action for participating in link schemes.
I remember opening up Search Console and reading that message. At that moment, I felt like a kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar. My stomach was in knots. I had heard of people getting manual actions before but didn’t think it was something that would happen to me.
In hindsight, this was probably one of the most important moments of my SEO/growth career. It sobered me up and pushed me into thinking about outreach in a whole different light, and taught me the most important lesson to date: building links isn’t about using automation to create processes that scale. It’s about building relationships — and value — that scales.
What outreach looked like in 2015
I’m not surprised I got away with what I was doing for so long. From 2015 to 2017, it seemed like everyone and their Mom was guest posting. During that time, this is what I noticed:
1. It was a numbers game
Most of the SEOs I talked to from 2015 to 2017 were using a similar strategy. It was all about finding tools that could help scale your guest posting program and contact as many people as possible. Most companies had some arbitrary link quota for their outreach teams to hit every month, mine included.
2. It promoted somewhat decent content that was templatized
In our outreach program, we were pitching the same three to four topics over and over again and while the content we wrote was always original, there was nothing novel about the articles we were putting out there. They were cute, engaging — but none of it was on the cutting edge or had a solid opinion. It’s what our friend John Collins from Intercom calls Happy Meal content:
“It looks good from a distance, but you’re left feeling hungry not long after you consume it.” 3. It idolized automation and processes
At the time, most outreach programs were about leveraging tools to automate processes and scale every step of the way. We were using several tools to scrape websites and hired virtual assistants off of Upwork to find email addresses of just about anyone associated with a company, whether they were actually the ideal person to contact or not.
This process had worked in 2015. But in 2019, there’s no way it could.
What outreach looks like in 2019
Since joining the team at OG Marketing this last fall, I’ve vastly altered the way I approach outreach and link building. Our strategy now focuses on three main concepts.
1. Helping editors cite good sources
The link building relationships I’ve built this year are almost entirely centered around editors and content managers of notable sites who only want to link to high-quality, relevant content.
And luckily for us, we work with some of the best content creators in the B2B SaaS-verse. We don’t have to go out and beg for links to mediocre (at best) content: We’re building authority to pages that truly deserve it. More importantly, we’re actually fulfilling a need by providing great sources of information for other quality content.
2. Understanding backlinks are only one piece to the puzzle
Link building is only one lever and shouldn’t be your whole SEO strategy. Depending on the site you’re working on, building links may be a good use of your time — or not at all.
In our strategy, we account for the fact that sometimes links aren’t always necessary. They will definitely help, but it’s possible to excel without them.
For example, Hotjar recently published an article on 5 ways to use scroll maps. Looking at the backlink profile for the top three results for “scroll map,” CrazyEgg has more referring domains than Hotjar, but is currently in position three. Omniconvert has zero backlinks and still ranks above CrazyEgg in position three. With only three referring domains, Hotjar has earned the 1st position and a coveted featured snippet.
2015 me would’ve had a knee jerk reaction to kick off an outreach campaign as soon as we hit publish on the new article. But considering the fact that you may not even need a ton of links to rank well, you can actually spend your time more efficiently elsewhere.
3. Creating quality content that earns links naturally
There’s definitely a tipping point when it comes to generating backlinks naturally. When your article appears on page one for the query you’re targeting, your chances of having that article cited by other publications with zero effort on your part just naturally goes up.
Why? Because people looking to add credible citations to their article will turn to Google to find that content.
This prompts our team to always ensure that each piece of content we create for our clients satisfies searcher intent. To do this, we start off by researching if the intent behind the keyword we want to rank for has purchase, consideration or informational intent.
For example, the keyword “best video conferencing camera” has consideration-based intent. We can determine this by looking at the SERPs. In the screenshot below, you can see Google understands users are trying to compare different types of cameras.
By seeing this, we know that our best bet for creating content that will rank well is by writing a listicle-style post comparing the best video cameras on the market. If we had instead created an informational article targeting the same keyword about why you should invest in a video conferencing camera without a list of product comparisons, the article probably wouldn’t perform well in search.
Therefore, if we start off on the right foot by creating the right type of content from the very beginning, we make it easier for ourselves down the road. In other words, we won’t have to build a million links just to get a piece of content to rank that wasn’t the right format, to begin with.
What we’ve found with our outreach strategy
Centering our strategy around creating the right content and then determining whether or not that content needs links, has helped us prioritize what articles actually need to be a part of an outreach campaign.
Once this is determined, we then call on our friends — or our content partners — to help us drive link equity quickly, efficiently, and in a way, that enhances the source content and makes sense for end users (readers).
A few months into building out our homie program, there are several things we noticed.
1. Response rates increased
Probably because it’s not as templatized and, generally, I care more deeply about the email I’m sending and the person I’m reaching out to. On average, I get about a 65–70 percent response rate.
2. Opt-in rates increased
Once I get a response, build the relationship, then ask if they want to become a content partner (“friend”), we typically see a 75 percent opt-in rate.
3. You get the same amount of links, using half the amount of work, in half the amount of time
I’m gonna repeat that: we generate the same, if not more, backlinks month over month with less effort, time and manpower than with the process I built out in 2015.
And the more partners we add, the more links we acquire, with less effort. Visually, it looks like this:
I (somewhat) paid attention during economics class in college, and I remember a chart with this trajectory being a really good thing. So, I think we’re on to something...
How our outreach process works (and how you can create your own)
Our current link building program still leverages some of the tools mentioned in my post from 2015, but we’ve simplified the process. Essentially, it works like this:
1. Identify your friends
Do you have friends or acquaintances that work at sites which touch on topics in your space? Start there!
I got connected to the CEO of Proof, who connected me with their Content Director, Ben. We saw that there was synergy between our content and each needed sources about what the other wrote about. He was able to connect me with other writers and content managers in the space, and now we’re all best of friends.
2. Find new friends
Typically we look for similar sites in the B2B SaaS space that we want to partner with and are relevant to our client sites. Then, we use several tools like Clearbit, Hunter.io, and Viola Norbert to identify the person we want to reach out to (usually SEO Managers, Marketing Directors or Content Managers) and find their email.
This step has been crucial in our process. In the past, we left this to the virtual assistants. But since bringing this in house, we’ve been able to better identify the right person to reach out to, which has increased response rates.
3. Reach out in an authentic way
In our outreach message, we cut to the chase. If you’ve identified the right person in the previous step, then they should know exactly what you’re trying to do and why it’s important. If the person you outreached to doesn’t get the big picture and you have to explain yourself, then you’re talking to the wrong person. Plain and simple.
Compared to 2015, our lists are much smaller (we’re definitely not using the spray and pray method) and we determine on a case by case basis what the best method for outreach is. Whether that be email, Linkedin, or at times, Instagram.
Here’s an example of a simple, straightforward message I send out:
4. Share content priorities
Once someone expresses interest, I’ll find a place on their website using a site search where they can reference one of our client’s content priorities for the month. In return, I’ll ask them what content they’re trying to get more eyes on and see if it aligns with our other client sites or the other partners we work with.
If I think their content is the perfect source for another article, I’ll cite it. If not, I’ll share it with another partner to see if it could be a good resource for them.
5. See if they want to be a "friend"
Once we have that first link nailed down, I’ll explain how we can work together by using each other’s awesome content to enhance new blog articles or article contributions on other sites.
If they’re down to be content friends, I’ll share their priorities for the month with our other partners who will then share it with their wider network of websites and influencers who are contributing articles to reputable sites and are in need of content resources to cite. From there, the writers can quickly scan a list of URLs and cite articles when it makes sense to help beef up new content or improve existing content with further resources. It’s a win-win.
If the site is interested in being friends, I’ll send over a spreadsheet where we can track placements and our priorities for the month.
Here’s the link to a partner template you can download.
Unlike the guest posting programs I was doing over the last few years, with this process, we’re not leaving a digital footprint for Google to follow.
In other words, we don’t have our author bios mentioning our website plastered all over the internet, essential saying “Hey, Google! We guest posted here and inserted these links with rich anchor text to try and help our page rank. Oh, and we did the same thing here, and here, and here.”
With this process, we’re just offering a list of resources to well-known writers and other websites creating badass content. Ultimately, it’s their choice if they want to link to it or not. I’ll definitely make suggestions but in the end, it’s their call.
6. Grow the friend list
Now, if I’m looking to drive link equity to a certain page, I don’t have to build a new list, queue up a campaign, and kick off a whole automation sequence to an ungodly amount of people like I did in the past.
I just hit up one of our partners on our friend's list and voila! — quality citation in 0.45 seconds.
And on a personal note, waking up to emails in my inbox of new citations added with zero effort on my part feels like the Link Gods have blessed me time and time again.
Results
With our friend network, the numbers speak for themselves. This last month, we were able to generate 74 links. In 2015, I was hitting similar monthly numbers, but link building was my full-time job.
Now, link building is something I do on the side (I’d estimate a few hours every week), giving me time to manage my client accounts and focus on everything else I need to do — like drive forward technical SEO improvements, conduct keyword research, optimize older pages, and use SEO as an overall means to drive a company’s entire marketing strategy forward.
Building out a friend network has also opened up the door to many other opportunities for our clients that I had never dreamed of when I viewed my link building relationships as one and done. With the help of our friends, we’ve had our clients featured on podcasts (shout out to Proof’s Scale or Die podcast!), round-ups, case studies, video content, and many, many more.
Final thoughts
As an instant-gratification junkie, it pains me to share the honest truth about building a friend network: it’s going to take time.
But think of the tradeoffs — everything I mentioned above and that in a way, you’re acting as a sort of matchmaker between high-quality content and sites who are open to referencing it.
I also believe that this type of outreach campaign makes us better marketers. Spamming people gets old. And if we can work together to find a way to promote each other's high-quality content, then I’m all for it. Because in the end, it’s about making a better user experience for readers and promoting content that deserves to be promoted.
How has your link building program evolved over the years? Have you been able to create a network of friends for your space? Leave a comment below!
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Read more: moz.com
Last updated on June 6, 2019 at 05:23 pm
Link building continues to be one of the most important SEO strategies. There is still a great correlation between the number of links and high organic rankings. This is why any SEO strategy could not be complete without link building.
Search engines, especially Google, have made link building a lot more difficult. This makes link building campaigns a lot more complicated. It requires careful planning and takes a lot of time and patience to execute.
It could quite be frustrating to launch a link building campaign for months and see no increase in your website’s traffic or rankings and one of these might be the reason why your link building efforts are not working.
Your Links are from Irrelevant Websites
Just like for content, relevance is important for any link building campaign. If your website’s niche is business and finance, it wouldn’t make sense for search engines if you get links from a medical website.
Link relevance is just as important as authority. Both of these are strong link-related ranking factors.
If you find irrelevant links on your Search Console Link Report, don’t disavow it just yet! If Google thinks a link is irrelevant, they are smart enough to devalue it. So unless you receive a manual action, don’t disavow immediately.
If you have guest blogging on the list of your strategies, plan it out and don’t just send emails to random webmasters. Create a list of websites in your niche that are not direct competitors where you could contribute articles that will provide value.
You’re Not Getting Referral Traffic
If you’re building links for the sake of just getting a backlink, then you’re stuck in the old ways and you need to catch up. Link building today goes hand in hand with content marketing. You create great content to get people to go to your website and read your content.
Before you build a link on a website, you need to ask yourself: “Would people click on my link?”. The more likely a person clicks on your link, the more a link is valued regardless if it’s NoFollow or DoFollow.
If you’re doing a link building campaign, check your Google Analytics account and go to your Acquisition report. Monitor and identify the websites you are getting clicks from to better plan your strategy.
Imbalance Between Links Built and Links Earned
Do you want to know the best way to build links? Earn them. The reality is, Google hates link building because it’s too manipulative that is why they have taken steps to make it more difficult. If all of your links are built and none of them are organic, then you have a bad link profile.
While a lot of common link building strategies still work, to Google, nothing beats more than acquiring links because of great content. That is why the most successful link building campaigns involve great blogs.
There is no doubt that to Google, content is king. Building links to your website is good but you need to have a balance in between. Create good content that people would love to read and link to and links will come without forcing it.
Not Enough Referring Domains
A backlink profile with thousands of referring pages might look great but what matters to Google more is the number of referring domains. Even if you get 10 links because you contributed 10 guest articles in a website, it will only count as one referring domain.
This was once abused before that is why link directories and link farms became a business in the 2000s. You place a link in a website and that website scatters your link in different pages inside giving you hundreds of referring pages from just website.
You could use Google Search Console’s link report to check if you have a good ratio between incoming links and linking website/referring domains.
If you’re building links, make sure you don’t get links from the same websites just because it’s easier. Focus on building relationships, connect with different webmasters, and refrain from buying links from link farms or PBNs because they just don’t work anymore!
Slow Link Velocity
Acquiring a link in a day is one thing, acquiring more links over time is another. Link velocity is about how slow or fast your website is acquiring backlinks. If you’re losing more links than your gaining, it might be a sign that people are losing trust on your website. At the same time, if you’re gaining links too fast, it might be a sign to Google that you’re doing something fishy.
You could use Ahrefs to check how the growth of your links looks like. Here’s what a great link velocity look like:
Make sure that you build links as natural as possible. You don’t have to build a thousand links in a month just to relax the next month. Never sacrifice quality for quantity. It is better for you to build 5 to 10 high-quality links in a month than produce a thousand random links.
Lost Backlinks
Losing backlinks can be caused by different things. It might be the website closed for good, the page was deleted, or maybe the webmaster decided to remove your links from a post. If you want to check for lost backlinks, you could use Ahrefs.
You could either check for Lost Backlinks or Lost Referring Pages. I usually prefer checking the Lost Backlinks report because it specifically says what page I was linked before.
A loss is a loss but you could still try to get them back. If you lost a backlink from a blog post that linked to you as a source, you could reach out to the webmaster and ask why your link was removed. It might be because your page was outdated or it returns a 404 Error. This could be an opportunity for you to update your content or fix errors and ask webmasters to link back to you again.
Competitors Have Better Links
If you’ve been building links for months and still haven’t overthrown your competitor who is at the top spot, then most likely they have better, more high-quality links.
Take note of “high-quality links”. Even if you check Ahrefs or other backlinks checker tools out there and see that you have more links than your competitor; quality will always have more value than quantity.
Do research on what your competition is doing. Competitive link building is one of the best ways to build links. Find out who is linking to your competitor and try to get them to link to you.
Other SEO Factors are Not Optimized
Link building is great but it is not everything. Google uses more than 200 ranking factors and links are just one of them. No website gets to be successful by relying on links alone so don’t give yourself too much headache.
There is always room for optimization. Aside from acquiring links on a regular basis, you should also focus on regularly producing high-quality content, making your website mobile-friendly, improving site speed, and many more.
Always remember that SEO should be holistic. Try to find a balance in everything. While you can’t do all ranking factors perfectly, try to find what works for you.
Key Takeaway
Link building has evolved and it continues to evolve. In my opinion, links will continue to be relevant. It might not be as powerful as before but to rank high organically will always involve high-quality links.
A great link building campaign is the one that follows Google’s guidelines and it goes hand in hand with other SEO strategies. If you see that your link building campaign does not work, learn how to step back, investigate, and restrategize.
Read more: seo-hacker.com
Posted by willcritchlow
There’s a lot of material out there, on this site and others, about the importance of link-building. Normally, its effectiveness is either taken for granted or viewed as implied by ranking factor studies — the latter of which doesn't necessarily show that correlated factors actually drive performance. The real picture is one in which links clearly remain important, but where their role is nuanced.
For a while now, I’ve wanted to dig a little deeper into an individual link-building campaign that takes place over a relatively short period of time. I wanted to see what results (besides just link-based metrics) could be attributed to it.
In this post, I will try to pin down the effects that came from the campaign and show that yes, getting a bunch of links from the success of some highly visible “big content’ can drive improved rankings
The reason you don’t see more posts like this one is noisy data — so much goes on with a website’s performance that it can be difficult to draw a hard and fast connection between a campaign and its results for a business’s bottom line. This is especially true for link-building, for three reasons:
Websites are naturally accruing links anyway — both the target of the campaign and their competitors To some extent, we anticipate a domain-wide effect, which will as such be proportionately small and hard to pin down vs. noise from the algorithm and competitor activity Links do not have such a step-change impact as technical fixes or creation of new landing pages
However, at Distilled we recently had an opportunity with a particularly strong piece on a niche site to analyze a situation where the impact of our work ought to be more clearly visible among the broader noise. Take a look at these graphs, which show the linking-root domain acquisition of a client of ours over the last two years, as measured by Majestic and Ahrefs respectively:
See what I mean about noise? And I’m saying this is an unusually clear cut case. We actually built nine creative pieces, with link acquisition as one of the goals, for this client, over a two-year period. We’ve talked before about the campaign as a whole, here. There’s one that stands out in both graphs, though which is the one that launched in March 2018.
This gives us a rare, valuable opportunity to see which other metrics, which might have more direct business value, had noticeable changes around that time.
What might we expect to happen?
The theory is simple: Links remain part of Google’s algorithm, and so more links to a site mean better rankings. However, the reality is more complex — in our experience, creative pieces as link-building assets tend to result in two types of links:
Links to the creative piece, which in turn links, typically, to the site’s homepage Links directly to the homepage of the client site — e.g. “Research by client (client.com) indicates that…”
The interesting thing here is that for many sites, the homepage is not a core landing page. I’ve written before about how it’s almost impossible to have a good mental model for internal link equity flow, which makes the actual impact of the piece on core pages almost certainly not zero, but otherwise hard to predict. On the same subject, I’d also recommend this video by Dixon Jones at Majestic.
In a similar vein, we also know that the complexities of PageRank are themselves only a part of the unknowable complexities of Google’s ranking algorithm, meaning we can’t guarantee that adding links always moves the needle. I recently recorded this Whiteboard Friday where I mention some recent research by my colleague Tom Capper, which shows how unpredictable these effects can be.
The particular client example I’ve been referring to in this post had two things going for it which, again, brought unusual clarity to these effects:
The homepage was, in fact, a core ranking URL It was struggling to make its way onto page 1 for many reasonable target terms
Both of these ought to make it an ideal candidate for clearcut benefits from high-quality link building. (This isn’t to say link-building cannot work if these criteria are not met — just that the results will be harder to analyze!)
1st order results
Precisely because of the difficulty in analysis mentioned above, we find clients normally prefer to assess the performance of link-building campaigns in terms of 1st order benefits — by which I mean the performance of the actual creative piece, rather than their commercial landing pages.
The particular piece that stands out in those link acquisition graphs above earned the following 1st order benefits (and I’ve included graphs from our internal tracking platform so you can get a feel for the pace of acquisition):
228 LRDs peak (204 “fresh” index shown below), of which ~145 within a month of launch:
2,140 Facebook shares at the peak, of which ~1,750 within a month of launch:
82,584 landings in Google Analytics, of which ~67,000 within a month of launch:
I mentioned above that not all links tend to be directed at the piece itself, with journalists instead often referencing the homepage. 145 (domain-unique) links were directed at this piece by mid-April, but you’ll notice that March beat an average month by ~200 LRDs, and April also outperformed by ~100. By my back-of-the-envelope maths, you might want to claim as many as 300 LRDs driven to the whole domain by this piece, but your opinion may differ!
Showing the ways it worked
Right, I did say I’d link this at least to rankings, didn’t I?
Remember: This was part of a campaign of 9 pieces, and it launched mid-March, with most 1st order metrics, or leading indicators, coming through within a month (and no major technical changes around this time). There is some signal in among the noise here. Check out this graph, showing the number of keywords ranked for, according to Ahrefs:
Notice that change in gradient after the launch? (And, for the cynics among you, the piece itself only ranks for 20 keywords itself according to this same data source — that wasn’t a primary goal with this content).
Here are the rankings for the client’s (fairly ambitious!) target keywords:
I’d particularly draw your attention to the movement from the “11–20” to “4–10” group, which is consistent with the research by my colleague Tom Capper that I mentioned above. (Sidenote: it was nice to see the client’s Domain Authority increase relative to their competitive set in the recent update. The improvements to DA, aimed at making it better at predicting ranking ability, appear to have worked in this sample-size-one case!).
You can see this pattern more clearly in this graph, which we presented to the client when the campaign concluded late last year:
This effect is surprisingly clear-cut, but it might well be that to continue moving up the SERP, from positions 4–10 to positions 1–3, a very different type of work is needed — perhaps one emphasizing brand, or intent matching.
How can I do this for my site/client?
Here are some useful resources to help when starting on your creative campaigns:
Mark - How to make sticky content
Hannah - What is content strategy
Leonie - How to make award winning creative content - Part 1
Leonie - How to make award winning creative content - Part 2
Conclusion: Big content for links can work
As I mentioned above, it’s surprisingly unusual to see such a clear and obvious case of link-building work moving rankings in a lasting way. This has certain similarities with other such cases we’ve seen in recent years, though:
The site started fairly small (if nothing else, this makes the signal bigger relative to the noise) It had target terms that were on the cusp of first-page rankings Some search competitors had far stronger domains
The reports that “links are dead” have, apparently, been greatly exaggerated — instead, it’s just that the picture has gotten more complex.
Obviously Distilled clients are only a finite sample, however, so I’d love to hear your experiences of successful link-building, and, crucially, the kind of situations in which they moved rankings, in the comments below!
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Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
At Moz, we know the value of premium SEO tools — we've built new tools for 10+ years. Paid tools are hugely valuable in SEO when you need advanced features, increased limits, stored data, or online support.
But for 70 percent of other tasks, a free tool often does the trick. There are literally hundreds of free SEO tools out there, so we want to focus on only the best and most useful to add to your toolbox. Tons of people in the SEO community helped vet the SEO software in this post (see the note at the end). To be included, a tool had to meet three requirements. It must be:
Widely used by the SEO community Broadly useful with a reputation for delivering above-board value Actually, truly free
The tools are categorized by SEO function. Click on a button below to jump to that specific section.
Categories:
Analytics Crawling/Indexing Keyword Research Link Tools Local SEO Mobile SEO Multi-tool On-page SEO Research Site Speed WordPress
The best tools to analyze search performance, monitor SERPs, keywords, and competitor analysis:
1. Bing Webmaster Tools 
While Google Webmaster Tools gets all the glory, folks forget that Bing Webmaster offers a full sweet of website and search analytics. Especially useful are keyword reports, keyword research, and crawling data.
Get it: Bing WebmasterAlso useful: Yandex.Webmaster
2. Data Studio 
If you need to merge data from different sources (say Search Console and Google Analytics), visualize, and share it - this is Google Data Studio's comfort zone. For an idea of all the SEO tasks and dashboards that you can build for free, check out these Google Data Studio Resources from Lee Hurst.
Get it: Data Studio
3. Enhanced Google Analytics Annotations 
How do you know if your dip in traffic (or rise) is associated with a Google Algorithm update, or perhaps a major holiday? This is a highly-recommended Google Chrome plugin that overlays additional data on top of your analytics, so you can easily send screenshots to clients showing exactly how outside forces impacted traffic.
Get it: Enhanced Google Analytics Annotations Alternatives: Panguin Tool, Zeo Tools
4. Google Analytics 
The big kahuna, and the most widely-used web analytics package on earth. For being free, Google Analytics is surprisingly robust and plays well with other Google products, including Optimize, Search Console, and Data Studio. Some folks have privacy concerns with GA — though Google swears they don't use this data for search rankings.
Get it: Google AnalyticsAlternatives: Clicky, Open Web Analytics
5. Search Console 
Probably the most useful free SEO tool on this entire list, it's hard to imagine doing modern SEO without access to the data inside Google's Search Console. This is the most reliable location for information on how Google crawls and ranks your site, and is one of the only places where you can get reliable keyword data.
Get it: Search Console
6. Keyword Hero 
Did somebody say (not provided)? Keyword Hero works to solve the problem of missing keyword data with lots of advanced math and machine learning. It's not a perfect system, but for those struggling to match keywords with conversion and other on-site metrics, the data can be a valuable step in the right direction. Pricing is free up to 2000 sessions/month.
Get it: Keyword Hero
7. MozCast 
The brainchild of Dr. Pete and the original Google SERP tracker, MozCast is the go-to algorithm tracker whenever there's a big update, or not. Also useful are the SERP tracking features showing the prominence of such features as ads and knowledge panels.
Get it: MozCast Also useful: Algoroo, Rank Risk Index, Ayima Pulse
Specific tools to make sure your site is crawlable and optimized.
8. Beam Us Up 
If you need a free, desktop crawler, you can't do better than Beam Us Up. While it doesn't have as many features as Screaming Frog, it does offer 100 percent free crawling with no limits. Windows only.
Get it: Beam Us Up
9. Link Redirect Trace 
A free Chrome extension, lots of SEOs recommend Link Redirect Trace as the "all-in-one redirect path analyzer." The extension reveals information about HTTP headers, rel-canonicals, robots.txt, and basic link metrics from LinkResearchTools. The "Save Screenshot" feature is super useful too.
Get it: Link Redirect Trace
10. Redirect Path 
Similar to Link Redirect Trace, Redirect Path is a nifty tool from the good folks at Ayima that shows redirect paths and header information for every URL you visit. Gotta admit, I've used this extension for years and it's almost "always on" in my browser.
Get it: Redirect Path
11. Screaming Frog 
Aside from having one of the best Twitter accounts of any SEO tool maker, Screaming Frog is the most popular desktop-based crawler available today. Many people don't realize that there's a free version that allows for up to 500 URLs per crawl. While not as fully functional as the paid version, it's great for small projects and smaller site audits.
Get it: Screaming Frog
12. Screaming Frog Log File Analyzer 
Most folks in the SEO space are familiar with Screaming Frog, but many don't realize that the Frog also offers a standalone free/paid Log File Analyzer tool. The free version is very robust, though limited to 1000 lines.
Get it: Screaming Frog Log File Analyser
13. SEOlyzer 
SEOlyzer is a log analysis tool recommended by Aleyda Solis in her very excellent SEO podcast Crawling Mondays. SEOlyzer is a terrific log analysis tool with some cool features like real-time analysis and page categorization.
Get it: SEOlyzer
14. Xenu 
Gotta be honest, although Xenu has been on every "free SEO tool" list since the dawn of, no way did I think it would make this one. This Windows-based desktop crawler has been virtually unchanged over the past 10 years. That said, a lot of folks still love and use it for basic site auditing, looking for broken links, etc. Heck, I'm leaving here for sentimental reasons. Check it out.
Get it: Xenu
Keyword Research 15. Answer The Public 
It's hard not to love Answer The Public. The interface has an almost "Cards Against Humanity" rebel vibe to it. Regardless, if you want to generate a massive list of questions from any keyword set, this is your go-to tool.
Get it: Answer The Public
16. Keyword Explorer 
OMG. 500 million keyword suggestions, all the most accurate volume ranges in the industry. You also get Moz's famous Keyword Difficulty Score along with CTR data. Moz's free community account gives you access to 10 queries a month, with each query literally giving you up to 1000 keyword suggestions along with SERP analysis.
Get it: Keyword Explorer
17. Keyword Planner 
Google's own Keyword Planner was built for folks who buy Google ads, but it still delivers a ton of information useful for SEO keyword planning. It uses Google's own data and has useful functions like country filtering. Be careful with metrics like competition (this is meant for paid placements) and volume — which is known to be confusing.
Get it: Keyword Planner
18. Keyword Shitter 
Yes, it's called Keyword Shitter. It pains me to write this. That said, it says what it does and does what it says. Type in a keyword and it, um, poops out a poop-ton of keywords.
Get it: Keyword Shitter
19. Keywords Everywhere 
An SEO favorite! Install this browser extension for Firefox or Chrome, and see keyword suggestions with volume as you cruise the internet. Works in Google Search Console as well. This one is a must-have for keyword inspiration.
Get it: Keywords Everywhere
20. Ubersuggest 
Sometimes I make fun of Neil Patel because he does SEO in his pajamas. I'm probably jealous because I don't even own pajamas. Regardless, Neil took over Ubersuggest not long ago and gave it a major overall. If you haven't tried it in a while, it now goes way beyond keyword suggestions and offers a lot of extended SEO capabilities such as basic link metrics and top competitor pages.
Get it: Ubersuggest
Tools to find, evaluate, and process backlink opportunities.
21. Disavow Tool 
Google makes the Disavow Tool hard to find because most site owners usually don't need to use it. But when you do, it can be useful for getting penalties removed and some SEOs swear by it for fighting off negative SEO. If you choose to use this tool, be careful and check with this guide on disavowing the right links.
Get it: Disavow Tool
22. Link Explorer 
Link Explorer is arguably the biggest, most accurate link index in the SEO world today, boasting 35 trillion links. The free account access gives you 10 queries and 50 rows of data per query every month, plus adds basic link metrics to the MozBar as you browse the web.
Get it: Link Explorer
23. Link Miner 
Link Miner is a free Chrome extension developed by Jon Cooper, one of the masters of link building. Use it to quickly find broken links on each page, as well as see basic link metrics as you search Google. Simple, easy, and useful.
Get it: Link Miner
Free tools to optimize your on Google Maps and beyond.
24. Google My Business 
Basically, this is the #1, must-have tool for Local SEO — especially if you live in a market served by Google. It allows you to claim your business, manage listing information, and respond to reviews — among other things. Claiming your business profile forms the foundation of most other local SEO activities, so it's an essential step.
Get it: Google My Business
25. Google Review Link Generator 
The Google Review Link Generator by Whitespark solves a simple problem - how do you give your customers a URL to leave a Google review for your business? Reviews drive rankings, but Google doesn't easily provide this. This generator makes it easy.
Get it: Google Review Link Generator
26. Local Search Results Checker 
One of the hardest parts of Local SEO is figuring out rankings from any location — especially when Google stubbornly wants to serve results from the location you're in. BrightLocal solves this with a quick local ranking tool that can virtually drop you into any location on earth to check actual local rankings.
Get it: Local Search Results Checker
27. Moz Local Check Business Listing 
How consistent is your business information across the local search ecosystem? Moz Local lets you quickly check how your business shows up across the web in the major data aggregators that Google and others use to rank local search results. Very handy to understand your strengths and weaknesses.
Get it: Moz Local Check Business Listing
Tools to optimize your website in Google's mobile-first world.
28. Mobile First Index Checker 
Mobile versions of websites often differ significantly from their desktop versions. Because Google has switched to mobile-first indexing, it's important that major elements (links, structured data, etc.) match on both versions. A number of tools will check this for you, but Zeo's is probably the most complete.
Get it: Mobile First Index Checker
29. Mobile SERP Test 
It's amazing how mobile search results can vary by both location AND device. MobileMoxie's mobile SERP test lets you compare devices side-by-side for any location, down to specific addresses.
Get it: Mobile SERP Test
30. Mobile-Friendly Test 
The gold standard for determining if your page meets Google's mobile-friendly requirements. If your page passes the test, then Google counts it as mobile friendly, which is a bonafide (albeit small) ranking factor. If your page isn't mobile-friendly, it will give you specific areas to address.
Get it: Mobile-Friendly Test
Free SEO tools that have so many functions, they have their own special category.
31. Chrome DevTools 
The sheer number of SEO tasks you can perform—for free—with Chrome DevTools is simply staggering. From JavaScript auditing to speed to On-Page SEO, some of the best features are hidden away but totally awesome. Need some specific ways to use it for SEO? Check out these resources here, here, and here.
Get it: Chrome DevTools
32. Marketing Miner 
Marketing Miner has a low profile in the United States, but it's one of the best-kept secrets of Eastern Europe. If you need to pull a lot of SERP data, rankings, tool reports, or competitive analysis, Marketing Miner does the heavy lifting for you and loads it all into convenient reports. Check out this list of miners for possible ideas. It's a paid tool, but the free version allows to perform a number of tasks.
Get it: Marketing Miner
33. MozBar 
One of the original SEO toolbars, the MozBar has seen significant upgrades over the years. Log in with a free Moz account and get link metrics as you browse the web, perform on-page analysis, and SERP analysis. The free version is super-useful by itself, while Pro users get additional functionality like advanced keyword suggestions.
Get it: MozBar
34. SEMrush 
Like Moz, SEMrush offers a full suite of all-in-one SEO tools, and they have a free account option that works well if you only work with a single website, or only need a quick peek at top level data. The free account level gives you access to one "project" which includes basic site auditing, as well as limited keyword and domain reporting.
Get it: SEMrush
35. SEO Minion 
SEO Minion is a very popular Chrome extension that goes beyond most SEO toolbars. Some of the quick functions it performs include analyzing on-page SEO, check broken links, Hreflang checks, a SERP preview tool, and a nifty Google search location simulator. Definitely worth trying out.
Get it: SEO Minion
36. SEOquake 
Out of all the SEO toolbars available on the market, SEOquake is probably the most powerful, and comes with a plethora of configuration options — so you can configure it to adjust to your SEO needs. Aside from offering a boatload of data for every URL you visit, you can also perform basic on-page audits, compare domains, and export your data.
Get it: SEOquake
37. Sheets for Marketers 
Sheets for Marketers isn't a tool per se, but a website that contains over 100+ free templates to perform a huge number of tasks using Google Sheets. Find powerful free sheets for everything including competitive analysis, site audits, scraping, keyword research, and more. This is a website for your bookmarks.
Get it: Sheets for Marketers
Tools to help you maximize your..
Read more: moz.com
In some ways, search engine optimization (SEO) is a test of agility. Google, the best-known and most popular search engine in the world, is constantly tinkering with its search algorithm, forcing businesses to adapt. Your competitors are constantly experimenting to discover new strategies as well, giving them a chance to overtake you in key areas.
That’s why it’s on you to regularly audit your link building strategy, and figure out if you’re really getting the best backlinks for your brand.
In this article, we’ll cover some of the ways that link building has evolved, and some of the best strategies to get quality backlinks in 2019.
The Best Backlinks in 2019: Big-Picture Link Building
Let’s start with a big-picture perspective on link building, including why it’s important and how it’s developed in recent years.
Backlinks are just hyperlinks on the internet that point to your domain (and the various pages within that domain). They’re important because they’re considered as a marker of trustworthiness in PageRank, the algorithm at the heart of Google Search. Basically, Google wants to rank its most trustworthy results above its less-trustworthy results, assuming relevance is equal. It uses the number and quality of inbound links to determine how trustworthy a site is; in other words, if you get quality backlinks from many different high-authority publishers, your own domain authority will increase. The higher your domain and page-level authority, the higher you’re going to rank in searches.
In an ideal world, links would naturally be distributed according to which content is best—but this rarely happens unprovoked. Link building is a strategy meant to help companies generate inbound links intentionally, earning domain authority as well as direct traffic.
Google hasn’t tinkered with the link-relevant side of its algorithm much in previous years. The last major addition to Penguin (Google’s link-centric algorithm) occurred in October of 2016. Throughout 2018 and 2019 (so far), there have been a few important updates, including carousel changes, mobile layout changes, unconfirmed rollouts resulting in ranking fluctuations, and a core update in March of 2019. None of these updates have had a substantial impact on how links are evaluated in Google Search, but it’s still important to review and audit your link building practices in 2019 to ensure they’re up-to-date—and getting you the best backlinks possible.
How to Get Quality Backlinks
It’s not effective to build links indiscriminately. In fact, Google actively cautions webmasters against these activities. Built into Google’s search algorithm (via Penguin) is a system that gauges the relevance, value, and “natural” qualities of each link on the internet. If it seems unnatural, out of place, or intentionally built to boost your authority, it may not pass authority to your domain. In some cases, it may actively hurt your authority score with a Google penalty.
So how can you get quality backlinks?
We’ll go over individual strategies to get the best backlinks for your brand in the next section, but it’s best to start with a high-level overview. Google wants to see links that are contextually relevant, valuable for readers, diverse in nature, and featured on the best-quality publishers available. The best way to achieve these criteria while still controlling your campaign enough to guarantee placement is through active offsite guest posting.
You’ll start by creating linkable assets on your site (i.e., high-quality onsite articles with strong facts, statistics, and/or quotes). Then, you’ll develop offsite articles, fine-tuned for specific publishers that are ideally both relevant to your brand and authoritative overall. These articles will each feature a link back to an article or resources on your home domain. Over time, as you grow your network of publishers and work your way up the ladder of offsite authority, your authority and rankings will grow.
Get Links in 2019: Top Strategies for Expert Link Building
With that core architecture in mind, these are the best link building strategies to help you develop your campaign in 2019:
Get quality backlinks with a link building agency. Building quality backlinks on your own is challenging for many reasons. You’ll be in charge of selecting links, developing content, and establishing new relationships with a wide range of different publishers. But if you work with a link building agency, you’ll be able to tap into their already-experienced network of content writers, and their already-established network of publisher relationships. There are many types of link building agencies out there, some of which may try to offer link schemes or low-quality services, so it’s important to verify you’re working with an agency that’s reputable and committed to getting quality backlinks for your brand. That said, if you can find a valuable partner, your link building agency should be able to build better backlinks and build them more reliably, consistently, and cost-efficiently than you can on your own. Focus on topics more than keywords. Keywords are a divisive topic in the link building community because while they do serve an important purpose, they also need to be considered in context. In the old days of SEO, you could optimize both your offsite content title and the anchor text of your link to include specific keywords and phrases identical to the ones you want to rank for. These days, thanks to the semantic capabilities of the Hummingbird update and Google’s zero-tolerance policy for keyword stuffing, things are more complex. It’s certainly fine to optimize for specific keywords in your link building strategy, so long as they remain contextually relevant and “natural” in the article, but it’s usually better to focus on high-level topics. That way, you’ll naturally optimize for a wide range of phrases synonymous with your target phrase. Remember the best backlinks point to quality content. Strong backlinks should point to strong content. If the link leads to a well-written, well-researched piece of content on your website, it will be less likely to be removed by publishers and more likely to be valued by readers. Accordingly, your link building strategy should always start with onsite content. This is counterintuitive to many link building newcomers, who want to jump into the offsite content game as soon as possible. But if you want the best backlinks in 2019, you need to have these valuable anchor points. Get links from big publishers. It’s true that both the quantity and quality of links pointing to your site will play into your site’s perceived trustworthiness, but they aren’t on equal footing. A single link from a high-profile, authoritative publisher is going to be much more valuable than several links from mid-tier or low-tier publishers. You’ll need to rebalance your link building strategy in 2019 according to this rule. Obviously, you won’t be able to get to high-tier publishers right away (especially if you don’t have much existing brand credibility), but you should be able to optimize your strategy in a way that helps you climb that authoritative ladder. In other words, strive to get featured in bigger, better publishers, expanding vertically, rather than spending your effort expanding horizontally. Get links from lots of publishers. Building additional links on a single domain will yield diminishing returns. When you get that first quality backlink, you’ll receive a ton of authority for your domain (and the page you’re pointing to). When you build the second, you’ll receive a small boost, but not a very noticeable one. Subsequent links will continue to decline in authority passed. Accordingly, one of the best ways to expand your link building strategy is to try and build links on as many new publishers as possible. Maintaining relationships with your previous publishers can be valuable, especially if you’re interested in the secondary benefits of link building, but the best backlinks will always be those built on a publisher for the first time. Don’t skimp on link placement standards. When you’re building lots of backlinks, it’s easy to get lazy and start churning out half-hearted content. But every link you build deserves your full attention and your highest standards—even on lower-tier publishers. Scrutinize each new link to ensure it makes sense in the body of the article, is placed in a way that’s valuable to readers, and is surrounded by similar links to other authorities. This will help you maximize the long-term health of your links and improve your reputation with publishers of all levels. Mix up dofollow and nofollow links. In case you aren’t familiar, “dofollow” links are standard hyperlinks, followed by Google’s web crawlers and valued as passers of authority. Nofollow links are marked with a special tag that prevents web crawlers from considering them. Nofollow links are often used by publishers as a way to preserve their reputation or ensure their writers aren’t creating content meant to manipulate search engines. While dofollow links are inherently more valuable in some ways, that doesn’t mean you should neglect nofollow links. Nofollow links can still pass traffic to your site (just not authority), and can be valuable ways to increase your brand exposure and build relationships with more publishers. Choose dofollow when you have a choice, but don’t pass up a valuable nofollow opportunity. Avoid link schemes at all costs. There is no justification for using a link scheme. Intentionally placing links in a way that violates Google’s terms of service is inevitably going to result in a penalty, or at the very least, a marred reputation. Many cheap link building services masquerade as legitimate link building practices, but don’t be fooled; if content isn’t a core part of their campaign to get quality backlinks, you should immediately be suspicious. Link schemes may seem like a quick way to get a cheap boost, but they’re always going to harm you in the end. Mimic your competitors’ link building strategies. If you’re stuck on where to build links, consider looking at the backlink profiles of your competitors. Chances are, there are dozens, if not hundreds of companies much like yours also trying to get quality backlinks as efficiently as possible. If you study where they’re building links, you’ll get a powerful hint for the publishers you should go after next—or at least inspiration on how to think about the future possibilities. It’s not a good idea to copy your competitors’ strategies directly; you’ll find it hard to outpace them, and besides, you probably have subtly different goals. However, it’s worth taking a look to learn more about your competitive environment. There are many backlink profile tools you can use to perform this evaluation, including Ahrefs’s Backlink Checker and Moz’s Link Explorer. Evaluate your best backlinks (and repeat the process that got them). While you have your backlink checker of choice pulled up, take a look at the backlinks you’ve built for your own domain. You can also check out how much referral traffic they’re generating by consulting Google Analytics. If you’re building links on multiple publishers, it will soon be obvious which posts were definitely worth the effort and which ones fell short of a favorable return. This information should be dictating where you choose to build links next; are there publishers that serve the same niche as your most valuable ones? Are there editors or webmasters of valuable domains who have access to other prominent domains? Is there a particular content topic or linking strategy that seems to be generating disproportionately high interest? Optimizing Your Link Building Strategy
If you’re interested in getting the best backlinks, you’re probably feeling overwhelmed. In addition to understanding the nuances and complexities of link building and search engine optimization (SEO), to get quality backlinks, you’ll need to go through the effort of producing, editing, publishing, and distributing content.
That’s why it’s in your best interest to work with a link building agency, which can get quality backlinks for your site much more efficiently—and in many cases, for less time and money than you’d spend on your own. If you’re interested in learning more about our link building strategies, or if you’re ready to get quality backlinks for your site, contact us at SEO.co today for a free consultation!
The post Best Backlink Strategies [2019 Update] appeared first on SEO.co.
Read more: seo.co