These link building campaign tips will make your content marketing efforts work hard for you, instead of the other way around.
Among the range of off-page SEO techniques out there, link building isn’t exactly everyone’s favorite. Researching leads is tedious, scrutinizing process. Writing the emails, more so. Often, it makes you wish you can just pay for an SEO company‘s help and be rid of worrying about it, entirely.
But that’s not a solution many can opt for. Meanwhile, knowing very well the importance of link building in how to boost SEO, you can’t just really chuck it into the back-burner and forget all about it.
The key is all in streamlining your efforts; which we will actually teach you how to do, right here.
What is link building and why is it important in SEO and content marketing?
For a better understanding the full value of link building, let’s refresh on your fundamentals with our guide to SEO.
Link building is the process of acquiring inbound links from other relevant and reputable websites and integrating it on your website and web pages. These backlinks are considered as the currency of the internet as these are somewhat reputation scores for search engines, like SEO domain authority, and the main reason why link building campaigns are important to SERP ranking.
Your main goal with link building is not just to simply to increase the quantity of reliable or credible inbound links to a webpage but to earn backlinks from authoritative sites. These backlinks function like a vote of confidence to your website.
Link building is an important search ranking factor – the many quality backlinks you earn, the higher your chances of ranking high on search engine results pages (SERPs). Google’s concept of E-E-A-T is becoming more and more prevalent as search evolves and increases the importance of solving user intent through quality content.
Link building campaign tips for seamless integration
Those points above mentioned, it is hard to deny that link building is a pillar of your content marketing efforts. That’s why investing in improving your link building campaigns now will be crucial in building up your site credibility now, and in the future.
Below are some link building campaign tips that every content marketer and outreach professional should know about. A quick word of advice, though: master one link building technique before you move on to another. This will help you discover what method works best for your content and your website.
- During Content Ideation and Research
- During Content Production
- Optimize your outreach workflow
During Content Ideation and Research
1. Plan your content calendar ahead of time
Developing a content calendar will allow you to plan which content to publish and when to promote them. This can also give you time to make some adjustments on your content such as tweaking high-performing articles to suit a special event or holiday.
There will be some time that you will be running out of SEO friendly content that you want to post on your website. Remedy this by repurposing your content. Because when you repurpose your content it will be revived. Repurpose a piece of content in different formats (ex. summarize an article into an infographic) and share it on different platforms.
2. Look into your competitors’ backlinks during keyword research
A competitor backlink analysis allows you to review websites preferably within your industry. This will help you assess your position compared to your competitor. A look into who the backlinkers of your direct competitors are, will give you a baseline on who to reach out to for your own efforts and take what works for them and use it in your own digital marketing strategy.
Looking into the backlinkers of your SERP competitor is a simple and effective strategy for link building. When you aim to increase your traffic, then you can simply look at the traffic-driving websites of your competitors. As you intend to grow your outreach and link building strategies, you may even be able to outnumber your rivals in terms of backlinks and referring domains.
But watchout! Yes, having a lot of backlinks help. However, if your backlinks are coming from non-credible or spammy websites, they can do more harm than good.
For you to avoid the pitfalls of non-credible or spammy websites, you can use the right SEO link building tools that will help you check who’s backlinking them and you can target them for your outreach.
Figure 1.1. Ahrefs Backlink Audit Tool. Here is Ahrefs an example of an analysis tool that you can use to help you to check on the backlinks of your SERP competitor. This analysis tool can help you analyze your competitors by getting an in-depth look at the organic search traffic and backlink profile of any website or URL. You can also use this tool to study what your customers are searching for. Photo courtesy of Ahrefs.
3. Always share your content on social media
Figure 2.1. CNN Social Media Post. News websites effectively promote their content on social media, earning hundreds and even thousands of engagements for every news article shared. Photo courtesy of CNN on Facebook.
Finally, did you know social media impacts SEO? For you to boost your link building it is important for you to strengthen your social media presence. It is not just enough for you to just build links in your content and wait for what happens next. You must also share your content on social media to show how active you are in your niche.
This can help you boost your reputation as a credible and reliable source of information.
During Content Production
4. Identify linkable assets
You need interesting content and assets worthy of getting backlinks. Conduct an audit on your website and each web page to help you identify which assets shall be the focus of your link building campaign.
In order to do this, companies often create 10X and in-depth content that provide added value to your common readers. Take for example our resource page on building a digital marketing strategy framework we recently published at Propelrr.
Figure 3.1. The Propelrr Digital Marketing Strategy Framework. At Propelrr we ensure that our content is well researched and valuable, Not only that, we also make our content and assets interesting and valuable to our readers so that it can become linkable and shareable resource for others to refer to.
Figure 3.2. Here at Propelrr we always make use of our own templates to cover details of searcher’s intent and address it accordingly. This template for article directions, for example, can be taken as a valuable asset for content marketers who are just starting out, and don’t have any clue where to get started on developing their own article directions.
However, if you cannot find any available linkable assets, you can seek help from SEO experts that can collaborate with you to produce a link-worthy asset to promote your website.
5. Publish quotes from reputable sources
One way for you to grab the attention of publications is citing them in your content. Why? Because publishers are equipped with tools that notify them when their brand is mentioned, their writers are cited and their content is shared to the different social media platforms.
Another SEO link building technique is having a content exchange. A content exchange is where you can expand your audience range. You should promote guest posts on social media and ask people to share them for additional exposure. By mentioning external sources you are building a connection with them that encourages them to cite your blogs or pages on their own websites. This is a good way to improve your SEO ranking.
6. Produce original content attributable to your brand.
Let us say that you wrote a long-form article with hard facts and figures that you generated through your own studies. There may be information that is unique to your business that you can share, or data that you are able to collect and share insights on.
If you get reputable links to this content, you are confirming the validity of your studies and your brand credibility as a reliable source of information.
Optimize your outreach workflow
7. Take an hour or two of your day to do PR and outreach
Running link building campaigns is not a one-time deal. For the best results, make this a regular part of your daily digital marketing activities. Set aside an hour or two of your day to do PR and outreach on various channels.
One form of outreach is looking for comments because in doing so, you are bridging the gap between you and the site owner. It can be considered as a form of networking so that you are not always “cold-calling” for links or possible collaboration opportunities.
You may do a bit of article seeding or the practice of sprinkling content you create across the Internet. Visit social media groups, forums and other online communities frequented by your target audience and join the discussions. Then, creatively recommend your content – post a link to the content – which offers insights or solutions to the topic at hand.
Give special focus on the link building aspect of your SEO when you do your outreach activities. You may even use SEO email templates to simplify your outreach tasks.
8. Try different approaches in your link building
It is advisable for you to explore different approaches in your link building campaigns. Avoid presenting yourself to your target audience as a link builder. Always remember that you are reaching out to individuals who create content for the benefit of their target audience.
When planning your link building campaigns, ask yourself these questions:
- What will they benefit from link building?
- How will it benefit both you and your prospect to achieve your content and overall objectives?
Effectively solve those pain points on why link building best practices are important for SEO and surely, you will find yourself connecting with your audience, rather than sounding like you are simply reaching out for the links.
Key takeaways
Link building is an important part of digital marketing and SEO. It boosts your search rankings and promotes your brand as an authoritative voice in your niche. While it is a tedious job, the results are truly worthy of your time and resources.
- Link building will only work if you have linkable content and assets. Create quality content and repurpose the high-performing ones.
- Discover what works for your competitors and use them to your advantage. See what helps them rank well, and take what works for them and use it in your own digital marketing strategy.
- Produce original content attributable to your brand. Build your brand credibility. Share information that is unique to your business that you generated through your own studies.
Do you need help on your link building campaign or do you have additional link building techniques? Let us know! You can comment down below or engage with us via X, Facebook, or LinkedIn. Looking forward to what you have to share!