This guide covers link building strategies and tactics — how to actively acquire different types of links for your website. For a breakdown of the different categories of backlinks themselves, see our guide to Types of Backlinks in SEO.
If you ever come across a post or website with excellent content but nowhere else to go, you know how important different types of link building are for any website. They have many purposes, but the most common one everyone worries about is search engine rankings. See our Link Building Services.
However, the Internet and search engines have changed a lot over the past few years. It’s known that they change algorithms so frequently that it takes much work to stay on top of things. The latest of these changes involves link building.
Search engines are now looking for relevant and quality links. So, if you thought it was about quantity, you would be wrong. Instead, the most important thing you could do in your SEO strategy is to dedicate time to planning and include different types of link building. A quality and relevant link can ultimately mean gold for your business in organic traffic, authority, and rankings.
What is Link Building in SEO?
By its definition, link building is a hyperlink that drives visitors from other websites to your own. Why is that important? Because search engines index links on every page they visit. For example, a website has linked your post or landing page in its text. Search engines will crawl that hyperlink and discover your page. More importantly, the better authority of the website that linked your page, the more chances that search engines will decide that your content is valuable and relevant.
However, only some links on the Internet are intentional. For example, sometimes websites or journalists link pages for more information or endorse services or products. That link is organic and perhaps the treasure you can win online. That means that your efforts have paid off. The reason behind this free link can be anything, including the quality of your product, service, or content.
What are the Types of Link Building?
If you have used link building in your SEO endeavors, you might have noticed that something that brought you traffic in the previous period is not working now. That is due to all the changes search engines make that we mentioned earlier. It can also mean that you need to adjust your links. It’s an exciting fact that link authority, whether the link is a follow or no-follow, and its location on the page, can significantly impact your business.
It’s also worth mentioning that you should consider building different types of links. It creates diversity in your audience, and there are many different types of links and other ways you can acquire them for your business. Let’s look at some of them and how you can build these types of links.
Niche Links
Since search engines are looking for relevant links, thousands of options exist online. For example, you won’t sell your baby products in a general store if you think about it. Instead, you would offer them to moms with young kids. That’s how niche directories work, focusing on the right audience.
Numerous directories either allow you to write content or directly contact owners of websites that might have means to sell your products. It’s a great opportunity but requires much research. That’s why many businesses outsource link-building to agencies that provide SEO services.
Directories
General directories are the easiest to find. What are they? Simply put, they are public platforms that allow you to enter your business information and link to a website. If you ever came across Yelp searching for one business or another, it’s the fundamental way of reaching more people.
Relationship-Based Backlinks
Most people and businesses blog to leverage the power of words for their goals. But, of course, that target is more traffic. So people often write on specific topics and niches. That’s when the magic happens. Much like journalists link to relevant content, others may do the same for an impression or because what you say adds value to their content.
It’s not uncommon that some blog pages always link to the same source, and that’s pretty much relationship-building as it is link-building. You might want to contact the sites in your niche and offer information or guest posts they can use on their website. The repeated linking will only get you benefits.
Paid Links
Paid links are a controversial topic in the SEO world when search engines notice something amiss, such as if a page links to another irrelevant to their content, it might penalize the website.
It’s why many experts turn to organic outreach instead of paying for links. So what does it mean to pay for links? The most basic way is to contact websites willing to publish your post on whatever topic contains a link to your website. This model is so popular because it seems natural and doesn’t spike warning signs with search engines. Additionally, it has faster results and takes away the time for finding the right website.
Editorial or Given Links
Editorial backlinks are similar to relationship links. Mainly because a website found that your content is relevant to their topic and adds a piece to theirs. For instance, someone writes about specific statistics in software. You just happen to have an infographic describing the exact thing visually. So the person will use your infographic and link to it to add value to their writing.
If you haven’t already, what you need to take away from this is that quality content speaks for itself. So, if you have a chance, use your knowledge and expertise to write content that will get you relevant, quality links.
Header, Footer, and Sidebar Links
It’s been a while since search engines learned to recognize the link’s position. During the early 2000s, there were links everywhere. However, search engines are now well-trained to identify the location of the link and its context.
So while sidebar links are wrong for your business, the links surrounded by relevant text within the article can get you a “thumbs up” from the search engines. That includes your links on someone else’s website. In other words, the link’s location is as important as its relevance.
Free Tool Links
Since most products sell online, you can use that to your advantage. The most straightforward tactic is with online tools that you can provide to a specific audience. It doesn’t mean giving away things but letting them use the tool to a certain extent, a demo version. Once the right audience starts using it, they will see what it can do and even get a paid version.
The beauty is that you can find a specific audience amongst the blogs that review particular things. So that’s a win-win situation where you get a link, and the blogger gets a free tool.
Sponsorship Links
Thousands of institutions, clubs, companies, and associations need help somehow. Often, they have acknowledgment sections on their website mentioning their sponsors. So why not join two good things, help around your community, and get a backlink from their website?
Badge Links
These types of links are intended for specific businesses. For example, platforms such as Clutch offer badges if a company performs well among its audience during a particular period. That means firms placing the badge on their website will link to its original owner.
Business Profile Backlinks
Business profiles are a great way to get a free link. It’s almost a tradition for businesses to have a social media profile, but many forget that placing a link to a website is just as important. Having so many options, you can leverage the opportunity to make profiles on Yelp, Yellow pages, Google my Business, and social media profiles and insert a link to your website. You instantly have a dozen backlinks that drive you new traffic.
Video Links
One of the top reasons why people hang on the Internet is knowledge. People are looking for videos and webinars on specific topics. Unfortunately, many businesses that have the resources to provide good content in their niche do not use the opportunity to broaden their audience.
If you provide the users with relevant and expert knowledge on certain subjects, you can earn backlinks from their social media profiles or blogs. It doesn’t have to be top quality. It just has to be relevant enough for what they are searching for. In addition, you can use platforms such as YouTube to upload and embed a video on your website.
Guest Blogging
Guest Blogging is the most common type of link-building. It’s a widespread way of getting a link or acknowledgment from the host. The truth is that many blogs lack quality and relevant content and are willing to accept blog posts. In addition, if you are an expert in your field, you can use your knowledge and offer to write on someone else’s blog in exchange for links.
Manual Outreach Links
SEO is hard work, and outreach is a part of it. It means using any information you can to contact the website owner and try giving them value in what you offer. You need to provide them with the information they need. For instance, people were often focused on broken links and contacted the site owner to let them know. If the communication were started, they would offer a guest post or something similar in exchange for a link.
Press Release Links
In the old days on the Internet, press releases were a valuable source for newspaper articles. Unfortunately, today it’s somewhat of a lost medium to inform people about your products, services, or business. Nevertheless, it’s still a great way to promote your business on media outlets that accept press releases with links.
Comment Links
Everyone reads blogs for specific purposes, either to learn something or get information. If you have ever visited a blog post with an enabled comments section, you must have known what the people are interested in. That section can be an excellent source for placing your link.
However, this is something that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Because people often abuse these types of links, search engines often mark them as spammers. But, if you use it to add additional information or value to the content in the post, it can get you repeated links over time.
Forum Links
Similarly, forums are also a way to get another type of link. However, as in comments, people abuse forums so often that search engines no longer see them favorably. On the other hand, if you read a forum and think you can add something to it, and include a link, go for it, as it might bring you the right person. Finally, be sure you use relevant and high-authority forums for this.
Internal Links
Many people forget about the magic of using your site to get traffic and keep visitors. If someone comes to your website, internal links are a great way to offer them more information on the subject by linking to your previous posts, the home page, or the product page. If they don’t know where else to go, they will leave, and you will lose a hard-earned user.
How Do You Start Link Building?
Start with content. The content is the basis of link building that could spread over the Internet. Without delving deep into the subject, you can ask yourself a few simple questions to guide you through planning and starting link building with different types of links.
- Who is the person I am talking to in the content?
- Am I empowering that person or causing an emotional reaction?
- Can I provide an answer or solution to that person’s specific problem?
- What makes my content different from competitors?
- How can I better explain something complex or valuable?
- Did I do everything to allow people to share this content?
- Did I make it known on social media and other platforms to get it in front of more people?
Conclusion
Different types of links can help your business reach diversity in your link-building strategy. The more diverse it is, the more chances it has to get more people often visiting specific places. But it all starts with content. If you don’t answer the most pressing questions of your audience, then how will they find you in the vast Internet space? Find a way to be helpful, different, and clever about presenting yourself online.
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