How to Create High-Quality Links Rather Than Quantity
Do you want to generate high-quality backlinks? Then be prepared to put in a significant amount of time and work. Here’s how — and why — you should seek out high-quality relationships.
Changes in an algorithm, new legislative restrictions, website hacks, and a fantastic SEO manager moving for another opportunity — things don’t always go as planned.
The worst piece of terrible news?
When you provide something you believe is fantastic, but it gets misinterpreted. In link-building initiatives, this occurs much too often.
A Common Problem is a Lack of Common Sense.
You’ve probably seen the email subject lines that say things like, “We guarantee 5,000 links for $500!”
Most individuals who have a basic understanding of the Google algorithm understand that links play an essential role in ranking. However, many people are unaware that getting connections is a quality rather than a quantity game.
We charge a minimum of $2,000 per month for a link-building endeavor – and usually considerably more.
Why? Because it takes a long time to develop high-quality linkages.
Our strategy resembles a public relations effort rather than a technical one. In reality, using tools to qualify the connections we desire is the only technical aspect of our link building.
Each month, a regular customer may only view 3-4 links. It may be lower than initially as we establish contacts and investigate influencers.
That looks pretty costly, costing about $1,000 per connection at times. We have ten years of case studies to back up.
We’ve been fired several times after obtaining a client connection from important publications like The Wall Street Journal or the Washington Post. Something extraordinary occurs when we make these connections. The volume of organic traffic is rapidly increasing.
Sales and leads increase. We don’t have any unique formulas or techniques.
Link building is a time-consuming process.
Each link-building effort is unique. They’ve got to be. You can’t utilize the same strategy for a plumber as you would for a payday lending firm like GAD Capital. Both sectors have problems, but the plumber requires less work than the payday lending business. Establishing connections for payday loans is the most difficult link-building task. This isn’t to say that every link-building strategy isn’t comparable.
Link Building’s Basic Building Blocks
Every link-building effort should start with the same idea:
Locate the appropriate persons to connect to the suitable material.
A fundamental notion that demands a great deal of imagination, hard effort, and critical thinking.
Here are the steps we took. This isn’t the Bible, so they aren’t the only ways to construct high-quality connections, but they’ve worked for us in the past.
Step 1: Perform a link analysis.
The first step is to examine your connections and those of your rivals. Who is making connections with individuals in the industry?
We employ Moz, Majestic, Ahrefs, and a few more tools for this investigation.
Keep an eye out for informative sites and sites where the material about your sector is being developed. Because they aren’t always simple to come by, devote some time to the research.
Keep an eye out for trends. Go through the list, sorting links by authority. Look at each site instead of just the URL. Find the finest ones by beginning with the most authoritative sites and working your way down.
Step 2: Capitalize on Existing Connections
This should be easy pickings, but it always seems to require more work than anticipated.
Clients never seem to want to question their valued partners, suppliers, consumers, or the charity with whom they operate.
Work on compiling a list of your existing connections and crafting a conversation to request linkages. Use your marketing automation system to communicate if you have one.
Inquire with the people who deal with your partners for a link. This is effective, and the linkages are unexpectedly relevant. It’s nearly always OK to ask someone who runs a website for a link if you have a connection with them.
One thing to keep in mind: when you request a connection, you may be asked to reciprocate. This is OK in certain circumstances, but try to avoid it if feasible.
Step 3: Simplify the Target List
For people who desire a lot of connections, this may seem paradoxical. But, as I previously said, we aren’t looking for a large number of connections; instead, we are looking for excellent ones.
We’ve narrowed our goals to a maximum of 10-15 connections.
When a link opportunity is achieved or becomes no longer relevant (they said no, didn’t react to anything, are no longer relevant, etc. ), it is removed from the target list, and a new opportunity is added.
Unless you have a lot of resources, targeting more than 10-15 sites for connections at a time is typically ineffective. Establishing relationships with influencers and web admins to get links takes time. It takes us roughly two months to get a connection in most circumstances.
It’s more of an art than a science narrowing down the list. We consider a site’s authority, but we’re more interested in if it’s a good match.
- Would they connect to us based on the content of the site?
- Do we have the stuff they’re looking for?
- Could we enlist their help in creating material for our website? (For more information, see my post 4 Easy Steps to Effective Guest Blogging That Pleases Google.)
We also utilize a link-evaluation procedure that incorporates qualitative and quantitative rating approaches.
Step 4: Building Relationships
Now that you have your list, it’s time to establish your outreach plan.
Cold pitching is seldom successful.
A bad outreach tactic is sending an influencer an email and asking for a link. Every day, I get multiple link requests, as does every other website owner on the earth. You won’t be able to break through that clutter – and because the majority of them are spammy, your odds of success are minimal, mainly since we’re only targeting a few links at a time. We’ve discovered that interacting with people on social media is the best way to go.
Twitter is great for this, but some influencers aren’t there, so you’ll have to look for them elsewhere.
Remark on their material if they allow it, but don’t pitch or link to your site in your comment. That’s nearly always harmful to forming relationships in the beginning.
Don’t limit yourself to talking about your website.
You should be well-versed in the field. Inquire about the influencer’s thoughts on current industry concerns. Send them articles on the industry that you come across.
Assist them. Make an effort to communicate with them. Create a genuine connection.
Meet the influencer in person if at all feasible. Buying a drink for an influencer will almost always result in a link.
Coming out of the gate and asking for a connection is a big no-no. You’ll fail more often than not, and you’ll lose the confidence of a potentially valuable connecting partner in the process.
Step 5: Be Innovative
So now we have our list, we’re cultivating connections, and we’ve worked hard to get our merchants and partners to link to the site.
It’s time to activate the right side of your brain and start thinking creatively. This is the most enjoyable portion, but it requires a significant amount of effort.
This is the time to look in the mirror and ask yourself, “What can we do to make people want to connect to us?”
Among the goods you may make are:
- White papers.
- Infographics.
- Case studies are a kind of case study that is used to
- Insights that are both funny and serious
Experiment with something new. Risk aversion on your part or your client’s part may stifle innovation, but seek to push the boundaries.
No one connects to stuff that is boring or irrelevant. No one wants to be linked to sales brochureware.
You must locate your hook. You may need a different theme for each influencer on your list at times.
Yes, this will take a long time. This is arduous labor.
But what distinguishes a decent SEO from a great SEO is the ability to develop something that the proper people want to connect to.
Step 6: Rinse and repeat
Building links is a never-ending process. More high-quality connections may always be found. You must continue to seek chances to develop linkable material and the appropriate individuals to link to it.
To keep your plan fresh, it’s a good idea to focus on distinct “campaigns.” You can’t, however, stop developing ties. If you do, your competition will ultimately overtake you.
Although Google may include AI and other variables when evaluating websites, links will always be vital.
In reality, if you use the techniques outlined in this column, your links will often bring value beyond the SERPs. Yes, links may help you generate revenue and visitors. If you implement it correctly, you’ll get an SEO boost as well as targeted visitors.
