There are unlimited link building opportunities that exist for your website. In this post, I’ll go over the most effective strategies that you can start implementing right away.

As most companies know, there are many different factors involved in generating organic traffic for a website. If you want to appear as a credible authority in your space, and you want to rank as highly as possible on the search engine result pages, one of the most important things you can do is invest in link building.

In this post, you’ll learn:

•         Where to find links and implement them into your website
•         Which strategies generate the best results for SEO
•         How you can plug connections into your site

Before we continue: a quick note. If you want to succeed in these strategies, you need to be willing to dedicate yourself to them.

As with most things, discipline is crucial to success with link-building. Most people jump into action without having a preset strategy in place. Unfortunately, the absence of a plan makes it easier to slack on your SEO strategies. You end up telling yourself that you’re going to do 10 outreach emails a day and only end up doing 5, then, 3, then none at all.

Every moment of productivity counts if you want to run a successful business. That means that you need to follow a consistent pattern of outreach and implementation to build a link network that actively supports and enhances your online presence. Commit to making the changes you want to see in your digital campaign, and your results will speak for themselves.

Having got that warning about commitment out of the way, let’s get on with our step-by-step link building guide.

As they say in Miami – Dale.

What Is Link Building?

Link building is an important search engine optimization activity, that involves acquiring as many valuable backlinks to your website as possible from relevant external sites. The more high-quality links you get from places with a good domain authority, the more your search engine visibility will begin to grow.

Link popularity (the number of inbound links to a page) still impacts your SEO ranking, and studies continue to show that if you want to get to the top of the Google pages, you need a good link portfolio.

What kind of links move the needle?

In simple terms, each link to a website is considered as a vote. The more votes a site accumulates, the more likely it will be to show up for a particular search query.

However it is not a ‘one member, one vote’ system.

There are a number of factors which determine the weight Google will assign to a particular link and how likely it will be to influence future rankings. These include:

• Authority of the Linking page/site
• NoFollowLinks
• Link Placement
• Anchor Text
• Use of Keywords

The 5-Month Link Building Plan

• • Link Roundups

Link Roundups are weekly or daily curated blog updates that send out links of your niche’s best content.

In order for you to link these opportunities to your website, you have to find them and send an email pitch suggesting that they link to some of your content in their future update.

Roundups are a link builder’s dream as they are able to create links in bunches especially if you have valuable information to share.

To achieve success with this strategy, you have to submit quality content.

How do you spot link roundups?

Search for titles like:

• • • “Marketing weekly roundup”
    • “Top Couponing Tips of the month”
    • “Top SEO Posts of the Week”

Below is an example from Fyingpointdigital:

How to find link roundup opportunities

• • 1. To find link roundup opportunities, you have to search for certain phrases using search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.

• • 1.  You can also use keywords and #hashtags to find them on twitter.

How to secure the link

Once you have spotted an opportunity, find a way to contact the person, preferably via email, and send an outreach email pitch for inclusion to them.

As most people are actively seeking for quality content to curate, they are very likely to consider you for the roundup.

• • 1. Resource Pages

Resource pages usually link to content that is considered important to a particular website’s audience.

Though it may sound similar to a link roundup, it differs from a roundup in the following ways:

• • • It is done on a regular basis and has recently published content
    • The update is once and links out to evergreen content
    • A link round up outreach pitch is done prior to the blogger creating the post whereas a resource page pitch is done after the content has already been published.

Generally, Resource page links, unlike link roundups, are a bit harder to secure because you are asking the blogger to update their content so as to accommodate your link. Furthermore, many bloggers may not have the time to go back to their previous content and add a link.

Here is an example from digitalvidya:

How to secure the link

Sending a pitch, preferably via Email is the best method to apply. Below is a sample Email

To increase your success rate with this strategy, try giving them an incentive that prompts them to take action:

• • • Find a way to drive more traffic to their website; for example, offer to share a piece of their content on social media.
    • show them that your content is of high quality and is kept up to date
    • Fix a broken link for them
    1. Broken Link Building

Sending website visitors to a non-existent page provides a bad user experience.

Broken link building is therefore, the process of finding, notifying and offering relevant websites to replace dead links with your link.

When “broken links” are an opportunity

To find dead links on a page, you need a browser plugin. I use Check My Links browser (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/check-my-links/ojkcdipcgfaekbeaelaapakgnjflfglf?hl=en-GB)

plugin to check page by page dead links.

How to discover “broken link building” opportunities

There are quite a lot of ways to finding broken link opportunities. To avoid the stress of finding these opportunities, here are the basic steps that I guarantee will get you results.

• • 1. Perform link prospecting by building a list of resource pages that are relevant to the target website (do this using the same search operators as “resource pages”).
    2. This process manually checks each page for evidence of broken links.
    3. You hit the jackpot when you discover broken links on the page. Once you discover broken links, send a pitch notifying them about your brilliant discovery. In case you do not discover any broken links on the page, pitch it as a resource page.

Basically, to minimize time wastage and maximize the effectiveness of pitches, perform broken link building as a subset of pitching resource pages.

How to secure the link

Since you are assisting in fixing a problem, broken link building has a much better success rate (5 times better than resource pages).

You can send them an email pitch showing where you found the link and offer to replace it.

To have an excellent success rate, it is important that your link is the perfect fit to replace the broken link.

Guest Posting :

Guest posting is as old as blogging itself. I still consider guest posting as one of the most reliable ways of acquiring links for your website.

In addition to the SEO advantage, you can get brand exposure, massive traffic and build vital relationships with major industry influencers.

Nevertheless, most people avoid guest posting because it requires frequent posting of highly valuable, genuine and engaging quality content.

To add guest posting to your link-building campaign:

How to find “guest posting” opportunities

a. Type “write for us” in the search box of search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo and Bing

b. Pitch relevant top blogs in your Niche.

For starters, it is crucial to stick to the above mentioned method to build a track record and gain credibility.

Warm up your prospects: Reach out to potential sites that you want to accept your guest post and begin building a relationship. You can do this by following the authors on social media, sharing their recent articles (and tagging them in your shares), and leaving thought-provoking comments on their website.

After you have built your reputation, you can contact any of the top blogs and pitch them. Make sure you look for high authority websites that have a lively audience.

How to secure the link

Once you have identified an opportunity, find ways of contacting the website owner. You can use the email, contact form, phone number or their social media page.

When pitching top blogs, it is vital that you forward links to a few of your best posts to boost your credibility.

Sponsored Posts

This is a tactic that based on both white hat and black hat strategies of link building. The idea of sponsored posts is to find sites that accept advertisers and pitch them on a “native” buy.

To achieve maximum results for your sponsored posts, send a pitch asking to sponsor a post instead of buying space for dreadful adverts.

What a “sponsored post” looks like

Try and negotiate with the publisher to create a relevant piece of content that fits with the theme of the website. Make sure you avoid “sponsored” or paid placement tag on your posts to increase the impact of your link placement.

In the future, I see a situation where Google will reduce the impact of these link placements if they aren’t already doing so.

How to find “sponsored post” opportunities

Use search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing, search for “advertise”. If you are in the seo niche, use <seo “advertise”>. Similarly, if you are in the sport niche, use <sport “advertise”>. Do not include the symbol <

It is good to use search engines to find websites that are accepting sponsored posts.

How to secure the link

Contact them for adverts via email but make sure that you are not looking for email blasts or banners, focus on getting native placements only.

Regaining Lost Links (Link Reclamation)

With time, your website will start losing links. However, this is expected you can trace lost links and contact webmasters to make rightful replacements.

How to spot “link reclamation” opportunities

When websites previously linked to you are removed, due to any reasons, it is time to contact them for “link reclamation”

Link removal could be as a result of any of the following reasons:

• • • Change of Site URl
    • The site being down or migrated
    • Your link was bluntly removed

It is pertinent to understand why your link was removed before reaching out to the webmaster.

How to do “link reclamation”

Ahrefs, Majestic, Moz and SEMRush are excellent tools; they help you find lost links.

Enter your domain and locate “lost” links. Examine carefully to determine if it’s a good chance to reach out.

How to secure the link

You’ll need to contact the webmaster of the website that removed the link.

• • 1. Claiming Unlinked Mentions

Your website will eventually get mentioned if you are doing a great job of creating awesome content, engaging on social media and investing in PR.

Nevertheless, most of time, the mentioning websites may not link to your site.

This is mainly because they probably didn’t have your URL link.

Your task is to follow these “branded” mentions and pitch them asking for link attribution.

What an “unlinked mention” looks like

An “unlinked mention” occurs when any website mentions your brand, name or website without including a link to your site.

How to find “unlinked mentions” opportunities

Trying to find “unlinked mention” can be a very daunting task if you are doing it manually. Below, are a number of solutions:

1. IFTTT

IFTTT is a short form for “If This, Then That”. It is a free web-based service that people use to create chains of simple conditional statements, called applets. An applet is triggered by changes that occur within other web services such as Gmail, Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest.

2. Google Alerts

Google Alerts is a free tool that enables you to set email alerts when certain keywords of your chosen content are mentioned. If you track “your brand” and “your name” you’ll get email alerts of the websites talking about them.

3. Mention

Mention is a great tool that allows you to easily monitor the online presence of multiple websites, business, products, people, etc.

Mention is definitely worth the price if you are doing this on behalf of clients.

How to secure a link

The process in securing mentions is a very similar pitch to “link reclamation”.

After you’ve shortlisted websites that you want to contact to convert brand mentions on them into active links, here are a few things you must bear in mind:

• • • Ensure your email pitch is short and concise.
    • Since they have already mentioned your brand, they won’t hesitate much about linking to your site unless they have personal reasons of not doing so.
    • If a site seems reluctant, move on to the next website on your list.
    • An over 50% success rate is regarded a decent rate.
    1. The Synonym Method

Let me break down this strategy in a way that you can understand…

Assuming that you’re looking to build quality links to a London based immigration attorney’s website.

It’s important that you target domains that are:

• • • Geo relevant to London

OR

• • • Domains on legal/law

It’s actually, really difficult to just send emails to random legal websites and get any positive feedback. To get a meaningful response you have to contact them the right way.

• • 1. Compile a list of websites that are relevant to the topic. These websites should not be your direct competitors For example, if you’re a corporate attorney, find websites on Criminal defense, DUI law, immigration attorneys, etc.
    2. Email them a pitch asking to write for them OR do an exchange guest post.

This is a method that I have had some success with, it works amazingly well especially in competitive spaces such as real estate, insurance and legal.

How a “synonym” looks like

This works best when you are targeting websites that are in your niche but are not in direct competition with you.

For example:

• • • A Social Media Marketing agency, should find other digital service sites that don’t offer SMM.
    • A London based real estate agent, should look for a real estate website in another city/state that he/she doesn’t compete with.

And the same goes for other professions

How to find “synonym” opportunities

Make use of search operators, social search engines and Twitter to find websites on a chosen topic.

How to secure the link

The success of a pitch depends on who the sender is.

If you’re doing an email outreach on behalf of an attorney client, you can’t use your website email. It is not formal in the legal industry.

You have to get consent from your client to pitch on their behalf – this change increases the success rate of this strategy by over 59%.

• • 1. Blog Commenting

Blog comments when done right are not spam!

As a matter of fact, they are bloggers’ favorite technique for growth hacking that can be used to channel traffic to new websites and promote new content.

It works best when blog comments are used to promote content and not sales pages. When you approach it this way, it turns into a natural link that provides a good opportunity to build an audience.

How a “blog comment” opportunity looks like?

Any site that puts out content relevant to your niche provides an opportunity for you. Website editors do not accept spammy comments that add no value and link to random sites.

Provided that you are not using Blog comments as the main source of your back-linking strategy, you are safe from Google’s penalty. Post on topic relevant blogs, and don’t use spammy keywords, instead use your real name and you will be able to avoid penalties.

The most reliable way to get comments accepted is to write value adding comments that are well thought out. It is only after you have fulfilled this can you drop a link to a related piece of content that supports your comment.

Find the right blogs to comment on: Starting with your list of experts that you found above, check out any blog relevant to your industry that you could benefit from connecting your business with.

How to find “blog comment” opportunities

There are a few hundred search operators that you can use to find opportunities.

How to secure the link

When trying to access the opportunities of blog comment, you do not need an email pitch. Instead, do the following

• • • Write a detailed 100 – 150 word response to the article
    • Afterwards, add a link to a relevant piece of content that relates to your comment
    • Place quality over quantity: Don’t be one of those obvious people leaving comments just for the backlink opportunity. Make sure that you bring value to the website’s audience with an insightful comment.Remember, if your comments are too short or vague, they could harm your brand reputation.

Do this for all potential opportunities.

Forum Commenting

Forum comments can be used for 2 purposes:

• • 1. To drive traffic and promote content.
    2. To pillow links for new launched websites.

Posting relevant, high quality and original posts on high authority forums will drive organic, free flowing traffic to your website and position you firmly among the top results on search engines.

Forums can drive massive loads of traffic as well as opportunities of decent links. Forum postings also offer you credibility and authority in your niche.

It’s your task to discover, join and engage in relevant forums.

What a “forum comment” opportunity looks like

Find forums related to the site you are promoting. Then, search for threads related to the content you are promoting.

After this is done, it’s just a matter of writing a short response and linking to the content of your choice. Also, you can drive sizeable amounts of traffic from your signature.

How to find “forum comment” opportunities

There are several search operators that can be used to find opportunities.

How to secure the link

To post comment on high authority forums, you don’t really need a pitch to secure the link. Basically, leave a genuine comment on a relevant thread and drop a link to your content.

Landing Press Links

What is a “press” linking opportunity?

You have a press linking opportunity whenever you spot a major publication in your industry or relating to your niche, having freelance writers (“contributors”) writing for them.

How to get a “press” linking?

Let me explain in bulletin, a simple process that works really well:

• • • Get a link prospector and give him a list of target publications and keywords. If you are low on budget and have sufficient time, you can do this yourself.
    • Then search for articles containing those keywords that you have identified earlier. A good link prospector will do a great job searching the target publications.
    • The goal is to find the relevant articles written by a NON staff writer.
    • Once they are discovered, find their contacts and pitch them via email.

How to secure the link

This definitely as mentioned earlier, is a blackhat technique.

It will definitely get you the result. It is a tried and tested method and that is why it is being recommended.

Local Bloggers Outreach

This is good for local seo .Bloggers are living around your area, just ask around. Your neighbors are bloggers. Blogging is the new air. It is everywhere.

As a blogger or site administrator who is looking for links, find, connect and pitch them citing vital benefits they will get from getting featured on your website.

What a “local blogger” opportunity looks like

The vast majority of local bloggers today, focus on highly viral niches such as fashion, tech, travel, etc.

As a smart blogger, you have to be able to figure out what the connection between your site and that of your fellow bloggers is. This connection can go a long way in boosting your traffic and offer an insane number of links to your website.

For example, if we go back to the “London immigration attorney” website. We focused on local travel bloggers because of the significant amount of crosswalk that goes on between immigration and travel.

How to find “UPDATE” opportunities

There a quite a number of search operators that you can use to uncover update opportunities. Checking Social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is also helpful, because there are a variety of opportunities and most of these new blogs are not yet indexed in search engines.

How to secure the link

Generally, there are two approaches to it:

• • • You can pitch them a piece of content on your site for them to cover (this has a low success rate).
    • Offer them money to write a post on their site (HIGH success rate).

Most of the bloggers out there are not making a dime from their blogs. Hence, when you offer them a cash reward, they accept it.

• • 1. Video Links

You need to be strategic when pestering new websites with contextual links. It is important to start with initial links, known as “pillowing” links. These are essential when building a natural link profile.

Majority of these links should be “no follow” links; it is good to have links on video sharing sites. Not only do these links build your profile, but you can also garner an insane amount of traffic as well.

How a “video link” opportunity looks like

There are many websites that accept videos that you can use to get video backlinks to your website. The top ones are going to be the highest quality backlinks and these are sites like YouTube and other huge video sites. They are already ranked very high in Google and this gives them quite a bit of power that you can pass along to your website.

How to find “video link” opportunities

The bottom line with video backlinks and SEO is that if you want to get listed on Google and want to be higher in the rankings, then you need to use video backlinks. This is important and the best video backlinks come from YouTube because it is the most popular amongst video sites on the internet. That being said, here are other great video websites that can provide quality backlinks:

• • • blip.tv
    • break.com
    • dailymotion.com
    • flixya.com
    • grindtv.com
    • liveleak.com
    • metacafe.com
    • myspace.com/video
    • stupidvideos.com
    • tubetorial.com
    • ustream.tv
    • vimeo.com

How to secure the link

There are many ways to get these types of backlinks. If you want to use YouTube video backlinks and SEO, then you can start by creating a video that includes your link. This can be as simple as taking an article and turning it into a video with a little background music.

You can also comment on someone else’s video and include your link. Just make sure you make a real comment and not some meaningless comment. For eligibility, you’ll need a video. If you’re on a budget, just put some images into a PowerPoint presentation and record your screen.

If you have some money, you can try getting a nice explainer video done on platforms such as Fiverr.

Directory Link

What is a “directory link”?

Directories are like online phonebooks for businesses. In most cases they have a high domain authority and due to their large numbers, they can help you create many links within a short time.

To achieve success with them, conduct your own manual research and build your own quality directory instead of buying one.

How “directory link” opportunities look like

Frequently, they look like online business phonebooks. The best ones are usually those that you pay for, however, they are usually worth every penny.

How to find “UPDATE” opportunities

Use search operators to find “Update Opportunities”.

How to secure the link

Submit your business information.

• • 1. Professional Organization Links

There are organizations that are dedicated to every niche that a particular niche operates in. These organizations provide your site with opportunities that can help you build authority and trust. Your job is to find them and join them.

What a “professional organization” link looks like

This is a profile page on a website that is dedicated to your industry.

How to find “professional organization” link opportunities

Use search operators to find professional organizations.

How to secure the link

Follow the instructions they provide to join.

16. Conference and Event Links

This type of link takes quite a lot to make happen; this is because you have to do one of the following:

• • • Host a Meetup
    • Host or attend an event
    • Speak at a conference or event

Most people focus online but what you do offline plays a role too. Interacting with your community is critical for the growth of your business.

What a “conference and event ” link looks like

When you register to speak at event you’ll get links from various places:

• • • Any potential partners that are promoting it on their blog
    • The host’s website
    • Bloggers who attend the event and write about it

After the event, you can email the organizer with a link to your site where you published the slides. They can choose to pass it to other people for them to reference.

How to find “conference and event” opportunities

You can hire a VA team to help you find events and conference or use search engine operators.

How to secure the link?

• • • If you’re looking to speak at an event, you will have to apply for an opening
    • If you’re hosting an event, create one easily on Meetup

17. Pitching Infographics

Infographics present data in image form. They are extremely useful because unlike written text content, they can be reused over and over again without facing duplication penalties from search engines.

Infographics are best used in 2 ways:

• • 1. Pitching an infographic as a guest post
    2. Sending them to infographic aggregation sites, which is a great way to create “pillowing” links for new sites.

Both approaches are highly scalable as you don’t need to write a ton of new content to secure the link.

How to find “UPDATE” opportunities

For those using infographics as pillowing links…

Find sites that accept infographic submissions with the help of search operators.

For those using infographics as guest posts….

Apply search operators to discover websites that publish infographics as blog posts.

Some bloggers don’t like using infographics (especially in the digital marketing industry, they’re spammed out) instead, target sites that have posted them in the past.

Using this strategy you are able to focus only on those who are more likely to accept your pitch.

How to secure the link

If you are looking for pillowing links, follow the website’s instructions to submit your infographic.

For a guest post, you will have to send an email outreach to the person in charge.

18. Skyscraper Opportunities

This is a method invented by Brian Dean

Let me quickly walk you through the steps

• • 1. Find an article that has a ton of links
    2. Create a better version of the content
    3. Then contact the websites linking to the original article informing them that you have a better and updated version.

How to find “skyscraper” opportunities

• • • Use BuzzSumo or Ahrefs Content Explorer to find URLs with a huge volume of shares on social media and inbound links.
    • Next, find ways you can improve that piece of content. You can update it, make a solid visual content out of it (infographic, video), or add more content.

How to secure the link

After you have developed content, compile all the links and contact info of all the sites that link to the original content. Next, reach out preferably via email and let them know you have a better version to share with their audience.

19. Cold blogger outreach

There is a massive number of blogs online. When you contact them the correct way, it is a huge opportunity.

Here are a few reasons why you should cold email bloggers:

a. Seeding

Seeding has to do with gathering the emails of the bloggers in your niche. Whenever you write a great article or publish content on your blog, you can contact these bloggers, telling them about the content.

This method is effective when your published content contains useful data, insights or case studies that bloggers can reference to support claims.

b. Promotion

Traffic is way valuable than links. Promotion has to do with cold reaching people that you have identified as influencers and offer to do promotional exchange.

c. Link outreach

This tends to piss people off but you can send cold emails directly asking for links (it has a low success rate though)

How to find “blogger outreach” opportunities

As previous strategies, use search engine operators to find bloggers in a specific niche.

How to secure the link

You have to come up with a pitch that is based on your goal.

Over To You

We’d love to hear your thoughts on:

• what you think is working at the moment
• general thoughts on our guide

And of course if you have any questions, then please leave a comment below.

In the mean time… good luck with your own link building!