The link building strategy for 2024

A good link building strategy for me is an important part of search engine optimization, or Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Quality backlinks help me increase the authority and reliability of my website. That can lead to a higher ranking in organic search results. However, link building is a complex and ongoing process that requires you to employ specific strategies.

In this article, I discuss different link building strategies you can use to improve your website. I begin by explaining the basics of link building and what its importance is. Next, I discuss some of the most popular and effective link building strategies. Some lesser-known but nevertheless effective strategies are also discussed. Finally, I’ll give you tips for a successful link building strategy, as well as some useful tools and resources. These will help you set up and run your link-building campaign.

The basics of a link building strategy

Link building is a crucial part of SEO. Getting quality backlinks to your website can increase its authority and reliability. This has a positive correlation with higher ranking in search results. To be successful in link building, it is important to understand the basics and know what types of links there are and how they work.

There are four types of links that are important for link building: internal links, external links, backlinks and nofollow links. Internal links are links within your own Web site that point to other pages on your Web site. These links help you improve the user experience and simplify website navigation. That which can contribute to a higher ranking in search results(1). External links are links from your website to other websites. With external websites, you can increase the relevance of your website and position yourself as a source of information(2).

Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your website. Search engines see them as an important factor in assessing the authority and relevance of your website. The more backlinks you receive from quality websites, the more search engines trust your website. This also contributes to higher rankings in search results. However, not all backlinks are created equal. Search engines value more backlinks from websites that are relevant to your niche and have high authority and reliability themselves.

Finally, nofollow links are links that are ignored by search engines and thus also have no impact on your website’s SEO ranking(3). Nofollow links are used to indicate that search engines should not associate the link with the site’s authority. This may include, for example, links to advertisements, paid content or links to pages that are not relevant to the website content.

Obtaining backlinks is an ongoing process that requires consistency and dedication. Building quality backlinks takes time and effort. There are several strategies you can employ to achieve this, such as guest blogging, broken link building and resource page link building.

One of the most important things to remember when setting up a link-building strategy is that quality is preferable to quantity. In fact, obtaining hundreds of low-quality links can actually harm your website’s authority and reliability and lead to a lower ranking in search results.

In addition, it is important to monitor your backlink profile regularly. This will ensure that all links pointing to your website are relevant and of high quality to your website.

Continue reading about backlinks and link building outsourcing

• What are backlinks?
• Outsource link building
• Building a natural backlink profile
• SpamBrain’s influence on the Skyscraper method
• Determining the quality of backlinks
• Backlinks disavow

Popular link building strategies

As is mentioned, you can use a variety of link building strategies to obtain quality backlinks. Below I discuss some of the most popular and effective link building strategies to increase your reliability and authority.

Guest blogging

Guest blogging means writing content for other websites in exchange for a backlink to your website. It is a smart way to position yourself as an expert in your niche and obtain valuable links from relevant websites. The content you write should be of high quality. It should also be relevant to the website you are writing for. If the content is of inadequate quality, chances are that this will actually result in a lower ranking in search results.

Broken link building

In broken link building, you look for broken links on other websites. Then you approach the owner of that website and suggest that they use your content as a replacement for the broken link. This benefits both: you obtain quality backlinks and the website owner receives valuable content.

Resource page link building

Resource page link building is a strategy in which you search for relevant resource pages on other Web sites. You then ask these if they would like to add a backlink to your website. Resource pages are pages that contain links to other useful websites and resources within a specific niche. Links from resource pages to your website help increase the relevance of your website and obtain valuable backlinks.

Skyscraper content

Skyscraper content is a strategy where you look for popular content within your niche. Then you create an enhanced version of this content. By creating a better version of an existing piece of content, you can position yourself as an authority in that field and gain valuable backlinks. With that said, it is important that the content you create is of high quality. It must also be unique from other content already available.

Infographics

Infographics are visual representations of information. They make the information easy to understand and are often shared on social media and other websites. You can also get quality backlinks with infographics while providing valuable content to your target audience.

Interviews

Interviews are a strategy where you interview experts within your niche and then publish these interviews on your website. Using these publications, you can position yourself as an authority in that field. This can lead to valuable backlinks from other websites pointing to the interviews.

The strategies described above are just some of the most popular and effective link building strategies you can use to improve your website and gain valuable backlinks. However, there are many other strategies you can employ. Which ones they are depends largely on your niche and your target audience. Most importantly, use a strategy that fits the needs of your website and target audience. In doing so, dedication and consistency are also keys to success.

It is important to be aware that not all links are created equal. Only quality backlinks contribute to a successful link building strategy. It is better to have a few of those, than to accumulate countless low-quality backlinks. Monitor your backlink profile regularly to continue to ensure that all your backlinks are relevant and high quality.

It is important to establish a clear link-building strategy and continually monitor and optimize it. Only in this way will you ensure that your link building strategy remains successful. The growth of your website’s authority and reliability thus grow and yield a higher ranking in organic search results.

The possibilities at a glance

In the table below, I have listed possible link building strategies. In doing so, I describe the estimation of their level of risk and how effective they are:

Link Building Strategy	Risk level	Degree of Effectiveness
Content creation and -promotion	Low	High – Creating valuable, unique content that is naturally shared and linked to by others is among the most effective link building strategies.
Guest blogging	Medium – The risk varies and depends on the quality and relevance of the websites for which you write guest blogs.	High – Writing articles for other websites is very likely to get you high-quality backlinks.
PR and Media Relations	Medium – Risk varies and depends in part on how you manage relationships. The relevance and quality of media communications also play a role.	High – Building relationships with journalists and influencers frequently produces natural links in news articles and blogs.
Directory and citation entries	Medium – The risk varies and depends on the quality and relevance of the directories and citation sites.	Resource – Submitting your company information to relevant directories can lead to backlinks. However, these links usually have less value than natural links.
Partnerships and Collaborations	Medium – Risk varies and depends on the quality and relevance of partners and collaborations.	High – Collaborating with other businesses, non-profits, or influencers often yields link exchanges and new opportunities for backlinks.
Link Purchase	High – Search engines like Google consider buying links a violation of guidelines. Therefore, this may subject you to a penalty.	Low – Buying links can grow your number of backlinks quickly. However, these links are usually of low quality. In fact, in the long run, they are likely to cause you more harm than benefit.

Link building a process that takes time, consistency and persistence. Although some strategies produce results faster than others, it is essential at all times to focus not on the quantity but on the quality of backlinks. In the long run, this is the most effective and sustainable approach.

Tips for a successful link building strategy

As you already understood from the above information, there is more to creating and implementing a successful link building strategy than meets the eye. Below I give you some tips that can help you with this.

Develop a plan

A successful link building strategy begins with a plan. It is important to have a clear goal in mind for your link-building campaign and to determine which strategies best suit your niche and target audience. In that plan, in addition to the objectives, you include a time schedule. This allows you to systematically measure your progress and adjust your strategy as needed.

Prefer quality over quantity

Getting quality backlinks is much more important than getting a large number of lower quality backlinks. Therefore, target backlinks from reputable websites that are also relevant to your niche. This helps increase the authority and reliability of your website and improves your ranking in search results.

Create valuable content

Creating valuable content is one of the most effective ways to get backlinks. Are you providing valuable content for your target audience and is it unique from the other content available? Then websites are more likely to link to your content(4).

Stay active on social media

Social media are a great way to share your content and discover new link-building opportunities. It’s a place where you can build up new ones relatively easily and thus also gain valuable links from other websites that share your content.

Build relationships

Building relationships is an important part of link building. Relationships with other websites and bloggers within your niche can give you valuable backlinks. This will help you position yourself even better as an authority within your field.

Use link building tools

Link building tools can help you find new link building opportunities, as well as monitor your backlink profile. With the help of these tools, you manage to work even more efficiently and increase the number of valuable backlinks to your website.

Using these tips, you will develop a successful link building strategy. This leads to a higher ranking in the organic search results and thus also brings you more traffic to your website.

Common mistakes in link building

While a successful link-building strategy can yield higher rankings in search results and more traffic to your Web site, some pitfalls also exist. To prevent your efforts from backfiring, it is important to be aware of the most common mistakes. Below I discuss some of them.

Buying backlinks

Buying backlinks is something you should absolutely avoid. Although it seems like a quick and easy fix, it can lead to a lower ranking in search results. In fact, search engines may even penalize you for it with a penalty. It is essential to obtain quality backlinks naturally, that is, through valuable content and relationship building.

Using spammy link building tactics

Spammy link building tactics include tactics such as posting links on unrelated Web sites or spamming forums and comment sections. This can also lead to a search engine penalty. This damages your website’s authority and reliability. It is important to use ethical and legitimate tactics to obtain quality backlinks(5).

Focusing on quantity rather than quality

When you focus on quantity rather than quality, it can mean a lower ranking in organic search results. Therefore, set yourself a goal of gathering quality backlinks from reputable websites. These are websites that themselves have high authority and reliability as well as relevance to your niche.

Ignoring internal links

Internal links are an important part of link building and help you make your website easier to navigate. You can also improve the user experience with it. Failing to pay attention to this can lead to not only a poorer user experience, but also a lower ranking in search results.

Not monitoring your backlink profile

Formulating and applying backlink tactics is only the first step in a successful process. Then it is important to monitor its progress. If you are careful with this, you will ensure that all links pointing to your website are high quality and relevant to your niche. Not monitoring your backlink profile creates the risk of poor quality backlinks that actually hurt your authority and reliability.

Not adjusting your link building strategy

As I mentioned earlier, link building is an ongoing process. If you want to ensure that your strategy remains successful, you need to adjust it regularly as needed. Failure to do so may result in a lower ranking in organic search results.

Measuring the success of your link building strategy

If you want to ensure that you can make progress and solve any problems in time, it is essential to measure the success of your link-building strategy. Below I tell you about some important statistics you can use to do this.

Number of backlinks

First, the number of backlinks pointing to your website is an important statistic. It is best not to want to go too fast, but to pursue a slow growth in the number of backlinks. most importantly, they should be of high quality and relevant to your niche.

The authority of the domain name

Tools like Moz or Ahrefs allow you to measure the authority of your domain name. The higher this number, which can be between 0 and 100, is, the better your website ranks in terms of authority. This is because it gives an indication of your position in Google.

Traffic to your website

Measuring traffic to your Web site is another way to measure the success of your link-building strategy. As with the number of links, it is best to aim for steady growth. After all, that way you guarantee high-quality and relevant traffic.

Ranking in search results

Of course, measuring your ranking in search results is also an important way to measure the success of a link-building strategy(6). You aim for the highest possible ranking to ensure that your website is relevant to the searches your target audience is performing.

Conversion

Finally, measuring conversions on your Web site is an important way to measure the success of a link building strategy. It is important that your website is designed with conversions in mind and that you tailor your link building strategy accordingly.

Measure and analyze the above statistics regularly to assure yourself that your link building strategy is successful. Any problems you detect with it in a timely manner. A quick resolution of these will help you progress further in your backlink profile.

Finally, getting started with your link building strategy

In this article, I explained what link building is and why it is important for a website’s SEO. You have been able to read about different link building strategies that you can use to get valuable backlinks. This increases the authority and reliability of your website. Moreover, you are now aware of some common link building mistakes discussed. By avoiding them and monitoring the right statistics, you manage to track and increase the success of your link building strategy.

Link building requires constant effort. Once you have created and implemented a plan, you cannot sit back. Only when you regularly update this plan can your strategy remain successful. With the right approach, you will obtain the valuable backlinks you need to increase the authority and reliability of your website. This will get you a higher ranking in search results and thus more traffic to your website: prerequisites for success in the online world.