In 23 SIMPLE LINK BUILDING TACTICS THAT WORK we’ve seen a bunch of link building tactics that anyone can execute. The flip side is obviously they have little efficacy.
We’ll take a step forward today. We’ll go through more tactics, requiring more effort especially in terms of online research and – sometimes – in terms of investment. They all are much more effective that the first 23 ones, though.
Next time we’ll complete this journey with the most effective link building tactics available today.
Blog Networking. Use your network of bloggers to get linked from their domains, in change of a link from your blog to their. Obviously this works better outside your competitors. Fairly simple and completely white hat technique. Do not exaggerate or you’ll be considered spam by Google, though.
Blogger Guesting. Try and have a well-established personality write for your website and blog. They will not only link from their own website or blog, but they will drive their followers’ attention too.
Case Study. Working well especially for B2B business, case studies are powerful tools to drive awareness and traffic. Just completed an awesome project? Engage with a testimonial, write your case study and promote it. You’ll get lots of valuable links. Same principle applies for more theoretical works such as research papers.
CMS Theme. Have you designed a new WordPress or Drupal theme? You’ll get credit (and links for that). Just make sure your theme is targeted to your niche in order to get links from websites and blogs within your business space. Remember that if you get linked from anywhere you’ll end up as spam in Google’s eyes. Same principle applies to CSS/HTML5 or icon showcase websites.
College Directory. Has your college an alumni directory or alumni spotlight page? Chances are you can link out to your website, and get a valuable .edu link. Spotlight pages works better as they put your link in context. Best working pages are awards pages, like “Top alumni of 1990’”, “Most successful alumni”, etc.
Company Directory. Along the same line of College Directory, just exploit every opportunity to mention your brand and link back to your website. The more specific the company directory (e.g. by location, by industry, by size, etc.), the better.
Contest. Organizing a writing contest about your product or brand will guarantee participants links back to you, at least to promote their own contest submission! Similarly, you can get linked through giveaways, especially discounts and coupons.
Crowdfunding. Sort of grey hat here, but it works. If you contribute to a crowdfunding (with as little as allowed), chances are you can link back to your website. As any other tactics, make sure to select projects that have something to do with your business to avoid being considered spam.
Customers. Ask your clients to review the product just bought and link back to your website. You may propose to share their comment to give their brand more visibility. But just make sure they’re happy before going this route!
Event Hosting. Are you organizing meetups or similar? Promote the event and your website in event directories and similar. If you share your physical venue with somebody else’s events, use this as an opportunity to get linked back from their website. No matter if you do this for business (like hotels) or for free (like hosting a charity fundraising).
Forum. Being active in forums relevant to your niche is a great way to be on top or recent trends and generate interest around your personal or professional brand. Make an original comment and link back to your homepage or – even better – related article/post and you’ll get a decent volume of traffic.
Game. People love playing, so if you offer a great free game in your website you’ll be linked by a full bunch of players! Same thing applies for humor and quizzes. People love laughing or funny challenges, so if you’re great in writing or drawing funny things, go for that.
Interview (Given). No matter who’s the interviewer, if somebody asks your opinion it will automatically promote you as an authority in your field. So proactively look for interviews opportunities, without exaggerating. Look for magazines, blogs, etc. that features professionals of your level in your field, and nicely propose your story. No matter how junior or senior you are, you’ll find everything out there: from blogs providing tips to recent grads in Engineering to websites for financial planning of retired housewives.
Interview (Had). You’re not good enough to get interviewed? Well, interview yourself somebody! You’ll benefit somebody who will be more than happy to link their awesome interview! You can actually build a whole site upon industry-leader interviews.
Link Out. Want to get a link from a respectable source? Well, be proactive and link you first; chance are your favor will be returned, unless you are in a very competitive industry or your counterpart doesn’t care!
Link Round Ups. They’re blog posts featuring other blog posts. They usually have a very niche topic, and provide viewers with an overview of most interesting content published at a given time (like weekly, monthly, etc.). Nice tactic if you find a Link Round Ups relevant for your market.
Lists. Well, not a news that lists work well for SEO and to generate interest. The interesting part is that you can get links from them. People love lists, save them so much time and are easy to scan!
Mention (Given). Talk about somebody in your blog? Link their name to their own website or blog, and let them know. They’ll generally be happy to share your content and link back to your (their…) article.
Mention (Had). You get mentioned somewhere? Reach out the webmaster and ask for a link back to your website. Same principle applies if somebody uses your own images or charts.
New Word. If you’re confident enough, try to invent a new word relevant for your industry. Spread the voice and get in touch with anyone mention your new expression. Brian Halligan coined “Inbound Marketing” 10 years ago, and since then it’s been associated with HubSpot.
Press Release. Don’t be shy with sharing your successes. Magazines and newspapers are always hungry with new, so send out your press releases and make sure including a link to your website.
Professional Membership. Are you enrolled in any professional body? Get listed in their website and include a link to your website.
Proofreading. You come across a typo or grammar error in a site you would like to be linked from? Let the webmaster know the error and ask for a link in return.
SlideShare. Put in there any great presentation (that doesn’t include sensitive data) and remind to add a link to your website in your first and last slide.
Surveys. You get traffic (and possibly links) in 2 ways. When the survey it’s open you can proactively promote it, when you release results you can promote them too!
Testimonial (Becoming). Have you bought a product or service recently? Write a nice post about your awesome experience and how that product changed your life, and reach out to the seller or manufacturer. They’ll be more than happy to link you back. Works better with small brands.
Though-Provoking. Does your industry have a mainstream view on a topic? Are your peers discussing around a controversial subject? Have you clarified a misconception? Well, try and put out a though-provoking article supporting a fresh perspective. Not everyone will agree with you, but you’ll get a lot of comments and hopefully links!