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Posted by Vishal Parmar
July 25, 2019
Link building is losing steam as social media continues to expand in 2019. Brands are shifting their focus from SEO to social media to reach maximum users. Content is still king and but its wings are spreading on Social media instead of SEO. In this tough time for SEO, should marketers stick to link-building? Or find a new way to reach users?
In 2016, Google revealed its top 3 search engine ranking factors:
In a Q&A with Google, on March 2016, Andrey Lipattsev, a Search Quality Senior Strategist, spilled the beans on the first two rankings factors of Google:
“I can tell you what they are. It is content. And its links pointing to your site.” (Andrey Lipattsev, Search Quality Senior Strategist at Google)”
85% of Survey Respondents shared their interest in maintaining or increasing link-building this year
All it proves that link building still holds the #1 ranking factor position on Google, but it doesn’t work the way it used to be.
Previously, link building was all about acquiring more and more links from anywhere. Now, link building refers to obtaining high-quality links from relevant sites. That’s not it. Even your natural brand mention by users has been considered as a part of link building whether your link exists there or not.
All in all, natural ways are winning over artificial ones. And we have to learn the best link-building techniques in 2019 which I am going to teach you in a few minutes.
Before I tell, you what to do, it is pretty necessary to jot down the list of what not to do to avoid sudden penalties.
What not to do when it comes to link building in 2019?
Now you are ready to go through the comprehensive guide illustrating the why, when, and how’s of link building.
Do you have a list of sites where your links existed previously, but now they are nowhere to be seen? If not, I suggest you find them out and reclaim your links back to get a quick boost in link building.
Reclaiming backlinks is one of the best and fastest way to seal a space for your brand on the web as building links naturally take some time.
Tool: Moz’s Fresh Web Explorer will help you dig out unmentioned links across the web.
Fixing broken links work the same way as to link reclamation. All you have to do is find out links with errors or broken ones, repair them, and make them come alive. This won’t require much effort and your website will start gaining some more traction.
Tool: SEMRush and Ahrefs give you a bird’s eye view to spot broken links with the help of some topic research.
This one I liked the most as it takes some hard work but not as much as creating content or finding strategies from the ground. Track your competitors’ trail – where their links are coming from and where their content is spreading the magic. Copy the content and name of the site. Create a better version of the same content and approach the same site to publish it.
Tool: Again, SEMRush and Ahrefs are like god-send tools to track the footmarks left on the link-building sand by competitors.
Have you ever come across the list of resources?
Of course, you do. Let me remind you.
Google “Top 10 Link Building Resources”.
Here’s the ready-made list available to grab a tight grip on:
Resource lists are pre-cooked content with the potential to sing praises of your website. You just need to find a relevant list of resources and outreach bloggers to include on your website too. For e.g., if you are an SEO expert, you should find out resource lists like “best SEO resources” or “top SEO resources suggested by SEO experts”. Reach out the blogger who maintains the list and suggest your website. If need be, contribute small but high-quality content as well for a natural approach.
Tool: Manually finding the list on Google will help a lot as it always gives you the top results in the world. Or use this search formula for quick results.
‘Intitle: keyword AND intitle:resources AND inurl:resources’
For e.g. ‘Intitle: link building AND intitle: resources AND inurl: resources’
Formula in Action
Keep an eye on such lists to insert the website at every opportunity you get.
It’s an advanced version of Competitors’ tactics. Here, you find the best content in your niche and come up with a better version of the same.
Once my friend, a content writer, said, “All blogs are the extension of previous ones.” I believe it from the bottom of my heart.
Her words sound perfect to explain the depths of the Skyscraper Technique.
In other words of Rank Fishkin, it’s called 10X content which means to develop 10 times better content than the one that exists all across the web.
Ever heard about content distribution?
Gary Vee’s most popular technique to convert long-form articles in different formats like Videos, images, podcasts, etc. Remodeling evergreen content is slightly different than content distribution.
With remodeling, you have to find out the best content on the web – not necessarily yours – and transfer it in a different format. For e.g., a popular blog can take the shape of an infographic while a video can give shape to your next buzz-creating article. Don’t forget to add your own opinions on the existing content as I explained in the Skyscraper technique – a better version of existing evergreen content.
Tool: Nothing can beat Buzzsumo when it comes to finding the best content in the world. I still use it as my go-to tool whenever I am looking for evergreen content, some ideas to create a new blog, etc.
Let’s say you admire any blogger or marketer or someone in your niche, you must be sharing glimpses of his/her ideas through your content. Right? What about addressing them in your content, and telling them about the same? That’s how you contact and connect with influencers. At the same time, building relationships for future purposes.
It’s one of the proven ways to connect with influencers without requesting them to consider you whenever they share anything relevant to your industry (more on that later).
What’s more interesting than content in content marketing trends? It’s research.
Original research in your industry is a goldmine content. This is something you create from scratch and let others copy it under your name. For e.g., if you are in the popcorn industry, there are infinite ways to perform research on the audience. Like how people are addicted to popcorn when they sit down to see a movie. Why do theatres have more appeal to popcorn than home? Why eating popcorn while watching a movie is considered a relaxing time? And a lot.
Take out a survey on users. Keep publishing and promoting research. You can even write an entirely new blog based on your research. Also, you are giving reasons to other bloggers to mention your data (with your industry name) when they copy it into their blogs.
Want to add icing on the cake? Want to give others more reasons to mention your brand? Build tools and widgets that help others in some way.
Remember, Neil Patel.
Of course, who doesn’t?
He must be more popular for his long-lasting content, but he also excels at developing tools to help online marketers. His own site neilpatel.com welcomes you with a tool named Ubersuggest where you put a domain name to get an overview of the site.
Start developing such tools or widgets that help in some way to your targeted audience.
Recall connecting with influencers. Once you build a good relationship with them, don’t leave any opportunity to tell them about your new piece of content or research. Just don’t overdo it. Building relationships help for a lifetime as you always get someone to spread the word about your brand as well as newly published content.
What else?
It’s a popular concept that link building takes time to generate results. I think, with the above-mentioned tactics that won’t be an issue as you are working on your way to leverage what you already have and to continue the growth with the release of fresh content constantly. Keep up and keep going.
