One thing that is common among all website owners is the aspiration of making their websites discoverable to a broad audience. Maximum reach is what they all want, and this will only be possible if access to their website is available in as many places as possible. In the digital landscape, one thing that can make this possible is link building, which is a process of acquiring hyperlinks from other websites to your own. In fact, all those pages ranking #1 on Google have an average of 3.8x more backlinks than other pages. In today's article, we would also look forward to achieving the same by discussing 5 effective link-building campaigns. So, without any further delay, let's begin.
Guest Blogging
Guest blogging, without a doubt, is one of the most effective link-building campaigns! It's a 2-way process in which you write blogs for the website owner, and in return, they provide you a backlink. So, it's your talent that earns your website exposure and traffic! Another thing that makes this campaign even more effective is that it doesn't give you any financial burden, making it ideal for newcomers. Unlike paid campaigns, where you have to give money to the backlink providers, here, it's usually the exchange of resources.
Did you know that while 87% of guest post ideas come from bloggers themselves, only 52% of them end up writing these posts? This highlights a significant gap between idea generation and the actual writing process in the world of blogging.
Steps to Implement Guest Blogging Campaigns
Identify the Category of Blogs: The very first step in this campaign is the identification of the blogs' category. As already discussed, it's the blog that will earn you the backlink, so you have to select the topic that suits you best. In case of a wrong pick, the quality of the final product will not be up to mark, which may affect the chance of getting a backlink from a website owner.
Craft Quality Content: After the selection of a category, the next step is to create content. We have already mentioned quite a few times that you will be provided with a backlink in exchange for your content, so the better it is, the easier the execution of the campaign will be. In case your content's quality is not satisfactory, you might have to face a lot of struggles in convincing website owners and even have to provide some other resources as well to get a backlink from them.
Pitch Website Owners: The final step is to pitch to the website owners. The content creators need to keep in mind that there are thousands of people doing guest blogging, so they have to stand out among them. In your pitch, you can include your expertise, how your content will benefit them, and most importantly, what makes you and your content different from others. Remember to research pitching before sending the one.
Engage and Monitor: Once your campaign is live, don't forget to engage with the audience. Respond to their comments and provide answers to their questions at regular intervals. In addition to this, you have to monitor the performance of your website as well. Regularly track changes in the website's traffic and engagement to analyze the effectiveness of your guest blogging campaign.
Broken Link Building
The next campaign on the list is broken link building, which is the process of identifying non-functional backlinks on websites and then reaching out to their respective owners, informing the same as well as offering your backlink as a replacement. The chances of getting a backlink through this campaign are very high as you are not only helping website owners find broken links but also fixing them, which is a crucial task in terms of SEO rankings. Apart from dead links, you can also earn backlinks by replacing the links leading to outdated content with your up-to-date resource.
Steps to Execute Broken Link Building Campaigns
Identify Broken Links: The best part about this campaign is that you can utilize a variety of digital tools, such as Ahrefs' Broken Link Checker, to identify broken links on websites. Therefore, all you have to do is look for websites that belong to your niche or are related to it and then make use of these digital tools over there. Also, make sure the websites you choose are authorized and aligned with your content so that a replacement offer can be made and the campaign can turn out to be an effective one.
Create a Suitable Replacement: After the identification of broken links, you have to analyze the original content and create one that can be a suitable replacement for the same. Your link should not only be a working one but also add value and improve the user experience for the website audience. Remember, helping website owners identify broken or outdated links won't earn you a backlink; your content needs to be up to the mark for that.
Communicate with the Website Owners: After completion of the above steps, reach out to the website owners and inform them about the broken links, as well as offer your content as a replacement. Try to emphasize more on the value of your content rather than the job you have done for them. You have to make it look more like a suggestion rather than a 2-way deal so that you can receive more backlinks from the website in the future.
Infographics and Visual Content
The next asset that can earn you a backlink is visual content like infographics. Yes, you heard us right. Just like blogs, visual content can be exchanged for backlinks. The reason why website owners agree to such an offer is due to their offerings, which include the ability to make content visually appealing and convey complex information effectively. Moreover, people are more likely to engage with and share content that includes compelling visuals. Therefore, an eye-catching infographic will surely get you a backlink from website owners.
How to Create Effective Infographics?
Identify a Compelling Topic: While identifying the topic, you need to keep two things in mind. Firstly, the topic has to be relevant to your audience and industry. Secondly, it should be interesting, suitable for visualization, and most importantly, informative.
Design Engaging Visuals: After the selection of the topic, it's time for the designing part. The infographic should be visually appealing; therefore, it is highly advised to invest in professional designers for so. The design should be curated with colors, fonts, and icons that align with your brand while ensuring clarity and readability at the same time. After the completion of designing, don't forget to include shareable elements like quotes or statistics, as it will increase the social sharing and likelihood of your infographics being picked by the other website owners.
Distribute Visual Content: The final job is the distribution part. Fortunately, here, you get an extra opportunity to earn a backlink! Apart from blogs and websites, there are infographic directories where your content can be shared as well. So, reach out to all of them with personalized emails explaining the relevance of your visual content to their audience so that it can be linked to your website.
Skyscraper Technique
Another link-building campaign that has been proven effective is the skyscraper technique. The campaign is quite related to guest blogging, but here, instead of providing original content to the website owners, you offer them a superior version of the existing ones. In simple language, you can try to replace the content that is already live by creating an improved version of it. Overall, we can say that in this campaign, there is no space for content. You have to do it by providing a better version of the ones already present there.
Steps to Implement Skyscraper Technique
Identify High-performing Content: First, you have to identify content that has received a significant amount of engagement so that when you create an improved version of it, you, too, receive the same exposure. Also, since the content is performing and generating traffic, website owners consider that specific category as a proven one, which means you don't have to convince them a lot; a better version would simply earn you the backlink.
Create Better Content: The next task is to carefully analyze the content so that a superior version can be crafted. You have to look for gaps, important points, and focused areas so that you can precisely analyze the strengths and weaknesses of it. While developing your version, make sure to cover areas that have been left out of the original content and improve the covered ones by offering more comprehensive, updated, and unique information about it. You can also use multimedia elements, better visuals, and more practical examples to make your content stand out.
Outreach and Promote: The final step is to reach out to the website owner with your improved version and explain to them how your content will add more value to their website. The content should be crafted in such a way that you don't need to do a lot of talking. Instead, the content does it for you. If your content gets selected and you receive a backlink, don't forget to promote it. Reach out to all influencers and bloggers who have shared the original content and request them to do the same for you as well.
Resource Link Building
In this campaign, you don't create a single piece of content; instead, you create valuable and comprehensive resource pages on your website to attract backlinks. These pages serve as the go-to pages for all those websites that are looking for authoritative and informative content, and this fulfillment of their needs is what likely gets them a backlink from website owners.
Steps to Create Comprehensive Resource Pages
Identify Categories and Topics: The first step here is to identify the categories and then the topics related to them. While doing so, the creators need to ensure they are related to their industry or niche as well as can easily be converted into resource pages. This means the topics should have the potential for in-depth coverage and provide significant value to the target audience.
Curate Content: The most common mistake creators make during the development of this kind of content is that they stick to a single topic and go for an unfavorable length. Yes, you need to provide information, but the length should always be user-friendly. Apart from this, make your resource page a mix of articles, guides, tools, videos, infographics, and expert opinions to offer a diverse range of valuable resources to the audience.
Optimize and Promote: Before reaching out to website owners, optimize your website, i.e., make it visually appealing and easy to navigate and include clear headings, concise descriptions, and intuitive design elements. Apart from attracting website owners and users, this on-page optimization will also ensure your resource page gets ranked higher in SEO. After this, reach out to industry experts, influencers, and authoritative websites to get a backlink from them.
FAQs
Are all the links equally valuable?
No, not all links are equal. The links that you earn from authoritative, relevant, and trustworthy websites hold more value than the ones coming from low-quality or irrelevant sources.
After how much time can I see the results from the link building?
Time depends upon the competitiveness of your industry and the keywords you are targeting. Certain websites only start seeing results after a few weeks, while others may take months or even years.
Can I buy links for my website?
It is better not to be involved in such practices as buying links is against search engine guidelines and can result in penalties that will harm your website's rankings. So, instead, focus on natural and organic link-building methods to achieve results.
Are there any ethical guidelines for link-building?
Yes, there are certain ethical guidelines for link building, which include acquiring links through genuine and natural means, focusing on creating valuable content, fostering relationships with other websites, and avoiding spammy or manipulative practices that violate search engine guidelines.
How can I measure the success of my link-building campaigns?
You can measure the success of your link-building campaign by keeping an eye on various metrics such as traffic and engagement rate. An improvement in these is potentially an indication of the successful execution of your digital marketing campaigns.
Conclusion
Around 93.8% of link builders say link quality is more important than link quantity. Therefore, the focus should always be on having a few really good links rather than having many average ones. Website owners should get links from trustworthy websites and avoid less credible sources as much as possible. In the world of link building, the key is to aim for quality over quantity, and while doing do not forget to build strong connections as well.
