Link Building: Ultimate SEO guide for beginners

Updated on: Oct 7th, 2024 12 min readWritten by: Approved by: bhagart singh

Last Updated on October 7, 2024 by Admin

In this internet era, your website is a precious gem waiting to be found. However, how do you make it shine even more in search results? The answer is link building. This incredible SEO strategy can increase the number of visitors to your site while giving your site the much-needed credibility.

However, link building is not all about accumulating links. It is a skill, an act of strategy, patience, and, of course, a pinch of creativity. Whether you’re a new business owner, a blog owner, or simply interested in SEO, this guide will help you understand what link building is all about.

Here, we will discuss what a good link is, how to acquire it without violating the rules, and some basic strategies you can use. So, let us get started and open the door to the world of link building and how it can benefit you!

Link building is a way to get other sites to link to the site of interest. This is very important in SEO because search engines like Google use these links to determine your site’s quality and relevance.

When one site leads visitors to yours, it is actually like that site claiming that your site is good. The more high-quality votes (links) one has, the more likely the search engines consider the site credible and authoritative. This could result in better rankings in search engines, implying that the site will be more visible and attract more traffic.

However, not all links are the same, so the following four types should be established in any online community: Some are more important than others in several aspects. Now, let us understand the value of a backlink for SEO.

The extent to which SEO juice is transferred from the backlink source to your site depends on the following factors. These can be understood to help you direct your link-building to the accumulation of the most valuable links.

  • Authority: The quality of the linking site is a major factor in backlink value. This means that a link from a recognized source, such as a popular newspaper, educational institution, etc., is much more valuable than a link from some random unknown blogger.

    It is like being recommended for a job. The recommendation from the industry professional will be more convincing than the one from someone you met next door (unless this person is a recognized professional in your field).

    Major search engines have sophisticated techniques for rating site authority; however, some utilities can provide some estimates. Specific figures that can be used to assess the potential link sources include Domain Authority or Domain Rating.

  • Relevance: You can see that links originating from sites related to your site’s topic are more valuable. The link from a food magazine will be more valuable than an automobile-selling website if you own a blog dedicated to recipes.

    This is also perfectly understandable from the user’s point of view. If a person uses a magazine to read an article on baking and is given a link to your recipe site, that is logical. Search engines are well aware of and reward this kind of relevance.

    While looking for backlinks, ensure they are from sites and content related to your niche areas. This will enhance the link value and make it easier to attract the right traffic to your site.

  • Link Placement: The position of the link on a page can also influence its value. Internal links within the main body of a page are generally more valuable than those placed in the sidebar or at the bottom. This is why links in content are mostly editorial, while links in the sidebar or at the bottom are likely to be part of the site’s navigation or paid links.

    Also, the links closer to the top of a webpage may be considered slightly more important than the links at the bottom. This is based on the view that relevant information (and links) are more likely to appear earlier in an article.

    If you can decide where to put links, always go for in-content links, and it’s even better if they are at the beginning of the article. However, always remember that natural placement, which is more suitable for the reader, needs to remain the rule.

  • Anchor Text: The actual clickable text is called anchor text and gives an insight into the linked webpage. Search engines use this information to discern what the linked page is about.

    For instance, if many other sites link to your page with tag words such as ‘best chocolate chip cookie recipe,’ it is a sign that your page is about chocolate chip cookies.

    However, one should avoid going overboard when optimizing the anchor text. Having one link too many with the exact keyword-rich anchor text will look suspicious and can even elicit a spam reaction. It is recommended to incorporate both branded and, therefore, more easily recognizable anchor text and general ranking for relevant keywords anchor text.

Nofollow, Sponsored, and UGC Attributes

Not all the links are the same in terms of the value that they bring in the SEO context. Some links have special attributes that tell search engines to treat them differently:

  • Nofollow links: These do not transfer SEO value but can help to get visitors.
  • Sponsored links: This is used for advertising content that is considered paid or sponsored content.
  • UGC links: User Generated Content links are links in user-generated content such as comments.

Even though such links do not increase your search engine performance and might not generate traffic, they help establish a logical and varied link profile.

Having a good understanding of what constitutes a good link, let us proceed to the importance of link building in the SEO process.

  1. Boosting Search Rankings: Links are the most important factors that search engines look at when ranking your website. Essentially, the more good quality and relevant links a site has, the better the chances of getting up those search result pages.
  2. Increasing Discoverability: They provide connections, allowing users and search engines to access your content. The more links you get from different sources, the more chances people have of clicking the link and finding your site.
  3. Building Authority: It was held that the more authoritative sources link to your site, the more authoritative your site becomes. This can result in a higher ranking of all the site pages, including those linked to.
  4. Driving Referral Traffic: Good links are not just for SEO; they also can directly drive traffic to an individual’s site from people clicking on the links.
  5. Establishing Relationships: Link building generally entails contacting other site owners and content producers to obtain links. This can easily create good networking opportunities and associations.

Having established the significance of links, explaining the leading strategies for obtaining them is now pivotal. All these techniques have their merits and demerits, and most of the time, effective link-building will involve several of these strategies.

  1. Earn Links: This is the most sought-after strategy in link building. Linking to other sites is not the same as earning links; the two concepts are as different as night and day. It is one thing to place your content out there hoping that other sites will link to it on their own accord because of how valuable, interesting or unique the content is. This could be:
    • In-depth guides or tutorials
    • Original research or data
    • Graphics or any form of illustration
    • Tools or resources

    The important thing is to create something that is missing, or that will be extremely useful in the niche. Although this approach will take more time and effort initially, achieving the strongest, highest-quality links in the long run is the best way.

  2. Ask for Links: There are times, though, when you have to go out and search for links to build. This entails getting the list of relevant sites and then contacting the site owners to request a link. Common approaches include:
    • Contributing your content to other people’s blogs
    • Proposing to replace some of the older contents with your newer material
    • Proposing your resource as a source of information for their “further reading” list

    This means that the essence of success, in this case, is to understand the consumers and give them what they want and need. Tried-and-true inviting techniques are used to send invitations to many people who do not hold water here. Therefore, do not be in a rush and try to guess the site you are contacting. Instead, define how your content could be useful to the site’s visitors as clearly as possible.

  3. Add Links: This method to earn backlinks entails placing links on other sites. Although such links are normally relatively simple, they generally contain less SEO juice. Examples include:
    • Social media profiles
    • Business directory listings
    • Forum signatures

    Although such links do not raise your search engine results much, they are valuable for diversifying the link profile and attracting some visitors.

  4. Buy Links: Buying links is a debatable issue in SEO. Despite being a rather effective method of getting links, search engines normally ban it, and any link acquired through such methods will attract penalties in case of detection. We don’t wish to endorse this method, particularly if you are new to trading.

That money could be spent on creating good content or a campaign that organically earns good links.

As such, it’s time to present some elementary strategies for obtaining quality backlinks to your website. So, always remember that the most effective link-building strategy may encompass various strategies.

  1. Conduct Email Outreach: In many link-building strategies, email communication remains a significant part of building links. It includes finding the specific website to which one wants to link their site and then requesting to be linked. Here’s a simple process:
    1. Look for targets (in other words, sites that have linked to related content)
    2. Identify the right contact person
    3. Create a timely, relevant, and customization-oriented email
    4. If you do not receive a response, then escalate politely.
  2. Content Promotion: Coming up with great content is just half the work. You must push it to get it in front of people who might link to it so it ranks higher on search engines. Try these approaches:
    1. Share on social media platforms
    2. Share with your email subscribers
    3. Approach people in your area of interest
    4. Provide content to content curation websites

    The more people view your content, the more likely you will attract natural links.

  3. Try Broken Link Building: This smart strategy involves searching for dead links in other websites and recommending your content as the new link. Here’s how:
    1. Search for the pages with a huge number of links pointing to other websites
    2. Use a tool to check for broken links
    3. If your content is similar to this, then it is better to contact the site owner
    4. You should suggest your link as the one to replace the broken one.
  4. Create Linkable Assets: Linkable assets are contents made with the primary purpose of being linked. These could be:
    1. Comprehensive guides
    2. Original research or surveys
    3. Graphics or any other visual material
    4. Free tools or resources

    The idea is to develop something new and useful that your industry competitor would be interested in citing.

  5. Find Unlinked Brand Mentions: People often refer to your brand on the website, but they do not include a link to your site. These are golden opportunities for easy linkages. Search for the use of your brand, contact the site’s owner, and politely request that they link to your site.
  6. Analyze Competitor Backlinks: Competitors are one of the best resources when it comes to link building. There is a tool for this; use it to determine where they get their links from. Then, one should attempt to obtain links from the same places. You might:
    • Writing a guest post on the same blogs
    • Place your business in the same directories
    • Produce more of the same but higher quality content to gain links

    Remember that if a site links to your competitor, it could be interested in linking to you.

  7. Reclaim Lost Backlinks: It is also important to know that some of the backlinks you have gained might disappear over time. This could result from changes to the site’s new content. Scour the Internet for missing links and try to get a hold of the Webmasters to return the links. More often than not, the site owners will not mind returning the link if you kindly request it from them.
  8. Do a Backlink Gap Analysis: This involves comparing the backlink profile to your competitors’ profiles. Other sites may link to multiple competitors, but there is no link to your site. These are your best prospects for them to link to sites in your niche since they have already been linking to such sites.
  9. Digital PR: Public relations is one of the most effective link-building strategies. Try these approaches:
    • Distribute press releases in cases when something important happened
    • Provide quotes or interviews to the journalists.
    • Post a new piece of interesting data or a study
  10. Targeted Link Outreach: This can entail focusing on very particular link targets and, therefore, developing very targeted messages. For example, you might:
    • Look for communities that have resource pages within your area of interest
    • Ensure the blogs have a history of linking out to resources that readers would find useful.
    • Find people who select interesting materials for their readers.

    Then, developing content specifically for these targets and contacting them with a personal appeal is possible.

Conclusion

Link building is one of the most important components of SEO, and it can help increase your site’s ranking. A Backlink profile is crucial for any website, and SEO Services at AlgoSaga, we are well aware of this and can assist you in creating a proper link-building plan. It is important to note that quality is always better than quantity in link building. Concentrate on generating quality and relevant content and not just being a bot or spam to people in your field. For the most part, it’ll take time and good work to see your site’s search rank and organic visitors grow steadily.