Senior Content marketer at Smartlinks.ai and Smarttask.io. Passionate about B2B SaaS and Artificial Intelligence. I’ve been in the content space for over 6 years and have first-hand experience in how On-Page and Off-Page SEO affect a site's traffic. These articles enable me to share my learnings and help you achieve better search results.
We all know that backlinks + high-quality content = higher rankings.
But building backlinks – especially those that drive results – can be challenging.
In this post, we’ll introduce 5 effective link-building strategies for acquiring such links. We’ll also share some helpful tips for achieving optimal results and using your resources more efficiently.
So, without further ado: here are 5 strategies for building high-quality links in 2024.
1. Write Thought Leadership Content
As AI-generated content becomes more prevalent, brands must look beyond traditional formats (listicles, how-to guides, and what-is articles) and create truly unique content.
That’s where thought leadership comes in.
Generally, thought leadership content contains information and insights specific to the author. It also features contrarian yet defensible views supported by structured arguments.
Since thought leadership content, by its very nature, is E-E-A-T compliant, it's more likely to be cited as a resource and attract high-quality links. That said, to make the most of it, you must consider the following:
Create high-quality content: Ensure your company's C-suite executives, key decision-makers, or founders create the content. They often possess the necessary expertise and experience, and social media following for promotion.
Promote Proactively: Leveragesocial media, newsletters, and industry-specific communities to promote your thought leadership content. The more visibility it receives, the more likely it is to be discovered and linked to.
Monitor and Engage: Keep track of mentions and discussions surrounding your thought leadership content. Respond to comments and participate in relevant conversations. This helps foster relationships and encourages others to link back to your content.
P.S.: As an added measure, opt for a zero-outreach solution, like Smartlinks, to boost your link-building efforts.
Depending on their capabilities, link-building tools can simplify outreach, fetch relevant opportunities, or automate the entire process of creating backlinks.
Therefore, they can be a valuable addition to your current link-building strategies. However, to leverage them effectively, you’ll have to specify your requirements.
Do you want to automate prospect identification and outreach? Or do you want to generate backlinks automatically?
A word of caution though: the latter doesn’t guarantee link quality and therefore, cannot be a reliable strategy.
This leaves us with options that require human intervention - which is great if a system fosters trust and cooperation among users.
Smartlinks, for instance, facilitates link-building using Karma points. Let’s see how that looks in practice:
You register your website on Smartlinks and upload link-worthy content.
Next, the platform scans your content (and keywords) and uses your preset criteria (DR, Traffic, Spam Score) to look for relevant opportunities within the ecosystem.
Once the system fetches relevant articles for you, you target a website and send an inbound request for a link.
If your request goes through, the system deducts Karma points equal to your target website’s DR from your account. On the other hand, if you give a link to another website, the system adds Karma points equal to that site’s DR to your account.
And there you have it, a rapid, trustworthy link-building solution that’s also cost-effective.
3. Identify and Fix Broken Links
Broken link-building is the process of identifying broken (dead) links on other websites and offering to replace them with working links from your website. It entails three steps:
Step 1 - Use a site audit tool to find broken links on a target website
Step - 2 Create high-quality content to replace the broken link
Step - 3 Convince the webmaster that your link is valuable
The last step requires considerable time and effort since webmasters don’t usually respond to requests. But that’s because they’re:
Gain a competitive advantage: Your chance of repairing a broken link is much higher if your resource is unparalleled. For instance, if you want to earn a backlink for a tool, you must ensure that your offering is unique or has exceptional features. The same goes for content, which needs to be far superior to what’s already written.
Focus on recent content: No one cares about broken links in articles published a few years ago. Dead links in a recent post, however, will undoubtedly draw attention. That’s why we recommend you look for opportunities (or dead links) in more recent posts of a target website.
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Pro-tip: Don't be discouraged if you don't receive a response right away. Instead, follow up regularly on your request.
4. Use Digital PR
Digital PR leverages public relations tactics to earn high-quality backlinks for a website. It involves creating and distributing linkable assets, pitching stories to journalists, and participating in industry events.
Now there are two ways to approach digital PR:
a) Develop link-worthy content
In this case, you develop newsworthy content and reach out to relevant publications for backlinks.
When executed correctly, this form of digital PR can be quite effective for building quality links. However, depending on the format (case studies, infographics, original research), it may require considerable time and effort.
Here’s how you can address these challenges:
Build relationships with journalists: Networking is the key here. If you know the right people, you could pitch your resources directly to them instead of spending time on outreach.
Focus on creating quality assets: Focus on creating fewer but highly valuable assets each quarter. That way, you can free up your resources for other lucrative content projects.
Repurpose previous content: If you have valuable content from before that’s still relevant, you can repurpose it into a different format, like infographics, to earn backlinks.
b) Develop topical content
Also known as reactive digital PR, this approach entails creating content that engages with current events and trends. It’s often used to establish a brand as a specialist or thought leader in a particular niche.
To do reactive digital PR, you can leave comments on news stories and create topical content. However, since you’re not the only player in the game, you’ll have to take the following measures to stay ahead:
Use tools to monitor trends: Customize your Google news feed to see relevant stories. Also, turn on alerts for breaking news, product updates, and daily briefings. Alternatively, invest in a tool like Buzzsumo to research popular topics in your niche.
Ensure seamless approval for content: Ensuring swift approvals for any content created in response to an event (or trend) is crucial here. Reactive digital PR is all about speed. The faster you respond, the greater your chances of getting noticed.
Overall, digital PR is a solid link-building strategy that requires a few optimizations and tweaks to deliver stellar results in 2023.
5. Join Marketing Communities
Marketing communities on Slack, Facebook, and Discord can be a great source of link-building opportunities. Nevertheless, you must be careful when leveraging them, or you’ll earn a penalty.
We suggest you consider the following factors when using communities for link-building:
a) Community intent
Before prospecting a community for links, you must verify its intent and read its guidelines.
That’s because some marketing communities, like Superpath (Slack) and OnlineGeniuses (Slack), are devoted to sharing valuable insights, job listings, and career advice. But they don’t actively promote link-building.
Meanwhile, communities like Smartlinks(Slack) focus on marketing tips, insights, and exclusive link-building opportunities.
b) Quality of links
When assessing a community, consider how selective it is in admitting new members. Is it invite-only or public? Is it open to everyone or only to websites in a particular niche? Does it filter member applications based on their traffic, spam score, and DA (domain authority)?
This will enable you to determine the quality of links you may acquire and allocate resources accordingly.
c) Level of engagement
This can be instrumental in measuring the potential of a community. An active community (with daily posts and contributions) would be more beneficial than one with sporadic activity.
Also, communities that incentivize user participation (with access to exclusive channels and opportunities) would be well worth your time.
P.S.: Online communities can be an asset for link-building, but they don’t always yield instant results. That’s why, we recommend using a zero-outreach solution, like Smartlinks, to build backlinks alongside.
A link-building strategy is a plan for acquiring more links from other websites to yours. Links are one of the primary ranking factors in Google, so having a strategy that helps you earn them sustainably can be crucial.
Higher rankings: Each high-quality link acts like a vote of trust, making search engines view your site as more authoritative and relevant.
Improved brand awareness: When numerous websites link to your content, your brand gains more authority and becomes more visible.
Increased organic traffic: Besides improving your search engine rankings, high-quality backlinks also direct users from other websites to yours.
Enduring relationships with industry partners: Link-building often involves collaborating with other websites and influencers in your niche. Over time, these associations can become lasting relationships.
Improved lead generation: With increased rankings and traffic, your website is more likely to generate qualified leads.
What link-building strategies should you avoid in 2023?
Given the increasing sophistication of search engine algorithms and the emphasis on user experience, here are some link-building strategies that you should avoid in 2023:
Excessive Link Exchanges: While link exchanges aren't inherently wrong, they can be seen as manipulative if done excessively and without relevance.
Spammy Guest Posting: When done correctly, guest posting can be an effective strategy. However, submitting low-quality content to irrelevant blogs can lower your rankings.
Creating PBNs (Private Blog Networks): This involves creating a network of websites for passing authority between them. It’s one of the easiest ways to earn a penalty from Google.
Over-Optimized Anchor Text: Using the exact match keyword too often in your anchor text can be seen as spammy behavior.
Senior Content marketer at Smartlinks.ai and Smarttask.io. Passionate about B2B SaaS and Artificial Intelligence. I’ve been in the content space for over 6 years and have first-hand experience in how On-Page and Off-Page SEO affect a site's traffic. These articles enable me to share my learnings and help you achieve better search results.
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