Get a guide to effective link building and learn how you can improve your website's authority and visibility in search engines.
Ieva Treiliha
Why am I not ranking at the top of Google search results? My website looks fantastic! If this is a question you recognise and are struggling with, the answer is most likely that you have not optimised your website for search engines. As outlined in a previous post, search engine optimisation includes a wide range of disciplines, including link building, which together ensure better rankings for your primary keywords. Thorough on-site optimisation should always be the first priority – this means a website that, among other things, meets the requirements for fast loading times, responsive design, an SSL certificate, and sharp, content-rich landing pages. Read more about search engine optimisation here.
Once you have checked off on-page optimisation, an equally important and sometimes delicate discipline awaits: link building. Strong inbound links can be the difference between treading water desperately on page 5 of Google, or looking down on your competitors from the top of page 1 as you bring visitors to your site and increase your opportunities for revenue.
Link building is a discipline within search engine optimisation, which in most cases is handled by agencies. This is partly because it requires up-to-date knowledge of the field and partly because it can be difficult to navigate between good and bad link building. But what exactly is link building? And why is it so crucial that other sites link to you? Here you will find an overview of how to do effective link building in 2022.
As with so many other terms in this industry, we use the English word link building. You could also simply say that you are working to obtain or build inbound links to your own website. And why is this important? Well, to Google, a link from another website is the equivalent of a recommendation. If I link from my site to yours, it signals that I am recommending your content, service, or products.
Google’s main task is to serve users with the best and most relevant results when they search for something specific, and in addition to an SEO-optimised website, inbound links are a crucial factor. But how do you do link building, and how do you distinguish between good/beneficial and poor/harmful link building? The distinction is often a fine line, as ‘best practice’ within link building has evolved significantly in recent years. Today, we have a good idea of which link building strategies can help improve your keyword rankings.
One might think that the number of recommendations/links is what determines whether Google values your site. This was the case in the early days, when it was all about harvesting as many links as possible from all sorts of sites, whether dubious or not. In other words, quantity used to be decisive for whether a site ranked well in search results. That strategy does not work today. In the worst case, Google can penalise you if your link profile consists of inbound links from poor and irrelevant sites.
Quality has become the key word in modern link building, and understandably so. For example, imagine two books. One is recommended by an established author, the other by 10 children who cannot yet read. Would you choose quality or quantity?
Now that we know Google rewards sites with relevant, high-quality inbound links, what does that actually mean? Relevance in this context means that you receive a link from a site that, in some way, is in the same category as your own website. For example, if you run an online shop selling menswear and you get a link from Euroman, this would be an extremely valuable link, as it comes from a site dealing with your core products – in this case, men’s fashion. However, relevance is not limited to the industry. It can also be geographical. For instance, if you have a carpentry business in a specific town, a link from the local newspaper would also be powerful.
In addition to relevance, Google also assesses the strength of the domain from which you gain a link. If the domain has a high domain rating – that is, significant trust from Google – this will also benefit your own site. It is an important signal to Google when strong sites link to you, as it indicates that you have something of interest to offer. Furthermore, Google places great importance on receiving links from unique domains, meaning from different domains rather than many different pages on the same domain.
Going a step further, there are several other factors that influence the value you gain from a link. For example, the placement of the link on the site is significant. A link placed in the footer does not provide the same value as one placed at the top of the main text. Again, placement signals to Google how relevant or important a link is.
Moreover, the anchor text used is also a factor – that is, the word or phrase forming the actual link. If, for example, you have a page selling heat pumps at competitive prices, an anchor text such as ‘cheap heat pumps’ will be effective. Here, there is a clear connection between the link and the website. However, it is important to vary your anchor texts so that they include the relevant keyword, full sentences and generic phrases such as ‘see here’, ‘read more’ and so on.
In short: It is about obtaining links from relevant and strong sites, about the placement of the link and about the anchor text. All of this is well and good, but how do you actually go about acquiring these links in practice?
There are countless ways to get inbound links to your site, but it is not always easy to acquire links of the necessary quality. If you have the right mix of creativity, thoroughness and optimism, you have a good chance of developing a successful link building recipe.
It is worth noting that you should use several different types of link opportunities, as it is optimal to have a varied link profile. Varied in the sense that your link profile consists of different types of links. At the same time, it can be risky to obtain 100 links all at once, as this can make your link profile appear unnatural and may result in a penalty from Google. Below are examples of where and how you can acquire links to your site, so you can climb to the top of Google.
Natural links
Not all businesses are fortunate enough to receive a wave of natural links – that is, links that come to you simply because you have great products that generate buzz and people want to recognise you with a link. However, you can increase your chances of natural links by creating outstanding content on your site that provides value to others. Who knows, it may be so good that people reward you with a link?
Network and supplier links
Some of the easiest and strongest links you can get are via your network. ‘Network’ can mean many things, but it is particularly relevant when it comes to business partners and suppliers. For example, if you have an online shop selling products from an external brand, it is quite possible to get a strong link here. Or, if you sell flooring, your flooring probably comes from an external supplier who is also interested in directing people to your site to buy their floors. You might also support others through sponsorships, either as charity or through local involvement in an association. Here too, there is an obvious link opportunity. Go through your network systematically and secure strong inbound links.
‘Sell’ your content for links
Another strategy that often results in strong links is to create excellent content and get it published on relevant blogs. You undoubtedly have a wealth of knowledge within your industry, and you should use this to create outstanding content that will benefit the blog, its users and, not least, yourself. Start by finding a suitable site to publish your content and then create informative, well-written material. Once this is in place, it is all about outreach – the skill of contacting relevant sites and convincing them to publish your content with the associated link. This can be a challenging process, and it may not pay off the first few times. If so, optimise your content and practise ‘selling’ it.
Press and advertorials
In the same vein, press work can be a highly effective link building strategy for several reasons. Not only do you have the opportunity to share a positive story about your business, but online media are almost always strong and trustworthy domains. Your press strategy will depend on whether you are a small business or one of the big players in the market. If you have a well-known brand, the right story can get you into national media and possibly secure a very strong link. If you are a smaller business, there is no need to give up. It is often much easier to have your story published in local media, even if you are a small, unknown company. This is partly because local media have fewer resources and are often delighted to receive a good story on a silver platter.
It does not have to be a ground-breaking news story for your story to be published. A small success story or an upcoming event can often be enough. If you get your story published, you secure valuable local coverage – but remember, you are also seeking strong links. After publication, contact the journalist and ask if they would include a link to your website in the story, as it will also benefit the readers. Below is an example of a story that could be of interest to the local newspaper.
Another, more recent, way to obtain links from media is through so-called advertorials, which have become even more common since 2019. Advertorials are a combination of ‘advertise’ (to advertise) and ‘editorial’ (editorial). You can define advertorials as advertising disguised as journalism. The story is presented as any other article in both form and content, with the only difference being a small label at the top stating ‘Advertisement’ or ‘Sponsored Content’. Most media now offer the possibility of advertorials – either by you providing the content or by them writing the story themselves. However, many media outlets are still torn between financial incentives and their journalistic integrity.
Media are generally under financial pressure, and advertorials are an easy source of income. At the same time, it can be hard to distinguish between quality journalism and advertising for a random company. In any case, both media and businesses benefit from this opportunity, which is why it has become a popular strategy for acquiring links. Advertorials can be expensive depending on the media, but they offer a unique chance to publish a story and obtain a link from some of the most trusted domains in the country.
Link directories
In the early days of SEO, link directories were almost the main source of inbound links, but today they are almost a dirty word. Link directories are sites where you can manually list your business and get a link to your site. With few exceptions, directories are weak domains with little value, so you should be cautious about this strategy. That said, it is not a completely useless method. It especially depends on whether the directory is relevant to your site – for example, a directory for restaurants if you are a restaurant. In this case, there may be some benefit, but as mentioned earlier, it is essential that your link profile is varied. A link from a directory now and then can be fine, as long as it is followed by other strong links.
Links from competitors
One of the first things you should do when starting with link building is to analyse your competitors’ link profiles. There are several link tools, such as Ahrefs, that show where your competitors are getting their links from. Analysing competitor links is a quick and easy way to get an overview of where strong links are available for you as well. If your competitors can secure an inbound link from a particular site, there is a good chance you can too. This way, you pick the low-hanging fruit first and build the foundation for your ongoing link building.
Revive dead links
The last link opportunity in this round requires some detective work. The method involves identifying relevant sites that link out to other sites – perhaps even your competitors – but where the link is dead, i.e. a ‘404 error’. The site in question does not want to link to a page that does not work, and this is where you can benefit. Once you have identified a 404 error, consider how you can get the site to link to yours instead. Sometimes, simply notifying the webmaster of the problem is enough, and as a thank you, you receive the link, provided your content is related to the original. In other cases, you may need to create new content specifically targeted to the original link.
If you succeed with the link building strategies above, you are well on your way to outpacing your competitors. But obtaining inbound links from external sites is far from the only discipline within link building. Before you start with supplier links, content outreach and so on, you should ensure your own internal link structure is in order.
As part of the initial on-page SEO work, you need to make your site easy to navigate – both for your customers/visitors and, crucially, for Google. By carefully planning your internal link structure, you can guide visitors to the areas of your site you want them to see. For example, you can include links in the text on your homepage directing visitors to the landing pages you want to focus on. By adding these internal links, you also signal to Google that the particular landing page is important, and Google takes note of this.
In many cases, you can access the various landing pages via the menu, so does that count as internal links? In theory, yes, but there is still value in integrating them within the text. You probably also have content that is several clicks away from the homepage. Internal links can shorten the path to this valuable content, which will almost certainly result in more traffic. Google also considers the distance to the homepage when evaluating a landing page. The closer your content is to the homepage, the better your chances of ranking for your main keywords. Here too, it is about signalling importance. If it takes eight clicks to reach your content, Google assumes it is not a priority or important page.
There is no doubt that external link building and internal link structure are the most important disciplines when striving for better rankings in Google’s search results. But there is also another method that is often overlooked – linking out to external sites. For years, there has been uncertainty about whether linking to other sites has any value, but if done properly, there is definitely something to be gained.
When you link out to others, you ensure users can access even more information. Google values this, as it positions your site as trustworthy. However, your outbound links must make sense, lead to other authoritative sites, and ideally improve the user experience – otherwise, it may be a wasted effort. Do you have to link to your competitors? No, not necessarily, but to sites related to your industry and content. This can also increase your brand awareness and create the possibility of receiving a link yourself at a later stage.
Many fear losing visitors by adding outbound links, and there is indeed a risk of this happening. However, the positive signal you send to Google may be worth more in the long run. It is a good idea to set outbound links to open in a new tab, so users can easily and quickly return to your site. And they most likely will if they feel you have been the source of further valuable information.
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