Link building used to be so simple.
All you had to do was write a few guest posts, sneak a few comments onto your competitor’s blogs, share your articles on social media and voila! Backlinks for days.
Now, it’s turned into an ambiguous and often conflicting list of arduous tasks so long and convoluted that it reads like an unabridged Ayn Rand novel.
This has caused many entrepreneurs and agency owners to land in “Link Building Purgatory” where they are so overwhelmed by the plethora of strategies and recommendations that they are unable to take action on any of them.
Luckily, this doesn’t have to be your reality.
If you know what you’re doing, building links for your agency can be simple, easy even.
And in this article, I’m going to share the 8 most effective link building strategies of 2018 that will help you turbocharge your SEO success and achieve the first-page ranking you so desperately desire.
Let’s dive in.
1. Become a Top Writer on Quora
For those of you who don’t know, Quora is an up and coming social media platform that allows users to ask and answer questions in highly specific niches.
With massive influencers such as Ron Rule (the CEO of ‘As Seen on TV’), James Altucher, and Neil Patel regularly answering questions and sharing content, it’s rapidly becoming a hub for entrepreneurs and thought leaders to share their expertise and generate a massive following.
However, what most people don’t know about Quora is that it’s easily one of the best ways to generate free backlinks on major publications.
Editors from Forbes, The Huffington Post, Inc.com, and Entrepreneur regularly scour through the top questions and answers on Quora to find relevant content that they can syndicate on their websites.
And this is great news for you…
Despite its rapidly growing user base, Quora is still a relatively unknown platform and the amount of competition that you will face is significantly less than you will find other major social media channels such as Facebook and Instagram.
By investing a few hours each week into writing detailed and highly valuable responses to industry-relevant questions you can quickly grow build an impressive following and easily earn 2-3 backlinks from leading publications every month.
2. Use Infographics as Link Bait
Infographics are, bar none, one of the easiest ways to generate a metric crapload of backlinks (yes, that’s a scientific measurement).
People love the visual appeal and easily consumable content provided within infographics and, as such, they are shared 3x more than any other content on the internet (source).
For example, the following infographic from Brian Dean of backlinko.com was linked to more than 2,500 times!
This means that they are the proverbial “low hanging fruit” of your link building strategy.
By using fiverr.com or hiring an experienced graphic designer, you can create your own highly shareable and valuable infographic in a matter of days.
Once it’s complete, simply share it on all of your social channels, send it to top influencers in your niche, and I can all but guarantee that you will drive dozens of backlinks over the course of the first few months.
3. Woo Influencers with High Quality ‘Round Up’ Articles
Another great tactic for generating backlinks is to create and share high quality content that shines a spotlight on the other influencers inside of your niche.
For example, articles such as “50 Top SEO’s Share Their Best Link Building Strategies for 2018” will allow you to simultaneously provide massive amounts of value to your audience while increasing the likelihood that your content will get picked up and shared by the influencers mentioned within your article (after all, who doesn’t like flattery?)
For example:
It’s important to note that this tactic requires that you create exceptional content.
Most influencers are asked to share dozens of these types of posts each week and, to successfully execute this tactic, your content must stick out from the crowd and offer incredible amounts of value.
I’d recommend Googling “Top entrepreneurs in xyz industry” and then creating a roundup post sharing the top 25-50 tactics and strategies that these individuals promote.
Send them an email once it’s complete and watch the backlinks pour in.
4. Guest Post (Yes, It Still Works)
Despite what some online marketers would lead you to believe, guest posting is not dead.
Far from it.
However, if you plan to use guest posting as a successful link building tactic then you must target highly relevant and authoritative websites only.
Link building isn’t the same in 2019.
You can’t just post on irrelevant or low authority blogs every day and expect to get results.
To effectively drive ‘SEO Juice’ to your agency’s site, you must be hyper targeted with your guest posting and only create content for websites that are in your niche with a domain authority (DA) of 40 or above.
To get started, I recommend that you identify 50-100 blogs in your niche with a strong domain authority that openly accept contributions.
From here, go through the list and submit exceptional posts that offer highly valuable and, if possible, unconventional information.
Build great relationships with the editors and, within a couple of months, you can easily have a roster of 10-15 websites providing you with regular backlinks in exchange for your expertise.
It’s fast, easy, and insanely effective.
5. Land Podcast Interviews on Relevant Shows
Another simple but effective tactic for building a massive number of backlinks is to start landing interviews on podcasts and talk shows that are highly relevant to your industry.
When you are interviewed on one of these podcasts, they will link back to your agency or blog 99.99% of the time.
Not to mention that you will have a chance to showcase your expertise and potentially drive new leads in addition to extra link juice.
If you can hire a VA to handle outreach and scheduling, you can easily generate one new backlink per week in exchange for only an hour or two of your time.
6. Mine for Broken Links and Offer an Alternative
This strategy has been around for years, and with good reason.
It works!
The concept is simple.
By using a tool like Check My Links you can crawl relevant websites and search for broken links that can be replaced with links back to your own content.
When you find one of these links, keep your pitch simple and friendly using something like the following script:
Hey Influencer,
I was reading a post on your website and I noticed that xyz backlink is broken.
The content was fantastic and I just wanted to give you a heads up so you could fix the problem and ensure that everything runs smoothly.
I actually have a similar article that I wrote about subject xyz and, if you want, you can replace the broken link with this one.
Best,
Ryan
Don’t try and get to clever or creative with this tactic. Be upfront and honest and remember that you are providing a solution to a problem that another webmaster has.
7. Use Reciprocity to Build Links with ‘Completitors’
Another simple tactic for building backlinks is to utilize reciprocal link building with your complimentary competitors or “Completitors”.
A ‘Completitor’ is another individual or agency in your same niche who offers services that are complimentary to your own instead of directly competitive.
For example, if you run an agency that specializes in email marketing for fitness companies, a ‘Completitor’ would be an agency that exclusively offers social media marketing in your same industry.
Since these companies will be highly relevant but not directly competitive to your own, this provides an excellent avenue to build reciprocal backlinks.
Link back to your “Completitors” content in one of your own posts and then send them an email to let them know about the link and ask if there is an opportunity for reciprocity.
Nine times out of ten, they will say “Yes”.
And who knows, you may even build a profitable referral relationship that allows you to grow your agencies in tandem.
8. Create Amazing Content
At the end of the day, ALL link building comes back to one core tenant.
Create amazing content.
Period.
Whether you are creating blogs and infographics for your own website, posting killer articles on other websites, or responding to questions on Quora, the only way that you will generate a considerable number of backlinks (with white hat techniques at least) is by creating amazing content.
There’s no other solution.
Great content will trump great marketing every time.
But when you combine great content and great marketing.
That’s when the link building magic can really happens.
Conclusion
Executing a successful link building campaign doesn’t have to be complicated.
By creating valuable content and intelligently marketing it on the right channels, you can easily generate dozens (if not hundreds) of backlinks before the end of 2018.
So test these tactics out for yourself, create insanely valuable content, and be sure to send me a note whenever you’ve launched your website into the upper echelons of the Google SERPs.