10 Link Building Best Practices

You might have designed an attractive, easy-to-navigate website that showcases your products or services. But there is a lot of competition out there. If you want potential customers to see your website, you will need to implement a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plan that boosts your rankings and makes your page one of the top-listed results. Your link building practices should be an essential part of your online strategy.

Link Building Practices

Your site’s links to other websites (called “backlinks”) must be high-quality and relevant. A search engine will take these backlinks into account when ranking your site. People looking for a business on the web generally only look at the first two or three web result pages. So you want your business as close to the top as possible.

Here we will look at 10 link building practices to optimize your SEO efforts. The list is in no particular order or ranking, yet all practices complement each other.

1. Use Your Current Network

If you are new to link building, a great place to start is with your family, friends, and existing customers. Many of them will have blogs or websites, and you can ask them to include a link to your site. You might suggest that the link is included in the content and not relegated to a footer or sidebar.

Of course, you may have to return the favor and add a link to their site on yours.

2. Join Online Groups

Whatever your business/industry, there will almost certainly be an online group or forum that discusses it. Get involved, post interesting content and start to build relationships with other contributors. You will probably find that some of them will link to your business.

3. Match Your Competitors Links

Have a look at your competitors’ websites and who they are linked to. Contact their links and ask if they will link to you since you offer a similar service. Ideally, you offer a better service than your competitor.

There’s nothing underhand in this, as it’s a perfectly acceptable link building practice.

4. Start Your Own Blog

Starting a blog is a great way to build a collection of links. Your first link will be from your blog to your website and vice versa. You can grow your blog by having guest bloggers and offering to link to their site while they link to yours. (See number 7 for more details).

Of course, you will need to keep your blog active and engaging. It’s no use starting a blog, making one post, and forgetting about it. 

5. Check Your Links and Linking Websites

You should constantly check and review the links on your site. Look for the following items during your review:

1. Is the link still active? If not, find out why and ask the other site to refresh it. An application such as SEO Spyglass can help you identify broken links.
2. Is the link useful? You don’t want your visitors to click on a spammy or dubious link. Your backlinks should always be relevant.

6. Hire an Outside Agency

Good link building practices are essential but maintaining a good SEO ranking can take up a lot of your time. If you feel that you can’t afford the necessary time, there are external agencies that will help you build an impressive library of active backlinks.

Two of the leaders in the field are Brize and Interamplify. Others offer a similar service. The drawback is that these companies will charge a fee. It’s up to you to decide if this will be cost-efficient. 

7. Guest Post and Encourage Guest Posting on Your Own Site

Websites and blogs are always looking for content. Find a website or blog relevant to your field and offer to write a post for them. Naturally, your post will include a link to your website. This is an accepted link building practice and is often shared among popular bloggers and content creators.

8. Write Testimonials

Similar to writing a guest post. Many companies welcome testimonials from users of their products. If you use and like a product or service, ask the provider if you can write a testimonial that links to your website. The provider doesn’t have to be in a business that is connected to yours.

For instance, you could write a testimonial for a favorite hotel or restaurant. You will be reaching a wider audience that might provide future business.

9. Turn References into Backlinks

It could be that someone has mentioned your business in an article on the web but hasn’t linked to your site. SERP Research Tool can find these references. Once you have a list, you can email the person responsible and ask them to include a link to your site. This is a simple and effective link building practice.

10. Constant Monitoring

When working to increase your backlinking strategies, you should always keep an eye on:

1. Which sites your competitors are linking to
2. New entrants in your field or related businesses
3. Opportunities to link to new blogs or websites

SEO is a dynamic field, and you need to be conscious of everything that is happening and work out how you can turn it to your advantage.

Final Thoughts

You might think that content is king, but your visitor must first reach your website. Then once a visitor reaches your website, engaging content is fundamentally important.

Search engines, such as Google, value content but the algorithms that drive the rankings are also looking for quality backlinks. Numerous, good-quality, relevant backlinks indicate your site’s importance. Here, your interests and Google’s coincide; the more backlinks you have, the more publicity you are getting and the higher your ranking. Your link building practices are a virtuous cycle that requires your attention.