what it is and best strategies to get links

In this guide we are going to teach you what is link buildingas well as the best strategies to get links effectively, whether through agreements or naturally.

To corroborate the information, we have used as a basis the 7th Publisuites link building study, which confirms some of the most important trends when it comes to increasing the authority of our website.

What is link building?

Link building is the practice of include links on other web pages so that they point to yours. In other words, it is getting others to talk about you by linking to you.

When a media outlet or a blog mentions you, placing a link, For Google it is like a vote of confidence. Will tell:

“Look, this person’s site seems relevant, since many websites talk about it and link to it.”

Thus, we improve our authority in the eyes of Google (increasing our SEO positioning) and we favor that more people visit us through these links.

It is, therefore, a particularly relevant strategy to increase the visibility of our website.

How to get links to your website?

The key question here is how do we get others to talk about us and link to us. Because, unfortunately, it is not an easy task.

According to theory, You need to create content so incredibly good that others link to you naturally., recommending you on their websites. This no longer has the name of link building, but of linkbaiting (get genuine, organic and free links).

However, in practice, this becomes very complicated, as few people link to their sources, and even fewer if they don’t know you because you are just starting out.

What usually happens then is that We contact the media or blogs where we would like to appearso that they give us a rate for a sponsored post, where we will include a link to our website in exchange for financial remuneration.

And this is where the first way to get links comes into play: paying.

Purchase sponsored articles

Purchasing sponsored articles has become the most common link building practice to get others to link to you. If I want to appear on a website, I pay for a sponsored post, and that’s it.

In the eyes of Google this is not positive, since we are manipulating our authority in exchange for money, but realistically, it is a practice that is carried out every day and that, if we do it properly (as we will tell you later) we will reduce the risks that Google discovers that there has been a paid collaboration.

Our recommendation is that you look for those websites that rank on Google for the terms that interest you: if you want to rank for the keyword “how to do sports at home”, access the pages that appear in the first results.

Next, look for their contact section and ask them how much they charge for a sponsored post. In this way, you will already have options to appear in them.

Finally, if this seems too cumbersome to you, There are marketplaces where many blogs and media outlets listwith the price included, so that at a glance you know where you could buy items and at what cost, like at Publisuites.

Interviews

Beyond buying links, there are methods to get links naturally and for freewhich I imagine is something that will catch your attention.

As I mentioned at the beginning, it is not something easy, but if we dedicate time and effort we could achieve mentions without having to pay for sponsored articles.

The first of these methods has to do with interviews:

• Interview leaders in your sector, so that they can share this interview among their community. In this way, they will be able to reach your audience, and you will reach theirs. The beginning will be difficult because more people will reject your proposal, but the more followers you have, the more attractive you will be to top-level guests.
• Being interviewed on other blogs or channels, so that they include a link to your website. Likewise, at first it will be difficult to get interviews, but you have to try, especially if you have achievements or real cases that impact and are worth telling. This way, you will attract more attention from the interviewers.

In both cases, whether you are the interviewee or the interviewer, you will be able to reach the community of other references, and they could put a link to you on their websites.

Guest posting

“Guest posting” consists of post articles as a guest author on other blogs.

Obviously, not only with the idea of ​​writing content, but to put a link to your website and/or social networks, in order to improve that authority that we want so much for Google.

We have two main ways to find blogs that accept articles from guest authors:

• Contact bloggers personally of the places where we want to appear. Using their contact form is one way to do it, but if you see them in person at an event or network, you will increase the chances that they will say yes to publishing something on their blogs, putting a link to your website as a reference.
• Search Google with the following command, and that will show websites on Google that use your keyword or topic that have had guest authors. You can replace “guest author” with any related words such as “guest authors”, “collaborate with us”, “publish your article”, etc.
  • keyword “guest author”

Forums and directories

Including links in our messages published in forums or directories is also another free way to improve our authority. The only negative thing is that They usually don’t have that much value for Google such as those links from articles.

However, everything adds up, no matter how little.

Keep in mind that forums tend to be heavily moderated, so you must include a link that is relevant, useful and does not look like spam. For example, surrounding it with text that is relevant and provides context to the source.

Otherwise, it is very likely that they will end up deleting your message.

On the other hand, it will also help that you are an active user on said forum: Thus, the moderators will see that you have not only posted a message with links, but that you contribute to other topics with “normal” messages.

The key is to find a balance point to put links in the occasional message, but without being spam.

Participate in prizes and contests

Participating in prizes is a very simple way to get a high-quality link on a high-authority domain and just dedicating a few minutes of our time.

These awards change depending on the season.: some disappear, as is the case of the Blogs or the 20 Minutes Awards, but new ones constantly appear that reward the “best blog” in certain categories.

Normally They are organized by large corporations or newspapersso if you mention us, we will get a high-quality link.

Links on social networks

When we create a social media profile, enable a field to include our website. This is where we must take advantage of the opportunity to get another quality link to our site.

However, for this to be even more effective, the ideal is that you have active social media accounts with followers, since this way you will be able to derive visits from your social network to your website.

But, Try to interact a minimum so that the Google spider can find your profile more easily.: Follow some related accounts, comment on some posts, upload your own shares, and give a touch of naturalness and initial activity to your social networks.

Create newsworthy content

The most recommended strategy by Google It is publishing content so incredibly good that it is shared and linked to naturally by others.

To increase the chances that a blog or media outlet will echo your news, It is important to work on our relationship with journalists: Establish relationships with authors who publish on your topic, and share your latest publications with them.

Even if you have prepared a field study, research, or an infographic, they may be interested in sharing it on their media and thus achieving a link to your website.

I know it’s not easy, and it’s tempting to simply buy a sponsored post, but if you want to listen to Google and be completely naturalthis is one of the few strategies that exist for this.

Remember, on the other hand, that for a news item to be newsworthy it must meet one of the following requirements:

• Be of interest to the general population.
• That directly affects people’s lives (their economy, their health…).
• Present a shocking, surprising or difficult fact to believe until you read the article.
• The proximity factor: if there is news about the town or city where I live, its news interest will increase.
• That provokes learning worth sharing.
• That generates a very strong emotion (laughter, mystery, surprise, fear…).

These factors can increase the chances that your articles will be shared more, and you will end up receiving links naturally.

Recommendations for good link building

Finally, for a link to convey the greatest authority possible, and that Google values ​​it as a top quality linkwe should follow a series of recommendations at the SEO level:

• What the topic of the article (either a sponsored one, or a natural one) have affinity theme with your website
• that the media have good authority, and have good visibility on Google. That is to say, a link from Harvard University is not the same as a blog that has just started and no one knows.
• Do not be marked as a sponsored postnor with the “nofollow” or “sponsored” label, since otherwise, Google will detect that it is paid and will lower the transmitted authority.
• They must assign you an author and category normal of the post. Sometimes, when we buy a sponsored post, they include us in the “Communications” category, or an unnamed author, and if we click on it, we will see that it is full of other associated sponsored posts. That gives clues that ours is also a sponsored one, and we don’t want that.
• That the article can position for a keyword, so that you have organic traffic. That is to say, that the article where we are linked, in turn, has quality to position itself in Google and receive visits for a keyword. For this, you can previously do Keyword Research.
• When we write the article, the Link text must have the keyword or our brand, so that Google knows what the link is referring to. Do not use generic terms such as “click here”, “see more”, etc. because it does not provide semantics.
• Use these link building strategies to link to priority URLs for the business. If a URL is not going to generate income or contribute to your business objectives, do not give it priority over another that does.

With these recommendations, we are sure that you will have a much better link building strategy than much of your competition.

And you, what advice and methods would you give to do quality link building?

SEO Podcaster at Campamento Web, the most listened to SEO news and interview program in Spanish. Graduated in Communication from Loyola University, teacher and SEO consultant, he has focused his areas of specialization in the field of communication and web positioning for more than 10 years.