10 Things every link builder should know

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Nov 9, 2018 / by
10 Things every link builder should know

The world of link building is becoming tougher to penetrate. It is a role viewed by the online community with indifference at best; loathing at worst. Yet it’s still one of the most intensive and attractive ways to market your online presence, and so as long as there are SEO marketers, there will be link builders.

If you’re one of these poor, vilified ‘linkers’ and you’re fresh to the game, there are a few things you really should know that will make your working life a little less stressful. Here we’ll take you through 10 of the most important.

How to get a bad backlink removed

Remember that it takes just as much time and effort to remove a bad backlink as it does to build one in the first place. With this in mind, if you want a link removed for one reason or another, be as respectful as possible to the site owner. Give them help too by letting them know where the link is specifically located, as they might own a few sites and probably won’t have the time or inclination to scour through hundreds of pages themselves.

How to avoid paid links

Paying to link another site to yours is against Google’s guidelines. Paid links might seem like a tantalising prospect on the surface, but it’s incredibly risky and not recommended for anyone wishing to create organic links. Paid links are also generally poor links, often placed on sites that won’t generate much traffic. It’s often more of a numbers game (throw enough at the wall and something will stick). In link building, however, it should always be quality over quantity.

Website contentHow to write the content that people want

It doesn’t matter if your link building skills are beyond reproach; if you don’t have the content to back it up, you might as well not even bother. A decent way to figure out exactly what content people want to read is to search for questions that haven’t been answered yet. Also, try to steer clear of subjects and article ideas that have already been done to death. Thinking outside the box, you could also try searching parodic sites to see what’s popular amongst the masses, then use this information to your advantage.

How to promote that content

Unless your site is incredibly popular, it’s unlikely that you’ll get daily hits simply out of curiosity. People need to be told that there’s new content for them to read, so let them know via social media, word of mouth or via online forums. Forums are particularly handy as you’ll be able to specifically target your audience, which is helpful if your niche is quite obscure.

How to make sure links work everywhere

We’re talking here about mobile devices (smartphones, tablets etc.), since they’re on pace to become everyone’s device of choice. To test, simply guide your own mobile devices browser to your newly created links and check that everything is running smoothly. Mobile-first is a phrase you’ll hear a lot in today’s industry. Don’t be afraid to use it like a mantra!

How to tell you’re in line with the rest of the industry

Whilst the very best should always lead the way, there has to be an element of cohesion in any industry. Before you start link building, you should make an effort to check out your competition and see how they incorporate link building into their SEO marketing. Maybe they use more homepage links than deep links or maybe they use social media quite extensively, in which case you could choose to either follow your competitors or go against the grain and carve out a niche for yourself. Either way, you’ll be making an informed decision.

How to work manually (without Tools)

Sometimes link builders rely too heavily on software tools that do the lion’s share of their job for them. Tools are prone to failure, especially when you need them most. If you can look at a site and immediately recognise that it’s a good place for a link, you’re off to a good start.

How to identify site problems

This is an easy one, as there are numerous software programs which have been designed to do just this. “Screaming Frog” is particularly useful for sourcing potential SEO issues and it’s recommended you run every potential site through it before you go ahead with your link building.

How to check if you’ve been penalised

If your rankings have fallen dramatically in a short space of time, don’t automatically assume your site has been penalised. That being said, if you keep checking Google every day for a week and still can’t find your site, something might be wrong. Check your content and take assertive action to get your site reinstated.

How to know which inbound links are valuable

There are countless types of inbound links, but not all are born equal. The links you want to try and chase are relevant links placed on sites with either a great amount of existing traffic or a large amount of traffic building potential. User-generated content from sites such as Reddit are always a great source for this, as users will trust the information as a genuine opinion. Knowing how to infiltrate these sites and build links into conversations organically is an art that you won’t learn overnight. Like anything worthwhile in life, practice makes perfect.

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