How to set up an effective link building campaign

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Sep 27, 2019 / by
How to set up an effective link building campaign

Back in the halcyon days of AOL and Yahoo, search engine rankings were 100% dependent on webpage content and the world wide web was a much simpler place.

Once Google rolled out its PageRank Algorithm, however, the game changed completely and it’s been constantly changing ever since.

This was an algorithm that didn’t just rank sites based on content, but based on how many other sites linked to them. The logic behind this was that the more links, the more useful a page must be, but it obviously didn’t take too long until people began to manipulate this logic to their own ends. And therefore, link building was born

Even today, when the tables have arguably turned once again and “content is king,” link building is still a factor that Google’s algorithm utilises when ranking sites. So, what makes for a solid link building campaign in 2019?

Planning – Any link building campaign needs to start with a decent plan. In link building, it’s all about identifying the kind of links you want to build.

Begin by looking at your competitors and examining the kind of links they’re using. This can be done for free by using tools such as Ahrefs and SEMrush, which will analyse pages and be able to measure how well they are performing and why.

Run both your site and your competitors site through these tools and see how they compare and build your plan accordingly.

Asset – There’s no point in building links to nothing. If the asset you’re seeking to promote is not deemed to be credible and relevant to consumers, then you’ll get nowhere.

Before you even consider going any further with a link building strategy, create a site that highlights the benefits of your asset above its features and your link building and business should improve exponentially.

Audience – Any growth strategy will involve either examining how to build your existing audience or how to find a new audience.

Picture not only your existing audience but your ideal audience and make a list of the sites that appeal to this audience – it’s the high-quality links from these sites that will probably prove the most effective.

Content – Google’s algorithm has adapted in recent years to take into account all of the keyword stuffers and bad linkers that once gave link building a bad name.

Today, high-quality content is more important than ever and this means content that’s unique, insightful, authoritative, and informative.

Blogging is a popular method used by most businesses to provide useful content that will attract new clicks and boost their Google ranking, but the content needs to be well-written and relevant to the reader.

Integration – Your link building campaign is just one aspect of a digital marketing campaign that will also take into account everything from social media to email marketing and PR. These strategies rarely work well siloed – they have to be integrated as multiple parts of the same whole.

For example, successful link building will lead to an increase in mentions on social media, which will, in turn, lead to more followers and perhaps more people signing up to your newsletter. Everything is connected.

Relationships – Relationships are at the very heart of link building. Indeed, they are its very essence. Building a link to another site and having that site backlink to you is, technically, a relationship.

So, the better the relationships are within your industry, the more likely you are to develop better quality links. A link also acts as an endorsement, so reach out to bloggers and influencers that you think will chime with your asset and your audience and try to build a relationship with them.

Engaging with your audience on social media is another wonderful way to build a relationship with the people that really matter – the customers.

These are the fundamentals of link building, but there are, of course, other factors to consider. It’s important, for example, to have a decent understanding of how SEO works and once you’ve set up your campaign, you’ll also want to make sure it’s being tracked and analysed (Google Alerts is a very helpful tool here).

In essence, though, link building in 2019 is relatively simple – it’s all about making legitimate connections to valuable content.

Keep that in mind and your campaign will have an incredible impact on your business. You’ll also be that much better equipped to build an even better campaign next time!

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