7 Effective SEO Link-Building Strategies

Backlinks are key for any successful link building SEO strategy, but they cannot be a set-it-and-forget-it kind. Backlinks tend to disappear, become toxic, or just lose their relevancy as time goes by. That means, to keep your search ranking high, you have to constantly find new backlink opportunities. Here are the seven ways to do so.

1) Replicate Your Competitors’ SEO Backlinks

Figuring out which backlinks your competitors have can be a game-changer. Most of the time competitor backlinks can be found on sites relevant to your niche. Like this, you’ll know they are quality backlinks for SEO. This could be a massive task when done manually, but there are free and paid tools available using which you can analyze your competitors’ backlink profiles.

Carefully glean through the backlink pages and find the most powerful SEO link-building opportunities. Then reach out to those site providers to see if they’re willing to link to your site. But before that, check if you already have backlinks from them – if yes, acknowledge those backlinks before asking for another.

2) Use the Broken Link Building Strategy

A broken link building strategy involves a process of finding backlinks that lead to 404 pages on other sites. Then, approach those sites to suggest a replacement of the 404 links with the one that leads to a similar page on your website. If truly relevant, they might agree to use your link as they can eliminate a 404 error without having to find a good replacement.

There are two main ways to find broken backlinks:

Find broken backlinks from your competitors by using a backlink analysis tool. Filter the results to find high-domain authority do-follow backlinks that show a 404 error.
Analyze any specific website you want backlinks from by checking for any relevant broken links.

3) Try to Regain Missing Backlinks

While it’s important to get new backlinks, it’s also worth spending time to find out previous backlinks that are broken or have gone missing. You can find missing backlinks by using backlink analysis tools provided by several SEO services.

These are the most probable reasons for your missing links:

The site owner may have replaced the backlink (link is missing).
The backlink page may not be available (page not found).
The website may temporarily be down (site is down).
The page may have been restricted from indexing.

To restore a missing backlink, contact the site owners for their assistance. Depending on the problem, you can request them:

To put your link on a different page if the earlier one has been removed,
To restore the backlink if it was deleted,
To remove the noindex directives from their pages.

4) Build Links with Images

Images can easily grab a user’s attention and take up space, increasing the chances of getting clicks. That’s why is worth using images (infographics, graphics, product photos, comics etc.) to attract more backlinks.

If you use images as backlinks, make sure the link lands on the broader page with the image and not on the image directory, which is only a dead-end. If the backlinks lead to image directories, you should be setting up filters in your SEO tool to check if any of the target URLs contain images formats. If you find such target URLs, request the site owner for the replacement of the link with the one that leads to the page with the image. They should be fine with it as long as you let them embed your image on their site.

This SEO link-building strategy based on images will surely bring in more clicks for your backlinks.

5) Write guest posts

Guest posting will boost the credibility of your business. It will give your brand greater exposure in front of a new audience. You can also include a link to your website within the content of the post, this is also a great link-building SEO strategy.

6) Get on “best of” lists

Getting on “best of” lists is a great validation of your product or service. It will also include a link to your website on a relevant, authoritative site. To find the best suitable lists, check your competitor’s website. Pay special attention to any dofollow backlinks that have phrases like “best” and “top” in them. You can also contact the site owner or writer to enquire them about the process of getting on one of those lists.

7) Connect with other industry experts

Engaging with experts in your industry through various events, on social media, or other networking efforts can expand your knowledge about SEO link-building. You can attract more people for your site and content who might link back to you. Join an online community and pay attention to any blog posts related to your business. Contact the writer and see if you can get anything useful from them to build your business.