When it comes to SEO services, a link-building strategy plays a big role in driving organic traffic to websites through search engines. Though low-quality link-building may work in the short term, for long-term success, relevance, authenticity, and quality are required. So here are some tips and tricks for successful SEO link building.

What is link-building SEO?

Link building SEO is the method of obtaining hyperlinks from other websites to your website. Hyperlinks or links are a way for internet users to navigate between internet webpages. In SEO, the links are called backlinks or inbound links. Search engines like Google consider these backlinks to be like votes for a webpage; so, webpages with a high number of backlinks rank high on search engine rankings. One of the metrics that Google uses to identify a relevant and trustworthy webpage is to see if other prominent websites link to the content of the webpage in question.

Tips and tricks for SEO link building

Here are some tips and tricks to take your SEO link-building strategies to the next level:

Replicate the backlinks of your competitors

It is crucial in business to figure out who your competitors are, and this extends to SEO as well. The backlinks of your competitors will likely be relevant to you and will be on websites that are pertinent to your market or niche, making them quality backlinks for your SEO strategy. Checking your competitors’ backlinks can be a massive undertaking if done manually. Thankfully, there are both free and paid tools and software available that assist in analyzing the backlinks of competitors’ websites. When you have the required data, go through it and select the one you deem most influential or powerful. Reach out to those websites and check if they would be willing to link to your website.

The broken link-building strategy

The broken link building strategy is the method of finding backlinks leading to 404 webpages on websites, then contacting those websites, and suggesting they replace those 404 webpages with a page that leads to similar content on your website. This strategy is a great way to acquire backlinks while offering value to the website providing the backlink. Again, you can find broken backlinks using free or paid software and tools to do the job. Once you have the data, navigate to the page with the broken backlink and see if you have a relevant webpage to act as a replacement. If you do, you can contact the website to offer them the same.

Restore missing backlinks on your website

It is worth your while to figure out if you have missing backlinks on your website and replace them if you do. Some reasons for missing backlinks are as follows:

The missing link – The link was replaced by the website owner
Page not found – The backlink page is gone
Site is down – The website is currently down
Restricted from indexing – The page is restricted from indexing

To restore missing backlinks, you have to contact the website owners for assistance. Depending on the nature of the problem, you could ask them to do the following:

Restore the backlink in case it was deleted by the owner
Get rid of the no index directives from their webpages
Place your backlink on another webpage

Produce linkable assets

A linkable asset is a piece of high-quality content purposefully crafted to acquire or attract links from other websites. Infographics are arguably the most popular linkable assets around. They present useful data in a concise graphic format and are 30 times more likely to be read than an entire article or blog post. Infographics don’t require an expert graphic designer to make them as customizable templates are available online. Linkable assets are also more likely to be shared over social media, making it easier for you to reach broader audiences.

Get socially (media) active

One of the easiest ways to build backlinks is by posting content from your website onto social media whether that’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or other such sites. Linkable assets come in handy here and work well in social media posts that can be easily shared. To engage effectively on social media, you can

Post infographics with links to your website
Post updates about your brand
Engage with your audience in the comments
Reply effectively to brand mentions
Actively participate in conversation over social media in your niche

Such actions increase brand visibility and have the potential to draw audiences and backlinks. You can also tag other brands in relevant posts. The other brand may share your post or the link on their social media, which could lead to backlinks.

Guest post strategically

Link building SEO used to rely heavily on guest blogging a few years ago. Today, there is an emphasis on relevant and quality guest blog posts. In other words, guest posts strategically keep relevance to your niche and the quality of the website in mind. If you guest post on websites that are not relevant to your niche just to earn backlinks, you would get low-quality backlinks that won’t help your link-building strategy in the long term.

Try to get on the ‘best of lists

A smart SEO link-building strategy is to get on the ‘best of’ lists as they are a great show of authority and validation for your service or product, especially when it comes from an authoritative, respected, and relevant website. Contact the website owner or the writer to inquire about the process of getting on the list. At times it may be a paid placement, while others may be an editorial decision, but if you can convince them, you may just end up with fresh and high-quality backlinks.

There is no single link-building strategy to emerge as a winner in SEO link building, so use these tips as part of your virtual SEO service to create a trustworthy, high-ranking website.