People have long thought that link building was an outdated SEO strategy. However, many recent examples confirm that this is simply not true, if you know how to do link building in the right way. In fact, even Google confirmed that links are still important, alongside great content, if you want to rank in search engines.

Ranking without links is difficult, and we would never recommend trying that method. Instead, your time will be much better spent if you learn how to build links efficiently.

Earlier, webmasters could go out and buy rankings in search engines by adding tons of links that would ensure that their business is shown on the first search engine results page.

However, with the introduction of the Penguin algorithm, this has become practically impossible. Penguin could easily spot spammy links and penalize webmasters for suspicious backlinking practices.

If you are new to SEO, we have prepared some of the easiest link building techniques that can help you grow your business. Read on to find out how you can step up your SEO game.

 

Ask for backlinks

This is probably the easiest one, especially if you have just started your website. Think about all the people you know that own a blog or a website – they can be your friends, relatives, colleagues, clients, partners, and so on.

The process is pretty simple, just contact them and ask for a backlink. It is always better to ask for in-content links rather than links in the sidebar or footer sections. Bear in mind that the website has to be relevant to yours. Otherwise, the backlink will not have the desired effect.

 

Build relationships

It is important for you to become an active member of your niche-related community. In order to do that, you’ll need to join forums, blogs or social groups. There, you can build new relationships that will prove beneficial in the long run.

Initiate discussions and contribute relevant content to these groups by writing posts and comments. This way, you will be able to earn good backlinks.

 

Give a testimonial

There are many businesses that offer you the chance to say a few words about your experience using their products. This is a perfect way for these businesses to build customers’ trust. But it is also the perfect opportunity for you to get a backlink and boost your traffic.

Companies get another testimonial to place on their website, while you get a new backlink. It is a win-win situation for everyone involved.

 

Start a blog

Backlinks cannot be easily acquired, they have to be earned. If you want to start a blog for the sole purpose of writing one post and putting a backlink there, it will not get you anywhere.

Moreover, you risk being penalized for low-quality content. You should consider opening a blog only if you are ready to focus on it, that is, if you want to keep it alive. That’s what makes people want to link back to your blog.

 

List your site in trustworthy directories

While browsing the internet, you can find many online directories that are completely useless and give no relevant information. Google has recently decided to exclude them from its search results.

However, if you want to get your website listed in one of the directories, you can definitely do that. But you will need to look for the directories that give you a chance to post a link to your website and provide useful information for your potential customers.

Niche directories and directories that are attached to informative websites are your best options. This practice can help people find you online.

 

Write a good guest post

Guest posts represent a good way to acquire backlinks. Many websites and blogs are willing to accept and publish articles that come from other sources. This does not mean that they will accept anything that comes their way – you still need to follow certain guidelines that they provide on their website.

Here’s some additional information to keep in mind when it comes to guest posting:

• Be sure that the blog or website that you want to write a guest post for is related to your business
• You are not writing a guest post only to promote your website, do not exaggerate the importance of your company
• Focus on quality – if your guest post is badly written, nobody will bother to read it. Poor articles can build up a bad reputation

 

Link to others

Mentioning the work of others can strongly enhance the linkability of your website. You can gain people’s trust by using reliable sources as references for your content. Linkability can also help you acquire links through:

• Trackbacks – it can help you send traffic back to your website
• Reciprocation – if you are creating good content, others will surely want to link back to you
• Social links – publishers are likely to share content when they are mentioned in it, which can generate traffic to your website and increase your page’s popularity

 

Repurpose content

Another thing you can do to earn more links for your website is to transform your content into other formats such as:

• Slide presentation – you can upload your presentation on Slideshare and include links on your slides
• Video – people fancy video tutorials more than reading, so turning your content into useful video guides can certainly bring you more trustworthy audience
• Ebook – believe it or not, many people actually read Ebooks. If you have long content, you can turn it into an Ebook and offer it as a giveaway. You can also upload it on Scribd or Accel.io or offer it to other bloggers who can give them away.
• Infographic – a picture is worth a thousand words and it is easy to distribute since it can be shared all over the web. You can submit your infographic to various infographic directories (Tumblr, Pinterest, Flickr, Weheartit, Shareapic, etc.)

 

Transcribe videos from other influencers in your space

As mentioned previously, people like videos more than words and many influencers try to use this in the best way possible. They use videos to communicate their brands’ messages and also to showcase their knowledge.

This type of content can appear in various forms: video tutorials, conference presentations, webinars, hangouts or Q&As, video blogs, infomercials and kinetic typography.

You can transcribe these videos and publish the transcription on your website, instantly building linkable content. In addition, you will get a chance to build relationships with them or they can decide to use your transcription alongside their videos, which can earn you valuable links.

 

Profile pages

There is a ton of places over the web where you can build a profile with a link to your website.

Here are several methods that you can use to efficiently integrate your profiles with your campaign:

• Be active and interactive on social media platforms, engage your followers on Twitter, Facebook or Google+
• Build links to your key profile pages, link to your Twitter or Facebook account when leaving comments on the blog posts that you read
• You can ask your followers on Facebook to follow you on Twitter or Google+

 

Build readership

This strategy is not easy to pull off, but it is the most effective one. Try to build evergreen content that will make your readers want to come back for more – in other words, build a brand using your content. Make sure to blog regularly. If you do not, everybody will forget about you.

Encourage your readership to comment on your posts. The more comments they see, the more they will want to be a part of that comment section, too. And lastly, write about something new and try to be original. This is a good thing to get your content shared on various platforms.

This concludes our list of easy ways to build links. Of course, there are more advanced techniques that you can use for link building purposes, but that will have to be a separate article. If you want to read more about why link building is still relevant, you can read our article about it here.