This is a case study concerning Ryan Darani, and how he managed to raise the traffic on his site from 0 to over 75,000 (77,000) to be exact in less than a year. Ryan Darani’s followers had observed this phenomenal growth, and they could not stop bothering him about his success. Well, according to Darani, you must be very clear about what an SEO campaign looks like, and this involves being very true to yourself about:

• The challenges that you are facing
• The limits that you can reach
• The budget that you have
• The time frame that you have set
• And if you are working for a client, you have to be true about the type of client you have

Darani was quick to point out that people in the SEO industry have a morbid fear of revealing the sites that they are working on, to the public eye. However, he was willing to lay it out for all to see. When asked why? He said that he wanted to kill the idea that SEO, was some kind of dark magical art. That there was some deep dark secret that everyone else seemed to be missing. He went on to say that this is the same belief that makes people buy courses for over $950, just because they are searching for this elusive “Dark Secret” He admits that he has spent thousands of dollars on SEO courses, and after analyzing it all, he came to realize that SEO is always about 3 basic and essential things:

• Content
• Links
• Technology

The tiny differences in how each works are mainly due to the hands-on knowledge and experience of the SEO individual, and this is what makes the overall difference in SEO performance for a site. In this case study, you will get to understand The What, The How, and The Why, so you can see that SEO success does not have to be such a great mystery. Let’s Get Into It Case Study Summary

• From 0 clicks per day, to between 300 and 400 a day.
• About 60 pieces of content were created for the site
• Slightly less than 100 links were built
• There was a very limited budget for the project
• The campaign was performed by Ryan Darani and 2 other writers (3 people in total)
• The app downloads for the site increased from 0 to 20 per day.

Some Important Information About The Client Ryan openly says that the company operates within the Real Estate Industry. The company acts as a middleman for Real Estate Agents, and the people who would like to rent, sell, or buy property. Currently, it is a very successful app, and I can bet that you are dying to know who the client was: The client was MOOVSHACK. Before the client engaged Darani and his other 2 musketeers, there had been no work done on the site. Not anything at all. If you have ever worked for a startup, and you had a small team, then you would understand why. Everyone who understands the startup business knows there is little time for everything to be done. You are the CFO, CTO, CEO, head of sales, accountant, content writer, and social media manager, and sometimes getting a balance on things can be a mountain of a challenge. At that time, the website was set up as an app portal for certain clients. The Challenges They Faced This is where you start seeing things in ways that you may never have in the past. The site was built on WordPress and Apache. At the front end, it all looked well sewn together, but it had no link to the backend. Ryan says that essentially, the site had just tried to create a short-term solution to a long-term problem. The people who developed the site had ignored crucial aspects such as:

• How would the theme be customized in the future?
• How would content be added or updated in the future?
• How would links and images be updated in the future?
• The way it was set up, any changes would have to go through a very long process to be affected.

Ryan Darani and his team had their world chipped out for them. The way the developers had created the site, Google had zero interest in it. There was no love between the site and the search engine. The site had almost zero content. The then was gross and completely obsolete in terms of design The site had no traffic; NONE AT ALL! Darani says that he loves a challenge so he rubbed his hands together in glee and got down to work. Another challenge that he faced, apart from working hard to get the site to function, was that he hardly could get anyone to sign off on the changes that he proposed. Remember, the owner was a very busy person, as we had mentioned earlier. Solution Number One – Getting The Technical Aspects to Work The first thing that the 3 musketeers had to do was to make sure that the site could be accessed by search engine crawlers. Taking a look at their search console, you could see that the site was barely breathing. Google was dispatching crawlers to the site every 4 weeks, and if the site was to come back to life, then Ryan and his team had to fix the access issue fast. There are certain things that he had to work on to make the site accessible, and as he explains without going into detail:

• Site speed – The site was taking about 16 seconds to load the home page.
• Canonicalization – The site had next to none.
• JavaScript Rendering – The way it was set up did not allow the crawlers to read even the little content that the site had.
• The site had more than 100 useless scripts that had no function at all.
• There were staging links everywhere, broken pages, and internal redirects
• Blog subdomains had been placed in the index; an issue that remains unresolved
• Google was able to access HTTP, HTTPS, non-www, and www separately.

It may all have seemed mundane and standard issues, but they were somehow making it very difficult for Google to access and navigate the website. Well, after working non-stop, with the developers for a week, Ryan and his team managed to bring down loading time to about 3.5 seconds. He says this was not perfect but from 18 seconds to 3.5 seconds? That was quite something. They also fixed “Salient” which was causing rendering issues. If anyone has ever worked with the Salient Preloader, then you can understand the issues it caused. Salient was a lovely feature, that gave you a spinning wheel, whenever a page was loading. At the time it was great for aesthetics. However, when it came to how Google looked at a site, this feature that seemed to dazzle viewers, looked like a spinning wheel of death to the crawlers. Therefore, Googe could not see the content of the site. Too much JavaScript, too much spinning wheel, and no content at all. Therefore, in getting rid of this JavaScript feature, the site loaded in 3.5 seconds, and finally Google was able to see the content within the site So now, Ryan and his team could go ahead and start planning new content for the website. Solution Number Two – Content Planning Ryan Darani and his team focused on content planning, just like they would for a new website. They had to think about answering the questions that the site would be able to rank for. When he was planning the site content, he was well aware that the site did not have a commercial page. This made it very simple for him to find content ideas. All he had to do was find content gaps, for relevant, low-quality terms that addressed the issue of “moving house”. If they felt that a certain keyword had a rather decent traffic volume, they would plan for it. The team did not have to worry about keyword gaps. There were plenty. However, they did not have any content. Every title that they could think of presented a powerful content gap that they could rank for. They mainly focused on:

• Types of property
• Legalities and other paperwork
• Costs associated with moving houses
• If there were any movers available
• The locations, especially those that involved popular estate agents who were clients of the site

Ryan says that this is perhaps one of the benefits of coming late into the game. The competition had already done most of the work for him. How? They had created content, and all he needed was to find gaps that they missed, and he could fill them easily. Looking at the way he did it, you can see the simplicity and ingenuousness of his methods:

• He went into the comments section of YouTube videos created by the competition and found a lot of needs that went unfulfilled.
• He was constantly checking out forums that dealt with moving houses, and he found common questions and patterns.
• He regularly checked out Facebook, Reddit, and Quora groups.

Darani confirms that these are great places or haunts to look for information that will add a unique angle to your content, simply because they come direct from the end user. After putting the data together, and seeing how much more coverage of certain topics the competition had, he was able to now sit down and come up with a strategy. He decided that it was best that he started with a huge acceleration in content, and then slowed down once Google had paid attention to the site. Here is what it looked like:

• £5,000 – Month 1 budget for 30 articles
• £5,000 – Month 2 budget for 30 articles
• £2,500 – Month 3 budget for 20 articles
• £2,000 – Month 4 budget for 10 articles
• £2,000 – Month 5 budget for 10 articles

All these articles were produced by the two writers on the team. This way, each writer would produce one article, every two days, for the whole month. However, the writers turned to out be pros and were able to produce a single article every day, which meant that he had two articles every day, and the production period turned from one month to 2 weeks. The interesting approach that he had was NOT to publish in a drip-in manner. He collected all the content for the whole month and then uploaded it all at once. 30 articles were published in a single day. This signalled a burst of activity on the site, and the search engine crawlers had to pay attention. After publishing in the first month, there was an incredible burst of clicks to the site. It was truly impressive. Sidenote about The Content Budget As far as the budget laid out above, the figures were a little lower. The figures laid out include the fees for the work done. They are not the figures for the content alone. Based on this fact, the actual budget for content creation alone was very low. This is because his fees were much, much higher. Solution Number 3 – Link Building Ryan admits that his biggest problem is building links. He says that he has always had a complicated moral feeling about them. Why? He could never bring himself to come to terms with creating links to content unless the content was of high quality. If you look at the SEO industry, some of the links you find are quite shocking, and the providers of these links are doing a disservice. This is the reason why he has always avoided them like a plague. In the case of Moovshack, he decided to do it differently; his way! He was not interested in the time that it would take to create the links. He wanted to personally handle the outreach to websites for purposes of roundups, guest posts, and PR. It took him 6 months to build slightly less than 100 links to powerful referring domains. Some of the websites that linked back to his content include:

• co.uk
• co.uk
• co.uk
• co.uk
• co.uk
• com
• co.uk
• co.uk

And many more. As you can see, his main focus was on relevancy, rather than any other factor. It was not just about getting links from any website. He could have gone the other, immoral way, of asking the client for a bigger budget to get links from generic guest posts, and then when they failed, he could easily have blamed Google for that. But he decided not to. His main focus was on:

• Commentary from industry experts
• Having great resource links
• Providing high-quality guest posts
• Doing company roundups for property technology websites.

Ryan would spend up to 5 hours a week building these high-quality links. He would use Ahrefs to look for suitable targets, and then he would email them personally. What is his lesson to you? Your best option is to look for links from sites that have highly relevant content. Never go for guest post providers, simply because of DR. Many people will give you generic guest posts on sites with high DR, and these will be of no use to you. The 3^rd Month – Traffic Challenges Although the site had started getting a decent amount of traffic every month, it somehow seemed to have hit a plateau. And here is where things got a little bit serious, and he ended up having some serious discussions with the client about the performance of the website. He had spent a lot of time and money on the website, and the traffic was hardly above 100 visits a month. He truly felt bad for the client, but he also had a couple of cards up his sleeve to play. He knew two things.

1. The site had been completely ignored by Google for so long, that it would take about 6 months to bring it back to some semblance of life. This is if they could consider rendering, crawling, and indexing concerns.
2. Links do not instantly begin to work. It takes time for search engine spiders to crawl links, and index them before any link juice or equity could be passed back to the site.

Ryan, therefore, committed himself and told the client that if there was not any considerable growth in traffic within the next 30 days, he would terminate the contract immediately – 3 months ahead of time. Finally, The “Dark Magic” Happened If you have read a lot about how to optimize a website, then you can probably see that Ryan has done it all; at this point. He has produced a lot of content, which was targeted at particular primary keywords. He focused the keywords with low-volume traffic, which he was sure the website would rank for. He had built some high-quality links. He had fixed the technical aspects of the site and it was running smoothly. The question was, why was the performance of the site not improving as he had expected it to? Any experienced SEO practitioner has probably reached this same point. The point where you ask, “What am I doing wrong?” Well, he also asked himself the same question over and over again. Ryan accepts that this was perhaps the first time in his career that he had ever doubted himself. So, he went back and perused his work, and analyzed it with a fine comb. He found several issues that could potentially be the ones that are hampering the performance of the website. Apart from the navigation bar, there were no links directed at the blog from the homepage. He also felt that he could have been overzealous with the creation of internal links; they were too many and also too targeted. He also felt that he had put too many keywords in the headings of some of the content they had created There was a lot of disparity between some of the questions and the answers. So, he decided to do something that many would never dare to do – he decided to de-optimize the pages of the site. This is something that some industry experts would have frowned upon, but Ryan decided to test his uncharacteristic theory and see if it would work. He looked at 30 pages of the site that were not performing well on the SERPs and then stripped back their content. This meant that he had to look at who was competing for the same keywords in the content, how long their pages had existed, and what their keyword density was. The pages on his site were quite young, and the search engine spiders are very fast in their action. What was the logic here? A page that is heavy in keyword density, but has been in existence for two years or more, might still perform better because of engagement, traffic, and links built over time. Many people have always said that keyword density does not affect the performance of a site, but Rayn was not concerned about the theory. He wanted something that would work. He and his team worked on stripping down these pages for a few days, and then he resubmitted the pages in the search console. He resubmitted them to the search console so he could be sure that Google would understand that the pages had been updated. And then the secret “Dark Magic” happened. The site came to life. After 4 months of struggling to breathe life into the site, and getting very little in terms of performance, Google finally decided to reward their efforts. The site appeared in the “Featured Snippets” section. The page that landed in the featured snippets section was entitled “How to Cancel Your Council Tax”. This snippet brought in thousands of visitors. After this jump in performance, Google decided to go deeper into the website, and many other pages started to rank on the first page. Ryan emphatically says that it is so important to compound your efforts when it comes to SEO. If he had given up after the 3^rd month when the performance was still very low, then this explosion would never have happened and Moovshack would not be where it is today. Takeaway SEO is not about seeing who has a bigger traffic graph. It is about being able to carry out your duties, even within certain limitations, no matter how they present themselves to you. Their client today boasts of about 8,000 visits in a month. This may seem dismal, but for a Startup, this cloud be very lucrative. Such traffic can bring in investors, it can help in getting sponsors; it is a powerful leveraging statistic in the online world. Ryan, a single person, engaged 2 writers, had a limited budget, and built something that he is very proud of to this very day. He now runs a very successful consultancy. Think about yourself, whether you are alone. There are no limits to what you can do to improve your website or that of a client. All you have to do is be committed, and be ready to examine yourself in case of any challenges.  

You probably have seen companies pay a tidy sum of money to have case studies done, for one reason or the other. The question is, do these case studies really work? Do they achieve their purpose? Well, in this case study, you will see how renowned SEO guru Neil Patel, performed three case studies on his website NeilPatel.com, and was able to grow his sales by 185%. In the beginning, he was not too sure about the results he would get, but he went on and did the case studies anyway. The goal of the whole case studies project was quite simple: GENERATE MORE LEADS! The results were quite surprising since he didn’t truly generate as many leads as he had hoped, but in the end, a whopping 185% increase in sales. According to Neil Patel, most companies that commissioned case studies did not know how to effectively leverage them to meet their intended goals. This rendered them ineffective and a waste of resources. So how did Neil optimize his case studies for lead generation? Let us dive deeper and understand! Case Studies Should Be For Revenue Generation and NOT Lead Generation We shall begin by examining a Case Study of how Neil Patel helped Timothy Sykes grow his traffic by 26% and helped his website earn an extra $1.2 Million in profit every year. Neil Published a case study covering how he helped Timothy Sykes achieve such a huge feat. The Problem, according to the case study, was that Timothy Sykes, a person who taught people how to successfully trade online, sensed that his site was underperforming. He, therefore, contacted Neil Patel to help him improve his traffic and conversion rates. The results eventually led to an increase in traffic by 25%, and the conversion rate by 250%. This way, Tim made $1.2 million that year. When Neil published the Case Study, it was more than 2,200 words, and it seemed to scroll on forever. The reason is that he went into too much detail on the steps he took to help Tim achieve such amazing goals. Today, Neil says that he has summarized the case study in about 600 words. Neil justifies the use of such a long case study by explaining that in his mind, there were a lot of fake case studies out there, and he felt that going into detail would make his case study feel more GENUINE. He felt that a long and detailed case study would bring him a lot of traffic and increase his conversions. Well, he was wrong. When he checked his Google Analytics, he found that people were not reading his long case studies to the end. They simply got somewhere in between and dropped off. The Analytics showed that on average, people spent 2 minutes and 27 seconds reading the full 2,286-word case study. After he summarized it into 615 words, then people would spend an average of 2 minutes and 18 seconds reading the FULL 615 words. Another upside of shortening the case study is that it increased the number of leads that they generated by up to 39%. This was really surprising; getting more leads by deleting words from the case study. Neil Patel was not fully satisfied with this increase in the number of leads generated. As he goes on to state, the number of leads that the case study generated was glaringly insignificant compared to his minimal homepage for his website, where he asks visitors if they want more traffic. If you have ever visited his website, you must have come across that introduction, where he asks if you want more traffic for your website. He attests the success of the homepage to the fact that it is able to quickly tell website owners, how many errors they have on their site, then they are quickly led on to the lead generation page, and that is only if they have enough errors that warrant correction. Neil says that a case study page cannot be as simple as a homepage, simply because it is supposed to be a case study, and should have a lot of information ready, right out of the bat. Neil tested everything. He tried showcasing the “Problem” and “Results” at the top of the case study page, but this did nothing to increase conversions. Neil went ahead to add testimonials within the case study, to add more credence to the statement contained therein, and this only improved lead generation by a mere 11% To try and boost his efforts, Neil added a lead generation form at the lower end of the case study, but this only improved his data by 8%, and this was in no way as significant as he had hoped. He then tested using an exit popup, which – surprisingly – increased his lead generation by 64%. You would have expected Neil to be happy but he was not. The reason was that the quality of the leads was too low, so he removed the exit popup. Neil also tried using a scrolling “RESERVE NEIL NOW” button, which increased the number of new people signing up by 49% and also generated a somewhat decent number and quality of leads. Using conversion optimization techniques, Neil was able to generate more leads, but not to the level that he had anticipated. His NeilPatel.com homepage generates the highest volume of traffic and has a conversion rate of 843% higher than the case study page. In addition, the quality of the leads generated on his homepage is 188% higher than the leads generated through the case study page. Through his rigorous testing, Neil Patel learned that case studies can help you generate leads, but they are not necessarily as powerful at accomplishing this task as a simple landing page, like the one he has on his site. Neil finally states that this does not mean that you do not use case studies, why? He was able to grow his revenue by 185% Lesson Learned Case Studies Can Be Used to Grow Your Revenue! Neil Patel, through his testing, says that even though case studies may not generate the highest number of leads, through his A/B testing methods, he found that they can be very effective in generating revenue if they are integrated into the sales and marketing process. They have the uncanny ability to profoundly increase the closing ratio. Neil confesses that he stole the concept from SingleGrain, who always email you case studies about what they do after you have your first call with them. He says that when you get a lead, you can follow up by sending case studies about what you do, giving the lead a better understanding of your business, and thereby making it easy to convert them into paying customers. Neil Patel started using case studies within proposals sent to decision-makers, and this grew signups by another 115%. In Conclusion It is Ok for you to test using case studies to increase your lead generation. It will definitely improve the number of leads that you get, but it may not be as effective as having a simple and compelling landing page. Many people believe that case studies will bring in more qualified leads, but this may not always be the case. Neil Patel says that his homepage has a simple design, but it brings in more qualified leads. He also admits that the case study improved his revenue by 185%. So, for the best result, according to Neil Patel, mix case studies and great landing pages within your sales process.

Today’s digital landscape is filled with countless voices all vying for the attention of the same target audience. However, there are a few select bloggers who have defied the odds and managed to generate an unprecedented surge in popularity within an exceptionally short period. These remarkable trailblazers captured the hearts and minds of audiences, generating huge readerships, and leaving their competitors wide-eyed in awe. What sets them apart? What are the hidden factors that propelled their blogs to remarkable heights while others struggled to gain traction? This is what this case study will reveal. When it comes to online marketing and audience engagement, six invaluable principles have been instrumental in the extraordinary success of these exceptional bloggers. Through in-depth analysis and examination of their methods, we will unveil their secrets and reveal the transformative power of these principles. These are:

• Harnessing the Power of Forums

You will see how being active on forums led to the extraordinary success of one of these bloggers. You too can leverage the immense potential of forums to attract traffic, nurture a loyal following, and establish yourself as an authority in your respective niche.

• Leapfrogging to Triumph

You will see how another of these bloggers leapfrogged over other successful content marketers, effectively avoiding conventional barriers and claiming the position at the top as a magnet of amazing volumes of readers.

• Leveraging the Twitter Advantage

It has been said over and over again! Twitter is a tool that can help you build an amazing volume of followers within a short time, as long as you know how to use it to your advantage. One of the bloggers that we will examine used these 280-character messages to skyrocket his readership in no time at all. Read Also – 105 Research-Backed Tips to Get More Followers on Twitter

• Unveiling the Influencer’s Secret

There is power in engaging influencers if you want to get from 0 to 50,000 followers in less than a month. Yes! One of these bloggers did just that, and we shall examine the steps he chose to see how you can follow in his footsteps.

• Building a Web of Connections

Getting connections to other bloggers can rapidly bring you followers, within a short time. In this case study you will see practically, how a blogger used the art of acquiring backlinks from websites within his niche, unraveling the strategies he used to construct a digital ecosystem that amplified his content and propelled his visibility. Read Also – 20 Top Bloggers Share Their Blogging Success Secrets

• Mastering the Outreach Revolution

Unlock the key to launching a blog’s journey to greatness as these exceptional individuals adeptly employed blogger outreach to establish vital connections, gain valuable exposure, and pave the way to unrivaled success. In this amazing case study, we will analyze the extraordinary successes of 7 remarkable bloggers, who unmasked the power behind these 6 principles, making their mark on the blogosphere. You will be inspired, informed, and forever, changed, as you see how these principles were key to their unrivaled success. With these real examples, you might be inspired to get cracking and use any or all of these principles to reach unimaginable eights within your niche. Some of these bloggers are well known in the blogosphere, while some of them are not, but have earned a mention here due to their ingenious methods of traffic generation. You will see some really incredible and outrightly odd ways of getting traffic, and you will see some that you are probably aware of in theory. Read Also – Proven Strategies to Increase Your Blog Traffic by 250% (2023 Updated) Peep Laja Peep Laja is a master when it comes to the art of generating massive numbers for a blog, within a very short time. He generated a whopping 40,000 unique visitors to his blog within its first month after launching. How did he do it? By using three simple, yet unique strategies.

• Writing Fantastic Content
• Promoting his content on social media
• Dropping the names of popular and authoritative bloggers in his content.

Writing Fantastic Content Before launching his blog, Peep deep some in-depth research and he found out that the content that had the most links was over 2,000 words in length, and it also had plenty of images, lists, and videos. He, therefore, started by creating content that had all these characteristics. These were not the quick-fix content that someone can come up with in a couple of hours. On average, Peep would spend about 8 hours creating each of his blog posts. Promoting Content on Social Media Like every other successful blogger, Peep was quick to see that search engines would not deliver him the large number of followers that he needed within the first month of launching his blog. He, therefore, promoted every blog post that he created on social media. According to Peep, these are the social media platforms that gave him the huge numbers that he generated:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• StumbleUpon
• Reddit
• Hacker News

Thanks to the fact that he took a lot of time and energy creating his blog posts (6 to 8 hours researching and writing them), his posts were quickly picked up by influencers and shared online, which gave his plenty of additional exposure. As an added traffic generation measure, he ensured that he converted as many unique visitors as possible, turning them into subscribers of his newsletter. Remember the saying that states “The Money Is In The List”. Read Also – You Can’t Go Wrong – 40+ SEO Experts Share Their Secrets to Content Optimization Success Listing Popular/Authoritative Bloggers Peep Laja understood two simple but effective truths about the blogging world and the people within it:

• Whenever someone hears the sound of his or her name, it is like the sweet sound of music.
• Bloggers, Entrepreneurs, and Twitter Influencers have extremely large egos.

His blog posts were filled with mentions and references to popular and influential bloggers, and then he would reach out to them via email and Twitter, letting them know that he had mentioned them in his blog post. The result was just as he had expected. The blogging bigwigs sent tweets to their following with links to the blog posts where they were mentioned. This gave Peep Laja additional exposure for the blog posts. Using these three techniques, Peep Laja brought in more than 40,000 unique visitors to his blog within the first 30 days after launching his blog. LESSON LEARNED Make sure that you write well-researched, long-form content that is absolutely amazing and captivating. Make sure that you are promoting every blog post on social media, perhaps in groups that share interests with the content that you create. It will augur well for you if you positively reference or mention influencers and other huge bloggers, and then let them know that you have mentioned them. Alex Turnbull Alex Turnbull is the founder and CEO of Groove, and he managed to increase the unique traffic visiting his blog by 12,024%; All without spending a single coin on advertising. That is a very huge increase in traffic, and you definitely want to know how he did it. The technique that he used may seem rudimentary, but it is very effective. Groove had spent a lot of resources in building relationships with influencers. These then became the perfect launch pad for this amazing explosion in their traffic statistics. How did he manage this amazing feat? This is what he says in his blog post entitled, “How We Increased Our Traffic by 12,024% with Zero Advertising”.

• Find some content that has performed exceptionally within your niche
• Head on over to BuzzSumo and then enter the URL of these content pieces into the search box.
• Click on the “View Sharers” button, and then scroll down to get the list of influencers who have shared these pieces of content. Also, take note of those who have shared similar content.
• Now reach out to these influencers and ask them if they would be interested in sharing some of the interesting content that you have on your blog.

LESSON LEARNED This is a version or variation of the skyscraper technique. This is one simple, and effective way of increasing traffic to your blog. Jon Morrow When it comes to traffic, there is perhaps no other writer who launched a blog and garnered the huge volume of readers he got on his first day – a whopping 4,379 visitors on his first day alone. Read Also – Jon Morrow: How to counterpunch life For this case study, we shall examine an article that he wrote in his earlier days, entitled: “The 7 Dumbest Mistakes You Can Make When Launching a New Blog”. This blog post was controversial, perhaps because it went against the rules of launching a new blog, but it received a large viewership and generated hundreds of comments. He highlights the main mistakes that people make when they are launching a new blog, in an effort to show them that forums are the place to go when you want to generate a large volume of readers within a short time. Let us look at the main points (or mistakes, as he calls them) of the blog post, and then get amazed at how he ties it all together. Mistake Number 1 – Trusting in SEO Jon highlights the fact that it takes a lot of time for a page to get to the higher ranks on Google. The time can be weeks or even months. He highlights the fact that unless you have the backing of backlinks from authority websites within your industry, then you will have a huge challenge when trying to get to the number 1 slot on Google. He says that SEO should be a long-term strategy, and it will not help you get a lot of visitors within your first month of operation. Mistake Number 2 – Trusting the “Valuable Content” Myth Many new bloggers get really excited about creating “Valuable Content”. However, no matter how “Epic” your content may seem, it will not, on its own, gain you the high volume of readers that you are targeting, within the first month. Jon Morrow highlights the valued tenet that says, “A successful blogger should spend 20% of their time writing content, and the remaining 80% of their time selling or promoting the content” Mistake Number 3 – The Storytelling Myth It is a fact! People love reading stories. However, you would have to be a superb storyteller and tell a truly extraordinary story when you are launching your blog, to get a large number of people to visit your website, and even then, it will not bring you 50,000 visitors within your first month as a blogger. Mistake Number 4 – The Blog Redesigning Myth People will not care what your blog looks like, as long as it is readable. Very well, blog aesthetics will play a part in keeping your existing readers, but not when it comes to getting a large number of readers at that the start. People simply want to know if you have the answers to their needs. Mistake Number 5 – Writing on a Daily Basis Writing on a daily basis will not change your visitor statistics if you do not have traffic. Mistake Number 6 – Being on Social Media for Several Hours Every Day You can indeed get a lot of visitors when you use social media to promote your blog content, however, it is quite easy to be distracted on these platforms. Secondly, if your target audience is in small numbers on these platforms, your numbers will not change significantly. Mistake Number 7 – Relying on the “Traffic Snowball” Effect New bloggers usually believe that over time, their visitor numbers will grow exponentially (The Snowball Effect). Jon says that this may actually work against you, as time goes by. Even those blogs that have become very successful due to the Snowball effect will take several months before they can attain hundreds of numbers, but definitely not 50,000. So, if none of these “magic” bullets work, what should new bloggers do to get huge amounts of traffic within their first month? In the wise words of Jon Morrow, all you have to do is LISTEN TO YOUR AUDIENCE! In order to listen to your audience, you should spend more time on forums. Take time to also read the comments that your target audience makes on popular blogs. Get to know what their problems are, and then take time to feed them the solutions that they crave. Getting to know your audience on Forums is a tried and tested way of getting more traffic to your new blog. LESSON LEARNED Over the years, Jon Morrow has worked with hundreds of novice bloggers, and he has come to understand why some of them explode to popularity, while others lag behind, and sometimes give up. He narrowed it down to one very crucial factor – Listen to your audience. The best place to listen to your audience is on relevant forums. As you will see in the next part, another successful blogger, Mathew Woodward, echoes the sentiments expressed by Jon Morrow. Mathew Woodward Mathew Woodward launched his blog on 3^rd August 2012. His unique visitor traffic statistics had risen to 2,125, by 2^nd September. From there, the number of people visiting his blog grew exponentially. One thing that we have to point out before we move on, is the fact that Mathew Woodward also believes that forums are a great resource when you want to build steady and increasing traffic to your blog or website. Read Also – Matthew Woodward: An Award-Winning Blogger and Affiliate Marketer For Mathew, the traffic-building strategy that he came up with was truly simple but effective. It was based on two simple techniques:

1. Create Awesome Content

Yes, Yes, it contradicts what Jon Morrow says about the content you create at the start of your blog, but this one has worked for Mathew. He believes that your readers need engaging and resourceful content from your blog.

2. Answer Questions on Forums

Like Jon Morrow, Mathew Woodward believes that answering questions raised by your target readers on forums will bring you a lot of traffic. He says that this works on several levels: Answering questions in forums will drive traffic to your blog Since you can use links with the “Dofollow” characteristics, then you will be getting link juice flowing back to your blog. With great answers, you will establish yourself as an expert in your industry, and your name will be well-known on the forum. When you carefully read forums, you will have an insight into your target readers, and what their needs are, and you will be able to give them appropriate solutions, which will turn them into loyal followers of your blog. Mathew’s favorite tools for finding the best forums are Omgili (“Oh My God! I Love It!) and Boardreader. This way he can find places where his target readers are bound to be. When using these tools, all you have to do is use your target keywords, and you will relevant forums discussing issues related to these keywords. You can also seek forum threads on Google by using string searches, such as those shown below. They must have the keyword that you are targeting. “Powered by Phbb” + [your keyword] “Powered by vBulletin” + [your keyword] “Powered by SMF” + [your keyword] “powered by IPB” + [your keyword] “powered by PunBB” + [your keyword] Whenever you come across someone who has a question, that could be answered by content that you have created on your blog, then write a short note, such as the one shown below: Hello, I saw you raised a question about [the problem] I recently posted a blog post that directly answers your question, and it could be of immense help to you. [Add your blogpost URL] Let me know if it was of help to you! All the best [Your Name] Mathew would spend a minimum of one hour a day replying to questions raised on forums. And when he published a new blog post, he would spend a minimum of 4 hours promoting the post on forums. Due to this simple method, he was able to raise his visitors to more than 2,000 within his first 30 days. LESSON LEARNED It takes quite a long time for organic traffic to have a significant change in the number of unique visitors your blog will get. When you are launching your blog, you need to get fast results and drive a large volume of traffic to your site. The one strategy that will never fail you is to hand out in forums and reply to the questions raised by the people in your niche. Employ this technique when starting out and get a lot of traffic to your blog, build a loyal following, and stamp your authority within the industry. Brian Dean It would be a crime to talk about increasing traffic without referring to the amazing feat that was done by Brain Dean way back in 2013. His article, “Link Building Case Study: How I Increased My Search Traffic by 110% in 14 days” (Last updated in 2022) has turned out to be a classic when it comes to the topic of link building. Read Also – Brian Dean, Who Is Respected Globally For His Advice on SEO Every blogger worth his or her salt knows that backlinks are crucial when it comes to establishing domain authority (DA). Having a powerful domain authority is important when you want to get to the number one position on Google and other search engines. However, it is not guaranteed that when you create exceptional content, you will automatically get high-quality backlinks. No, you have to get out there and search for them. This technique was christened The Skyscraper Technique, by Brian Dean. It is quite a simple technique, but very effective in getting quality backlinks. Let us breeze through the steps of the technique.

• Find existing content that has a high number of quality backlinks
• Improve the content by 200% or 250%
• Approach the people who have linked to the original content, and ask them if they would like to link to your improved version of the same.

Step 1 – Find Existing Popular Content Let us assume that you are launching a blog about “Mountain Bikes”. Browse over to Google, and then type in the target keyword that you want to use in your blog post, e.g. “The Best Mountain Bikes”. All the articles that are shown on the first page of your Google results will definitely contain a high number of top-quality backlinks. Open up one of the pages, perhaps the one that appears in the 3^rd position, copy the address from the address bar and paste it somewhere like Notepad. Now browse over to any backlink checker, a few of the best are Ahrefs, Majestic, and MozPro. If you use the free version of MozPro, navigate to “Open Site Explorer”, and then paste in the URL that you had copied before. Now click on “Search”. You will then be given a list of the links that the content has, and the different domains they are coming from. Now proceed and hit the “Request CSV” button and then download the report which will include the links and their domains. Open the report using Microsoft Excel, and the only information that you will need will be found in the first column, which shows the different domains that have linked to the content in that original blog post you opened. If the niche is not crowded, then you will find a few domains linking to the blog post, but if it is crowded, you will get a lot more. Step 2 – Make the Content Way Better Than The Original The next step is to go ahead and create similar content to the original but make it much, much better. As Brain Dean says, “You are going to slap another 20 floors onto the skyscraper” hence the name Skyscraper Technique. When you have finished improving the content, thereby increasing the size of your skyscraper, then it will be the only one that people will see on the horizon. There are three ways in which you can carry out this feat:

• Update the content adding more recent facts.
• Make the content longer and deeper.
• Design the content better, in terms of flow and structure.

Assuming that the original content had 1,000 words, then go ahead and make it 2,500 to 3,000 words. You must make sure that the content that you are writing is filled with relevant, quality information, rather than fluff. You can carry out further research to make the new article address issues to a deeper level than the original post. It will pay to go the extra mile. Make sure that you not only overdeliver on quantity but also quality. Now you should realize the huge opportunity offered by this technique. If you look carefully at the high-ranking content on Google, you might be surprised to find that most of it is outdated. Brain Dean noticed this and took advantage of it, to his benefit. Another way to improve existing content is to deliver it in a better and smarter flow and structure. The original content may be cluttered, and have little images or other media formats. Simply present it in a better structure and flow, and add better images and videos. However, even when trying to improve on the design and presentation, do not copy the original content. You have to roll up your sleeves and do some research, and write something new that improves on the original content, then deliver it in a better design. The best use case is to use all three techniques; add more content to the original, make sure that the information is updated, and then deliver it more cleanly and smartly. Step 3 – Reach Out It is now time to bring out the CSV, reach out to the domains that linked to the original blog post, and then reach out to them, informing them of your improved version, and asking them if they would like to link to it. The research that led to the creation of the CSV is very important since it gives you confidence in the following:

• These are the people that run a site within your niche.
• These are people who will definitely be interested in your new and improved version.
• They have already linked to similar, yet outdated content (the original)

Visit the URLs in the CSV, get the email address of the owner, and then send them an outreach email such as: Hey [Owner’s Name] As I was browsing through some articles about [keyword or topic] I came across this page [insert the original URL] I noticed that you have linked to this particular page. I just wanted to let you know that I have written a similar post. It is similar to [original URL], but it is updated and addresses the topic to a deeper level. It might be worth our while to mention it on your page. Either way, keep up the good work! Thanks, and cheers. [Your Name] Read Also – Maximizing SEO Through Linkable Asset Creation: An Ultimate Guide with Inspiring Case Studies LESSON LEARNED This skyscraper technique is unique in that it leapfrogs over a piece of content that is already doing well and is on the first page of the search engine results pages. The fact that it is on the first page, means that there are a lot of people linking to it. If your content is updated and improved, then it will definitely trounce the one that is in that position, and you may begin appearing on page one, thereby bringing you tons of visitors within a short period after you launch your blog. Several bloggers have risen to fame due to using the skyscraper technique. Some of these include: Ryan Robinson David Vallance Try it out and see your traffic increasing in leaps and bounds. Eli Seekins Eli Seekins is a freelance content creator, and you are probably wondering what he did to deserve a mention in this case study. Well, Eli used a single, yet powerful technique to move traffic on a page from 56 views to more than 1,000 in a SINGLE DAY! In just a single week of employing this technique, Eli was invited, as a freelancer, to write 6 different guest posts, without having to pitch the owners of those blogs. It seems like the owners had to pitch him! So, what is this technique? The technique is called Blogger Outreach, and when done perfectly, it is a powerful tool. Here is how you can go about it: Step 1 – Compile your target list Come up with a list of your favorite influencers who operate within your industry. There are the people whose connections, authority, and/or expertise could help drive tons of traffic to your blog. You do not have to be selective when it comes to choosing these influencers, because you are not actually going to contact any of them. Amazing, right? Step 2 -Compile your blogger outreach list Compile an Excel or Google Docs spreadsheet that has eight columns. Columns one to three should be labeled Name, Website, and Email respectively. Leave the fourth column empty Columns five to eight should be labeled Follow, Comment, Share, and Email respectively. In the first three columns, enter the information as dictated by the label. Columns five to Eight should only be marked with a tick when you have finished that particular action. Step 3 – Get to know some popular bloggers Take out the hit list you created in the first step, visit these blogs, and check out the latest and most popular blog posts. Make sure that the posts are not older than 3 days, and at worst, not older than a week. Go down to the comments section, and then write down the names and websites of everyone who has left a comment on the blog post. Step 4 – find the email addresses Now go to the address of the commenters, and try to find their email addresses. You can probably find these on the About page, Contact Page, Work With Us Page, or even the footer section of the site. If you do not find an email address for the commenter on their sites, you can subscribe to their newsletter, and when they send you one, you will get their address that way. As a last resort, you can copy and paste the link that they have on their contact form. Step 5 – Make contact You should first follow the commenter on a social media platform like Twitter. Go to one of the recent posts that you identified, and share it on Twitter. Then go back and leave a comment on that particular blog post. You should make sure that the comment is insightful and adds value to other readers. It is now time to write an email to the commenters. Here is what you should include in the email:

• Let them know that you are a fan of the blog where you saw their comment.
• Let them know that you noticed they left an insightful comment on that blog post and it caught your eye.
• Add a small paragraph letting them know about a recent blog post that you posted.
• Ask them to give you feedback on your post.
• Let them know that you really enjoyed a recent post that you read on their blogs.
• Let them know that you were so impressed by the blog post that you shared it on Twitter.

And that is all that Eli Seekins did. LESSON LEARNED Now this may seem like a sneaky way of getting traffic to your blog, but in the blogosphere, you have to claw your way to the top. This technique is not targeting the influencers, but the people who are commenting on these blog posts. It pumps their ego to know that a simple comment led to someone reading their blog post and even sharing it on social media. They will return the favor by sending your blog posts to their readers, and you will gain a ton of traffic. Henri Junttila Henri is another successful blogger worth mentioning in this case study. He makes his living online, and he has talked about the 5 techniques that he used to grow his subscriber base from zero to 1,012 in 101 days. However, before we get deep into the 5 techniques that he outlines as his special methods, there are some caveats that he mentions. Two major mindsets can really play tricks with your head and hinder your efforts of starting a successful blog. There is an ocean of information on the internet about how best to drive traffic to your blog, and it can sometimes become overwhelming to beginning bloggers; you do not have to cover all the methods in order for you to succeed. There are novice bloggers who tend to unendingly search for the “Silver Bullet” for traffic building. There is not a single one. The best way is to pick on 2 or 3 strategies, and then stick with them. It is not about getting the right strategy; it is about perseverance. That said, let us examine the five strategies that Henri used to build traffic on his blog: Create RELEVANT Content Before you can start promoting your blog, you must create content for it. Take the time to visit forums where your target audience resides, and then read about their pain points. Next, take time and write 5 exceptional blog posts that address these pain points. These should be enough to jumpstart your blog. You should keep writing exceptional blog posts in order to keep your audience interested. Write Comments Look for the forums where you are most likely to find your target audience. Leave comments on any forum post and add links back to your blog posts. Make sure the comments are helpful so they do not look like spam. Article Marketing Henri started off by writing short 300-to-400-word articles which he would publish on EzineArticles. Today, you must be very careful when you are doing article marketing on such sites. Google will penalize you if you violate the duplicate content policy. Social Connections Yes, promoting content on the right social media platforms will bring you a lot of traffic. Henri however advises that you start with a single platform in order to avoid getting overwhelmed. Guest Blogging Henri says that guest blogging has brought him the largest number of followers among the five techniques mentioned here. However, he continues to say that you must have quite several high-quality posts on your blog before anyone can allow you to become a guest blogger on their site. LESSON LEARNED Depending on your niche, some of the most rudimentary traffic generation techniques can work to your advantage. This is especially great for unique niches, where a lot of promotion is not required. This way, you will not feel overwhelmed when using these 5 techniques that Henri has used. Key Takeaways This case study has examined some techniques that were used by prominent bloggers, and a few surprising ones, to get a large amount of traffic to their blogs within the first month or so after the launch. Every new blog will face a challenge when it comes to generating traffic. SEO will take a very long time to be effective when it comes to generating traffic. You simply cannot wait for that long. This is where you can implement some of the techniques, which have been tried and tested, and see which ones can bring you the most traffic. Here is a 30-day Plan that you can implement to boost traffic to your site.

• Listen to your Audience – Go to Forums and see what pain points your audience is experiencing, and then see how best to solve them.
• Create Powerful Content – It is worth the effort to use the skyscraper technique to leapfrog over blogs that are already on page one of the SERPS.
• Answer Forums Questions – Apart from listening to their pain points, try to answer questions that they may raise, and leave a link to your blog posts.
• Become Active on Social Media – Follow the main influencers in your industry. Share posts that are relevant within your industry. Connect with other bloggers in your industry.
• Actively Seek Backlinks – Go out and invite qualified people to link back to your website
• Become Serious With Blogger Outreach – The Eli Seekins case study is one you should not ignore.
• Mention Influential Bloggers – Add names of popular influencers within your blog posts, and then let them know you mentioned them. There are chances that they will share that blog post with their readers.

 

Link building can be a bit like building a house of cards. One wrong move and the whole structure comes crashing down. It’s no surprise that some people find it tedious, painful, and a test of patience. But despite its challenges, link-building is an essential part of competing in today’s digital landscape. If you want to thrive rather than just survive, you need to invest in link-building. Your website’s search engine ranking results are directly tied to the number and quality of external links pointing to your site. Each link from a trusted source reinforces your site’s credibility. But how do you determine which websites are trustworthy? It all comes down to authority. Tools like Moz can help you evaluate websites and assign them a domain authority score based on their inbound links. For example, Content Marketing Institute has a score of 77, HubSpot has a score of 92, and even Ferro, a coatings company, has a score of 49. It’s worth noting that external links aren’t the only factor to consider. Your site’s domain authority is just as crucial. The higher your score, the better your chances of improving your search rankings and outpacing your competitors. So, while building a house of cards can be a precarious endeavor, link building is a worthwhile investment in the long run. Just make sure your foundation is strong, and you’ll be on your way to a sturdy, successful online presence. Be Proactive in Link Building While it’s true that producing exceptional content can organically attract links without you even asking for them, relying solely on this approach can only take you so far. A successful link-building strategy requires deliberate action and a well-rounded approach. Don’t get us wrong, noteworthy videos, studies, white papers, blog posts, interactive tools, and infographics can all be powerful tools to attract links through various channels such as direct traffic, natural search engine visitors, social media pushes, and more. But there’s a limit to how many external links you can acquire through passive means. To truly mine the gold that is external links, you need to be proactive and strategic in your approach. It takes effort, time, and patience, but the rewards can be immense. Our guide offers valuable tips, tools, and reminders to help you navigate the complex world of link building. While you may encounter some dead ends along the way, you’re bound to make some triumphant discoveries that will pay dividends for years to come.

Guest Posting Services

1) Make Great Use of Link Building Tools Are you looking to boost your website’s visibility and drive more traffic? One of the most effective ways to achieve this is through link-building. But with so many link-building tools available, it can be overwhelming to choose the right one. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of top tools to consider:

• SEMrush
• Common Backlinks Tool
• Ahrefs
• Bulk URL Analyzer
• Majestic
• Moz PRO
• Ontolo
• Linkody
• Link Prospector

These tools can help you find and manage potential link sources, including influencer and competitor research. You’ll also be able to learn about the authority and trust scores of each link, which are influenced by the type, quality, and the number of backlinks. Don’t forget to also explore other sources for potential links, such as:

• Journalists and news media,
• Bloggers and writers,
• Product and service review websites,
• Directories
• Trade associations.

By researching your competitors, you may even discover some “me-too” links that could benefit your site. If you’re short on time, tools like Ahrefs and Moz have special features like Link Intersect that can help you compare your website to others and identify missed linking opportunities. 2) Super-Secret: Get Superb Backlinks by Writing Testimonials Are you tired of spending hours scouring the internet for link-building opportunities? Well, here’s a much-overlooked strategy for you that almost seems too easy… Testimonial link building! All you have to do is reach out to companies whose services or products you use and offer to write them a positive testimonial in exchange for a link back to your site. It’s like getting paid to say nice things – who wouldn’t love that? Plus, you can use this strategy to build a treasure trove of external links with just a few minutes of work. How? a) The First Step – Create Your Target List First things first, to use this strategy you need to find websites that you can provide testimonials for. But not just any websites, they need to be relevant to your niche, have existing testimonials, and be products or services that you actually use. So, start by making a list of the tools, products, and services you already use in your business. Now, if you’re struggling to come up with ideas, don’t worry! You can always cheat a little bit and look at what other tools and services people in your niche are using. Plus, you might even find a free trial to test out the tool before you write your testimonial. b) The Next Step – Get The Correct Contact Person To Pitch To So, you’ve got your list of potential targets for your testimonial – Congrats! But hold up, before you can start raving about their amazing service, you need to find the right person to send it to. Sure, some sites have contact forms or even a special testimonial submission page, but what if you need to go deeper? Fear not, my friend. Try out extensions like Find That Lead and Hunter to track down those elusive email addresses. Add them to your spreadsheet and start reaching out to everyone on your list with your charming pitch. c) The Third Step – Pitch Your Testimonial So, you’ve got a list of contact persons for your testimonials. Now, it’s time to pitch them and get the ball rolling on those link-building opportunities. But, how do you pitch effectively? Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Start with a friendly introduction.
• Explain how their product or service has helped you in your business.
• Include specific results to back up your claims.
• Ask them if you can create a testimonial for them.
• Keep your pitch short, simple, and sweet.

Remember, your goal is to establish a positive relationship and provide value to the website owner. A well-crafted pitch can go a long way toward building those links. d) The Final Step: Craft the Perfect Testimonial Writing a great testimonial doesn’t have to be hard. Here are some tips to help you craft the perfect one:

• Highlight what you liked most about the product/service
• Explain how the tool/service helped you achieve your goals
• Share specific results you’ve seen since using it
• Provide your personal recommendation

By including these key elements in your testimonial, you’ll not only help the company but also help others who are considering using the same product/service. So, take a few moments to share your positive experience and watch your testimonial help drive more business.

Guest Posting Services

3) Get Powerful Backlinks by Fostering Growth for New Businesses Make use of Crowdfunding – The Unknown Link Building Strategy! Have you heard about the untapped potential of crowdfunding for link building? It’s one of the most underused tactics out there, but it can yield fantastic results. When someone raises funds for their business through crowdfunding, they often include a link to every contributor. That’s where you come in! With donations ranging from a dollar to thousands of dollars, crowdfunding is a golden opportunity to get backlinks for your website. Here are two ways to get those links:

• Donor links: These are links from pages that list all donors and include a link to their website.
• Package links: These links are offered as part of a donation package for a certain amount of money.

Easy, right? With all kinds of projects in every niche, crowdfunding is an excellent way to support new business growth and build links at the same time. How can you use this crowdfunding link-building method? Discover Crowdfunding Sites for Link Building: A Guide to Using Indiegogo Indiegogo is one of the top crowdfunding sites that offer a convenient way to find projects that can help build your links. Here’s how to find them:

• Use specific keywords in your Google search like “site:[indiegogo.com] inurl:projects +“link to your” or site:[indiegogo.com] inurl:projects +”donor page” to narrow down your search results.
• Be prepared to sift through the results to find projects that either add donor’s details to their donor page or offer links in exchange for your donation.
• Don’t forget to check out the other perks that you may benefit from too.

With this simple guide, you can easily find affordable crowdfunding projects that can boost your website’s links and give you a chance to take advantage of other benefits. 4) Link Building Through Sponsoring Events Events as a Link-Building Strategy – Events aren’t just a great way to socialize; they can also be a valuable asset to your link-building strategy. Local, national, and international events can be used to build links. There are two ways to do this – Hosting and Sponsoring Hosting an Event:

• Create your own event
• Advertise it on third-party event sites
• Get high-quality links back to your website

Sponsoring an Event:

• Sponsor someone else’s event
• Get listed (and linked to) as a sponsor
• Build relationships with industry authorities

But wait, there’s more! You can still get all these benefits without hosting an event. Here’s how to find events to sponsor and start building links today. Start by identifying what types of events are most relevant to your niche. These could be workshops, conferences, clubs, and more. Make a list of online platforms where these events are likely to be hosted. While local events might be found on local sites, larger national or international events can typically be found on larger platforms like Eventful, MeetUp, and Events.org. To find events to sponsor, try using the following Google searches on each hosting site:

• site:[website URL] inurl:events +“sponsors”
• site:[website URL] inurl:events +“link to your”
• site:[website URL] inurl:registration +“sponsors”
• site:[website URL] +“sponsors”
• site:[website URL] + “donation”
• site:[website URL] + “become a sponsor”
• site:[website URL] -inurl:support -inurl:blog +“link to your website”

Go through the search results and make a list of any events that are relevant to your niche. Clean up the process and repeat for each event hosting site using each search term to pull in more specific results. Once you’ve identified relevant events, set up sponsorships with them. If you’re sponsoring an event being hosted by someone else, make sure to get listed as a sponsor with a link back to your website. Finally, set up Google alerts to find any new sponsorship opportunities as they arise. By sponsoring relevant events, you can build high-quality links to your website and establish relationships with other authorities in your industry.

Guest Posting Services

5) Have a Powerful Social Media Footprint Are you aware that social media backlinks can actually benefit your website’s link profile? Although they are typically “nofollow” links and have limited SEO advantages, they still form a crucial foundation of links that any legitimate business should have. It’s all about maintaining a healthy balance between follow and nofollow links in your link profile. Here are five simple and effective ways to get quick wins from Facebook alone. And if you’re hungry for more, here are 23 additional strategies listed in this comprehensive guide to social media backlinks. These tactics are accessible to all skill levels and can help boost your website’s visibility and authority. So why not give it a shot and see the positive impact it can have on your online presence? a) Hook Visitors with your “About” page: Add Your Website URL to Your Facebook Profile” Make sure to include your website URL in the ‘About’ section of your Facebook profile, and set it as public. This will help new visitors connect with your website and increase traffic. b) Make better use of your “About” page description Double your chances of sending traffic to your website by strategically placing your website URL in both the contact info and description sections of your “About” page. Don’t miss out on this easy opportunity to make a lasting impression on new visitors! c) Revamp your Social Media Game – Include website links in All Your Posts! Are your social media posts failing to generate traffic to your website? Don’t worry, there’s a simple solution! Even if your post isn’t directly related to your site, you can still include a link as a reference. It’s a smart move to work website links into all your social media posts, and it’s easier than you might think. Make use of the potential traffic boost, and learn how to effortlessly incorporate website links into all your social media posts. d) Use “Page Buttons” to drive traffic to your website! Did you know that you can add clickable buttons to your Facebook page? These buttons can be optimized to send visitors straight to your website, making it easier than ever to direct traffic from your page. With just a few clicks, you can add or edit your page buttons and input your website’s URL. e) Add your URL to social media picture descriptions Did you know that simply adding your website URL to the description of a social media image can significantly boost traffic to your website? Despite the potential benefits, most people fail to take advantage of this easy-to-implement tactic. To maximize the impact, be sure to include your website URL in the description of your profile picture and cover photo. And don’t forget to update it every time you change your images. Ready to take your social media game to the next level? Check out this comprehensive guide, “28 Social Media Backlinks To Increase Your Rankings.” Learn how to use social media backlinks not only on Facebook, but also on other platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and Quora 6) Guest Blogging – The Powerful Link-Building Strategy You Can’t Afford to Ignore! Let’s face it, guest blogging may seem boring at first glance. But the truth is, it’s one of the most popular, simplest, and most effective link-building strategies out there! Despite being labeled as a white hat strategy, guest posting has been the subject of multiple warnings from Google. In fact, John Mueller, a Google Webmaster Trends Analyst, has advised webmasters to leverage “nofollow” guest post links. But here’s the thing – all forms of link-building are technically against Google’s guidelines. What truly matters is feeding the algorithm certain metrics to improve your website’s ranking. Guest posts are an excellent marketing function to build a target audience and feed the algorithm the metrics it needs. All you have to do is create a high-quality piece of content, add a few links pointing to your site, and get it published on another site – preferably one with a high domain authority. Don’t let the term “guest blogging” deceive you. This is a powerful link-building strategy that can take your website’s ranking to new heights. Give Google’s algorithm what it wants – specific metrics and a high-quality online presence! Truth Be Told! Guest blogging is no longer what it used to be a few years ago. In 2023, it has become much harder to earn a genuine link placement. Nowadays, most site owners have caught on and often want payments to place your guest posts, which is nothing more than just a long-winded way to buy links, right? Some people are much more direct about it, which is a big no-no in the eyes of search engines. However, that’s not to say that guest blogging isn’t worth doing. You just need to walk that line however you choose. In summary, to get started with guest blogging, there are 5 essential steps you need to follow:

• Find your prospects – start by identifying potential sites where you can submit your guest posts.
• Qualify the right blogs – make sure that the sites you’ve found are high-quality, relevant to your niche, and have a good domain authority.
• Send outreach emails – craft a well-written outreach email to the site owner or editor, explaining who you are and why your content would be valuable to their readers.
• Create great content – this is where you showcase your writing skills and provide value to the readers of the site you’re submitting to.
• Build relationships – guest blogging is not a one-and-done deal. It’s important to build relationships with the site owners, editors, and readers. Engage with their content and respond to comments.

Let’s dig into each of these a little deeper. a) Finding your prospects This is the first step in mastering the art of guest blogging. This crucial step involves seeking out the perfect websites to publish your carefully crafted content. The ideal scenario is to publish on websites with impressive domain authority (DA), high page authority, and a robust traffic flow. After all, you want your content to reach as many eyes as possible! b) Qualifying the shortlisted blogs Now that you have a list of potential sites for guest blogging, it’s time to sort out the wheat from the chaff. To make sure your content gets the attention it deserves, you need to qualify the blogs you’ve shortlisted. One way to do this is by using Ahrefs, the best backlink checker in town. Simply take the first website on your list and run it through Ahrefs’ Site Explorer. Once you’re there, click on the orange loop icon and watch the magic happen. You’ll be presented with a wealth of information, including the site’s Domain Rating (DR). Add this number to your list and move on to the next site, repeating the process until you have the DR of every site. c) Reaching out to blogs owners/managers/editors After compiling a list of websites that match your target audience, the next step is to contact the website owners, managers, or editors and gauge their interest in your guest post pitch. But how do you ensure that your outreach email stands out from the sea of requests in their inbox? Here are a few tips:

• Personalize your email by addressing the website manager by their name.
• Keep your email concise and to the point, highlighting the value that your guest post will bring to their readers.
• Showcase your expertise by including links to your previous guest posts or relevant work.
• Follow up with a polite reminder if you don’t hear back within a week.

Remember, the goal of your outreach is to build relationships and create value for both parties. So be respectful and professional in your interactions. d) Creating amazing guest post pieces Congratulations! You’ve been accepted to write a guest post for a reputable website. Now, it’s time to get to work and create an exceptional piece of content that will captivate their readers. Keep these tips in mind:

• Know the target audience: Before writing, research the blog’s target audience to ensure your content will resonate with them.
• Do your homework: Take a deep dive into the blog’s previous articles and read through the comments to understand the audience’s interests and concerns.
• Share your expertise: Write everything you know about the subject and provide valuable insights that will benefit the readers.
• Add value: Make your content stand out by adding quotes, relevant links, images, and videos to make it engaging and shareable.
• Submit with confidence: Once you’re done, send your masterpiece their way and wait for the positive feedback to roll in!

e) Building powerful, mutually beneficial relationships Guest blogging is not just about link building, it is also about building relationships! Guest blogging allows you to connect with blog managers and build a network that can come in handy in the future. With a strong network of contacts, you can easily promote your content and publish regularly on high-authority sites. These relationships can also lead to new opportunities, collaborations, and partnerships in your industry. So, don’t underestimate the power of relationship-building when it comes to guest blogging! Engage Their Audience: A Bonus Tip for Guest Blogging Success Guest blogging isn’t just about creating high-quality content and building backlinks to your website. It’s also about engaging with the audience of the website you’re guest blogging on. By opening a direct conversation with someone else’s audience, you can reap several benefits, such as increasing your brand awareness and building relationships with potential customers. Here are three things you should do to engage with the audience of your guest post:

• Respond to all of the comments on your guest post personally. This will help you build a relationship with the readers and show them that you care about their opinions.
• Monitor shares on social media and reply to say thanks. This will help you show your appreciation to those who share your post and also engage with potential customers who may have questions or comments.
• Set up Google Alerts for the URL to engage anywhere it gets shared. This will help you stay on top of any conversations happening around your guest post and allow you to participate in those conversations.

By doing these three things alongside your guest post, you can accelerate your results and achieve guest blogging success. 7) Get Quality Backlinks by Helping Clean Up The Internet Links are an essential component of any website, both internal and external. However, they can easily break down for various reasons. This may cause problems for the user experience, reputation, and SEO performance of a website. Unfortunately, most website owners may not even be aware that their links are broken. This is why it is crucial to regularly monitor and maintain the links on a website to ensure that they are functioning correctly. You can get quality backlinks by helping people clean up their broken links. Identifying broken links presents a wonderful opportunity for you to:

• Discover link-building opportunities (particularly for niche edits)
• Cultivate a relationship with the website owner
• Add value to the website owner
• And most critically, secure a high-quality link

The last item on the list is what makes this one of the most preferred link-building methods. Nikolay Stoyanov used broken link building as a tactic to obtain 15 links in a single day with a conversion rate of 15%. This is one of the most underutilized link-building strategies. Here’s how to do it: a) Pick the target website The first step of this link-building strategy is to identify the website which you want to get a link from. Now, don’t get too ambitious and aim for the stars. While it’s tempting to dream of getting a link from a giant like Inc or The New York Times, let’s be realistic. Your chances of success there are slim to none. Instead, set your sights on personal blogs and small companies. Not only will you have a higher chance of success, but the site owners and managers will also be grateful for your help. They’re likely to reward you with a link, and who knows? This could be the start of a beautiful relationship. b) Identify the broken links on the website It’s time to start hunting for those elusive broken links on the website you’ve identified. But fear not, there are some handy SEO tools that can make this process a breeze. One such tool is Check My Links, a nifty Chrome extension that scours a specific page for any broken links. However, if you’re looking for a more comprehensive analysis of a website, Ahrefs is your go-to tool. This powerful tool can provide a list of all the broken links on a website, leaving no stone unturned. c) Make contact with the site owner, manager, or editor Compliments, you’ve finished analyzing all the website pages, and now it’s time to make your move. It’s time to reach out to the blog owner or manager and inform them about the broken link(s) you found. This is not just about getting a link back to your site. Your primary goal here should be to create a meaningful relationship and establish trust with the website owner. If you have a web page that’s relevant to the page where the broken link is, let them know about it. Share your knowledge and offer your expertise to help them improve their page for their readers. And even if you don’t have something relevant to offer, don’t worry. Focus on fixing the broken link at hand, and more opportunities to ask for a link may arise later. Trust the process, the responses you’ll receive from people might surprise you 8) Leverage Internal Link Building There is a particular fondness by successful website owners for internal link building as a link-building strategy. One of the main reasons is that it offers full autonomy over where links are placed. Moreover, implementing this strategy is a breeze, and it poses little to no risk of penalization. Let’s talk about internal links! These are links that you place on one web page that direct the user to another web page on the same domain. Take a look at the following examples:

• This link directs you to another page within this very blog
• This link, on the other hand, takes you to a page on a completely different domain

But the beauty of internal links is that you have total control over where they go and what anchor text you use. That’s right – you get to call the shots! Why are internal links so critical to SEO? Here is some exciting news to share about internal links and their value for SEO. Brace yourself for this:

• First of all, internal links help Google discover new, high-quality content on your site.
• Not only that, but they also help Google better understand and rank your existing content.
• Want to control Google’s spiders and boost your site’s search visibility? Internal links can help you do just that.
• And let’s not forget about the power of directing traffic to important, high-converting pages through internal links.

Despite all of these incredible benefits, it’s shocking how underutilized internal link building is in the world of SEO. The best part? It’s incredibly easy to implement! Let’s dive into one of the most effective methods of internal link building – the manual process. To start, create a list of your website URLs and their corresponding target keywords. Next, utilize Google to search for relevant blog posts on your site that would benefit from additional internal links. Simply search “site:yourdomain.com keyword” and add your links (with exact match anchor text) for each URL/keyword pairing on your list. Although it may take some time, the results will be worth it. And keep in mind, internal link-building requires ongoing effort. Be sure to add internal links from old content to new content every time you publish for optimal results! You can take a peek at some other forms of internal link-building here.

Guest Posting Services

9) Copy Your Competitors’ Backlink Strategies Link building can be a daunting task, especially if you’re trying to compete with big-budget companies spending hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars. But what if we told you that you could get high-quality links without breaking the bank? The secret lies in working smarter, not harder. And that means, spying on your competitors and stealing their best backlinks. By doing this, you’re essentially drafting with your competitors. You let them do the hard work of getting links, and then you swoop in and grab the same ones. This strategy has proven to be highly effective in terms of win rate and overall time invested per earned link. So, how do you do it? The process is simple. First, you need to spy on your competitors to find out where they’re getting their links. Once you’ve identified those links, it’s time to start building your own. By following this strategy, you can level the playing field and compete with even the biggest companies in your niche. Let us look into the process a little deeper: a) List your major competitors Begin by compiling a roster of five competing entities that are ranking for your desired keyword. Size doesn’t matter in this case, as each one can impart valuable insights. b) Do a deep analysis of their backlink profile After compiling a list of competitors, the next step is to analyze their backlink profiles. The most preferred tool for this task is Ahrefs, although spreadsheets can also be used with SEMrush and SEO Powersuite. However, if you prefer not to use spreadsheets, manual analysis is also possible. To do so, go to Ahrefs’ Site Explorer and enter a competitor’s link, then click the orange loop button. From the left-side menu, select the “Backlinks” option to see all the inbound links for that competitor. For a more in-depth analysis, click on the “Link type” button in the bar above the results to categorize the links as “follow”, governmental, educational, or editorial (i.e., those that are linked naturally within a piece of content). For example, to see only the educational links for a competitor, click on the “educational” option. These links can reveal the competitor’s level of respect within their industry and the types of content that are receiving attention from educational sites, such as recipes in this case. c) Export all competitor links individually and develop a winning strategy After compiling a list of inbound links for each competitor, it’s time to strategize. Open each link in a separate tab and start analyzing how your competitor obtained that link. As you go through the list, pay attention to the strategies used by your competitors so you can easily replicate them. This process will help you discover new opportunities, understand the preferences of your industry’s audience, and identify the types of content that receive the most links. 10) Get Featured in Link Roundups Do you want to get your content seen by a wider audience? Then it’s time to tap into the power of Link Roundups! These blog posts are the perfect way to share amazing content and get it noticed by readers who are interested in your niche. Link Roundups are typically published on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis and feature a collection of links to top-notch content, often with a short write-up. The best part is that you can find them in nearly every niche, making it easy to reach your target audience. So, how do you get your content included in these valuable roundups? It’s simple! Follow these two easy steps:

• Identify sites or blogs that regularly post Link Roundups
• Pitch your content idea for their next link roundup

That’s all there is to it! It’s an effortless and effective way to get your content in front of more eyes. Let’s dig a little deeper into this link roundup method. a) How to identify relevant link roundup sites To find relevant Link Roundup sites, Google can be your best friend! Follow these simple steps:

• Use Google to search for the following:

1. keyword +link roundup
2. keyword +monthly roundup

• keyword +roundup

1. keyword +weekly roundup

• Look through the results and add all suitable roundup sites to a spreadsheet.

By conducting these searches and compiling the results, you can create a go-to list of potential Link Roundup sites for your niche. This makes it easier to pitch your content for inclusion and expand your reach to a wider audience. b) Reach out in an innovative non-pushy manner Before you get started with your outreach, here are a few tips to help you stand out from the crowd. First, you’ll need to find the contact email address for each site owner or manager. This can be done by following a simple email address lookup guide or using a tool like FindThatLead. Alternatively, you can search the site for an email address or contact form if you have the time. But, here’s the thing – bloggers that publish these types of roundup posts receive countless similar outreach emails every day. So, if you want to get featured, you’ll need to do something a little bit different. That’s where the 2-pronged approach comes in:

• First, send an initial outreach email that doesn’t ask for anything. This can be a simple introduction, complimenting the blogger on their work, or even sharing an article that you think they might find interesting.
• Once you receive a reply, then pivot to your pitch. This is where you can introduce your content and suggest that it might be a good fit for their next Link Roundup post.

By taking this approach, you’ll show that you value the blogger’s time and effort and that you’re not just looking to promote your content. It is quite simple really. To succeed in link roundup link building, all you need is some high-quality content and a bit of elbow grease to find the right roundups. With this approach, not only will you get a valuable backlink, but you’ll also likely receive targeted traffic to your site. 11) Find Your Way to High-Quality Resource Lists It’s common for websites to have a dedicated page that showcases the tools, guides, and articles they find most helpful. These are what are referred to as resource lists. Here is one of the resource lists that we have on this blog:

• You Can’t Go Wrong – 40+ SEO Experts Share Their Secrets to Content Optimization Success

Resource lists are essentially just a curated list of links, complete with commentary and insights. And the best part? They’re a breeze to use! All you need to do is find resource pages in your niche, reach out and ask for a link, and watch the magic happen. How do you find and use resource lists for link building?

1. Finding Resource Pages Made Easy

Follow these simple steps to find relevant resource pages and add them to a spreadsheet. Step 1: Head over to Google and use the following search terms:

• Keyword +inurl:links
• Keyword +useful resources
• Keyword +helpful resources
• Keyword +inurl:useful links
• Keyword +useful links

Step 2: Look through the results and choose any that are relevant to your content. Add them to your spreadsheet and you’re ready for the next step. Finding resource pages doesn’t have to be a headache. With a little bit of research, you can quickly identify the most relevant pages to reach out to for link placement.  

1. Pitching Your Content Like a Pro

So you’ve found some great resource pages to add your content to, but how do you actually get the link placement? Follow these tips to make the process easier. Step 1: Send an initial outreach email to the website owner, introducing yourself and your content. Be friendly, and professional, and make it clear that you’re looking to contribute to their resource page. Step 2: Once you’ve made contact, pivot to the link placement. Ask if they would be interested in adding your content to their page and provide them with the necessary information to do so. It may take a few emails back and forth, but with persistence, you can secure the link placement you’re after. Remember, the more people you ask, the more links you’ll get! Pitching your content may seem daunting, but with a little bit of effort and a friendly approach, you’ll be amazed at the results.  

• Craft Unique Data-Driven Content

Creating content that grabs people’s attention is no easy task. In today’s world, there is so much content out there that it’s hard to stand out. However, by incorporating unique data into your content, you can make it stand out from the crowd and attract the attention your website deserves. Here are some ideas to help you make your content more data-driven:

• Conduct in-depth research on your industry to find unique insights and statistics
• Test and review tools or services in your niche, and use the data to back up your findings
• Find unique data and incorporate it into your content to provide valuable information
• Survey your email list subscribers, industry peers, or customers to gather data and insights
• Create eye-catching and unique graphics from your own or someone else’s data to make your content more engaging

Remember, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to incorporating data into your content. It’s a process that takes time and effort. But before you hit that “Publish” button, ask yourself: does this article have any unique data? If not, try to add some to give it more substance. By using unique data to enrich your content, you can set yourself apart from the competition and create content that truly resonates with your audience.  

• Listen and Pay Attention to The Internet

If your brand is well-respected in your industry or location, chances are that people are writing about you online. Whenever someone mentions your brand, it presents an opportunity to obtain a valuable backlink. However, it’s not uncommon for people to forget to include a link to your site when they mention you. But fear not! You can easily fix this!

1. Search for mentions of your brand or website

First, head over to Google and enter the following search term: “yourwebsite.com” -inurl: yourwebsite.com This search will return a list of results that mention your domain name but exclude any pages from your own blog. But here’s a pro tip: get creative with your keywords! People may misspell your company’s name more often than you realize. So, try variations of your brand name, and you might just uncover some new mentions that you didn’t know existed. 2) Analyze your website or brand mentions Create an inventory of all websites that have mentioned you, and ensure to verify for any of the following issues:

• Mentions that lack a hyperlink
• Hyperlinks that are broken
• Hyperlinks that are incorrect and lead to a 404 error page.

3) Reach out to the websites where your brand or website has been mentioned After compiling the inventory of websites, locate the individual who oversees its management. If uncertain, refer to the “Contact” page, but it’s preferable to contact the individual who can effectively address the mention. Once you have obtained the relevant email addresses, you may utilize this template. However, it’s critical to personalize it first. Lastly, remember to follow up and not miss out on potential link opportunities. 4) Create Google Alerts for your brand or website name Several individuals may not respond to your inquiry because it has been a significant amount of time since they posted the page where you were mentioned. As a result, promptly responding whenever you receive an unlinked mention is critical. To accomplish this, it’s beneficial to learn how to configure Google Alerts so that you are always prepared. Essentially, each time you receive a notification for a new mention, ensure that it includes a link. If not, utilize the aforementioned template to contact the website’s writer or editor and request the link. By doing so, you will be able to secure high-quality links for your website without any additional effort on your part.

• Reutilize Old Domain Names

Recycling expired domains has become a go-to link-building hack for website owners and bloggers alike. The allure of these domains lies in their fantastic backlink profiles, high levels of authority, and relevance to your niche. Some of these expired domains even boast valuable backlinks from authoritative sources such as Wikipedia, BBC, and the New York Times. Regardless of where you stand on the white hat/black hat debate, it’s hard to ignore the power these domains possess and the impact they can have on your business. The best part? With the right approach, you can snag them for the same price as new domains! (Stay tuned to learn more a little later). Unleashing the power of expired domains to boost your link-building efforts When it comes to expired domains, you have several options to consider. You can either build a brand-new site on the domain to gain instant authority, use the domain to link back to your website, or redirect the domain to pass on its valuable link juice. It’s no wonder why so many people utilize this strategy – leveraging a highly authoritative and relevant expired domain can give your business a significant edge. However, the real challenge lies in discovering expired domains that are not only authoritative but also relevant to your niche. Keep reading to learn more about finding the perfect expired domain to supercharge your SEO efforts. Discovering Hidden Gems: A Summary Guide to Finding Expired Domains Whether you’re a seasoned pro or a newbie, searching for expired domains can be a breeze or a nightmare. Tools like Domain Hunter Gatherer and Spamzilla are the best for this purpose. These tools simplify the process of discovering expired domains and provide you with valuable metrics to help you make informed decisions. Once you’ve found the perfect expired domain, the ball is in your court – whether you decide to use it to build a new website, link back to your existing site, or redirect its link juice to boost your SEO, the choice is yours.

• Newsjacking: Use Current Events to Build Links

Creating standout content that resonates with your target audience is the cornerstone of any effective link-building campaign. However, crafting viral-worthy content is easier said than done. Instead of struggling to generate new ideas, why not leverage current events to fuel your content creation efforts? This technique is called “newsjacking,” and it involves using popular news topics as inspiration for your content. Oreo’s infamous “POWER OUT? NO PROBLEM! YOU CAN STILL DUNK IN THE DARK” tweet during the 2013 Superbowl blackout is a classic example of newsjacking. Their clever tweet garnered over 15,880 retweets and 6,200 favorites in just a few hours, generating a plethora of press coverage and valuable backlinks from reputable sources such as The Huffington Post, Wired, and CNET. You too can harness the power of newsjacking to elevate your content and attract high-quality links to your website. The key is to stay abreast of current events, identify relevant news stories that align with your brand and audience, and quickly create content that adds value to the conversation. By incorporating newsjacking into your content strategy, you can leverage the buzz surrounding trending topics to drive traffic, engagement, and backlinks to your site. Discover Trending Topics Utilize Google Trends to investigate current talking points. Input your own concepts or note the topics displayed on the homepage. For example. the topic of “Younger Royals” is an excellent choice for various articles, particularly in the design, beauty, and fashion sectors. Cast a wide net when compiling your ideas; you can analyze them more thoroughly later. Come up with engaging content ideas Once you’ve researched popular topics, it’s time to brainstorm content ideas. The goal is to create a relationship between the two. For example, if you have a leadership blog, you could write articles like:

• “Leadership Lessons From Tim Cook: 5 Tips for Sales Managers”
• “The Power of Tim Cook’s Leadership Style: How It Can Transform Your Career”
• “Avoid These Leadership Mistakes: Lessons From Tim Cook’s Missteps”

By connecting your content to the trending topics, you can ensure that your content is not only relevant but also timely. Act Fast: Create Timely Content From your list of content ideas, select the most suitable one and get to work creating the content quickly. Keep in mind that the popularity of some topics fades fast, often lasting only a few weeks or even days. Time is of the essence. Aim to have your article completed within a week of identifying the idea to ensure it remains relevant and timely. Publish quickly and promote your content extensively While discussing a trending topic can make promotion easier, it’s not a guaranteed method for creating viral content. As with any content, focus on promotion. Don’t limit your promotion to social media; use it as an opportunity to reach people both within and beyond your industry. Extending beyond your industry! Using the previous example, you might target blogs that cover technology, business, Apple, and Uber to promote your content. Leverage Inflated Influencer Egos Dale Carnegie once said, “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.” The same principle applies to link building. If you stroke the egos of influencers, you’re more likely to get links from high-authority sites. The first step is to build relationships with people who manage high-traffic, high-authority blogs or sites. Relationships are key to getting anything in life, including links. If you get influencers interested in your content, they’ll feel invested and “pushed” to share and link to it, even without being asked. This is where ego bait list posts (ELP) come in. By creating a list that flatters influencers, you can get them to share and link to your content. This strategy helped one blog get 2,000 views, despite previously getting only 50 visits per month. So, if you want to links from influencers links, start stroking those egos! If you’re interested in using ego bait to attract high-quality links, here are some steps to get started: Craft a catchy headline As suggested by ego-baiting experts, begin by choosing a headline that summarizes the main idea of your article. Use this format: Number + (Industry) Experts/Blogs + Promise/Keyword Select a group of influencers in your industry and determine what your article will deliver. Depending on how detailed you want to be, you can choose as few or as many influencers as you like. For example, you could ask the influencers about their favorite link-building tools. This approach will help them understand exactly what you expect them to write about. Your audience will also appreciate specific advice they can use themselves. Outline the question clearly To get the most detailed answers from influencers, it’s important to define a specific question for them to answer. Keep in mind what people would want to read about and pick a unique angle for the question. Influencers are busy people, so it’s essential to make it easy for them to give a detailed answer. When defining the question, it’s crucial to choose an angle that will help the audience and provide a solution to their problems. For example, if you’re writing an SEO ego bait article, you might want to focus on a specific topic like the best local SEO strategy or favorite 30-minute SEO quick win. This allows influencers to provide detailed answers and helps the audience gain valuable insights. Remember to keep the question focused on one topic and pick an angle that will make it stand out from other similar articles. Build your target influencer list Generate a comprehensive list of experts that you intend to approach. To come up with the list, you can brainstorm or conduct a Google search for other expert roundups within your niche or target market. Be sure to select experts with websites that command high domain and page authority, as well as a significant social following. This will make linking and sharing more impactful. Once you have identified the experts, locate their contact information. You can check their personal websites, use LinkedIn, or request for their details via Twitter. Reach out to your list of target influencers After defining your list of experts and questions, it’s time to reach out to them through email. Give them a few days to respond and if you don’t hear back, send a follow-up message. But don’t be too persistent as you don’t want to be seen as a pushy link builder. You can expect a response rate of around 10-25%, but it may be higher if you have an existing relationship with some of the influencers or if you are an influencer yourself. Remember, building relationships is a crucial aspect of influencer marketing, so always be polite and professional in your communication. Create Content Pillars To be taken seriously in the online world, you need to create thought-provoking content that offers genuine value to your audience. The quality of your content is the foundation of your online business, regardless of whether you’re promoting physical or digital products. The key challenge of content creation is determining how frequently you should publish new material to your target audience. Posting excessively can be counterproductive as it leads to information overload. Rather than inundating your audience with content, you can create pillar content on a regular basis, which requires less frequent updates. The alternative, asking your subscribers and customers for their opinions, can complicate the process. By regularly producing valuable, pillar content, you can provide your audience with a solid foundation and establish yourself as a trustworthy source of information. What is this “Content Pillar” Format? Pillar content refers to a comprehensive tutorial-style article that provides practical tips or advice to teach your audience something. Yaro Starak defines it as a long-form article with a minimum length of 500 words that offers real value and insight to readers. This style of content has a long-term appeal and remains relevant regardless of time or news cycle. Creating pillar content can help drive traffic to your website and improve your search rankings. Rather than publishing new content daily, you can focus on producing high-quality, evergreen content that will continue to attract traffic over time. By spending more time creating pillar content, you can increase your conversion rate, generate organic and referral traffic, and improve your link profile. One way to structure your pillar content is by using a how-to style, providing a step-by-step guide to accomplish a specific task or goal. Alternatively, you can present your post in a top-list format, showcasing the top tips, tools, or strategies in your niche. Overall, creating pillar content is an effective strategy to establish your authority in your industry and attract a loyal audience interested in the valuable content you have to offer.

• Keep A Keen Eye on Your Link Profile

Many people focus on acquiring new backlinks but fail to keep track of their existing ones. Without monitoring your backlinks, you won’t know if you need to build more or take a break. It’s possible that some of the over 800 links pointing to your website now may disappear in a month or two. Unfortunately, you have no control over whether the blog or authority site that is linked to you decides to remove your link without informing you. This is why it’s crucial to keep an eye on your backlinks. To determine the number of backlinks your website has, use the following steps.

• First, go to Ubersuggest, enter your website URL, and click “search.”
• Then, click on the backlinks box.
• Scroll down to see a graph that displays the links you’ve acquired and lost.

In addition to showing who is linking to you, this backlinks tool displays the anchor text, domain authority, and page authority of each site. Another useful feature is the graph that shows your backlinks over time. This can help you determine if your link-building strategies are working and if it’s time to try something new. Monitoring your backlinks will help you make informed decisions about your link-building efforts and ensure that your backlink profile remains strong.

• Polish Up and Grow Your Brand

Are you looking for an effective link-building strategy? Look no further than growing your brand. That’s right, your personal brand can lead to natural links that are earned organically and editorially, without any payment involved. But what exactly is a natural link, you ask? It’s a link that gives credit where credit is due, appearing in a context that feels authentic and trustworthy. These links are often the result of quality content and a strong brand that represents you, even when you’re not there. According to Neil Patel, consistent blogging is one of the most effective ways to grow your personal brand and earn those coveted natural links. As a seasoned marketer with over a decade of experience, he’s seen the power of natural links firsthand. After publishing a new blog post, he often sees new links from authority blogs within 24 hours. So, if you’re serious about link building, start taking your blogging game seriously. Consistency is key. By blogging regularly, you’ll not only gain more attention and grow your personal brand, but you’ll also receive 97 percent more inbound links, leading to improved search engine rankings. Remember, building a strong brand takes time and effort, but the payoff in natural links and overall success is well worth it.

• Infographics Still Matter – Use Them

Infographics are a powerful tool for businesses that want to increase their online visibility and generate organic traffic to their website. With 56 percent of companies already using infographics, it’s clear that this medium is highly effective. But what makes infographics so useful for link building? For starters, infographics present information in a visually appealing way that captures the attention of readers. They are easy to understand and often more engaging than plain text. When you create an infographic that is both informative and visually stunning, people are more likely to share it on social media, and other websites, and link back to your site. This can result in valuable backlinks that can boost your website’s authority and improve your search engine ranking. Another advantage of using infographics for link building is that they are highly shareable. You can publish an infographic on your own website and then distribute it across your social media channels, email marketing campaigns, and other online platforms. As more people share your infographic, the potential for it to go viral increases, and with that, the likelihood of acquiring more backlinks.

• Work Smarter to Get Editorial Links

Getting editorial links for your website is not a matter of luck. It requires providing value to your audience. This has been Google’s focus since the introduction of Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird, and Mobile-geddon algorithm updates. Editorial links are valuable because they are given freely by websites that are not seeking anything in return. The key to getting these links is to produce compelling content that people naturally want to share and link to. If you rely solely on building or acquiring links manually, it will be difficult to maintain all of them, and Google may even penalize your site for not being careful enough. Instead, invest your time and effort into creating high-quality content that people will naturally want to link to. Although this advice may seem repetitive, it is essential to understand its importance. Creating great content every day will attract thousands of people who will want to link to it, resulting in an increase in your website’s link profile. To get more editorial links, you can start blogging with a strategy that focuses on creating content that helps people solve problems or move from one point to another. You can also create more tutorials and pillar content, and ensure that you provide accurate data in all of your posts. If you want to learn more about creating better content that will earn high-quality editorial links, you can read this Neil Patel guide on the subject.

• Use Sites Where Reporters Seek Information – they can link to you if you have what they need.

Are you looking for a way to build links and increase brand awareness for your PR efforts? Look no further than Help a Reporter Out or HARO. This platform, owned by PR/Communications giant Cision, connects journalists with relevant sources willing to provide information. Whether you’re in tech or fashion, HARO can help you get your name out there. Journalists from well-known publications like The New York Times and Forbes, as well as niche bloggers, use the platform to find sources for everything from real-time news stories to articles about specific topics like SEO. The best part? Using HARO benefits both parties. Reporters get their source, and responders get a valuable link back to their website. It’s a win-win situation. While it’s true that HARO has become oversaturated over the years, receiving a reply for an answer to an inquiry is still possible. The key is to use the platform correctly. By crafting well-written, informative responses that demonstrate your expertise, you increase your chances of being selected as a source. So, what are you waiting for? Sign up for HARO today and start building those valuable links and business relationships. TAKE NOTE: Journalists use HARO to share about the stories they are currently pursuing, while professionals in the relevant field volunteer to provide sources. This method can be employed to obtain backlinks upon the publication of the stories. However, it’s important to note that certain participating media outlets have greater credibility than others. JustReachOut is another website that operates similarly.

• Use Surveys To Generate Links

Link building is an essential component of online business, and one of the most effective tools for achieving it is customer surveys. Typically, surveys are used by companies to collect feedback from their customers on their products or services. However, in today’s digital marketing landscape, surveys can also be used to drive viral linking, and as a tool for reputation linking. Surveys for Viral Linking One way to use surveys for viral linking is to offer valuable giveaways and incentives in exchange for taking the survey. This increases the likelihood of the survey being shared and linked to, ultimately improving the chances of link acquisition. It is also important to consider demographically similar groups within Google and Yahoo Groups as additional sources to seed the survey. Surveys for Reputation Linking In terms of reputation linking, survey results can be highly desirable to the blogging and business community, as they provide verifiable evidence and substantial content. After adding the survey to your site, reach out to influential bloggers and editors within your industry and offer them an exclusive opportunity to use the results before they’re made public. Being first with a story and offering exclusivity can result in content links to your site and mentions in the future. Understand Consumer Habits To Create Better Content With Surveys The importance of understanding consumer habits cannot be overstated. As most online businesses know, having a number of inbound links is crucial to ranking well. By being proactive in understanding customer habits, companies can build their online presence accordingly. Taking the time to ask customers where they go and what they do can provide valuable information that can be used to improve the company’s link-building efforts. Customer surveys are an excellent tool for link-building in today’s digital marketing landscape. They can be used to drive viral linking, as well as for reputation linking by offering valuable content to influential bloggers and editors. Understanding customer habits is essential for effective link-building, and survey data can provide valuable insights that can be used to build an online presence. As the saying goes, “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity,” and using customer surveys for link-building is a prime example of this. In Conclusion Congratulations! You now have 20+ powerful link-building strategies at your fingertips that you can use to skyrocket your website’s traffic and rankings. And the best part? You don’t need to be an SEO guru to get started. Just remember to build a solid SEO foundation first before diving into link building. Once you have that in place, try out some of the link-building strategies mentioned above and see which ones work best for you. If you’re not sure where to start, we highly recommend the competitor backlink analysis strategy. It’s easy to pull off, has proven results, and can help you quickly acquire high-quality links. In no time, your website will be attracting a flood of new visitors, thanks to the powerful links you’ve earned. So go ahead, try out these strategies, and watch your website’s traffic and search engine rankings soar to new heights. Experience the power of guest posting services that drive results. Our expert team crafts unique and compelling articles tailored to your target audience. Watch your brand gain credibility as we secure placements on authoritative websites, boosting your search engine rankings and organic traffic.  

Are you tired of creating content that never seems to gain any traction online? Have you ever wondered how the top websites in your industry seem to effortlessly dominate search engine rankings? The secret lies in linkable assets – the key to attracting quality backlinks, boosting SEO, and driving traffic to your website. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll reveal the ultimate strategy to create linkable assets that will take your online presence to the next level. You’ve probably heard the standard SEO pitch before – “produce fantastic, one-of-a-kind content, reach out to influencers for links, and you’re set”. It’s not a lie; it does work to a certain extent. However, the most successful sites on the internet have taken a different approach. They’ve built things that are worth linking to – things that are incredibly helpful, engaging, and entertaining. These “things” are so amazing that even the press can’t help but talk about them. With some strategic promotion, these “things” have catapulted these sites to the top, giving them the power to dominate the web. That’s right, I’m talking about linkable assets. Of course, you don’t need them to achieve SEO success. I won’t try to sell you that pipe dream. But if you want to completely obliterate your competition, secure your future in the business world, and minimize the effort it takes to rank future content, then I highly recommend you hop on board. Let’s get into the nitty-gritty and explore how you can create linkable assets that will help you dominate the internet.

How To Create Linkable Assets In 6 Easy Steps

What are the Common Characteristics of Linkable Assets? Okay, so a lot of folks have their own ideas of what a “linkable asset” is. And as time goes on, new ones keep popping up. But instead of droning on about what they are, let me give you the bottom line: “A linkable asset is something worth linking to. “ I know that’s a pretty broad definition, but I think most linkable assets tend to have some common characteristics. For example: 1) A Linkable Asset Must be Useful A linkable asset should be highly valuable to its intended audience, surpassing the standard of an ordinary blog post. It should serve as a definitive resource within its niche, providing exceptional value and surpassing the offerings of any other existing resources. Its use should be so exceptional that it can’t go unnoticed, compelling major industry publications to refer to it. 2) Viral Linkable Assets Offer Loads of Interactivity A key takeaway from this guide is the effectiveness of creating “experiences” over traditional “content.” Interactivity can take various forms, and it does not necessarily require an abundance of JavaScript on your website. The point is that your linkable asset is more likely to be successful if it offers visitors something to engage with, particularly something that cannot be found elsewhere. 3) Linkable Assets MUST Tug at the Heartstrings of Your Target Audience In creating linkable assets, it’s important to consider the emotional response it evokes in your audience. Humor and awe are the most powerful emotions that tend to resonate with people. However, the key factor is the intensity of the emotion it evokes. Negative emotions such as sadness may not arouse the audience, but emotions such as fear and anger do. Incorporating emotions such as fear, anger, humor, and awe tends to result in the most successful linkable assets. Awe, in particular, refers to the feeling of a new perspective, a revelation, which is why scientific discoveries and conspiracy theories tend to be widely shared. 4) A Linkable Asset MUST be Relatable While perhaps less crucial than the previous three factors, distinguishing yourself from competitors is still important. While intentionally seeking controversy is generally inadvisable, taking a stance and appealing to subcultures can be necessary. Studies have shown that consumers are more likely to purchase from brands that share their ethical views and may even pay more for them. It’s crucial to focus on the positive aspects of your stance, however, as bashing other subcultures can alienate your brand from the mainstream and draw attention to your faults. In any case, showing personality is better than sounding “corporate” or “sterile.” 10 Types of Linkable Assets You Can Use to Boost Link Building and SEO Let us take a look at 10 powerful types of linkable assets, and why they are crucial to your business if you want to improve your SEO ranking through link building: It’s important to note that the effectiveness of these linkable assets can vary depending on the industry, target audience, and the quality and relevance of the content created.

• Online “User” Tools

Online tools (Calculators, Converters, etc.) can be a real game-changer when it comes to linkable assets. They are like a Swiss Army knife for your website – handy, versatile, and always there when you need them. Want to give your users a quick and easy way to calculate something? There’s a tool for that. Need to create an eye-catching infographic? There’s a tool for that too. And don’t even get me started on the possibilities for interactive quizzes, surveys, and games – the sky’s the limit! Not only do online tools provide a unique and valuable experience for your visitors, but they also have the potential to earn you quality backlinks and boost your SEO. People love to share and link to useful resources, and if your tool is providing something truly valuable, you can expect to see those backlinks rolling in. Plus, the longer people spend on your site using your tool, the more likely they are to explore your other content and become repeat visitors. Of course, creating an online tool is no small feat – it takes time, resources, and a good deal of technical know-how. But if you can pull it off, the rewards can be well worth the effort. So, get creative, think outside the box, and start building those tools as linkable assets that people can’t help but link to and share.

• Crowdsourced Activity

Crowdsourced activity is a powerful way to create linkable assets that can help boost SEO and drive traffic to your website. By involving your audience in the creation process, you can tap into their knowledge, expertise, and creativity to create something truly unique and valuable. One way to leverage crowdsourced activity is to create a contest or competition that encourages your audience to create and submit content related to your niche. This could be anything from a photo contest to a writing competition, depending on your audience and the type of content you’re looking to create. For example, if you run a travel website, you could create a photo contest where people submit their best travel photos for a chance to win a prize. Or, if you’re in the tech industry, you could run a coding competition where developers can submit their best code snippets or projects. Another way to leverage crowdsourced activity is to create a community-driven resource, such as a directory or database. This can be especially effective if you’re in a niche where there is a lot of information or data that needs to be organized and presented in a user-friendly way. For example, if you’re in the real estate industry, you could create a directory of local real estate agents and brokers, complete with reviews and ratings from customers. Or, if you’re in the health and fitness industry, you could create a database of workout routines and nutrition plans submitted by your audience. The key to leveraging crowdsourced activity is to make it fun and engaging for your audience, while also providing something of value to them. By involving them in the creation process and giving them a chance to showcase their skills and expertise, you can create linkable assets that not only boost your SEO and drive traffic to your website but also help you build a stronger relationship with your audience. To have a successful crowdsourced campaign, there are three must-haves that you can’t ignore: 1) Firstly, offer your users a tool or a platform to create something. You’re not expecting them to carve a statue out of marble, but a simple DIY tool that they can use to create something unique. 2) Secondly, give them the power to vote on what they have created, like an online talent show, where the audience decides which act deserves the spotlight. This way, the best user-generated content can take center stage. 3) Lastly, give the audience a chance to respond to the content, be it through feedback, critique, or even creating a response. This will make your campaign more engaging and give your audience a sense of ownership. Remember, you don’t have to build the next Facebook to succeed. Just come up with something innovative, fun, and engaging to empower your users, and who knows, you might even build a loyal audience!

• Coined Terms

Using coined terms as linkable assets can be a powerful SEO strategy. A coined term is a word or phrase that is created and used to describe a specific concept, product, or service. The term should be unique, easy to remember, and should be descriptive enough to help people understand what it is. When a coined term is used in a piece of content, it becomes a unique identifier for that content. It can also help create a buzz around your content because people are more likely to share content that is unique and interesting. When people share your content and use the coined term, it can lead to more backlinks to your website, which can improve your search engine rankings. For example, the coined term “content upgrade” was first created by Brian Dean of Backlinko. A content upgrade is a lead magnet that is offered as an incentive to people who subscribe to your email list. Brian created a comprehensive guide on how to create a content upgrade, and he used the term throughout the guide. As a result, people started using the term “content upgrade” when referring to this lead magnet strategy. This led to more backlinks to Brian’s website, which helped to boost his search engine rankings. To use coined terms as a linkable asset, start by identifying a concept, product, or service that you want to promote. The terms you create should be unique, descriptive, and easy to remember. Once you have your coined term, create high-quality content that uses the term throughout. This could be a blog post, video, or infographic. When promoting your content, make sure to use the coined term in your social media posts, email newsletters, and outreach efforts. Encourage people to share your content and use the coined term when they do. This can help to create a buzz around your content and can lead to more backlinks and higher search engine rankings. Overall, using coined terms as a linkable asset can be an effective way to boost your SEO, get quality backlinks, and drive traffic to your website. Just make sure to choose a unique and memorable term, create high-quality content, and promote it effectively.

• Resource Center

Resource centers, such as this one created by Moz, can act as linkable assets because they offer visitors an abundance of high-quality information on a specific topic, making them valuable and authoritative sources. When well-constructed, a resource center can help establish a website as a thought leader in a particular field or industry, increasing the likelihood that other sites will link back to it. To create a resource center that is a linkable asset, it is essential to consider the following aspects: 1) Depth and Breadth of Content: A good resource center should have a wealth of information on the subject it covers. Visitors should be able to find content on a wide range of related topics, presented in a way that is easy to understand and navigate. 2) High-Quality Content: The content must be well-researched, accurate, and up-to-date, written by subject matter experts or professionals in the field. The center should provide not only text content, but also multimedia content such as videos, infographics, and interactive tools. 3) Clear and User-Friendly Navigation: Visitors should be able to quickly find what they are looking for. The resource center should have a clear and intuitive navigation menu, as well as a search bar that allows users to search for content based on specific keywords or topics. 4) Engagement: Resource centers can also encourage engagement by allowing visitors to comment on content, share their own resources, and provide feedback. This not only encourages visitors to return, but it can also help build a community around the resource center. 5) Promotion: A resource center alone won’t attract links. Proper promotion is critical to attracting links, both from other websites and users sharing the resources. Promote the center on social media, email newsletters, forums and communities, and relevant directories and listings. To create a highly successful resource center, and make it work wonders as a linkable asset, here are 3 essentials that you MUST consider: 1) Organize a resource center by the form rather than the function: When organizing a resource center, it’s crucial to think about how users will interact with the content. One of the most effective ways to organize a resource center is to group content by form rather than function. This means organizing resources by the type of content they are, such as blog posts, infographics, videos, etc., rather than by the topic they cover. This way, users can easily find the type of content they prefer and access the information they need in the most effective way. 2) Highlight the key resources of the resource center: It’s important to highlight the key resources of the resource center to attract attention to the content that users will find most valuable. This can be achieved by featuring popular or important resources on the homepage, including them in relevant blog posts or articles, and sharing them on social media. In addition, it’s essential to ensure that the key resources are easy to find within the resource center itself, with clear navigation and search functionality. 3) Highlight new resources: To keep the resource center fresh and engaging, it’s important to highlight new resources as they are added. This can be done through a “New” or “Recently Added” section on the homepage, or through regular email newsletters or social media updates. This not only attracts attention to the new content but also encourages users to return to the resource center to check out what’s new. In addition, by highlighting new resources, users will see that the resource center is active and regularly updated, which can increase engagement and establish the center as a valuable and reliable source of information. A well-designed and promoted resource center can serve as a highly effective linkable asset. It offers a wealth of high-quality content, establishes a website as a thought leader in its field, and encourages visitors to engage with the content and share it with others, increasing the likelihood that it will be linked to, by other sites.

• Infographics

Infographics can be a powerful type of linkable asset because they are visually appealing, easy to understand, and often provide valuable information in a digestible format. Here are a few ways that infographics can be used to boost SEO and drive traffic to your website: 1) Provide valuable information: Infographics can be a great way to present complex information clearly and concisely. By providing valuable information in an easy-to-understand format, you are more likely to attract readers who are interested in your topic. 2) Increase engagement: Infographics are more likely to be shared on social media than text-based content, which can help increase engagement and drive traffic to your site. They can also be embedded in blog posts or other types of content, making them more accessible to readers. 3) Earn backlinks: Because infographics are visually appealing and provide valuable information, they are often shared and linked to by other websites. This can help boost your site’s authority and improve your search engine rankings. Here are a few case studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of using infographics as linkable assets:

• The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), now known as American Clean Power Association created an infographic called “How Wind Energy Works” that provided an overview of the wind energy industry. The infographic was shared widely on social media and earned backlinks from high-authority websites like Forbes, Business Insider, and the Huffington Post.
• The company NeoMam Studios created an infographic called “13 Reasons Why Your Brain Craves Infographics” that explained the science behind why people are drawn to infographics. The infographic was shared widely on social media and earned backlinks from high-authority websites like Mashable, Fast Company, and the Daily Mail.
• Neil Patel wrote a blog post “The Anatomy of the Perfect Landing Page” and added an infographic that provided a visual guide to creating a high-quality landing page. The infographic was shared widely on social media and earned backlinks from high-authority websites like HubSpot, Entrepreneur, and Forbes.

To create effective infographics as linkable assets, it’s important to ensure that they are visually appealing, easy to understand and provide valuable information. It’s also important to promote your infographics on social media and reach out to other websites to encourage them to share and link to your content.

• Awards and/or Rankings

Awards and rankings can be powerful linkable assets for a variety of reasons. They provide third-party validation and recognition of a business or individual’s accomplishments, making them more attractive to potential customers or partners. Additionally, they can help to increase visibility and credibility, as well as generate backlinks and traffic to a website. Here are three examples of how awards and rankings can be used as linkable assets: 1) Best of [Industry/Niche] Awards: These awards are given out by various organizations and publications to businesses that excel in a particular industry or niche. For example, the Best of the Web Awards, which are presented by Forbes, recognizes companies that have made significant contributions to the online world. Winning a Best of Award can be a powerful way to establish credibility and generate buzz around a business, as well as drive traffic to the company’s website. 2) Top [Number] Lists: These lists are often compiled by bloggers or media outlets and highlight the top companies, products, or services in a particular industry or niche. For example, the Top 100 Places to Work list published by Fortune Magazine is highly respected and provides a valuable link-building opportunity for the companies that make the list. Being included in a top list can not only generate backlinks and traffic but also increase brand recognition and credibility. 3) Industry-Specific Rankings: Many industries have their own ranking systems, such as the 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in the United States. Being included in these rankings can provide valuable exposure and generate backlinks and traffic to a website. Additionally, rankings can help to establish a company’s reputation within a particular industry, making them more attractive to potential partners and customers. Overall, awards and rankings can be powerful linkable assets that help to establish credibility, increase visibility, and generate backlinks and traffic to a website. By actively seeking out and promoting these accolades, businesses can leverage them to their advantage and gain a competitive edge in their industry. Creating an award or ranking as a linkable asset can be a powerful way to generate backlinks and drive traffic to your website. Here are the steps to create an award or ranking: 1) Determine the criteria: Decide what factors you will use to judge the award or ranking. For example, if you are creating a ranking of the top 10 businesses in your industry, you might consider revenue, growth rate, customer satisfaction, and online reviews. 2) Choose a name: Come up with a catchy and memorable name for your award or ranking. Make sure it accurately reflects the criteria you have established. 3) Create a landing page: Design a landing page that explains the award or ranking and provides information about the criteria and the benefits of winning. Be sure to include a clear call to action for businesses to apply. 4) Promote the award or ranking: Use social media, email marketing, and other digital marketing strategies to promote your award or ranking. Reach out to businesses and industry influencers to encourage them to participate. 5) Select winners: Establish a clear process for selecting winners, based on your criteria. Be sure to communicate the winners to all participants, and promote the winners on your website and social media channels. 6) Celebrate the winners: Host an event or create a press release to celebrate the winners. This will generate additional exposure and backlinks to your website. Examples of companies that have successfully used awards and rankings as linkable assets include: 1) 5000: This annual ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States has become a prestigious award that attracts significant media attention and generates backlinks to Inc.com. The Award has grown to include other continents such as Inc. 5000 Africa. 2) TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Awards: TripAdvisor’s annual awards for hotels, restaurants, and destinations generate significant media coverage and backlinks to TripAdvisor’s website. 3) Moz Top 10: Moz’s annual ranking of the top search engine optimization (SEO) agencies generates backlinks and traffic to Moz.com, as well as recognition as an authority in the SEO industry.

• Research

Research and its results can be a powerful linkable asset as it adds value to the online community by providing new and relevant information on a topic. Research can attract attention online for several reasons: 1) Unique insights: Research often provides unique insights and perspectives on a particular topic. This can be especially valuable if the research is the first of its kind or if it contradicts conventional wisdom. 2) Credibility: Research is generally seen as more credible than opinion or conjecture. If the research is conducted by a reputable organization or expert in the field, it can lend greater weight and authority to the findings. 3) Practical value: Research often provides practical value for readers, giving them information and data that they can use to make informed decisions. This can be especially useful in industries such as healthcare, finance, and education. 4) Shareability: Research is highly shareable, as people often like to share interesting and valuable content with their networks. This can help the research gain wider exposure and attract more attention. Overall, research is a highly valuable asset for online marketing and link building because it can attract a lot of attention, establish credibility, and provide practical value for readers.

• Guides and Tutorials

Guides and tutorials are considered to be great linkable assets because they offer a clear and comprehensive explanation of a particular topic or subject matter. They are highly valuable to the reader, as they provide detailed information on how to perform a particular task or achieve a certain outcome. In addition to providing value to the reader, guides and tutorials also have a number of characteristics that make them highly shareable and linkable. First, they are often organized into sections or steps, making them easy to digest and follow. This makes them highly shareable on social media, as users can quickly and easily share a particular section or step that they found helpful. Guides and tutorials can earn you links from other websites and bloggers in several ways: 1) Providing valuable information: If your guide or tutorial provides valuable information or solves a problem that others are struggling with, they are more likely to share it with their audience. By creating in-depth and informative guides, you are positioning yourself as an expert and a go-to resource for others in your industry. 2) Shareable content: Guides and tutorials are highly shareable. People are always looking for useful resources to share with their own audience, and a well-designed, informative guide or tutorial can be shared on social media, websites, and other platforms, which can lead to more traffic and exposure for your website. 3) Linking to other resources: When you create a guide or tutorial, you may need to reference other resources, tools, or products. By linking to these external resources, you are providing additional value to your audience and showing that you have done your research. The owners of those resources may notice your link and may link back to your guide or tutorial in return. 4) Collaborations and guest posts: Creating guides and tutorials can open up opportunities for collaborations and guest posts. If you provide a valuable resource, other bloggers or businesses in your industry may want to collaborate with you or ask you to contribute a guest post to their website, which can lead to more links and exposure. Overall, creating high-quality, informative guides and tutorials can help you build your brand, establish yourself as an expert, and earn valuable links from other websites and bloggers.

• Video Series

A video series is considered a great linkable asset for several reasons. First, videos are highly engaging and can captivate an audience in a way that text or images cannot. They allow you to convey complex information in a visually compelling way, making it more memorable and shareable. Additionally, a video series can be an effective way to establish yourself as an authority in your field. By providing in-depth information on a particular topic, you can demonstrate your expertise and build trust with your audience. This can lead to more shares, more links, and ultimately higher search engine rankings. Another reason why a video series is a great linkable asset is that it provides a platform for collaboration with other industry experts. You can invite guest speakers to contribute to your video series, which not only adds credibility to your content but also creates opportunities for cross-promotion and link-building. Finally, a video series is highly versatile and can be repurposed in a variety of ways. You can create shorter clips or highlight reels for social media, transcribe the content to create blog posts, or even use the footage in a webinar or presentation. This allows you to reach a wider audience and further increase the likelihood of your content being shared and linked to. In summary, a video series is a great linkable asset because it is engaging, authoritative, collaborative, and versatile. By creating a high-quality video series on a topic that resonates with your audience, you can generate high-quality backlinks, drive traffic to your website, and improve your search engine rankings.

• Case Studies

Case studies can be used as linkable assets to demonstrate the success of your products, services, or strategies. They provide concrete evidence of your business’s value and can be used to persuade potential clients or customers to work with you. A well-crafted case study can also be an excellent way to earn backlinks from authoritative websites, as other businesses or industry publications may be interested in sharing your success story with their own audience. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to create and promote a case study within a certain niche: 1) Identify the target audience and niche: Determine the target audience and niche for your case study. This will help you create content that is specifically tailored to the needs and interests of your audience. 2) Select a relevant topic: Choose a topic that is relevant to your niche and of interest to your target audience. The topic should be something that you have expertise in and can showcase your skills and knowledge. 3) Find a suitable case study subject: Look for a relevant case study subject that you can use to illustrate your expertise and experience. This could be a client or a customer that you have worked with in the past, or it could be a hypothetical scenario that you create. 4) Collect data and information: Collect data and information on the case study subject. This could include interviews, surveys, customer feedback, and other relevant information that supports your case study. 5) Create the case study: Use the data and information you collected to create a compelling case study that highlights your expertise and experience in your niche. Use storytelling techniques to create a narrative that engages your target audience and showcases your abilities. 6) Promote the case study: Once your case study is complete, promote it to your target audience. Share it on social media, send it to your email list, and reach out to other websites and blogs in your niche to see if they are interested in featuring your case study. 7) Follow up and measure success: Follow up with the websites and blogs that feature your case study to see if you have earned any backlinks. Track your traffic and engagement metrics to measure the success of your case study promotion efforts. By following these steps, you can create a high-quality case study that showcases your expertise and experience in your niche, and earns valuable backlinks from other websites and blogs. Explore Real-Life Success Stories: Case Studies of Linkable Assets in Action Get ready to see how the techniques we’ve covered in this article have worked wonders for others in the real world, yielding quality backlinks, enhanced SEO, and a surge in website traffic.

• “Open Happiness” by Coca-Cola – A Crowdsourced Linkable Asset

The Challenge In an era where health consciousness is on the rise, companies are finding new ways to connect with consumers through digital media. When Coca-Cola was faced with this challenge, it had to come up with a creative approach to promote its products. And thus, the “Open Happiness” campaign was born – a smart and straightforward strategy to achieve their objective. Let’s dive deeper into how Coke pulled off this feat. The Solution Rather than focusing on the health benefits or drawbacks of their products, Coca-Cola opted for a feel-good approach that highlighted personal commonalities and celebrated individuals by putting popular names on their bottles and cans. Coca-Cola discovered a unique way to win over its audience by tapping into two key strategies:

1. Tugging at consumers’ heartstrings through the uplifting Tippy Tap video and story, and
2. Celebrating individuality by featuring popular given names on their bottles and cans.

With these powerful tactics, Coca-Cola moved beyond the health benefits of its product to promote the brand as an embodiment of positivity, joy, and shared experiences. Through its “Open Happiness” tagline in 2013, Coca-Cola launched a series of initiatives that engaged its customers and increased the company’s global presence. The interactive campaigns, including “The Coke Zero Dance,” “The Share a Coke,” and “The Super Bowl Polar Bears,” effectively used crowdsourcing to generate buzz and connect with consumers. One of the standout features of these campaigns was how they appealed to customers’ emotions, by making them feel like part of a community, and inviting them to be an active part of the brand. The first two were particularly effective towards this end:  1) The Coke Zero Dance Coca-Cola’s innovative approach to expanding its brand presence involved the creation of a captivating new dance for its Coke Zero line. Leveraging the power of social media, the company launched a compelling crowdsourcing campaign, calling upon the public to share their unique dance moves. Ultimately, Coca-Cola selected the inspiring story of a young man who channeled his frustration with his parents into the creation of an electrifying dance move known as the Toe Tappy. The captivating routine quickly captivated fans on social media, racking up over 5 million views on YouTube and establishing Coca-Cola as a trailblazer in innovative brand engagement. 2) Share a Coke In Australia, Coca-Cola’s savvy market research identified a stunning reality: a full 50% of young Australians had never tasted a Coke. Determined to build a stronger connection with this critical demographic, Coca-Cola embarked on a bold new campaign. The company conducted research on the 150 most popular names in the country and began printing them on Coke products. This simple, yet inspired tactic generated tremendous social media buzz, driving nationwide excitement around the “Share a Coke” initiative. Coca-Cola even rolled out mobile kiosks to offer customers a chance to print their names on a can of Coke. The results of the campaign were remarkable, with Coca-Cola earning over 12 million media impressions and boosting sales volume by 4% within just three months. The company’s strategic use of crowdsourcing resulted in an entirely new and engaging customer experience, winning over 5% more Australians to the irresistible taste of Coke. In short, Coca-Cola masterfully harnessed the power of crowdsourcing to connect with its target audience and transform the way customers engage with its iconic brand. The Results Coca-Cola’s various campaigns were designed to embody its brand essence of “Open Happiness”, a guiding principle for all brand messaging and product promotion. To expand its global footprint, Coca-Cola integrated crowdsourcing into its marketing strategy. Although boasting millions of worldwide customers, the key to success is not just the size of the audience, but rather, having the right audience. Through meticulous market research, Coca-Cola was able to effectively engage and mobilize its audience through a range of crowdsourcing initiatives, yielding tangible results.

• Dominos Pizza – A User Tool + Crowdsourced Linkable Asset

The Challenge Back in 2009, Domino’s Pizza faced a major crisis when a viral YouTube video showed two employees engaging in inappropriate behavior with a pizza, garnering over a million hits in no time. It seemed like the end for the brand, but Domino’s saw it as an opportunity to improve. By leveraging customer feedback and revamping its product offerings, the company successfully turned the crisis around and redefined its brand image. Domino’s inspiring journey serves as a testament to the power of a well-executed digital marketing campaign. The Solution To overcome the PR crisis caused by the viral video in 2009, Domino’s Pizza implemented a five-pronged strategy:

• Firstly, the company responded promptly and proactively.
• Secondly, it confessed to its customers and began rebuilding their trust.
• Thirdly, it prioritized customer feedback to refine its product offerings.
• Fourthly, it enhanced the customer experience through innovative features such as the Pizza Tracker.
• Lastly, it utilized social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to generate enthusiasm about its redefined direction.

This multi-dimensional approach enabled Domino’s to recover from the crisis and emerge stronger. Domino’s Pizza wasted no time in rectifying its mistakes. President Patrick Doyle stepped up and swiftly responded to the inappropriate YouTube video by publicly apologizing to customers about the debacle. Domino’s further extended its remorse to its customer base by admitting that its pizza quality had been subpar. With this candid admission, Domino’s demonstrated a strong commitment to customer satisfaction and transparency, earning renewed trust and loyalty from its patrons. To continue its rebranding effort, Domino’s took a customer-centric approach by revamping its pizza boxes and launching surveys to gather and act on valuable feedback. Through crowdsourcing, the company was able to gain genuine insights and suggestions directly from its customer base. Through listening to and acting on customer feedback, Domino’s was able to reconnect with its customer base and demonstrate that its input mattered. Even when faced with negative feedback, Domino’s was committed to taking it seriously and using it as an opportunity to revamp its product from crust to topping. The resulting “PizzaTurnaround” campaign emphasized transparency and encouraged customers to give the new and improved Domino’s pizza a try. The Results Domino’s achieved a remarkable 14.3% increase in revenue during the first quarter of 2010, and since implementing the campaign, the company’s stock soared by an impressive 400%. How did they do it, you ask? By shrewdly aligning their brand message with the values of the burgeoning digital landscape, and executing an expertly crafted integrated digital marketing strategy. Domino’s set out to achieve two goals with their innovative new campaign: to lure back former customers and entice new ones to try their deliciously revamped pizza. To accomplish this, they created a #newpizza Twitter feed, produced enticing ads on YouTube, and introduced a visually stunning Pizza Tracker feature on their website. This tool allowed customers to easily place an order for any of Domino’s mouth-watering products and then watch with eager anticipation as their pizza progresses through each stage of delivery. By becoming more interactive, social, transparent, and receptive to customer feedback and reviews, Domino’s demonstrated a savvy understanding of the values of today’s digital culture and the intricacies of a well-executed integrated digital marketing strategy. To this day, Domino’s remains committed to expanding upon its original campaign, with a series of fresh initiatives that center around cultivating trust among all of its key stakeholders – from shareholders and employees to cherished customers.

• Ben & Jerry’s Invent Your Ice-Cream Campaign – An Award + Crowdsourcing Linkable Asset

The Challenge As with any organization, Ben & Jerry’s understood the importance of actively engaging with consumers to keep them connected to their brand and the products they love. They needed a way to continue to captivate their audience and forge lasting connections that left a sweet taste in everyone’s mouth. The Solution With a commitment to advancing their mission and driving innovation, Ben & Jerry’s launched their revolutionary “Do the World a Flavor” campaign on a global scale. By harnessing the power of crowdsourcing, they not only showcased their core values but also solicited inspired ideas for fresh ice cream flavors and product designs. Through this bold approach, Ben & Jerry’s proved that they are a true trailblazer in their industry, pioneering new avenues for customer engagement and collaboration. Ben & Jerry’s launched a contest spanning seventeen countries, daring consumers to put their creativity to the test and invent a completely new ice cream flavor on the brand’s website. Winners of this exciting competition were rewarded with the unique opportunity to have their winning creation transformed into an official Ben & Jerry’s flavor, as well as embark on an unforgettable trip to the Dominican Republic. There, they could witness firsthand where the exceptional Fair Trade ingredients utilized in Ben & Jerry’s ice cream are grown, all while supporting the brand’s cherished core values. By advocating for Fair Trade, a certification and global trade model that promotes fair wages for workers in developing countries, Ben & Jerry’s showcased their continued commitment to making a positive impact on the world. The Results Ben & Jerry’s, an expert in cultivating exceptional customer experiences, developed a digital campaign that seamlessly integrated the brand’s core values with increased customer involvement. The innovative use of crowdsourcing allowed Ben & Jerry’s to channel the boundless enthusiasm of their fans and promote the brand in a positive light. This not only deepened consumer engagement but also yielded an incredible array of unique new ice cream flavors. The results were staggering: The US alone received a whopping 10,000 new flavor suggestions, with beloved classics such as “Cherry Garcia” and “Chunky Monkey” emerging as iconic hits. It’s clear that Ben & Jerry’s “Do the World a Flavor” campaign was an undeniable triumph, exemplifying the brand’s unparalleled ability to inspire creativity and foster a genuine connection with its fans. In Conclusion Mastering the art of linkable asset creation is crucial to the success of any SEO strategy. By creating valuable and engaging content, businesses can attract quality backlinks, enhance their online reputation, and ultimately improve their search engine rankings. Throughout this ultimate guide, we’ve explored the various techniques and best practices for creating linkable assets and examined inspiring case studies from successful brands. Whether you’re looking to create stunning visual content, conduct original research, or generate captivating infographics, the key to success is to prioritize quality and relevance above all else. With the right mindset, tools, and resources, any business can leverage the power of linkable assets to maximize its SEO efforts and achieve long-term success. If you have tried out any of the concepts discussed in this blog post, kindly do share your experiences, whether positive or negative, in the comments section below. Unlock the potential of guest posting with our professional services. Our team of skilled writers ensures your message reaches a vast audience, positioning you as an industry leader. Enjoy increased visibility, valuable backlinks, and sustainable growth with our strategic approach.

“The Key to ground breaking, and business rapturing, SEO Success is Backlinks!” If you are well-versed in Search Engine Optimization, you have likely heard about the importance of backlinks. Marketers and SEO experts place great emphasis on the power of backlinks for boosting website traffic and improving ranking on search engines. While there are many factors involved in a successful SEO campaign, backlinks remain a crucial element. However, acquiring high-quality backlinks for your website can be a challenge. To help you out, we are providing a comprehensive guide to link building for 2023 and beyond. In this guide, you will find strategies to enhance your website traffic, and overall SEO ranking. What is Link Building? Link building is the process of acquiring hyperlinks, also known as backlinks, from other websites that lead to your site. The goal is to increase the relevance and authority of your website, resulting in improved visibility on organic search engines. Link building provides SEO value through referral traffic and authority signals. What Benefits Does Link Building Offer to Websites? Link building is an SEO tactic that helps website owners improve their ranking on organic search engines by providing relevance cues and authority to their site. A high volume of quality backlinks shows Google the credibility of a website. Here are several reasons why link building is essential for SEO:

1. Ranking: Having a high volume of high-DA backlinks will improve your website’s keyword ranking, making it more visible on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
2. Credibility: Quality backlinks serve as a vote of confidence from other websites, indicating that your website has accurate, helpful, and engaging content. This enhances your website’s favorability to search engine algorithms.
3. Traffic: Backlinks from other websites can drive more traffic to your site.
4. Revenue Generation: An increase in backlinks results in more opportunities to generate revenue from referral traffic.
5. Performance: Link building contributes to better performance metrics for your website, including keyword positions, site DA, organic impressions, and more.
6. Partnerships: By practicing link building and outreach, you can establish valuable partnerships and relationships with other bloggers and business owners in your niche.
7. Authority: By creating great content and earning links, you can build the authority of your website in terms of DA and voice.
8. Content Marketing: Link building often involves creating blog posts, conducting email campaigns, sharing content on social media, and more. These techniques come together to support your overall content marketing strategy.

Types of Links You Should Know About There are various types of links in SEO, and not all of them can be referred to as backlinks. Before developing a link building plan, it’s essential to understand the different types of links and how they impact your website. Here are some of the most common types of links:

1. Backlinks – These are links that originate from other websites and direct to your site. For instance, if a blogger writes an article and includes a link to a page on your website, it’s considered a backlink.
2. Internal Links – These are links added within your content that lead to another page within your site. For example, including links in a new blog post to related content on your blog is a good way to create internal links.
3. Broken Links – These are links, both internal and backlinks, that were initially connected to a source but the source is no longer available or has been deleted, resulting in a 404 error.
4. DoFollow Links – “DoFollow” is a term applied to the link source, either on your site or an external site linking to your site. This descriptor code informs search engine crawlers to follow the authority of the link to the end source, counting it as providing authority to the end destination.
5. NoFollow Links – Conversely, a “NoFollow” link has a coded descriptor telling search engine spiders not to count the link or consider it as providing authority to the end source. Websites use the nofollow property on outbound links to preserve their own authority instead of transferring it to the linked site.
6. External Links – These are outbound links on your website that direct to another website. Regardless of who creates the link, whether it’s you or someone else, any link pointing to another domain is considered an external link, and you can choose whether to set it as “DoFollow” or “NoFollow”.
7. Editorial Links – These are backlinks to your site that come from an editorial source. In other words, the source website links to your site organically, not through paid means. Editorial links are gained through the publication of high-quality content or marketing your content on other platforms, such as social media.
8. Referring Domains – “Referring Domains” is an SEO term used by tools to measure the number of individual domains pointing to your website. It doesn’t indicate the number of unique domains but instead, shows the overall domains directing to your website, allowing you to assess the relevance and authority of each domain.
9. High Quality Links – These are links from relevant websites with high-quality content and a high domain authority. These are the types of links search engines prefer to see, and having high-quality links from popular, high-authority websites is more beneficial than having a large number of low-quality links.
10. Relevant Links – “Relevant Links” is a term you may encounter in link building guides. Relevance is challenging to quantify, but receiving links from relevant websites and blogs covering topics related to your site is a great indicator. These links tell Google that a similar website finds value in your content and that it matches what users in your niche are searching for.

Steps to Take When Creating a Powerful Link Building Strategy When developing a link building strategy, there are several important features to consider.

1. Utilize Website Analysis – Conduct a Site Audit

To start, perform an SEO audit on your website using tools such as Ahrefs and Moz. These tools will give insights into your current backlink profile, including the number of backlinks you have, your website’s DA, fluctuations in backlink volume over time, and other relevant metrics. By using these tools, you can also identify broken or lost backlinks, domains linking to your competitors, pages on your website with the highest number of backlinks, low quality or spammy backlinks, and new keyword opportunities. These tools are crucial for leveraging your existing backlink profile and discovering new link building opportunities.

2. Understand Your Niche

An effective link building strategy requires creating quality content that will attract both your target audience and referring websites. To do this, it’s important to have a deep understanding of your niche and your target audience, so you can create content that resonates with them and earns you links. Conduct market research to gain new insights into your target users and brainstorm topics that you think will interest them. Use SEO tools to find keywords that your target audience is searching for. Additionally, perform competitor research to identify backlink and content opportunities they may have overlooked. Focus your link building efforts on creating highly targeted content, conducting outreach campaigns to other websites in your niche, and forming partnerships within your niche.

3. Leverage Guest Posting

Despite varying opinions on its effectiveness, guest posting remains a powerful way to obtain high-quality backlinks. Avoid massive guest posting campaigns and posting on irrelevant or low-authority sites, as these efforts will not have any significant impact on your site’s ranking. According to a survey conducted in 2021, 60% of respondents wrote one to five guest posts per month. To see the best results, be deliberate and focused when writing guest posts. Make sure the content is unique and the guest site has high authority, relevance, and an audience interested in your products or services. By being selective in your guest posting, you will achieve better rankings, higher traffic volume, and more qualified leads.

4. Maximize the Use of Infographics

Infographics have proven to be an effective tool for online businesses, with 84% of those who use them reporting success. They are a great way to attract traffic and backlinks to your website without having to request them. To create infographics, hire a graphic designer or use tools like visual.ly. Infographics are ideal for conveying complex concepts or ideas, especially when displaying data, statistics, research, or other findings. However, keep in mind that the niche is saturated with infographics, so ensure that your design stands out to increase its chances of going viral. Infographics can be expensive, but you can consider making a “Gifographic” instead, which contains animated gifs to catch the eye of your target audience.

5. Utilize The Benefits of Social Media

Social media is a well-known tool for gaining backlinks to your website. A recent study by Ahrefs found that they received links from 5 different states without doing any outreach, simply by creating content on social media. Social media has revolutionized Internet marketing and can significantly enhance your backlink strategy and boost your guest posting efforts. If you’re not active on social media, you’re missing out on a valuable resource for building editorial backlinks to your website. Start sharing posts, updates, and images on social media to increase engagement with your target audience and help them find what they want to see and read. The more your content is shared, the more visibility and links you’ll receive, ultimately improving your link profile and SERP visibility.

6. Maximize The Advantages of Trusted Site Resource Links

Getting resource links from trusted sites is crucial for building backlinks. A resource link is like a guide for your target audience. The best resource links come from trusted websites such as Entrepreneur, Huffington Post, Forbes, Social Media Examiner, CopyBlogger, and Jeff Bullas. If there’s a trusted site within your niche that has a resource link to blogs in your niche, their visitors will easily find the information they’re looking for. Creating large resource articles can earn you a high number of quality backlinks from trusted sites. Reach out to the websites listed on your resource link and request backlinks to your page. This approach is likely to result in a better response than a typical “broken link” request, as the fact that you’ve already linked to their site in your article will encourage them to link back to yours. By establishing trust through resource links, these websites will be more likely to link back to any future relevant content you create.

7. Make The Most of Broken Links

A study by SEMrush found that 42.5% of websites have broken links, providing an opportunity for backlinks from authoritative sites. The broken link strategy is a great way to get backlinks if you’re too busy to create new content or guest blogs. The strategy is straightforward: find pages on other blogs with broken links and ask the owners to replace those links with links to your website, especially if your content is relevant. If a blogger has a broken link that leads to similar content as yours, they will be more likely to link to your content to eliminate the broken link. This strategy can be especially useful if you’re just starting out and need a high number of quality backlinks. For more information, check out the article “A Step-by-Step Guide to Modern Broken Link Building” by QuickSprout.

8. Personal Branding: The Key to Successful Link Building

Building a strong personal brand is an effective way to attract high-profile backlinks. Your brand is a reflection of your thoughts and values, and as it evolves, so will your reputation. When it comes to creating a successful link building strategy, it’s important to understand that as your personal brand grows, people will naturally link back to your content. In the world of natural link building, there are many opinions about what it entails. Typically, a natural link is:

• Obtained through editorial means.
• Contextually relevant to the content it appears in.

This type of link should not be bought or influenced by any form of sponsorship. Natural links give credibility to your content, something every blogger aspires to. Many established bloggers will attest to this fact: when they publish a new blog post, they receive several natural backlinks from trusted websites within a few days, simply because these websites trust the content they publish. Your personal or business brand plays a crucial role in this. Your brand represents you, and you represent your brand. Consistently publishing authoritative and helpful content is one of the best ways to build your brand. This will earn you the trust of your audience and lead to more authoritative backlinks to your website. By being dedicated to the quality of your content, you can expect to receive 97% more inbound links, which will improve your search engine ranking and visibility.

9. Backlink Hunting: Uncovering Your Competitor’s Secret to Success

If your competitors are outpacing you in search engine results, they must be doing something right. By replicating their tactics, you can achieve the same results. Backlink hunting involves investigating your competitors to see where they’re getting their backlinks. By analyzing your competition, you can discover the keywords they rank for, find their best links, and uncover the “secret” to their success. This process is known as “Competitive Analysis”. You can use a tool like Ubersuggest to check your competitor’s backlinks.

• Go to the tool and enter your competitor’s URL.
• Look at the results page and click on the “backlinks” box.
• Scroll down and view the list of websites linking back to your competitor.

By knowing the types of websites linking to your competition, you’ll know which websites to target when conducting outreach for backlinks.

10. Replicating Competitor Backlinks for Success

In the previous step, you discovered the websites where your competition is getting their backlinks. So, how do you replicate their success? For example, if you find that your competitors have received several backlinks from related blogs through author bios, this means they are likely guest blogging. If the links are from corporate sites, they may be performing a lot of networking and outreach. If the links are from top sites such as Entrepreneur, CNN, Huffington Post, Forbes, and others, this indicates they may be paying for editorial content that links back to their site. Using a tool like Ubersuggest, you can determine which of their backlinks come from pages with high domain rank or page authority. Aim to replicate efforts that bring in natural editorial links, which are highly valued by both Google and your industry peers.

11. Maximize The Benefits of Topic Roundups

Topic roundups are an effective way of obtaining high-quality backlinks to your website. In one instance, a blogger received 20,000 page views in just 6 days from a single topic roundup post. To attain these types of results, you must understand the principle of reciprocity. When you provide a link to another website first, they are more likely to return the favor. To create a topic roundup, start by choosing a topic and then compiling a list of relevant blog posts. For instance, if you are a fashion blogger, you can create a list of the top fashion influencers in your niche. Search for these posts using Google, using a search query such as “intitle: roundup fashion influencers.” Additionally, pay attention to your traffic and link profile. If there are blogs that are already linking to your site, prioritize these when writing your topic roundup. Reward those who have already linked to your content. Avoid making the mistake of only creating internal links in your topic roundup post. Instead, strive to make external links as well, as this will encourage others to link back to your site.

12. Harness The Power of Earned Editorial Links

Earned editorial links are not gained by chance, but rather through providing valuable content. This is something that Google values, as seen in its Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird, and Mobile-First updates. These types of links are highly sought after in the marketing world as they are given freely without any expectation of return. To earn editorial links, it is crucial to have a strategy in place before creating content. Your content should aim to meet the needs of your audience and help them move from one point to another. Consider creating more tutorials and pillar content, and include accurate data to build trust and credibility. Avoid using sponsored or manually acquired links, as they can be difficult to maintain and may result in penalties from Google. Instead, concentrate on producing engaging content that will naturally attract editorial links.

13. Utilize The Power of Social Mentions for Link Reclamation

According to SEMrush, more than 2% of external links from websites across the world are broken. In search engine optimization and social media, link reclamation is a popular topic. You can look for broken links and unlinked mentions of your brand and redirect them to an active, relevant page. However, in this section, we will focus on link reclamation through social mentions. Instead of using Google Alerts, you can reclaim links from social mentions by following these steps:

• Conduct a search on Google Image Search using the full title of your infographic.
• Find the page where the image is hosted and check if it has been properly attributed to your site.
• If not, reach out to the website owner and request that they add the proper attribution.

Reclaiming links from social mentions may seem time-consuming, but it is necessary for obtaining quality backlinks to your site. This is something that you can do where your brand name has been mentioned on the website and social media platforms. It may seem tedious, but if you want quality links back to your site, then roll up your sleeves and start reclaiming links from your social mentions.

14. Utilize the Potential of Strong Content

Creating impactful content is vital to establish credibility and attract natural links back to your website. Every online business requires compelling content, regardless of the products or services offered. By providing value through helpful content, your audience will be more likely to share and promote your brand. However, it can be challenging to determine the optimal frequency for publishing content. Overloading your audience with too many posts could lead to confusion and result in them avoiding your content altogether. To address this issue, you have two options:

• Survey your audience
• Develop a pillar article

The first option involves gathering varied opinions from different sources, including blog readers, existing customers, targeted prospects, and email subscribers. This may prove to be difficult to fulfill all the requests for new content. The second option involves creating a pillar article that addresses the majority of questions or concerns your audience may have. This reduces the need for frequent content creation and allows your pillar content to continue driving traffic to your site over time. A pillar article is a comprehensive and informative article, often over 500 words, that offers practical tips and advice to teach your audience. This style of writing has a long-lasting appeal and provides real value and insight, as explained by Yaro Starak. “How to” articles and roundups are great formats for pillar content. By creating pillar content, you can improve your link profile, increase referral traffic, organic traffic, and conversion rates, which in turn improves your overall search engine ranking.

15. Maximize the Benefits of Monitoring Your Backlinks

Acquiring new links is a common strategy for boosting online visibility, but it’s important to also track their performance. Failing to monitor your backlinks can lead to not knowing when to add more or when to pause. Additionally, links may be removed or broken without your knowledge. To mitigate this risk, it’s crucial to monitor your backlinks regularly. A tool like Ubersuggest can make this process easy.

• Visit the Ubersuggest page and enter your website or blog’s URL.
• Click on “Search”
• In the results page, click on the “backlinks” box.
• Scroll down to see a graph displaying the links gained and lost over time.
• See who is linking to your website or blog, the anchor text being used, and the Domain Authority and Page Authority of the site.

The graph displaying your backlinks over time is a crucial aspect as it helps you to evaluate the effectiveness of your link building strategy and make necessary changes if required.

 Link Building Strategies You Should Avoid

Apart from knowing the above link building strategies, which you should do, you also need to know the strategies that you should avoid and forget. There are black hat link building strategies that could get your site penalized on the search engines. Here are some of the main ones to run away from:

1. Steer Clear of Purchased Links

Purchasing links is a tactic to manipulate search engine algorithms, which goes against Google’s Search Essentials, formerly known as Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. This can result in penalties or even a ban from search engines. Most paid backlinks come from sites with many outbound links, which are monitored by Google’s algorithms and often of low quality, negatively impacting your SEO performance. Additionally, your competitors can also buy the same links, rendering your investment worthless. If your main focus is not on paid marketing, or you are buying links for the purpose of building brand authority, then purchased links may be beneficial for you. In such cases, make sure to add the “nofollow” or “sponsored” attributes to the paid links so they don’t get flagged and affect your SEO ranking. However, using purchased links solely for the purpose of boosting search engine ranking results in a red flag and not good for your business.

2. Avoid Artificial Link Building

If you are placing links just to increase the number of backlinks to your site and rank higher on search engines, this can have negative consequences. The links you add should add value to the website and its audience. They should either enhance the search engine algorithm’s understanding of the content or provide the reader with relevant information. Links that don’t meet these criteria will be flagged as spammy and may lead to penalties from search engines.

3. Stay Away from Private Blog Networks

Private Blog Networks are groups of websites created to generate a large number of links. These websites tend to have no authority and are used to drive traffic to money-making sites. They pass link juice to these sites to unethical boost their ranking on search engines. Google dislikes Private Blog Networks because they trick the search algorithms into giving sites higher rankings through unfair methods. Using a PBN to improve the ranking of your website or blog on search engines is a temporary solution, as Google will eventually penalize you once they discover it. Here are a few reasons why PBNs are bad for effective link building:

1. Risk of penalties: PBNs are often used to manipulate search engine rankings and violate search engines’ guidelines. This can result in penalties or even a complete ban from search engines, which can severely impact your website’s visibility and traffic.
2. Decreased credibility: PBNs are often comprised of low-quality, spammy websites that can harm your website’s credibility and reputation. The links from these sites are unlikely to be seen as credible or trustworthy by search engines or users, which can negatively impact your website’s search engine rankings.
3. Lack of scalability: PBNs are often limited in scale and can be difficult to manage and maintain over time. As your website grows, it may become increasingly challenging to build and manage a PBN, making it difficult to effectively scale your link building efforts.
4. Reduced effectiveness: PBNs are often less effective than other forms of link building, such as earned or organic links. This is because search engines are becoming more sophisticated in detecting and penalizing manipulative link building practices, making it increasingly difficult to use PBNs to achieve high search engine rankings.

Private Blog Networks (PBNs) are a bad option for effective link building. They carry the risk of penalties, decreased credibility, lack of scalability, and reduced effectiveness, making them a poor choice for building a healthy and effective SEO strategy. Instead, it’s recommended to focus on building high-quality, organic, and natural links through content creation, outreach, and other ethical link building methods.

4. Avoid Overoptimizing Anchor Text

Overoptimizing anchor text can harm your website’s search engine rankings and negatively impact your overall SEO strategy. Here are a few reasons why you should avoid overoptimizing anchor text:

1. Penalty from search engines: Overoptimizing anchor text can trigger a penalty from search engines, particularly Google, which can significantly lower your search engine rankings. Google’s algorithm is designed to identify unnatural or manipulative link patterns, and overoptimizing anchor text is one such pattern.
2. Decreased credibility: Overoptimizing anchor text can make your link profile appear spammy, which can decrease your website’s credibility in the eyes of search engines and potential customers. Search engines want to provide their users with the most relevant and trustworthy information, and an overoptimized anchor text profile is not seen as credible.
3. Missed opportunity for branding: Anchor text provides an opportunity to build your brand and communicate your message. Overoptimizing anchor text by using the same exact keywords repeatedly can limit your ability to showcase your brand and communicate your unique value proposition.
4. Reduced diversity in your link profile: A diverse link profile, including a variety of anchor text, is a key factor in building a healthy and natural link profile. Overoptimizing anchor text reduces the diversity of your link profile, making it appear more artificial and potentially triggering penalties from search engines.

Overoptimizing anchor text can harm your search engine rankings, decrease your credibility, limit your branding opportunities, and reduce the diversity of your link profile. To maintain a healthy and effective SEO strategy, it’s important to avoid overoptimizing anchor text and instead focus on building a diverse and natural link profile.

5. Do Not Use Automated Link Building Tools or Services

Using automated link building tools or services can harm your website’s search engine rankings and hinder your overall SEO strategy. Here are a few reasons to steer clear of these tools:

1. Threat of penalties: Automated link building often contravenes search engines’ guidelines, leading to penalties or even a complete ban from search engines. This can significantly reduce your website’s visibility and traffic, making it difficult to achieve your desired search engine rankings.
2. Diminished credibility: Automated link building typically results in low-quality, spammy links that can damage your website’s credibility and reputation. Such links from these sites are unlikely to be seen as credible or trustworthy by search engines or users, which can negatively affect your website’s search engine rankings.
3. Limited control: Automated link building tools do not offer control over the quality and relevance of links, making it challenging to maintain a high-quality link profile. This can lead to a link profile filled with irrelevant or low-quality links, which can harm your website’s search engine rankings.
4. Scalability challenges: Automated link building tools are often limited in scale, making it difficult to scale your link building efforts effectively. As your website grows, maintaining a high-quality link profile may become increasingly challenging, limiting your ability to achieve desired search engine rankings.
5. Missed relationship building opportunities: Link building involves more than just getting links. It’s also about building relationships with other websites and communities. Automated link building tools lack the ability to build relationships and engage in meaningful communication with other websites, missing out on valuable opportunities for link building and relationship building.

Avoiding automated link building tools or services is essential for a healthy and effective SEO strategy. The risk of penalties, decreased credibility, lack of control, limited scalability, and missed opportunity for relationship building make automated link building a poor choice for building a strong and sustainable link profile. Instead, focus on building high-quality, organic, and natural links through content creation, outreach, and other ethical link building methods that prioritize relationship building and high-quality link acquisition.

Successful Link Building Case Studies with Implementable Strategies

In this article section, we will highlight some of the most inspiring link building case studies that offer practical strategies for you to learn from and be motivated by.

1. Pat Ahern Leads a B2B Company to Triumph

A hosting provider, after evaluating various SEO agencies for SaaS, chose to hire Pat Ahern and his team to handle their link building. The company was having trouble establishing itself online and competing against big players like GoDaddy and HostGator. The Beginning This was a challenge for Pat Ahern and his team, as they had a limited budget and were operating in a highly competitive industry. However, they eventually succeeded in boosting the online presence of the client. The SEO team started by conducting a competitive analysis, which uncovered a content marketing opportunity for the B2B website. They found that over 10,000 of their target audience were seeking information about DDoS attacks. This led the team to shift their content’s top keyword from general terms like “Web Hosting” to a more specific one, such as “Secure Web Hosting”. They then optimized the website’s content to follow this trend and focused on security in web hosting. They then moved on to creating engaging premium content, which formed the foundation for their link building approach and techniques. The Middle After the website’s content was optimized, the team began building links to support the website’s backlink profile. The main strategy was to write and publish guest posts. The skilled writers on the team produced original guest posts for reputable blogs and websites to obtain high-quality backlinks that they could control. To establish the B2B company as a leading provider of secure web hosting, the team used tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush to identify the best topics related to protection against DDoS attacks. These tools were also useful in finding other relevant links that had articles about such attacks. They created a list of over 1,000 authoritative websites and shared a relevant premium article about DDoS protection from the B2B website with each of these websites. They asked those who appreciated the content to create a backlink to the site. The Outcome By sending the premium article to more than 1,000 bloggers, the B2B website received over 43 backlinks from 15 different sites. The figure does not accurately reflect their success, as it does not take into account the high number of social shares that the content received. Today, the premium article is one of the top-performing pages on the website, attracting more than 700 visitors every month. It has increased the average time people spend on the website to 4 minutes. This campaign lasted for 3 months and resulted in a 55% increase in organic traffic. Actionable Strategies to Take Away There is a crucial actionable tactic that you can learn from this case study, even though it may seem similar to others you’ve heard of. The tactic is to find a unique positioning and then adjust your link building strategies to fit that positioning. Instead of seeking backlinks from general websites and blogs related to hosting, they targeted bloggers and websites primarily focused on online security. This ensured that the target audience of the article aligned with the audience of the platform used for guest posting. It also demonstrates that you can still improve your links even with limited funds by creating premium content, using an effective SEO tool, and conducting a focused outreach campaign.

2. “Boosting a Client’s Website’s Link Building Campaign by Chris Tzitzis”

Chris Tzitzis is a well-known SEO expert who recently assisted a client in improving their link building campaign. The client’s website was in the government and business niches. The Beginning To kick off the effort, Chris conducted a thorough site audit of the client’s website. The results were promising, revealing potential for successful link building. Using an SEO tool, Chris identified key strengths of the website including:

• Straightforward and uncluttered backlinks from guest posts, PBNs, and directories.
• Ranked keywords on page 6.
• Most backlinks directing to the homepage.

While the audit showed promise, it also revealed that there was room for improvement in terms of optimization. The Middle The team had a limited budget of $5,000 for the link building campaign. To maximize the impact of the budget, the team started by enhancing the credibility of the website with “natural” links in the first month. This was achieved through niche edits and guest posts, with all backlinks directed to the homepage. After seeing positive results in the first month, the team continued with this strategy for the next three months, focusing on building the authority and relevance of the homepage. In the fourth month, they added more links of lower authority to diversify the website’s anchor profile, which was previously based on URL and branded anchors. The Outcome Five months into the campaign, the client’s website had achieved a number one ranking for its primary keyword and a number one overall SERP. This was accomplished with low-quality links, outperforming other top-ranked websites. Actionable Strategies to Take Away Here are some key strategies to take away from this case study:

• Diversify your link portfolio to cover all angles.
• Quality over quantity is important when it comes to links.
• Linking back to the homepage can be a successful technique, as it can increase conversions.
• Try to focus on building the authority and relevance of your website over a prolonged period of time.

3. David Farkas’ Experiment in Adventure

Instead of relying on link building case studies presented by industry experts, David Farkas decided to test the effectiveness of link building for himself by creating an experimental website in the health industry. The Beginning David and his team created 26 pieces of high-quality and uniquely optimized content over a 6-month period without promoting it or creating any links to it. This served as the control environment for their experiment. After the initial 6 months, the team waited for another 6 months to see if the website would receive any traffic just based on the content. To their surprise, the traffic wasn’t as high as they expected. The Middle After a year with no significant traffic increase, the team began building links to the website. They evaluated each piece of content on the site and asked themselves two questions: “What content on my site deserves a link?” and “Why would another website want to link back to mine?” This approach helped them identify the most valuable content for their target audience. As the experimental website was in the health niche, David decided to use its unique perspective to educate the audience. The content was designed to be informative, precise, and helpful. The team then conducted a comprehensive outreach campaign, targeting relevant and authoritative websites in the health industry that could benefit from linking to their site. The Outcome The result of their link building effort was a traffic increase of over 2,000%. Today, the website ranks on the first page of search engines for 2,245 keywords. Actionable Strategies to Take Away Here are the key link building strategies to take away from David’s experiment:

• Ensure that the content you create is linkable.
• Leverage your niche and expertise to establish credibility with your target audience.
• Don’t underestimate the power of outreach. Conduct thorough research and reach out to relevant websites that would be interested in linking back to your content.

What’s Next for You? If these three successful case studies have inspired you, it’s time to take action. Implement the strategies outlined in these case studies to improve your own link building campaigns. You never know, your website could be used as a case study for successful link building in the future. Remember, link building is an ongoing process with no end goal, but the effort put in will pay off in the long run with substantial rewards.