Top 9 Link Building Ideas To Try In 2021

The World Wide Web is a vast space filled with trillions of webpages. A quick search on Google or Bing would bring you results for your query. If you’re a marketer or site administrator, one of your greatest desires might be positioning your website on the highly coveted first page of the search results.

However, the digital world has become saturated with links and keywords. There’s intense competition among websites for the attention of readers and potential customers. You have to make sure that the entirety of your blog caters to the demands and preferences of your target audience.

One of the first things you should do is to map out your link building strategy based on your company’s goals. This process entails acquiring backlinks or links from other websites that direct users to your domain. Watch this video to learn more about what backlinks are and how to get them for your site:

It might seem relatively simple, but you must be ready to invest time and other resources. This is because other sites are also aiming for that coveted top spot in the search engine results pages (SERPs). With this, here are the top link building ideas that can help you in 2021:

1. Maintain The Quality Of Your Content

The quality of your content significantly affects the success of your link building efforts. Even if you ramp up your outreach campaign to ask for backlinks from high-quality sources, your request wouldn’t be approved since you don’t have a solid piece of content to anchor your inbound links, quality-wise.

A great blog post would have the following factors:

• Originality - Nowadays, someone somewhere has probably created a blog post on the topic you want to write about, no matter how specific it may seem. The best solution for this is to find a unique perspective and write from that angle for your content. Never plagiarize or post duplicate content as this will lead to penalties from search engines. Plus, it’ll destroy your credibility.
• Interesting Headline - A catchy title also makes for a great blog post. Ideally, it should spark the curiosity of your target audience, enough that it generates clicks. However, be careful about creating an intriguing headline without providing substantial content to readers when they open your link as this would, again, damage your credibility and earn you a reputation for writing ‘clickbait’ articles.
• Relevance - If you run a blog about fitness, it would make sense that your content would focus on exercise, health, and even beauty. As much as possible, you should tailor your blog posts to this theme. Otherwise, you’d end up confusing potential subscribers if they click on your site with the hope of learning how to lose weight, only to find articles about construction.
• Length - Search engines look favorably on long-form content. The premise behind this is that a long blog post would talk about a particular topic in-depth, thus, offering more value to web users.
• Multimedia - Aside from making your writing style more engaging, you should also incorporate other forms of media, such as images and videos, to supplement your written content. These visuals can help retain the attention of people who click on your backlink.

2. Find Guest Posting Opportunities

Guest posting continues to be a viable link building tactic that you can use for 2021. With this process, you look for high-authority websites that accept contributions from external authors. You can, first, create content that’s relevant to your industry, or you can wait for the approval of your target backlink sources.

Regardless of your preferred approach, the objective of guest posts is to insert your link somewhere in the content. This way, when the publishing blog’s subscribers read the article, they can follow the backlink to your domain, where you can introduce them to even more awesome content.

Context is one of the most crucial factors to remember for guest posting or acquiring backlinks in general. The anchor text and its position in the content must make sense once people are redirected to your site. For instance, the anchor text ‘best kitchenware of 2020’ must lead readers to your webpage about the top kitchen tools for the year.

You should also be mindful of the backlink count. As much as possible, limit the number of links to your website between one and two only. Additionally, avoid sounding too promotional.

A guest post should be beneficial to the publishing blog’s readers first and foremost; the link comes second. When you do this, you’re building your reputation as an authority in your niche, not just writing for the sake of backlinks.

3. Leverage Social Media

While social media links aren’t included in your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, they still have an indirect impact on your rank in the SERPs. You must boost your presence on the favorite platforms of your target demographics, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and even TikTok.

You should create an official account wherein you can promote your blog posts, as well as products and services. Most people are tethered to their phones nowadays, scrolling through their news feeds. Meet them there virtually by making your content more visible.

This tactic helps your link building efforts by boosting your reputation as an authority figure in your niche. When web users see that you’re constantly posting about topics that interest them, you increase the chances of gaining new followers. Then, you can pique their curiosity even more so that they want to get to know your brand even deeper.

Once you’ve successfully converted them into loyal subscribers, they’ll likely link to your website on their personal blogs. That’s why you should maximize your social media presence and reach your target audience.

4. Produce Compelling Videos

YouTube is another vital platform that you should maximize. The video sharing platform has garnered millions of users, which makes it a viable option for boosting your visibility to your target audience. The primary advantage of gaining a substantial following on YouTube is brand recognition and awareness. You can drive traffic from your channel to your domain through paid advertising. 

These are the three types of YouTube ads:

• In-Stream - For this advertisement, your content would be played either at the start, middle, or end of a partner YouTube video.
• In-Search - You can also create ads that will be prioritized in the search results for specific queries.
• In-Display - Lastly, you can opt for an in-display ad, which appears on the YouTube watch page.

With the immense popularity of YouTube, almost all brands have taken to the platform to reach potential customers. You have to stand out from the sea of videos by ensuring that your content is entertaining, informational, and tailored to the preferences of your target audience.

5. Comment On Blogs In Your Niche

Another possible backlink opportunity is something that you can easily do while reading and researching relevant content in your industry. When you comment on blogs in your niche, you participate in the community and make it a little better.

You can hit two birds with one stone when you post your thoughts on a particular article by adding a link to your website. It can either be your homepage or a specific piece of content. Either way, the goal is to redirect other users to a webpage wherein you can help them with their queries.

Just make sure to be mindful about where you comment as this is one of the link building strategies that can backfire badly. It’s because a lot of bloggers have abused this method and used it to spam users with links to their websites. 

Keep your comments informative, relevant, and classy. Try not to promote your brand overtly. Again, the focus should be on building up the community as a whole, not just your blog.

6. Conduct Original Research 

Conducting your own original research is a great way to produce content that’s relevant to your readers. The most straightforward way to go about this process is to have your subscribers answer surveys about topics in your niche. It can be something as simple as whether they prefer chia seeds or flax seeds, if you run a recipe blog, for instance. 

On the other hand, it can also be an in-depth study, which you can write about from different angles based on demographics.

You can acquire a lot of backlinks from this approach, especially if you can provide comprehensive data and discuss them in a way that everyone can understand. With this, it’s best to refrain from using industry jargon or, if you must, explain them in a way that beginners can appreciate.

7. Create Free Tools

Aside from original research, you can also boost your link building campaign by promoting free tools. This is particularly useful for software as a service (SaaS) companies since you can give people a sample of the benefits they’ll enjoy when they buy a premium subscription.

Similar to providing valuable data to potential followers and customers, you can leverage free tools in exchange for backlinks. You can reach out to other bloggers in your community and offer your product or service. All they have to do is to feature your link on their content.

You may be thinking that creating a business app is too complex and time-consuming. Nonetheless, there are tools that are relatively easy to make, but, still, provide value to potential backlink sources, such as:

• Checklists - If you’ve mastered a process that’s crucial in your industry, you can create checklists to help others who may be struggling in that particular area.
• Ebooks - Ebooks can serve as in-depth guides to people who want to know more about your niche. This tool can even be a compilation of your past content, which you can repurpose for a bigger theme.
• Free Trial - As mentioned above, if you’re a software company, you can provide web users with a free trial. This way, they can use your app for their businesses while earning you a backlink in return.

8. Look For Relevant Resource Pages 

Resource pages are platforms that exist for the sole purpose of linking out to other websites. While some may have affiliate links, they’re often created to help others learn more about a particular topic or industry.

For instance, a London travel resource page may contain links to hotels, airplanes, tour guides, and restaurants. Essentially, it should feature everything that a tourist needs to know how to go around the UK city.

These types of pages are considered credible by search engines and human users because they impart valuable knowledge instead of merely selling products or services. Moreover, their reputation is aided by the sources of these resource pages, which are typically high-authority domains, such as government and school websites, as well as news outlets.

All you have to do is to reach out to relevant resource pages in your niche and ask them for a backlink. You can send them a link to your homepage or a particularly helpful piece of content that you know your target audience will enjoy.

9. Invest Time In Broken Link Building

In a statistic posted by Hosting Tribunal, there are about two billion websites on the World Wide Web in 2020. However, only less than 400 million sites are active. Imagine all the missing webpages that web users would encounter.

Fortunately, you can take advantage of this phenomenon by finding these broken links in your niche and offering your content as a replacement.

Often, site administrators that linked to the now missing links will be glad that you found these errors and provided a solution. This way, their readers will continue to have a seamless experience in their platforms while earning you a backlink along the way.

Conclusion

Link building remains to be a valuable strategy for reaching your target audience in today’s competitive digital landscape. You should continue to churn out high-quality content, especially when guest posting. Moreover, maximize social media platforms, such as YouTube, to promote your blog.

Be active in communities in your niche and comment on relevant articles; don’t forget to include your links. Also, consider conducting original research, creating free tools, reaching out to resource pages, and finding broken links for your link building campaign.

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