Linkbuilding

Most people know links aren’t the only factor used by Search Engines to rank a site, but still, they constitute a large part of Search Engine ranking factors. Search Engines see links as votes, and to get votes online, you’ll have to work for them. I’m going to share with you a few ways to get votes (links) to your site or blog.

The truth is the easiest way to gain backlinks to your site is for you to be proactive. You shouldn’t just sit there and expect links to come because that’s just the hardest way to go.

Link building fundamentals

It’s important to know about link building fundamentals before you continue reading this guide.

How to build quality links the easy way:

Blog Commenting

Despite the negative stereotype associated with this, blog commenting is still a fantastic way to promote your business and build a clean link profile. I don’t mean spamming blogs, because this would only hurt your search engine ranking and personal reputation.

It’s important to find the right blogs to comment. Usually, it should be a blog related to your niche. Your comment should be authentic and should give value to the reader who may even visit your site.

How to find a relevant blog

You can use the Google Search Console and Advanced Search Operators.

Assuming you’re running a travel site and are looking for relevant blogs to comment on.

You could enter any of the following search operators into Google:

  • Traveling to Finland “Comment”
  • Traveling for free “Leave a reply”
  • Best places to travel “Leave a comment”

The search operators above tell Google that you only want search results that have the option to comment on the page.

Traveling to Finland Google blog enabled search image

Now that you are done with the easy work of finding high quality blogs to comment on, it’s time for main task which is getting your comment approved.

And to do this, you have to write a non-spammy comment that is tailor made for that blog and  provides value to the reader.

Your comment should include a link to your site-preferably- not in the name or website field.

The fact is including a link in the name or website section may result in your comment getting deleted. This is because most high-quality blogs have a high moderation policy.

So, the best way to comment is to pick a relevant point from the blog content and then expand on it in an authentic and genuine way.

Take a look at these examples:

Blog comment link building image

 

Guest post

Contrary to popular beliefs, guest posting is not dead. It’s alive and well, and is still a great way to build reputation in your industry and build links.

The most important thing to remember about guest blogging is that each site has its own rules and guidelines on the type of material it wants. So once your content meets a particular site’s standard, it should be approved.

The nicest thing about guest posting is that some sites where you guest post can share your posts on social media with your link included. This means more exposure for you and a potential opportunity to be linked by other sites.

If you don’t have the time to generate a quality guest post, you can go to sites like upwork.com and pay a freelancer to create one for you.

Provide testimonials

You could easily be featured on this site if you’re willing to provide a quality testimonial. The same goes for countless of “testimonial hungry” companies out there.

You can take advantage of this to build links to your site.

For example: I’ve got a link from Matthew Woodward, one of the biggest internet marketers out there, because I provided a genuine testimonial for him.

Giovanni-Olakunori-Testimonials-_-Matthew-Woodward-2

Offers or contests

You can run offers on your site. A popular offer I’d recommend include running scholarship offers for students and messaging various schools or sites to alert them of that. If they decide to share your offer with their audience, they could link back to your site.

This is a great way to earn .edu links.

Research publication

You can publish a research on a specific topic relating to your niche and publish it on sites such as researchgate.com and academia.edu.

You can also hire a freelancer to do this for you or pay a student who’s working on a paper to publish on a similar area.

Donate to charity

Some charities would link to your site if you donate to them or decide to be their sponsor.

For example: Enactus homepage shows their sponsors.

Enactus sponsors image

And it’s clear every sponsor has been linked.

You can find charities like this using the following operators on Google:

Sponsors “sponsors”.

donate “sponsors”

Other keywords to include inside the quotation marks are:

  • Donors
  • donations
  • please visit our sponsors
  • thanks to the following donors

The search operators above tell Google that you only want search results that have pages displaying “sponsors”.

Job Vacancies

If you have a job vacancy in your company, you can publish the position on job boards such as indeed.com and a dozen of others.

Most times these sites would link back to your site.

Forum promotion

Start relevant threads in high quality forums and link to your blog posts. Make this natural as much as possible and make sure you’re not spamming. You can also link to your blog in your forum signatures and profile. Make sure you only do this on high quality forums.

Social Bookmarks/Web

Links for sites such as Google Plus, Twitter, Facebook, Pininterest. YouTube, are also considered as backlinks.

[Larnedu] picture.

Discussion boards

You can make posts on discussion boards such as Quora, Yahoo Answers, Inbound.org, Reddit, etc.

This could be from asking questions to giving answers where you cite your site as a source.

Make sure you’re offering immerse value in your answers as there’s a chance this could gain you more exposure and potential backlinks.

Directories

Submit your blog to high quality directories such as AllTop.

Link exchanges

Link exchanges shouldn’t be done purely for building links because that’s what Google hates.

Link exchange should only be done for the following reasons:

  • If you provide a relevant resource that’ll be useful to the clicker.
  • If you’re doing link exchange to generate a traffic that’ll convert.

RSS directories

RSS directories still exist even though Facebook has replaced its use and they’re a great way to get some quality links.

Here is a list of directories.

Link baits

The following posts have the power to attract links to your site:

  • Controversial
  • Interviews
  • List (e.g. top list posts)
  • Product reviews
  • Gurus comparison

Documents upload

You can upload your documents in pdfs or word formats to document sharing sites. Make sure the documents you’re uploading have relevant links to your site.

Ask for an interview

If you feel you can offer an interview of value to people out there, then you can ask some bloggers out there to interview you.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is one of the most visited sites in the world, and it can be used to generate links and traffic. But it’s important to know Wikipedia is a non-profit site, and it’s aim is to provide an unbiased, neutral and accurate information. Don’t abuse this as this can add you to its spam list.

If you’re adding a link to your site from Wikipedia, don’t be obvious about this..

Don’t just focus on adding links to your site from Wikipedia, focus on building an unbiased and informative content on Wikipedia.

 Resume sites

You can submit your CV to job sites and include your link to your blog or site in your CV.

Here are a list of sites to start with:

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