21/12/2018
Link building is a key component of how SEO works. Any good marketer needs to know how to build links into their site if they want to generate a good ranking on the various search engines. Many SEO experts have suggested that building links are a lot less important than it was a decade ago. However, they still form a valuable part of any online marketing strategy and this isn’t going to change in the foreseeable future.
Link building is an on-going SEO practice that takes time to build momentum. It’s something that is continuously being worked on and the more time that you spend on it, the more links you build, the better chances you have of ranking higher on the search engines.
The goal of this blog post is to create a library of go-to resources that all marketers can use. Whether your new to SEO or have been working on your backlink profile for years, you will find some of these resources useful.
The Best Link Building Guides
Do you want to dive in head first and skip the many articles that are available online? These free but comprehensive guides will be able to help you.
- What is Link Building? A Beginner’s Guide – Link building is crucial to increase online traffic, and this guide by PageOnePower is perfect for beginners who are unsure where to start. It provides a background on why link building is so important and includes lots of useful tips to help you get started.
- The Advanced Guide to Link Building – This guide by Backlinko is aimed more towards those who have experience with SEO and link building. It is split up in twelve different chapters and will be helpful for those who are looking for link building tactics for their website.
- The Beginner’s Guide to Link Building – This is another guide that is more suited to beginners. However, it covers everything from the importance of link building to advanced link building tips and tricks.
- The Ultimate Guide to Internal Link Building for Incredible Results – This ultimate guide by Matthew Woodward covers everything you need to know about link building, including a step-by-step run through of how to devise a link building strategy.
- How to Acquire and Earn Links That Boost Your SEO – This guide to link building is a big one from Search Engine Journal. This is as comprehensive as they come so if you want an ultimate crash course in link building then this guide is for you.
Link Building with Content
Creating, publishing and distributing content for a target audience is becoming more and more important as it attracts attention and generates leads. Let’s have a look at some of the best articles on link building with content.
- How To Create Linkable Assets Without the Content Commitment – If you are into creating content or writing then this guide by AhrefsBlog will teach you how to create linkable content without the need to write.
- The Ethics of Link Building Through Content – This article by Outspoken Media focuses on the ethical side of link building. So, if you have experienced anything that’s changed the way you do things, then this is a good read.
- Building Links With Images: Where To Start And How To Automate It? – This is another one from Ahrefs Blog and is great if you are unsure how to use images to build backlinks.
- In-Content Link Building: Best Practices when Linking to Content within Existing Articles – This blog post is great by Blogging.org is great if you are looking for the best practices to follow when linking content within existing articles.
- Building Links with Video Content – This guide by Moz is extremely detailed and covers everything you need to know about building links with video content.
- 10 Ideas for Link Bait and 5 Ways of Getting the Word Out – This is another by Moz and is a great read if you are looking for link bait ideas and way to make sure that your content gets links.
- 10 Ways to Use Images for Link Building – Images are one of the best ways to build brand recognition and acquire links to a website. Images can generate interest in an audience if they are visually appealing and informative. This article by kaiserthesage covers everything you need to know about using images for link building.
- How to Build Quality Backlinks With Infographics – Infographics are our favourite here at Revive Digital. Here’s a great blog post by MonitorBacklinks of how to do it right for your brand.
- 7 Reasons Content Marketing is Better Than Link Building – Link building and content marketing plays a huge part of any search engine marketing strategy. However, this article by Search Engine Watch focuses on why content marketing is better than link building.
Link Building with Social Media and PR
Do you think that social media and PR has nothing to do with link building? Wrong! Social media marketing plays a big role in digital engagement. As the search engine’s focus on quality and shareable content continues to rise, social media marketing is playing a much bigger part in link building strategies.
- How to Use Social Media as a Link-Building Tool – In this article by Christian Arno of Search Engine Journal, he discusses how social media can impact your SEO effects. Including how they both work together seamlessly.
- How to Construct and Use Personas for Link Building and Social Media – In this post, they discuss how to use created personas in link acquisition and social media practices. Including how they will help market a brand over the internet.
- Better Than Link Building: Authority Building with HARO – This article may be from 2012, but it explains how Matt Mcgee has been doing authority building rather than link building.
- Social Media Marketing for Link Building: Top Tactics & Strategies – This is another article by Search Engine Journal and gives you a real insight into why social media is so important when it comes to SEO. They also a great viral marketing section and include some witty examples of content.
- 5 PR Strategies You Can Use To Build Links Right Now – If you are looking for ways to include a PR element to your SEO campaign then look no further.
- How to Leverage Social Media for SEO: Link Building – This article by Marketing Land gives you a good insight into how each social media platform helps with link building.
- Why Link Builders Should Spend More Time on Social Media – This blog piece looks at the bigger of social media and link building and can be a good read for beginners or those who have just set up their own business.
- SEO Spotlight: Link Building with Social Media – This short but informative blog is perfect for those not knowing where to start with link building and social media.
- The Ultimate Guide to Social Media Link Building – If you are looking to go beginner to expert in a short space of time then this read is a must.
- 4 Ways You Can Use Social Media in Your Link Building Strategy – Social Media Today have created this short but very helpful article that can help you get started with link building using social media.
Link Building Strategies
There are many online sources that can help better understand how to develop link a building strategy. Let’s take a look at some the best ones.
- The 6 Month Link Building Plan for an Established Website – Before you click through to this article, be aware that it is not a six-month SEO plan. They focus on the acquisitions and optimisation of link and content for links.
- 12 Timeless Link Building Tips for Business Blogs – This article is great if you are looking for just the cold hard facts before drawing up a link building strategy for your business.
- 6 strategies to build links for your small business website in 2016 – This post might be a couple of years old but its one of the blogs that includes a section on influencer marketing, so its one to put on your reading list.
- Link Building: How To Build Links To Your Website – This article is a mammoth and contains an incredible amount of information for SEO and link building beginners.
- The Ultimate Guide to Link Building with Content – This blog post by Single Grain is great if you haven’t drawn up a linking building strategy before. Its easily digestible and really informative.
- The Definitive Guide to Qualifying a Link Prospect [with Video] – This is yet another great article by Moz which covers all aspects of building a link building strategy. This article also includes a nice video.
- 9 Evergreen Link Building Tactics that Will Never Go Out of Style – Here’s another one from Neil Patel. However, this time he covers nine different tactics that will never go out of style.
- Link Building Strategies: The Complete List – When Backlinko say the complete list they are the not joking in the slightest. In this article, you will find a monster 175 strategies, tips and tactics.
- 2019 Shocking Strategy For Seo link building Guide – Don’t let the title of this article put you off. Its nothing shocking, but it is very helpful by outlining what’s coming for link building in 2019.
- Link building cheat sheet – Neil Patel is back and this time with a really cool cheat sheet and ten things you can do you help build a backlink profile.
- A Simple Guide to Turning (Unlinked) Brand Mentions into Links – Your business is probably mentioned thousands of time on the web but not all the sites will link back to you. This article will tell you how to change that.
- Link Building For the Little Guys – Just because you are a small business doesn’t mean that link building won’t be effective for your brand.
- The Noob Guide to Link Building – This guide is aimed and beginners and includes a six-month link building plan.
- 3 White Hat Link Building Techniques That Go Far Beyond Links – Ryan Stewart is a former black hat SEO expert. In this blog post, he shares what he has learnt from the techniques.
The Link Building Practices to Avoid
Like we have said, link building is crucial for driving traffic to your website, but there are link building practices that you should avoid. If a piece of content that links back to your website looks like spam, then this is an issue that needs to be addressed. Here are our top articles that go into more depth.
- 10 Types Of Unnatural Link Building Tactics and 10 Quality Alternatives – This post gives you examples of spammy and unnatural links and provides an insight into how you can avoid this to give you an advantage of your competitors.
- 17 Types of Link Spam to Avoid – Whether you are a beginner or consider yourself to be an SEO guru this is an article that is worth a read.
- 5 Bad Link Building Practices You Should Avoid – This is a good read for those who are short on time. Its short, but very informative and covers the main practices.
- An In-Depth Guide to Link Quality, Link Penalties and “Bad Links” – Link penalties are the result of spam, low-quality, irrelevant, unnatural, repetitive or otherwise bad links in your website’s link profile. And, this guide covers the differences and how to recover from them.
- How to Use Google’s Disavow Tool – If you have a lot of spammy links directing to your website, you can use Google’s disavow tool to ask Google not to count those links. This blog post runs you through the process.
- For the Non-SEO: What is “Bad Link Building”? – This post from Search Engine Journal might be a few years old but is great for those who are new to link building and SEO altogether.
- 15 Bad Link Building Practices That Destroy Your Google Ranking – This article is relatively short but covers the most important practices that you should avoid when link building.
- 10 Link Building Practices That Are Suffocating Your Business Growth – This is a comprehensive guide to all things link building as is great for beginners and experts who are looking to touch up their knowledge.
- What is an Unnatural Link? An in-depth Look at the Google Quality Guidelines – Unnatural links can result in you violating Google’s guidelines. This article provides some background on what unnatural links are and what you can do if you find yourself having a lot of them.
- The 7 Characteristics That Can Make A Link “Bad” For SEO – This short piece is great for those starting out with link building. It gives you an insight into the basic of what makes for a bad link target.
- What are common link building mistakes? – This Quora thread is great if you are looking to see what other people have to say about link building.
- 4 Must Avoid Link Building Practices For Your SEO – This is the shortest article of this list, but it covers all the fundamentals that a beginner needs to know about link building.
- When Link Building Goes Wrong: 8 Link Building Practices to Avoid – This is an insightful article as it also provides you with examples of when link building goes wrong.
- 5 Link Building Tactics to Avoid (and Modern Alternatives) – Jayson DeMers has created this useful article and also provides a background on how the practice of link building has changed over the years.
- Best SEO Practices to Avoid a Google Penalty – Unlike the other articles on this list, this one also emphasises on how to avoid being penalised by Google.
Link Building Thought Pieces
The below articles are a lot less about how to link build but more based on insights. If you are here to learn more about link building strategies and tactics, then feel free to skip this section.
- What’s the Cost of Buying Links in 2018? – Buying backlinks is a practice that should no doubt be avoided by everyone. It also violates Google’s guidelines. But, a lot of people still do it. This is how much it costs to buy backlinks.
- 4 Link Building Campaign Tips that Still Work – This piece by Neil Patel is one the most comprehensive and insightful bits of work that he has ever created. There are also videos for you to watch that help you better understand his rationale on certain topics.
- 13 outdated SEO tactics that should terrify you – The majority of SEO practices remain the same over time, but some things do change. This is a great piece on what SEO practices you shouldn’t be doing anymore.
- 3 Website Link Building Tips You Never Thought Of – This is a good read for those who are creatively focussed. Maybe you have just started your own business and looking for ways to do things differently. If so, this piece is for you.
- Fake news! How to recognize bad advice in link building and SEO – With all of the misinformation on the internet these days its hard to tell what’s good, what’s bad and what’s fake. Use this guide to help you.
Geographical Link Building
The great thing about local link building is that when it comes to relevancy, you are looking for link opportunities from a location perspective as well as an industry perspective. If you own a local business, then these link building articles are not ones to scroll past.
- How to Find Opportunities for Local Link Building – If you are completely new to local link building, then this is a great place to start.
- 11 Ways for Local Businesses to Get Links – This blog post by Moz provides an insight into the different ways that local business can get links. It also includes some rather unconventional ways.
- Link Building 101: Local Link Building – This article by Search Engine Watch explains all the different reasons why local link building is so important for a business.
- The Ultimate List of Local Link Building Ideas – If you want to go from zero to hero then this blog post will help you get there.
- Local SEO: White Hat(ish) Link Building For Businesses On A Budget – This guide also acts as a checklist and includes of the things you need to do in order to generate local links.
- 7 Easy Local Link Building Tactics You Should Be Using – This is one of the more detailed articles about local link building. Some people at beginners’ level may find the content confusing, but a few reads will help you digest it easier.
- Local Link Building: 6 Simple Tactics to Start Driving Leads and Sales – Unlike the other articles, this one focuses on leads and sales as a result of practising local link building.
- Is “Local Link Building” Different From “Link Building?” – This is a useful piece of content if you want to learn about how local link building is different to general link building.
- 10 Local Link Building Strategies For Small Business – SEMRush have created this great guide that including 10 basis link building strategies that start-up or small businesses can use.
- Local SEO: How To Rank Your Local Business – Search Engine Land have created this informative article that will help everyone better understand local link building regardless of what level they are at.
Link Building Questions and Answers
If reading this blog post has got you asking yourself questions about link building, here are some websites/blogs where you will find lots of people from all different background asking about link building.
• Link Building on SEMrush
• Link Building on growth.org
• Link Building on Search Engine Workshops
• Link Building Q&A on Moz
• Link Building on Quora
• Link Building Subreddit
• Link Building on Bruce Clay
The Best Blogs Talking About Link Building
Look guys. If we haven’t provided you with the best source of link building articles then here is our lasting gift to you. Here are our top selected link building blogs.
• Link Building on Moz
• Link Building on Search Engine Land
• Link Building on Search Engine Watch
• Link Building on Search Engine Roundtable
• Link Building on Search Engine Journal
• Link Building on Ahrefs
• Link Building on Vertical Measures
• Link Building on Cognitive SEO
• Link Building on Wiep.net
• Link Building on The Upper Ranks
And there you go! 85 link building resources that will help you better understand the practices behind the magic. If you find this informative and helpful, feel free to share it with your colleagues, friends or family!
If you would like to help with link building, then please get in touch with our knowledgeable team. Call us on 01702 619 139 or visit our contact page today!
