Link Building Tips: 8 Effective Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website

According to an Ahrefs study, approximately 90% of pages on the web don’t get any traffic from Google. Wondering what is the difference between them and the remaining 10%?

Backlinks.

The more quality backlinks page has, the more traffic it gets.

Backlinks are one of the top three ranking factors. They drive traffic, increase ratings, improve credibility and authority and bring numerous other benefits to overall SEO strategy.

However, building backlinks can be challenging, especially if you’re unaware of malpractices that can earn you a Google penalty.

That’s why we present you with the best link-building tips, which will teach you how to build links following white-hat SEO practices, aka Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

Let’s dive in.

1. Research Competitors’ Backlinks and Replicate Successful Link Acquisition Strategies

Competitive backlink research and analysis are the first steps you should take when creating your own linking strategy. Having insights into the type, quality and number of backlinks your competitors have will help you develop an even more effective link-building plan to improve your rankings and, hopefully, leave them behind.

Conduct competitive backlink research following these steps:

• Identify the most important keywords for your niche using free Google SEO tools.
• Identify your competitors: websites with the best ranking for the keywords you want to target.
• Use link-building tools to get a complete list of your competitor's backlinks.
• Analyze the quality of competitors’ backlinks, paying attention to the relevance, domain authority and spam score of the linking websites.
• Using SEO tools, such as Ubersuggest or Ahrefs, identify semantically related keywords your competitors rank for and discover their backlinks.
• With the help of marketing analytics tools analyze link patterns and identify common link-building strategies your competitors use.
• Replicate link-building strategies that have worked for your competitors and focus on building relationships with websites in your niche to get high-quality backlinks.
• Regularly monitor your competitors' backlinks and adjust your link-building strategy to stay ahead of them.

2. Prioritize Quality Over Quantity

One quality backlink is more valuable than 100 low-quality links since it comes from a reputable, authoritative website and is deemed more relevant by search engines. Quality links pass more "link juice" to your site and improve your search engine ranking for targeted keywords.

On the other hand, having too many low-quality backlinks from spammy or irrelevant sites can harm your site's credibility and even result in a Google penalty. Search engines use complex algorithms to identify and penalize sites that engage in manipulative link-building practices.

Therefore, it's better to focus on acquiring high-quality, relevant backlinks that can enhance your site's authority and help you reach your target audience.

Wonder what characteristics qualify a link as a quality one?

• Domain authority,
• Page authority,
• Relevance.

3. Ensure the Websites You Target for Link Placement Have High Domain Authority

When looking for backlinking partners, choose the ones with the highest domain rating from yours or a related niche.

Domain authority is a search engine ranking score that indicates how a website will perform in search engine result pages (SERP). Scores range from 1 to 100 — the higher a website gets, the better its chances for high positioning are.

High-domain authority websites are trusted by search engines and have a strong reputation. Getting a backlink from such a site will transfer a link juice to your website, which signals to Google that an established site trusts you and considers you credible.

Backlinks from authoritative partners will also improve your website's credibility and authority, leading to higher SERP rankings and increased visibility. This can increase traffic and brand recognition and improve your overall SEO.

4. Use Anchor Texts Relevant to the Page's Content

Anchor text is the clickable part of the link. It is important because it provides information about the link’s content to both search engines and readers. Simply put, anchor text is a link's description, so it shouldn't be misleading but relevant to the page’s content.

If the anchor text accurately describes the content on the linked page, it will give users a clear idea of the content they can expect when clicking on it. Relevant anchor text improves the user experience and positively impacts SEO.

5. Pitch Guest Post Ideas to High-Authority Blogs Within Your Niche

Guest posting is one of the most common and effective link-building techniques.

Research sites in the same or related niche and choose the ones with the highest domain authority — the higher the authority, the more link juice is transferred to your site.

If you need help discovering guest posting partners, contact some of the top SEO agencies, which will take over the link-building process, allowing you to devote yourself to different aspects of your online presence.

You can add one or more links to your pages in exchange for writing an article relevant to your partner's blog. To let visitors know they can expect more valuable information on your site, the piece you write (guest post) must be interesting and engaging.

6. Encourage Natural Linking by Producing High-Quality Content

Before entering the backlinks race, ensure you produce quality content that provides value and keeps visitors on your website. Even though backlinks direct visitors to your site, poor content will make them abandon it and probably never return.

High-quality content will not only retain visitors, but it will also earn links.

Readers who find your content valuable and helpful will happily share it with their followers.

To establish yourself as an expert in your niche, write detailed guides and how-to articles and enrich them with multimedia formats — infographics, images and videos.

A thorough SEO content strategy will effortlessly earn backlinks, allowing you to implement many different keywords and improve your rankings naturally.

7. Monitor Your Progress Regularly

Monitoring enables you to measure the success of your link-building campaign and timely adjust it as needed. You’ll be aware of the quality and relevance of the backlinks, so you can remove potential threats that could negatively impact your ratings.

By following these steps, you can effectively monitor the link-building process and make the necessary adjustments to your strategy to achieve better results:

• Use link monitoring tools such as Ahrefs, Semrush or Moz that can help you track backlinks and monitor the progress of your link-building campaign.
• Check website analytics using tools such as Google Analytics to track the referral traffic from your backlinks and see how it affects your website's overall traffic and engagement.
• Create a spreadsheet to track your backlinks. Include information such as the link placement date, source and anchor text.
• Regularly check your website's position in SERP to see if your link-building efforts are affecting your website's visibility and rankings in search engines.
• Monitor your backlinks' quality and ensure they are from reputable and relevant websites. Remove backlinks that come from suspicious addresses.
• Don’t forget to monitor your competitor’s backlinks so you don’t miss out on opportunities your website could also benefit from.

8. Hire a Link Building Agency

Building backlinks can be challenging because it requires content marketing and SEO knowledge, so you don't get into trouble by following black hat practices.

If you don’t have the necessary information and struggle with link building, seeking professional help is the best thing you can do. Choose one of the top link-building agencies with years of experience and a database of publishing websites they can use to pair your site with.

Link Building Tips: Final Thoughts

Pages with numerous backlinks rank significantly better than those without or with only a few backlinks. The first result in Google has almost 4 times more backlinks than results in places from 2 to 10, which provides a clear picture of link-building importance.

Link building requires knowledge, time and often financial resources, but its benefits are worth the effort; therefore, you should consider it an investment, not an expense.

A backlinking strategy patiently built for your site will improve your SERP rankings, increase visibility and bring more traffic, which means more leads for you to convert into satisfied customers.

If you follow our eight link-building tips, your investment will pay off and bring a long-term return on investment. In the end, that’s what it is all about.