The Google algorithm has been changing and introducing new factors or giving more importance to others, but those that are always in a prominent place are those that refer to what makes up the authority or relevance of the website, and one way to achieve this is by applying strategies of effective link building. Years ago the reference value used by Google was the pagerank, which ranged from 0 to 10, but Google stopped updating it, at least publicly. Then we began to use the page and domain authority that tools such as Moz offered us, to currently use more updated tools, in what database of links refers to as Ahrefs.
Related: Powerful SEO Tools to Improve Your Website Ranking
Why is this authority so important for web ranking?
Authority is an important factor in positioning, since Google takes it as an authority or reference value of that website in that specific sector. The easiest way to increase this authority is to get links from pages of authority, traffic and the same theme. It would be difficult to establish its total importance level within the algorithm but it could be something like 1/3 or 30% of the total, so let’s say that it is quite important to take into account already.
Types of links in SEO
There are different types of links depending on the attributes that appear in it:
Dofollow links. Links that convey authority and create a relationship or link between our page and the page that we link to. They are obviously very positive for web positioning. Nofollow links. Links that carry the attribute rel = »nofollow» in the link and do not convey authority, at least until now it has been this way as there are rumors that this could change and thereby give up part of that authority. We are also telling Google not to follow the link and therefore there is no direct relationship between the two linked pages.
Sponsored links. This is one of the last attributes that Google has released, which in theory is to inform Google that the link is sponsored and we will do it with the sponsored tag.The question is, are we going to tell Google that our affiliate or paid links are sponsored? It seems a bit strange and even more so when the latest algorithm updates are intended to penalize sites with too much advertising and affiliation.
UGC Links. This attribute is intended for those links generated by users such as in forums and comments.
What percentage of dofollow and nofollow links should we have?
Common sense and following Google’s guidelines would tell you to have a natural and balanced link profile, it would be 50% dofollow and 50% nofollow.
But I tell you to analyze the link profile of the pages with the most traffic in your sector and thus obtain a more exact approximation.
In my experience, 70% dofollow and 30% nofollow or 80% dofollow and 20% nofollow could be a good approximation to the ideal, although remember that you must analyze it in your sector to have a more exact figure.
Related: How to Create a Good SEO Content Strategy for a Blog
How to link building for a new project
If you have just started with your new web project, surely someone will have told you that it is very important to get quality links, but …
How many, from what sites, how often?
We are going to try to answer some of these questions to make it easier for you to start working effectively on link building in your project.
Step 1. Competitive analysis. We can learn a lot from other pages to see the evolution of your link profile. For this we are going to use ahrefs and we are going to see the evolution of these links, so that you know how many monthly links it was getting in its first months of life. We will repeat this analysis with at least 5 competitors.Step 2. Analysis of the sites with the most authority and traffic in your sector. The objective is to obtain an excel with the sites with the most authority and traffic in your sector where we want to obtain a link. Analyze domain authority with ahrefs and visit traffic with the similarweb tool.
Step 3. Links calendar. You are going to define a calendar for obtaining links through the different link building strategies in order to be able to work on it on a regular basis. I recommend that you start gradually and take into account the evolution that you have obtained in step 1.
Step 4. Link monitoring. Remember that it is as important to get links as it is to monitor our link profile day by day. There are many tools to monitor it but my favorite is ahrefs.
7 Best Link Building Strategies in 2021
1. Cloning or repetition strategy
A Link Building Strategy of the most classic and one of the most used today, which tries to analyze the link profile of a competitor to see which links we can replicate.
The process is simple:
- Analyze the link profile.
- Identify sponsored links, guest blogging or through other mechanisms.
- Identify link that you can create and replicate in a simple way.
- Analyze the cost of sponsored links and the possibility of guest blogging.
- Repeat the process over and over again.
2. Link opportunity strategy
Ahrefs has a feature called link intersect, which is a great way to find link opportunities. This link building strategy is designed for projects that already have a good link profile but want to improve it.
At the top enter the domains of your competitors and below you will leave our domain. What the tool does is look for domains that link to your competitors and do not link to us. Then what you will do is mark the domains that you would be interested in getting a link.
Then you would have to see the link building mechanism or strategy that you are going to use to get those links.
3. Link Baiting
The Link Baiting is nothing to get links through high quality content. Ok, but what happens, when you start with a project nobody knows it then when you are looking for your content to obtain or capture links. The truth is that it is very complicated but it mainly occurs due to the lack of visibility and brand, that is, because the promotion phase of the project has not been worked well.
So, what I propose is that you design quality but strategic content, from the point of view of achieving greater viralization or a greater capacity to attract links.
4. Participation in Awards
Participating in prizes is a very simple way to get a high quality link in a domain of great authority and only dedicating a few minutes of our time to it. These awards change depending on the time, some disappear as is the case of the Blogs, but currently there are several that I consider quite good, such as:
- 20 Blogs Awards. Made by the newspaper 20 minutes, so a good way to get a link from this domain.
- ABC Awards. The newspaper ABC de Sevilla gives awards in different categories. I am lucky to have won this award for the best blog a few years ago and to have been part of the jury in subsequent editions.
- Internet day award. Prize organized by telefonica and through which you can get not one but a few links for your digital project. I’m also lucky to have recently won the award for best personal brand on social media.
5. Guest Blogging
It is a very effective way to get quality links from sites of the same theme, but do it wisely, and this requires a minimum of planning and strategy.
Steps to make Guest Blogging effective
- Step 1. Analyze sites of authority and traffic and that have to do with business model. Analyze authority and traffic websites, but not only that, but also that the theme and the community that follows it is the target audience of your business model. Example: Does it make any sense to guest blog on a social media blog if my blog is about web positioning? In my opinion, none.
- Step 2. Send a formal and correct email. Write an email without any rally that you want to publish an article on that blog and that you would like to know what the guidelines or publication rules are as well as the subject of the article that they want to assign you. It would be good if you put some examples of content that you have published so that the blog coordinator can analyze your way and style of writing.
- Step 3. Go scheduling all your guest blogging. Keep track of your post as guests, where you indicate the delivery date of the content and the date of its publication.
You have to know that not all blogs allow guest blogging, in my case what I do is invite blogging, that is, it invites professionals to write in it.
TIP: Take advantage, for example, of vacation times that are usually the most effective times to get accepted a guestblogging.
6. Sponsored articles
A form of advertising in digital media, blogs and other media, and through which we can get a temporary and permanent link.
The price of the sponsored article will depend on the destination medium, but you can use services to be able to hire sponsored articles and thus get a link of very good authority.
Note: The sponsored article has to be one action of many that you will work to obtain links, but it should never be the only one.
7.- Beerbuilding & Beerworking
We all understand the importance of building relationships with other professionals and networking, but this networking has to materialize in concrete things, such as Beerbuilding.
Generating a relationship with professionals in your sector requires time and especially many situations for this to occur, but once you achieve it, you will have a very effective tool to capture a friend link.
It may seem that it is not one of the best link building strategies, but this happens because we always look for the short-term result, that is, to achieve our goal, but if you are patient believe me that it can be very effective.
Link Building strategies that do not work or are not very effective
Some strategies have lost effectiveness or are simply not very effective when it comes to capturing links but they are still used today, so I hope it will be useful especially so that you do not waste time or simply do not put the image of your brand with a bad proposal.
- Link exchange. A classic link building that is still used but with little result, the reason is simple, you send an email to a person who does not know you at all, which most likely does not even answer you, come on, something logical if you analyze well and put a little common sense into it.
- Link in exchange for a gift. Well, we all like gifts but let’s see, it is similar to the previous case, someone you know of no one asks you for a link in exchange for a gift, for example a course or similar, not only is it an absurd proposal but you also leave the image your brand on the floor with a proposal of this type.
- Link that complements a content. Well, I receive several of these emails every week, from people who send me a link to an article that perfectly complements another article that I have written, so that I add a link, that is when you say, But are we going to see? The previous methods are bad and ineffective, this one is already painful to death.
- Detection of broken links and propose similar content. Perhaps of these four is the one that can still work for you, I say it can, because maybe you can “play the flute” one out of every 10 attempts you make.
Conclusions
Here I describe what are the best link building strategies in 2021. I also talk about less effective link building strategies, although they are used today.
You will find a lot of advice, tips, tools and an explanatory video.
Getting links to get is absurd, you have to understand the needs of our project and especially how we can define a good SEO strategy.
