Best of Link Building Tips

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Here are the best link building tips I’ve heard and read:Link

Writing Content That Attracts Links

  • Lists:
    • 10 easy tips for …
    • Top 10 myths about …
    • Top [category] Experts (Aaron Wall & Andy Hagans, 101 Ways to Build Link Popularity)
    • (But don’t do Best Of. That’s my thing 🙂 ).
  • Ego-Stroking:
    • Write about, and link to, companies with “in the news” pages. (Google [your industry + “in the news”].) (Aaron & Andy)
    • Perform surveys and studies that make people feel important. Salary.com did a study on how underpaid mothers were, and they got great links. (Aaron & Andy)
  • Industry Guides: (Dawn Wentzell)
    • If there’s no good guide for your industry, create it. Keep it updated.
    • If you’ve done a series of posts on a topic, compile them together. If it’s a valuable resource, your users will promote it for you for years.
    • How to’s and tutorials

Asking for Links

  • Incentivize:
    • Forget about going viral. Think about who you need links from, and give them things that are useful to them:  (Patrick Altoft)
      • Awards for top bloggers in your sector. And give prizes.
      • Pick up the phone and ask the site owner “what can we do for you?”
    • “Buying” links can be bad, but sponsorships, donations, and memberships with relevant sites can be good.
  • Ego Stroking:
    • Write testimonials
    • Give out badges

Creating Your Own Links

  • Review related products and create lists on sites like Amazon & epinions  (Aaron & Andy)
  • Answer questions on Q&A sites. (Aaron & Andy, Rand, Debra Mastatler)
  • Guest post (Many SEOs, including Rae Hoffman, consider this the most important link building tactic).

Bonus Tip:

  • Whenever you see a dead link that your link could naturally replace, find all the sites that link to that URL and ask for the link. You’re serving them, and you. (Hobo Web: Backlinks from Deadlinks)
This post focused on the tips that can get you relatively quick wins. Ideally you supplement these with a longer range strategy of building thought leadership in your field, including building relationships with your field’s thought leaders. But that’s for another post.

Sources & Further Reading: