Ask any SEO or marketing professional and they’ll all tell you the same – building links is one of the hardest parts of the job. Good quality links are hard to come by and the competition for those links, especially from relevant, niche sources, is usually intense. Link building also takes time and by its nature, you can put months of effort in before seeing the reward. This means it’s very easy to write off link building and opt to focus your efforts elsewhere.
While it is true that links will accrue naturally over time as a result of other marketing activities, there are lots of sources for link building that go overlooked or untapped on a regular basis. If you don’t take a proactive approach to link building or just want a few ideas to add to your arsenal, read on for five easy sources of links…
1. Revisit your broken links
Over time as you collect inbound links, you can expect that a small number will fall into the broken links category. This happens for lots of reasons – perhaps the page linked to no longer exists for example as it was deleted or replaced with something else. If you can identify links which no longer work, you can reach out to the site providing the link and give them the correct URL. That repaired link will then count towards your link profile.
2. Affiliates
An affiliate programme is a great way to start to build links back to your site and the number of links generated is only limited by the number of affiliates you can sign up.
3. Events
If you’ve booked to attend a conference or event, make sure that you’re fully using this resource. Most shows will ask you to write a profile to appear on the show website – check if you can include a link here. If you can upload your news to the show profile page too, make sure your release also includes a link. This is an easily overlooked area as you are busy preparing for an event so could be an easy link win.
4. Consider donating to or supporting a local organisation
Do you have funds in your budget for charitable donations or could you donate your time or expertise to a local charity or community organisation? If so, you could well find that in addition to making a difference, the charity or local group would be more than happy to link to your site under their donor section.
5. Content
Content is a great way to build links as it gives people a reason to talk about you. You can ramp that up even further by focusing in on link bait content – strong opinions, unique research or exhaustive guides are all great ways to attract links.