http://backlinko.com/link-building/’
CHAPTER 1:Link Building Fundamentals
Last year we analyzed 1 million Google search results.
And we found that links impacted rankings more than any other factor:
In fact, Google has recently come out and said that backlinks are one of their top 3 ranking signals:
So it’s clear that links still form the foundation of Google’s algorithm. The question is:
Why are links still so important?
To understand that, you’ll need to hop in your Delorean and go back to the pre-Google days of the internet.
Back in the day, search engines like Yahoo! and Alta Vista (remember them?) were the dominant players. And they ranked their search results 100% based on the content on a webpage.
Enter: Google.
Their now-famous PageRank Algorithm changed the game. Instead of simply analyzing the content of a page, Google looked at how many people linked to that page.
And they were right. Nearly 20 years later, links are STILL the best way to determine the quality of a webpage. That’s why backlinks remain Google’s go-to ranking signal.
That said, thanks to updates like Google Penguin, Google now focuses on link quality (not just link quantity).
You might be wondering:
What is a high-quality link, exactly? And how do I build them?
That’s what I’m going to cover in the rest of this guide.
Keep reading…
CHAPTER 2:How to Find High-Quality Links
Before we dive into the step-by-step link building strategies, it’s important to know what makes a good (or bad) link.
Why is this important?
When it comes to building backlinks, one of two things can happen:
Thing #1: You Build High-Quality Links
Sit back and watch your site rocket to Google’s first page.
Thing #2: You Build Low-Quality Links
Watch Google penalize your site faster than you can say “what happened?!”.
With that, here’s how to identify links that are actually worth building:
Authority of the Page
Is the page linking to you a PageRank powerhouse? If so, that link is going to have a BIG impact on your rankings.
In fact, from years of testing, I’ve found that the authority of the page linking to you matters more than any other factor.
That’s because links from authoritative pages pass more authority (also known as PageRank) to your site.
(Note: Although Google doesn’t share PageRank information publicly, they still use it as the foundation of their algorithm).
You can easily check a proxy indicator of PageRank (“PageRating”) using Ahrefs.
Just pop a URL into Ahrefs and check out its “URLRating”:
Authority of the Site
A link’s quality is also determined by a domain’s sitewide authority.
In general, a link from a site like NYTimes.com will have a MUCH bigger impact than a link from a no-name blogger.
While these links are tough to get, they’re well worth the effort.
Again, Ahrefs comes in handy here. Enter any URL from the site into the tool and check out the site’s “DomainRating”.
You can also use Moz’s respected “Domain Authority” metric:
Relevancy of the Site
When it comes to links, a site’s authority matters.
But that site’s relevance also matters.
For example, let’s say you run a website about The Paleo Diet.
And you get a link from an authoritative site…about unicycles. Will that link still count?
According to an interview from an ex-Googler, not really.
According to that Google engineer:
“…getting a link from a high PageRank page used to always be valuable, today it’s more the relevance of the site’s theme in regards to yours, relevance is the new PageRank.”
In general, you want to get links from authority sites…specifically, authority sites that are closely related to your site.
Link’s Position on the Page
Is your link embedded in a piece of content?
Or is it buried in a page’s footer?
It turns out that your link’s position on a page is important.
Specifically, links stashed away in footers and sidebars aren’t worth nearly as much as links found smack in the middle of a page’s body content.
Bottom line? You want your links to appear within the main body of a webpage.
Is the Link Editorially Placed?
No matter where your link appears on a page, you should ask yourself:
“Was this link editorially placed?”.
In other words, did someone link to you because they thought your site is awesome? If so, that’s an editorial link.
Or did you create a profile on a random site and drop a link? That’s not an editorial link.
As you might expect, Google puts MUCH more weight on editorially-placed links.
Quoth thy Google:
“…creating links that weren’t editorially placed or vouched for by the site’s owner on a page, otherwise known as unnatural links, can be considered a violation of our guidelines.”
Link Anchor Text
Anchor text is the clickable text section of a link.
As it turns out, Google uses anchor text as a ranking signal.
For example, let’s say you get a link to your site with anchor text: “paleo desserts”.
Google sees that anchor text and says: “Hmmm. That site used the anchor text: “paleo desserts”. The page they’re linking to must be about “paleo desserts.”
Of course, like anything in SEO, keyword-rich anchor text has been abused. Today, building lots of exact-match anchor text links is considered spammy.
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:
In short, I don’t recommend building links with keyword-rich anchor text. But if you DO get a link with your keyword in the anchor text, it’s time to celebrate.
Link Co-Citations
Co-citations are the words and phrases that appear around your link.
Google likely uses co-citations as “baby anchor text”.
This makes sense if you think about it:
The text around your link also gives clues to what your page is about. So why wouldn’t Google use it?
Is the Link From a Guest Post?
A few years ago, Google came right out and said:
“So stick a fork in it: guest blogging is done; it’s just gotten too spammy.”
– Matt Cutts, Former Head of Google’s Webspam Team
Is that true?
Well…it depends.
Here are some red flags that can make guest posting spammy:
- Someone is paid to publish the post
- The post contains exact match anchor text
- The site exists solely to publish guest posts
- The site is unrelated to yours
But what if you publish a mind-blowing guest post on an authoritative, relevant site? In my experience, that link CAN help you rank.
Nofollow .vs. Dofollow
rel=”nofollow” is a tag added to a link that tells search engines: “Don’t count this link as an endorsement.”.
Obviously, when it comes to SEO, you want to get normal, “dofollow” links whenever possible.
Now that you can know how to size up a link’s quality, it’s time to start building them.
CHAPTER 3:How to Get World-Class Links With Content Marketing
Its no secret that content is the key that unlocks amazing backlinks.
But here’s the deal:
Simply publishing content isn’t going to land you any links.
As it turns out, certain types of content work best for link building.
And here are the 4 types of content that tend to generate the most links:
#1: Visual Assets
What It Is:
Visual assets are:
- Images
- Diagrams
- Infographics
- Charts and other visual-oriented pieces of content
Why It Works:
Visuals are super-duper easy to link to. For example, when you publish a chart on your site, you get a link anytime someone shares that chart on their site. This powerful “share my image and link to me when you do” relationship simply doesn’t work for text-based content.
Real-Life Example:
A few years ago I published an infographic titled: On-Page SEO: Anatomy of a Perfectly Optimized Page.
To date, this infographic has been linked to a staggering 2.5 thousand times.
Sure, lots of these links would have come in even if I had described the same concepts with text.
But a good chunk of these links (I’d estimate 75%) were created because I presented key info as visual tutorial.
In fact, lots of my links came from people posting the infographic on their site (and linking back to me):
#2: List Posts
What It Is:
A numbered list of tips, techniques, reasons, myths…or just about anything.
Why It Works:
List posts pack a ton value into digestible, bite-sized chunks.
In fact, when BuzzSumo analyzed 1 million articles, they discovered that list posts generated more backlinks than other content formats…outperforming quizzes, videos and even infographics.
Real-Life Example:
This list post, 21 Actionable SEO Techniques You Can Use Right Now, is one of my all-time most popular pieces of content.
Yes, it’s generated a ton of shares…
…and comments.
But most importantly, that post is a link magnet.
It has over 1,000 links.
And because the page has so many links pointing to it, it ranks #1 in Google for the keyword “SEO Techniques”.
#3: Original Research and Data
What It Is:
Content that reveals new data from industry studies, surveys or original research.
Why It Works:
Statistics and data are highly-linkable. When someone cites your data, they link to you. These links add up QUICKLY.
Real-Life Example:
Last year I published the largest Google ranking factors study ever.
Needless to say, this post contains a boatload of original data.
That’s why the post has accumulated a whopping 3.2k links in a little over a year’s time.
Like I mentioned above, most of these links come from people citing a particular statistic from our study:
#4: In-Depth Ultimate Guides
What It Is:
A comprehensive resource that covers everything there is to know about a given topic (and then some).
Why It Works:
Ultimate guides pack an insane amount of information in one place. This makes your guide THE go-to resource for that topic.
Real-Life Example:
I used to get emails from people asking me for keyword research advice on a daily basis.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have anything on my blog that covered that super-important topic.
So I created one: Keyword Research for SEO: The Definitive Guide.
Because this multi-chapter guide covers keyword research like no other resource online, it’s been linked to over a thousand times.
Now that you’ve created a piece of link-worthy piece of content, it’s time to build some links.
How?
With good ol’ fashioned email outreach.
CHAPTER 4:How to Build Powerful Links With Email Outreach
If you want to build white hat links in 2017 (and beyond), you need to use email outreach.
The question is:
How can you reach out to bloggers and journalists without ending up in their spam folder?
Read this chapter to find out.
1
Find “Likely Linkers”
As the name suggests, Likely Linkers are people that are likely to link to you.
I’ll show you a bunch of techniques for finding Likely Linkers in Chapter 6. But for now, let’s use a simple strategy to identify them: reverse engineering.
First, search for your target keyword in Google.
Grab the URL of the first result and pop it into a link analysis tool (I’m using Ahrefs in this example).
Next, hit “backlinks” in the sidebar:
The sites listed here are all Likely Linkers.
(How do you know which sites to target and which to ignore? Check out Chapter 2).
2
Find Their Email Address
Now that you’ve found a Likely Linker, it’s time to dig for their email address.
Pro Tip: Use a site’s contact form only as a last resort. It’s a black hole.
Here’s how:
Use Hunter.io
Hunter.io is perfect for reaching out to small sites and one-person blogs.
Simply enter a site into the tool…
…and it’ll show you all of the email addresses associated with that domain:
But what if you want to reach out to a massive site? Combing through this list is going to be a pain.
That’s why, in those cases, I recommend VoilaNorbert.
VoilaNorbert
Instead of popping in a URL, with VoilaNorbert.com you enter a person’s name and the domain they work at.
That way you’re reaching out to the person that can actually add your link to their page.
And it’ll show you that specific person’s email address.
3
Send Them a (Personalized) Script
If you want to scale outreach, you’ll need to use scripts.
The trick is to make your script not look like a script (more on that in the next step).
But now, here’s an example of one of my best-performing email scripts:
Hi [First Name],
I was looking for content on [Topic] today, when I stumbled on your article: [Article Title].
Good stuff! I especially enjoyed [Something specific from their article].
Also, I just published a new guide on [Your Topic]: [URL].
As someone that writes about [Topic], I thought you’d enjoy it.
My guide may also make a nice addition to your page. Either way, keep up the awesome work with [Website]!
Talk Soon,
[Your Name]
Notice how the script allows A LOT of personalization without a whole lot of effort.
CHAPTER 5:The Skinny On Black Hat Link Building
(and Google Penalties)
No guide to building links would be complete without a chapter on black hat SEO.
Black hat link building is pretty easy to spot: If the links go against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, they’re probably black hat.
Does that mean you should avoid black hat link building altogether?
That’s a choice only you can make. I personally don’t recommend black hat link building (the risk doesn’t come close to justifying the reward). But it’s up to you.
That said, whether you’re a white hat or black hat SEO, you do need to know the penalties that Google dishes out.
So let’s briefly cover them:
Google Penguin
What It Is:
An algorithmic penalty that specifically targets sites that use spammy link building techniques (like shady guest posting and blog comment spam).
How to Avoid It:
Only build white hat links. There’s data to show that you can dodge Penguin by minimizing exact match anchor text (I say anchor text is part of the story…but it’s more about trust). That said, the easiest way to avoid Penguin is to avoid shady links (regardless of anchor text).
Manual Penalty/Unnatural Links
What It Is:
A manual penalty from someone at Google. Unlike Penguin, Google will send you a message via the Google Search Console:
How To Avoid It:
No one outside of Google knows how sites get targeted for manual penalties. My take is that an algorithm spots a website that’s potentially gaming the system. And they bubble that site up to someone at Google for a manual review. So the best way to avoid a manual penalty is to have a squeaky-clean link profile.
Also, unlike with Penguin, you can recover from a manual penalty by disavowing links and filing a reconsideration request.
CHAPTER 6:My Three Favorite Link Building Strategies (Step-By-Step Tutorials)
No intro needed for this chapter.
Here are 3 of my battle-tested strategies for building lots of world-class backlinks:
Resource Page Link Building
First off: what are resource pages?
Resource pages are pages that link out to awesome content on a given topic.
Here’s an example:
Because these pages exist for the sole purpose of linking out, they make PERFECT link building targets.
With that, here’s the step-by-step process:
1
Find Resource Pages
Use these search strings in Google. They’re designed specifically to unearth resource pages:
“Keyword” + inurl:links
“Keyword” + “helpful resources”
“Keyword” + “useful resources”
“Keyword” + “useful links
2
Size Up The Page
Here’s where you (quickly) answer the question:
“Is a link from this page worth the effort?”.
(Hint: Use the tips from Chapter 2 to make this step a breeze)
For example, this resource page has a decent URLRating of 12.
It’s also on an authoritative domain.
And my link will end up somewhere on the body of the page. Looks like a winner!
3
Find “Best Fit” Content
Look:
Your content can be the best in the world…
…but if it’s not a good fit for that resource page?
You’re not gonna get a link.
So for this step, find content on your site that’ll fit that resource page like a glove.
Once you’ve ID’d that content, move onto step #4.
4
Send This Tested Script
Here’s the script I recommend:
Subject: Question about [Their Website]
—
Hi [Name],
I was Googling around for content about [Topic] this morning, when I came across your excellent resource page: [URL].
I just wanted to say that your page helped me a ton. I would have never found the [Resource They Link To] without it.
It’s funny: I recently published a guide on [Topic] last month. It’s [Brief Description].
Here it is in case you’d like to check it out: [URL].
Also, my guide might make a nice addition to your page.
Either way, thanks for putting together your list of resources. And have a great day!
Talk Soon,
[Your Name]
Pro Tip: Like all outreach scripts, make sure to personalize this script as much as possible. You can use a script as long as it doesn’t LOOK like a script.
Broken Link Building
Broken Link Building is one of my all-time favorite link building strategies.
Why?
Instead of straight-up begging for links, with Broken Link Building, you add value to someone’s website.
Here’s how to do it:
1
Install Check My Links or LinkMiner
Both of these tools quickly find broken links on any page (from within your Chrome Browser).
I’ll show you how to use them in a minute.
2
Find Pages With Lots of Outbound Links
The more links a page has, the more likely one of them will be broken.
Resource pages work great here. So feel free to use the search strings above to bring up resource pages.
But instead of emailing the site owner right away, try step #3…
3
Check For Broken Links
Here’s where you run the extension you installed in the first step.
They’ll reveal broken links on that page:
4
Email The Site Owner About Their Broken Link
Finally, let the person that runs that page about their broken link (or links), and pitch a resource from your site as a replacement.
Here’s the script I recommend:
Subject: Problem with [Their Site’s Name]
—
Hi [Name],
Are you still updating your site?
I was searching for content on [Topic] when I came across your excellent page: [Page Title or URL].
However, I noticed a few links didn’t seem to be working:
[URLs of broken links]
Also, I recently published [Brief Content Pitch]. It may make a good replacement for the [Point Out a Specific Broken Link].
Either way, I hope this helped you out 🙂
Thanks,
[Your Name]
The Skyscraper Technique
This video will walk you through the step-by-step process:
Once you watch the video, it’s time for the next chapter:
Awesome link building case studies!
CHAPTER 7:Incredible Case Studies
Now it’s time for me to show you real-life examples of link building in action.
The best part?
I’ve never shared any of these case studies before.
Case Study #1
How Julie Used The Skyscraper Technique to Boost Organic Traffic By 194.1%
Julie Adams’ blog, Our Beautiful Planet, was struggling.
Sure, Julie was publishing great content. But in her words: “No matter how awesome my content was, no links came.”
That’s when Julie decided to try The Skyscraper Technique.
So instead of publishing another piece of great content…she created something AMAZING. Here it is:
And instead of publishing this content and hoping for the best, Julie used email outreach to build backlinks.
And this landed her a handful of links from authority sites in the science space:
These white hat backlinks boosted her organic traffic by a legit 194.1%:
Why does The Skyscraper Technique work so well?
According to Julie:
“The thing that makes this so successful is that it’s just as much about building relationships as it is about building links. People won’t link to your content unless they know it exists, and they won’t know it exists unless you tell them about it.”
Well said.
Case Study #2
Broken Link Building Pays Off
Last year I decided to run a broken link building campaign. So I followed the steps that I outlined in the last chapter.
First, I used search strings to bring up pages with lots of outbound links.
And I used Check My Links to find links that weren’t working.
Then I emailed the person in charge of that content to give them a heads up about broken links that I found:
(Note how uber-personalized that email is)
When they replied, I sent them the URL of the broken link…and a piece of content from Backlinko that would be a 1:1 replacement:
And most folks were more than happy to add my link:
Case Study #3
How Richard Used Guestographics to Get a First Page Ranking
Last year Rich Edwards published this infographic on his site:
Most people would just sit back and HOPE that people linked to their infographic.
But Rich knew that Guestographics can help turn high-quality infographics into high-quality backlinks.
So Rich reached out to tech sites that would be interested in checking it out.
When they said: “Yes, I’d like to see it”, Rich offered a unique intro to make the re-publishing process easier.
Because Rich provided so much value, most tech bloggers happily agreed to publish his infographic on their site:
It took work to reach out to all of these bloggers and journalists. But the hard work paid off.
Rich landed 21 backlinks from this campaign.
And thanks to these contextual links, Rich’s site now ranks #2 in Google for his target keyword.
Case Study #4
How Matt Built Links to His Ecommerce Site
Let’s face it:
Link building for ecommerce sites isn’t easy.
But it’s possible. Just look at Matt Lawry.
Like most ecommerce site owners, Matt had trouble building links to his ecommerce website (an Australian site focused on gifts).
After all, who wants to link to a site made up of 100% product pages? That’s when Matt realized that he could use content to generate links to his ecommerce site.
Specifically, Matt published an amazing piece of Skyscraper content on his site: “Australian Gin: The Ultimate Guide”.
Of course, Matt didn’t sit back and wait for the links to roll in. He promoted his content via email outreach:
Because Matt reached out to the right people (and sent them personalized emails), many people OFFERED to link to his guide.
And all of these links boosted Matt’s rankings for a keyword that directly results in sales for his ecommerce site: Australian Gin.
In fact, he ranks #2 in Google Australia for that keyword (and has the “#0” Answer Box result):
CHAPTER 8:Advanced Link Building Tips
Here’s a quick list of advanced link building tips that I’ve picked up over the years.
Get Easy Links With Link Reclamation
Whenever someone mentions your brand in an article, they link to you…right?
Wrong.
I mean, they should link to you. But it doesn’t always happen.
Here’s what I mean:
But with a gentle nudge, most site owners are happy to turn your unlinked mention into a link.
How do you find these unlinked mentions? BuzzSumo works great.
Get “Bonus” Links With Reverse Image Search
Do you publish visual assets like infographics and charts?
If so, there are probably sites using your images without attribution right now.
Don’t freak out. In fact, you should celebrate. Just like with link reclamation, a friendly email can turn many of these opportunities into links.
And you can use Google reverse image search to find peeps that are using your images without a link:
Send Emails In the Afternoon
Here’s one thing I’ve learned from sending THOUSANDS of outreach emails:
Send your outreach emails in the afternoon (in the recipient’s local time).
Why?
When you send your message in the morning, it gets lumped together with the 93 other emails that person has to deal with.
But when you send in the afternoon, there’s much less competition in the inbox.
I recommend using a tool like Boomerang to help time your outreach emails:
Create Visualizations of Concepts, Ideas and Strategies
Here’s an example of this in action from Backlinko:
Why does this work so well?
Well I COULD have simply described the APP formula with text. But the problem with that approach is that your description is much less shareable.
On the other hand, when you create a visual, you have something that bloggers will happily use in their content (and link to you when the do).
Send Out Feeler Emails Before Going For the Close
Should you ask for a link in your first outreach email to someone?
Short answer: maybe.
You may get better results with a two-step process (Backlinko reader Mike found that feeler emails CRUSHED asking for a link straightaway):
The other benefit of this approach is that it saves you TIME. Instead of personalizing outreach messages that no one will ever read, send brief “feeler” emails.
Then personalize the heck out of your next series of messages.
Get Interviewed on Podcasts
Yes, guest post links have their place.
But the have one big problem: they take a ton of time to write!
Enter: podcasting. Instead of outlining, drafting and editing a guest post, you just show up and talk about what you know. And – boom! — you get a link.
The best part?
There are podcasts on EVERY topic.
Here’s an example of a link I recently built by appearing on a podcast:
Use “Link Intersect” To Uncover Likely Linkers
If someone links to your competitor, they’re likely to link to you…right?
Right.
And if someone links to TWO of your competitors, they’re even more likely to link to you.
How can you find sites that links to more than one of your competitors?
Ahrefs Link Intersect Tool.
Just list out 2-3 of your biggest competitors.
And this nifty tool will show you who links to all of ‘em.
Use “Pre-Curated” Lists of Link Targets
There’s no denying it:
Finding high-quality link targets is HARD.
That’s the bad news.
The good news is that someone else already curated these high-quality sites for you…
…in the form of “best blog” lists.
Here’s an example:
Needless to say, if you run a baking blog, every single one of the sites listed here would make a great link opportunity.
You can find lists like these using search strings like: “best [topic] blogs” or “list of [topic] blogs”.
Now It’s Your Turn
I hope you enjoyed my new-and-improved guide to link building. What did you think of the guide?
Or maybe you have a question.
Either way, let me know by leaving a quick comment below right now.
Another great post Brian.
Thanks Andrii
Hey Brian,
thanks for that post! This awesome ressources are a real killer! I plan such things too!
Greetings from Germany
Vladislav
You’re welcome, Vladislav.
Another stella post/guide Brian. This site is fast becoming my “go-to” link building resource. Keep bringing the awesome!
🙂
You’re an animal Brain! 🙂 — great stuff you’re always putting out man! Thank you for that!
Just out of curiosity, how long did it take you to put it together? And what software did you use to create the graphics/diagrams?
No problem, Edgar. Glad to hear that you enjoyed the guide. Like anything worth doing, it took a lot of hours to create this guide.
as for the graphics, they can be done in Illustrator for he/she has the skills.
Hey Brian…
Superb, detailed and useful information. All in one place.
Thanks!
~ Louie
You’re , Louis! Now its time to get some links 🙂
How have I missed this site?! Feels like I’ve found the Holy Grail! Geez Brian, these tips are worth their weight in gold…you should be charging an entry fee to your site. I totally agree with Jason Bax – but damn grateful nonetheless 😉 Thanks such an incredible site, post and all the other awesome content and advice.
I try 🙂 . As a sign of appreciation you can buy me a beer the next time I’m in New Zealand. Sound good?
Definitely! Just make sure you join us on the South Island. Ski and snow in winter…surf and jet boating in summer. We’re in Christchurch but usually head to Queenstown and the West Coast in July and December. You’ve got my email address…just let us know when you’re visiting. Chat soon and thanks again for the great info.
Sounds good, Dean. Talk to you soon.
Sweet post again.
Keep em’ coming!
Thanks Mikk 🙂
Thanks for this article, Brian. My husband has one of many websites that he has sort of turned over to me. It is a food blog. I am not that technical when it comes to marketing a website. I am going to refer him to this article, and see if he can help me sort out this challenge of getting quality backlinks.
Sounds good, Ronee.
Wow! What a resource to learn link building.
You must’ve done some extensive research to develop this resource. Thanks a lot 🙂
You’re right about that, Abhay
Hey Brian, this is an *Awesome* guide 🙂 Already tweeted and now subscribed ^_^
Nice!
Hi Brian,
This post is like gold, especially for someone who gave up SEO for a while. My sites got slapped by Google and I lost my rankings and income overnight..so I ventured into other methods to drive traffic.
However, I have been wanting to get back into SEO for my sites so I could get more traffic from more than one method.
I will be using some of these methods that you discuss and I will be back to read some more. Thanks for sharing these tips.
Glad you got so much value from the guide, Susan.
Thank you for your guide Brian. I saw/read your Backlinko Interview and then I found your very interesting blog.:)
Sounds good, Robert.
Whole lot of matherial. Wanted to workout it through one single session and now my brain is going to blow 🙂
I have a questions though. Do you recommend to nofollow outbound links to “authority” pages? What about link mass at all. I find so many SEO “experts” quite obsessed with inbound to outbound link ratio nowadays.
Thanks Ivan.
I recommend linking out to authority sites with dofollow links. I don’t obsess over any inbound/outbound ratio. I just focus
on linking out to helpful, relevant resources.
Yet another awesome post! I read this one earlier and actually came back to leave a comment and ask a question. I lost a couple of site to the Penguin update and I am not sure if it is best to leave them be or try to revive them and do better next time around?
That’s a tough answer that depends on a lot of different variables. Getting out of Penguin is no joke but can be done. Question is: is it worth it vs. starting fresh?
Awesome guide Brian. I think you have some of the best link building guides anywhere online. You are a great teacher and from the looks of it, one hell of a link builder too.
Thanks for another awesome guide!
Thanks Travis. I appreciate that.
Very nice post 🙂
A quick thing I spotted – the guide itself is not that much responsive. It was close to impossible to read on my Galaxy smartphone…
Thanks Nicolai. Should be all good now.
Awesome details Brian, you have brought the complete SEO guide under one roof.
Cheers from Romania, Europe Brian!
I was looking for a long time for a guide like this on link building strategies and now that I found it I am very happy to see so many tips that are useful!
Cheers my friend!
Hi Brian, I like how you linked all the resources in 1 page! I cant remember where i read it, but you said something like USA sites with links from Russian sites etc are spam… Somewhere along those lines. So I just want to know, I’m from Malaysia, for a local business, is it alright to have USA backlinks if they are good links or is demographics a bigger factor in ranking?
Thanks!
Looked for some ideas for backlinks and was blown away by your guide. Thanks so much Brian. You’ve got yourself a fan.
Thanks Mike
Perfect – just the kind of thing I was looking for! I’m an SEO beginner and whenever I search for linkbuilding guides, I’m overwhelmed with giant walls of text and jargon. This breaks it down perfectly, without skimping on detail – thank you!
Boom!
You are taking designing the blog post to a whole new level and some fantastic updates 🙂
I try, Udit.
Bulky list posts are great sources for link bait. Tools like hrefs are also great for link building. BTW you must have put hours of effort into this post!
True dat, Joe. This guide was a ton of effort. But a labor of love 🙂
Another incredible read, Brian! With the inevitable rise of importance of social signals, I do think it would be good to include a chapter about social signals and how to boost social media shares in the next version of this article though.
I always run extensive social promotion on my articles before beginning the link outreach, and often use that as social proof for tier one influencers that the article is worth checking out.
Pay, actually I don’t think the rise of social signals are inevitable. In fact, I’d say Google uses them less than a few years ago. They’re simply not a reliable indicator of content quality. More info: https://www.seroundtable.com/again-google-doesnt-use-social-media-for-ranking-22200.html
Brian, thanks for this update. You are my reference for SEO. Now I’ve got some link building work to do 😉
Go get ’em Steve!
Brian ,
I want to know this very badly. How do you create this inforgraphics from which you can also copy text.
Soham, this page is custom designed and coded. It’s not easy!
Thank You!
This guide is EPIC. Any tips on how I can find a baller designer like yours?
Ken, I recommend freelance sites like Upwork and 99 Designs. A bit of a crapshoot but there are some gems on there.
I’ve not read it yet (It’s huge), but by seeing it I can say it’s very informative and useful. Thanks brian for such a nice post.
You’re welcome, Shrikant.
Wow Brian, this is, again, really impresive! Especially your find best fit content suggestion has worked in the past very good in my case for my content for renovation.
Cheers!
Sounds good, Peter. Now its time to implement 🙂
Practice what you preach at its purest 🙂
Grat post Brian!
Right now I’m struggeling most finding a good content builder for creating posts like this guide. Also finding a graphic designer who illustrates in the right way is a pain in the ass.
Do you have any recommendations?
John, we custom designed and coded this guide. Not an easy task an not one most WordPress content builder plugins can handle.
As usual an excellent guide. What I really appreciate Brian is that you continue posting despite having a large readership already :). A habit getting lost by many bloggers usually…
Jochen, you’re right: many bloggers fall off after a few years. I’m just getting warmed up 😉
Brian this is an AWESOME update. I have to say, I died and went to nerdy SEO heaven after seeing you posted a case study of my site. Keep up the good work!!
Thanks Julie. And BIG props on your success.
Lovely stuff Brian, thanks so much for putting this together.
With case study #3 I find it curious that the creator is outranked by someone simply repurposing his content. Is that something you just have to suck up while you improve the standing of your website as a whole?
You’re welcome, Tom. Yup, with image-based content that kind of thing can happen if the domain has way more authority than you do.
Hi, Brian!
Definitely the most amazing… I’d say educational post on Backlinks.
Because I’m one of your STW subscribers (I’m in the FB group), I’d like to make a suggestion regarding reverse image search. Google does that but it is pretty weak. It might be helpful to replace it with tineye.com. It finds way more images than Google and the algorithm is light years ahead of Google. I don’t know how this happens, it just does. Tineye is able to find even portions of an image. Results are quite stunning. You should definitely add Tineye to the guide.
I have nothing to do with Tineye.
Hey Maxi, thanks for the suggestion. I haven’t used tinyeye in years. Last I used it, the tool was about the same as Google Images. Sounds like they stepped things up. I’ll check it out 🙂
Thanks for another great guide!
You’re welcome, Scott.
So many ideas!!!
It doesn’t matter how much SEO knowledge I think I have…. You always teach me more! Thank you for your hard work.
You’re welcome, Marc
This is article is just amazing,i got to learn lot like how should i build links and what is important when it comes to dominating the google first, Brian i always learn something new from your post , please post something on anchor distribution that where i have little doubt hope soon i will see post on anchor distribution from your end.
thanks in advance
You’re welcome, Samir
Awesome stuff as usual Brian, thanks!
Do you ever do any PR based link building? We recently tried this with some data led content and then reached out to Journalists to see if they would like to cover it. Had some decent results.
You’re welcome, Richard. I have in the form of “Original Research and Data” (mentioned in the guide). Got some great features.
What did you guys create and promote?
We took the official UN list of real world issues and found out how many times each one was Tweeted about in 2016 then got some infographics made to visualize the data.
We are still doing it actually. We have had some good placements but I was wondering if you have any tips to really maximise the number of placements?
Sounds cool, Richard. Hmmm. I recommend checking out my friend Dmitry Dragilev’s stuff (https://www.criminallyprolific.com/). He’s a PR pro.
Thanks Brian, will take a look
“Quoth thy Google”, haha.
nice post Brian, thanks.
Also appreciate you responding to my email about proven topics the other day.
When do you think STW 3.0 will come out?
You’re welcome, Matt. I just started laying the groundwork. I expect to release STW 3.0 in the next 3 months.
Brain thanks for such a great guide. I stumbled on your website when I was search for link building and on-page SEO and you ranked No.1 and on page #1 of Google. That was last year. I took action on your on page SEO tips and I was able to move from position 100+ to page 3 within 1 week and I just did an email outreach base on your tips from one of your blog post and now I ranked on position #2 on google. After watching your recommendation for PR THAT CONVERTS, I also studying its blog posts and taking action. I am so glad I stumbled on your website and my traffic for long tail keywords has increased greatly. Thank you so much Brain.
You’re welcome, Ndifreke. And congrats!
Thanks for everything you do. I am just getting started, and have read and researched so much that I might explode.
I hear a lot from other sites that the hoth or some other link building sites are good to use.
I don’t know if you have tried using something like that, but I was wondering what you thought?
Also, I get a lot of training from your site.
Thank you
Brad, You’re welcome. I’d start out with the strategies from this guide.
Hi Brian, any chance you can make this guide into a pdf?
Thanks.
Hi Peter, its in the works.
Yet another awesome post Brian (and team)! I just made a list of all the key points and sent them to my team as reminders. Keep up the great work.
Nice!
Usually I don’t use mail often. But after read this article, Now I can clearly understand how to use mail and how to get authority backlinks by mail.
I definitely execute these tips for my blogs.
Thank you Brian Dean for this useful piece of content.
No problem, Tamil
Awesome guide, Brian! For those who think this guide is amazing, you should have joined his SEO That Works 2.0 class 😉
Nice! That’s true Quinton. This guide is great, but its nothing compared to Module 3 of STW!
Currently this page has 4585 words and ranks #4 in Google for “Link Building”. The pages that rank 1-3 have 1405, 2374 and 2538 words respectively.
No doubt that backlinks are the most powerful factor in rankings, but authoritative content (and word count) plays a huge role as well. We’ll see if this update will push you into the top 3.
That’s true, Jason: authoritative (thorough) content is also important for cracking the top 3 for a competitive keyword like this.
Yet another awesome post Brian. They just keep getting better and better.
Cheers
Thanks Gary. Glad you enjoyed this one
This guide is so so informative and the best part is that it is not selling expensive subscription tools. Simple things that folks can do without a lot of investment. Thank you Brian!
Psst: there are many email newsletters I have subscribed to but few I really read. Yours is one of them!
You’re welcome, Anks
Great content Brian, thanks for sharing!
No problemo, Ewerton. Glad you learned some new stuff from today’s guide.
Thanks, for sharing another great guide!!!
You’re welcome.
Man! Such an amazing article. Thanks for this. I had bought a paid service from Fiverr to create backlinks. It was a disaster. I now know I have to do my own work. Lots to learn from here.
Cool. It happens. Now it’s time to star fresh with white hat link building (works 100x better and is FUN)
Hi Brian.
Just this morning I came across a question on a forum regarding creating links to an e-commerce site without content.
I was more than happy to recommend the exact approach as mentioned by you that was used by Matt Lawry.
And now I’m sitting at my desk being happy that I recommended your method to help someone.
Thanks Umair. Great comment 🙂
Wooooooooooow !. I salute you Brian. You keep churning out quality content after another.
I try 🙂
Amazing post, I will keep in mind next time.
Do you provide private classes?
Sounds good, Himanshu
Brian, every article you wrote is pure gold 😉 Since February 10 I launched completely new website without any SEO knowledge and implemented a LOT of stuff you mentioned about. And have great results so far!
Thank you again for your awesome work!
You’re welcome, Ustin. And CONGRATS
Another awesome read. Like the outreach part especially
Thanks Juan. Yup, email outreach is KEY.
Thanks again Brian for awesome piece of content. I have recently published my website and would definitely try your methods of skyscraper technique.
You’re welcome, Rupesh. Let me know how it goes
It’s awesome not a single second i got bored stunning graphics and design content makes more beautiful
Thanks for sharing this awesome guide
You’re welcome
AMAZING post Brian!! No words, this is the definite guide… For real 🙂
Yup, this is one of the few “definitive” guides that’s the real deal!
Always awesome and fresh.
Keep up the good work.
Regards
Brian,
You never disappoint your readers, standard ultra-high quality post every time! Keep up the good work! (An STW student)
Thanks Gabor. You know from STW that this is the type of content that gets results (that is, assuming you promote it!).
Yes, of course, I shared it on Twitter and Linkedin 🙂
Wow! Thank you so much for sharing all this valuable and amazing SEO & Linkbuilding info. I would definitely try this by myself and share the results.
Thanks
Alejandro G.
Sounds good, Alejandro. Keep me posted.
An awesome piece of content as always, many thanks Brian, you are helping people a lot 🙂
You’re welcome, Ladislav. I try to bring it in every post.
Definitely a great guide. But all of you great and big SEO gurus missed one thing: Backlink profile of any website needs/tends to be as natural as possible, right? So why do you forcing use only dofollow links when it is totally unnatural? I believe my websites dropped in Google beacuse of unnatural dofollow/nofollow backlink ratio, because is unnatural to have 95 percents of dofollow backlinks and only 5 % (or even less) of nofollow backlinks. More nautral would be 50/50 ratio, or even greater number of nofollow backlinks. IMHO Google also counts nofollow backlinks, especially in this case when you don’t have enough of them.
Bruno, thank you. To your point: I agree that Google likely takes the dofollow/nofollow ratio into account. But I don’t think its a big factor.
Great stuff as usual Brian! Thank for sharing
What are your thoughts on Google actually considering increasing the number of paid ads appearing in SERP’s which will push organic “free” listings further down? Do you think one day we will end up losing all the ranking to paid ones?
You’re welcome, Momen. That’s something SEOs have to deal with. That said, Google’s organic results are still the foundation of their business. So they’re not going away.
😮 how do you manage to write all these ?
Great Post and i Love the Article 🙂 Great Efforts
Hmmm. I sit down. I write. Repeat 🙂
Hi Brian, honestly i can’t thank you more.
I remember when someone recommended an article from you in a forum where i was, and since i stumbled on backlinko, i have NEVER left. Every piece you share is indeed a masterpiece. Thank you for this awesomely amazing content once again. The email hunting tips and scripts killed it. Imagine, for the next 3 days I will return to read this same article :-). Alot more to learn.
All the best!!
You’re welcome, Ruth. Glad to hear you’re going to put this into practice. Rock on!
Hello Brian,
To be honest your contents are always amazing and I love to read them. This link building guide is really useful and I will try my best to follow your footprints to get amazing backlinks.
Enjoy the day!
Sounds good, Fahad. Good luck with your link building campaign
When It comes to link building I just trust on your worthful advice. Brian, & always look forward something new on your blog. In last few years I learned a lot from you. Thank this time again. 🙂
You’re welcome
How in the world do you come up such great piece of information regarding the same subject every time you write a post. Just how? Well to inform you that you already know. When it comes to link building Brian Dean is undoubtedly the Dean of this university.
Sanket, it’s because I live it 🙂 I only write about techniques and strategies that I’ve actually tested and used.
Thank you Brian. Nice update. Previously I was following the article 17 untapped Backlink Sources. But this article is lot more improved and organized layout and make it easy to read. Thanks for helping us.
Can you confirm, it has no values if I get links from different niche authority site? Do you think, there will be penalty issue in future if I get irreverent links?
Thank you again
You’re welcome, Enayet. I wouldn’t say “no value”. But the value will be much less than a link from a related site.
Awesome guide…you the man!
🙂 Cheers John
Awesome post Brian. I have followed your guide about skyscraper method and its been working out well. Need to tryout the other methods mentioned in this post. I have read/heard about them before elsewhere but never put together like this on how to do it step-by-step.
Thank you so much!
You’re welcome, Anurag. These strategies are a great complement to The Skyscraper Technique.
This is quality information as always Brian. But i want to ask you one question i always wanted to ask after reading every back link gainer blog posts.
One thing common about MOST “how to gain backlink” type posts are how to get back link to an article in your blog!.
So i got a lot of good back links to “www.example/blog/kjhlhlkh, But i want my website http://www.example.com or http://www.example.com/myProduct to rank for my targeted keywords. In that case how much of value backlinks gained by your blog posts will bring in to the main website or a particular page in your website you want to rank for?
Hi Jithin, those links can help your product pages rank.
Can we expect a detailed article on the correlation between backlinks gained by blog posts and ranking of product pages?
Can you say “power page”? Not only is the information contained within this page extremely valuable, the page itself is also a textbook example of a power page. Every time I read one of Brian’s blog posts I am filled with awe and inspiration, simply for the manner in which they are made. Thank you, Brian!
You’re welcome, Scott. Like all of my Power Pages, this one took A LOT of effort. But the ROI is totally there 🙂
Thank you so much
but I think in my niche is little harder, I am working in Arabic info,
and before I read this post I think it will be impossible to rank,
but I will still working in that.
I fill my post with lovely info-graphic I hope all can see.
Thank you again.
You’re welcome, Hifa
Man Brian, this is a great post on link building. I’m going to go over all this link building training and implement it on my websites. This post is so detailed, thank you so much 🙂
You’re welcome, Bill. Let me know how it goes.
Hi Brian, great guide… lots to learn… Just one question… How do you make your email not read like the average bs outreach as most of us get in our spam boxes on a daily basis?
Hey Bennie, that’s where personalize comes into play. You don’t want your outreach emails to look like a script that you’ve sent to 500 other people.
Great info Brian, I need to check all my content
Thanks
You’re welcome, Logan.
Good stuff 🙂
I always enjoy reading your guides Brian!
Thanks Emil. Like all of my guides, this guide was a beast to put together. But that’s what it takes to stand out in 2017.
Hey Brian,
Thanks for an outstanding link building guide, I just love the guestographic part and will try it for building quality back links for my site!
Awesome, Ramon. That’s a great strategy
Hi Brian,
I love ur interesting blogs on SEO. In a way u make it simple and clear to understand.
TIP: I did some research on ur blog site and saw a some (big) performance issues. I will come back to you on that with some more details.
Kind regards,
Marius
Thanks Marius
awesome Brian!
🙂
Excellent article Brian. Thanks for sharing
You’re welcome, Rene.
Brian: I’m blown away by your guide. Not only is it well written and detailed, but visually easy to read, navigate and follow along. A great, shining example of what fantastic content and complete guides should look like. I especially appreciate the example scripts—with lots of opportunities for customization.
And I love that you went deep enough that any of us readers can try these techniques on our own.
Thanks again,
Kevin
Cheers, Kevin. When I set out to create a definitive guide, I take the word “definitive” seriously. That’s why I cover the topic as comprehensively as I can.
Luckily, I have years of link building experience so I had lots of examples to include in the guide.
This post is exactly why I’m subscribed to the email newsletter. Not sure I would have seen it otherwise. Great stuff as always, Brian!
Awesome, Steve. Glad you enjoyed the guide.
it’s very informative, useful and well-researched post. Keep up the good work!
I’ll do that, Kumar 🙂
I’ve learned so much from you in last years, so thanks a lot.
In 2012 I started a niche. Poor content, non-related backlinks, etc. I’ve created about 10 websites on this niche in the following 4 years. All are “gone”.
So in August I’ve decided to create hq content. Last month this site made me 3,000 USD with 0 backlinks and getting 2,500 UV daily!! Only on-page seo.
Now, my BIG question: should I start to add some backlinks?
I don’t want to lose my positions.
Thanks,
Vali, it depends on the links that you build. If you build editorially-placed links from related sites, you should be good.
Thank you Brian, I am fairly well-versed in onpage SEO but linkbuilding part of offpage SEO is something I want to work on. This definitely helps!
You’re welcome, Hazel. That’s a good call: off-page SEO is a must to succeed with SEO.
Wow, it is a really amazing post. Thank you very much
You’re welcome.
Hey Brian,
You’ve nailed it buddy!
The most updated and useful guide I’ve ever seen on the internet.
The best part is, it’s upto the point with the real life examples.
Hats off to your great work man!
With best wishes,
Essani
Thanks Abdul. Yup, the real world examples are HUGE. I noticed that most other guides talked about “what might work”. So I focused on what I learned about link building from my own real-world experience.
Great sound advice as always. There is no denying that hard work and authenticity is definitely a part of great web publishing. Thanks, Brian, looking forward to the next one.
That’s true, Stavros. Creating awesome content isn’t easy.
hi,brian, thanks your great article. i read your every article. i come from beijing china .welcome you come to beijing have a tour. now ,i am very confused. i have a website http://www.likenessme.com . main keywords”custom bobbleheads” now rank 5th first page. 2-3years ago,
i had already rank top1. now my goal is top 3 at least. i build most backlinks and keep update blog . my backlinks is the most in this niche.
and high authority. but my rank have not any improve ,even drop. i think even the backlinks not work . or very little work. can you give me a advice, or can you recommend a backlinks service only improve 1-2 position, i am very satisfied.
Strong, its hard to say what’s going on without a full site audit. Could be that you lost links, a competitor gained new links, technical issues etc. etc.
Thank you Brian!
I appreciate all you do to realize presence in the world. In my case for a great organization!
You’re welcome
Superb Brian.
Comment section placed at the end of post. It’s better to move below post.
Not sure what you mean.
Sure, your post is a must-read guide when it comes to link building. A little surprise when finding that guest post isn’t one of your favorite link building techniques.
Joel, that’s because Google has cracked down on guest posting (somewhat). Guest posting has its place, but its not one of my top 10 link building strategies anymore.
Awesome piece of content about Link Building! Thanks Brian for sharing such great stuff. Keep up the good work! As always, a great fan of yours, Pankaj!
🙂
Brian,
Again super helpful guide to SEO. I have been regular reader of your posts and successfully used your tips to improve my site ranking.
Your blog is one big powerhouse for understanding everything about backlinks and link building process.
Awesome, Ruby. Glad that you’ve seen results!
Absoutely brilliant article, Brian. As a content manager, I’m starting to realise that it really doesn’t matter the quality of the article if there’s none of the technical backlinking to reinforce it. This was a very useful guide in helping to shape our current link building strategy, very much appreciated!
Well said, Amber. Article quality is KEY. But content promotion (especially link building) is just as important.
A fabulous resource as usual Brian.
Thanks a million.
You put a ton of work into this.
Much appreciated.
You’re welcome, Barry. You’re right: this guide was a ton of work. I’m biased, but I think it came out great.
Brian,
Your backlink ideas are always awesome and realistic.
Thanks for sharing.
-Ashutosh
You’re welcome. Yup, I rarely talk about “theory” or what might work. It’s all about real-world experience.
Another Awesome guide! Thank you
No problem, Nur.
Hello Brian,
Fabulous link building guide. Thanks a lot….:)
No problem, Krishan
Great Guide…..Kudos
You’re welcome, Zarir
Brian Dean. You are the Best
🙂
Hi Brian,
I just start my career as an intern in a Digital Marketing Agency. All of your posts are awesome and give a great SEO knowledge every time.
I follow your blog from the first day and it contains cool and interesting facts about SEO.
Thanks for Sharing…
You’re welcome
One thing I wish you to discussed somewhere in your article. Brian Dean 99% of the time when you email website/blogs as link building outreach you get reply like sure we will love to publish your article please pay 100$ as publishing fee. Now this is what happening in 2017 every website is charging fee. You need to admit this fact Brain.. 99% websites are charging fee.
Frank, the 99% figure simply isn’t true. If your content is great and you reach out to the right person the right way, you’ll get links. That said, certain publishers do charge for links (see the 4 case studies from the guide). I don’t recommend paying for links so I just move onto the next site on my list.
Brian, I admire your success and becoming seo guru for mases!
Yes, I really do!
I’m doing this since 14 years and following my plan as it is:
Does my seo efforts work?
yes->continue and upscale
no->start teaching other how to do it
Your article is good as among other for absolutely the same topic/content, but yours is ranked high. That’s a success, so keep going!
Glad you enjoyed the guide, Brad.
Lots of valuable info but I don’t see possibility to use content into webshop. It is not blog where you can create graphics, add cool stuff like lists posts etc. In webshop you present products and only content you have is description of products and categories. Do you have any guidance about building back links for webshop? I think a little bit different approach should be used.
Martin, I have an example of an ecommerce site in the case studies chapter.
Amazing content, so much value! And also, reading your great post makes me want to create even better content myself. Take care =)
Awesome, Joakim. Creating a massive guide like this isn’t easy. But it’s worth the effort (assuming you promote the content you create).
Incredible post. A lot of knowledge in a small piece 🙂
Cheers, Pawel.
Hello Brian,
Thank you so much for this information, I really enjoy reading your posts.
I’m just a one-man show and I just signed gained a new customer in a new and very exciting niche.
I’m definitely going to use the methods you describe in this blog post.
Thanks much and keep it up!!
Regards
Rob
Awesome, Rob. Go kick some butt!
Hi Brian, This is extremely helpful. We have been using your blog posts and benefiting by following the ideas and suggestions. Thank you for another practical post.
You’re welcome. And glad to see that you’ve put my material into practice. Great job!
Hey Brian,
thanks for another great post yet again. I consider myself a “grey” hat SEO with PBNs and all the fireworks at my disposal, but I ve just ressurected a project 4 years in the making (70 pages of valuable “aged” content on it) which I intend to turn into “guides” or the “go to” posts for each invidivudal subject. (No worries its not SEO and we wont be rubbing elbows :D). Will deffinitely use these tactics and see how it goes. Heck, maybe even add a case study with mentions 😀 (P.s.: I intend to document the entire process 6-9 months 1x per week)
Keep up the good work,
Buyseech
Sounds good, Igor. I think a lot of these outreach strategies could help you build some great links to your new guides.
Hi Brian,
Thank you so much for sharing awesome posts, my mentor!
Simon
You’re welcome, Simon. Let me know how the strategies from the guide work out for you.
Hey Brain,
All the post was awesome, found the information step-by-step. The only thing I didn’t understand is “Links With Reverse Image Search”. Could you please help me in understanding it.
Raj, if you have visual assets on your site, search for them with Google image search to see who shares them without linking.
Hello Brian,
I was using your broken link techniques its worked i got link from wikipedia. Now I am going work on other techniques you mention above. You are awesome. Thanks for share with us awesome content ever.
Awesome, Manish. Go get em!
Great post, Brian.
By the way, what do you do to make other sites link to your infographic (not just steal it). I’ve not noticed embed code on your images.
Daria, thank you. There’s not much you can do. It happens. Key is to just get as many links as you can by asking them to add an attribution link.
As usual, Brian delivers. Great work again! This is the kind of content that you want to read more than once and call it time well spent with zero doubt.
Thank you, Brian. I’m biased, but I definitely this guide is one to read at least a few times 🙂
Hi Brian
Can I ask typically how long it takes to work through any of the above processes please? I’ve started on the trail of looking for resources/broken links etc, using the methods above, but having soent a day on it have come up empty handed…
The processes all make sense, but trying to find the time to action everything seems to where I’m falling down.
Steve, it’s hard to estimate because it depends on your experience, workflows etc. etc. But it does take time (anything worth it does!).
Hi Brian,
Broken Link techniques would be useful sometime but its very hard to find out broken links in my industry. Apart from this, I’m using blogger outreach which is useful for me.
Rameez, it can be tough to find broken links. But once you find one, you can pop it into Ahrefs and see all the sites that still link to the broken page
As usual, another great post from you brian!
I’ve been reading your blog for a year and could’nt get enough of your content. This post is something i want to bookmark and read more few times.
Cheers!
🙂
This is exactly what I need for 2 reasons:
1. I’m writing a guest post about guest posting and this resource is a great information about link building
2. Working on a few of these strategy you mentioned and it’s really working
But my question is this: what about the links in comments (the ones in nicknames or the ones in comments) do they count as quality links?
Awesome, Robert. Those links are nofollow so they don’t have any SEO value.
Thanks Brian!
I was really thinking that Google is now no more give priority to link building and i was going to stop doing it but your blog again changed my mind and also you provided some really good stuff. So i will restart all the things and hope i will get better result. Thank you Brian.
Hi Jam, links are definitely here to stay!
I hope so and i am hoping some more backlink strategy for cheaper clients. I hope you will also take care of it and create one good blog.
Hi Brian,
Great post as always!
But I got one question which is bothering me for a while. Because it seems like if you have one authority page (the homepage for example) everything else does not seem to matter that much.
For example:
I found a lot of subpages from some websites which are almost always in the top 5 positions in Google. But they don’t have any backlinks or referring domains whatsoever (checking with majestic paid account).
But their root domain has a very good trust flow and PA/DA. It seems like al those subpages just inherit this trust and then it just does not matter that much how many backlinks there are to a particular page. As long it is connected to the root domain.
So basically, my content is better, I have more quality and relevant backlinks but still that page from another site with zero backlinks and zero text is ranking top 3 in Google and mine is nowhere to be found.
Is there some powerful connection between trustflow and pa/da from the root domain to subpages? I cannot explain otherwise why pages with zero backlinks and zero text can be ranking in top results in Google while providing nothing SEO wise (no text and no backlinks).
I’ll keep on reading!
Laurien
Laurien, that’s right: a site’s overall domain authority is a HUGE ranking factor (http://backlinko.com/search-engine-ranking).
Hi Brain,
wow again a stellar post. You are really crushing it. I especially like the use of visual content to make the post more appealing and easy to follow. This is seriously awesome.
Thank you for your work.
Cheers from Germany,
Julius
You’re welcome, Julius. Yup, a pro design like this definitely helps your content stand out.
Thanks you Brian for this article.
It’s always great to read some basics, but you give me some new ideas. 🙂
Long live the links !
Long live links!
Hi Brian, I run a linkbuilding company in The Netherlands and have to admit your info is a real inspiration for us! You’re ahead of the game on safe, high quality linkbuilding. Thanks a million!
You’re welcome, Leon. Glad you learned some new stuff that you guys can try out
You’re just a superstar…nothing less.
WEIDONE SIR!!!
🙂
This is the most complete, helpful article/post I have ever read on how to boost ..EVERYTHING I am dong on line..! Took notes, but will re read and re read.., Starting both a List post and a resource page! Thank YOU for sharing this!
You’re welcome, Shelley
Hey Brian!
I liked the part about sending out “feeler” emails. What do those emails usually look like?
Also, how many outreach emails do you usually send? I’m getting so exhausted but I know its worth it! haha
Thanks
Liam, I’d check out the case study I linked to where Mike used feeler emails in his campaign
Excellent article Brian!!
I read all of your blogs, sometimes even 3 to 4 times. In my personal opinion, you are even better than Neil and others.
Thank you
Greetings Brian;
When a professional – like you – puts content like the one in your new guide 2017 at free disposition of his e-mail subscribers, one can rest assured, that the content in your STW courses is eaven far better!
yours very respectfully,
Jeannot
Thanks Jeannot
Great, great material, as always.
That said, speaking from a British perspective, I am not alone in saying that link-building in the UK is like trying to climb Everest with an elephant on your back. The UK lacks a “we’re all in this together” mentality that appears to infuse American entrepreneurial thinking, and instead could be characterised as being a spiteful, cold-approach-hostile web culture.
I have had people email me back and say, wow, that was a stunning cold approach… and maybe in the future we’ll give you a link or if you pay us we will (yeah, Google just loves that). But I have so far been unable to get one backlink, even with with meticulously and forensically targeted and constructed outreach.
In turn that sheds light on Google’s emphasis on backlinks as a ranking signal. It means Google is rewarding the webmaster’s outreach skills, rather than the website’s content per se, which is hardly putting the UX first. It also means Google’s methodology is tailored for an American web ecosystem that doesn’t readily transfer across to other countries. That leaves Brits to focus on on-page SEO, blackhat methods, first-to-market approaches, or just abandoning the whole UK game and doing business in the US instead.
Jay, that’s true to a certain extent. But I know lots of UK-based link builders that have a ton of success with email outreach.
I’ve even personally built links from plenty of .co.uk sites.
Wow, Brian…this 2017 update is visually flippin’ awesome!! Well done!
Thanks Darren. Not sure if you remember the old version, but this isn’t even an update…it’s a complete overhaul
Dean, i gotta know how much work goes just into designing the layout of your posts. They are pieces of art. The imagery, graphics, and design flow are just so perfect
Derek, LOTS of work. I don’t track the hours. But it’s a lot 🙂
Thanks for this mammoth link building guide, Brian. Covers all essential aspects of link building.
I’ve been trying your skyscraper technique for a while now and it has helped me land a few authoritative backlinks.
Thanks once again.
Cheers,
Sandeep
You’re welcome, Sandeep
This is just a great article!!
I read all of your blogs, it really helps me a lot! just a request if you can provide a option of exporting your blog as a PDF
Sudhi, I’m working on getting a PDF together actually.
No words. Absolutely great piece of work, Brian. Keep it up!
🙂
Hello Brian,
This indeed more than a definitive guide to link building. Oh my God, this article is enough to turn into a course and sell it.
You really gave out a lot here. Honestly, link building is still very important as far as SEO is concerned in 2017 and beyond. Anyone who still neglecting is only making a grave mistake because, without it, there’s certainly no SEO (Maybe that’s my own opinion).
I’ve read a lot of guides in the past about SEO, but this is the more comprehensive and i will start implementing the strategies right away as I’m currently trying to rank a new Amazon review site i started.
Thanks a bunch for sharing.
You’re welcome. That’s true: link building is still super-duper important. And that’s unlikely to change.
Wow! It’s like I fully completed the top-high-end-pricey-back-linking course online. I feel more excited than every before getting my incoming site to be live soon. I’ve been following your emails. Thanks Brian for keeping me on the lope.
You’re welcome, Jay. Good luck with the new site.
Thanks, Brian. You have the Midas Touch with every post you create. Do you have any ideas or resources that you can share on how to implement social media into a link outreach campaign? I have a terrible time getting decent conversions from cold emails for my clients. Thanks!
You’re welcome, Matt. I actually don’t do much on the social front (besides maybe sharing someone’s stuff before reaching out). Cold emails don’t convert amazingly well, but they’re the best way to build links out there.
Hi Brian
Most of the people end up to your blog, if they are searching for “Link Building”.
Another epic content.
Just one to ask one question about “Link Diversity”.
Is it always right to go for High authority sites for link building?
Ratio of nofollow vs dofollow?
And diversity links like (social media, blogs, edu. sites).
How will they impact your ranking?
Best
Rafe
Rafe, you definitely want to get as many (white hat) links as you can…whether or not they’re from authority sites. http://backlinko.com/search-engine-ranking
Thanks for the link.
Waiting for another myth busting content from your side.
Best
Rafe
That’s one awesome guide Brian but I have doubt in link building anchor text variation will play a major role. So according to you what’s the ratio we need to get to exact match anchor to others ( generic etc )
Not sure what you mean, Naveen
One of your best posts in my opinion.
It is so great when a post cover a subject all the way.
Cheers, Asger. Yup, covering a topic as a legit definitive guide is great for SEO
Use method ““Keyword” + inurl:links” and get dozens of good resources to obtain back links. Sent out mail already and hopefully to get some good links.
Nice!
Thank you so much Brian,
This link building guide will be another great and classic post. Big work…
No problem, Rady
Hey Brian,
thanks for this amazing link building guide. I think this is a great source of inspiration for all the SEOs out there!
Regards from Germany,
Christopher
You’re welcome, Christopher
Great guide as usual! Wondering if you use a tool like Ninja Outreach or Buzzstream to manage your outreach efforts or is it all manual?
Fred, those tools are helpful if you send lots of outreach emails or run an outreach team. Otherwise I like Gmail + Google Docs
Great piece of information as usual Brian. Thank you for sharing the updated one.
I have a query about resource pages link building. In your guide, you said find the pages with lots of out bound links. Is it good to have your link on a page solely created for links ? These type of pages people still use to exchange links. Would be great to know your take on this.
You definitely want to avoid pages that use link exchanges. Fortunately, there are plenty of legit resource pages out there.
You my friend are ridiculous. Do you ever do something at even 98% or just always 100%?
Great guide. Read it once, but bookmarked for when it is time to implement. I kid of put off link building for a while… and by kind of I mean I completely dismissed it.
This has me pumped up again and hoping I can get it going in the near future.
Really appreciate all the epic content you put out, keep it coming!
Chris
Always 110%, Chris 🙂
No doubt this is one of best write ups on SEO/link building that I have come across. Would definitely like to try the tools and techniques you mentioned for our new website.
Sounds good, Riana
Awesome post Brian
Helped a lot.
Glad to hear that, Sam
Epic as usual, but, brian, please can you tell me what fonts you use within this page & how much PXs?
Thanks
Hi Brian,
Another awesome article. Very detailed and informative. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
In all of my web travels, I have NEVER seen an author reply to every comment. Especially one that is as popular as you are. I am truly in awe of that. I don’t care if it’s a VA doing it. It’s a bombtastic technique and you should be applauded.
Thanks for the great information Brain.
You’re welcome, Chris. And it really is me replying 🙂
Wow. Authority everywhere. What a superb design with solid advice on link building. Always an inspiration Brian and it’s time for try out some email templates!
Sounds good, Tom. Good luck
Brian, this is awesomeness just.
A colleague we work with at techaai recommended this guide ounce again to me. She already left a comment here [Ruth] (noticed while reading through). Again i am overwhelmed! To be honest, we have been using your guides as a way to learn and improve our blog. One of the things we started putting into practice is writing epic content not just blog posts. This has worked like charm. Credit to you. We owe you a cup of coffee!!
Thanks alot. Keep digging for us dude! 🙂
Amazing piece of content. Kudos to Brian for sharing such quality, in-depth information. I just wanted to recommend a scroll to top button if possible, would help a lot.
I love this guide, it’s so complete 🙂
I was wondering if just by chance do you have this guide in PDF.
Thanks
Not yet, Ricardo. Working on a PDF
It should be very funny for you to see one of your email template asking for a link… 🙂
Great post and thks for the 2017 upload
CHEERS
🙂
Yikes, the new update is even better! Great stuff, Brian.
I noticed it doesn’t really link out to a bunch of resources anymore– are you changing your thoughts on this content framework? Or is this only bc you are already advanced and have lots of backlinks to this page so no longer need to link out as a prereq to getting backlinks?
Meaning, should a newer website in a competitive industry (online biz):
1- Follow your original format (link to lots of resources, write little content)?
2- Follow this updated style which is all “in-house” content?
Thanks,
PS (yes, I recently bought STW– it’s UH-Mazing!)
Great question, Brent. I like to link out to curated resources because a) it provides a lot of value and b) is relatively easy to put together. As you said, this page has done well as a traditional GTGB so I thought it was time to add some more meat to the guide.
Hi! Brian,
You’re the flag bearer of the “white hat revolution”.
There’re millions who look up to you now.
🙂
Hi Brian,
Your website provides the best tips about SEO. Great article as always. Now it’s time to implement this knowledge 🙂
Thanks,
Tom
Neat Design with a valuable link building post!!! Especially the 4 case studies..
Brian. You are insanely good at making linkbuilding sound as easy as cooking a dish from a cookbook.
All I know is that it isn’t the case – always.
Thanks for yet another great update 🙂
Hi Brian,
Fantastic resource as usual. I think you’ve overtaken everyone including Neil as THE go-to SEO authority. Your name and website seems to be on everyone’s lips. Anyway, I know social media is not your thing, but personally, my approach to SEO is to build a strong brand using social media, press releases and building profile and branded links. I think once you have a strong brand, your editorial link building campaign would be more organic, especially if the user is in a niche that has low search volume.
I love the design of this article. It has the look and feel of a infographic but it’s an article. It makes the resource seem more valuable and trustworthy.
Hi Brian,
Another amazing article from you. My favourite technique is the “Broken Link Building” as it really ads value and I had great success with it.
Keep up the good work!
Hi, Brian. Of all the articles I’ve read and all the videos I’ve watched, yours is outstanding! It’s fun and creative. I really like the way you explained things about link building and all that content promotion. This content definitely teaches me a lot. I will surely share this with my friends and colleagues. Keep it up!
You rock Brian. Up to P2 for link building now too! Very impressive. Quick question…. Would this comment count as spam?