Use Compelling Content to Drive White-hat Link Building Opportunities to Your Website
Content will be at the heart of all link building strategies in the future. Google has always said that it wants webmasters to acquire links naturally and with the rollout of Penguin 4.0, the trend is set to continue.
Webmasters should understand the importance of developing content that will deliver value and ultimately earn their website the valuable links that will get their site ranking on the first page of Google for their desired keywords.
The former head of webspam, “Matt Cutts” always said that website owners should earn links by publishing content that’s valuable to their target audience. The launch of the Penguin 4.0 algorithm reinforced Google’s stance on gaining natural links that are editorial votes from the web community rather than the acquisition of links that is used to manipulate the organic search results.
The days of publishing spun or low-quality content on websites for the sake of building links is over. Creating high-quality content that will allow the web user to take-away valuable insights is key. The more value that is delivered, the more likely the content will be shared and the piece of web content should earn links organically over time.
In this post, we will show you how content-driven link building can be used to earn the type of white-hat links needed to propel your website to the first page of Google.
Before you do any sort of link building activity, publish content that is valuable to your audience.
The most important factor for the success from your link building activity is the quality of the web content. Most webmasters will focus on word count, when in fact they should focus on the solving the problem that the webmaster is looking for.
The content can be presented in different forms, whether it is an informative article, ebook, infographic, image, video or audio.
When creating the content, ask yourself the following questions.
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Who is this content for? (Try to find the niche audience that the content is targeted to. For example, ladies that want to lose 20% body fat on a halal diet.)
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What is the problem that they have? (In this example, what recipes can they use to lose their body fat, while using halal ingredients?)
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How can your article solve their problem? (In this example, providing halal recipes that have a low calorie serving per meal would be the ideal solution.)
Find opportunities to reach your target audience online.
You need to search for your target audience online. The more niche the audience is, the more likely it is they will link back or share your web content. You can find communities by doing searches on Google, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, Quora and LinkedIn.
Keep a list of the communities and websites that you find, as you will be reaching out to these sites in the future.
Reach out to these communities with a well-crafted pitch.
Ideally, the content that you have published will sell itself. A simple email that pitches the value the person or community can receive from viewing the content should generate interest and potentially some shares on the web. Keep in mind that when you are doing a cold email approach, the other person’s time is valuable to them. You will usually only get one shot to make a valuable first impression, so make sure that it is worthwhile.
Other effective ways you can reach out to webmasters.
You need to successfully reach out and establish a beneficial relationship with your prospect in order to get a link back to your site’s content. There are several websites that are craving to share the type of content that your website provides. Some of the techniques might require you to create more content or build a relationship with an influencer over time.
Some of methods that provide a high-impact include:
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Becoming a contributor on another website.
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Conducting your own or participating in interviews on another website. You can use services like HARO (Help a reporter out) to find these opportunities.
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Finding themed directories that cover the topics from your published content.
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Reaching out to influencers such as journalists or people in your online space that have a large, but targeted following.
You can see these tactics in action by watching the following video.
You can also find a more extensive list of white-hat link building strategies by clicking the following resource.
Resource: White hat link building & outreach strategies
What can you expect after implementing these activities?
The impact of the links that you’ll acquire will improve the organic search rankings of your website. Depending on how competitive your niche is, a few links from relevant websites could improve the site’s position to the first page of Google within a few weeks.
Typically, the average conversion rate is 2-10%, which means you will need to reach out to at least 100 websites to get a 2-10 links. However, if you managed to acquire at least 2 links a week, your site would gain over 100 relevant links in the year. This should catapult your site to the first page of Google.
What should you do next?
Take a look at your site and evaluate any opportunities to create valuable content that can be shared. Use the content as an asset to trigger a conversation that can create opportunities to gain links for your website.