Link building remains one of the most effective digital marketing tactics, and not just for higher rankings (even though links do still remain the major organic ranking factor[1]). Links drive referral clicks, and generate leads, making your site less dependent on search and advertising traffic.
But how do you build links these days, now that most self-serving link acquisition tactics are frowned upon by Google and can result in lost search visibility?
Here's what we know for sure:
- Link building cannot be scaled
- Link building is not easy or fast.
A new approach to link building integrates all kinds of marketing assets and processes including content marketing, relationship building, and influencer outreach.
This article outlines exactly how to create an effective link building campaign.
Link Acquisition Campaign Goals:
For your campaign, you want to achieve the following:
- You want that asset to bring in links
- You want that asset to rank (because high-ranking content keeps bringing links organically as most writers/bloggers search Google to find sources to reference)
So there's a little bit of a vicious circle here: You cannot rank without links but links also help to rank.
If you really want your link acquisition campaign to work, you need to aim for both: Your content asset should be linkable as well as rank on top of Google for related keywords.
What Non-Spammy Non-Scaled Link Building Methods Do We Know?
- Researching and creating linkable content (i.e. Content that attracts backlinks)
- Vanity baiting (ego-baiting): Featuring influencer(s) in your content for them to link back to the published content as well as attract more links (by name association)
- Relationship building (i.e. Connecting to publishers and journalists on social media for better brand familiarity and hence