How Link Building Really Works for SEO – By Attracting Links
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I don’t write a lot about link building on SEO 2. Why? I did for many years.
Usually I attempted to expand the concept to go beyond “building”.
I questioned the premise of “manual link building” from day one. Why?
This is not how link building for SEO actually works! Really? Let me clarify.
What Does Link Building for SEO Even Mean?
In the past link building meant “inserting links to your site on other people’s websites”. It was often sneaky.
In most cases it did not add any value. In the worst case it was about hacking websites to insert links!
Instead I focused on sharing, engagement and outreach (SEO 2) or as many people refer to it: “social SEO”.
Essentially I was attracting links!
Why? These things actually make you get links from real people who link to you of their own accord!
Yes. You can build links without manually building them or link begging. It’s just not “building” really.
Link Building Does NOT Go Away
Yet the term link building doesn’t go away. That’s the problem!
No matter how often I and other people say that you have to
- get links
- earn links
- attract links
People both from the SEO industry and clients always want you to build links or write about it.
They often even dismiss alternatives like content creation and building relationships in many cases.
Thus it’s important to update your view on what link building actually means for SEO and beyond.
It’s not what it used to be many years ago when the term was coined.
In essence you to create linkable assets to attract links organically.
Demand and Supply
The ongoing demand is not the only reason why I return to the topic of link building! What else?
Over the years some of my colleagues I value very much have linked to me in their link building resources:
Wayne Barker of Boom Online has added two of my link building posts to his selection of valuable link building articles.
Jason Acidre of Kaiser the Sage has mentioned me in his very insightful post on high-level link building techniques.
Despite my reluctance to deal with link building some people who know the SEO trade consider me worthy enough to point out my expertise in this arena.
That’s another reason why I decided to disclose how link building really works these days.
It’s such an in-depth tutorial like Jason writes. It’s a resource list like the amazing collection by Wayne.
I still hope it will help you to make sense of the current Internet landscape and the ways you can make other people link to your site.
Link Building vs Attracting Links
There are two kinds of link building: the one that I sell to clients and the other one, the one that I practice intuitively for myself and my blog here.
It’s not that I cheat my clients or something selling them second rate link building while I do the real thing for myself. It’s just that
Most clients haven’t adapted yet to the current state of SEO of today. Why?
Business people are still approaching link building with a traditional mindset. Many
- clients want links right away and are ready to take short cuts
- they want link building as a separate task that has not much to do with their website
- they want link building without the effort needed to make it possible (e.g. content creation)
In contrast I take many things for granted that my clients do not have.
That’s why they contact me for link building services, otherwise they probably would not need me.
What are these things most clients and their websites lack?
- having a name aka personal branding
- having friends online aka relationship building
- having linkable assets aka content creation
I do have all three to some extent. I’m not a SEO celebrity but the people who matter know who I am.
Many more have read my articles elsewhere but do not remember they were mine probably.
Nonetheless enough people recognize me. How do I measure “enough”?
I can see it by how many read and share what I write.
I notice how connected I am when my newly published content spreads by itself without me overtly pushing it.
In case you’re completely new to an industry people won’t even look at your content at first let alone spread it.
For a client I need to overcome the lack of a personal brand.
Even in case you have a brand name people won’t share your content just because they know you.
The person who actually writes and/or shares the content is pivotal.
People follow other people not companies unless the brands are really huge like Apple or Google.
Once you command a huge brand then no matter what you do most people will clap.
Average businesses can’t rely on such loyalty. They have to reach out instead or better make friends. That’s what I offer them.
Reaching out just for the link is a short cut. Especially cold mailing people out of the blue is one.
Ideally they know you for a while before you actually ask them for a favor.
Even getting people’s attention is a favor nowadays.
Once they know you it takes quite a while and some attention on your side before you become actual friends in the online sense.
How to Make Friends Online
You do not have to meet your online friends in person.
Wayne lives in the UK, Jason is based on the Philippines.
Meeting them is not that simple especially as I don’t travel much unlike some famous SEO spokespeople. Still
- regular attention
- exchange of ideas
- mutual aid
- respect
made us what I consider online friends beyond the meaning of that term on social media sites.
Do they link to me because they owe me a favor or because I ask them to? Not really.
They link to me because they know me, respect me and thus read my articles in the first place.
You Need to Know People to Become Known
When people like my content they link to them in their posts.
They link partly because they know me yet that often not enough.
They also know how I usually react: I will notice it and reciprocate by at least sharing their article or linking to it in some cases (see above!).
Yet it’s not like a link exchange or something.
Of course my posts have to be good enough to get the links as well. It’s natural give and take.
Without my friends listening to what I say I wouldn’t get the links and shares, or much fewer of them.
For clients in most cases I have to be quick.
Outreach campaigns usually are short term.
Business people want to see results ASAP. Whatever they might be.
It’s difficult to reach out and stay connected to the bloggers and influencers I have contacted on their behalf.
In the worst case it’s the dreaded “cold outreach” to strangers who are moszt likely to ignore you!
Don’t talk to strangers was a mantra our parents repeated too often!
Yet people do not go out of their way just because someone they have never talked to asks them for a favor out of the blue!
In a way neither I nor them have the online friends needed to get the traction needed.
This is how you attract the links you deserve though. At least I hope they deserve them.
Sadly in most cases clients don’t deserve to get links. Why? They don’t have the linkable assets I take for granted.
Then they approach me and want them over night. Here again there is no quick substitute for a strategy. You build up the assets one by one over time.
A blog is not a panacea for a site that does not have any content beyond sales copy and any assets beyond the products they sell.
Until recently potential clients like these would not get back to me after I told them about the things they need to do.
These people went to the next SEO expert who build them links by paying for them. Paid links get riskier with every Google update.
The so called Penguin update has killed off many sites that relied on paid links and other artificially built links. That clean-up was long overdue.
Until then many low quality sites ranked high without actual acknowledgement from real people. The links were literally made up or simply built.
I have lots of helpful content and even my content that is merely great gets also links. Why?
It’s because people know me and some of them are my friends who tell their friends and so on.
Being recommended by a friend makes me credible even among perceived strangers.
Valuable content by itself is only part of the equation. Just try three 3Cs:
- connections
- content
- credibility
may already suffice to get enough other people to notice you.
Then for them to spread the word about you. This will ultimately result in social shares and editorial links.
It Takes Time to Do it Right
You need to understand that these three prerequisites I take for granted work only in the long run.
Once they work you do not even have to spend time on link building directly.
Give me half a year and I will lay the foundation for you to get those natural links.
Give me another half a year and I will make the links arrive this organic way by itself.
After a year you have a link building perpetuum mobile.
Give me just a few months and a number of links I have to generate instantly and I will have to resort to
- cold outreach
- one link stands
- self-promotion
for merely great content nobody will see without me pushing it.
A modern link building strategy has to entail half a year of preparation before the links arrive naturally.
Anything faster will be less organic and ultimately not future-proof.
Invest time now to prepare for tomorrow or pay again next time once the current short cuts won’t work anymore.
Direct blogger outreach already does not yield the results you’d expect. Why that?
Bloggers are not readily waiting to work for you. They are busy!
Many bloggers want money even though you offer them free content.
You may end up paying for links again in the worst case.
Take your time and practice link building like it really works foe SEO and beyond.
Take the long road but the one that leads to the desired destination.
Attract links as part of a true organic reach approach. That’s how SEO works!
Additional Link Building Resources
You still haven’t read enough about link building or attracting links?
Then I recommend these additional guides below for further reading:
- Link Building For SEO: The Definitive Guide by Backlinko
- What is Link Building — A Beginner’s Guide by PageOnePower
- Link Building for SEO: How to Do It Right by SEMrush
* Perpetuum mobile is a Creative Commons image by Thilo Hilberer.
You mean I can’t buy 1000 profile links over night and be done with it?! :)
Is it just me or is anchor text really badly overhyped? Like yeah, it does contribute to your SERP but definitely does not matter as much as people make it out to do. Relevancy of your web pages and the relevancy of pages where the backlinks are placed is the greatest factor imo. What do you guys think?
Gene: I’m afraid you’re right!
Zak: Yeah, I’ve been writing about this long before it became official that anchor text stopped to be what it was once. Anchor text is by now a very strong negative ranking factor. It still works as a positive signal too if done right but I’ve noticed a steady decline in its importance.
Branded and other natural links in relevant quality content are more useful these days than anchor text links.
Clients with good blogs, etc generally do better than those without.
This is not just in terms of natural links gained, but also in terms of the social networking that announces the new posts.
This has got to be one of the most refreshing and go eat articles I have read in a long time. I think building sustainable, long-term relationships with niche influencers has to be one of the most valuable asset that any digital marketing agency can have. Thanks for a great read!
Superb article, It covers a lot of points which are making themselves all-too evident with linking work now. Sadly linking alone just doesn’t cut it now and it’s it’s a hard lesson the industry and its clients need to know.
I appreciate the sober look at link building. I know it is something I am always trying to do in the background, I want something slow and purposeful. Thanks for making me feel like I am on the right track.
@Zak – Before penguin it was super powerful; you could blast a few thousand rubbish anchor text links and rank for competitive terms.
Anyone doing that now is going to get slapped really bad.
Well written piece, although certainly not what most marketers out there want to hear. That being said, I couldn’t agree more with the bit about paid links getting riskier with each algo update.
Thank goodness for disavow!
Tadeusz, I don´t know if that’s your real name but what a good post. This is one of those rare link building articles that doesn’t give abstracts and that doesn’t pitch the “make great content” crap. Almost all the SEO advice you hear from the “industry leaders” completely ignores the fact that for the majority of small businesses it is unrealistic to think they will be able to produce top notch content AND distribute it in a short time frame. You must have the foundation of traditional links or risk not ranking anywhere while hoping that something gets picked up and shared.
Giving newbies advice to build great content and rankings will come is just misleading and it’s refreshing to read an article that keeps it so real.
Very good article and it makes you realize how building relationships plays such an important role in link building (the first 2 links in your post is a prime example of this). With that said I would think it would be extremely difficult to pitch relationship building as part of a “link building” service. This is why its so difficult to provide SEO services as a 3rd party agency as opposed to having an in-house SEO expert.
How very refreshing to read something honest and credible! Showing and explaining this to clients will be another tough job!
[…] How Link Building Really Works These Days – Wayne Barker […]
Exactly True. It is taking more time to build quality links…Creating trust, building relationships and requesting them for links. It works depends upon individual.
i think I got lost somewhere in there… I get the overall point, but you did not talk much about your process for clients. I personally have yet to take on a client who will devote the time to cultivate content and manage their own social media effectively. Getting links from within the SEO community is a little like getting handjobs if your in the porn industry. It’s easy because we’re in this racket. Trying to scale the outreach and content based model for businesses in other areas just doesn’t work. At least not with the clean simplicity of the SEO industry model. So i guess I am trying to understand your point. Are you saying that there are two types of link building because your clients don’t cooperate… or do you understand that this industry is crazy easy to get links?
Link building is a gradual process and link quality is strictly scrutinized by Google. So it must be done with caution.
Jarrod: My point is that you don’t scale the outreach. You scale by getting just a bunch of friends who have other friends who have even more friends.
So at the end of the day thousands of people flock to your site and hundred vote/share.
This post is a proof of concept as exactly this happened here.
So ideally you only outreach once to a bunch of people and then keep on connecting with those selected few instead of reaching out to hundreds or thousands.
Also you don’t cold mail people out of the blue but follow them listen, reply an done day they know you good enough to wonder what you write/offer.
The true thing that is happening here at Google is much confusing. SEO is my living, so i play with lots of sites all the time. I found that when a website cannot rank for doing high quality backlinks months after months, huge low quality pushing (say 500 links from blog comments in 5 days – no matter what niche) at the same time does working always.
When Google is saying update, i think they meant refresh of data of their database. Which is kicking out some websites – though those sites should rank. Well, if we search for laptop seller, obviously dell,hp etc should rank top, it not found within top 10 / top 10 pages, there is something wrong with google than.
[…] that can’t carry over to your next job or company?You don’t achieve maximum benefit from a 1 link stand.2. It implies you should always be trying to ‘close’ a deal or sell somethingBut often helping […]
Ultimately great article and great convincing information right now when I have clients who need to understand these facts and details, thank you !
I’ve already explained a lot of these but sending them to read this particular article will most likely finally make them agree that all the other techniques, the ones you called shortcuts, are not worth doing.
So right about clients thinking that building links (of whatever quality) is the way to do SEO.
I try to explain that the way Google approaches the SERPS is that they are trying to achieve the ultimate experience for their users – that is they want the best real world company that meets the searchers requirements to be top of the rankings.
Using this analogy helps my clients to focus on localised search where they know they can compete rather than expecting the impossible by going for the big, global search terms.
[…] of frustration, I wrote a bland article called “How Link Building Really Works These Days” summarising my own way of earning links the organic way. The post went live shortly before […]
Good read, quality backlinks are vital I will share this post.