Earning Links – Our Top 5 Tips

Gaining inbound links remains one of, if not the best path to long-term online traffic success. Links mean authority, increasing your website’s ranking for search engine queries. Therefore, it’s vitally important for any SEO campaign.

Not only that, they result in referral traffic indefinitely and help prop up your brand’s online reputation.

The problem is you can’t just build links wherever you want, you have to earn those links by creating content worthy of being linked to. So, assuming you’re up to date with the basics of good content marketing (and if not, I suggest reading our previous posts), how does one go about earning links? Here are our top 5 tips!

Go Viral

Easier said than done, right? Though hard to predict, and even harder to execute, if you can get your content to spread virally you’ll earn dozens and sometimes hundreds of reputable links by doing so.

Conventionally, “going viral” suggests millions of views and thousands of shares, but that’s not where the value lies. Rather, your link potential will expand with any combination of consecutive shares. Put it this way: if 10 people share your content you’re exposing said content to 1000 people. In addition, one percent of people will eventually link directly to you.

Making it your aim to go viral though can be dangerous and lead to you focusing time and energy on the wrong projects. Best advice is to keep your content relevant, engaging and easily digestible. Lighting will strike eventually.

Provide Original Research Value

Providing original research is one of the oldest and most reliable ways creators go about earning links. So long as you’re researching a topic people are interested in, and you present unseen information, you’ll be in good stead of receiving the acknowledgement (and therefore links) from others in your sector. The ‘research’ side of things means you’ve done work others have not, and the ‘original’ part means they can’t get this information from another source. Consider conducting surveys as an easy and inexpensive way to capitalise.

Collaborate With Influencers

Looking for a shortcut to earning links? Consider working with someone who has a history of getting them, otherwise known as an influencer. By definition, influencers already have an audience of thousands, possibly tens of thousands, and the respect that comes with it. If you can tap into their existing potential, you’ll stand to earn more links far easier. There are a few ways to go about this: you could collaborate with an influencer on a piece of content, interview them and get them to link back, or ask them to directly advertise your product or service on their profile.

This does come with a price, although everything good usually does.  

 

Paid Promotion Of Your Content

If you find it hard to gain any online traffic, it may be time to invest money in what you feel is your most important or valuable content. There are many options here. If you’re working with a limited budget you could rely on free channels like social media and online forums to spread your posts.

If you’re willing to invest the money, you can invest in PPC (pay per click) advertising to drive initial traffic to your post. Either way, working to get more eyes on your work both with time and money will increase traffic and shares, therefore indirectly increase the number of links you’ll receive.

Rinse and Repeat

No matter which tactics you’re implementing, you can increase your results by giving your best content a measure of ongoing support. Associate it multiple times on social media with varying titles, respond to those commenting on it, and reach out directly to those who’ve shared or linked to it. This, in turn, will improve the quality of future material, boost visibility and strengthen your follower relationships concurrently. There are really good SEO lifehack tips here to help deal with repetitive tasks.

Depending on your brand you may lean towards one of these strategies more than another. Either because it’s easier or because they’re inherently more valuable due to your demographic.

However, it pays to experiment with as many strategies as you can, even ones I haven’t listed today like guest blogging or initiating controversy, there are dozens of options when it comes to earning links. It pays to experiment with as many as you can. In doing so gaining an understanding of how each tactic works. Through this diversification, you’ll end up seeing more consistent results overall.

Still looking to learn more link earning tactics? We have an expert in-house SEO team who are more than happy to discuss what works best for your individual business. Get in touch on 1300 859 600 today!

 

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