Beyond Backlinks – An Ethical Guide to Earning Links in 2024

Link building is the strategic process of acquiring backlinks – links from external websites pointing back to pages on your own site. Backlinks remain one of the most important ranking signals for search engines like Google. The more quality backlinks a page has, especially from authoritative sites, the higher it tends to rank for relevant searches. This makes ongoing link building essential for improving a website’s visibility and search engine optimization (SEO).

There are several types of links that matter for SEO, including:

• Inbound backlinks: External sites linking back to your website pages
• Outbound links: Links from your site pointing outward to other sites
• Internal links: Links between the pages within your own website

Quality inbound backlinks play the biggest role in determining relevance and authority in search rankings. However, high-quality content that encourages natural link earning should be the foundation of any ethical link building approach.

Key Points

• Quality over quantity – a few authoritative links outweigh lots of weak ones
• Create compelling “link bait” assets – tools, research studies, how-to’s
• Publish and promote content on other industry sites
• Ensure relevancy and avoid manipulative linking schemes
• Build relationships don’t just request links
• Anchor text and linking patterns matter
• Monitor metrics like rankings, traffic for continuous improvement

Link Building Strategies

White hat link building refers to practices that comply with search engine guidelines. These sustainable, long-term strategies rely on creating high-quality content, networking with influencers, and participating in the online community. Some popular tactics include:

• Guest posting on industry blogs
• Link insertion in existing resources and roundups
• Creating shareworthy resources
• Link earning through online citations
• Securing backlinks via news announcements

Gray hat tactics attempt to push the limits while avoiding overtly deceptive practices. An example is excessive outreach for backlinks. This approach risks diminishing returns or penalties over time.

Black hat strategies blatantly manipulate search rankings through manufactured or deceptive links. Practices like link stuffing, spam backlinking, and private blog networks can lead to permanent penalties.

Focus on long-term, ethical tactics centered on useful content creation rather than quantity of backlinks alone. Authentic earned links have more lasting value.

Link Building Tactic	Tools to Use	Most Effective Strategy	Examples
Broken Link Building	Semrush/Ahrefs	Combining with other methods like replacing a dead infographic or listicle	Creating new content to replace broken links found through these tools
Outdated Content Link Building	Google’s “date” search	Updating old data and suggesting content replacement for old links	Replacing an outdated 2015 social media trends article with a new 2023 version
Podcasts/Interviews	Buzzsumo, Google search	Targeting high-traffic podcasts for guest appearances	Being a guest on a marketing podcast to discuss SEO strategies
Guest Blogging	Google [Author Name inurl:author] search, Buzzsumo	Maintaining consistent guest posts on high-authority outlets	Monthly contributions to a well-known tech blog
Roundup Link Building	Skype/Slack/Facebook groups, etc.	Being selective and not overdoing participation in roundups	Sharing valuable insights in groups that could feature your content in roundups
Digital Assets (infographics, whitepapers, etc.)	Buzzsumo, Pinterest, Google search	Creating and promoting shareable resources like infographics	An infographic about SEO trends shared widely on Pinterest
Original Research (surveys, reports, etc.)	SurveyMonkey/Pollfish	Conducting original research that others can cite	A comprehensive survey on consumer behavior in e-commerce
Trends	TikTok, Reddit	Creating content on trending topics for rapid sharing	A viral TikTok video about a trending hashtag in your industry
Listicles/Co-citation	Google search, Buzzsumo	Adding ego-baiting to listicles to encourage shares	A listicle featuring top influencers who then share the article
Journalist Outreach	HARO, Buzzsumo	Combining with linkable assets like infographics for journalist features	Providing expert insights on a new study related to your field to journalists

Quality vs. Quantity

A handful of authoritative backlinks from reputable sources will boost rankings more than a larger volume of low-quality links. Major factors influencing link quality include:

• Relevancy of the site topic in relation to your content
• Authority of the external site (based on its own domain authority metrics and search rankings)
• Organic link acquisitions rather than paid/incentivized ones
• Contextual anchor text natural to editorial content rather than exactly matching keyphrases

Carefully evaluate sites that offer backlinks or blogger outreach opportunities based on these factors. Focus on building authentic partnerships rather than just link counts.

Anchor Text Optimization

Anchor text refers to the clickable words that users see for hyperlinked content. Optimizing anchor text helps indicate relevance but should seem natural. Using exact-match commercial keywords as anchor text too frequently comes across as manipulative to search engines.

Vary your anchor text by using:

• Branded anchor text
• Partial keyphrases
• Related terminology
• Generic terms like “click here”

This makes links seem more editorial while still boosting search visibility.

Guest Blogging

One of the most effective white hat link building techniques is guest posting on popular sites accepting contributor content within your industry. Make sure you craft informative, unique content closely aligned with the publication’s topic and audience while linking back to relevant pages using optimized anchor text.

Establish contributor relationships with as many reputable publications as feasible to increase your author bio backlinks over time. Avoid submitting duplicate content across too many sites, as search engines will penalize for thin content.

Content Creation

The foundation for all sustainable link building is premium owned content. Useful, well-researched articles, data studies, How-To guides, tools, and other resources relevant to your customers intrinsically encourage links over time. Promote these actively across online communities, outreach campaigns, social channels and more.

This “link bait” pulls in organic earned links with greater efficiency than self-serving direct requests because other sites actually want to reference your content to inform their own audiences.

Outreach & Relationships

Proactively connecting with webmasters, influencers, and writers within your industry leads to link sharing opportunities others won’t receive. Use authentic, personalized emails to form relationships and eventually request backlinks to support each other’s content.

Send new content samples directly to sites you eventually hope will link back as part of their ongoing industry coverage. Prioritize sites with overlap between their audience and your own customer base.

Tools & Resources

Link-building tools like SEO SpyGlass, Ahrefs, and Majestic help compile prospect lists, identify influential web properties, track competitor successes, monitor backlinks gains, and more.

Resources like Moz’s Beginner’s Guide To Link Building provides frameworks around strategy, outreach, and tracking to boost efforts.

Stay updated on link building via blogs like SearchEngineJournal and conferences including Pubcon.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Avoid…

• Spam backlinking
• Misleading anchor text optimization
• Outdated or low-quality directories
• Widescale duplicate content
• Paid link requests lacking relevancy
• Excess page requests or email outreach

And.. Participating in Link Schemes or Networks

Link schemes refer to coordinated efforts by networks of websites to artificially inflate link popularity or authority. These private link circles manipulate search engine results through various tactics:

Private Blog Networks (PBNs) are interconnected networks of fake blogs or low-quality sites specifically created to cross-link and artificially boost affiliates.

Link Wheels are groups of sites in circular linking structures intended to funnel relevance and rankings to a target site.

Link Pyramids. Tiered networks with a few authority sites at the top driving power to a wider base of low-quality sites.

Link Exchanges are trading reciprocal links with other site owners solely for SEO benefits.

These schemes violate search engine guidelines against manipulating results or passing PageRank. Tactics like stuffing anchor text and hiding PageRank-passing links may see temporary gains, but long-term loss of trust and penalties are assured. Google has highly advanced algorithmic detection paired with manual human review to catch link manipulators.

Avoid any network promising quick ranking wins or requiring reciprocal linking without editorial merit. Focus only on obtaining links from legitimate websites with relevant content and audiences. While risk levels vary, manipulating or deceiving search engines rarely pays off long-term.

Adhere closely to established SEO and ethical business best practices to prevent diminishing returns or penalties over time.

Google’s Guidelines

Study and continually refer back to Google’s core guidelines around acceptable link building tactics provided directly by search evaluators themselves.

Some key guidance includes:

“Avoid…participating in link schemes designed to increase rankings…[via] buying or selling links that pass PageRank…[or] creating links with affiliate programs solely for search engines…Reciprocal linking solely to boost search rankings…Excessive link exchanging…Linking to web spammers or bad neighborhoods…“

Any tactic specifically called out by Google as unacceptable poses high risk of penalty. As their sophistication grows, even previously gray area approaches often need to be reevaluated or used judiciously.

Link Building Trends

Some emerging link building trends shaping strategy include:

User-Generated Content – Customer reviews, testimonials, community forum participation, social media tags, and other organic mentions establish relevance.

Influencer Marketing – Micro-influencers with loyal niche audiences increasingly drive authentic word-of-mouth traction and links. Prioritize outreach for co-marketing campaigns.

Skyscraping Content – Extensive, definitive guides and resources on topics can compel natural links over time, especially for voice search optimization.

Linkless Outreach – Promoting brand awareness and content to industry sites without direct requests for backlinks. This primes future relationships for link inserts over time while avoiding over-optimization penalties.

Case Study: Backlink Growth for an Ecommerce Site

An online retailer selling mountaineering gear rebuilt its expired domain site focusing on resource-style blog content and outreach to hiking publications. Within 18 months, steady guest posts in hiking and outdoor adventure magazines helped build 72 referring domains and 435 total backlinks pointing to product guides like “Essential Gear Every Mountain Climber Needs” and “Choose the Right Backpacking Tent.” The company saw a 530% increase in organic search traffic and a 225% bump in revenue by the end of Year 2.

Measuring Success

Key metrics used to benchmark link building efficacy include:

• Total referring root domains sending backlinks
• Domain authority/page authority gains
• Decreases in domains required to surpass competitors
• Key organic keyword rankings improvement
• Higher monthly site visitors via organic search
• More leads and sales driven from organic traffic

Additional KPIs to track progress include:

• Number of secured backlinks and referring domains by month
• Increase in domain and page authority scores
• Changes in anchor text diversity and optimization
• Rankings for target keywords (track in top 10/20/100)
• Traffic from specific landing pages receiving links
• Conversion rates from linked content vs non-linked
• Lead sign up numbers from blog content receiving links

Analyze metrics against goals monthly and tweak strategies as needed based on what moves the needle most. Are bigger wins happening from guest posts or resource links? Do target terms need more anchors with partial match phrases? Which site types send the best conversions? Refine based on the data.

By continually working to build quality editorial links while promoting content across the web, companies can increase branded trust signals in search engines over time. This amplifies visibility in organic results and improves conversion of new customers.

Link building remains a crucial component of long-term search optimization and online discovery. By focusing on authoritative partnerships, high-quality owned assets, ethical practices, and conversions over easy wins, brands can continually enhance trust and authority. This earns increased visibility and engagement over time.

Just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, sustainable links must be built through patient relationship-building, high-value content, and community participation. But brands willing to put in the work over the long haul will reap the traffic, awareness, and revenues flowing from those decisions.