BackLinks.com Blog

Since Google’s creation, link building tools have consistently remained one of the best strategies for increasing your website’s SEO potential.

The early days of Google marked link spamming and other techniques focused on buying backlinks from low-quality link providers.

This eventually evolved into what we know today as “Blackhat SEO,” and subsequently, earned us SEO’ers a firm slap on the wrist from Google. Who knew that Google wanted readable content for their users?

Since then, Google has waged war against SEO’ers using low-quality links to increase their search ranking. In September of this year, Google won that war.

Google’s latest Penguin update, Penguin 4.0, monitors linking in real-time, ensuring that any and all low-quality links no longer increase SEO.

SEOs in 2017 must move forward and stick with linking practices that cater to Google’s new algorithm. Luckily, plenty of linking practices exist that Google won’t penalize, and some they even encourage.

We’re looking at the best linking practices for 2017 and how to capitalize on them.

Link Building Tools

Infographics

It is probably beaten into your brain that content is king, and it’s true. Google values content that informs readers and focuses on more than just SEO potential.

In a survey of SEO leaders, Omar Kattan mused that the future of SEO lies not in technical signals, but in social signals that require brands to produce relevant, entertaining, useful, inspiring content.

However, have you stopped to ask yourself what kind of content is actually worth creating? Blog posts are essential to SEO, but it’s infographics that stand out.

Start by identifying a niche where your potential infographic is relevant. Next, identify the information your niche is looking for. This is easily accomplished by studying keyword trends.

Build your infographic and promote it heavily on social media websites. You can also send out “feelers” to other blogs within your niche who may trade a backlink for infographic use rights.

Though social media links aren’t authoritative, they signal popularity to authoritative websites who might link to your infographic.

The chances of creating a viral infographic are slim, but the rewards are tremendous.

Guest Posts

Guest posts emerged long ago as a great set of link building tools to generate high-quality backlinks, and it remains so in 2017. The reasons guest posting is so effective is simple.

You’re creating an article for another website tailored to increase your own SEO link juice. Handcrafted backlinks will always fare better than those from outside your organization.

But, in 2017, we’re taking guest posting to the next level.

Focus on pitching your guest posts to what we call “content syndicators.” These are websites that work with networks of other blogs to post their content across multiple pages.

For example, The Huffington Post is part of a syndication network. They repost content from other blogs on their website. If website ABC is trending within their niche, Huff Post will republish their content.

Your goal is to guest post on member blogs of these syndication networks. Not only do you gain a backlink from your guest post, but also the opportunity for exposure to a mass market audience.

This is harder than it sounds. Search Huff Post, Mashable, and other similar blogs for posts related to your niche. Then, look for a “this post originally appeared on” credit.

Your goal is to guest post on the credited websites.

Once you’ve identified your targets, pitch ideas that are niche-specific. Your target is mass appeal, but the authoritative websites want niche articles.

Don’t stop guest posting, but also keep an eye out for syndication opportunities.

Outreach Efforts

Part of building backlinks is convincing other blog owners that your content is quality. Some people may organically find your content, but it’s likely many of your backlinks will come from building a repertoire with other content creators.

Sounds easy, right? Not quite, because you’re not the only one trying to win over editors and snag a backlink.

Standing out in an inbox full of emails is no easy feat. The best way to differentiate yourself is through personalized emails. Nothing says “delete this” like a template email.

After you’ve managed to convince a few people to work with your linking practices, you’ll need to build a relationship with them. The nature of the relationship will depend on your linking strategies.

Trading guest content is a great way to build backlinks in a friendly way. Ditto for giving away free backlinks planted within each other’s work.

If your strategy involves buying backlinks, things get somewhat more complicated. The thing is, Google isn’t too keen on buying and selling links. But, that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to trick the search giant.

Business relationships with link buying or selling clients involve staying within your niche and agreeing on the specifics of anchor text and link volume. Less friendship, and more caution, tends to stem from these relationships.

Wrapping Up

There’s no doubt in our mind that link building tools will remain an important part of SEO strategy in 2017. The SEO potential of building a quality network of backlinks is far too great to ignore.

Keep Penguin in mind, churn out those infographics, become friendly with other bloggers, and start searching for quality syndicated content networks. Stick to these trends and your SEO in 2017 should be off to a fantastic start.

We hope that with our guide, you’ll move into 2017 with all the tools you need to take your SEO to the next level.

If you’re interested in learning more about building a high-quality link profile, get in contact with us. We offer opportunities for both buying and selling high-quality backlinks to boost your website’s SEO potential.

Now that Penguin 4 has rolled out, are you struggling to understand where to focus your efforts to keep your website high on the Google rankings?

Link building is still extremely important to your website’s SEO rankings. Inbound links act as indicators to Google as to whether to consider your website an authority in your niche.

Links make your website visible in search results, but you’ll have to put in some effort to be high in the rankings.

Blogging consistently helps in getting quality links. In fact, businesses with a consistent blogging habit get up to 97 percent more inbound links. But to avoid being penalized by Google, it’s important to understand how to build quality links.

With Google’s extra emphasis on link building, this SEO technique may require more time, effort and money on your end. In this post, we’ll show you a few link building tools that will keep you penalty-free in Google. Read on to learn how to build links in a post-Penguin world.

What the Penguin Update Means for Link Building

It has always been that Google saw sites as more authoritative when they had more links pointing back to their site. Google would place those sites with more links higher up in the rankings.

It used to be that it didn’t matter the quality of where the link came from. More links meant better search rankings.

Since the first Penguin update in 2012, Google has been penalizing websites for containing suspicious links. When a website is hit by Penguin, it can be difficult to recover. You may lose your high ranking and your traffic.

In Google’s most recent Penguin update, released this fall, it was announced that the spam-detecting tool now runs in real time. While this makes it easier to get hit, it also makes the recovery process easier.

Good links are still considered one of the best ways to build authority for your site.

Link Building Tools to Play it Safe

If you’re not sure where to start when building quality links, trying the following techniques:

1. Organic link building

The link building tools you use depend on the type of business you have.

B2C businesses can build links by getting product reviews. To do this, send influencers in your niche a free sample and ask them to give you a product review. Ask them if they’d like to help promote your product and offer a commission of the sales they get you.

Another way to do this is to write heavily visual blog posts and post the images to social media sites like Pinterest or Instagram. Pinterest users pin 3,472 images per minute. Posting to these sites is a sure way to get your content shared and gain plenty of links back to your site.

Posting to these sites is a sure way to get your content shared and gain plenty of links back to your site.

2. Connect with local associations

Another great practice is to reach out to local directories or associations. Partner with organizations that will provide links back to your website. Alumni directories can be seen as highly authoritative with relevant links to websites.

If your business has recently made a big accomplishment, achieved a milestone or held a charity fundraiser, this is a good time to reach out to alumni associations because they often promote success stories. When industry specific directories link back to you, this indicates to Google that you are seen as a relevant source to local searchers.

When reaching out to associations or influencers, remember to create lasting relationships and understand that it is a two-way street. You have to provide value back to those who are helping you out. Be genuine in your approach and demonstrate that you’re bringing unique value to who you’re reaching out to.

Personalizing your approach goes a long way. Show that you can be trusted and that you are not a spammer.

3. B2B link building

B2B customers have plenty of options for building authoritative links.

One great way to get quality links back to your site is to write testimonials for the people you network with. For those who helped you with your business cards or website design, write them a testimonial of how pleased you are with their services. Many times, they will post your testimonial on their own website and link back to you.

Another option is to write a guest blog post for another website in your niche. Writing an information-packed article for other sites is a great way to gain authority in your niche and get links back to your site. Several sites will accept guest blog posts from experts in their niche.

4. Content-led link building

A natural way to build quality links is to provide quality content. Always aim to relate to your target audience. Tug at their emotions or education them with an informational post.

Share useful tools and infographics. Post video demonstrations of how to perform a task. Write engaging editorials.

Of course, you still have to get out there and ask for the links to your site. But the more quality content you have, the more likely people will want to link to your site.

5. Reclaim broken links

If you’ve done all of the above and your rankings still haven’t recovered in Google, it’s time to locate the website links to your site that are broken. Inform the owners of those sites that they have a broken link, which is also bad for their own SEO. Provide a new URL for them to replace the broken link with.

Again, it is important to be genuine in your approach and provide value for the site owner.

Recovering from a Penguin hit can be difficult for busy business owners. The techniques mentioned here are simple ways to build quality links, but you still may struggle to focus on this when you know you should be focusing on your clients and your services.

If that’s the case, let us help you. Having been in this business for a long time, we have watched link strategies change with every algorithm update. We are skilled at adapting quickly to these changes. We know the best ways to get your website back to the top.

Contact us today with your questions about link building tools!

Where did the time go?

2017 is almost here, and it has some surprises in store for SEO. 2016 marked the latest Penguin update and reaffirmed the importance of building quality backlinks to your website. (Emphasis on the word “quality.”)

So what do you need and don’t need to build top notch backlinks?

Let’s explore the latest and greatest from Google and learn what you need to prioritize in 2017!

How Google Evaluates Your Website

To understand where backlinks are headed in 2017, it’s important to understand the ranking factors Google uses to evaluate your website.

Believe it or not, there are 200 different ranking factors! Instead of listing all 200, here are the top seven ranking factors most crucial to link building, according to a recent survey of leading SEO experts:

• Trust level and domain authority  – 24%
• Number of incoming backlinks, also known as link popularity – 22%
• Anchor Text – 20%
• SEO Keywords – 15%
• Registration and Web Hosting – 7%
• Incoming traffic and click-through rate – 6%
• Social Media – 5%

As you can see, quality backlinks are the second most important ranking factor. Furthermore, important ranking factors such as trust level, anchor texts, and social media play a significant role in link building as well.

In order to maintain the integrity of their search results, Google periodically updates their algorithms to catch and weed out the bad apples. In doing so, it’s now a lot easier to get penalized if you’re not careful.

Google’s most recent algorithm update, Penguin 4.0, is particularly relevant to this conversation because it deals specifically with links.

Why Google Penguin is Important

No doubt, Google Penguin will have significant influence over backlink strategies come 2017. This particular update specifically targets low-quality backlinks. If you haven’t already, make sure to perform an SEO audit to remove or “no-follow” any questionable backlinks.

In short, Google Penguin will flag and penalize the following link building issues:

• Building low-quality backlinks from websites irrelevant to your niche. Building a low-quality backlink profile too fast may be seen as manipulating search results.
• Like Google’s Panda update, Penguin will also penalize you for keyword stuffing your content.
• Optimizing your content with too much anchor text. Anchor text is a major ranking factor, but you want to include them in the most relevant way possible.
• Using too many exact match anchor texts. Exact match anchor text used to be standard SEO practice. Not anymore! This now raises major flags.
• Unnatural backlinks are also flagged and penalized. These are websites that google deems as “manipulating search results.”

So what backlink trends will you expect to see in 2017?

Diversify Your Quality Backlinks

Backlink diversity will be key in 2017.

With the Penguin 4.0 release, link practices are under more scrutiny. If the majority of your backlinks are coming from the same source, Penguin may flag and ultimately penalize you.

When building your backlink profile, consider a wide variety of the following sources:

• High-authority blogs
• Relevant .org websites
• Editorial websites
• Social media pages
• Popular video sites like YouTube
• Relevant websites with .edu and .gov extensions
• Online guides
• Whitepapers

Penguin may also penalize you if the majority of your backlinks come from the same “c-class” ISP address. Having too many may be viewed as spam.

Assess The Page and Domain Authority of Your Links

Knowing where your backlinks are coming from is crucial for staying penguin-friendly. That’s why when building your profile, you need to extensively research the backlinks you want to pursue.

In the old SEO days, Google’s PageRank was used to measure the authority of websites. However, since Google retired PageRank, other tools have risen to take its place.

One of the most popular methods for assessing websites is domain authority and page authority, otherwise known as your PA and DA scores.

PA and DA scores use a 0-100 ranking system. Therefore, the better the score, the more authority that site has with google. For example, Facebook has a score of 100 because it’s such a mega-popular network. When building your backlinks, try to aim for websites with reasonable scores of 30 and above.

2017 Is All About Intent

Forget the old ways of SEO. It’s no longer cool to target keywords and backlinks that have nothing to do with your niche. Remember, links and anchor text are supposed to help visitors engage more with the topic, not detour them completely.

For example, suppose you run a pet niche website. You find that a tire review website is linking to your article, “Top 7 Tips For Making Your Own Dog Food”, in their blog post on Luxury Car Rims. That backlink has nothing to do with the intent of the blog post, and in turn, that backlink could get flagged.

So what do you do in situations like this?

If the tire review website didn’t add a “no-follow” tag to your backlink, reach out directly to the website to remove it. You should also run a detailed SEO audit to identify troubling backlinks that need to be removed and work with your SEO consultant to purchase only relevant quality backlinks.

Build Contextual Quality Backlinks

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “content is king”, but this philosophy also extends right into your link building methods. Moving forward into 2017, backlinks within content will have more value than stand-alone links and those listed on sidebars. These are called contextual backlinks.

Remember, it’s all about intent!

When building your backlinks, make sure to focus on websites that produce substantial, well-formatted articles and blog posts. You also need to analyze how backlinks are used.

Ask yourself this:

• Do their backlinks match the intent of the content?
• Do they direct visitors to relevant, useful web pages?

One way to find quality backlinks is to perform backlink research on your competitors and the backlink websites you’re considering.

You can’t take any chances with Google in 2017, and the last thing you want is to waste time getting rid of bad backlinks.

To start the year off strong, receive an SEO audit to see where your backlinks stand, do away with outdated SEO practices, and speak with an SEO consultant to make sure you’re building quality backlinks the right way.

So you’ve got a company and you need to increase its search engine rankings.

There are plenty of methods that you’re no doubt familiar with, like keyword lists or social media visibility.

You’ve considered purchasing backlinks but perhaps held off on pulling the trigger, thinking that Google’s recent algorithm tweak changed the effectiveness of that strategy.

Think again.

Using Link Building Services Effectively

Before, buying backlinks meant you’d purchase a bundle of links to tons of sites, effectively spamming the internet with your content.

Google adjusted for that, and who can blame them? What company wants to be associated with spam?

What really matters in the SEO field now is the quality of backlinks. Your company needs to be associated with high-ranked and valued pages.

That’s where purchasing quality backlinks really helps. Getting on reputable sites is key.

Now you’re ready to get on board and purchase backlinks but the real question is when will you see a return on your investment?

The short term answer? Up to 10 weeks.

The long term answer? Six months to a year.

If you think that sounds like a long time, you’re missing the point of growing your page’s visibility.

Let’s clarify and dig deeper into what’s needed to really boost your rankings.

Preparing The Most Effective Strategy

Every campaign needs a solid strategy. You can’t skimp on the crucial gestation period and you need to build it into your timetable.

What’s involved in realizing maximum results?

First, take a hard look at what your company offers and how you can make this into something web-friendly.

Bring your co-workers together to really brainstorm – you’d be surprised what you come up with.

Do you have definitive expertise in something? Writing an instructional blog post is one of the surefire ways to create a quality page.

Creating media like a video or an infographic is another great way to generate links organically but also create a unique post that grabs eyeballs.

To get the most out of link building services, you need to make sure you’ve got the material to present your company in the best light possible.

It can’t be stressed enough how vital it is to take time crafting quality, linkable information and resources. Make sure you account for this time when you’re planning your SEO strategy.

Implementing The Strategy – What To Expect:

Once you’ve got your pages where you want them (high-quality, clickable content), your next step is to purchase the backlinks.

The benefit of a link building service like Backlinks is that we’ve got 10 years of experience to back us up, making us one of the most trustworthy and qualified companies.

You can even browse our inventory to see where your content is going – all you need to do is register for a free account.

Search for the specific keywords and categories that work best with your brand; Backlinks will provide you with plenty of trusted partners that will boost your SEO.

Once you’ve got it set up, this is where you should expect to see that initial bump in ratings in about 10 weeks.

You might think this is quite a while to wait but you need to start thinking long-term.

While things on the web seem to go fast – it’s so easy to get the latest video or click “like” on a post – in truth, brand-building takes some time.

And it’s completely worth it.

In fact, don’t just consider this waiting period “down time”; there are things you can do in the interim to improve your rankings even further.

What Happens Next: Investing In And Growing Your Brand

Your content is fine-tuned and flawless and you have your secret weapon (a trusted partnership with a link building service) in place.

While you could technically wait around to see what happens, you should use this time to supplement your strategy.

Ultimately, think of the reason your company created an online presence and purchased backlinks – you’re looking to connect with your audience.

Make it easy for them to find you and make sure they want to come back.

There are plenty of easy ways to reach out to your target demographic; make sure you use them all to your advantage.

First and foremost is reaching out on social media.

If you’ve ever visited a company’s social media account and found it hadn’t been updated for months, then you’ll know why it’s important.

Keep your pages – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, anything that you use – completely up to date.

Link to every post you create and keep posting. This is simply the easiest way to build a connection with your customers.

That being said, don’t spam your own site.

Don’t create posts just to create posts – remember how we talked about quality before?

Clickbait is definitely out – it’s been done to death.

Your company’s website should be all about what you have to offer – not about some random viral nonsense that has nothing to do with your brand.

It’s also vital to have a mobile version of your site.

Mobile site traffic has grown in leaps and bounds over the past few years. It’s probably the main way your target demographics reach you.

Remember – don’t just sit around during the downtime; if you want to be successful, use every resource available.

So, How Long Will It Really Take?

Again – remember that this is a long-term strategy and won’t yield instant gratification.

Expect to see a real difference in about six months to a year.

It’s not an automatic process and you can do things in the interim to help your rankings rise.

It boils down to the three crucial elements:

• Crafting your perfect plan of attack – quality content and worthy partnerships are key.
• Implementing your strategy  – here’s where you open the floodgates. You’ll see an initial bump at this stage.
• Keeping the momentum going – While your backlinks are working for you, don’t forget to use this time to cultivate your online presence and build relationships

If you needed a reason to get started now, consider this your wake-up call.

It’s going to take a while to get to where you want to be with this strategy, but with all things in life that take time, it’s worth it.

So what are you waiting for? Put this plan in place and watch your rankings soar!