CONTENT

CHAPTER 1 Link Building Fundamentals

By Roger Montti

CHAPTER 2 What Is a Natural Link? (A Good Link)

By Adam Riemer

CHAPTER 3 3 Ways to Measure Link Quality

By Roger Montti

CHAPTER 4 50 Types of Links You Want & How to Build Them

By Kevin Rowe

CHAPTER 5 Link Building Techniques: The Good, the Bad,

and the Ugly
By Jeremy Knauff

CHAPTER 6
Link Building Outreach 101
By Nicole DeLeon, North Star Inbound (SEJ Partner)

CHAPTER 7
How to Build Links for
Bing vs. Google
By Aleh Barysevich
 CONTENT
CHAPTER 8 5 Tips to Run a Sustainable Link Building Campaign
By Patrick Reinhart

CHAPTER 9 An Approach to Achieve Link Building Scalability

By Adam Heitzman

CHAPTER 10 Link Building to Link Earning

By Anna Crowe

The 7 Worst Link Building Myths Holding Back Your

CHAPTER 11 Campaign
By Kristopher Jones

CHAPTER 12 The Ultimate Guide to Outsourcing Link Building

(For Beginners)
By Joe Davies, FATJOE (SEJ Partner)

CHAPTER 13 Link Building Terms You Should Know:

The Ultimate Glossary
By Julie Joyce
 READY TO SCALE
YOUR LINK BUILDING?
We Сreate Awesome Content
to Get Quality Links
(and we guarantee it!)

LET'S TALK!
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L I NK BU I L DI NG F U NDAM ENTAL S
Chapter 1

Link Building
Fundamentals

Written By
Roger Montti
Owner, Martinibuster.com
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This chapter began as a

L I NK BU I L DI NG F U NDAM ENTAL S
solo presentation about
links given at SMX East
in New York.

The information has been updated.

It is an overview of how search engines may use links and what I

believe are best practices for cultivating links.

The goal of this chapter is to build a foundation from which you can
better understand how search engines may use links and what the
best approaches may be.
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L I NK BU I L DI NG F U NDAM ENTAL S
Reason Why Search Engines Use
Links

Search engines used to use just the text on a web page in order to
rank a web page. However web publishers began adding keyword
phrases in a way to help rank their pages.

Not all pages that ranked were relevant, resulting in a poor user
experience.

Information retrieval researchers began work on new ways to

identify relevant web pages, particularly with links.

Search engineers noticed that the best pages on the Internet

tended to accumulate links.

The more links a site had the more important it tended to be.
Conversely, the less links a site accumulated the less important it
was judged to be.
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Links were (and continue to be) counted like vote.

L I NK BU I L DI NG F U NDAM ENTAL S
Modern search engines today use a combination of AI, machine
learning, links and page analysis to rank websites.

An important change with how sites are ranked is that the kinds
of links that are used for ranking purposes have been narrowed
down to the most relevant.

The goal has always been to count links that are meaningful to the
content they are linking to.

Not to complicate matters, but there is also a thing called link

ranking that may be in use, a method to rank the links themselves.

By ranking links, popularity and relevance can be more accurately

measured.

Links that are paid for and not the result of an editorial
decision tend not to count.

Search engines continue using links as a way to measure

popularity and authority. However it’s no longer enough to simply
acquire links to assure rankings.

Because web publishers have employed a number of schemes

to increase their rankings, search engines have improved their
algorithms in order to ignore artificial links (example: advertorial
guest post links) or non-relevant links (“powered by” links).
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L I NK BU I L DI NG F U NDAM ENTAL S
Links May Not Always Influence
Top Rankings

I have to stop here and note that links are not necessarily the most
important ranking factor.

To what extent links help rank websites is an open question that

cannot be answered. What is known is that links continue to play a
role in ranking.

Other factors such as how accurately a web page satisfies a users

search query plays an increasingly important role.

Thus, a web page with a lot of links could be judged as important

but still not rank at the top of the search query if the page itself
does not satisfy the user’s information needs.
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An example could be a search query for Jaguar.

L I NK BU I L DI NG F U NDAM ENTAL S
In the USA, the top two results are the USA websites affiliated
with the auto manufacturer.
In the UK, the top three results are affiliated with the UK
versions of the manufacturer’s website.

These differences in rankings represent the information needs of

users in the USA versus the needs of users in the UK.

There are many scientific research papers and patents concerned

with understanding user satisfaction of search engine users,
understand what users mean when they use ambiguous search
queries, and even for understanding if a user on a mobile device
is satisfied by tracking where on the search results page the user
lingers (Viewport Time).

Tracking user satisfaction is an attempt to enhance the accuracy of

satisfying the information needs of users when they type a search
query.

Satisfying the information needs of a user could be referred to as

the goal of a search engine.

In that context, links could be said to play less of a role for ranking.
By how much is unknown.

We only know that links continue to play a role.

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L I NK BU I L DI NG F U NDAM ENTAL S
Links as a Measure of
Importance & Relevance

The process of reducing the influence of non-relevant links has

been going on since nearly the beginning of the use of links for
ranking purposes.

The goal has been to filter out artificial or non-relevant links in

order to be able to create a map of the entire Internet made up of
genuine links that are useful for judging if a site is important and/or
relevant for various keyword phrases (Reduced Link Graphs).

Search engines use links as a way to judge if a web page is

important, to understand what topic the web page belongs to and
also to identify spam. These judgments are then used for ranking
or not ranking web pages.
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Examples of How Links
Communicate Importance

L I NK BU I L DI NG F U NDAM ENTAL S
Links from important websites may be a signal that a
web page is relevant for a particular topic.

A large amount of spread out across an entire site may

indicate that a site is important.
A web page that is rapidly gaining links because it solves a
problem in a way that excites users may begin to rank well so
that more users can discover the page.
A web page that has not gained links in a long time could be
considered stale because users don’t feel enthusiastic about
the content anymore.
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L I NK BU I L DI NG F U NDAM ENTAL S
Links as a Validating Signal

As previously mentioned, websites are not ranked by order of

which sites contain the most links.

Search engines rank websites according to which site will be the

most useful to the most users.

Links are used to create candidates of web pages that are then put
through other algorithmic processes that judge if those candidate
pages are the most useful.

Links are important to all web publishers because they continue

to be one of the ways a site becomes “worthy” of consideration
for ranking. Search engines are aware that new sites don’t tend to
have too many links and will still send traffic to those sites.

But until those sites become popular with users and acquire links,
they will be unable to rank for a wider range of keyword phrases
that attract more traffic.
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Thus, it is important to create web pages that site visitors will find
useful and enjoy enough to recommend to a friend.

L I NK BU I L DI NG F U NDAM ENTAL S
A site that is able to cultivate word of mouth enthusiasm will be able
to cultivate spontaneous links from other websites. This is the gold
standard of links. It is a method of promoting a website that I call
Cultivating Links.

Cultivating links is a process that focuses on creating useful pages

that solves problems for site visitors. For example, a typical problem
could be acquiring winter shoes.

A site that makes the process of purchasing those winter shoes in

such a way that makes consumers enthusiastic is going to generate
word of mouth enthusiasm which in turn tends to generate
spontaneous links.

A quality user experience that cultivates links could be based on

brand equity (people love your brand), low prices, fast shipping,
ease of checking out, etc.
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If You Build It Will Google Rank
It?

L I NK BU I L DI NG F U NDAM ENTAL S
Of course a little promotion to get the word out about a site is
important. As in the real world, building a business only begins
when the doors first open.

Random foot traffic has never sustained a business. Creating a

plan for cultivating links and awareness of the site is a key part of
creating a successful web presence.

Summary of Link Fundamentals

Links tell search engines that your site is important.

Links can be a sign of relevance for keyword phrases.
Not all links are useful for ranking purposes.
The best links are links are links given freely by relevant sites.
A plan for cultivating links can be useful for building a
successful site.
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L I NK BU I L DI NG F U NDAM ENTAL S
What Is Link Spam?

Definition of Web Spam

“Web spamming refers to actions intended to mislead search

engines and give some pages higher ranking than they deserve.”
–”Web spam taxonomy” by Zoltan Gyöngyi, PhD (Google) and
Hector Garcia-Molina (Professor, Stanford)

Google’s Definition of SEO

“...make it easier for search engines to crawl, index and understand

your content... you should base your optimization decisions first
and foremost on what’s best for the visitors of your site.” –Google
Search Engine Optimization Guide

As you can see, Google’s definition of SEO differs from the version
the SEO community believes.
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Google’s interpretation is focused on creating a site that is easily
crawled, easy to be indexed and that is easily understood by search

L I NK BU I L DI NG F U NDAM ENTAL S
engines.

The link building advice is passive but useful. So it’s good to read
what Google has to say:

“Effectively promoting your new content will lead to faster discovery

by those who are interested in the same subject. As with most
points covered in this document, taking these recommendations to
an extreme could actually harm the reputation of your site.
...Putting effort into the offline promotion of your company or site
can also be rewarding. For example, if you have a business site,
make sure its URL is listed on your business cards, letterhead,
posters, etc. You could also send out recurring newsletters to
clients through the mail letting them know about new content on
the company’s website.”

That’s not a lot to work with. But it’s a good start.

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L I NK BU I L DI NG F U NDAM ENTAL S
How to Avoid Link Spam Issues

Some of the worst ideas look great on the back of a paper napkin.

Examples range from “getting the word out” by registering on

discussion forums to announce a giveaway offer to dropping links
on blog comments.

In general, a link that is controlled by your company or your agent

can be considered spam.

The result of poor link building practices may manifest in the form
of ranking positions sliding away.

Best case scenario, nothing happens to your rankings because the

links don’t count.
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But if you see your ranking positions begin to decline, this could be
an indication that the link building may have been relying on poor

L I NK BU I L DI NG F U NDAM ENTAL S
link building practices.

Taking the link building process in-house is a way some companies

keep control over the process. This can be considered the safest
method for building links, provided you have a quality link building
strategy.
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L I NK BU I L DI NG F U NDAM ENTAL S
Link Building Overview:
Content Marketing

Depending on how it’s done, content marketing can be a

euphemism for link building and I agree to a certain extent.

Done badly it resembles a paid link campaign utilizing networks

of sites and networks of authors that accept money for article
contributions.

There is a robust industry in authors who specialize in placing

articles in authoritative publications.

Strictly speaking, these can be considered link schemes and there

is a risk attached to those schemes. I don’t endorse these kinds of
schemes.

Here’s an important insight about content marketing: Content

creation for the purpose of cultivating traffic is one of the smartest
ways to cultivate natural links.
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Instead of focusing on obtaining links from the article itself, create
a piece of content that focuses on driving traffic to your company

L I NK BU I L DI NG F U NDAM ENTAL S
site.

This means that all links are no-followed if it’s published on a site
that is not your own.

Any content is good enough to drive traffic is good enough to

cultivate high quality inbound links.
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L I NK BU I L DI NG F U NDAM ENTAL S
Viral Link Bait Strategies

Done properly a link bait strategy that focuses on a relevant topic

of interest to regular visitors of your site will produce high quality
links.

The best kind of strategy revolves around creating a useful piece of

content that potential customers would link to and share on social
media. That is what I call Relevant Content Baiting.

Any strategy that is non-relevant and focuses on a gimmick or

humor may end up attracting visitors who are not interested in your
company product and will never return or turn into a sale.

That kind of link bait, in my opinion, tends to attract irrelevant links

to a web page on your site that is irrelevant to the core product that
the site revolves around.

For example, if your site is a Hilton Head, SC seafood restaurant

and you run a fish photo contest and it goes viral, the links will likely
 1
not be relevant for seafood restaurant. They’ll be relevant for the
“fish photo contest” page.

L I NK BU I L DI NG F U NDAM ENTAL S
In my opinion, because Hilton Head, SC is a destination and
because a restaurant is a local business, it makes far more sense to
cultivate travel related links to attract tourist business from outside
of the state as well as cultivate local type citations so that the
restaurant ranks in the local search.

In my opinion, viral link building strategies are rarely a viable

solution unless the topic is directly related to the product or service.

Search Engines May Rank Links

Search engines, in my opinion, based on various patents and
research papers, rank relevant links from relevant sites and
ignore everything else.

This creates what’s known as a reduced link graph. It’s a map

of the Internet, ordered by topic, with the spam sites left out. The
ranking process begins from there.

Relationship Between Links &

Content
Ranking a site is not solely about cultivating links. Content is said to
be the most important ranking factor.

If your content is useful then the links will, with some promotional
effort, begin accumulating.
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WHAT I S A NATU R AL L I NK? (A GO OD L I N K )

Chapter 2

What Is a Natural
Link? (A Good Link)

Written By
Adam Riemer
President, Adam Riemer Marketing
 2
What’s the difference

WHAT I S A NATU R AL L I NK? (A GO OD L I N K )

between natural, quality,
good, and bad links?

In the SEO world, terms like natural links, quality links, and good links
are thrown around like crazy.

Whether you’re going into a client pitch, attending a search marketing

conference, or your boss asks you why you aren’t getting quality links,
it’s important to know (and be able to explain) all the different types of
links.
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This chapter will help you:

WHAT I S A NATU R AL L I NK? (A GO OD L I N K )

Understand each type of link by providing you with
definitions.
Determine which types of links may be able to help boost
your rankings.
Figure out which types of links you may want to add to a
disavow sheet.

Although there is normally debate on specific types of links (.edu

and relevant, manually-updated directories, for example), this will
be a good baseline for you to use.
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WHAT I S A NATU R AL L I NK? (A GO OD L I N K )

Types of Links

Natural Links

A natural link is one that occurs organically (not easily seen as

being placed by your company).

Natural links don’t:

Have tracking parameters.

Exist within sponsored or paid content.
Redirect through JavaScript or monetization tools.
 2
A natural link exists as a reference to a piece of content, website, or
source.

WHAT I S A NATU R AL L I NK? (A GO OD L I N K )

Unnatural Links

Unnatural links are any links that are paid for.

These types of links can be placed and tracked by PR firms and

media buyers, or monetized through affiliate programs, CPC
campaigns, influencers, or monetization scripts.

If these links aren’t nofollowed, Google can potentially take manual

action on your site or your site could be negatively impacted
algorithmically (most likely by Penguin), because they are not
earned/natural.

What are unnatural links? Links:

With tracking parameters (e.g., UTM source and medium).

Within sponsored content on a site (because search engines
do not know who paid for the content to be placed).
From sites using monetization scripts because scripts say
you get paid for linking to retailers.

You can find these in the site’s code, outbound redirects, and other
mappable techniques.
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Semi-natural Link

WHAT I S A NATU R AL L I NK? (A GO OD L I N K )

On occasion, you’ll discover a “mixed” link pattern. For example,
you may find a natural link that uses tracking parameters.

Let’s say you click through from an influencer who has been paid to
share a link. That link will lead to the landing page that may have the
tracking parameters in place.

Bloggers, aggregators, and others who follow that link may copy
and paste it directly into their site giving natural links that also have
these parameters. This could result in an unnatural but organic link
scheme.

To help resolve this, make sure that as a person reaches your site
through a tracked link, you set a redirect to pass the parameters but
also resolve to the natural page structure. (i.e., the utm_campaign
redirects to a version without any UTM parameters).

Now you’ll have the standard and non-tracked URL as the one they
use and be able to properly attribute sales, traffic, and leads back to
the original site.

You can still measure the halo effect of additional links and
exposure by pulling a link acquisition report and crawling/scraping
the likes, shares, and retweets from the initial influencer.
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What Are Quality Links?

WHAT I S A NATU R AL L I NK? (A GO OD L I N K )

Quality links are links that come from high-quality sites.

This definition will change depending on the quality

of the SEO you’re talking to. Here is what I look at to
determine the quality of a website:

The site is niche, or at least has a regularly updated section

about the topic.
There are no outbound links to adult, illegal, payday, or scam
sites.
You won’t be able to see that they allow sponsored content
(with the exception of clearly marked advertorials).
Media kits and publicly viewable advertising sections do not
have a price for or mention of text links or backlinks.
Finding them in the Google news feed is a good sign that
they are trustworthy or high quality in Google’s eyes.
Acquired links will be by staff writers and not contributors.
Contributors can be bought more easily and many large
publications have begun nofollowing their links. Do a Google
search for Huffington Post and nofollow and you’ll see
multiple discussions from when they flipped the switch.
The links come from body copy. That has to be earned –
unlike blog comments, forum mentions, press releases, and
other areas where anyone can easily build or buy links.
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WHAT I S A NATU R AL L I NK? (A GO OD L I N K )

What Makes a Good Link?

A good link is different than a quality link. It can be any type of link
that can have a positive impact with a bit less risk.

The factors of a good link vs. bad link can also change based on
the type of SEO you’re doing local vs. national and country-specific
vs. international – Russia and Yandex vs. the UK and Google).

A good link for Yandex should be ones that are approved by the
Russian government and aren’t also linking to sites that have
banned content, contraband, and things that are forbidden in
Yandex.

Alcohol gifts, for example, could potentially be bad for Yandex

traffic, but good links for other countries and search engines.
Local directories that are managed, maintained, and don’t have a
 2
submit your site option may be good for local SEO, but probably not
national because of the content relevance and potential quality.

WHAT I S A NATU R AL L I NK? (A GO OD L I N K )

If they have a lot of age and continuously clean out old sites, dead
sites and 4XX errors they may be beneficial instead of harmful.

If you notice I’m saying <strong>may</strong> or <strong>might,</

strong> it’s because there is no solid yes or no. It depends on the
specific situation and website.

You could have a blogger who has great niche content but no age
or authority and may quit blogging in a year. Although it looks like a
good link, it would fall under “maybe” or “OK” for me. That is 100%
debatable.

Then there is an established blog without a huge following that

sticks to its niche. They are not doing well in Google though with
organic even though they have great content. This would fall under
“OK” for me as well.

Another could be a new blog that is content relevant but doesn’t

have a ton of SEO traffic, but does have a lot of engaged readers.
This would be a good link for me because they have a quality
audience and if they continue down the niche path they could be a
great source of traffic/sales and also pass authority from their links
for SEO.

The trick with good backlinks is to determine and watch how they
impact you currently and what they may do in the future. Each site
is unique and each link should be considered independently before
disavowing it as bad or keeping it as good/quality.
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WHAT I S A NATU R AL L I NK? (A GO OD L I N K )

How Can You Build Quality
Links?
You’ll find a ton of posts on Search Engine Journal about building
quality links, including a few I’ve written. (Use the search box
and you’ll find them.)

What works best for me is always keeping a few things

in mind when creating copy that I want to get links for.

Who have I empowered or made feel important or have an

emotional reaction?
Why would that person want to share, link to or call out my
content by tagging a friend in it?
Did I provide a solution to a common or unique problem?
What is unique, special, or different about how I’m presenting
this content?
 2
Which ways have I better explained, detailed, or given

WHAT I S A NATU R AL L I NK? (A GO OD L I N K )

examples of something complex, funny, or useful?
How have I enabled people to easily share and link to this
content?
Where have I advertised it so that I can keep it in front of
people who can give me quality backlinks and references
(sometimes this is an influencer who has a large following of
bloggers and journalists)?

When someone mentions natural links, it’s all about quality.

That means they can’t be easily acquired, they’re in a good SEO
neighborhood, and that they are in topically related content sites
that match your services, stores, site, or niche.

Focusing on quality over quantity is what can help to protect your

site as Google updates.

More importantly, focusing on quality can help constantly bring

in relevant readers through referring sites who may also become
customers, engaged readers, and a new source of links and social
media traffic.
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3 WAYS TO M EASU R E L I NK QUAL ITY

Chapter 3

3 Ways to Measure
Link Quality

Written By
Roger Montti
Owner, Martinibuster.com
 3
The following are ideas that I

3 WAYS TO M EASU R E L I NK QUAL ITY

came up with during the course
of my two decades in the
Internet marketing experience,
and nearly 20 years building
links and watching trends come
and go.

These three tips are like a framework for thinking about what it truly
means when we talk about quality links.

Understanding what makes a link relevant and useful for ranking and
sales is important. It can help you better understand how to use your
resources for maximum effect.
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3 WAYS TO M EASU R E L I NK QUAL ITY

1. How Many Site Visitors Will
Convert?

One way to judge the usefulness of a link campaign that someone

may suggest to you, is asking yourself (or your SEO) how likely
is it that visitors from the sites they want to attract links from will
convert?

This isn’t about accuracy, like actual numbers. What I’m going
after is a back of the napkin guesstimate. It’s a quick way to get a
thumbnail estimate as to whether something is or is not useful.
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3 WAYS TO M EASU R E L I NK QUAL ITY

2. Do a Quality Check of Inlinks
& Outlinks

Then take a peek at what kinds of links those sites have. If they have
great inbound links, then great.

If it looks like they mostly have links from obvious link building
schemes then probably back away.

Then take a look at their outbound links. Are they linking to shady or
irrelevant sites? If so, back away.
 3
Would You Pay for a Link from these Sites?

3 WAYS TO M EASU R E L I NK QUAL ITY

I’m not suggesting you pay for a link. I am simply suggesting a
mental experiment of asking yourself if you would spend money to
advertise on that site.

And if your answer is yes, put a dollar figure on it. Ask yourself why
you would pay so much.

If your answer is because of some third party metric, stop. Just stop.
:)

Traffic Is Not the Ultimate Metric

Not all sites send traffic. Not all quality web pages have a high
PageRank (or whatever metric you want to use to measure the
quality).

Some pages have low outward measures of quality. But they do

have what I like to think of as a different kind of power and that’s
relevance and being in a good community.

Being in a relevant topical neighborhood is a good thing.

Sometimes these neighborhoods are small and don’t have a lot of

traffic and that’s OK. That’s the nature of certain link neighborhoods,
particularly in the B2B niches.
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3 WAYS TO M EASU R E L I NK QUAL ITY

3. Semantic Relevance

Many years ago, I was chatting with a well-known link builder. The
topic was identifying a good link. He encouraged people to think
semantically for relevance, because relevance, according to him,
was about word-matching.

As an example, he proposed that a Thai recipe site would make a

good link for a Thailand travel site because they both had Thai and
Thailand in common.

His point of view made sense and many people shared his opinion.
Yet I strongly disagreed with the idea of semantic relevance.

A quick way to tell if a “semantic relevance” link is useful for ranking

purposes, a thumbnail estimate, is to estimate if the traffic has the
potential to convert. If it does then it is a good link.
 3
If the link does not have the potential for converting then it is
probably not a good link.

3 WAYS TO M EASU R E L I NK QUAL ITY

Why is that? Let’s return to the Thais recipe site.

Visitor Intent Relevance

How likely do you think it is that a Thai recipe site visitor will convert
to buying a flight to Thailand?

How likely are the recipe site visitors to buy a cookbook?

The answer to that indicates what I like to think of as the relevance

of visitor intent.

Traffic Intent

Another rule about relevance exists that holds that if a link brings
traffic then it’s a good link. There’s truth in that. But not all
traffic is good. Some traffic is useless.

The reason some traffic is useless is

because of the visitor intent of that
traffic.

Why are they coming to the site? The

following explains how that works.
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3 WAYS TO M EASU R E L I NK QUAL ITY

The Unsuccessful Wildly
Successful Viral Link Campaign

Several years ago, I did a link building clinic in New York. An

audience member stood up and related the amazing results of his
company’s viral link campaign.

This was a Business to Business (B2B) company. It manufactured

products that were purchased by university science labs and the
United States military.

Their link building strategy was based on trend-hijacking. It’s

basically about selecting a popular trend then create a way to tie
into that trend.

At its most basic, it can be a holiday-themed sale. At its most

ambitious, it could be tied to a video game or a popular television
show.
 3
They trend-hijacked a wildly popular video game that had been in
the news for weeks by creating a novelty event directly tied to that

3 WAYS TO M EASU R E L I NK QUAL ITY

video game. The event, featured on a specially created web page,
was featured on viral website, BoingBoing.

Thereafter the web page went viral. Links from all the newspapers,
social media, blogs, and videos brought server-crushing traffic.

The marketing person related that the site gained thousands of

links and the most traffic they had ever experienced. Yet he was
confused because their rankings remained the same.
I asked him if there were any sales bumps after the viral link
campaign. He responded no, there was no uptick in sales. The
sales curve remained exactly the same, as if no links or traffic had
happened.

To recap, the site gained massive amounts of links and traffic.

There was no lift in sales, which meant there was no brand
awareness gained from the massive traffic.

You know why this happened, right?

This is like when dozens of kids form a circle around two kids who
are fighting. The intent is not to show support for one or another
kid.

People linked to the site for all the wrong reasons. The traffic
relevance intent of the link was all wrong.
 3

3 WAYS TO M EASU R E L I NK QUAL ITY

And this is why certain kinds of viral link campaigns, the ones
where the relevance is off topic are, in my opinion, worthless.

The viral link campaign offers the appearance of success, as

measured by links and traffic. But true success is not measured just
in links.

Success is measured in ranking, relevant traffic quality, and the

most important metric, sales.
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3 WAYS TO M EASU R E L I NK QUAL ITY

Analyzing Link Quality

Now that’s three ways to determine if a link is useful. All three

methods are complementary and should be helpful.

The first method is to ask, will the traffic from that link convert?

The second method is to examine the inlinks/outlinks to gauge

their link neighborhood.

The third method is for determining if a link is relevant by

examining the user intent for clicking on a link from one page to
your page.

Lastly, thinking about links within the semantic paradigm may not
be a good approach. It leads to wishful thinking, where the person
starts imagining connections of relevance that don’t really exist.
 4

5 0 TYP ES OF L I NKS YOU WANT & H OW TO BU IL D TH E M

Chapter 4

50 Types of Links
You Want & How to
Build Them

Written By
Kevin Rowe
Founder & CEO, PureLinq
 4
Over the years, link building

5 0 TYP ES OF L I NKS YOU WANT & H OW TO BU IL D TH E M

strategies have evolved and
matured. Long gone are the
days of link farms and link
exchanges.

Today, link building is about earning links through outreach and high-
quality content and less about spammy techniques that try to trick
search engines.

Still, link building (or link earning, if you prefer) remains an effective
strategy for increasing organic reach and getting discovered. However,
it can also be leveraged to drive traffic as well.

However, many brands and marketers still struggle to implement a

successful link building strategy.
 4

BU I L D TH EM
5 0 TYP ES OF L I NKS YOU WANT & H OW TO
Why Is Link Building SO HARD?

A decade ago, link building was easy. You tossed a few bucks at
a link farming company or set up dozens of your own sites and
interlinked them. A few hundred dollars or a few hours of work and
your site was rolling in top ranks.

Those were the days, right?

Wrong.

The problem was that link building was too easy.

If link building were still easy, then everyone would be doing it.
(And everyone used to.)

Link building today is hard.

But with the right tools and knowledge, you can be one of the few
utilizing it to its full potential.
 4
Below you’ll find 50 different types of links you should be earning for
your business or clients, as well as strategies for acquiring them.

5 0 TYP ES OF L I NKS YOU WANT & H OW TO BU IL D TH E M

Keep in mind, there is no easy way to build links and not every link
type will make sense for every type of businesses. But I am certain
you will find at least a few new link strategies to implement.

Since this is a long list, I am unable to go into great detail for

each type of link, so whenever possible I have offered additional
resources where you can learn more about the specific strategy.
 4

BU I L D TH EM
5 0 TYP ES OF L I NKS YOU WANT & H OW TO
50 Types of Links & How To Earn
Them

The strategies below are a mix of options for driving ranking and
driving traffic.

In general, social, forum-style, and certain PR links don’t have

direct impact on organic rankings but are great for driving referral
traffic.
 4
1. .EDU Links

5 0 TYP ES OF L I NKS YOU WANT & H OW TO BU IL D TH E M

While .edu links are not inherently more powerful, .edu sites do
tend to have high domain authority, making these links valuable.

To earn .edu links, you can allow guest posts from students (ideally
those studying your industry) and encourage them to share the post
with teachers/classmates.

Consider offering students a discount or ask about an alumni

directory at your alma mater.

2. .GOV Links
Much like .edu, .gov sites tend toward high domain authority.

To earn .gov links, focus on how you can help veterans of the armed
services.

Offer discounts, training, or scholarships and reach out to your local

VA or SBA and notify them of your program.

3. .ORG Links
These carry the same benefits as .gov and .edu links, but are easier
to get.

Try sponsoring a charity program, offer your services/products pro

bono, or volunteer.
 4
4. Editorially-Given Links

5 0 TYP ES OF L I NKS YOU WANT & H OW TO BU IL D TH E M

Editorial links happen naturally when you publish high-quality,
engaging content.

Build a diverse content marketing plan for the best chance of

earning these.

5. Links from Traditional Media

or Press
The best way to get links from the press (e.g., newspapers,
magazines, radio, TV) is by creating a resource or study that
journalists will cite.

You can also use HARO to answer reporters’ questions, but it can
be time-consuming to sort through the twice-daily emails.

This is a good in-depth post about media link building.

6. Internal Links
Internal links are some of the easiest to build.

If you use WP, I recommend a related post plugin to find more

internal linking opportunities on your own site.
 4
7. Links from Complementary

5 0 TYP ES OF L I NKS YOU WANT & H OW TO BU IL D TH E M

Businesses Within Your
Niche/Industry
Complementary businesses have a similar target audience but don’t
directly compete with you.

To earn links try offering to exchange guest posts, write a review of

their product/service, or co-build a marketing campaign.

8. Links from Competitors in

Your Industry
If you can get competitors to link to you, you know you are doing
something right.

Consider creating a job board or do some in-depth, original

research that’s so valuable they can’t help but link to it.

9. Niche Forum Profile Links

The value of these links lies in the audience, which are people who
are highly involved in your industry.

Search for top niche forums in your industry and start engaging.

Offer value first, then share links when it makes sense.

 4
10. Social Media Profile Links

5 0 TYP ES OF L I NKS YOU WANT & H OW TO BU IL D TH E M

If you don’t already have your site added to all your social profiles,
go do that now.

A simple step, but it sometimes gets overlooked, particularly

because there are just so many social platforms.

Check:

Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
LinkedIn
Snapchat
Goodreads
Reddit
Tumblr
Pinterest
Flickr
Quora
Periscope

And any others where you maintain a presence.

 4
11. Social Media Post Links

5 0 TYP ES OF L I NKS YOU WANT & H OW TO BU IL D TH E M

You want to post new content to your social channels.

But also use a tool like Buffer or Hootsuite to schedule content

multiple times to keep driving traffic.

12. Links from Reddit

This is separate from other social media links because it requires a
very careful approach.

Reddit users particularly dislike being sold to, but it can be done if
handled carefully.

Brent Csutoras has written extensively about marketing on Reddit.

13. Links from LinkedIn

Company Directory
Another simple, but overlooked link.

If you haven’t already, create a company page and add a link to your
site.
 4
14. (Relevant/Non-spammy)

5 0 TYP ES OF L I NKS YOU WANT & H OW TO BU IL D TH E M

Industry Directories
No, don’t go out and get dozens of crappy directory links.

But DO look for legit industry directories.

This is a good source for finding niche directories.

Can’t find one for your industry or niche? Create your own.

15. Links from Local

Directories
Think Yelp, Bing, etc.

This is particularly important for local brick-and-mortar stores, but

can help online brands, too.

Check out this post for a list of local directories.

 4
16. Links from Template

5 0 TYP ES OF L I NKS YOU WANT & H OW TO BU IL D TH E M

Directories (Create a
WordPress Theme)
If you have the dev skills (or someone on your team does), create a
WordPress theme or plugin that others in your industry would find
useful.

Alternatively, commission one and white label it.

17. Links from Ebooks

Write an ebook, then add a link.

Simple stuff, right?

Writing a book can be time-consuming, so consider hiring an editor

to help you turn a series of blog posts into a book.

18. Links from Local News Sites

Similar strategy for getting traditional media links, but focus more on
your local area.

This is a good resource to get started.

 4
19. Guest Blogging Links

5 0 TYP ES OF L I NKS YOU WANT & H OW TO BU IL D TH E M

Yep, good old guest blogging.

Find an industry news blog or complementary business blog and

pitch a solid, well-written post.

20. Manual Outreach Links

Manual outreach is a numbers game, but it does work.

Look for broken links to pitch resources for, reach out to

webmasters when it makes sense, and above all make sure you are
offering value.

This video on Moz is a great resource for manual link

building.

21. Google My Business Link

Don’t forget to claim your listing and add your website link.

In many cases, people will see this information before they see your
site.
 4
22. Links with Brand Name

5 0 TYP ES OF L I NKS YOU WANT & H OW TO BU IL D TH E M

Anchor Tags
See your brand listed or talked about somewhere? Ask for a link.

Set a Google Alert for brand mentions and reach out when you
find someone is talking about your brand.

23. Links with Key Term

Anchor Tags
Branded anchor tags are good, but so are key term anchor tags.

You can literally see real-time sales and conversion data for any
website, and which campaigns drove that traffic. Start your free trial
today.

Use key term anchor tags internally, and ask for them when you are
comfortable doing so.
 4
24. How-to Guide Links

5 0 TYP ES OF L I NKS YOU WANT & H OW TO BU IL D TH E M

Is there a topic or process you spent a ton of time researching or
perfecting?

Publish a resource or how-to guide for others in the same position.

Think about it – if you were looking for a resource there’s a good

chance other people are searching for a guide, too.

25. Resource Guide

Compile a list of resources or ideas people in your industry would
find useful.

For example, a list of 50 links you’d want to earn or places to find

free stock photography.

Offer value and you will earn links.

26. Infographic Links

You can create these based on your own research or curate stats
from other sites.

Create in-house using a tool like Canva (they have a specific

infographic creator) or outsource.
 4
27. Infographic Citation Links

5 0 TYP ES OF L I NKS YOU WANT & H OW TO BU IL D TH E M

I mention performing and publishing your own research a few times
in this post.

That is because unique research is fantastic at attracting links –

including from infographics.

Make sure you send out your research results and state it can be
used in infographics.

28. Links from Q&A Sites

Go on sites like Quora and offer useful answers to questions.

The key here is offering value, not just searching for places to drop
your link.

29. Links from Emails

If you have a newsletter list, use it.

Also, consider sponsoring a newsletter for a complementary

business.
 4
30. Graphic Links

5 0 TYP ES OF L I NKS YOU WANT & H OW TO BU IL D TH E M

Anytime your logo shows up online, ask for it to be a clickable
graphic with a link to your site.

31. Links from Videos

YouTube is often touted as the second largest search engine, so
make sure to upload any video you record there with an embedded,
clickable link.

Don’t overthink video.

You can go live on Facebook using a smartphone and good lighting,

then upload the video to YouTube.

32. Links from SlideShare

Did you give a speech, teach a class, or present a webinar?

Repurpose the content by uploading those slides up on SlideShare.

Make sure to add KTs and a link to optimize your slides.

 4
33. Links from Reviews

5 0 TYP ES OF L I NKS YOU WANT & H OW TO BU IL D TH E M

Ask bloggers or influencers in your industry to try your product/
service and write a review.

Some will do this in exchange for product, some will charge.

34. Links from Wiki Sites

There is much more than just Wikipedia.

Find a Wiki related to your industry and contribute.

Publishing industry-related research is helpful for this.

Here is a list of hundreds of wikis.

35. Dofollow Links

When possible, ask for followed links in all of these strategies.

BUT, don’t forget about nofollows.

 4
36. Nofollow Links

5 0 TYP ES OF L I NKS YOU WANT & H OW TO BU IL D TH E M

Most of the time followed links are better, but nofollow links are
better than no links at all, so don’t turn these down.

Plus, ill-placed links can be penalized by Google, while nofollows

won’t and may drive a good bit of traffic.

37. Ask People You Know

Ask friends and close colleagues if you can link to them and if they
will to you.

It never hurts to ask, but tread carefully here.

Make sure there is value in the link.

A concrete company linking to a baking company is a stretch, but a

cupcake company linking to a bouncy house rental company makes
sense.

38. Conduct an Interview

Ask an industry friend or expert a few questions through email or by
phone and publish the results.

Make sure to send a link to your interviewee, they will likely share on
social and extend your reach.
 4
39. Give an Interview

5 0 TYP ES OF L I NKS YOU WANT & H OW TO BU IL D TH E M

Keep an eye open for social media posts from people in your
network asking for interviews and give an interview yourself.

40. Links from Podcasts

Pitch to be a guest on industry podcasts (or start your own
podcast).

This is a good guide for pitching podcasts.

Pitching can be time-consuming, so you consider outsourcing that

part.

Just be careful to only pitch podcasts that make sense for your
brand.

41. Contribute to a
Crowdsourced or Quote
Post
Contributing your thoughts to a quote post takes just a few minutes
and will often earn you a link to at least a social profile if not your
site.

Aim to share valuable advice, not just earn a vanity link.

 4
42. Write a Crowdsourced or

5 0 TYP ES OF L I NKS YOU WANT & H OW TO BU IL D TH E M

Quote Post
Flip the script and write your own crowdsourced post.

Make sure to send the final link to all who contributed and tag them
on social media.

43. Links to News

Set a Google notification to email you when industry news is
trending and write a post about it.

News posts can be short and sweet, the goal is to publish fast and
ride the wave of trending topics.

44. Create a Tool

CoSchedule’s headline analyzer is a perfect example of driving
links through tool creation.

So is HubSpot’s blog topic generator.

 4
45. Create a Template

5 0 TYP ES OF L I NKS YOU WANT & H OW TO BU IL D TH E M

If creating a tool is outside of your resources, create a template
people in your industry would share.

For example, a link outreach email template, an infographic

template, or a editorial calendar template.

These can be hosted on Google Drive or you can ask people to

exchange their email for access.

46. Links from Webinars

Either sponsor a webinar with another brand (like SEJ) or host your
own.

Make sure to upload your slides to SlideShare after.

47. Links to Original Research

Doing original research is just about guaranteed to draw links.

The simplest way is to start an annual industry poll and publish the
results.

Create an infographic for additional link opportunities.

 4
48. Links to Glossaries

5 0 TYP ES OF L I NKS YOU WANT & H OW TO BU IL D TH E M

Draw up a list of top industry key terms and create a glossary of
definitions (e.g., SEJ’s SEO Glossary).

If done well, this will attract links from competitors, journalists, and
bloggers.

49. Links to Your Case Studies

First things first, you’ll actually need to create a case study.

Consider partnering with a complementary business to divide the

workload, or outsource if doing it yourself isn’t feasible.

50. Links Your Competitors Have

Use a tool like Ahrefs, find out what links your competitors have
and target those sites through manual outreach, guest blogging, or
interviews.
 4

BU I L D TH EM
5 0 TYP ES OF L I NKS YOU WANT & H OW TO
Final Thoughts

While the reputation of the practice has suffered over the years due
to risky tactics that no longer work, link building isn’t a dirty word.

Link building is an exchange of value – how can you and a site

owner help each other?

What can you offer in exchange for a link?

If you look at link building through this lens, you will be more
successful and earn higher-quality links that can up-level your
SEO value for good.
 5

L I NK BU I L DI NG TEC H NI QU ES: TH E GO O D, TH E BAD, AN D TH E U G LY

Chapter 5

Link Building
Techniques: The
Good, the Bad, and
the Ugly

Written By
Jeremy Knauff
CEO, Spartan Media
 5
We all know that we need

L I NK BU I L DI NG TEC H NI QU ES: TH E GO O D, TH E BAD, AN D TH E U G LY

links to rank well.

But some people are still unsure about what constitutes a good link or
a bad link.

That information is critical in making smart link building decisions.

Dabble in questionable link building techniques today – even
unintentionally – and you will eventually find yourself on the wrong side
of a penalty, costing you traffic and sales.
 5
T hat’s why it’s so important to understand exactly what kind of
links have a positive impact on ranking and are acceptable

L I NK BU I L DI NG TEC H NI QU ES: TH E GO O D, TH E BAD, AN D TH E U G LY

according to Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

So we’re going to delve into the good, bad, and ugly of links.

This post will explain which type will hurt your website, which will
just waste your time by not improving ranking, and which will propel
you to the top of the search results.

On a related note, it’s important to have a strategy rather than just

blindly building links. This will save you time, money, and energy
while improving your results.
 5

TH E BAD, AND TH E U GLY

L I NK BU I L DI NG TEC H NI QU ES: TH E GO O D,
The Good Links

Good links tend to be earned naturally and generally aren’t

scalable.

Organic link building takes a lot more time and effort, but it also
means the links you do get are more valuable because they are
more difficult for your competitors to replicate.

This gives you a more dominant position in your market, and that’s
what we’re all looking for, right?

Editorial Links

The most obvious example of a good link is when, unbeknownst

to you, a journalist (or contributor, or blogger) is so amazed by
you, your company, or your products or services that they take the
initiative to write an article about you and link to your website.

Contrary to what some in the SEO community (including Google)

claim, this is pretty rare.
 5
Equally as good is when a personal relationship leads to a similar
situation, either directly or through an introduction to a journalist,

L I NK BU I L DI NG TEC H NI QU ES: TH E GO O D, TH E BAD, AN D TH E U G LY

contributor, or blogger – provided that there is legitimate value for
their audience in your story.

For example, in a recent article on the role of traditional public

relations in SEO that I wrote for another search publication, I
included several quotes and a link from a friend who runs a
large and successful PR firm precisely because her insight was
incredibly valuable to the audience, thanks to her extensive
background.

Guest Blogging

Guest blogging, when done properly, ranks just a little below

the previous two examples in terms of value, primarily because
while the website it’s published on has editorial oversight, it’s still
produced by you rather than a more objective third party.

It’s imperative that these articles provide value to their audience

and not be there just for a link. In fact, because Google has
cracked down hard on guest posting as a link building tactic, I find
it best to be overly cautious by going way beyond the expectations
of value and be
extremely
conservative
in terms of
outbound
links to your own
website.
 5
To play it safe, any guest blogging should be done with the intent
of building your brand and reaching a larger audience – rather than

L I NK BU I L DI NG TEC H NI QU ES: TH E GO O D, TH E BAD, AN D TH E U G LY

building links. Building links is simply a byproduct of doing a great
job at that.

Niche Directories

In general, directories are all but dead. However, highly focused

niche directories can still be a valuable source of links.

That being said, you may only find a handful of worthwhile

directories focused on your niche, and their SEO value will vary
dramatically, but it’s definitely worth looking into.

You should expand your thinking beyond the traditional idea of

a web directory and look at trade organizations, niche-specific
networking groups, and professional associations as well because
most have a members directory these days.

When evaluating a directory, you’ll want to ensure that

they:

Have a vetting process, rather than just accepting anyone

who is willing to pay the fee.
Regularly publish valuable content that search engines can
access and index.
Regularly prune broken links from members who no longer
have an active website.
 5
Building Those Good Links...

L I NK BU I L DI NG TEC H NI QU ES: TH E GO O D, TH E BAD, AN D TH E U G LY

Gone are the days of precisely matching anchor text to the
keyword phrases you want to rank for. It looks unnatural, and
thus easily identifiable by Google’s algorithm, which will only
continue to get better at spotting patterns thanks to artificial
intelligence.

When someone else links to you without your input, the anchor
text tends to be pretty natural, so you don’t have much to worry
about.

When you’re the one creating the links, however, such as when
guest posting, you need to be much more careful because your
own actions (vs. those of a third party) will be viewed with much
more scrutiny if you’re ever manually reviewed.

There is a time and place for exact match anchor text, but in most
cases, I tend to opt for something more descriptive, like I did in the
previous link to my SEJ article on artificial intelligence.

You should also generally link to the most relevant internal page
rather than the homepage (unless you’re citing the company,
in which case you should use the company name instead of a
keyword).
 5

TH E BAD, AND TH E U GLY

L I NK BU I L DI NG TEC H NI QU ES: TH E GO O D,
The Ugly Links

While it may be easy to produce these types of links in large

numbers, they won’t have much impact (if any) on your organic
ranking.

Investing time in producing these type of links is a waste of time,

money, and energy because they will never generate much of a
return on investment.

To make matters worse, if you use these link building tactics – even
though they aren’t effective – you’re likely to eventually suffer a
penalty.

Guest Posting at Scale

If you’ve been in the SEO industry for more than a few years, you
probably remember when article directories were the hot new
thing and you could simply fire up a program to submit your article
to thousands of these websites at once.
 5
Most of these programs even had the capability to “spin” or modify
the content, resulting in a “unique” article for each submission. This

L I NK BU I L DI NG TEC H NI QU ES: TH E GO O D, TH E BAD, AN D TH E U G LY

created a swath of trash websites that served no purpose other
than displaying ads within mostly useless and redundant content.

Those days are thankfully behind us. However, even when

performed manually and at a smaller scale, this tactic is
problematic when you’re doing it primarily to build links because it
creates obvious patterns that Google’s algorithm can easily identify.

Links From Non-Relevant Websites

There is virtually no value in links from a divorce lawyer’s website

pointing to a general contractor’s website.

Today Google is pretty good at identifying the topic of a website,

and they generally only assign significant weight to links that are
relevant to their target.

No matter how easy it may be to acquire a link, don’t waste your

time if it isn’t relevant.

Header, Footer & Sidebar Links

Google doesn’t give much weight for links in certain areas of a web
page, including headers, footers, and sidebars.
 5
In general, sitewide links are a bad idea except in a few

L I NK BU I L DI NG TEC H NI QU ES: TH E GO O D, TH E BAD, AN D TH E U G LY

cases:

Linking to a relevant sister publication that you own. For

example, if Huffington Post linked to their India edition,
that would be fine. However, if you ran a general contractor
business and a mortgage company, a sitewide link from one
to the other would be risky.
Identifying software that runs a website, as you see with most
content management, blogging, and e-commerce systems.
Identifying who designed a website.

An important caveat here is that while you don’t need to use the
nofollow attribute on these links, you do need to use branded
terms such as the company or publication name rather than
keyword rich anchor text.
 5

TH E BAD, AND TH E U GLY

L I NK BU I L DI NG TEC H NI QU ES: TH E GO O D,
The Bad Links

Further down the rabbit hole are links that must be avoided at all
costs.

You should disavowed any bad links you’ve used in the past
because they will absolutely result in a penalty when you’re
inevitably caught. From that point forward, Google will start
watching your link building efforts with far more scrutiny.

When you’ve landed on Google’s radar, any actions that may have
been dismissed as an honest mistake will now be viewed as an
attempt to unethically manipulate ranking.

Paid Links

You might be thinking that you can get away with buying paid links
because you’re doing it on a small scale and/or through personal
relationships, right?
 5
That sounds plausible until you consider that if a website owner
is selling links to you, they’re most likely selling links to at least a

L I NK BU I L DI NG TEC H NI QU ES: TH E GO O D, TH E BAD, AN D TH E U G LY

few other people too, and those people are most likely buying links
from other websites. You can see how quickly the network expands
from there.

Think of how many people, buyers and sellers, are really involved,
and then ask yourself how difficult would it be for an organization
with the data and resources of Google to identify paid links.

All they need to do is catch one buyer or seller and then follow the
breadcrumbs to identify the other buyers and sellers.

Comment or Forum Spam

While it’s easy to blast thousands of links to forums and comment

sections of blogs, it’s also easy to destroy your brand by doing
this because you’re slapping your spammy links all over someone
else’s website.

Besides, links in the comment section

of blogs are nofollowed, and many
forums nofollow outbound links as well,
so you won’t see much, if any, SEO
benefit but you will open yourself to the
risk of a link-based penalty.

Especially since you’ll anger other

website owners who will be more than
happy to report you to Google.
 5
General Directories

L I NK BU I L DI NG TEC H NI QU ES: TH E GO O D, TH E BAD, AN D TH E U G LY

We’ve already discussed how niche directories have the potential
to be valuable. However, you should avoid general directories like
the plague.
These are the epitome of everything Google hates because
they typically accept any website (except those promoting porn,
gambling, or violence) so long as you’re willing to pay their fee.

This is a textbook example of a paid link. The directory isn’t

relevant to your website, and in most cases, it lacks any useful
content.

Private Blog Networks

Why go through the hassle of building legitimate links when you

can just install WordPress on a few dozen domains and link to any
website you want anytime?

Well, for starters, just like with paid links, it’s pretty easy for Google
to identify private blog networks, leading to penalties in the short
term, and more scrutiny in the long term.

The more significant reason not to use private blog networks as

a link building tactic is that you’ll still need to publish loads of
original, high-quality content and create inbound links to the blogs
in your network in order for it to have any value at all.
 5
That time, money, and energy would be better invested creating
amazing content and earning inbound links to your own website.

L I NK BU I L DI NG TEC H NI QU ES: TH E GO O D, TH E BAD, AN D TH E U G LY

When you consider that owners of most legitimate websites
continually work to produce new content and earn new links, the
value of a link from their website to yours continually becomes
more valuable.

Conclusion
Links are an essential part of SEO today, but if you don’t know
which type violate Google’s guidelines, you can easily end up
doing more harm than good.

Links aren’t going to disappear as a ranking factor anytime in the

foreseeable future, so it’s critical that you understand exactly which
type will improve your ranking, which type won’t, and perhaps most
importantly, which type will get your website penalized.
 6

L I NK- BU I L DI NG OUTR EAC H 1 0 1

Chapter 6

Link-Building
Outreach 101
I N PA R T N E R S H I P W I T H

Written By
Nicole DeLeon
Founder & Lead Strategist,
North Star Inbound
 6
Link building is the

L I NK- BU I L DI NG OUTR EAC H 1 0 1

hardest SEO strategy
to execute because its
parameters are largely
beyond your control.

You may have a great story to tell or fantastic content to share, but
success hinges on your ability to persuade other people to link to it.
That requires outreach.

Lots and lots of outreach.

 6
Iam the owner of an agency that specializes in link building.
My team and I have sent millions of outreach emails over the

L I NK- BU I L DI NG OUTR EAC H 1 0 1

years, working from an essential truth: Quality and quantity of
outreach are both essential to earning links.

Whether you’re running a digital public relations campaign,

promoting a resource guide, seeking sponsorship opportunities,
or looking to become a thought leader in your industry, the
fundamentals of good outreach are the same.

You need to figure out:

WHO to reach out to (Prospecting)

WHERE to get in touch with them (Contact Finding)
WHAT to say that will persuade them (Template Creation)
WHEN to send your email (Outbox Strategies)
HOW many emails to send (Following Up)

It’s helpful to have a thick skin because no matter how fantastic

your pitches are, most of them will be ignored. You will need to
send a lot of emails and always follow up.

Link building isn’t easy, but whether you’re new to the strategy or
looking to boost your win rate, this step-by-step guide can help you
improve your outreach efforts.
 6

L I NK- BU I L DI NG OUTR EAC H 1 0 1

1. Prospecting: How to Target
the Right Publishers

Prospecting is the single most important – and time-consuming

– part of the outreach process. There is a staggering number of
websites out there, and more are being created every day.

Building a solid list of targets can be tricky. You want to find sites
that are both relevant and reputable.

If your campaign is about “Rebuilding Your Credit After Bankruptcy,”

you don’t want to waste your time pitching to weightlifting blogs. If
a site is sketchy (gambling, adult content, drugs), you probably don’t
want your link appearing there. Carefully identifying and selecting
your targets is critical.

Whether you’re hoping to reach news outlets, blogs, or industry

publications, the prospecting process starts with understanding
your topic or niche.
 6
Begin by making a list of search terms to work from,

L I NK- BU I L DI NG OUTR EAC H 1 0 1

using these methods:

Identify your campaign’s main themes and subtopics.

Using our example “Rebuilding Your Credit After Bankruptcy,”
your main theme would be credit. Subtopics could include
personal finance, bankruptcy, getting out of debt, or even
buying a home. Find as many angles to the subject as you
can. Making a list of search terms and all their variations will
help you uncover opportunities in relevant niches.

Brainstorm ‘adjacent’ topics and themes. Don’t search

for the exact title you plan to pitch. You won’t get far by
offering publishers content they already have. Instead, think
of fairly common topics most likely to be covered by the
journalists or websites you’re hoping to reach. For example,
“what is APR” or “how to choose the best credit card.”

When you’ve solidified your search terms, next you can explore the
variety of tools available for identifying potential publishers.
 6
Start with these steps:

L I NK- BU I L DI NG OUTR EAC H 1 0 1

Google – Manual searches are time-consuming and not very
scalable, but done right, Google can be an excellent place to
start. Use advanced search operators to test phrases, spot
patterns, and fine-tune your prospecting terms before you
feed them into a paid tool. For example:

Use quotes to find exact phrases like “write for us” or “guest
author.”
Type site:.org or site:.gov to limit your search results to URLs
that end in those suffixes.
Type a word after inurl: to specify that the term must appear
somewhere in the URL.

Once you feel good about your prospecting terms,

you’ll probably want to move on to using a paid tool, like
one of these:

BuzzSumo – This tool allows you to search for top content by

a specific topic or publication. It can help you quickly identify
top influencers to target with your campaign.
Pitchbox – This service helps users find relevant blogs,
influencers, and websites. It includes blogger outreach, an
advanced search, and a feature called “hot off the press.”
Scrapebox – This utilitarian tool can harvest URLs based on
terms you input. The quality of the results will depend on the
quality of the search terms, but for sheer volume, it packs a
lot of power.
 6

L I NK- BU I L DI NG OUTR EAC H 1 0 1

2. Contact Finding: How to Find
Email Addresses

Finding contact information for the link prospects you identified in

the previous step isn’t always easy. Ideally, you want the name and
email address of a real person.

Personalizing your outreach greatly improves the odds of a positive

response. But as with everything, if you spend too much time
scrolling through “contact us” pages, you’ll quickly get upside-down
on your budget.

The key to executing this step efficiently is two-fold:

Find Multiple Contacts for Each Prospect

Often in campaigns, marketers use a 1:1 contact-to-website ratio.

That’s a mistake.

You can increase your odds of a response by finding multiple

relevant contacts within a publication.
 6
Just make sure you only reach out to one person per organization
at a time.

L I NK- BU I L DI NG OUTR EAC H 1 0 1

Use Tools to Automate the Process

If you’ve never signed up for a subscription to a service like

Meltwater, Cision, or MuckRack before, get ready for some sticker
shock.

These paid tools are expensive – but you’d be hard-pressed to

arrive at a lower cost by paying an assistant hourly to Google all
the information you need.

These companies are dedicated to keeping up-to-date contacts

for thousands of publications worldwide. Their services are ideal
for PR projects, but it’s worth noting that the contacts are primarily
journalists, so they might not be helpful if you’re targeting smaller
blogs.

Pitchbox is a great tool for blogs.

If you use it for prospecting, it can
gather contact information as it
finds relevant blogs simultaneously.

Alternately, you can upload your

own list of websites and have
Pitchbox find contact info for
them. Just know that the contact
it collects might not be the exact
one you need. Always review who
you’re reaching out to before you
hit Send.
 6

L I NK- BU I L DI NG OUTR EAC H 1 0 1

3. Template Creation: How to
Write a Great Email
Sequence

Make no mistake: Writing a good email is an art form. Having been

on the receiving end of some real clunkers, I can’t emphasize
enough how vital it is to make your template personable,
relevant, and valuable.

And remember that it doesn’t stop with one email. Follow-ups are
as important as the original message.

When you sit down to craft your pitch, be sure to create a sequence
that includes at least one or two reminder emails.
 6

L I NK- BU I L DI NG OUTR EAC H 1 0 1

Here are a few more essentials to keep in mind:

Be personable. You’re creating a relationship with a person

and their website. If you want people to trust you and your
content, coming across as spammy is the kiss of death. To
avoid this, inject personality into your email. Connect on an
emotional level. Be likable and authentic.

Use customized fields. If you send too many emails with

identical subject lines or body content, email filters might flag
your messages as spam. You can decrease that risk by using
customizable fields that auto-populate the subject line and
message with the prospect’s name, publication, recent article
title, and other identifiers.

Proofread. Grammar and punctuation errors are a big

turnoff for most readers. It’s also important to be careful with
customized fields. Nothing gives away an auto-generated
email faster than personalization mistakes. Check your
emails for errors and awkwardness before sending.

Write multiple subject lines. If you have a bad subject

line, it’s likely that you’ll have a bad open rate. Brainstorm at
least half a dozen subject lines and imagine how you’d react
upon receiving that email. Would you open it? Ask a friend or
colleague the same thing. If you’re torn between two subject
lines, split your campaign and do an A/B test.
 6
Keep emails short and sweet. People are busy, and your

L I NK- BU I L DI NG OUTR EAC H 1 0 1

message will certainly not be the only one in their inbox. The
more skimmable you can make it, the better. Use bullet points
instead of long paragraphs, if necessary. Templates should
be tasty to consume and easy to digest.

Be clear about what you’re asking. We don’t mean, “Hey,

can you give us a link on your website?” But if you want the
reader to share your resource, report on the results of your
study, or accept a guest post submission, make sure that
comes across clearly.
 6

L I NK- BU I L DI NG OUTR EAC H 1 0 1

4. Outbox Strategies: The Right
Way to Send Outreach

While sending in bulk has its advantages, it’s important to not send
in quantities that will get your account flagged as spam by Google.

The current limit for Gmail outreach is 500 emails per day; however,
even that amount could get you flagged if your emails are identical
in content.

And you won’t earn any links if your prospects never see your
emails. Try more strategic approaches:

Build Volume Gradually

If you have a fairly new email address and you don’t usually send a
lot of messages, you’ll need to build your volume gradually.

Start with 10 pitches a day, then 20, then 30, etc.. Make sure you’re
using your email for other types of messages, as well.
 6
Schedule Sends for Mornings & Weekdays

L I NK- BU I L DI NG OUTR EAC H 1 0 1

Be thoughtful about the time of day you send your messages.
Generally, business hours are best. Reporters should be contacted
first thing in the morning.

Bloggers often can be reached in both the morning and evening,

as many of them write as a side hustle. As a rule of thumb, no one
wants to read your pitch on a Friday afternoon.

Review Subject Line Performance

Keep an eye on your open rates. If you see a subject line that works
particularly well, use it more.

Watch for Drops in Open Rates

A sudden drop in open rates

could indicate that your
messages have been flagged
as spam. If that happens,
scale back and change your
template.
 6

L I NK- BU I L DI NG OUTR EAC H 1 0 1

5. Following Up: The
Importance of Sequences

Just because someone ignored your first email doesn’t mean they
aren’t interested.

In every campaign my company has ever done, we’ve been

astonished by how effective follow-up emails can be.

In fact, second messages are often more valuable than the first. The
key is to be personable and polite.
 6
Here’s what a typical follow-up sequence might look

L I NK- BU I L DI NG OUTR EAC H 1 0 1

like:

Follow-up 1 – The first reminder generally goes out about a

week after the original message. It should be short and sweet
while it reaffirms the ask: “Hope your day is going well. I sent
you a message last week. Did you see it?”
Follow-up 2 – The second follow-up should empathize
with the recipient: “Hey, I’m sure you’re busy. I don’t want to
bother you, but I’d really love to know if you can use the piece
I sent.” This is a great time to ask for feedback – why they
think it would or wouldn’t work.
Guilt email – When all else fails, make the person feel guilty
about not responding, even if the answer is No: “My boss is
hounding me. I have a deadline on this. Please just let me
know one way or the other.”

As with everything else, automation is your friend.

 6
There are several tools that can send follow-ups

L I NK- BU I L DI NG OUTR EAC H 1 0 1

automatically based on a schedule you create and
depending on whether the contact has replied to any
previous messages.

Pitchbox – In addition to its other capabilities, this tool

allows users to choose the length of time between sends and
the day messages go out. Follow-ups appear seamlessly in
the inbox thread.
Mixmax – This is a great paid add-on for Gmail if you are
sending in smaller sprints. Create quick replies, get reminded
on when to follow up, and get notified of opens or clicks.
This is a tool for someone who isn’t looking for an expensive
monthly service but wants to step up their game on manual
outreach.
Buzzstream – Similar to Pitchbox, Buzzstream allows you to
create automated, customized follow-ups that send based on
the criteria you input.

Outreach is ultimately a numbers game. By implementing these

methods, you can make the numbers work in your favor. It’s
important to establish a vetting process for prospecting and finding
contacts, so you don’t waste your time sending pitches to irrelevant
websites.
 6
You’re going to send a lot of emails, and they can’t seem cookie-
cutter, so creating personable, customizable templates is also

L I NK- BU I L DI NG OUTR EAC H 1 0 1

imperative.

Your email open rate will be much higher if you send a

personalized message with a catchy subject line, but you should
still expect a lot of people to ignore that message.

Automated tools that show you open rates and other statistics
can help you improve your win rate, but ultimately, the only way to
master outreach is to jump in and do it.

Then monitor and analyze your results, learn from them, and
continually improve your strategy by doing what works best for you.

If you’d like to learn more about our link-building and outreach

process, visit us at North Star Inbound.
 7

H OW TO BU I L D L I NKS F OR B I NG VS. GO O G L E
Chapter 7

How to Build Links

for Bing vs. Google

Written By
Aleh Barysevich
Founder & Chief Marketing Officer,
Link-Assistant.Com
 7
Have you ever wondered

H OW TO BU I L D L I NKS F OR B I NG VS. GO O G L E
why you rank well (e.g.,
Page 1) on Google, but
rank poorly (Page 4 or
lower) on other search
engines, like Bing?

It can be confusing. You’ve invested in SEO. Shouldn’t optimizing for

one search engine work for all search engines?

Well, not always.

Good SEO isn’t only optimizing for one search engine.

 7
G oogle is the world’s most popular search engine. Their
algorithm updates have reshaped search and SEO time and

H OW TO BU I L D L I NKS F OR B I NG VS. GO O G L E
time again.

As a result, some SEO professionals today completely ignore any

search engine that don’t start with “G” and end in “oogle”.

That’s a problem.

While Google owns 91.88% of the global market share, its total
U.S. market share is 86.93%, according to StatCounter’s most
recent data.

That means more than a third of your U.S. customers are searching
for you on platforms other than Google.

So if you’re only optimizing for Google, you’re missing a huge share

of the market.
 7
Fortunately, optimizing your content to appeal to search engines
beyond Google doesn’t mean starting from scratch.

H OW TO BU I L D L I NKS F OR B I NG VS. GO O G L E
Bing (and by proxy Yahoo, which has been powered by Bing since
2010) is the second most popular search engine in the world.

Together, Bing and Yahoo own 4.76% of the total global desktop
search engine market share and 11.89% of the U.S. market share.

The best news?

SEO techniques work similarly across both platforms. So you can

continue to focus on content marketing and link building.

But, as you may already have guessed, Bing and Google have a
few key differences. These difference may lead to discrepancies
in your rankings.

This chapter will cover how building links for Bing differs from
link building for Google and how you can create one link building
strategy that will help you optimize for both search engines.
 7

H OW TO BU I L D L I NKS F OR B I NG VS. GO O G L E
1. Be (Cautiously) More
Aggressive with Link Count

Google and Bing both value backlinks with a few important

differences. One of those differences is regards to quality versus
quantity.

Google tends to value PageRank as one of its key ranking

signals, even though they removed it. In Google Search Console,
Google used to describe PageRank as:

“PageRank is Google’s opinion of the importance of a page based

on the incoming links from other sites. (PageRank is an important
signal, but it’s one of more than 200 that we use to determine
relevancy.) In general, a link from a site is regarded as a vote for the
quality of your site.”

In recent years, we’ve seen a declining correlation between link

count and Google rankings. In fact, some sites that rank well don’t
have a lot of inbound links — they have more authoritative inbound
links.
 7
This means Google considers a few high-quality links with more

H OW TO BU I L D L I NKS F OR B I NG VS. GO O G L E
PageRank to be infinitely more valuable than hundreds of links
from low-quality sites.

Meanwhile, Bing also values high-quality links. But Bing places

more importance on link quantity:

“Links pointing to your site help Bing discover new pages on your
site. Traditionally, it is also regarded as a signal of popularity. The
site linking to your content is essentially telling Bing that they trust
your content.”

Want to improve your site’s Bing ranking in a hurry? Build a few

more links each month than you otherwise might have.

Just remember that link quality matters. You absolutely shouldn’t

start linking to spammy or irrelevant sites.

How Many Links Are Enough?

My team recently conducted a link building survey. We polled

628 advanced SEO professionals to find out how many links they
build per website per month. Here’s what we found:
73% of our respondents said that they built between 1-20
new links each month. This is a healthy number if you want to
improve your search rankings.

21% of our respondents build between 20-100 new links per

month. This link building strategy, while more aggressive, will
likely yield more tangible results on Bing.

The bottom line:

For Google, focus on very high-quality links.

For Bing, bet on the number of links.
 7
A word of caution: you want your site to rank for both Google and
Bing with the same link profile. So be mindful of Penguin.

H OW TO BU I L D L I NKS F OR B I NG VS. GO O G L E
Don’t go too wild. Like Google, Bing hates link schemes, reciprocal
links, and spammy paid links.

For the best results, build no more than 20 backlinks each month.
Focus on authoritative top-level domains and well-established
sites.

Bing heavily weighs .gov, .edu, and .org domains. Bing also
places greater emphasis on domain age than Google.
 7

H OW TO BU I L D L I NKS F OR B I NG VS. GO O G L E
2. Place Less Emphasis on
Anchor Text Diversity

There’s a noticeable difference in Bing’s attitude towards keywords

in the anchor text when compared to Google.

Since Google’s 2012 Penguin update, sites with too much exact-
match anchor text are liable to get slapped with a penalty.

Now compare that to Bing’s guidelines, which actually

encourage you to optimize your anchors:
“Carefully plan which actual words will be linked — use targeted
keywords wherever possible.”

The practical consequence of this is that we see 10% more sites

on Bing with keyword-rich anchor text. In fact, more than half of
Bing’s top 30 results (52-53%) all contain optimized anchors.
 7
Given this, it’s theoretically possible (and quite easy) to over-optimize
your links for Bing, though I don’t recommend it.

H OW TO BU I L D L I NKS F OR B I NG VS. GO O G L E
Your site ranking will almost certainly plunge on Google as Penguin
hits you for over-optimizing your anchor.

Instead, use a cautious blend of exact-match anchor text with branded,

naked link, partial match, long tail, generic, and other types of anchor
text.

If you want to start increasing your amount of anchor

text with keywords, make sure you:

Understand your current margins with Google and increase

them gradually.
Check on your competitors that rank well on both Google
and Bing with a link analysis tool. See what%age seems to be
working for them. Build up to their level.
 7

H OW TO BU I L D L I NKS F OR B I NG VS. GO O G L E
3. Drive Links with Social
Media

Bing has stated outright that their algorithm considers social

media signals in site rankings:

“Social media plays a role in today’s effort to rank well in search

results. The most obvious part it plays is via influence. If you
are influential socially, this leads to your followers sharing your
information widely, which in turn results in Bing seeing these
positive signals. These positive signals can have an impact on how
you rank organically in the long run.”

In fact, Searchmetrics’ analysis of Bing’s ranking factors found

that not only does Bing value social signals, but that social signals
have a strong correlation with better rankings.
 7
This coincides nicely with some of the new data our recent poll
uncovered — that modern SEOs consider social sharing to be one of

H OW TO BU I L D L I NKS F OR B I NG VS. GO O G L E
the most efficient ways to build links in 2017.

In fact, 68% of the polled advanced SEOs, who have used social
sharing with link building in mind, found it to be efficient:

A few more specific examples of how our respondents

have used social media during June 2016 – June 2017
to increase their backlink profiles:

88% of SEOs included links in their social media profiles.

81% of our respondents shared their content in social media.
53% of respondents created viral campaigns (e.g. contests).
 7

H OW TO BU I L D L I NKS F OR B I NG VS. GO O G L E
You can also use software to search for influencers in your niche
on the platform of your choice. Create a list of these influential
figures.

Then, when you create high-quality content that might appeal

to them, reach out to them. Ask them to share it. (Our research
showed original data/research to be the most compelling and
efficient type of content for link building).

Finally, don’t forget about video content. While YouTube might be

the one-stop shop for all things video, you don’t want to lose out on
the benefits of those hard-earned backlinks.

Instead, find a native hosting solution for your video content. Then
reach out to people who have liked and shared your videos in the
past. Ask them to link to your website instead of YouTube.
 7

H OW TO BU I L D L I NKS F OR B I NG VS. GO O G L E
Conclusion: Don’t Sabotage
Google SEO While Link Building
for Bing

One thing I haven’t touched on in this article is that if you wanted

to build links exclusively for Bing, it would theoretically be much
easier than building links for Google.

Unlike Google, Bing doesn’t mind if you ask other sites for links, as
long as those sites are reasonably authoritative.

However, there’s little sense in building a bunch of links for Bing if

it’s going to drop your Google rankings in the process.

So, rather than optimizing for one search platform over another,
you’re better off looking to your content. After all, creating link-
worthy content is the best type of link building.

As Bing’s Webmaster Guidelines state:

“Content is what Bing seeks. By providing clear, deep, easy to
find content on your website, we are more likely to index and
show your content in search results. Websites that are thin on
 7
content, showing mostly ads or affiliate links, or that otherwise
redirect visitors away to other sites quickly tend not to rank well.

H OW TO BU I L D L I NKS F OR B I NG VS. GO O G L E
Your content should be easy to navigate, rich and engaging to the
visitor, and provide them the information they seek.”

Ultimately, link building isn’t about optimizing for a particular

search engine. It’s not about discovering a loophole that will help
you game an algorithm.

Good link building starts with mutual trust. You write content
someone values. You earn their respect. And, as a result, they will
share your valuable content with others.

Only once you have the right content is it time to use the strategies
above. These will help earn your content a few more interested
eyeballs.

To borrow one of Bruce Clay’s metaphors:

“In fishing, there’re a couple of things you have to do. 1) You have
to use the right bait; 2) you have to fish where the fish are. That
is link building. You have to come up with something that your
community cares about and then put it in front of them.”
 8

H OW TO BU I L D L I NKS F OR B I NG VS. GO O G L E
Chapter 8

5 Tips to Run a
Sustainable Link
Building Campaign

Written By
Patrick Reinhart
VP, Digital Strategies, Conductor
 8
Do I want to do

H OW TO BU I L D L I NKS F OR B I NG VS. GO O G L E
link building?

As I wait for the collective sigh of everyone reading this to subside, I

think that this is a question that everyone in search asks themselves on
a regular basis.

While the answer being overwhelmingly no for the majority of the

population, the main reason being the time that needs to be dedicated
to the campaign, everyone knows that link equity is a necessary part
of the equation for a successful run.

So that leads to the question, “Do I need to do link building?”

 8

BU I L DI NG CAM PAI GN
5 TI P S TO RU N A SU STAI NAB L E L I NK
Do I Need to Do Link Building?

The answer to that question depends on your perspective of the

industry and where your site falls from an equity standpoint.

To me, sites fall into three buckets which determine

how much time and effort need to be dedicated to
these types of campaigns:

Unestablished.
Established.
Big brand.

If your domain authority (yes, we all know this isn’t a real thing, but
it’s widely accepted so let’s get over it) is low because you haven’t
been paying attention to your search presence (for shame), then
you are probably going to need to spend a sizable amount of time
here just to get off the ground.
 8
Being an established site means that while you don’t hold big
brand equity, you have been building your authority up over time

5 TI P S TO RU N A SU STAI NAB L E L I NK BU I L DI N G CAM PAIG N

and can compete on terms that are important to your business and
probably have some form of link building in the mix.

If you’re a big brand you have links coming to you like water
through many channels naturally with little to no effort, so enjoy
that little slice of sunshine while the rest of us try to solve this
jigsaw puzzle in the dark.

The three buckets above are not just to characterize

sites by equity, it also characterizes them by the
challenges they face from a link building perspective:

Unestablished: Have to launch a campaign from scratch,

most likely has zero resources to dedicate to this effort and
even less budget.

Established: Have established search processes and

budget but are most likely paying a third party so they don’t
own the process or relationships.

Big brand: While links are naturally coming in, most of them
are pointing to the home page, which doesn’t help the site as
a whole. On top of that, most big brand sites are glacial when
it comes to changing processes and development.

So now that we understand how sites stack up against one another

from a link perspective, or at least how you can easily place where
your site stands, what do you do next?
 8

BU I L DI NG CAM PAI GN
5 TI P S TO RU N A SU STAI NAB L E L I NK
Getting Started with
Sustainable Link Building

These days you simply can’t just “start doing link

building” as there are many questions that need
answers:

Who is dedicating the time to this?

What’s the process of identifying links?
How do we avoid appearing unnatural?
Can I trust this won’t trigger some type of penalty against my
site?
 8
While all of these are important questions that need answers, they
still don’t speak to the more important over-arching one, “How do

5 TI P S TO RU N A SU STAI NAB L E L I NK BU I L DI N G CAM PAIG N

we do link building in a sustainable way?”

Sadly, most folks are still doing link building like it’s 2004.

People are burning calories on these campaigns, but they aren’t

burning them in a smart way. Thinking a little bit differently about
how you approach this effort will bring much more value in the
long-term.

Below are practices and ideas that you can try to run a sustainable
link building campaign that won’t burn out in six months or burn
your website down.
 8

BU I L DI NG CAM PAI GN
5 TI P S TO RU N A SU STAI NAB L E L I NK
1. Look Before You Reach…Out

Let’s use data people!

Link building campaigns are typically very myopic in

scope as most people think this way:

Look for a relevant site with high domain authority.

Send out prospecting email asking for a link.
Hopefully get a response and work out a deal, rinse, repeat.
 8

BU I L DI NG CAM PAI GN
5 TI P S TO RU N A SU STAI NAB L E L I NK
2. Get More Specific

Are you focusing on the domain as a whole?

The problem with this approach is that you are only focusing on the
overall domain authority, which, as I referenced before, is actually
not a real thing even though it is a widely accepted metric.

So why are we basing our efforts on a made-up number?

The solution?

Get more specific.

It makes more sense to dig down and look at the individual pages
that make up a domain you would like to link to and what their
backlink profiles look like.

If they have strong page authority and you have a piece of content
(or can create one) you believe would make sense for them to link
back to, that’s a smarter way to find linking opportunities.
 8
If you are selling baseball tickets to a certain game, wouldn’t it
make sense to get a link to that page from someone writing a

5 TI P S TO RU N A SU STAI NAB L E L I NK BU I L DI N G CAM PAIG N

specific piece of content about that game or the teams playing?

This analysis isn’t hard to do if you are looking at the right data.
You can set up a simple table and match up URLs:

If you want to get crazy (and really don’t want to do any manual
work) you can also pull rankings from large indexes such as
SEMrush for each URL you discover in your link tools and do some
math that calls out which URLs rank for the same keywords, which
would indicate they are about the same thing.

It would look something like this:

If you’re worried about where you can get the backlink data, there
are many tools for large sets of links to do this type of analysis (e.g.,
Majestic, Ahrefs, Link Research Tools).

Most of these tools will have the URLs categorized already, but
even if you have to roll up your sleeves and look at what the content
on the page is, that is better than blindly sending out emails with
no data behind them.

This approach can also help with your outreach because you
can include the rationalization of why that site should link to you
and the shared benefits you two could potentially provide to one
another over time.
 8

BU I L DI NG CAM PAI GN
5 TI P S TO RU N A SU STAI NAB L E L I NK
3. Form Partnerships

There is absolutely nothing wrong with forming alliances with sites

and writers that are doing things related to your business.

A lot of negativity clouds around this approach because people

start throwing around “guest blogging” and “link networks”, which
really isn’t what this approach is about.

First off, there is nothing wrong with guest blogging if you do it the
right way.

The problem with guest blogging stemmed from a network of sites

that were trading them back and forth in an unnatural way, not
because Google felt like too many relevant people were writing for
each other’s sites.

If you find like-minded folks who run websites in your industry and
you feel there is a mutual benefit to contributing to each other’s
sites, then you should do that, just do it in moderation and keep
expanding the pool of folks you are partnering with.
 8

BU I L DI NG CAM PAI GN
5 TI P S TO RU N A SU STAI NAB L E L I NK
4. Work with Influencers

In this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and

that people are going to talk about stuff on the internet.

No matter what product or service you sell, there are people who
are considered experts on that product or service – and a lot of
other people are listening to these experts.

Your job is to find them.

Most influencers – whether they are writers, vloggers, or speakers

– actually aren’t that hard to get a hold of.

Mine YouTube for folks who are reviewing products or services like
yours and send them a message to see if they are open to being
sponsored.
 8
Most of the time they will partner with you for a free product or a
small fee (depending on how popular they are).

5 TI P S TO RU N A SU STAI NAB L E L I NK BU I L DI N G CAM PAIG N

They will just have to disclose that they received compensation
for the review per Googles guidelines, which isn’t a big deal.

Or they won’t, but you didn’t hear me say that.

 8

BU I L DI NG CAM PAI GN
5 TI P S TO RU N A SU STAI NAB L E L I NK
5. One Last Thing: Don’t Buy
Links
I can’t believe I still actually have to say this, but buying links
shouldn’t even be on your radar.

This is an outdated, time-consuming, soul-crushing methodology.

And let’s be serious – you can do better.

While link [building / earning / whatever you want to call it] isn’t the
most fun activity, it’s a necessary evil of our trade and shouldn’t be
ignored.

Conclusion
Now that you’ve read this, figure out which bucket your site falls
into, pull some data, and start making smarter decisions.
 9

H OW TO BU I L D L I NKS F OR B I NG VS. GO O G L E
Chapter 9

An Approach
to Achieve Link
Building Scalability

Written By
Adam Heitzman
Managing Partner, HigherVisibility
 9
Link building can be an

H OW TO BU I L D L I NKS F OR B I NG VS. GO O G L E
extremely arduous task.

But it’s a necessary one.

It’s one of the most effective ways to improve the authority of your
website and ultimately keyword positioning, but it’s also a lot of work.
 9
Link building involves:

AN AP P ROAC H TO AC H I EVE L I NK BU I L DI N G S CAL AB IL IT Y

Reaching out to other website creators and business owners
to network.
Guest posting.
Research.
Constant communication.
And much more.

The underlying theme of link building is that it requires human

effort.

While you can, and many businesses do, automate their link
building efforts by sending out robotic scripts via email or hiring
offshore link building companies, this is not the best way to
improve your online credibility.

People don’t respond well to robots; they respond to other people.

If your link building is struggling but you’re unsure how to scale

a process that requires individual human effort, check out the
following tips.
 9

S CAL AB I L ITY
AN AP P ROAC H TO AC H I EVE L I NK BU I L DI N G
1. Consider Your Workflow
The first thing you should do is write down your link building
process.

Which element takes up the most time? Which feels the most
tedious?

That’s where you want to start streamlining.

Link building shouldn’t feel like a chore; if it does, you probably

need to cut out a few steps whenever possible. Consider your
workflow.

How do you get from point A, to point B, to point C?

Are there any steps that can be cut out?

Using an efficient workflow program could be a good way to save

time and scale your link building efforts. This article by Search
Engine Journal lists five different kinds of email automation
workflows you can use to help save time.
 9

S CAL AB I L ITY
AN AP P ROAC H TO AC H I EVE L I NK BU I L DI N G
2. Network

Thinking back to what we said earlier about human effort being

a key asset to link building, one thing you can do to scale the
process is to work hard at building relationships with other
professionals in the business.

Seek out:

Business owners.
Digital marketers.
Social media managers.
Bloggers.
 9
Establish a valuable relationship based on trust, respect, and
mutual need.

AN AP P ROAC H TO AC H I EVE L I NK BU I L DI N G S CAL AB IL IT Y

It’s much easier to ask someone for a favor when you already have
a relationship with them as opposed to reaching out to a stranger.

Offer to guest post on their websites and let them do the same on
yours.

The more networking opportunities you make for yourself, the

quicker and easier it will be to gain backlinks in the future when
you need them.
 9

S CAL AB I L ITY
AN AP P ROAC H TO AC H I EVE L I NK BU I L DI N G
3. Focus on Producing Quality
Content

Something else you can do is focus less on link building and more
on quality content creation.

Content is the foundation of link building.

If you aren’t producing valuable content, it will be much harder to

get backlinks, no matter how much time you spend trying.

It may sound basic, but building a repertoire of quality content is

the first step you should take before investing in link building, and
many businesses make the mistake of glossing over this.

Check out this article by Search Engine Journal on how to

combine content and social media to aid your link building efforts.
 9

S CAL AB I L ITY
AN AP P ROAC H TO AC H I EVE L I NK BU I L DI N G
4. Redesign the Presentation of
Your Content

Create titles that are clear and engaging.

Include eye-catching photographs, especially for your thumbnail.

Never skip the description! This is your first chance to catch the
eye of your audience – you don’t want Google pulling random
sentences from your post that won’t make sense to a reader.

The better your content looks, the more passive links you’ll receive.
And embracing passive link building is a major way to scale your
strategy that business owners often overlook.
 9

S CAL AB I L ITY
AN AP P ROAC H TO AC H I EVE L I NK BU I L DI N G
5. Use Templates

This isn’t the same as sending out robotic emails; your templates
should be well thought-out, creative, and personable. But they’re
still a template and can be adapted to various requests and
businesses.

The “meat” of the template can be the same, but add in some
personal details like a blog post the person has written that you
like, or ask them questions about a topic you plan on writing about
for your own website.

There are various types of link building strategy templates you can
create: “mention” templates, “broken link” templates, and guest
blogging templates, among others.

See the examples below:

 9
‘Broken Link’ Template
This type of template has a high rate of success. All you have

AN AP P ROAC H TO AC H I EVE L I NK BU I L DI N G S CAL AB IL IT Y

to do is go on the website where you want to receive a backlink
and identify a broken link.

Then, create a resource that can be used to replace the broken

link, and email the user with it. Your email could look something
like this:

‘Mention’ Template

You can use this template if you’ve recently featured someone’s

work on your website and want to let them know in hopes that
they’ll share your post. It can look a little something like this:
 9

AN AP P ROAC H TO AC H I EVE L I NK BU I L DI N G S CAL AB IL IT Y

Guest Blogging Template

One way to streamline the process of creating and adapting

templates s to utilize this next suggestion...
 9

S CAL AB I L ITY
AN AP P ROAC H TO AC H I EVE L I NK BU I L DI N G
6. Build a Team

Build a link building team isn’t possible for everyone.

But if it is possible for your business, you should definitely take

advantage of it.

Train your employees to write quality content and then seek

out backlinks. They should know how to monitor your site’s SEO
progress and be creative about coming up with new linking
strategies.

Even spending 20 minutes a week on technical SEO can put

you leaps and bounds ahead of the competition. Think about how
much more you can accomplish with 2 or 3 people working on link
building as opposed to one.

Even if your budget is tight, consider allocating some money from

another area to build a team; it will pay dividends in the end if you
select the right people and train them properly.
 9

S CAL AB I L ITY
AN AP P ROAC H TO AC H I EVE L I NK BU I L DI N G
7. Broaden Your Market

The more people your content appeals to, the more shares and
backlinks you’ll receive. It’s a simple game of numbers.

If your content isn’t being shared the way you want now, think
about widening your audience.

You can do this by searching social media to see what topics are
trending in specific groups, and then adapt your target to appeal to
those people.

Make the effort to join the conversation, and reap the benefits in
SEO.
 9

S CAL AB I L ITY
AN AP P ROAC H TO AC H I EVE L I NK BU I L DI N G
Summary

Link building is hard. It takes a lot of time, energy, and patience.

You have to try new things, fail, and then try again.

But if you stick with it ultimately you’ll get to a point where it’s
possible to scale your link building strategies and spend more time
on other aspects of your website’s SEO.

If you’re just getting started with a link building campaign, learn

the fundamentals of link building and how to create a
sustainable link building campaign.

Now get out there and start networking!

 10

L I NK BU I L DI NG TO L I NK EAR NI NG
Chapter 10

Link Building to
Link Earning

Written By
Anna Crowe
Assistant Editor, Search Engine Journal
 10
To build a high-quality

L I NK BU I L DI NG TO L I NK EAR NI NG
backlink profile, you
need to stop working on
building links and start
working on earning links.

Real talk: Link earning is about creating trustworthy, awesome content

and promoting it like crazy.

The discipline of link building is perceived by the public as something

negative, due to Google spreading fear into link building with the
reboot of Penguin and penalizing big name companies.
 10
C heck out how Google’s John Mueller responded to a
webmaster’s question, “Is link building in any way good?” in

L I NK BU I L DI NG TO L I NK EAR NI NG
this Google+ Hangout. He responds “In general, I’d try to avoid
that.”

Yet as I witness a rise in content marketing, it’s clear that a shift is

occurring in how SEO pros create an off-site SEO strategy.

Look at how links have evolved:

 10

L I NK BU I L DI NG TO L I NK EAR NI NG
Why Do You Want to Earn Links?

I hear this question from my clients a lot.

What is the value of a link?

Why do I want to earn a link from these prospects?

Increase Traffic

Gaining links organically grows your website traffic.

A link from another site will send you more visitors.

A link doesn’t guarantee a conversion, goods bought, or social

shares – that’s the website’s job.
 10
Brand Awareness

L I NK BU I L DI NG TO L I NK EAR NI NG
When you gain a link, you’re gaining additional exposure.

So, if you get a link on New York Times you’ll most likely be seen
by a lot more people.

If you gain a link on a small blog, most likely you’re not going to get
a ton of exposure.

But, if it’s your niche audience, it’s completely worth it.

Search Engines Care About Links

As much as we want to believe the myth that links don’t matter,

that is simply not true.

Links add authority, trust, and value to your brand so, therefore,
search engines boost your brand if other trustworthy sites are
linking to you.

When trading the labor-intensive link building strategies for the

earned, it’s more effective to view the big picture.
 10
A content strategy — as you might have heard “content is king” —
can give you a structured way to assess what value you offer, who

L I NK BU I L DI NG TO L I NK EAR NI NG
is listening, and where to distribute.

Developing a solid content strategy that integrates link earning

into the promotional phase will have the most impact for long-
term success.

Link earning isn’t a marketing tactic. It’s how you impact your
community to earn the actual links.

So, how do you not only create amazing content but help nurture
relationships that make people want to share your content?
 10

L I NK BU I L DI NG TO L I NK EAR NI NG
In Creating Awesome Content,
Strategy is Everything

You can employ a number of marketing tactics to

improve website traffic:

Email drip campaigns.

Community management.
Pay-per-click ads.

The list goes on.

Before you start with a campaign, give it the content it needs to

succeed by creating a strategy.

It makes a difference.
 10
A strategy is the first thing you should do when

L I NK BU I L DI NG TO L I NK EAR NI NG
creating content for link earning.

Who do you want to target?

Where do you want to get links from?
What are your competitors doing?

These are all things to consider when making a successful link

earning strategy.
 10

L I NK BU I L DI NG TO L I NK EAR NI NG
How to Create a Roadmap for
Link Earning
Creating a roadmap for link earning is essential for making
decisions about your content.

But, how do you decide where to start?

Researching your competitors and listening to your customers

allows you to effectively process the type of content that is
generating the most links and what engages your audience.

Developing a system of researching, content mapping, and

promotion is the lifeblood of link earning.

Here are the four steps strategy for turning content into links:

1. Research

One of the hallmarks of developing your strategy is finding data-

oriented information on your audience and competitors to create
actionable takeaways.
 10
To quickly find competitor information, I type in a keyword I want to
rank for in the search box (using incognito).

L I NK BU I L DI NG TO L I NK EAR NI NG
I’ll take the top five to eight competitors listed and ignore the big
players, like Amazon product pages and Facebook pages.
Then, I plug those URLs into link building tools (e.g., Moz, Ahrefs)
to begin pulling data.

For example, in Moz, you’re able to view the most linked pages of
that site. I’ll note the top 10 articles that are being linked for each
competitor.

Next, I’ll add my competitor URL into BuzzSumo. I’ll note the top 10
articles that are being shared.

BuzzsSumo also gives you the option to “View Sharers,” which is

great to start adding to my persona discovery list.

After I have all my data pulled, I’ll build my personas.

The information from BuzzSumo, social media, and Google

Analytics will help me to define demographics, goals and
challenges, values, and any additional insights I might uncover.

2. Creative

Mindmeister has an amazing tool for content message mapping.

I use this tool to help clearly define my message for the content I
want to publish.
 10
Content mapping will also identify if there are any gaps within your
strategy.

L I NK BU I L DI NG TO L I NK EAR NI NG
At this stage, I begin building my editorial calendar with Trello. I
give myself the freedom to throw as many ideas out there as I can
pulling the resources from the research phase. I’ll pair each idea
with a topical keyword phrase to keep it structured.

Once Trello is planned out, I’ll begin pairing my content with

design ideas.

I try to be purposeful in connecting the dots for each visual.

For example, would a video or podcast work best for an interview

article? Or, perhaps an infographic or ebook for a research-
oriented piece?

Also, I’ll decide what types of content upgrades I can feature for
each article.

3. Promotion

After the article is written, I’ll run through my content promotion

workflow. Again, this process is laid out on Trello.

First, I’ll go down my on-site SEO checklist. The usual meta titles,
alt tags, H1 tags, etc. are all in play here.

Once I hit publish, I’ll submit my articles to social bookmarking

sites and answer any relevant questions on Quora or Reddit.
 10
Then, I’ll email my the team at SEJ with pre-populated tweets and
links to the social bookmarking sites for a little extra love.

L I NK BU I L DI NG TO L I NK EAR NI NG
Next, I’ll schedule the article in Buffer to be published on Twitter
three to four times throughout the next week or so and once on
Facebook and LinkedIn.

Depending on the direction of my personas, I’ll also allocate $50

to $100 social ad spend.

And then, I’ll schedule a dedicated blog post email newsletter to

my audience with a pre-populated tweet.

In addition to the email newsletter, I’ll send a personalized email

or tweet to all of the people I mentioned in my article. And, any
influencers I think might be interested in this particular piece.

Within a month or so, I’ll look to start syndicating my content.

Whether this is on my own platforms like LinkedIn or Medium or I
pitch it to Huffington Post.

And, lastly, I’ll look for any opportunities to fit my article in a guest
blog post.

Bonus Tip: Set-up Google Alerts for the long-term growth of

the article.
 10
4. Measurement

L I NK BU I L DI NG TO L I NK EAR NI NG
Now that you’ve hit publish, you want to start tracking your
metrics.

Ask yourself: how does promoting your content increase

awareness, deliver links, contribute to social shares, or add to the
bottom line?

Jay Baer shares metrics of content marketing in one of my

favorite SlideShare decks.

Baer separates these metrics in four categories:

Consumption metrics: How many people viewed,

downloaded, or listened to this piece of content?
Sharing metrics: How resonant is this content, and how
often is it shared with others?
Lead-gen metrics: How often does content consumption
result in a lead?
Sales metrics: Did we actually make any money from this
content?
You can also measure month-over-month how many links each
piece of content is generating within the sharing metrics.

Here is a spreadsheet I use to track my metrics.

High-quality content is one thing, but if you don’t build a strategy

that leverages social shares and link earning the right way, then
you’re wasting your time.

With that in mind, let’s look at a few core link earning techniques to
consider when planning out your content strategy.
 10

L I NK BU I L DI NG TO L I NK EAR NI NG
5 Link Earning Ideas to Try

By now, it’s well-documented that link earning is more than a one-

trick pony at gaining organic space in the SERPs.
Link earning doesn’t happen overnight.

It takes time to build relationships, be a part of a community, and

develop content ideas that actually worth sharing.

Let’s take a look at some link earning ideas to try:

1. Data-Backed, Long-Form Resources

A serpIQ study of the average length of the content in the top 10

results of search queries found that the top-rated posts were more
than 2,000 words.

Now, I’m not advising that you hold yourself to these length
restrictions. Each piece of content should match your audience’s
needs.

However, creating valuable content that is backed by statistics,

quotes from authoritative sources, or your own data can help
people.

This one article has 564 linking root domains because they did
their own research.

Let’s take Vero’s 40 Tips for Dramatically Better Emails article,

for example.

This article currently has 161 linking root domains, more than
8,000 social shares, and a Page Authority of 44.
 10

L I NK BU I L DI NG TO L I NK EAR NI NG
What makes this piece so successful?

It’s very well-written and researched spiking at over 8,000

words.
The design is clean and each tip is coupled with a real-life
example.
It provides relevant data for key points.

Vero’s content is useful to its email marketing targeting audience.

This style can also be used in ego bait or interview style content.

Groove does a great job at interviewing up-and-coming top tech

company entrepreneurs. The article they wrote with Zapier’s CEO,
Wade Foster, has 70 linking root domains, 1,500+ social shares, and
a Page Authority of 44.

2. A How-To Guide

How-tos, tutorials, ebooks, and guides all create valuable content

that helps to attract and convert potential customers.

When you begin educating people, you begin to earn their trust.

Trust eventually converts to links and revenue.

 10
Take a look at the partnership between Chupamobile and
Kissmetrics. They needed a conversion carrot for their emails and,

L I NK BU I L DI NG TO L I NK EAR NI NG
so this lead gen page was created. The page converted 44%
right off the bat.

Or, how about this repair guide. This guide currently

has 31 linking root domains, 13,841 social shares, and
a Page Authority of 74. Why does this work?

The interactive features engage the audience.

The content helps customers solve problems, in turn, making
them happier.

3. Engaging Visuals

Content with relevant images gets 94% more views than content
without relevant images.

Engaging visual content builds your digital story.

Visual content is like the Nutella to your peanut butter. Without it, it’s
just not that good.
 10
Let’s take a look at some visual content:

L I NK BU I L DI NG TO L I NK EAR NI NG
Interactive Infographic: Only 9% of America Chose
Trump and Clinton as the Nominees by New York Times
Memes: Bill Nye Takes One Badass Photo, Becomes
Hilarious Meme by Nerdist
Comparisons: Video Game Characters with Realistic
Body Types by Bulimia.com
Graphics: Perceptions of Perfection by Superdrug Online
Docter

Or, what about this interactive map, Your State’s Favorite Reality
TV Show. This map currently has 71 linking root domains, 984
social shares, and a Page Authority of 52.

Why is this map killing it?

It makes a personal connection with every reality TV show

binge watcher in the United States (guilty!).
The visual content is done very well.
The content pairs nicely with data.
 10
This also includes video. Robbie Richards discusses in a very
detailed case study how he used long-form engaging content

L I NK BU I L DI NG TO L I NK EAR NI NG
with visuals and video to earn links.

He talks about this article, How To Fly A Quadcopter, which now

ranks number 2 for “how to fly a quadcopter.” This article has nine
linking root domains and over 1,000 social shares.

4. Community Building

Building a happy community around your brand takes time, trust,

and authority.

Your community represents a lot of things:

Your brand.
Your ideal customer.
Your ongoing support system.

They’re the ones who convince others to use your products or

services. They help expand your reach and represent the voice of
your company when you’re not there.

Sephora built a forum for their community. With 23 linking root

domains, 1,173 social shares, and a Page Authority of 54.

Groove built got 1,000+ subscribers from one blog post in 24

hours. This article currently has 32 linking root domains, 2,197
social shares, and a Page Authority of 49.
 10
What did they do right?

L I NK BU I L DI NG TO L I NK EAR NI NG
Groove is transparent, honest, and they share real data in
their posts.
They talk to their consumers within the post.
Content upgrades can also be seen scattered throughout the
post.

5. Tools

Creating tools or quizzes is an extension of your brand.

These typically require a user to interact with your content.

It’s a fun personalized experience for both the brand and the user.
This requires you to truly understand who your audience is and
what their needs are.

HubSpot pretty much invented the idea of using tools for inbound
marketing. Their website marketing grader has generation 313
linking root domains and a Page Authority of 79.
 10
What makes this work?

L I NK BU I L DI NG TO L I NK EAR NI NG
It requires users to plug in their email address before even
playing. Lead generation tool already!

It gives the users personalized information based on their

website.

CoSchedule also created a similar tool called the Headline

Analyzer. Again, the personalized interactive content makes this
a win-win.

And, my personal favorite: Android’s Find The Phone For You.

 10

L I NK BU I L DI NG TO L I NK EAR NI NG
Why Link Earning Matters

Link earning is not a solved problem. But, there are many who are
experimenting with ways to legitimately earn high-quality links.

It’s high time for SEO pros to unite to build the

groundwork link earning for businesses to grow
organically in the search engines.

Steve Sheinkopf, president of Yale Appliance and Lighting,

stated content marketing strategy is the engine that drives
their engagement. Their traffic tripled from 40,000 to 150,000
monthly visits. And, they’ve built a Page Authority of 46 with
23 linking root domains.
 10
River Pools and Spas is another small business that has

L I NK BU I L DI NG TO L I NK EAR NI NG
benefited from link earning. Just one blog post “How Much
Does a Fiberglass Pool Cost?” has generated over $2
million in sales, eight linking root domains, and a Page
Authority of 39.

It’s proven that a fierce commitment to strategizing, creating, and

promoting content plays an important role in pushing your content
and links forward.
 11

TH E 7 WOR ST L I NK BU I L DI NG MYTH S H O L DIN G BAC K YO U R CAM PAIG N

Chapter 11

The 7 Worst Link

Building Myths
Holding Back Your
Campaign

Written By
Kristopher Jones
Founder / CEO, LSEO.com
 11
As long as search

TH E 7 WOR ST L I NK BU I L DI NG MYTH S H O L DIN G BAC K YO U R CAM PAIG N

engines shroud their
algorithms in secrecy,
the industry will continue
to be rife with spam and
myths.

I’d argue this encourages businesses to pursue the wrong strategies

rather than strategies that work.

That’s why some people have lost faith in the value of SEO. This limits
opportunities more than it creates new ones.
 11
A s you read through this chapter, you’ll notice a number of
popular myths that cast a negative light on link building and

TH E 7 WOR ST L I NK BU I L DI NG MYTH S H O L DIN G BAC K YO U R CAM PAIG N

leave people scared of pursuing manual link building practices.

This is understandable from where the industry has come from.

You’ve likely heard or read advice from link building experts like, “it’s
no longer 2006!” and “link building should be completely natural.”

But I’d argue that this leaves us blind to good link building
opportunities.

Do search engines justify links by their ends (value) or by their

means (practice)? I’d argue the latter.

But the point here isn’t to argue ethics. It’s to showcase value.

Here I’d like to dispel seven popular myths and misconceptions

about link building that are causing more harm than good.

Once we’ve busted these myths, we can deliver our clients more
value by better understanding the core basics of link building.
 11

H OL DI NG BAC K YOU R CAM PAI GN

TH E 7 WOR ST L I NK BU I L DI NG MYTH S
Myth 1: Backlinks Are a ‘Top’
Google Ranking Factor
This myth dates back to a Google Q&A, when Google Search
Quality Senior Strategist Andrey Lipattsev stated that links,
content, and RankBrain were Google’s top three ranking factors.

But if this were true, it would ignore a vast majority of signals, such
as user experience, query intent, and hundreds of other ranking
factors to prioritize pages by the amount of backlinks they have.

John Mueller even clarified this.

Google’s ranking factors are dynamic, employing different

algorithms when determining the results of different queries for
different user intent.

But countless correlation studies have shown that pages in the top
three results tend to have an huge number of backlinks.
 11
The question is:
Do these pages rank high because of their backlink profile – or do

TH E 7 WOR ST L I NK BU I L DI NG MYTH S H O L DIN G BAC K YO U R CAM PAIG N

they have so many backlinks because they have are ranking high?

It’s all relative.

Would a Position 4 result with more twice as many clicks eventually

overthrow a Position 2 piece of content with twice as many
backlinks?

How do Google and Bing weigh these different considerations

against each other?

We don’t know. So we shouldn’t limit our strategy.

Does this mean that backlinks aren’t an important ranking signal?

Of course not.

The influence of links may be more substantial in first-page search

results when most other factors remain equal.
 11

H OL DI NG BAC K YOU R CAM PAI GN

TH E 7 WOR ST L I NK BU I L DI NG MYTH S
Myth 2: The Penguin Penalty

Penguin is an algorithm, not a penalty handed out by Google.

The distinction is important for two reasons.

Google won’t warn you when your site is devalued because

of its backlink profile.

Recovery from an algorithmic devaluation offers simpler

solutions.
 11
Despite promises from Google that Penguin 4.0 does not trigger
negative sitewide ranking actions, countless case studies have

TH E 7 WOR ST L I NK BU I L DI NG MYTH S H O L DIN G BAC K YO U R CAM PAIG N

proven differently.

Check out these case studies here and here for more proof.

Recovering from negative SEO caused by spammy link building

only requires disavowing those links that qualify as obvious spam.

Generally, you shouldn’t worry about Penguin if you’re pursuing

good linking strategies and avoiding links farms and networks.

Even if Penguin does catch some malicious links, which every site
has, then I still wouldn’t freak out because chances are Penguin
won’t even register those individual links.
 11

I NG BAC K YOU R CAM PAI GN

TH E 7 WOR ST L I NK BU I L DI NG MYTH S H O L D -
Myth 3: Link Quality Can Be
Defined by DA or PA

How do search engines define link quality?

We aren’t sure.

So how should you define link quality?

This might be considered more of a misconception than a myth.

Third-party metrics, such as Domain Authority (DA) and Trust Flow,

are merely barometers or guesses for how well a site compares to
others.

DA is neither a ranking signal, nor does it give us complete insight

into how qualitative a website is for link building.

I’ve run into so many sites with a high DA that were either
abandoned or just obvious link farms.
 11
This isn’t to trash DA specifically. The problem is relying on a single
proprietary metric to justify junk link campaigns and charge clients.

TH E 7 WOR ST L I NK BU I L DI NG MYTH S H O L DIN G BAC K YO U R CAM PAIG N

So let’s take a stab at determining what a good link is:

Linking domain offers content relevant to your business.

Linking domain has high traffic value.
Anchor text is contextual.
Linked-to page offers value to users.
The website has an editorial process in place for content.

It’s really that simple.

What’s dangerous about this line of thinking is that chasing DA

leaves you blind to opportunities right in front of you.

This includes ignoring relevance, new websites, and even low-

hanging fruit in the fruitless quest for DA.
 11

I NG BAC K YOU R CAM PAI GN

TH E 7 WOR ST L I NK BU I L DI NG MYTH S H O L D -
Myth 4: Asking Someone for a
Link Is Spammy

As we’ve all heard, asking someone for a link or exchanging a link

between sites is spammy.

There are countless examples of “expert advice” saying you could

risk a manual action if the site you get a link from does this often.

But reclaiming citations or manually reaching out for a link from

a relevant directory or publication should not be grouped into the
same category as link exchanges.

If so, it would mean that broken link building and resource link
building should be avoided.
 11

H OL DI NG BAC K YOU R CAM PAI GN

TH E 7 WOR ST L I NK BU I L DI NG MYTH S
Myth 5: High Link Velocity
Contribute to Manual
Penalties
Many people fear that building tons of links to a single piece of
content could negatively impact its keyword rank.

As impressive as search engines are, their ability to index the

entire web and identify trends like this would be nearly impossible.

Besides, it makes sense that a highly original and valuable

webpage would generate backlinks exponentially on its own.

Every time somebody links to your content it increases its visibility

and gives it the opportunity to acquire additional links.

If this increases keyword rank enough, this effect significantly

compounds.

It’s the very idea of organic link building.

That said, if you acquire a ton of low-quality links from content

networks and spammy directories, then you could be slapped with
a manual penalty or significant link profile devaluation.
 11

I NG BAC K YOU R CAM PAI GN

TH E 7 WOR ST L I NK BU I L DI NG MYTH S H O L D -
Myth 6: Guest Posting
Negatively Contributes
to Link Building
We’ve been hearing about how guest posting is dead for years.

These statements, like many from Google, were later rescinded or

clarified.

Why would search engines punish you from guest posting in a

highly relevant and trafficked publication to market your business
and thought leadership?

Obviously, contextual links are valued higher then homepage links

in your byline, but spamming your contextual links with keyword-
rich anchor text could be self-defeating.

Guest posting just to build links misses the point of link building.

Guest posting, and even acquiring nofollowed links, could have

indirect benefits on your digital marketing from increasing your
brand visibility across the web to your flow of traffic from these
sources.
 11

H OL DI NG BAC K YOU R CAM PAI GN

TH E 7 WOR ST L I NK BU I L DI NG MYTH S
Myth 7: Link Building Is All
About Links
This leads me to my last point that link building is much more
than increasing the volume of links to your site.

Link building can:

Increase your brand’s visibility across the web.

Increase traffic to your domain.
Showcase your brand’s authority and value.
 11
Primarily, manual link building should be more about building
relationships with other websites for marketing opportunities

TH E 7 WOR ST L I NK BU I L DI NG MYTH S H O L DIN G BAC K YO U R CAM PAIG N

than simply acquiring a link.

I compare it to brand building in many aspects.

With that said, link building does have an obvious direct result in
your rankings, but it also offers many positive indirect results that
go on behind the scenes.

Conclusion
The moral of the story?

Avoid spam, but don’t avoid low-hanging fruit and good

opportunities in the pursuit of DA or appeasing a penguin god.

As with everything online, digital marketing is just as filled with

facts as it is fallacies.

Know how to spot the truth and follow the best practice of link
building for the best results for your marketing campaign.
 12

TH E U LTI MATE GU I DE TO OUTS OU RC I N G L I N K BU IL D IN G ( F O R B EG IN N E RS )

Chapter 12

The Ultimate Guide

to Outsourcing
Link Building (For
Beginners)
I N PA R T N E R S H I P W I T H

Written By
Joe Davies
Co-Founder, FATJOE
 12
Ranking high on Google

TH E U LTI MATE GU I DE TO OUTS OU RC I N G L I N K BU IL D IN G ( F O R B EG IN N E RS )

is becoming something
of a competitive sport.

Organizations are involved in a kind of zero-sum arms race, duking it

out with each other to climb their way to the top of page one to secure
the attention of users.

Just describing the process is exhausting, let alone sitting down and
taking part in it.

For this reason, ever increasing numbers of businesses are

outsourcing the link-building process to trusted third-parties: people
with the skills and pre-existing networks to take the pain out of the
process.
 12

L I NK BU I L DI NG (F OR B EGI NNER S)
TH E U LTI MATE GU I DE TO OUTS OU RC I N G
Why Outsource Link Building?

Take a look at some of the reasons why your firm might want to
outsource link building.

To Save Time

If you run a small business, you might not have the luxury of being
able to hand over the somewhat tricky task of building links to your
fully-staffed marketing department. Heck, you might not even have
a marketing department!

The idea, therefore, that you have time to contact websites, create
content, upload links, and check that they’ve been implemented is
laughable. Of course, you don’t have time: you have a business to
run!

Outsourcing your link building to an agency, however, helps you

skirt around this devilish time sink and keep your head above
water. You could save yourself weeks of the year by handing your
link building strategy over to somebody else.
 12
So You Can Scale Results

TH E U LTI MATE GU I DE TO OUTS OU RC I N G L I N K BU IL D IN G ( F O R B EG IN N E RS )

It can be hard for those with multiple websites to scale results
or copy strategy from one to the next without the power of
outsourcing.

Outsourcing provides practically unlimited labor to get the job

done and allows you to create synergies between websites.
Once you’ve got a process in place on one, you can then duplicate
it across the remainder.

So That You Can Avoid Hiring In-House

Hiring a team of people for link building can get very expensive,
very fast.

Not only do you need skilled content creators to generate

compelling content for target websites, but you also have to
supplement their efforts with outreach specialists, graphic
designers, and managers to oversee the effort. For most, it’s just
not worth it.

With outsourcing, however, you can avoid hiring in-house

altogether. You can build a fully-equipped marketing department at
a fraction of the cost you’d pay if you tried to bring it in-house.

So That You Can Get Unlimited Scalability

Being physically proximate to the people who work for you is

so yesterday. Today it’s all about global workforces and infinite
scalability.
 12
Imagine if you had to rely on people who lived in your local area for
all the skills you require to develop your link building strategy?

TH E U LTI MATE GU I DE TO OUTS OU RC I N G L I N K BU IL D IN G ( F O R B EG IN N E RS )

You’d be limited for choice and might not get access to either the
quality OR the quantity of the people you need.

By outsourcing, you skirt around this pesky problem, tapping into

talent both nationally and internationally.

So You Can Get Predictable Costs

Link building processes can be “productized” and “commoditized.”

In non-business speak, that means that the price becomes

predictable, and you know what you’re getting ahead of time.

Outsourcing link building works out a lot cheaper overall than

doing it in-house, and costs tend to be more stable over time.
 12

BU I L DI NG (F OR B EGI NNER S)
TH E U LTI MATE GU I DE TO OUTS OU RC I N G L I N K
Where to Outsource Link
Building

Okay, so if you’ve now decided you want to outsource link building,

where should you look?

Hire People Through Upwork

Upwork is a platform where people offer their skills and time in

exchange for money. It’s an excellent place for companies to find
budding link builders – people who are willing to put in the hours
that they aren’t.

The advantage of gig work sites like Upwork is that you can find
talent quickly and you don’t have to go through the process of
formally hiring anyone in-house.

The downside is that you’ll need to write Standard Operating

Procedure documents and, in all likelihood, also have to provide
management and training.
 12
Link builders offering their services through Upwork might not
understand that quality is more important than quantity, or that

TH E U LTI MATE GU I DE TO OUTS OU RC I N G L I N K BU IL D IN G ( F O R B EG IN N E RS )

specific link building strategies are superior to others.

Find People for One-Off Gigs on Fiverr

Fiverr is similar in concept to Upwork, making it easy to hire

freelancers offering link building services. Services are sold in a
‘gig’ format, meaning you get a predictable deliverable for a set
cost. Again, you benefit from the fact that you don’t have to go
through the expensive process of hiring somebody.

Beware, many of the SEO services offered through Fiverr are of

low quality. Freelancers may offer the world, but the final product
might not be up to scratch.

If you can, try to find recommended Fiverr SEO services: those

with an established track record of success. Avoid cheap options
like the plague.

Hire a Filipino from OnlineJobs.ph

Getting a Filipino to do your link building for you guarantees

that it’ll be cheap. Wages in the Philippines make geographical
sense to businesses in the Western world.

You may need to pay for training, and there could be language
barriers.
 12
Use an SEO Agency

TH E U LTI MATE GU I DE TO OUTS OU RC I N G L I N K BU IL D IN G ( F O R B EG IN N E RS )

SEO agencies tend to cost a lot more than the options we’ve
discussed so far, but they often offer a far more in-depth service
and, at the very least, understand the SEO landscape.

Quality SEO services are unlikely to get you into trouble with
Google for using “black hat” techniques that go against the
terms of service. And they tend to be a good option for absolute
beginners.

In general, however, they could be a waste of money for

those with intermediate or expert SEO knowledge who could
orchestrate their own team or make use of individual link building
services.

Use a Specialist Link Building Provider

Link building providers, like FATJOE (shameless plug), are great

for SEOs who have their own strategies and campaigns and need
them executing.

There are no ongoing charges or minimum or maximum orders:

just predictable and straightforward pricing.

With a link building provider, you get all the expertise you need,
with no training and no SOPs.

Check out FATJOE.com. (Use this link to claim 25% off your first
order.)
 12

L I NK BU I L DI NG (F OR B EGI NNER S)
TH E U LTI MATE GU I DE TO OUTS OU RC I N G
Best Practices

What are some link building best practices?

Use Safe & Natural Anchor Text

Back in 2012, the link building world changed forever. Google

released Penguin 1.0, a series of updates to its ranking algorithm
designed to catch people using dubious link-building strategies.

No normal website, for instance, should have 100 percent of its

links redirecting users to “cheap used cars.” It’s not how things
work naturally on the web.

It’s crucial that those new to the link building game bear this in
mind. Avoid “keyword stuffing.”
 12
Focus on your brand and let the anchor text flow naturally within
the rest of the content. It shouldn’t feel out of place or like it’s

TH E U LTI MATE GU I DE TO OUTS OU RC I N G L I N K BU IL D IN G ( F O R B EG IN N E RS )

just there to provide the link (even though that the only reason it
exists).

Link to a Variety of Pages, but Mainly Your Home

Page

You’ll want to link primarily to your homepage. Doing this will help
this particular page act as a funnel for your organic traffic.

Other pages to link to include blog posts, articles and,

occasionally, money pages.

Slow & Steady Wins the Race

When it comes to link building, you don’t want it to look artificial:

slow and steady wins the race.

The most successful link builders emulate natural popularity over

time.
 12

L I NK BU I L DI NG (F OR B EGI NNER S)
TH E U LTI MATE GU I DE TO OUTS OU RC I N G
How to Measure Results

Once your link building strategy is up and running, how do you

make sure it’s generating results?

Measure Organic Traffic

Don’t fall foul of keyword OCD. When it comes to your site’s

effectiveness, it’s not individual keyword rankings that matter but
rather overall search traffic across all your keyword targets.

Getting on the first page for the majority of related keywords

is better than being first for one or two, and then in fifth-page
oblivion for all the others.

Consider the Quality of Your Links

It’s not just the quantity of your links that matter, but their quality,
too. Google and other search engines tend to place more weight
on links from high-quality authority sites than sites nobody has
ever heard of.
 12
Ideally, you want your links to be incoming from domains that
Google considers trustworthy and professional.

TH E U LTI MATE GU I DE TO OUTS OU RC I N G L I N K BU IL D IN G ( F O R B EG IN N E RS )

Relying on Private Blog Networks (PBNs), that use expired
domains with authority backlinks is a bad idea.

Sure, they might provide you with an immediate boost in rankings,

but once search engine web trawlers discover the practice, you
could be punished.

To stay on the right side of the guidelines, it’s a good idea to

discuss the standards you expect with your outsourced team.

Be clear on your rules ahead of time. Or, alternatively, choose a

link building agency with high standards of practice.

Reporting

If you use an outsourced team, do they report on all of the links

that they create?

They should!

Reporting is not only essential for you to check that the

outsourced team has included your anchor text as specified, but
that the link exists and you’re getting what you paid for.

Quality services provide you with tools to see precisely what

you’re getting in context and in real-time.
 13

TH E 7 WOR ST L I NK BU I L DI NG MYTH S H O L DIN G BAC K YO U R CAM PAIG N

Chapter 13

Link Building
Terms You Should
Know: The Ultimate
Glossary

Written By
Julie Joyce
Owner, Link Fish Media
 13
Do you ever hear link

TH E 7 WOR ST L I NK BU I L DI NG MYTH S H O L DIN G BAC K YO U R CAM PAIG N

building terms casually
thrown around and
wonder what they
actually mean?

If so, this chapter is for you.

Here’s an alphabetical list of link building terms you should know.

 13
A

L I NK BU I L DI NG TER M S YOU SH OU L D KN OW: TH E U LTIMATE G LO S SARY

Anchor Text
This is the text inside of the anchor element and the keyword(s)
that you click on in order to go to a target page.

Algorithm Updates
We are almost always referring to Google when we speak of
algorithm updates. For a list of major updates see History of
Google Algorithm Updates.

Basically, this just means that something has changed in the way
Google looks at sites.

Alt Tags/Attributes
Alt is an attribute (described below) that should be used to
describe an image. Screen readers use alt attributes to describe
an image to a visually-impaired user.

Attributes
To summarize, attributes describe more about a particular HTML
element. As mentioned just above, alt is an attribute for an image
link. For a full explanation see this guide.
 13
B

L I NK BU I L DI NG TER M S YOU SH OU L D KN OW: TH E U LTIMATE G LO S SARY

Backlinks
This term refers to the links that are pointing to your site from
another site. People also call them simply “links”, referring links,
inbound links, and incoming links.

Bots
Also called robots/crawlers/spiders, bots retrieve information from
websites.

Brand Mentions
If your brand is mentioned within content without a link, whether
it’s on a website or in social media, this is a brand mention.

Broken Links
A broken link is one that points to a nonexistent resource.
 13
C

L I NK BU I L DI NG TER M S YOU SH OU L D KN OW: TH E U LTIMATE G LO S SARY

Canonicals
A canonical element tells a search engine which page is the
desired one to use as the original source in order to prevent
duplicate content.

Citation Flow
This is a trademark Majestic metric that measures the link equity
of a website.

Citations
These are mentions of your business’s info like name and phone
number. They are not usually linked and can help search engines
to better trust a business.

Class C
People call this a C class network or block also and it refers to IP
addresses. Click here if you need a more technical definition.

Cleanup
This refers to cleaning up potentially bad/spammy links usually, but
it can refer to tidying up any other issues related to a site.

Click-through Rates
CTR is the measure of how many people actually click on a link to
your site vs how many times your site appears somewhere.
 13
Co-citation
This is a semantic measurement of the relationship between

L I NK BU I L DI NG TER M S YOU SH OU L D KN OW: TH E U LTIMATE G LO S SARY

multiple items.

Competitive Analysis
This refers to looking at one site in relation to its competitors. Link
builders sometimes use competitive analysis in order to identify
links that other sites have but their site does not, giving them a list
of links to pursue.

Content
Content is anything consumable including text, videos,
infographics, etc.

Content Marketing
Often viewed as a nicer way of saying that you’re building links,
content marketing is the practice of creating content that can
naturally attract links after it’s been shared.

Conversion Rates
This is the percentage of users/visitors who complete a specific
goal. That goal can be submitting a contact us form, downloading
an ebook, buying a product, etc.

Crawlability
This refers to how well search engine spiders can get through and
follow links on your website.
 13
D

L I NK BU I L DI NG TER M S YOU SH OU L D KN OW: TH E U LTIMATE G LO S SARY

Deep Links
Deep links refer to links that go to pages other than the homepage.

Deindexed
This refers to a site being kicked out of a search engine’s index for
various reasons, usually a violation of guidelines.

Directories
Directories are sites that list other sites in various categories.
Some can still be valuable, especially locally, but some are simply
spammy lists of sites with no real value.

Disavow
When you disavow a link, you’re telling Google that you don’t want
the link credited to your site. You can send disavow lists straight to
Google.

Disclaimer
A disclaimer can be used for various purposes but in link
building terms it is a notice saying that links on a page have been
purchased or that the article is sponsored.

Dofollowed Links
Links are automatically followed unless a nofollow attribute is
added (and possibly unless your Wordpress plugins override
everything to be nofollowed) and there is technically no such thing
as a dofollowed link. There is no dofollow tag but people use this
term a lot to simply mean a followed link.
 13
Domain Authority
Domain Authority is a metric created by Moz to predict how well a

L I NK BU I L DI NG TER M S YOU SH OU L D KN OW: TH E U LTIMATE G LO S SARY

site will rank.

Domain Rating
This is an Ahrefs metric designed to indicate the strength of a
site’s link profile.

Duplicate Content
Duplicate content can occur due to many reasons but it’s thought
to be a poor signal to Google so it’s undesirable. Canonical tags
are used to help a search engine bot to understand where the
original page is.
 13
E

L I NK BU I L DI NG TER M S YOU SH OU L D KN OW: TH E U LTIMATE G LO S SARY

Editorial Links
If someone gives you a link without you requesting it in some way,
that’s an editorial link.

Evergreen Content
Content that doesn’t become outdated easily is considered to be
evergreen content.

F
Followed Links
Links are naturally followed unless they have a rel=“nofollow”
attribute on them in the code. The term “followed” is used to tell
search engines to “credit” the links towards the sites they point to
so they will help the sites rank higher.

Footer Links
These are the links in a site’s footer. They used to be heavily
spammed but that is not seen as often these days.

404s
The 404 HTTP response code signals a page that is not found.
 13
G

L I NK BU I L DI NG TER M S YOU SH OU L D KN OW: TH E U LTIMATE G LO S SARY

Google Analytics
A free website analytics program that gives you all sorts of
information about your site.

Google Search Console

Another free program from Google, formerly called Webmaster
Tools. Search Console also gives you information about your site
and can be connected to Analytics. There are various reports that
can be run to help you get more information about how your site is
performing in the SERPs.

Google Webmaster Guidelines

Found here, Google Webmaster Guidelines are subject to
alteration. Your site can be penalized or deindexed for violations of
their guidelines.

Guest Posts
These are articles written by someone who does not typically
write for the websites they’re placed on. Large scale guest posts
with keyword-rich anchors are listed as a violation of Google’s
guidelines for links.
 13
H

L I NK BU I L DI NG TER M S YOU SH OU L D KN OW: TH E U LTIMATE G LO S SARY

Hidden Links
Hidden links are links that are coded so that they do not appear as
links.

Href
This is an attribute of the anchor tag for links. It contains the URL
and the anchor text.
 13
I

L I NK BU I L DI NG TER M S YOU SH OU L D KN OW: TH E U LTIMATE G LO S SARY

Image Links
This is an image that links to another page, either internally or
externally. Not all images contain a link.

Inbound Links
Links pointing to your site from another site are called inbound
links.

Indexation
This refers to how a search engine has crawled and cataloged a
site.

Infographics
Containing both images and text in one single format, infographics
are a common form of content.

Internal Links
These are links to other pages on your site. Your internal links are
critical for navigation and crawlability.

IP Addresses
An IP address is a series of numbers identifying a computer.
 13
J

L I NK BU I L DI NG TER M S YOU SH OU L D KN OW: TH E U LTIMATE G LO S SARY

Juice
Many people highly dislike this term, but the phrase “link juice” is
still used to indicate the value of a link.

K
Keywords
These are the words and phrases that indicate the topic of a page,
the content of an image, or the relevant terms for a link in the form
of its anchor text.
 13
L

L I NK BU I L DI NG TER M S YOU SH OU L D KN OW: TH E U LTIMATE G LO S SARY

Landing Pages
These are the pages that a user hits when they first visit your site
from any avenue.

Link Exchange
Once a common form of link building, a link exchange is when site
A links to site B in return for B linking back to A.

Linking Domains
This is the number of unique domains linking to a site. It is different
from the gross number of links.

Link Reclamation
Link reclamation is a process of adding links to your site from
broken links or unlinked mentions

Link Schemes
Google gives you a list of violations to its guidelines, including an
array of practices that they consider to be link schemes.

Links Pages
These are pages listing multiple links, intended as a resource
guide.
 13
M

L I NK BU I L DI NG TER M S YOU SH OU L D KN OW: TH E U LTIMATE G LO S SARY

Manual Penalty
Google will notify you of a manual penalty through Search
Console. A manual penalty (officially called a manual action by
Google) is different from an algorithmic issue. (For more about the
difference read The Complete List of Google Penalties & How
to Recover.) With a manual penalty you have the chance to fix the
issues and send in a reconsideration request to Google.

Mobile-First Indexing
This is the new way Google indexes a site. They crawl and index
the mobile version first. If you only have a desktop version, that’s
what will be indexed.

N
Nofollowed Links
Adding a rel=nofollow tag to a link tells a search engine not to
count it towards the site it points to.

Noise Anchors
These are keywords such as “click here” “website” etc.
 13
O

L I NK BU I L DI NG TER M S YOU SH OU L D KN OW: TH E U LTIMATE G LO S SARY

Off Page
Link building is an off page SEO practice as it does not require
working directly with the website.

On Page
On page SEO is comprised on anything done on the site in order to
improve its position in the SERPs.

Open Rates
This is the percentage of people who receive an email and open it.

Outreach
Outreach is the practice of contacting sites that you’d like to link to
your site, whether by email, the phone, or social media.
 13
P

L I NK BU I L DI NG TER M S YOU SH OU L D KN OW: TH E U LTIMATE G LO S SARY

Page Authority
Page Authority is a metric created by Moz to predict how well a
page will rank.

Page Not Found

Also called a 404 error, this is a page that no longer exists where it
once did.

PageRank
PageRank is Google’s way of measuring the importance of a
website. This is no longer a publicly available metric. Toolbar
PageRank was once available for anyone to see.

Paid Links
A violation of Google’s guidelines, a paid link is one that has gone
live in exchange for money.

Position Tracking
The practice of tracking where you rank for various keywords
across a period of time.

PBNs
Private blog networks (PBNs) are networks of sites.

Q
Query
A query is a request made to a search engine in order to get
information.
 13
R

L I NK BU I L DI NG TER M S YOU SH OU L D KN OW: TH E U LTIMATE G LO S SARY

Rankings
This refers to where you appear in the SERPs for each query.

Reciprocal Links
Otherwise referred to as a link exchange, reciprocal links are links
where A links to B and B links back to A.

Reconsideration Request
If you have been hit by a manual action or affected by security
issues, once you fix the problem you submit a reconsideration
request to Google.

Redirects
Redirects send a site or page elsewhere.

Referring Domains
In your link profile you may have 15000 links but only 5000 referring
domains due to having multiple links coming from the same site.

Rel
Rel is an attribute that is only present in the code for a link.

Resource Pages
Pages that mostly list resources and links.

Robots.txt
This is a text file used to give instructions to search engines. It’s
commonly used to block crawlers from specific areas of the site.
 13
S

L I NK BU I L DI NG TER M S YOU SH OU L D KN OW: TH E U LTIMATE G LO S SARY

Search Operators
Search operators are words and symbols used to help narrow
down a search.

Second-tier Links
Links that point to sites that link to your site.

SERPs
The SERPs are search engine results pages, which is the list of
sites returned in a query.

Sitemaps
A sitemap tells a search engine how to get to all of your pages that
you want crawled.

Sitewide Links
These are links on every page of a site, such as in the footer or
blogroll.

Source Code
The actual code of a page that can be viewed in a browser. Not all
code is viewable in this way.

Spam
Jokingly referred to as “sites positioned above mine”, spam can
refer to anything that is undesirable or unsolicited online.
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Spiders
Search engine crawlers.

L I NK BU I L DI NG TER M S YOU SH OU L D KN OW: TH E U LTIMATE G LO S SARY

Sponsored Posts
If money is exchanged in order to publish a post, it’s a sponsored
post. Most sponsored posts contain disclaimers but not all do.
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T

L I NK BU I L DI NG TER M S YOU SH OU L D KN OW: TH E U LTIMATE G LO S SARY

Targets
A target is the page you want a link to lead someone to.

Templates
Many link outreach specialists use templates (that can be
modified) for outreach. A template is simply an outline for
something that is often used.

Toxic Links
These are links that are thought to potentially harm your site.

Traffic
The amount of visitors to a page or site.

Trust Flow
This is a trademark Majestic metric that measures the
categorization of a website.
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U

L I NK BU I L DI NG TER M S YOU SH OU L D KN OW: TH E U LTIMATE G LO S SARY

Unlinked Mentions
This is when your brand is mentioned in content with no link to
your site.

Unnatural Links
Links that are paid, spammy, or part of a link scheme.

URLs
A URL is a web address.

URL Rating
Another Ahrefs metric, the URL rating measures the strength of a
target’s backlink profile.

V
Velocity
The speed of link growth.

W
Wayback Machine
Using the Wayback Machine you can view a site’s archived pages
from various dates.

Widget
Widgets are bits of code embedded on a page, usually designed to
provide links back to page.
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X

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XML sitemap
This is used to tell search engines about all of your pages and
where they can be found. XML is a markup language.

Y
Yandex
Yandex is a Russian search engine.

Z
I’ve seen everything from Zen to Zzzzz here – but as far as I know,
there are no link building terms that begin with the letter Z.