Affordable link building is a continual process. In the beginning, it’s not cost-effective and time-efficient to leverage every social platform to attract links and backlinks because you don’t have relationships or content on there yet. But as you build your audience on those platforms, people will start to link directly to your page.
This article is going to go through ten easy ways that you can help facilitate your link building campaign without breaking the bank or wasting too much of your precious time. (We’ve also included a few bonus tips at the end for even more ideas.
Ten Easy Ways To Facilitate Your Link Building Campaign :
1. Utilize Search Engine Cache
The search engine cache is the most under-utilized tool in the link building arsenal. It’s free and offers several advantages over obtaining a direct social link, especially if you’re new to link building.
If you already have a blog or website, add a description of your site in the sitemap section of your URL and use 301 redirects to dynamically change your URL’s to your new website. This will ensure that search engines will look at all of your pages on their index sites regardless of whether they are usually cached or not.
2. Add external links to your blog posts
If you’re already blogging, add an external link to the bottom of each of your blog posts that link back to a page on your website. This will give your blog’s content a more consistent look, which is much easier for search engines to figure out and index correctly.
If you’re adding this as a new tactic for this year, be sure not to overload your blog posts with links because it may look spammy and Google may penalize the page.
3. Integrate social media buttons into your website
If you’re visiting a website and want to share it with someone else, chances are you’re going to use one of the social media buttons that are placed on the site’s sidebar. If your site doesn’t have them, they will be less likely to share it which will decrease your link value.
If you don’t want to use a subscription-based plugin like ShareThis or AddThis, try using a widget that only appears when a user hovers over the button. This way, every time someone shares your page on Facebook or Twitter, it counts as an additional backlink without being too forceful about it.
4. Add HTML sitemap code to your pages
Always place the sitemap.xml code on every page of your website, even if no one is visiting it. Google will index this, so if you’re ever going to optimize a page, you can use the content on this page as a basis for what to change. This is not only a backlink and SEO tool, but will also help you with SEO strategy based on what content is really getting indexed.
5. Use the Google Webmaster Toolbar
The Google Webmaster Toolbar can be used like an internal search engine for your site by entering certain keywords in the bar’s search field. It can be used as a source of inspiration for new blog content as well if you want to write original posts based on what people are searching for.
6. Comment on other relevant blogs
It’s important not to spam other people’s websites with comments that are just intended to get a backlink, so the easiest way to do this is to comment on their blog when you have something relevant and interesting to add.
Some people will take these comments as a backlink, especially if your comment is insightful in some way or gives them an opportunity to promote their service or product. The SEO value isn’t always immediate, but it will help build relationships with other bloggers who may link back at some point.
7. Join an online community
If you need a new online community to join, you should try joining niche-based communities that are relevant to your industry and where you can contribute valuable information for free. If the administrator is open about the content of the community, it will be easier for you to find good opportunities for backlinks because people wouldn’t want their website to be penalized by the search engines.
8. Use Twitter to get in touch with industry influencers
You can use Twitter as a tool to connect with industry influencers by looking up people who are already engaged in discussions or retweeting and favoriting others’ content. If you add value to their conversations, they will often connect with you and return the favor. This is not only a great way to stay abreast of the latest news, but also helps you build relationships that may lead to backlinks down the road.
9. Find relevant blogs and comment on them
Commenting on other people’s blog posts is a great way of getting attention and building relationships with other bloggers in your industry. If you really want a backlink, include a relevant link in your comment and be sure to use anchor text that won’t get flagged by the search engines.
10. Build a relationship with industry leaders
It’s easier to build relationships and establish yourself as an authority in your industry if you can connect directly with other industry leaders who are well-respected and have an extensive network of connections. You can start off small by commenting on their blog content, then engaging them in discussion on Twitter or via email.
If they like what they see and hear from you, they will usually come back to engage with you again which will lead to the next level of relationship building which may eventually result in backlinks or co-marketing opportunities.
