What is SEO Link Building in 2023: Ultimate Beginner’s Guide

What is SEO Link Building and How Backlinks are Important for Your Site’s Ranking and Traffic?

For every online business, SEO is an essential aspect and backlinks are the backbone of SEO. In this blog, we will study; what is SEO link building and how backlinks are important? Moreover, we will also talk about the various strategies and techniques to build high-quality backlinks. Since building links is the hardest thing about SEO marketing, you can not ignore it as a website owner. 

What is SEO Link Building?

Link building is the process of increasing brand visibility and promoting your website on other sites by securing links to impress search engines.

Here you acquire hyperlinks from other websites to your website, and search engines like Google use these backlinks to crawl the web. 

Hence, if you have lots of quality backlinks from high authority referring domains or relevant sources, you establish effectiveness, authority, and trust in both search engine bots and users’ eyes. Google views your site as an authority in its niche and helps to hook the site’s ranking. 

What is Link Building in Off-Page SEO?

Link building is an integral part of off-page SEO. Without link building, off-page SEO is incomplete, and you can never win the battle of SEO. Link building improves the ranking of your website on search engineers and enhances E-A-T, brand awareness, traffic, and leads. There are various effective ways of building backlinks that we will discuss in detail. 

Types of Backlinks and What All You Know About No-Follow Backlinks: 

When you earn backlinks from paid promotion, sponsored content, press releases, or blog commenting, these links tend to be no-follow links. Search engines do not consider no-follow links as a ranking factor, and their algorithm ignores no-follow links.

Your website should have a great mix of do-follow and no-follow backlinks. But, you should focus more on getting do-follow links. 

What are Do-Follow Backlinks? 

Links that pass juices, benefit SEO, improve the website domain authority, and significantly increase the web page ranking in search engines are called do-follow links. 

What are No-Follow Backlinks? 

rel=”nofollow” tells search engines that do not consider this link as an endorsement.

No-follow links do not help in the SERPs. No-follow links do not improve web pages ranking and authority of your site.  

Is Link Building Still Relevant to SEO, or Is Link Building Dead?

Many people ask about the relevance of link-building. They doubt the power of backlinks, and sometimes they also come up with a query, Is link building dead? Some of them bluntly say that being proactive in building links is a massive worthless effort and a waste of time. 

My simple one-liner answer for all of their queries is- you can not run, grow, or even afford your online business without link building. It is ever-evolving and becoming one of the toughest nuts to crack in the overall SEO marketing process. For long-term brand visibility, organic ranking, and traffic, you will have to invest your resources, time, and money in link building.

Why Link Building is Important for your Online Business/Blogging?

Building high-quality backlinks on many high authority websites are critically important for many reasons;

i) Backlinks Build Long Term Relationship and Partnership

Link building allows you to build a long-term relationship with the key influencers and other brands in your niche. Here, you start working as a collaborative or knowledge partner with other brands. It forms a synergy that gives mutual benefits in terms of promotion, traffic, brand building. 

ii) Backlinks Build Brand and Increase Domain Authority of Your Website:

One of the significant roles of building links is to increase the website’s E-A-T, i.e., effectiveness, authority, and trust. 

Since users and search engine bots start finding you not only on your website but on so many referring domains. Hence, the credibility, visibility, and trust among the audience and Google bots start increasing for your site.

And its effectiveness increases day by day. If your website has higher E-A-T, other brands, micro, and celebrity influencers start talking and linking your web pages to their sites and share on social media channels. If your website releases any comprehensive industry reports, studies, or reveals any data, then your website starts getting traction on search engines, social media channels, and word-of-mouth publicity. And in a short span, you become a huge brand.  

iii) Link-Building Brings High Qualified Referral Traffic on Your Website: 

Users can find you not only through searching your website but from so many websites as well. Therefore, a quality backlink on a relevant site not only increases the brand visibility and domain authority of your website but also drives a massive amount of qualified referral traffic and leads. 

Search engines use these backlinks in two fundamental ways:

1. To discover new web pages
2. To determine how well a web page should rank in their results

iv) Link Building is Helpful for Your Site and Web Pages Ranking: 

Your web pages’ ranking is directly correlated with the domain authority, page authority, traffic fall, and user experience. Backlinks play a significant role in increasing the domain authority, page authority, user experience, and drive traffic on many websites to your website.

That is why, I say, link building is the toughest nut to crack because every online business wants to build backlinks to get organic ranking on search engines. 

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How to Check Backlinks and Domain Authority of your Site (DA and Backlink Checker)? 

You can check the backlinks (do-follow and no-follow links) on respective domains and the domain authority of your website. I have tested 4 top domain authority and backlink checker SEO marketing tools.

Semrush:

When it comes to all-in-one digital marketing and SEO tool, Semrush is the king. They have the biggest database of more than 20 billion+ keywords and 800 million+ domains. Try Semrush Free for 14-Days Now!

Since they have such an enormous database, that is why you can check the backlinks and domain authority of your website. The result will always be closer to perfection than other backlink checker tools. 

Ahrefs: 

Another favorite marketing tool for domain rating and backlink checker is Ahrefs. It is one of the most preferred SEO tools when it comes to link building and backlink checkers. Ahrefs results are also approximately accurate. 

UberSuggest: 

If you are looking for a super affordable and excellent tool for the overall SEO process such as link building, domain score, backlink checker, then UberSuggest is one of those tools. 

Moz: 

Moz is another favorite tool for website owners. With the massive database of keywords, backlinks, and domains, Moz is perfect domain authority and backlink checker. 

What are the Best Link Building Tools? 

Semrush and Ahrefs are among the most popular SEO tools for link building as they have a robust ecosystem of domains, keywords, and more. They have features like a content explorer, web page rank tracker. Moreover, without being a technical expert, you can perform technical SEO site audits for your website. 

Linkody, GroupHigh, cognitiveSEO, Kerboo, NinjaOutreach, UberSuggest, Moz Explorer, LinkResearchTools, and Majestic SEO are some of the other helpful and useful SEO tools for link building. 

How to Start Link Building for my Website?

First, you should define a goal as per the niche of your website. If you are a travel or food blogger, then do not waste your money or resources on creating backlinks on those websites that have nothing to do with travel or food blogs. In this case, reaching out to the blogger in your niche, news, and media sites are more lucrative and relevant for you. A similar strategy for other online businesses and niches as well.

Now, it’s time to create high-quality content in a blog or infographic format. After creating a piece of content, you should start finding the most relevant places for link building with the help of link-building tools. [I have shared the best strategies and techniques of link building below]. Then begin your outreach for link building.

Related Article: Complete Guide on Off-Page SEO: Best Ideas to create Backlinks with High Authority Domains

What are the Best Link Building Strategies and Techniques? 

Now, the question is where to do link building, and how do I find a link-building site for my online business?

So, I have listed the most effective pro strategies that work for me and other websites. 

Here you go!

Guest Posting: 

Guest posting is one of the most powerful link-building strategies in SEO. Here, you become a contributor or guest blogger for huge websites like Forbes and Entrepreneur. You share your opinion, knowledge, or experience on their website, and in return, they recognize your profile on the author page with backlinks. 

You can now imagine a website’s credibility when it gets backlinks from internally recognized websites. 

Earn high-quality backlinks from Infographics:

Through infographics, you can generate thousands of backlinks without begging. Infographic is a visual piece of content that has minimal text and is very easy to understand.  If you create a great infographic full of information and do targeted outreach that can be a visual addition to their content, you can earn tons of high-quality backlinks. 

Create an amazing infographic from Visme Now! Secret: All my infographics are been created with the Visme tool 😉

My website, The Blue Oceans Group, has acquired backlinks on the High Authority Websites by creating outstanding and exceptionally great infographics. Some of the links we have got (Do-Follow) backlinks from websites include:

Create Comprehensive Industry Reports and Earn more than 30,000 backlinks on lots of high Authority Referring Domains: 

Now, things are very dynamic. To maintain the pace, the relevance of data analysis and industry research is increasing day by day. People like to study, share, and link the reports and research papers to know the market’s future. 

And where you can play a vital role to scale your link-building process and establish a huge brand.

Marketers like Neil Patel and Brian Dean generate more than 30,000 backlinks within three months, just from one comprehensive industry report. 

Create and Offer Free Online Video Courses:

Creating free online video courses is another powerful technique for earning thousands of backlinks. Udemy and HubSpot have generated millions of backlinks only from offering free online video courses. 

You can also create free online courses that offer value to your audience and make thousands of backlinks. 

Build a Tool and Get Thousands of High-Quality Backlinks:

Tools and software are unbeatable methods of building high-quality backlinks on tons of referring domains. 

Marketing tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, and UberSuggest have made millions of backlinks and scaled their link-building process for the long run. Here, you need not beg for backlinks. If people find your tool helpful, they start promoting it on their channels. 

Broken link building: 

Broken links are those dead pages that no longer exist. The web is partially filled with broken links and becomes a significant issue for website owners. But, for you, broken links are an opportunity. 

It is a win-win situation for both. You receive a backlink, and they receive a great piece of content with the removal of broken links. 

Social Media Backlinks:

You can do better branding via social media, as there are higher chances of getting engagement and backlinks. The most common and high domain authority of social media platforms are YouTube (100 DA), Facebook (100 DA), Twitter (100 DA), LinkedIn (100 DA), Pinterest (100 DA), Instagram (100 DA), and Quora (92 DA).

These social media channels not only drive quality traffic on your site but also help to get quality backlinks and higher ROI.

Buy Expired Domains and Improve Your Website’s DA and Traffic: 

Many people have had great success snapping up expired domains and using those sites for link-building purposes. Various online platforms offer a list of expired or expiring domains. 

Buy an expired website at a low price that already has high domain authority and quality backlinks, and then, 301 redirect it to your site. 

Take care of risks, warning signs, and other factors as not all the domains are worth buying. You need to check the background of the domain, backlinks, index number, spam score, domain age, reputation, and all other factors. Otherwise, spammy websites can backfire on you and your expectations. A small mistake can lead to converting your site spammy or even a permanent ban of a website.

Other highly effective link-building strategies are resource page link building, blog commenting, testimonial link building, crowdfunding link building, event link building, bookmarking and web directory submission, and Gmail link building.

You can also boost your brand visibility and scale your link-building strategy by participating in interviews and podcasts. It is a trending and ever-evolving marketing strategy.

What is Link Building Campaign?

Link Building Campaign is a marketing and advertising process of acquiring links to your site. You can do outreach for your content with organic and paid networks to earn high-quality links. 

3 Most Effective Link Building Campaigns are;

1. Create one or two comprehensive industry reports every year and market them well through email marketing, Google, and Facebook Ads. You can earn thousands of high-quality backlinks on a lot of referring domains within three months. 
2. Create informing and appealing infographics and outreach to the micro-influencers and websites related to your industry via email. Infographics are 3X more shareable than other forms of content. 
3. Create a tool or free online video course and market it through organic and paid marketing channels. Referral marketing, affiliate marketing, Google, and Facebook ads are some of the powerful marketing channels through which you can do link building. The best example is HubSpot. They earn more than thousands of backlinks only from creating free online courses. 

What are the Shady or Spammy Link Building Practices?

As I mentioned quite a few times in this blog post, link building is the toughest nut to crack in the overall SEO process. On average a high-quality relevant backlink costs you $200-$250. 

When website owners and online businesses fail to get backlinks, they start searching for link-building services in desperation. 

Here the role of fraudsters comes into the picture!

Many websites do malicious practices of selling backlinks; They will offer you 25,000 backlinks for only a few dollars. These are worthless, shady, and spammy links that will not help you in any way.  

Hence, be aware of frauds and do not buy links. Google can ban your website permanently.

My other suggestion is to avoid Fiverr as it’s a massive waste of time and money. I am also the victim of fake services by Fiverr. You can find so many people on Fiverr who are offering backlink services for less than $25. 

Another wrong practice of building links is through Private Blog Networks (PNB). Before 2017, PNB was one of the favorite backlinks earning techniques. But with the regular updates in Google’s algorithm, the smart AI can easily filter the PNB backlinks. Not only this but Google also manually de-indexes all networks that get visible on their radar. This way, all your efforts will go in vain. 

Last but not least black hat technique of link building in SEO is Push Button Backlinks. There was a time when blog commenting, article directory submissions, Web 2.0 sites, or any other directories or bookmarking site mechanism worked immensely. 

Closing Keynote on What is SEO Link Building: 

I hope you enjoyed learning from the blog post about “what is SEO link building,” its role, and its relevance. 

You can follow my link-building hacks to scale your link-building process. 

Now I would like to know what are your thoughts on link building in SEO. What is your learning from today’s guide on link building, and what is the #1 thing you would like to implement for your business? Or maybe you have a question or query that you want to ask from the study.

Either way, please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below. I’ll try to reply to each of your comments.