Search engines are constantly reinventing their algorithms. In the age of the Pandas and Penguins, staying at the top of search engine rankings has become more complicated than ever. For businesses and individuals, it is indeed time to step up their existing link building strategy in order to maintain a steadfast ranking and forge a solid online presence.
Although link building initiatives for 2013 and beyond should be closely aligned with content marketing strategies, there are still many high quality link building tactics that can be utilized to build out a diverse backlink profile.
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Below are ten link building ideas that can be tremendously helpful in 2013.
#10. Sponsorships
Sponsor local events, clubs, universities and contests in your area. Most organizations are more than happy to provide a link on their website to a generous sponsor.
#9. Associations and Affiliations
Join organizations such as the BBB, trade associations, your local Chamber of Commerce and other related groups. These organizations can provide great networking opportunities and will most often provide a website link from their member directory.
#8. Speak at Conferences and Events
Stay up to date with advancements in your industry and register to speak at conferences and events. You can often get a link from a conference or event website that lists the various speakers in the event lineup.
#7. Create Your Own Wikipedia Page
Wikipedia pages are coveted for their credibility and authority. If your company is large enough, creating your own Wikipedia page provides a backlink and brand mentions which indicates to search engines that your company is authoritative and trustworthy.
If your company is not large enough to warrant a dedicated page, try searching for pages related to your industry and find statements that require sources. You can develop content that supports the statement and provide your website as a source.
Additionally, you could use software to check wikis within your industry for broken source links. When you find one, you can create the required content and update the source with your website link.
#6. Develop Plugins and Extensions
Plugins are increasingly popular these days with the rise of open source software. Create a useful plugin that is relevant to your industry and you’ll get quality backlinks from popular plugin websites such as WordPress.org.
#5. Create a Top Ten List of Influential People
This effective linkbaiting method involves mentioning influential people in your field who are still in the process of making a name for themselves. They are most likely to be both flattered and excited about the mention, and in turn, link to your list from their blog or website and share your link across social media platforms.
#4. Link Reclamation
With frequent website updates, it’s common to forget about some defunct pages that still have a few inbound links. Trace those broken links by using Google Webmaster Tools and then redirect the old URL path to a similar page on your website.
#3. Give Samples and Free Products to Popular Bloggers
Many blogs tend to review products on a regular basis and will usually include a link to the company or manufacturer’s website. Additionally, these links can also help generate referral traffic to your website.
Social influencer tools such as Peer Index will help to identify relevant and influential bloggers within your industry.
#2. Tap Into The Power of Your Local Media And Register as an Expert in Your Field
Websites such as Sources.com are becoming increasingly popular with both journalists and industry experts. By registering yourself as an expert source, journalists can reference your quote or point of view within their stories. More often than not, the journalist will also include a brand mention or link to your website.
Journalists in your local area or industry can be a valuable resource as well. Reach out to them with a new trend or an interesting development within your area of expertise. By presenting your ideas, opinions and breaking industry news, you will get an opportunity to be cited in a news story, be viewed as an industry expert and possibly develop an on-going relationship with the journalist.
#1. Coupons, Promotions and Deals
Running a deal or promotion provides a fantastic opportunity to promote your company’s website on popular deal websites and forums. In addition to getting backlinks, this method is also likely to drive referral traffic, sales and brand awareness.
Link Building in 2013
Search engines have gotten better at detecting unnatural and artificial link building activities. As such, online marketers will have to be more prudent when conducting link building activities. Some good rules of thumb to follow are:
• If you wouldn’t feel comfortable explaining your actions to Google’s Webspam team, don’t do it.
• View link building as a secondary benefit to another promotional tactic.
• Don’t build links for search engines, build them for humans. If your links are not sending referral traffic, they fail to satisfy the fundamental requirement of a link.
When executed as part of a high quality on-site optimization, content marketing and social media strategy, these link building activities will help to position your company ahead of competitors in 2013 and beyond.
Have any of these tactics been successful in your link building strategy?
on
These tips are unique and i have hardly heard about these on the net before.
I have been looking for more ways to build quality backlinks since the traditional methods have stopped working.
Thanks for sharing.
on
Great Tips Paul. I really like the coupon idea. Really simple but something I never think about.
on
Thanks for sharing this Paul.
“Create Your Own Wikipedia Page” – Do you think this can be done easily. However I don’t think so. Because there are certain criteria should be follow to add business page in Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Notability_%28organizations_and_companies%29
“Develop Plug-in and Extensions” – I love this one. Not sure small marketing companies are follow this or not.
“Create a Top Ten List of Influential People” – Love this too and I am currently doing this (Don’t tell to anyone:) ). This will helps to getting updates and trends at right time if we missing anything. And as you said, this is a good source of link building method too, if we using this opportunity properly. (Note: mutual sharing is important factor here)
Also read the latest co-citation link building strategy 2013, http://www.searchenginejournal.com/good-bye-anchor-text-welcome-co-citations-revolution-in-link-building-for-2013-revealed/57783/
on
Creating your own wikipedia page, that is something new and interesting. I always see wiki pages for shows and games, but never businesses. I’d love to see how one would look.
on
Along the lines of #6 (Develop Plugins and Extensions), I have to add App development. You’ll be surprised at how affordable it is, and how much traffic you can receive from a simple app that fills a need.
on
I love this list. It has some ideas I had never thought of before. I get tired of seeing the same old 10 things to do for link building. I had no idea Wikipedia was considered an authority link. I am planning on implementing that one today! Thanks for your help.
on
I’ve got to agree with 9 out of 10 of those suggestions for 2010. The one that I am not keen on personally because I think it’s been overdone since 2009 is #8. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s an excellent thing to do if you are an authority in your field and it has benefits outside of your site, but it needs a warning label.
You need to BE an authority first so let the conferences come to you and ask you if you can take part. By the time that happens you will have already established yourself and people will already see you as the authority you are.
If you’re just carving out a name for yourself there are still benefits to speaking at conferences but it’s a lot more dangerous when you are “that new guy I’ve never heard of”. If that’s you… be prepared to wow people by going over the top. You may not get a second chance for that first impression.