Link Building & Off-page SEO: All Trends

Links are one of the main ranking factors for Google, so quality link building is an essential part of SEO work. Approaches are changing, and more quality donors are being selected, but the essence remains the same — free promotion requires paid methods as well.

Classic outreach, guest posts, crowd-links (from forums), catalogs, drops, PR articles, and link exchange remain the main types of off-site SEO link building.

The type of backlinks and their quantity are chosen individually for each niche and depend on competition, an existing number of backlinks, and website age. For example, PR articles will not work for a niche with little news and events, and drops are not suitable for new websites without a link profile. But now, you can’t do without outreach: high-quality text content with a relevant link to the website always gives it a plus and increase ranking. Today, we will tell you about the most popular methods for gaining the number of backlinks to your website.

Sponsored and guest post link building

Outreach includes sponsored and guest post link building. We choose a list of websites, write them an email requesting placement of articles, get an invoice and place them.

How to find websites for outreach:

• analysis of the number of competitors’ backlinks;
• analysis of search results for key queries in conjunction with the “sponsored post”;
• search by keyword using the section “Content explorer” on Ahrefs;
• search for websites similar to those where you have already placed the backlinks. For example, on Ahrefs, you can add a website where you’ve already posted your backlink and check its competitors.

Here, mailings are most often done manually. But some services simplify the work, such as snov.io and lemlist.com. When working with services, it is crucial to warm up accounts and check the relevance of emails to avoid getting caught in the spam folder.

We search for guest posting websites by the key queries combined with “guest post” or “write for us.” Often, these guest websites then put a price on the publication anyway, and as a result, the placement cannot be considered gratis.

Websites with UGC (user generated content)

There is a particular kind of website that publishes user content — UGC. If you already have great articles, you can submit yourself as an author. And when the website approves you, you can publish on it for free. Such websites have high attendance rates and remove obvious spam. A link from such a resource to a quality website can also give you clicks, unlike most obviously sponsored posts.

Brand mentions

Another method of off-site SEO link building is to follow up on mentions of your brand. You can contact the authors of these pieces of content and ask them to add a link to the company website. Of course, not every website agrees with this, but the chances of getting another natural backlink in this way are still high.

Regular link checking

Another essential part of link building off-page SEO is dealing with and recovering missing links. You need to regularly monitor whether the purchased links have disappeared, have become noindex, or have turned to just text references to the brand.

Another situation is that your website may have changed URLs, and all the old links to it have become 404 (and 404 does not pass the weight). In this case, you need to contact the website and ask to return or replace the links.

Forums and reviews

Crowd links or backlinks from forums are most commonly used for natural linking and anchor profiles. Therefore, it is essential to pay attention to the indexing of such platforms, the relevance of the branch, and spam.

Such links have an impact on the growth of search positions. They give visible results for low-frequency queries in the top 15-10. And for high-frequency, outcomes are worse. We conducted experiments by buying many of such links on one or two pages. The result was +10-20 positions, but literally for a week, and then everything returned to its original state.

Link exchange as a great opportunity of off-site SEO link building

It has become incredibly trendy to exchange links with quality websites in a common niche. First, these are natural links; second, they can bring real customers; thirdly, they are free. The promoted website should be trusted and visited to get these backlinks.

Working with drops

It is vital to search for and restore drop domains, which previously had weight and traffic, and then the domain was not renewed for some reason. Finding domains with a good linking profile and past content is a time-consuming but effective process.

Working with drops is a backstreet method of link building off-page SEO and is not suitable for every niche. But with high competition, it is almost a mandatory promotion method. All such links are closed from Ahrefs, Majestic, and other services, so you are unlikely to find competitors. However, it would be best to keep in mind that they are used and work.

Wikipedia

Whether it is worth having your page in this encyclopedia is quite controversial. On the one hand, it is an authoritative website, affecting the brand’s growth. But, on the other hand, it can have a negative effect: pages on Wikipedia can be edited by anyone, and all the positive information about the company can become harmful. Therefore, if you decide to place there, you will have to monitor the brand’s reputation constantly.

Satellite websites for SEO promotion

Informational websites or review websites that contain valuable and high-quality content on narrow topics are most often used as satellites. For success on such websites, you need to elaborate an SEO Strategy, apply certain techniques to increase the linking profile, and they, in turn, attract targeted visitors and bring leads to the main website. Satellite websites are popular in product niches and SaaS solutions.

Link exchange

Links from exchangers are the most popular method of buying backlinks. It is fast, safe, and convenient. The primary exchangers, which sell links, are collaborator, prposting.

How to buy links

Our recommendations:

• Pay attention to the organic traffic volume in the resource, not its DR on Ahrefs.
• Write quality content, especially for guest posts and exchange posts.
• Test hypotheses: see what works best for your project in your niche.
• Reject bad links.
• Don’t forget to check your links and their indexing after a while. Then, if necessary, send them for indexing forcibly or buy the second level of links.

Feel free to contact our managers to discuss your SEO challenge and receive personal recommendations.