Link building is an ever-shifting SEO strategy that evolves in lockstep with Google updates and changing digital marketing trends. As such, remaining relevant in the world of link-building means you need to regularly revise the way you approach traditionally effective methods like guest posting, directory linking, and broken link-building.
Fortunately, most of Google's updates aren't designed to eradicate the value of link building. Instead, they're designed to provide maximum value for real web users. As such, focusing on producing high-quality content and data-driven campaigns will likely yield results.
Methods to Pivot Away From
Google's semi-regular SEO updates have all but eradicated spammy link-building techniques. Today, you'll find little value in “Black Hat” link building and may even discover that paying for dubious links undermines your traffic and de-indexes your site. As such, you want to take care to pivot away from the following methods in the coming years:
Guest Posting
Guest blogging has been a staple of the SEO world for years. However, recent updates have made it more challenging than ever to benefit from guest blogging. Today, the high demand for guest blog venues means that many firms charge guest writers, while Google actively opposes any techniques that occur due to an exchange of goods or services.
Directory Links
Building a web of directory links used to be a solid way to boost your ranking on SERPs. However, since the 2012 Google Penguin update, low-value directory links have lost their value. While this is good news for web users, you'll need to invest more time placing your links in more valuable locations.
Private Blog Networks
Tapping into a network of private blogs is a Black Hat SEO technique you should actively avoid. It's a sure-fire way to get hit with a manual penalty for using PBNs, and you'll have little leverage to argue your case if you've been using nefarious means to boost traffic. PBNs aren't cheap, either. You'll still have to dedicate dozens of hours per week to content creation and will need to fork out hundreds of dollars to buy domains.
Methods to Pivot Towards
Generally speaking, pivoting away from “spam” Black Hat strategies should be your top priority if you want to see measurable SEO success. Moving away from Black Hat strategies will force you to create more high-quality content, and you'll be able to rest easier in the knowledge that your site won't receive a manual penalty from Google. Instead of link-stuffing and setting up PBNs, focus on strategies supporting long-term growth.
Quality Content-Driven Link Building
Unless you have a team of SEO specialists searching for sites, guest blogging may not be the most effective use of your time or resources. However, that doesn't mean you should turn your back on content creation altogether.
Instead, focus on creating high-quality content that adds meaningful value to your readers. Even if you don't end up posting this content to a guest site, it's sure to drive traffic to your own pages and will only become more valuable as Google continues to prioritize more user-centric content.
AI-Assisted Link Building Research
If you decide to continue guest posting, consider using AI to speed up some of the research process. Manually seek out sites with a high domain authority (DA) that match your content strategy. AI-powered tools can streamline this process by working through vast data sets in seconds and identifying a few potential candidates for your SEO team to review.
Searching for assistive AI tools can take a little time and effort. Streamline the selection process by ensuring that you understand the difference between AI vs. machine learning (ML). ML is a computational technique that analyzes and sorts huge, otherwise unwieldy data sets. As such, you'll want to use an ML program specializing in unsupervised searching, sorting, and pattern recognition.
Data-Driven Outreach Campaigns
Data is king in the world of digital marketing. Rich, high-quality data is even more critical in link-building, as you'll need to provide plenty of data proving your techniques' effectiveness when conducting personalized data outreach and targeting. Providing personalized outreach is all but essential in the world of digital marketing, as people will send generic emails straight to the trash folder.
You can create personalized plans easily by using a mind map to visualize your outreach strategy for potential partners. For example, an effective mind map may include key details related to pain points and will highlight how your services could provide value. Digital mind maps are highly collaborative and easy to use. You'll be able to wield the insights of your entire team easily when pitching to new clients.
Niche-Specific Link Building
The old adage “write what you know” is highly relevant in the world of digital marketing. Make a name for yourself in a specific niche and aim to become a content expert in a single field. This approach will increase your rates and will aid your efforts to produce high-quality, SEO-friendly content.
Conclusion
Despite changes to Google's algorithms, content marketing continues to play a crucial role in almost all link-building and SEO efforts. As a marketer, you can maximize your impact by pivoting away from Black Hat tactics and aiming to produce more high-quality, user-centric content that keeps people on the page and drives traffic to your site.
