So what is the best way to do link building? Easily answered, the search engine friendly way, but what does that entail? Here is a checklist to help you on your way to becoming a superstar link builder. If you need any help we are only a click or call away.

Things to Do at the Beginning of Your Link Building Campaign – Start With a Plan

Before you fuel up with an energy drink and start cranking out links, you need to make a link building plan. Part of that plan is to get your website in a position to rank well. This means do a thorough website audit and fix any issues. If you aren’t sure on how to do a site audit, we can help. Here are some things you will need to check before you start building links.

Check the Domain History and Data Mine – Use Link Building Tools

Build internal links vertically, horizontally and diagonally.

You’ll want to grab info for all inbound links, all outbound links and all internal links. Pull competitor’s links too – sighting a specific keyword each time. You can use these link building tools in order to get the data you need.

• Way Back Machine
• Google Webmaster Tools
• Majectic SEO
• Arellis
• Open Site Explorer

Measure Link Source, Volume, Timeline and Destination

Mash up and organize the data in a spreadsheet to see which sites are linking to you and how many times. Pay attention to webpages you have where you are linking out too many times, or where the links don’t make sense.

• Make sure each link is pointing to the best matched page and that the anchor text is varied
• Analyze all internal links and make sure that they are all final destination URLs
• Make sure that each link is pointing to the best matches page and that the anchor text is varied

Link Building Cleanup – Organize and Prune Old Links Before You Build New Ones

Another thing that you should do before you start to build links is to clean up the ones that you already have. First start by identifying low quality links, identify any paid link building schemes that may have gone on and update any links that are returning an error

• If there are any unwanted inbound links from low quality websites email the webmaster or use the Google Link Removal Tool
• If there are a lot of links built over a short period of time that could indicate they are paid links or a link building scheme You will need to decide if you want to keep these links or not. If you are unsure you can arrange a consultation with us
• Analyze all outbound links and remove any that are pointing to low quality websites
• Make sure that you aren’t giving away links in templated areas like the footer
• Make sure that each link is pointing to the most relevant URL possible and that you are associating your website with a quality site
• Update any outbound links that have been redirected and contact the website owner if you can’t find the content you were previously linking to

Check Your Results – Make Sure Your Link Building Efforts Are Working

Keep a link building spreadsheet of inbound, internal and outbound links that you can reflect on to make sure that everything is working correctly.

• Keep track of each type of link that is built, who built it, when it was built, how many links per site were built and other important info

Quick Tips on How to Get People to Link to You Naturally – Inbound Links Made Easy

A lot of people get hung up on inbound building links, but the best way to do it is to let others do it for you. Here are the best ways to go about getting free, high quality, natural links:

• Do some keyword research and organize content into a structure based on keyword research
• Write high quality content based on what people are searching for, in combination with your industry expertise and competitor content. Include each step a visitor may take in their decision making process. Try to be entertaining so that it makes people want to remember your article or webpage for later
• Start a blog and write about current events, reviews or flatter companies that you admire
• Include share buttons and encourage blog comments
• Create an infografic, a viral vdeo and associate yourself with important people

How to Get Quality Links – Blogging and Forming Relationships

There are a number of things that you can do in order to get people to link to you. Most of these will require a bit of footwork as you will have to form somewhat of a relationship from the website owner or operator.

• Find pro bloggers and ask them to write an article about you or your website
• Find a blog network that lets you target specific keywords for specific pages – approve the content before it goes live
• Get interviewed
• Do guest blogging on websites in exchange for links back to your site or to your profile page to build up author reputation
• Old fashioned link requests rarely work; instead find a few hundred high quality, relevant websites you want to associate with and send an email to the webmaster, asking if they would be interested in a partnership or alliance of some sort. Do not spam. Take the time to send a proper email, showing that you really do sincerely want to connect

Quick Tips on How to Use Social Media to Build Links

Though social media generally isn’t thought of a link building tool, it can do some pretty amazing stuff and help you not only build an audience, but rank for many awesome keywords.

• Get a celebrity to endorse you through an ad platform like Adly
• Create a large following so that more people see your social mentions
• Use keywords in your social mentions and a URL shortner that does a 301 redirect if you have limited character space

General Rules of Thumb – Basic Link Building Practices

Here are some general rules of thumb that you should know if you are going to build links to your website or a client’s website:

• Place internal links where they make sense or sound natural
• Build more links to important pages than less important pages, but don’t over-do it
• Develop relationships with website owners and operators instead of spamming random people for links
• Be careful about buying links
• Balance your anchor text and pages/sites you link to and from

Contact us for Link Building Services Today

Hopefully, we have answered your question, “What is the best way to do link building?” If you have enough information give it a try. This is something that takes many years to learn so don’t worry if you don’t get it right the first time. If you don’t have the time or resources in order to create and stick to a link building campaign we are happy to help. You can contact us by phone at 604-779-8438 or by email, or by filling out the form on the right side of this page or chatting with us online right now.