If you didn’t know, link building is a crucial aspect of search engine optimization (SEO) that involves getting other websites to link back to your own. It’s an important thing to do because search engines use backlinks to determine the quality and relevance of a website, and sites with more backlinks tend to rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
One interesting trend in link building is the popularity of question-based keywords. If you search for keywords related to link building, you'll likely find that the most popular ones are all questions, which suggests that people are looking for answers to specific questions about link building, rather than general information… or that they might not know exactly what they’re doing.
Link Building Is Not Easy.
It is common knowledge in the SEO community that link building is difficult, and that people don’t like doing it. After all, one of the biggest industry publications, Search Engine Land, confirmed in their article ‘Link building: the least favourite part of SEO’ that a fifth of their SEO-savvy audience said it was the part of SEO they hated the most.
To find out what these resentful link builders are asking, we looked at Google keywords, and here’s what came up. As suspected, a lot of questions. For comparison, the term ‘link building’ had a search volume of 1,900:
What is link building in SEO?: Search volume 1,000
What is SEO link building?: Search volume 1,000
What is link building SEO?: Search volume 1,000
Link building tutorials: Search volume 1,000
Strategies for link building: Search volume 320
What is link building?: Search volume 260
How to build backlinks: Search volume 110
So clearly, people in SEO really aren’t too sure what exactly link building is, how to do it, or even the strategy to perform it. Which is weird seeing as it’s pretty much one of the most creative and organic SEO methods out there.
Let’s go through these keywords and hopefully make all of these search professionals a little bit happier:
What is link building? (and variants)
Link building is the process of creating fantastic online content that holds value to other websites, so much so that they can’t help but link back to your website (or landing page if you made one).
You should aim to get links from a range of different websites across a range of different URLs specific to the content. Make sure the site is relevant, has a good domain rating, and publishes good content on the whole.
Sometimes you won’t be able to get a link but don’t worry. Politely ask for one and if you still have no luck then move on and find another site. There is still publicity and reputation value in unlinked brand mentions.
Link building tutorials and strategies
Due to link building being a multi-faceted and reactive area of SEO, there’s not really such a thing as a link building tutorial… but there is such a thing as a strategy!
Our strategy at Modern Classic Digital starts by having an ideation session around our key focus areas that we want to drive attention to, and then generate campaigns around them that we are genuinely interested in finding out the answer to. Imagine you’re coming up with the world’s best conversation starter.
Then we hand-pick sites that we think would be just as interested in our idea as we are. After all, if it’s interesting to us, then it’s probably interesting to them.
Create a really nice media pack (this could be a landing page, a press release, an infographic etc), and send your journalist(s) the world’s most tailored, relevant and interesting outreach ever. No one wants to feel like they’re on a faceless media list.
If you do this correctly, you’re guaranteed links. And never forget the golden rule of Digital PR; be good. Journalists and editors are friends, not foe.
How to build backlinks
Assuming you’re at the point where you have an awesome campaign and a nice outreach email for a handful of journalists, then there’s nothing left to do but hit send.
It shouldn’t be long before you start seeing coverage and results, which is a great feeling. But a lot of these pieces of coverage won’t have links - and that’s ok. Send the journalist an email, ask if they wouldn’t mind adding a link and go from there. Some websites don’t link as a policy, and some will request a fee for adding a link. Don’t start paying for links.
Our policy at Modern Classic is that links are for those who deserve them, but as a rule of thumb, don’t pay for links. It’s just an expensive way to get in trouble with Google for poor SEO practice.
Link building is a huge industry with an endless amount of roads to success. After all, one site editor might love a heat-map infographic, while another might hate them. The best move is always to build rapport with who you work with as it will benefit both of you.
Over to AI
To show just how much the internet is asking these questions, we thought we’d let AI take it from here.
We asked ChatGPT to ‘write about link building and highlight the fact that the most popular SEO keywords relevant to link building are all questions’. Here’s what we got:
Some examples of popular link building questions include:
How do I build backlinks?
What is the best way to get backlinks?
What are the best link building strategies?
How do I get high-quality backlinks?
How do I create a link building plan?
These questions show that people are looking for practical, step-by-step advice on how to build backlinks effectively. They want to know the best tactics and strategies for getting high-quality backlinks from other websites.
There are many different ways to build backlinks, and the best approach will depend on your specific goals and circumstances. Some common tactics include:
Guest blogging: This involves writing articles for other websites and including links back to your own site in the author bio or within the content.
Broken link building: This involves finding broken links on other websites and offering to replace them with links to your own content.
Infographics: Creating and sharing infographics can be an effective way to get other websites to link back to your site.
Resource pages: Many websites have resource pages that list useful links and resources related to a particular topic. If you create high-quality content that is relevant to these pages, you may be able to get a link back to your site.
In conclusion, the popularity of question-based keywords in link building shows that people are looking for specific, practical advice on how to build backlinks effectively. There are many different tactics and strategies for building backlinks, and the best approach will depend on your goals and circumstances.