A successful link building strategy requires a deep understanding of your content assets, your target audience, and how your content is shared. By creating a guiding policy based on this information, you can encourage content creators to share your content and build the reputation of your website.
In this article, readers will learn what makes a good link building strategy and how to map a situation analysis to a strategic framework. The article will provide a simple method for applying helpful strategy and planning insights to your situation and turning them into actionable steps for your next link building campaign.
Key Takeaways
- Understanding your content assets, target audience, and how your content is shared is crucial for creating a successful link building strategy.
- A good link building strategy involves creating a guiding policy that encourages content creators to share your content and builds the reputation of your website.
- By mapping a situation analysis to a strategic framework, you can create actionable steps for your next link building campaign.
What is a strategy?
A strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal or objective. It involves organizing all available resources to navigate an environment to accomplish a goal or objective. In order to create an effective strategy, it is important to have a clear understanding of the nature of the challenge at hand.
According to Richard Rumelt, author of “Good Strategy, Bad Strategy,” an effective strategy has three fundamental ingredients: diagnosis, guiding policy, and coherent actions. Diagnosis involves understanding the nature of the challenge, guiding policy involves selecting an overall approach to handle all obstacles to accomplish the goal, and coherent actions involve coordinated steps to support the guiding policy.
It is common to mistake a tactic for a strategy. For example, guest posting is not a link building strategy, but rather a tactic or technique that can be included in a strategy. When building a guiding policy, it is important to explore unique paths or follow behind the competitor and make something better, represented well by the “blue ocean” concept. A blue ocean strategy spurs demand in a fresh, unexplored market segment, while a red ocean strategy sets a business apart from competitors in an already populated market.
When creating a guiding policy, it is important to consider various areas to provide insights for evaluation and adjustment, enhancement, or complete reworking. These areas include budget, value creation, internal workflows and resources, knowledge enhancement and growth, and ethical considerations.
Overall, a strategy is a comprehensive plan that involves a series of coordinated actions designed to achieve a particular goal or objective. It is important to have a clear understanding of the challenge at hand and to consider various factors when creating a guiding policy.
How to Create a Great Link Building Strategy
When creating a link building strategy, it is important to take into account various factors such as content creators, content consumers, platforms, content, competition, trends, and link building. By following Rand Fishkin’s advice on creating a great marketing strategy, one can develop a successful link building strategy.
Diagnosis
To begin with, it is important to diagnose the current state of owned content assets, their consumers, and the creators that share them. The Skyscraper technique can be applied to identify existing content that has already generated a significant number of links. The creators who have linked to this content are potential consumers of your own content. It is also important to understand the online asset-sharing marketplace, which is highly competitive and saturated with content.
For instance, for an HR management software, the top content ranking in Google may not discuss generative AI for HR management, which is a highly significant technology impacting the HR manager’s role. There may be other online content about HR and generative AI, but all that information can be aggregated into one page to create more value. The top content may also not provide examples, and it may be difficult to scan to find helpful content quickly.
Guiding Policy
After diagnosing the current state, it is important to navigate the online asset-sharing marketplace by creating superior content that provides value to content creators. One can create content that is superior to existing content. This superior content is expected to attract content creators who are looking for valuable content to share with their own audience.
For instance, one can create a guide to top HR recruiting software using AI and leverage the company’s unique application of ChatGPT in the HR recruitment process to create engaging content for HR and technology podcasts. One can also perform a study of HR professionals to uncover their unique processes, build 3 AI tools for each time-consuming step, then have them tested. This can help identify 5+ MVP (minimum viable product) AI tools that can drastically improve the employee review process to improve quality and reduce time.
Coherent Actions
To ensure coherence in the link building strategy, one can follow the Skyscraper technique to identify existing content that has already generated many links. This serves as the benchmark for creating your own content. One can create content that is superior to the existing content by making a more thorough, up-to-date, and better-designed piece or creating something completely unique.
For instance, one can create a data-driven article for “technology that will kill HR jobs in 5 years” from the study. One can also identify and reach out to people who have already linked to similar content via email to get them to link to your superior content. One can reach out to the sites that link to the top-ranking content and HR technology blogs to discuss the future of AI in HR technology.
Another technique that can be used to create a successful link building strategy is the Collective technique. This involves creating a collaborative piece of content that involves contributions from various community members. This could be expert insights, case studies, personal experiences, or other valuable contributions.
For instance, for an HR software focused on B2B audiences that reduce recruiting management time with AI automation, a lot of content is being produced around generative AI. A small number of people on Reddit are discussing the negative impact AI might have on HR manager roles and taking jobs. One can connect internal experts (SMEs) with the Reddit community to ask what technical questions have not been asked around the topic but are essential. This can help create a list of top-engaged experts, then have internal SMEs create an article explaining the topic of discussion, sharing the Reddit comments.
After identifying contributors, one can compile the contributions into a comprehensive piece of content (i.e., a blog post, ebook, or video). It is important to give proper credit to all contributors. One can encourage the contributors to share the content with their audience and the influencers they engage with. It is also important to continue to engage with the community after the content has been published. Responding to comments, participating in discussions, and showing appreciation for shares and links can help build relationships that can lead to more link opportunities in the future.
By following these techniques, one can create a great link building strategy that can help improve the visibility and ranking of their website.
Strategy Development and Planning Processes
When developing a strategy for link building, it is important to follow a structured process that involves analyzing and diagnosing issues, mapping techniques to a table of elements, and developing specific steps. The process can be broken down into three main steps.
Step 1: Analyze and Diagnose Issues
The first step in the strategy development process is to analyze and diagnose issues related to link building. This involves identifying specific goals, objectives, and resources, as well as analyzing the content ecosystem in the targeted keyword cluster or niche. By doing so, it is possible to select the overarching strategy or technique that aligns with the identified goals and constraints. Once the broad technique has been selected, it can be tailored to the unique situation based on the understanding of the ecosystem.
Step 2: Map Technique to Table of Elements
The second step in the process is to map the technique to a table of elements. This involves selecting the type of strategy to either create something completely new and disruptive or something better than the competition. Guiding policy options can be created for each ocean, and the ocean can be selected based on the analysis and likelihood of success against risk tolerances.
Step 3: Develop Steps
The final step in the process is to develop specific steps for implementing the strategy. This involves identifying the people, processes, and technology needed to support the strategy, as well as developing the general steps and detailing how the strategy will be implemented. It is important to document the strategy in an SOP or process map to ensure that everyone involved understands the plan and can work together effectively.
By following these three steps, it is possible to develop a comprehensive and effective strategy for link building that aligns with specific goals and objectives. This process ensures that all aspects of the strategy are carefully considered and that the plan is well-documented, making it easier to implement and monitor progress over time.
Take Action
Now armed with the knowledge and tools to create effective link building strategies, it’s time to take action. By differentiating between tactics and strategies and following the step-by-step guide, one can diagnose the current situation, develop a guiding policy, and execute coherent actions. These insights can help businesses create value for their customers, stand out from the competition, and achieve their marketing objectives. Regardless of whether one is navigating a saturated market or exploring uncharted territories, these strategies can be tailored to fit their unique context. It’s time to put these insights into practice and start strategizing.
Effective Link Building Tools
There are several effective link building tools available in the market that can help you streamline your link building process. Some of the popular ones include Ahrefs, SEMrush, Majestic, Moz, and BuzzStream. These tools not only help you find potential link opportunities but also provide insights into your competitors’ backlink profile and help you track your progress.
Successful Link Building Campaign Example
A successful link building campaign involves creating high-quality content that is valuable to your target audience and then promoting it to relevant websites and influencers. For instance, a company that sells organic skincare products could create a blog post on “10 Benefits of Using Natural Ingredients in Skincare” and then reach out to beauty bloggers and influencers to promote it. This way, the company can earn backlinks from high-authority websites and also increase brand awareness.
Link Building Trends for 2024
As we move towards 2024, link building is expected to become more focused on quality rather than quantity. Some of the trends that are likely to gain traction in 2024 include:
- Building relationships with influencers and thought leaders
- Creating linkable assets such as infographics, videos, and interactive content
- Focusing on local link building to improve local search rankings
- Using social media platforms to amplify content and build links
Reputable Sites for Link Building
When it comes to link building, it is important to focus on building links from reputable websites that have high domain authority and are relevant to your niche. Some of the reputable sites for link building include:
- Industry-specific directories and forums
- High-authority news sites and blogs
- Social media platforms
- Educational and government websites
Broken Link Building
Broken link building is a link building strategy that involves finding broken links on other websites and then reaching out to the website owner to suggest a replacement link from your website. This strategy is effective as it helps the website owner fix broken links while also providing an opportunity for you to earn a backlink.
Link Building Strategies that Align with Search Engine Guidelines
To ensure that your link building strategy aligns with search engine guidelines, it is important to focus on building natural and relevant links. Some of the strategies that align with search engine guidelines include:
- Guest blogging on relevant websites
- Creating high-quality content that is shareable and linkable
- Participating in forums and online communities
- Building relationships with influencers and thought leaders in your niche
Overall, link building is an important aspect of SEO that requires a strategic approach and a focus on quality over quantity. By following best practices and using effective link building tools, businesses can improve their online visibility and drive more traffic to their website.
You must be logged in to post a comment.