Guest Post by Stuart McHenry

personal successWhen it comes to SEO and building links to your website you can’t just go willy nilly. At least not if you want the link building strategy to work. Google has gotten much more sophisticated over the years. And you shouldn’t jump on the latest link building or optimizing SEO fad because it very well may come bite you in the butt in the long run.

Interview Experts

People love interviews with industry experts.  The knowledge and tips which are given can be extremely valuable to readers. There are tips and tricks to using this strategy to build high-quality backlinks.

After the interview is complete start looking for industry blogs that frequently write about experts or interview them – also you can look for outlets which put together weekly roundup posts.  If your interview is thorough enough and adds value, there is a good chance you could get featured on these blogs.

Give Away Swag

Who doesn’t love free stuff in the mail?  Back when I started in SEO there was a company that would hand out free t-shirts by the hundreds at every conference and event.  I know lots of companies do this but they were doing this before anyone else was.  They also sent t-shirts to bloggers as free swag.

Guess what happened when they did this?  They got links because people were happy to show off their t-shirts.  Most took pictures in their shirts and blogged about their company.  Now, not everyone they sent a t-shirt to blogged about them.  But t-shirts are relatively cheap and a great way to build buzz, brand equity and links.

Go on Podcasts

Podcasts are a great place to build links.  But how you ask?  Well, most podcasters have blogs and frequently put up a blog post linking to their podcast.  In the summary section is usually a synopsis of the show and links to the guest’s website. 

Start by researching all the podcasts within your industry.  You can search websites like Learn Out Loud to find a list of podcasts within your niche.

Offer a Free Service

A buddy of mine down in Australia offers to update logos for companies for free.  When clients are happy, he sends them an email asking if they don’t mind linking to his website.  Not all customers link to him, but many do.

Now you don’t have to update logos for people.  You could do basically any service and be helpful.  You don’t even have to ask for a link until they ask if they could do anything for you.  Over the years I have built a few links myself just by being helpful to others.

Host/Sponsor a Meetup Event

Whether it’s an industry event or a local event sponsoring one is a great way to get your business name out there, and many will add you to their website.  In some cases, they will create a page for all the sponsors to be listed on. 

In some cases, sponsors can even get their page and an overview of the company.  These are great because they provide real value for SEO as well as giving your company some time in the spotlight. 

Conclusion

Building quality link can be boring and lots of hard work but it really doesn’t need to be. Need more ideas? Here’s a list of 25 link building techniques I wrote which should help.  Like anything the more time and work you put into planning your strategy the better your results will be.  Please feel free to share your favorite link building strategies and any tips you may have in the blog comments.

Image by PIRO4D via Pixabay

Stuart McHenry has been an SEO since 2003 and is the founder of McKremie.com an SEO Company.  He often writes on subjects about local SEO and link building and is an avid golfer.