8 Link Building Techniques that Still Work in 2020

In SEO, there is a simple equation: high-quality links equals better SEO rankings on Google. This results in more traffic to your website and gets your brand, products, and/or services in front of more people. Link building techniques are tough, though. They are really tough. In fact, it’s arguably one of the toughest parts of SEO. It can be done, however.

In this article, we will overview the best tactics to build links without using blackhat SEO and harming your domain. It can also be done without heading into the world of forum posting, leaving comments, and posting to message boards and Reddit.

(As an aside, the above sources of links can be beneficial to your website, even though the links they generate are low-quality links. Therefore, you can still do some of the above and see positive results in 2020, providing this is part of a wider link building strategy, i.e. a strategy that uses all or some of the techniques listed below.)

8 Link Building Techniques that Work in 2020

Below you find eight link building techniques that remain highly effective in 2020. In other words, getting more high quality links will improve your SEO rankings. You may need help from a professional SEO service provider with some of them, but you will get results.

1. Paid Advertising

This is essentially a content marketing strategy with a booster to get it going. Content marketing involves creating great content on your website that people will want to link to, even when you don’t ask them to. And by great, we mean really great – best on the internet sort-of territory.

Getting the ball rolling is the hardest part, however. In other words, you publish a fantastic piece of content, a percentage of your social media followers see it, you share it on your newsletter, and you promote it any other way you can. This is still unlikely to get the post seen by enough people.

The answer is PPC. One of the most effective tools is Facebook, although you can use other social media platforms or even Google Ads too.

Here’s how it works:

1. Publish great content on your website
2. Share on social media and wherever else you can share and promote
3. Boost the post on Facebook or promote it with an ad
4. Let the links come in

You don’t need to spend much on your Facebook boost or ad to get a substantial increase in both reach and click-throughs. In fact, $30 could even be enough, depending on your industry and business.

If the content is good enough, a percentage of those who click through from your ad will link to your website.

2. Broken Link Building

This technique involves finding relevant content on other websites that have links that no longer work, i.e. broken links. This type of content doesn’t offer a good user experience as readers clicking on the broken link will not get what they hoped for. Therefore, it’s likely the person who owns the website will want to fix the link.

The problem is they don’t know the issue exists, and that’s where you come in. Your professional SEO service provider will be able to find relevant broken links, plus there are tools on the internet you can use too.

You then make sure you have content on your site that can replace the link before contacting the owner of the website to point out the broken link and offering your page as a replacement.

3. Outreach

There are two main types of outreach strategy that can improve your SEO rankings:

1. Finding content published by other websites that you think might be enhanced by the content you have published. Enhanced means adding value to the third-party website and its readers. You then reach out to the owner of that website to let them know about your page and how linking to it will benefit them and their visitors.
2. Creating fresh, unique, and high-quality content and then reaching out to other websites asking them to publish it on their site. Specifically, you want them to publish it with a link back to your site.

4. Steal Links

This strategy is simple but can be effective if you approach it the right way. It starts by finding websites that link to poor quality content. Again, your SEO agency will be able to help with this part of the process. You then make sure the content on your website is substantially better.

Once you are happy with it, you reach out to the owner of the third-party website, explaining that your content is better than the content they are currently linking to and suggesting they update their content to link it to yours.

5. Unlinked Mentions

There are likely to be mentions of your business, products, or services on the internet that don’t have a link back to your website. These situations are excellent opportunities as you are already part the way there, i.e. you already feature on the site.

All you need to do now is reach out to the website asking them to include a link as well as the mention.

6. Testimonials

Offer to write testimonials for the products and services you like. As including a name, business name, and website link enhances the credibility of testimonials, the company is likely to include the link if they decide to publish.

7. Local Listings

This is an old strategy, but it can still improve your SEO rankings. It involves joining and becoming part of local business directories and groups that link to member websites.

8. Get Involved Locally

Finally, you can get links to your website by sponsoring local events or sports teams, supporting local charities, or by offering your expertise to local journalists if they need a comment on a story.

Link Building in 2020

Link building remains crucially important in 2020. The strategies above will help you get the results you want. Use them and comment below if you can name any other tactics we`ve missed.