DIY Link building
SEO techniques have gotten so confusing that many have just given up trying however that can be the death of any online business. To generate any business online It is imperative to consistently stay on the 1st page and one of the most important SEO techniques is acquiring backlinks. In the past, almost anything was accepted but with the changes that have been made, this is no longer true. There are still some ethical (White Hat) methods of gaining backlinks but these typically have to be earned. Some are commonly known but others that are equally as good are more obscure, the difference between you and your competition might just be these obscure links. I am going to cover the basics of ethical DIY link building in this post.
What White Hat DIY Link Building Truly Means
Google has changed guidelines for obtaining backlinks, the ethical methods are called White Hat links. The main difference in White Hat and Black Hat is that the former is based on editorial choice, in other words, the webmaster has the option to link or not to link.
There are a number of ways to obtain backlinks using White Hat methods. Being proactive, while still giving a choice, is imperative. Three conditions must always be met to be considered White Hat. These are:
1) No payment is given or taken
2) No robots or other automation is used
3) The webmaster has the option of choosing whether or not to link
Many excellent opportunities exist that have not been widely used in the industry, these methods include:
• Interviews/Contributions
• Infographics and audio sharing
• Broken link repair and reclaiming
• HARO (Help a Reporter Out)
DIY Link building, Interviews and more
Interviews are often voluntarily offered to frequent responders on blog sites and forum sites, especially if the person is perceived as an expert. Bloggers often look for subjects to discuss in all fields, where there is a niche; there is an opportunity to gain a natural link. Reaching out to bloggers in a similar industry to yours can earn you the opportunity to be mentioned on their site.
Sharing infographics and/or audio bites are an excellent way to go viral. These are interesting to readers, and they are often shared between friends on media sites. In addition, many sites looking for quality content are eager to share them. As this happens, your link gets shared. In order for this to work, however, they must be of excellent quality and include valuable content.
Broken link repair and reclaiming works in two ways; first, you need to find any of your links that are broken, both on your site and on those linking to you. Make sure all are viable. Often a period or comma accidently inserted makes the link dead. Secondly, you can search and find links on sites on which you would like to be included. Find any dead links, then contact the site owner and offer your site as a replacement link, detailing the value of your information.
HARO (Help a Reporter Out) is a subscription service that sends out three emails daily with requests by reporters for information to include in an article they are writing. They will include your link if they use you as a source this can also get help in branding yourself as an expert.
DIY Link building Recap
These are just a few ways to acquire natural yet valuable backlinks, it is important to remember however that you must make your site worth linking to in before starting your link building campaign. The Bing and Google employees always repeat “be user friendly” and “build valuable content” and this is true. No one will want to send a link back to your site if you have not taken care of the onsite issues first but once that is handled the tips above can help jump start the popularity of your website.
More DIY Link building and SEO related articles below:
Six SEO Mistakes Small Business Owners Make – And How to Fix Them
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