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Link Building – Something You’ve Heard Before? Or Maybe Just “Backlinks“?
Link building is one of the most debated topics in online marketing and is a significant part of SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
But what does link building actually mean, and how does it work in practice?
This is the ultimate guide to learning link building in record time. Buckle up, sit back, and gain insights into creating links.
What Is Link Building and How Does It Work?
Imagine the entire internet as one big library with a vast collection of books. When you want to read a new book, you go to Google and search for a genre—but how does Google determine which book you should choose? The same applies to a website; this is called internal link building.
Now, imagine that you receive a recommendation from a friend, your mother, or even a stranger on the street.
Which recommendation carries more weight?
Google works similarly, often defined by the term “PageRank.”
However, Google has significantly more parameters to evaluate a website than just links. In fact, Google uses more than 200 factors to assess a website’s value and then rank it accordingly in their organic search results.
Factors That Influence Your Visibility
Google continuously updates its algorithm, so instead of trying to manipulate it, focus on building quality content that benefits both users and ultimately Google.
The same goes for link building—create good links.
Over the last 10 years, many have predicted that link building would become obsolete as part of an SEO strategy. However, it seems that a serious link strategy still delivers results.
But what is a good link? We will take a closer look at that in the next section.
Links cannot improve your advertising (Google Adwords).
However, a good website can improve both organic results and the positions you have in advertising. You receive a quality score in Google Adwords, and this is influenced by your content strategy and on-site optimization.
What Does Google Think About Link Building?
Google is not interested in companies creating “fake links.” However, in my opinion, Google is “technically” not that concerned, as their constant algorithm updates will likely clean up websites that try to manipulate the system.
When I started with link building 6-7 years ago, there were many “gray areas” in SEO, also known as Black Hat strategies.
Examples of this included:
- Buying links from India (spam on forums and blogs)
- Purchasing links from various websites that sold links
- Creating links in all comment sections and forums
- Adding your website to link directories
At that time, Google’s algorithm wasn’t advanced enough to clean up these tactics. Additionally, there weren’t many companies in the industry practicing online marketing yet—but that has certainly changed since then.
What Makes a Good Link?
A good link is created naturally or through PR efforts. For example, if your product is so great that people choose to write about it or if you actively pursue PR. An excellent link comes from a site that is relevant to your website or product.
Building good links is almost an art form, and it can be challenging to determine the right approach.
Now, you might be thinking that your product or website won’t get a link from major news outlets tomorrow—so what can you do?
Is link building completely out of reach?
No, but it has become more difficult.
If PR is not an option, check out the following strategies for acquiring high-quality links.
Do Links from Facebook and Other Large Sites Count?
“Nofollow” means that Google is instructed not to pass value to the link. This is done to prevent spam and avoid giving unnecessary advantages. However, nofollow links still hold some value, especially if users click on them.
You can check for nofollow attributes by right-clicking on a link and selecting “Inspect.”
Then, you get this code and can see that the link is nofollow.
As mentioned, nofollow still has value, especially if users click on the link. Google’s algorithm has become so intelligent that it can easily detect whether you only have nofollow links or dofollow links.
A mix will be the most natural, so don’t forget about nofollow links.
What Is a Bad Link?
Any attempt to manipulate links is a poor strategy. You are not smarter than Google, and neither is the agency you hire.
A bad link is one that is clearly created to manipulate Google’s search results and offers no real value to users. Similarly, spammy links that overwhelm users are also considered bad. An overly aggressive link strategy, such as generating 100 links in one day and none the next, appears suspicious to Google.
Should You Buy Links?
In general, be cautious when buying links. Purchased links are obvious to Google because these sites are often flooded with external links. If Google manually reviews such a site, it becomes evident that the links are paid for.
Some platforms offer paid link placements, like Bazoom, but they require either a strong network or a substantial budget.
Poor-quality links are often sold at high prices because many people lack knowledge about digital marketing.
Is Link Building Necessary?
That’s always a great question.
As illustrated earlier, multiple elements influence your ranking on Google. Links still hold significant value and can be the deciding factor in whether your website ranks #1 or #5.
If you’re in a highly competitive industry—such as baby clothing or fashion—you’ll find that it’s difficult to rank on page one for highly competitive keywords. Here, links can be the final push that boosts your rankings.
Remember, link building is just one aspect of a comprehensive SEO strategy.Success depends on a well-optimized website, strong content, and valuable offerings to users.
Often, links come naturally if you provide something outstanding—whether it’s a product or content.
Local SEO also involves link building, especially for businesses like restaurant chains or local real estate agencies looking to increase visibility in their region.
5 Tips & Tricks for Getting More Backlinks
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Broken Link Building
This strategy is one of my favorites! Not only does it help you get valuable links, but it also benefits other website owners.
The method involves finding articles where a service or product similar to yours is mentioned, but the link is broken. Contact the site owner with a helpful email suggesting your content as a replacement.
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Product/Service Recommendations
Do you use an online tool in your daily work? There are thousands of tools out there.
You can reach out to the creators and offer a testimonial for their website. Many companies gladly feature user testimonials, often including a link back to your site.
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Find Mentions of Your Brand
Businesses are frequently mentioned in blogs, media, and other sites.
Helpful tools:
- Google Alerts – Set an alert for when your business is mentioned.
- Mention.com – Get weekly alerts about brand mentions.
If you don’t want to spend time on a tool, you can also Google it by searching your brand name.
- If you find places where you are mentioned, but there is no longer a link – send a friendly email.
- If it’s a larger website, there may be a collaboration in the works (see opportunities).
- Negative recommendation? Give the customer a great experience and get a better review and possibly a link
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Guest Blogging
Are you an authority in your industry? Guest blogging is a valuable strategy for both link building and content marketing.
Major media outlets love content. If you consistently provide high-quality insights, there’s a good chance they’ll publish your articles and link back to you.
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Content Marketing for Link Building
Content marketing is a great way to earn links. Companies like Sinful.dk have created data-driven content that was featured in top news sites.
Tips for effective content marketing:
- Use tools like Buzzsumo to analyze what content is getting links.
- Create something even better with new insights and additional sources.
- Contact journalists who have previously covered the topic and share your improved version.
Bonus Tip: Create a Tool – Rankscanner
My good friend Rune Jensen created a fantastic tool called Rankscanner.
However, as of November 2017, it no longer exists because Rune decided to pursue a career in gaming and now works with Snoost.com, a cloud gaming project.
Rankscanner simply tracks your keywords on Google and shows you how you rank compared to competitors and whether your SEO efforts are making a difference.
The tool is almost free (you get a free version), and it has been frowned upon in the industry because similar systems are usually much more expensive.
Because of this, Rune has received a lot of “free” links from various international media outlets that link to his blog and mention his tools when giving SEO advice.
The Research Part
Keep an Eye on Your Domain’s Value
Of course, there are differences in the value of links.
If you get a link from TechCrunch’s homepage, it holds more value—regardless of what your site is about—than if you get a link from your local sports club.
How do I determine a domain’s value?
Install a browser extension—I use Chrome—called MozBar.
Google “MozBar,” and you’ll find the page you need.
After this, you’ll get a small “M” icon in your browser to look for.
You can see the small “M” icon in my Chrome bar, and if you click on it, the MozBar will drop down.
Next, look at DA, where you can see that TV2.dk has a DA of 70, which is quite good.
My domain has 23.
When you visit a page, you’ll see a value displayed—this value is referred to as Domain Authority (DA).
It’s not an official metric from Google, but Moz has been in the industry for many years, so I consider their assessment to be reliable.
Keep domain value in mind when link building
Always consider a site’s value when doing link building.
Remember, a website that specifically covers your industry holds more value because it is content-related.
It takes time to increase your DA, but it happens faster if you acquire strong backlinks.
What Links Do You Have?
Just as it’s important to track where you’re mentioned, it’s also crucial to monitor old links.
Always stay on top of them and keep them updated.
I use a few different tools for this.
Try using Megaindex—enter your URL and check your links!
As you can see, I’ve added TV2’s website and can now view their links.
Megaindex defines this based on its own algorithm and assigns each link a score.
I often do this for competitor websites, export the links into an Excel file, and manually review them to analyze their link-building strategies.
Be careful when copying links
It’s not always a good idea to copy other people’s backlinks unless you fully understand what you’re doing.
- They might not know what they’re doing themselves.
- The links could be very old and no longer relevant.
- They might have purchased links, which can negatively impact their domain authority.
Other tools for checking links
There are many tools for checking backlinks. Below are some of the most well-known ones, but they do come with a monthly cost:
Megaindex, which I used in the example above, is still free, so you can use it without any cost.
Which Keywords Are Important?
When doing link building or SEO in general, you typically start with a keyword analysis.
This topic deserves an entire blog post on its own, but in simple terms:
By using tools and data insights (such as landing pages), you can identify and optimize for the most valuable keywords.
Example: Searchmetrics
With Searchmetrics, you can see how many searches specific keywords get in different industries.
You can also check which keywords your competitors rank highly for.
Now, Zalando is a very large example. They have a strong domain and rank very high for many keywords. The smart thing about Searchmetrics is that I can see the search volume per month in Denmark. This gives me an idea of what a high ranking is worth.
Keyword tracking
Are you getting results from your link-building efforts?
I personally use Rankscanner for all my domains.
With Rankscanner, you can add a domain and the keywords you want the site to rank for—or at least want to track the rankings for.
Screenshot from Rankscanner
As you can see, I can track how my keywords are performing for a given website. I can also monitor the statistics over time, which allows me to react to any fluctuations rather than being caught off guard negatively.
Keep an Eye on Your Landing Pages
Another important metric—especially if you run an e-commerce site—is to compare your landing pages.
You can select organic traffic in Google Analytics, and then choose Landing Pages.
You can then analyze your landing pages.
What should you look for?
- Revenue: If you find that a page ranking number 3 generates 10,000 in revenue, there’s a good chance that the page could generate 20,000 if it ranked number 1. If you’re not selling anything and you’re in the top 3, it could be that you’re too expensive, you don’t have the right products, or your website isn’t optimized for the user. Be critical of your own data.
- Bounce Rate: What percentage of your users leave the page immediately? Is it higher compared to other pages? Check if the page is optimized for mobile, if it’s slow, or if the introduction makes sense.
- Time on Page: How long do your customers spend on that page? Is it realistic that they can even finish reading your blog post in that time? Make sure the page functions optimally across all devices and at any speed.
Conclusion
Link building is still important.
As mentioned in one of my other posts, Google still accounts for over 50% of revenue for most e-commerce websites. Most of us still Google products when we want to buy or find information. Therefore, link building remains crucial, no matter what industry you’re in.
Can link building only be used for e-commerce?
No, it applies to all industries. This is something many people still misunderstand!
- Accountant in Aarhus? Imagine ranking #1 for “accountant Aarhus.”
- Blogger? Imagine ranking #1 for all your blog posts.
- Lawyer? Imagine ranking #1 for all your services.
My advice: Be careful not to focus too much on link building. Instead, spend your time creating a great product and content around it.
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