White hat link building strategies are one of the most important components of SEO, the main factors being — earning and building links — they’re also two of the hardest parts. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it and everyone would be ranking on top of the SERPs for the most competitive and profitable keywords and search phrases.
Why has building high quality links become so difficult? Well, you have to understand what a link is these days. It’s basically one website saying that they trust the other website they are linking to – it’s essentially a vote of confidence.
So, with so many changes in search engine optimization, and the fear unnatural link penalties, it’s really caused the big sites to be very cautious of whom they link to and how they link out.
While it’s much harder now to secure that “vote” of confidence, that hasn’t changed one thing: links still matter and they continue to be the most important signal that makes up Google’s organic search algorithm, which consists of more than 200 signals that are taken into account.
Top rankings and increasing organic traffic will always be a main focus, and to accomplish this you need to constantly build great links and do it better (and faster) than the websites you are competing with.
SERPLogic has always been, and will continue to be, focused on link building strategies. We understand that it’s the most difficult part of SEO, so we are constantly testing strategies and adjusting according to what currently works.
Is link building any easier in 2020 than it was last year? Not even close — it’s become much more difficult. Link building takes patience and a lot of work. Honestly, that is why our clients come to us — they don’t want to deal with the work required to secure the best links.
My goal with this blog has always been to provide helpful information to those that are willing to learn and put in the work. To help you improve your SEO I wanted to put together a list of the white hat link building strategies that are currently working in 2020.
These are all white hat link building strategies that work in 2020.
1. Blog Outreach
Getting contextual links from relevant blogs is still a very doable link building method, but you have to put a lot of thought and effort into the topic as well as information that the blog post you are trying to build links to contains.
The best thing to do is to number one, think of a keyword you want to rank for. Then, create a blog post title and content optimized around that keyword. Think of extra elements you can include, such as graphs and data that will make it interesting to other outlets.
Then, rather than just a blind pitch, look for existing content within their blogs that could be enhanced by linking to your post as a resource. This extra effort makes it a much easier decision for them. As long as the linking makes sense, you will see a much higher rate of success than you would just blasting generic pitches.
2. Press Campaigns
PR campaigns are still highly effective and can help you secure links from some of the biggest media sites, especially the authority blogs and websites in your specific niche. They key that most forget is that you have to have something newsworthy to pitch them.
A ”hey, want to write about my business” pitch will be ignored every time. For the best response, you need to have something highly relatable in terms of your niche as well as something that is relevant or tied to current events.
This combination is something that is likely to receive a lot of clicks, which is the reason most outlets will post PR pitches and write stories about companies that pitch them with press news. Clicks equal pages view, which then translate into ad revenue, which is how most of them make their money.
3. Infographic and Case Study Outreach
Infographics are still a great piece of link bait content, but with so many businesses using this approach it has really made quality in terms of the information as well as the design so important. You cannot use a free template and throw some random stats on it like you could years ago.
Blogs and websites are being pitched new infographics every day. Unless yours is highly relevant to breaking news or has a design that blows the recipient away, you will just be another failed infographic pitch.
One thing I have seen well received lately is creative case studies. Blogs love to link out to resources. So, if you can think of a great case study, turn it into a piece of content a blog can embed on their site that links back to you.
4. Claiming Unlinked Brand Mentions
Many businesses don’t ever think of going after brand mentions that aren’t linked to. If a blog mentions your company then it opens the door to a pitch that “makes sense” — as the trust is already there. You aren’t some random business looking for a link, which is what 99% of the pitches are.
Most think this is only a great strategy for ecommerce brands and larger companies, but local companies are often mentioned in local media and don’t even know about it. So, you need to set up alerts and also seek out these mentions.
There are third-party tools you can use to search, and you can also set up Google alerts, which is free. This way you receive an email anytime your business name appears online, alerting you of a new link opportunity to explore.
5. Local Business Directories
This is a form of link building that has always been effective and legitimate. Many people considered this to be spammy, but they don’t understand that there are plenty of legitimate business directories that you can easily secure links from that are 100% fine in Google’s eyes.
What they did have a problem with was all of the spammy business directories that popped up and started charging money for, which was outright link manipulation. So, a link from Yelp, Google My Business, YP, and niche/industry directories are fine. Just avoid all of the spammy directories that are clones and designed only for link dropping.
Rule of thumb: if a business directory isn’t a household name, either nationally or within your industry, avoid it.
6. Resource Pages
This is something that used to work back in the day, but then people got very greedy (and stupid) and started linking to websites that were totally irrelevant. Today, you have to be relevant and create an actual useful resource. It cannot just be a page with links.
One of the best examples is this one from Moz. Yes, Moz, the company that preaches white hat “link earning” – but their resource page is done perfectly. It provides value and it is relevant. But it also is much more than just a link.
7. Daily HARO Monitoring
HARO (Help a Reporter Out) is one of the oldest link building strategies, as it has been a popular platform among journalists and bloggers for several years. Many people give it a shot but then stop and claim it doesn’t work.
Like anything, it takes time. You have to make sure you subscribe to the correct topic categories and check them daily (they send them 3 times a day). You also have to be VERY responsive. Every query they post receives a lot of replies.
If you are one of the first to respond and your response is helpful and exactly in-line with what they are seeking, you stand a chance to get mentioned in their article and earn a link to your website. Commit to doing this daily and you will see the links eventually start to trickle in.
8. Podcast Links
Podcasts are becoming more and more popular, with almost all business personalities launching one recently. With so many people searching for new podcasts it gives you the opportunity to use another content format to leverage to market your business.
When you create and publish podcast content, it can help you secure distribution on some of the most popular directories and podcast media players. Some include the option for a resource link, which you can use to earn links to your website.
These are typically high Domain Authority link and many are also do-follow, so if you think you can benefit from launching a podcast, this is an easy way to build strong links. Many large companies are hiring production companies to handle their podcast just to drive business and earn links.
9. Roundup Posts
The roundup post has been around for a long time, and now it’s a great way to earn links while also publishing a massive resource on your blog that will receive a lot of social share and links — which will boost its authority significantly.
Steps:
- Think of a topic that you want to rank for organically
- Create an optimized title and introduction
- Come up with a questions to ask all industry experts
- Outreach to every single one (better response if your website has high authority)
- Send them the link to it when published and ask for them to share it on social media and link to it from their own blog
Look at the most popular roundup posts in recent time. They are huge. Things like “99 experts…” or “67 tips…” perform very well. For best results, include the photo as well social handles of the contributors, in addition to a link to their website. This little extra effort can get them to play along and share it and link to it.
One thing to take into consideration is the amount of referral traffic your roundup post will attract, from the social sharing to the linking within other blogs, especially if you put together a monster resource that features 100 people.
So, make sure you have a call-to-action built into the content. A downloadable asset to help build your email list is a great addition to these type of posts.
10. Create an Industry Tool
Another popular link earning strategy that works very well currently is creating a niche-specific tool that is unique and offers the user true value. Also, something that cannot be easily duplicated.
A great example of this in the SEO world is Neil Patel’s keyword research tool, Ubersuggest. He acquired the tool and then built it into his website. In the end he has secured some amazing links because of it.
Not only is it a link earning magnet, but it’s also a massive traffic generator for his blog. You can duplicate this type of strategy in any niche. And you don’t have to break the bank, either. Think of a great resource tool and then hire a developer to create it and build it into your website. I’ve done it here on SerpLogic and it didn’t cost an arm and a leg, we built multiple Free SEO Tools and they’re some of our most visited pages.. that’s highly targeted SEO traffic they’re getting from search engines and word of mouth as we do no advertising on them.
For example, a content marketing blog could create a tool that searches all free image directories, allowing its users to search all available royalty free images in one spot. Something like this could be developed and coded for a few hundred dollars and ear the blog hundreds of links.
11. Broken Link Building
This is one of the oldest link building strategies and it still works very well. Now, there are a lot of broken link checkers, from free to paid, but they all do the same thing. They look for links on any blog/website you want that are pointing to 404 pages.
With so many blogs and websites running outreach campaigns and so many websites and blogs being abandoned or removed, it creates broken links – and a never ending supply of them.
Once you identify a broken link on a website you want a link from (make sure it’s relevant) you have to either identify an existing piece of content that is suitable for a replacement or publish one that fits perfectly. You can even use Wayback Machine to duplicate the content it was previously pointing to.
When you reach out be short and direct. Let them know they are linking to a resource that doesn’t exist and that error isn’t good for their website health and SEO, but you have a resource they can link to instead that will fix that.
The key is to sound like someone trying to help by offering an immediate solution to their problem — and not like an SEO just wanting a link.
Conclusion
With so many people concerned about building white hat links, I wanted to lay out everything that works currently. All of the strategies mentioned above can be used to secure links from the best websites.
While all can be highly effective, they are also very difficult. For example, you might reach out to 50 blogs before you get one to bite and accept your infographic pitch. It might take contacting 150 influencers before you get 10 to commit to contributing a response for a roundup post.
Yes, these methods work, but you cannot expect to experience success instantly. As SEO becomes more competitive it increases the effort required to secure links. If you are willing and capable of putting in the work — hours a day — then you can manage a nice link building campaign yourself.
SEO has evolved so much over the past ten years. Agencies used to mask the “work” and kept their link building methods secret. Today, what works is no secret (see above) — it just requires an incredible amount of experience and time, which is something most businesses don’t have.
What link building questions do you have? Is there anything from above that you would like some clarification on? Drop your questions in the comments below and I will do my best to help you.
Tommy McDonald
Tommy is an SEO professional with years of experience running highly successful SEO companies, founded SerpLogic after noticing there was a major void when it came to options for SEO agencies needing a reliable and professional one-stop outsource solution.You can read all about me in the “About” page here on our blog!