The Easy Guide To Link Building (For Niche Sites)

Starting a blog is easier than ever. All you need is a hosting provider and a domain to set up your blog.

And that’s supported by the number of blogs we have on the internet, 7 Billion to be exact. That’s roughly 1 blog for every 7 people.

But not all of these blogs get traffic. According to Ahrefs, 91% of content on the internet gets next to no traffic.

Why?

Because they don’t rank on Google.

And to rank on Google you need links. And everybody knows that.

The real question is, “How do you build these links?”.

If you are a complete noob to link building and are looking for an easy-to-follow guide that doesn’t throw marketing jargon at you then you might want to stick around.

With that said let’s dive into the guide.

chapter #1 What Are Backlinks? 

First of all, what is a link?

A link is a piece of HTML code that allows you to just click on a piece of text which is fitted with a link and jump to another document or web page.

It’s called the web due to links — links are the ‘webbing’ that combines millions of websites into one entity, creating the interconnected web.

Here’s how a link looks like,

Link building is the practice of promoting your website (specifically the content) to other webmasters to earn a Hyperlink on their site to your page.

When a webmaster links to your site from their page, the link you earn is referred to as a backlink in the SEO world.

Why Do You Need Them?

Why do you need backlinks? Can’t you just avoid them? Read on to find out.

#1 The Definitive Ranking Factor

Links (according to research) are the most important ranking factor among the hundreds of them that exist.

When a website links to you, Google might presume the website owner saying, “I trust this website and thus I link to it.” And when a lot of websites link to a page, Google will declare it as a highly authoritative page or post.

Bottom line?

Search engines (e.g Google) consider links as a “vote” from other websites. Therefore they use it as a signal of authority, trust, and relevance. But it’s not that simple (read on).

Matt Cutts (former head of webspam @Google) explained how links influence their rankings in this video. 

#2 Ad Prices Are Sky High

Google wants marketers to spend as much money as possible on Google AdWords to grow their revenue (which to be honest is going uphill at the moment),

And as a result, Ads are becoming extremely competitive and very pricy. 

So if you want to avoid the Ad trap and generate traffic organically through SEO, you have to build links to your web pages.

#3 Competition Is Banking

A report from BrightEdge proposed that SEO is driving the majority of revenue for businesses amongst other channels like Facebook & Google Ads.

Don’t you want a piece of the pie?

Of course, you do. 

And to do that you need links.

#4 Brand Awareness

Citations on popular websites in your niche don’t just provide SEO benefits. It also comes with a ton of brand awareness.

Say we had a Keyword research tool for YouTube, if we had citations (with links) from a website like Backlinko, it would give our tool a lot of exposure and would bring some engaged customers our way.

Chapter #2 Link Building Ideology & History

Theory and importance?

Check.

Let’s now dive into 

• How you can build links
• How to approach link building
• Spam & Google Algos

And a lot more.

PageRank – How Google Values Links

Links are necessary to rank.

You’ve probably heard that a thousand times.

But do all links hold the same value?

No.

Here’s where PageRank comes into play.

Google’s core system, which led to its dominance as a search engine is, PageRank. PageRank is Google’s algorithm that places value on links (based on many factors) and affects a website’s search ranking.

If a page has a PageRank value of say 4 and it links to 2 pages then its PageRank value will be divided to 2 and as result, a PageRank value of 2 will be passed to the linked pages.

Different pages have different PageRank. 

The more PageRank a website has the more high quality a link from that site would be. 

The Pre-historic times (1999-2010)

Back in the day, tactics like PBN’s, directory sites, link farms, link marketplaces were all the rage.

And surprisingly these tactics used to work.

People would build links any way they could, going on a link rampage building links from sites that had nothing to do with their niche at all (cooking with casinos, sports with toilets.

Link building and ranking on Google, in general, wasn’t difficult at all. 

But it was all going to change very soon. 

Roll The Algorithms

On February 23, 2011, Google rolled out the Panda update. 

The Panda algorithm was developed by Google to combat low-quality pages, that didn’t provide any real value to the user or violated the laws of web user experience. 

Websites like wisegeek.com, hubpages.com, and EzineArticles were hurt badly because SEO practitioners (then) used to write low-quality articles there as a way to build links. 

Also, personal blogs and other content-focused websites that initiated Panda triggers paid with a dip in Organic traffic and search rankings.

This update brought one thing to the picture.

“You need to satisfy/please the user with your content to have any chances of ranking on Google”

The panda update was finally integrated into the core algorithm on an unconfirmed date in March 2012.

Now let’s talk about the second major algorithm update,

The Penguin Update.

The primary reason behind the development of Google Penguin was to discourage acquiring unnatural/spam links to rank on Google aka Link schemes.

As discussed earlier, the link-building tactics during the Pre-historic times were all about, well spam.

And as Google used links to rank websites, it influenced and manipulated their search rankings. 

The initial rollout of Penguin impacted 3.1% of English language search engine queries. Between 2012 and 2016, the filter went through 10 documented updates, evolving and influencing the SEO community’s understanding of the problematic practices Penguin sought to address

As of today, Google Penguin is a part of the core Google algorithm making the SERPs a better place for searchers.

Modern Day Link Building

Links at the moment are core to Google’s algorithm, but according to industry sharks like Rand Fishkin, “Links are going to go out of date sooner or later”.

We are not believers of the “link building is dead” community or the “link building rocks” community.

We are somewhat of a hybrid.

Our methodology is to build quality links that rank today and prepare for the future of search engine rankings. 

And we would advise you to follow the same methodology as well.

Bottom line?

Focus on quality content and brand marketing for passive link acquisition. Also, keep in check the reasons for penalty-free following future algorithms which value brand citations much more than a bunch of links.

Chapter #3 How To Build Links?

In this chapter, we will dig into the meat of this post and that is how can you as a new website build links.

We have excluded some strategies which require you to be a brand and have only included strategies a new website can replicate.

With that out of the way, let’s begin.

#1 Broken Link Building

Broken link building is an age-old link-building strategy. It includes hunting for broken links, creating/finding something relevant on your website, and then offering it as a replacement for the broken link.

Pretty simple right?

But recently the effectiveness of this strategy tanked. We thought it was us only and we were making some mistake. 

But as it turns out Broken link building is not even working for household SEO names like AuthorityHacker or even Rand Fishkin.

But you can still drive (close to satisfactory) results with Broken link building. 

See, people don’t like being pointed out for something that hurts their image. 

The same goes for a broken link. 

You mail someone telling them they have a broken link present on their website, which makes them look like they don’t care about their website. 

Especially SEO’s. 

They hate receiving broken link emails. So stay out of their way (unless you want to burn your relationship with them)

But if you are nice to people and not over the top pushy with your content, there’s still a decent chance for you to earn a link.

To find broken link-building opportunities for free you can use an extension like SEOMinion.

But if you want to scale this process you can easily do that using Ahrefs.

First, you have to enter a domain in site explorer and then click on the best by links report.

And then click on ‘Filter by page type” and choose 404

Here’s a template you can take inspiration from while reaching out (Don’t copy)

Howdy [Name]

I was browsing through your website [Name of website] have to say you did some awesome work with [Page you found a broken link on] especially [golden nugget – something unique from that post].

But when I clicked on this link [link of page] the page it redirected me to, displayed a 404 error.

(Here’s a GIF of the broken link)

I have a guide on the same topic which covers [Unique Linking Proposition] that X website doesn’t. 

Not sure if you are updating old posts, but it might be a good replacement if you are?

No pressure at all 🙂 (I know you are a busy guy)

Cheers,

Ayman 

#2 Blog Commenting 

Did you know you could link back to your website from a blog’s comment section?

It turns out they have a default field in their comment submission form, which you can leverage to build links.

Leaving a comment appreciating someone on their blog has its benefits (apart from links)

It can help you get on the radar of a blogger (which can then lead to all sorts of amazing things). 

But if you comment just for the sake of inserting a link to your website, you are being a jerk and are not welcome. 

Fyi, links from blog comment sections are (usually) no-followed. Meaning they won’t pass a lot of PageRank your way.

Also, because of how easy it is to build links using this tactic, people started to spam it and because of that Google had to take action.

Bottom line?

Don’t spam it, go easy, leave insightful comments that go beyond building links.

Tip: Link only to your homepage to avoid the embarrassment of getting caught in a blog commenting scam.

#3 Forum Link Building

People like us can spend a lot of time geeking out on niche forums.

And this is beneficial for two reasons penalty-free

#1 Audience Building

#2 Brand Building

You can build an audience from scratch through forums (Yes it is possible) but apart from that forums are also a great source of referral traffic and links.

Whenever you answer something you can link back to your website (if you have something relevant) and this will earn you a link (for free) with almost zero effort.

Yes, the links you build from forums will always be no-followed. But they still count as links (for Google) and free brand mentions can also go a long way. 

Along with that you also get exposure to your niche audience. That’s not bad.

Here’s the take of late Eric Ward on No-follow links,

I wouldn’t focus too much on Nofollow vs Follow. I would just build links to keep my link profile as organic and penalty-free as possible. I would aim for the balance between do follow and no follow

#4 Steal links

Stealing links might sound very insidious. 

But it’s legal in the link-building world (unless you are hacking websites).

All you have to do is find low-quality pieces of content, create something better, and then ask people linking to the low-quality resource to link to you. (It’s the skyscraper technique)

To find such pieces, first of all, you have to open the Content Explorer in Ahrefs 

And then type in your topic (e.g link building) within quotes and set it to a title search.

Then set the following filters, 

First published > Some old date

Word Count > Less than expected for the topic
Domain Rating > Something low-ish

And then you will find some golden opportunities.

#5 Linkable assets

Linkable assets are a killer way to build links to your website. 

You are essentially creating a magnet that can acquire links for you as you sleep. 

But creating them isn’t easy at all.

And that’s the reason they still work and are effective in the modern link-building scenario.

Recently Backlinko conducted a study where they analyzed 11 Million search results to find co-relations and come up with conclusions on Google’s algorithm. 

And that study was a linkable asset in itself, but what made it much more appealing is the use of beautifully illustrated graphics & visuals to demonstrate points.

Here’s an example graphic,

And apparently, it has been mentioned on leading industry SEO blogs like Neil Patel and WordStream.

And this graphic acquires links to this day. 

Linkable assets don’t necessarily have to be infographics or visuals. Rather they have to be valuable, unique, and share-worthy.

It can be a video, a gif, a map, or an infographic.

At Nicheshake we could create a data study challenging the superiority of WordPress as a blogging platform.

The study would be unique, valuable, and scarce. Matching all criteria$100,000of a linkable asset (of a new website).

#6 Guest Blogging (With a twist)

Guest blogging is an age-old link-building practice. It’s been around since the early 2000s. 

It used to be a very effective link-building strategy that drove a ton of referral traffic. 

But that’s not the case anymore. According to BloggerJet, the average referral traffic through Guest blogging (since 2014) across 249 guest posts is just 56 visits.

If you were to generate this traffic from Facebook Ads, it would cost you a pathetic amount of $6.

So if you are going to do it for traffic, you’re crazy.

But the links earned from guest posts were still pretty solid. 

That’s until Google decided to “flag” guest blogging as a potential violation of Google’s algorithm.

Okay, I’m calling it: if you’re using guest blogging as a way to gain links in 2014, you should probably stop.  – Matt Cutts

But surprisingly it still works (to an extent) and you can replicate it, too, without worrying about penalties. 

Firstly, as a new website, you shouldn’t consider it as a primary strategy to build links. Instead, you should do it occasionally.

Secondly, you should focus on guest posting for sites with a DR lower than 30, so that

• You have a better chance of getting your posts approved
• You can guest post on many similar websites

Bonus tip: While trying to brainstorm topic ideas for guest posts, refer to this Venn diagram;

Make sure to come up with topics that aren’t too generic or too unique. 

This is because if you offer too generic topics, your guest post won’t be approved. 

And if you offer a unique topic you won’t be able to keep an epic piece of content to yourself and miss out on a ton of links (and as a new website you can’t afford to do that).

With that said here’s how to find guest posting opportunities for free.

To find guest posting opportunities with Google, just perform a search with the string – “Niche” + “Write For Us” or “Niche” + “Contribute”.

Chapter #4 Link Building Tools

Link building requires a lot of tools. 

They make link building much easier by systematizing, scaling, and managing campaigns. 

A successful link builder is guaranteed to have an awesome link-building tool stack.

Tools are love.

You don’t necessarily need to pay for monthly subscriptions. You can find & mine data for free too.

This chapter is divided into different categories of tools you will need while link building.

Backlink Research Tools

#1 Ahrefs

Ahrefs has to be the best SEO tool out there hands-down. Their data is awesome. But what separates it from its competitors is its filtering options.

You can access large sets of data and then cherry-pick what you need within a few clicks.

It’s very expensive ($99/month) but if you are on a budget you could sign-up for a 7 day trial for $7 (PayPal or Credit Card) and then just dish out data for 7 days straight. (That’s a lot of 7’s)

Do we recommend it? 

Hell yeah.

Interested? Check out Ahrefs now

#2 Moz

Moz might not be the sexiest tool out there, but we can say without a doubt, no one comes close to Moz when it comes to the quality of link data.

These guys have been tracking links since 2009, that’s 3 years before Ahrefs even started. 

But Moz has lost its shine in the past few years and has failed to fit the demographics of the modern SEO tool. 

It’s priced similar to Ahrefs ($99/month) but comes with a 30-day free trial, which you can use to do your keyword research and export link data in bulk. 

If you aren’t at all technical and would prefer to do your work for free rather than spending $7 on a trial then Moz is for you.

Do we recommend Moz? Ummmmm…..Yes…but no.

Interested? Check out Moz

#3 Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest became a prominent SEO tool only recently. 

Before that, it was just a google auto-suggest scraper. But Neil Patel bought out this tool in 2017 for a reported $100,000 fee and gave it a complete overhaul.

Previously Ubersuggest used to be completely free, but now it’s free to a limit. 

Subscription costs start from $29 to $130. 

Keyword data is good, but link data? No.

Buy Ubersuggest

#4 Mangools

Mangools is a great choice if you are looking for an SEO tool that you can always have at your disposal along with top-quality data.

Mangools pulls its data directly from Majestic and Moz, so you know they are legit.

It’s cheaper compared to Ahrefs or Moz ($29/month) and for us gives more ROI than any other tool on this list (Ubersuggest loses out due to link data)

Interested? Read the review or Buy Mangools now.

Content Research Tools

#1 Content Explorer

Content explorer is Ahrefs’ content discovery tool. 

If you want to use it you will have to go for an Ahrefs subscription.

You might have noticed us demonstrating the use of Content Explorer earlier in this guide. 

Trust us. An Ahrefs subscription is worth every penny.

#2 Social Animal

SocialAnimal is the swiss army knife of content marketing. 

With SocialAnimal you can search for a keyword and instantly discover all the hot articles/topics in your niche along with helpful metrics like shares, links, etc.

If you decided to promote your content you can search for influencers or find people who tweeted an article similar to yours.

You can always try out their software using the 14-day free trial.

Naren is doing an awesome job with SocialAnimal.

#3 Email Finding Tools

#1 Hunter

Hunter is a free tool that lets you find the email address of any person who is an owner or contributor at a domain. 

You can enter a website and Hunter will return all the emails it has in its index for that website.

Or you could type in the first name and last name of a person and Hunter will try and bring you their email address. 

Hunter gives you 100 free credits each month. Pro plans start at $49/month.

#2 VoilaNorbert

VoilaNorbert is also free and provides 50 free credits each month. It’s a great Hunter alternative.

The email finding process is similar to Hunter’s.

The best idea would be to use Hunter and VoilaNorbert together for free to get more credits.

#4 Outreach Tools

If you don’t want to invest in an outreach solution you should use YAMM. 

It’s a free chrome extension that lets you send large email campaigns (with dynamic fields) with the help of Google sheet and Gmail.

You could also use Hunter’s outreach platform (free).

Chapter #5 Outreach

Outreach is a must for successful link building. You need to master (or at least learn) the art of link-building email outreach.

A lot of people just blatantly copy outreach templates from YouTube videos and blog posts. And that doesn’t work well at all.

Everybody and their mom are watching the same video and thus copying the same outreach template, thus exhausting the template to an extent that it becomes overly used.

Also, you don’t wanna be the guy who is just chasing links like a headless chicken. You need to go beyond that. 

This chapter will give you some tips, which you need to keep in mind while reaching out for links or building a relationship.

#1 Personalization Is Key

Personalization is key.

No one wants to receive templated emails from a random stranger. Your emails need to be personalized and should click with the recipient.

Otherwise? Nah they are not going to waste their time linking to you.

Here’s an example of a non-personalized email,

Irrelevant.

When did Niceshake switch to a hiking blog? Stupidly hilarious.

We didn’t get a ton of “Good outreach emails” so we had to use an example from the guys over at Mangools.

The email is funny, skimmable, and doesn’t look like an ice-cold email. It clicks ell.

#2 Your Link Flip Pitch Sucks 

Hey I noticed you link to this article

I have a similar article 

Please link to me.

This is the most common type of link flip pitches we receive (excluding the fake flattering of course).

Why should I link to you instead of your competitor?

Are they evil or they don’t brush their teeth in the morning?

This is the problem.

People often don’t have a unique link flip proposition. If you read the email again you will notice the sender tells me he has a similar article.

I am not interested in a similar article. If you want me to flip the old link for your one, you need to tell me why should I do it.

Is your content much more thorough? Does it cover topics A, B, or C that the other article didn’t? Is the other article outdated? Or the other article has poor content UX?

You need a unique proposition for your content to earn links. So before you send an outreach email, think, “What makes my link worth flipping?”.

Also Read, The Good Content Paradox by Nicheshake

#3 You Are Asking For A Lot

You can’t ask for a ton of favors from someone you are cold outreaching. 

They will get annoyed and will probably flag you as spam. 

Make sure your ask is something that they can fulfill easily without wasting much of their time.

For example, if you ask somebody (who is very busy) to read your article blatantly and provide you with feedback, you are burdening that person. 

But if you share a few quick takeaways from your article and then ask them to check out your article, they might feel interested and consider reading your article as a productive activity rather than a time-waster.

#4 No value for the recipient

What’s in it for them? They are not having a charity link giveaway, are they?

You need to have something that provides value to them or their audience. It can be materialistic or something emotional.

Maybe you can tell them they are missing out on things A, B, & C by linking to another piece of content and their audience won’t like.

But remember, don’t get yourself involved in a link scheme (i.e buying links) or you will instantly receive a sweet penalty notification in your Google Search Console.

Also paid links don’t come cheap. According to an expedition launched by Ahrefs, the price of an average link is close to $150.

But most of the time if they are impressed by your pitch (or they are nice folks) you won’t have to offer them anything.

#5 Avoid Patterns

As the name suggests you have to avoid patterns. 

You can use the ideology behind an outreach template but formulate it differently than the template to avoid being categorized as a spammer.

#6 Don’t Be A Pushy Jerk Face

Avoid link pitches in the first email. 

Instead, try to introduce yourself and describe your piece of content in the first email, and strike a click with the recipient.

And at the end, ask if they would like to check out the piece before,  and then if they respond positively, shoot them with the link to your article.

But sometimes it makes sense to pitch for a link directly in the first email. 

You see, this is very situational, so think wisely when you pitch a link.

#7 The Fault In Your Stars

If you have a new website and decide to reach out to titans within your industry you will kill the chance of your growth almost instantly.

Big sites (generally) won’t be interested to link to a completely new site unless you pull off something seriously epic.

So while link building for articles that don’t have that epic factor (think reviews & all) don’t reach out to big sites. But let’s say you created something seriously epic like a data study, then sure go for it.