Hello, community! Website optimization is an essential and highly complex process that requires substantial investment. Primarily, it requires your time investment, as high-quality optimization involves addressing many aspects: from page load speed to the quality of external and even internal links. 

In SEO, there’s even a term for it: “link building.” If you plan to drive organic traffic from search engines, you definitely need to understand how to build links. Fortunately, that’s exactly what we’re going to discuss! 

Before we begin, let’s remind you that we recently covered the key SEO trends for 2024. Highly recommended for reading! 

Link building is an aspect of external website optimization aimed at increasing the number of backlinks to your resource. 

The challenge of link building lies in not just acquiring links but ensuring their quality. The most trustworthy ones are natural links, often embedded in articles and entirely matching the context. For example, your website is about plastic windows, and the article is titled, “How to Choose Quality Plastic Windows.” 

There are also artificial links, which may be placed in dedicated advertisement blocks. These links are often purchased in bulk on specialized marketplaces. 

The main goal of link building is to increase your site’s trustworthiness in the eyes of search engines. The higher the trust, the higher your site will rank in search results, leading to more traffic. Ignoring link building is not an option. 

There are several common methods to obtain external links. Some are even free but require a significant time investment instead of money. Let’s break it down step by step. 

Crowd Marketing 

Crowd marketing is an excellent way to gain not only backlinks but also direct traffic. The key is to have a solid understanding of your niche. 

The main idea of crowd marketing involves affiliates placing links to a site within articles and reviews. For example, you can: 

  1. Post reviews where allowed, integrating your external link within them. Ensure the link is indexable (a rarity for reviews) and avoid being banned, as bans lead to immediate deletion of your reviews and comments.
  2. Buy links embedded in existing content via marketplaces. You can provide the article to the webmaster yourself if you want your link perfectly integrated into the text and the content fully aligned with your resource.

Pay attention to the donor site, especially if you are purchasing links. If a site indiscriminately hosts all types of links and resembles a “link dump,” it’s better to avoid it—even if the price is very attractive. It’s not worth the risk. 

Outreach 

Outreach is a method similar to buying embedded links via marketplaces. However, in this case, you’ll directly contact the owners of trusted platforms because: 

  • If a platform isn’t listed on link marketplaces, it’s likely not spammed with external links.
  • You have more room to negotiate—link quantity, text volume, etc.

During outreach, thoroughly analyze the donor site to ensure its semantic core aligns with your resource. The more relevant the donor, the higher trust your backlinks will receive. 

Outreach isn’t cheap. Link costs here are often the highest, including related expenses like paying a copywriter to craft content where the link will reside. However, these investments are worth it. 

Private Blog Network 

A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a network of websites owned by a single webmaster, aimed at promoting the main domain. Unlike outreach, where you attach your “wagon” to someone else’s locomotive, here you push your own locomotive. 

Building a PBN is time-consuming and resource-intensive, but it can be a valuable long-term asset, especially if you plan to promote multiple sites in the future. 

If you register on platforms where you can fill out a profile and include your website link, you can utilize this source of external links. 

BUT! Most of these links won’t be indexed, as many forums, social networks, and websites don’t index user profiles. Thus, it’s often not worth the effort. 

All methods discussed so far are “white” methods. However, there are also “black” ones: 

Hacking sites to embed your links; 

Link bombing—spamming links everywhere manually or automatically; 

Invisible links—hidden from users but visible to search engines. 

These black-hat methods are not only unethical but ineffective. Consider this section purely for informational purposes. 

Link building must not turn into link bombing. If your site currently attracts 10 visitors per day, it would seem odd if 100 different sites suddenly linked to you overnight, right? 

To search engines, this would appear equally suspicious and could result in a shadow ban: your site remains in search results but can’t rise in rankings, no matter how much you optimize. 

Develop a link-building strategy and distribute external links gradually. 

Conclusion 

Link building is a cornerstone of SEO. If you aim to drive organic traffic from search engines, mastering external links is essential. We hope this material helps you in your efforts! 

Did you already know about link building and how it works? Share your insights in our cozy Telegram community, where we discuss everything important in the world of affiliate marketing! 

As always, with respect, Your Geek! 

What is Link Building? 

Link building is an aspect of external website optimization aimed at increasing the number of backlinks to your resource. 

Who are Link Builders? 

A link builder strategizes site promotion via external links: finding donor sites, working on the semantics of texts where links will be placed, and enhancing the site’s visibility in search engines. 

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