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Link Building in 2023: Strategies That Have Worked Over The Last 6 Months
I’ve spoken here a few times about the various tips and tricks you can use when actively building links for your business. Each post has garnered a myriad of positive questions, but a lot of them have been around how you’d actively apply the strategy of link building into bespoke situations.
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The other day I saw someone telling people how forum links were the way forward, how they still work etc. Then someone mentioned on another thread that backlinks are useless because all they do is make a few odd sales when people click the link; a fundamental misunderstanding of how link building works. Also, someone giving advice regarding how to increase DA. This was advice given to people asking how to do it…creating an echo chamber of false and damaging information that other business owners and new SEO’s read.
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So, I thought the best way to go about it was to outlay some of the strategies I’ve used with my own clients over the past 6ish months. Recent success is important rather than going back years because it shows the strategies still work in line with the current algorithm etc and after all of those updates last year and the big link update in December 2022. I’ve called it link building in 2023 simply because these strategies work currently as long as they’re done in line with good link building practices outlined in my previous posts.
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If you’re literally just starting out with link building, my earlier posts might be a better place to start before coming back here to read up on other strategies…because the basics always apply. At the same time, I’ve tried to make this as accessible as possible for those new to link building, so those SEO’s with a huge amount of experience might not find anything new here…even so, hopefully you find it useful.
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I haven’t disclosed their business names for obvious reasons. I’ve also tried to go light on the results we had from these strategies for fear of it coming across as promotional.
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These are strategies that have worked and ones you can use for your own businesses. They work, if done right, consistently.
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# Moved Away From The Large Power Websites
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This was for an appliance company known nationally in the USA. They wanted to be in the top three for something like “toaster ovens”.
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They’d been building good links from power websites that hit all the right notes. As had their competitors. Nothing wrong with what the appliance company was doing as on paper their link building efforts were great.
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I did the usual backlink audit and realized something pretty quick. All of their links were to high power websites. Online magazines, popular news websites, review sites, etc. It was a good profile, but that’s all they had. They didn’t have any from smaller websites, like real mom blogs for example that have smaller, dedicated followings.
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They’d cast them aside because while some mom blogs (using mom blogs as an example here, there are others of course) are pretty huge, most are actually tiny with small loyal followings. They liked the traffic and the authority so they always went with websites that ticked those boxes.
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I took them away from those sites completely (they already had enough) and targeted smaller mom, tech, and recipe blogs. All situated in the USA (target market) with good USA traffic. These were real blogs owned by real people. I built around two hundred of these links over four months. Sounds a lot, but the keyword is in the 90th percentile for difficulty. The differentiation worked and got them where they wanted to be.
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The point is that in this day and age you need variety. It’s not all about going for those super high metric websites all the time. You need a good mixture. Just because a website doesn’t have really high traffic doesn’t mean it won’t be useful. Google pays attention to the opinions of real websites owned by real people. It can measure these opinions by checking what these bloggers are linking to.
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The trick is in finding GOOD websites owned by real people and ignoring the (many) bad ones. The business had done the hardwork by building a good “elite” profile, turns out they just needed that bit of variety from “real” people to get them over the edge. When you build your profile, do the same thing…especially for those high difficulty keywords. This is scaleable too. For example, say your client instead is a 3D printing company. A lot of the links would be secured on tech websites etc…great. But make sure you get some on small hobbyist websites too.
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Link differentiation is important to build a healthy link profile…but they still all have to be on good, real websites.
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# Generic Anchor With Nearby Keyword
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This campaign was for a medium credit card company who wanted to compete with the bigger firms. Their keyword was pretty hard, around 76% at the time (Novemberish), it’s now in the 90s.
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I realized that all of the major CC companies had built links using the same (target) keyword, naturally. At the time, after the May 2022 core updates, I’d experimented with using generic anchors with the keyword I wanted to rank for, placed nearby and found it to be pretty effective (an old strategy but underutilized by many). The major CCs hadn’t done this (only building with primary anchors), which was a clear opportunity for the newer fintech brand.
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So, I created links but using generic anchors on strong websites/blogs in the finance/tech niche. The keyword was placed next to an anchor text titled something like “here/alternatives” . I did this for about four months. It’s important to note that the content was completely written to back up this link…the content concerned the keyword, and gave info on the keyword.
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The volume was around 10k but the keyword is super competitive due to purchase intent. They beat major competitors for this keyword and landed where they wanted to be.
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Most link builders know this now, but many business owners don’t. Also, at the time if you found a word where competitors were just purely using that word as the anchor, and not using this tactic you could really carve a niche for yourself because Google would, nine times out of ten, rank the site with link variety even if the website had less direct keywords. So, you’d attach the URL to a generic keyword, but put the keyword you want to rank for right next to the link or nearby, instead of making the keyword you want to rank for the link itself. But, the content has to be hyper relevant. No link insertions into mildly relevant content!
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It’s still a deadly strategy, it’s just that your competitors might be doing it too, it depends what niche.. It’s easy enough to check. If they’re not, you’ve got an easy strategy to get a lead on them, just remember to do a few target keyword links too.
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# Building Links For The Future? It Can Be Done
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This is an interesting one. Usually, when I build links I build them for a client who wants to rank higher for a specific keyword that’s usually hard to hit, in the present (they want to hit it asap).
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This client wanted to hit a keyword for an upcoming event. They’re a smaller business event that runs a yearly forum. The keyword was something like “ABC forum 2022”. As you’d imagine, they were attacking things too late. They asked me to build links two months before the event.
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At the time, the keyword was super difficult and high volume. This is an event that happens every year. I ran the following year. 0 volume, something like 4 or 5 difficulty. No one searches for the next year. Not really. Why would they when the current year’s event hadn’t yet happened?
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Now, there are about six major forums that all vie for top spot. All well known and well funded, some headed by familiar faces.
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I suggested we start building for the next forum right away instead. Essentially building links for a keyword that, at the time, had no volume. (remember, I knew that volume would shoot up into the tens of thousands, just as it did every single year, in the year of the event).
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So, I built for the future. I built a backlink profile targeting a future keyword and it absolutely worked. When the volume started to pick up for the keyword in question in the year and Google realized people were searching for it and started ranking websites for it, we hit the top right off the bat in prime booking season – whereas the competitors only started building links in the year of the event. We stayed pretty much at the top for the entire year…and, in that year, we built for the next year.
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It all sounds super obvious but a lot of businesses have it ingrained in them that they should logically target keywords with high volume…because that’s what people are searching, right? But if you know people will soon target a word that isn’t being searched yet, you can get a huge jump on the competition.
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The point is that if you start targeting year sensitive or similar keywords too late you’ll leave yourself too much work to do, whereas with enough time you can build early and land well. The forum was related to business investment so creating content and finding websites wasn’t an issue…it was just about having patience when you’re essentially trying to rank for a keyword with 0 volume, but knowing that volume will 100% shoot up.
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# Move From Super Defined Content To Generic
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This is for those businesses in unique niches.This one will probably be known by most in SEO, but for business owners its an important distinction to make; between links in super defined content or generic content. As I’ve gone over before, for links to work properly and pull they need to be placed into unique, well written and engaging content. Spun content, badly written content etc. just wont work anymore and it won’t do what you want it to do for your business. Good links work not just because they’re placed on good websites (traffic ((from target country, not just any traffic)), localization, relevance etc.) but because the content is good and unique..
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With that said, we come to a situation whereby the client is in a super defined niche…namely petrochemical/chemical manufacturing, but were a smaller startup with a niche product. We started creating content, placing links in them and placing the content onto websites in the right country (USA) with high traffic and good metrics. We quickly ran into the problem…there aren’t that many chemical manufacturing blogs/websites out there. The client is a startup backed by VC, trying to carve out a space against some of the larger manufacturers.
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So, we moved from targeting super defined websites to open ended engineering/industrial websites with way more generic content…but in the content is always a chunk (three four paragraphs with H2 and H3 subheaders) pertaining to chemical engineering along with the keyword. Stretching allowed us, after a further two months, to rank an annoyingly complicated keyword ahead of these major chemical manufacturing competitors.
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The point is that you can use varied content where needed…don’t miss out on slightly off note websites just because it doesn’t directly cover what you need. Vary and generalize your content for the links and you can still rank for those difficult keywords, even in the hardest niches out there.
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This sounds super counterproductive when everywhere else it’s all about content relevance…but the key is that if you’re super niche, you can end up bogged down and spending an age looking for the perfect website. If you’re extremely niche, you have to think outside the box while adhering the link building guidelines.
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# Create A New Linkable Asset
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You check the competition and make sure what you’re trying to rank is better than what they’re trying to rank…it’s the first thing you do. So, the content reads better, is longer (where needed, quality over quantity), page is faster etc…sometimes that isn’t enough.
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In competitive niches you know your competitors will have top quality content that you can only match. Sometimes you’ve got to think outside the box to make a dent, especially if you’re new to the scene.
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In this case, we created a calculator as a content break, then used links to rank the content that was built around the calculator. We made the content far more useful to the reader because it now included an interactive calculator. So, when we began the link building it worked a lot better and was more logical…because bloggers, website owners etc. would logically link to the content that was better.
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So, by creating a new linkable asset within the content we created a unique and specific angle.
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This was predictably in the law/finance niche. The volume was very low but the difficulty was hard. The search intent was incredibly commercial and the kw led to clients that garnered eye watering payouts…if that makes sense. Point being, they’d previously ranked in the top three, and dropped to around 15. By adding links and the calculator, over four months they’re now consistently fighting for 1.
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Point being: have a look at the content breaks your competitors are using/not using and one up them with something unique. Then, when you go for a link building campaign you’ll pull more traction. I’ve seen this work elsewhere too but this is the most recent and applies to the “2023” moniker. It can be something as simple as some well placed infographics, unique pictures, data tables, etc. In our case, they’d already been used by competitors so we had to get a dev to create a calculator. Just saying, it doesn’t always have to be a calculator :D.
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# Keyword Timing
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This kind of relates to building for the future, but it’s different enough to form a section of its own. You might not always be at number one, but make sure you are when its important to be. In this day and age, the SERPS fluctuate consistently, especially when you’re in the top three. Its harder to stay at number one consistently (although it does still happen)…instead, you’ll float between 1,2,3.
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Due to this, it might be inopportune to pull the trigger on strategies that might place you at number one, at the wrong time of the year…because the reality is that you might only stay there for a month or two and constantly pulling the trigger on the strategy won’t work. Some businesses work all year around so it doesn’t matter, but some are certainly seasonal. Think Christmas decorations…anything with an element of seasonality.
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This client wanted to hit their heights asap in September, but they sell a winter related auto product that people are far more likely to purchase in the coldest months (Jan/Feb in this case/location)
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Instead, we pulled the trigger later on in the year, leading to the relevant keywords boosting where they historically got their most sales (February). Imagine we’d done this so they were ranked well for September? They wouldn’t have done nowhere near as well.
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Remember, it is possible to nail number one and stay there for months on end, but for some of the extremely difficult and competitive keywords you can expect some fluctuation, in which case it can be smart to time things as best possible to gain that impetus when it’s going to be most powerful.
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On the other hand, you can expect your clients to do this too. To counter this, you can dial down the link building to a slow amount over a long period…slowly but surely creating a great profile…but then ratcheting it up a few months before your target period.
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# No Links To Heavy Links
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This is something that usually never works and you probably shouldn’t do, the situation has to be just so.
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If you don’t have a link profile and aren’t ranking well for target keywords, suddenly pushing out a total ton of links won’t be a good idea.
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However, there are some who do rank well for keywords but don’t have much of a link profile. In this case, we went from a very low amount to a high amount in one month and the result was the client ranking for a myriad of rev driving keywords. They’re in the photo accessory business and sell direct to consumers as well to big sporting events and Hollywood.
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To double up on this, I’ve done this for another client who ranked 96th for a 70% difficulty keyword but 50k volume. They weren’t ranking for that particular keyword very well, but ranked well for a huge amount of other keywords…so the danger was omitted because they were already a big name in the space so it was logical for people to link to them. By ratcheting up fast over a few months they’re now where they wanted to be.
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In short: you shouldn’t usually go from no links to tons of links over a short period of time and link builders/SEO’s who suggest this don’t have your best interests at heart. But, if you’re already ranking pretty well for a high volume/relevant keywords (or similar keywords), you can get away with it. This worked well. Remember, the links for these clients were great links, websites with strong traffic, relevant, great content, etc. Nothing spammy at all. I don’t want people thinking they can buy a load of bad links and expect this to happen.
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To round this off:
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We’ve all seen the crazy posts and replies on here regarding link building. Link building is a consistently applicable strategy that does still work when done right. The Google update in December has targeted those who have taken the option of procuring incredibly bad links wholesale. If you’re nuanced in your approach and build links properly they always work. I’ve seen it thousands of times, for hundreds of businesses and thousands of keywords. I guarantee that the biggest players in the biggest niches in various industries use link building. I’ve had S&P clients who use link building campaigns, some of the biggest names you can think of.
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It’s incredibly simple to get right:
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Good unique content
A well researched keyword (as an anchor, in most situations)
That links back to A1 content on your website (that’s optimized for that keyword)
Placed on a relevant high quality website that has strong traffic from your target location
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You can rank some content without links, but if you’re needing links, don’t take a shortcut. Do it properly and you’ll see great results quicker than you think.
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At the same time, as with this post, you’ll need to think outside the box to get that edge over your competitors…which brings us onto the last point
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# Develop a link-building strategy
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I’ve spoken about this before. It’s better to not just snatch at links and spray out links every now and then. Instead, develop a link-building strategy.
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This is the most important part of link building. If you use an agency, or a freelancer or whatever, you need them to develop a solid link profile that’s inter complimentary. That’s to say, it can’t all be weighted on one keyword. Develop a strategy bespoke to your own business. Don’t just randomly place links without a plan in mind.
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**Good SEO’s will build you a great link profile, they won’t just place links. There is a major distinction between the two.**
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For smaller businesses just starting out without budget…It’s better to get one good link, than 50 bad links. Don’t jump the gun. If you can’t afford good links, wait until you can. Buying trash links in this day and age is just wasting money. They won’t nuke your website, but they won’t do any good either. At the same time, check out my earlier post for more generic advice.
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I could write a lot more but it’s quite long as is :D. Hopefully, you’ll find it useful and gain some applicable knowledge for link building for your business.
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1 Reply
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I just skim-read this – nicely done and an interesting post. Gd write up. this post will prob get some good attention, so I’d just like to say thanks for adding good content which makes a change from all the chatgpt trash that’s clogging up the feed at the moment.
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Hello, thanks for putting this together. What do you think about inserting links into titles? Example; you’ve got an article and the link is in a header 2 or 3 further down in the post? Does this make it more powerful because it’s in a title? Quite new to SEO, I value this kind of post.
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Really interesting. I come here now and then. I co-own my own agency in NYC and we deal primarily with fintec firms on the w/coast. We’ve used generic anchors for a while too and are surprised more don’t use the strategy! Glad to see its still a good one to use.
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How about DA? Why does everyone tend to focus on DA as a metric in the industry even though everyone says it’s not a useful metric?
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Interesting. I’m about to sign a co to do some link-building on my travel agency. When I speak to them I’ll be able to ask some questions based on this post to gauge their competency I guess. Thanks!
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Nice writeup.
I’m assuming you had a substantial link budget to acquire these links?
That’s the problem for many small businesses, they just don’t have much of a budget to target a couple hundred links…
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Dm me. Tried to chat with you but it wouldn’t work.
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Let’s say your client has a lot of good backlinks from domains with a high domain authority. The client needs more links from mom blogs or from real people. How would you identify the potential opportunities, what tools would you use?
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Awesome post. Super interesting and well explained. Kudos.
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Hi. I have a question. Let’s say I’m trying to rank for the keyword “lawyer Boca Raton”. Would it hurt if I use the same anchor text “lawyer in Boca Raton” in all the 20+ guest posts we buy? Or should we use other variations like lawyers in Boca Raton, skilled lawyers in Boca Raton, etc2?
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>Generic Anchor With Nearby Keyword
For internal links, this still works very well, but as of Penguin, if you include the keyword you want to rank for in your backlink anchor text, you risk receiving an algorithmic penalty for too much exact match anchor text, which will hurt your ability to rank for queries that contain the keyword you used in the anchor text, as well as synonyms of that keyword. However, there is no such risk for branded anchor text, so instead I suggest for backlinks you use your company name as the anchor text and leave the keywords you want to rank for unlinked. With that said, everything else in this post sounds good.
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Yeah some good stuff here well done. I also need links can you help lol
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Great! I’ve just hired a linkbuilder, otherwise I would have reached out to you. Learnt a lot.
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I’ve read this, and your older posts, and learned more about link-building in an hour than I’ve learnt anywhere else. Thanks for putting it together.
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Thanks for your thoughtful post, very informative.
Quick question, what’s your opinion on purchasing expired domains related to your niche and redirecting them to your domains?
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