Link Building Without the Groveling. Tips to Get Quality Backlinks

Backlinks are incredibly valuable in the digital marketing world built around search engines like Google.

By getting quality backlinks pointed at your site, you’re telling Google that your site – and the content on your site – is respected within your industry. Backlinks are akin to being invited to the popular kids’ lunch table at school. If the starting quarterback is willing to rub elbows with you, you must be cool.

But how you get to that lunch table (ie. get backlinks) makes a big difference. If you follow the old school of thought, your best approach to is to make a list of all the people you need to reach out to and then, well, reach out to them.

But for many folks, this is akin to public speaking – some people just hate the idea of essentially groveling for links. This keeps them from being able to reach wider audiences and establish themselves as influencers in their marketplace.

Fortunately, there are ways to get around the groveling and earn yourself the key backlinks needed to increase your ranking and reach.

In fact, we here at Cardinal Digital Marketing have seen the decline of success in these direct requests for links. You know the conversations:

“Hey, I have this great article that features a comment you’ve made. Thought you might like it for your reference” or “I notice you often link to content such as BLAH. Would you consider reviewing this article I wrote to see if it falls in line with what your audience likes to read?”

People have grown tired of this kind of approach. Don’t get us wrong – it’s still effective. But it’s not uncommon for these types of requests to be greeted with a hint of disdain, and that’s definitely not the type of experience you want to cultivate, is it?

And even the most successful link builders like those at Cardinal Digital Marketing admit that their success rate hovers around 5% to 10%. If you’re reaching out to 100 people a week, and only 5 get back to you with a “Yes”, that can be extremely disheartening, not to mention harmful for your brand.

That’s why we’ve come up with these tips you can do to earn links that casts aside the need to grovel or beg. Trust us, your brand – and your audiences – will appreciate it.

Your audiences WILL benefit from this

If you were using the old-school method of link-building, you’d approach your audiences like this: “Hey, I made this thing. Will you link to it?”

But instead, what you should consider doing is telling your ideal linkers that “I have this awesome thing I made. I know that people like you and your audiences are interested in it, because it fulfills THIS need.” And then, proceed to show them how your product fulfills a need.

Here’s how this approach works best:

You find content across the web that’s in line with the “THING” you made. You reach out to the author and form connection, typically through social media, maybe via email. As you forge this relationship, you begin to introduce your product or service you want them to link to. If they trust you enough, they’ll have no problem doing so.

This works best for bloggers and journalists, especially if you have some type of content to help them backup a claim they made. If you have some type of data or evidence that will bolster their argument, you can be sure that they’ll find a way to reference you in their writing.

You are a member of a “listicle”

Listicles are extremely popular – they offer a quick and easy way to create content that readers will find value in.