Effective link building for B2B marketers

Developing your backlink profile is an essential part of your B2B marketing efforts. But if you’re new to link building, it can seem daunting at first.

Don’t worry, though. In this article, you will learn how to build the kind of links that get results.

What is link building?

Link building is actively trying to increase the number of backlinks to your site, links from another website to yours.

Link building is an essential part of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). If many high authority sites are linked to yours, Google and other search engines will determine that your website is likely authoritative and of high quality. Your site will then rank higher on the search engine results pages (SERP).

Link building has the secondary benefit of driving new traffic directly from the linking site to yours. Anything that introduces your business to new, relevant audiences is good news for your business.

How can B2B marketers bond?

Some unscrupulous marketers have a habit of paying for backlinks to any website that accepts their money. I recommend against this strategy. Even if you know what you are doing, it is dangerous. If you get caught, you risk incurring a Google penalty, which can have a serious impact on your SERP ranking.

This article will walk you through more self-explanatory (“white hat”) ways of building links as part of your B2B marketing efforts.

But before you start, you need to understand what your backlink profile currently looks like and what your target number of links should be. You can use a tool like Ahrefs backlink checker to see how many backlinks you have and check their quality.

Two metrics are important in this case. First of all, the number of relevant quality backlinks from unique domains will help establish the Domain Classification (DR) of your site, which is the likelihood that a piece of content will rank organically. . Second, examine the number of high-quality, relevant referral domains for your page. The more referring domains it has, the more likely it is to rank in the SERPs.

I have used the word “quality” several times. Google defines quality according to three important criteria:

1. Number of visitors to your site: generally related to the DR or DA of the site
2. Relevance of the link: if the site operates in the same niche as yours
3. Trust flow: how trustworthy are sites that are linked to the domain

With this overview of how to assess the quality of backlinks established, let’s take a look at some of the best link building strategies for B2B marketing.

Guest-Publication

A guest post is an article you write to be published on someone else’s site in exchange for a link to your own. Follow these steps to secure guest posting opportunities:

1. Do a Google search for the relevant keywords you want to rank for. Find the highest ranked result that is not a paid ad.
2. Enter the URL of this site into the Ahrefs backlink checker or other competitive intelligence solution to see the referring domains.
3. From the list of referring sites, create a list of those you would like to write guest posts for. Focus on those with a DR of 50+.
4. Check which sites on your list are accepting guest posts. Many websites that feature guest posts will have a “Write For Us” or “Contribute” page explaining the process. Follow the instructions given by the site on how to be considered for a guest position. If the site doesn’t state that it accepts guest posts, it’s good to ask. Use an email search tool like Voila Norbert and Hunter to get information about a publisher or site owner.
5. Send a brief but friendly email to the website owner. Explain who you are and what you do, and offer a guest position. Make sure you offer value, that is, expertise to share with the site’s audience. You are offering a collaboration for mutual benefit, not asking for a favor.

When a publisher accepts your guest posting proposal, it’s your job to deliver the content you promised. As tempting as it may be to cram as many links into the article as possible, stick to one or two relevant links to your site.

Link retrieval

If someone mentioned your brand in a blog post or forum post but didn’t link to you, you’re missing out on a potentially valuable link. If you spot such a mention, send a friendly email to the site owner or publisher. Thank them for the shout and ask if they would be willing to add a link.

Also, if someone has used your copyrighted material (like an image or infographic), you can usually get a quick backlink by emailing the author of the post and sending it back. asking him for attribution. You also have the right to request that the material be removed and in some cases this might be your best strategy if you are dealing with a low authority or shady site. If the site is of good quality, it is better to ask for a backlink.

Finally, you can recover links by repairing broken links. Here’s how:

1. Do a Google search for a relevant keyword.
2. Review the top ranked content. Do the articles link to a page that no longer exists? You can use a tool like Broken Link Checker to check for broken links on a page.
3. Contact the site owner to let them know about the problem and ask them to fix it. Provide a suitable replacement link (to content on your own site, of course).

Listing in relevant directories

Is there a business directory website for your industry or niche? Take the time to add your ad and make sure it’s up to date. It usually only takes a few minutes and it’s an easy way to add a backlink.

Industry directories are reliable and high ranking sources so the backlink is likely to be of high quality. However, the value of the link is likely to be low, as links of this type are easy to acquire.

Here’s an example from Kompass, a respected B2B directory with a DR of 67:

But don’t just list your business anywhere. It can hurt your SEO efforts and undo your good work. Instead, look for relevant directories in your niche that have a high DR.

HARO

Help A Reporter Out (HARO) is an online service that connects bloggers and journalists to expert sources. Create a free account and select the topics and sectors relevant to your business. You will receive a daily summary of requests by email and you can choose which ones to respond to. If a writer uses the information you provide, you will usually get a link to your site or resource in the published article.

Be aware, however, that HARO can waste a lot of your time if you’re not careful, and you can never guarantee that your quotes will be used. Respond only when the queries are directly relevant to your business niche and when you will benefit from a link from that point of sale.

Establish yourself as an authority

This strategy takes a while, but it’s worth it. If you regularly post valuable, high-quality content and establish yourself as a go-to expert in your industry, other writers and site owners will naturally begin to link to you.

Imagine that your business is selling a small business email marketing solution, and as part of your content strategy, you publish free tutorials on corporate website marketing. Well-known marketing bloggers with a high DR site may post an article on the topic and link to you, just because they like your content and want to tell their audience about it.

It takes a while to start getting backlinks like this, but when you do, these are the strongest backlinks of all.