How am I to earn backlinks if incentivising backlinks is a no no?
Apparently this is against Google's terms. I'm not much concerned about incentivising backlinks by buying them that's not the way I want to do it but what about incentivising by offering to link to others back? How else am I to send outreach e-mails? I can't imagine someone reading the e-mail and going "oh can we edit the blog and link to this guy?" among everything else unless there is some incentive. People really don't have much to gain by linking to you so why should they even bother? 73 💬🗨
MrRedditKing This is why the good results are often to be found on page two of search. The first page consists of those crappy pages where their owners focused on buying links secretly from high authority websites. While the second page are sites where their owners instead used their resources on making great websites.
rpmeg interesting take – i would argue that in very competitive niches the ones on the first page are doing both – that is the best way to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – killer content AND a lil grey/black hat sprinkled in on the side. It doesn't need to be an "either or" thing
MrRedditKing Doing both is hard, as it requires hugely different skillets. Therefore only huge corps can do that, and only in rare cases. For most niches this is non-existent. Good stuff and good marketing don't interline. In the end the marketers win. And good stuff comes second. Top blogs are fully monetized marketing products. Therefore, for honest information, go to page two.
W111n when talking about links, Google wants you to get social media shares by your users mostly. Also media coverage by "reputable" sources. Other links really don't matter. My site ranks fine and I have made 0 effort in earning backlinks. (I also don't have many links). I know that if I get media exposure or large SM following it would be much better, but you don't start with that. I have proceeded to remove Google Analytics (GA) from my site. Turns out, it's 25% faster with the useless piece of code. That's a tip for getting better ranks: remove GA and make your site faster. randomvariable10 You aren't really supposed to do Outreach or buy links per se. You are supposed to create content which is so good that it organically gets shared and hence gets you the links naturally. Which is why people pay out those high-authority, high-traffic sites, since the underlying assumption is that people won't pay to much amount to acquire a link in order to rank. They would have acquired it naturally. And since low-authority sites tend to copy the content from the higher-authority ones, you would receive more links once they start sharing the content published by those sites which have linked back to you, causing a chain reaction of sorts. But yes, it's f*cked up, especially for the ones who are just entering the field. As far as, "People really don't have much to gain by linking to you so why should they even bother?", they actually do. In the E-A-T principle of Google, the Trustworthiness comes from linking to external quality content pieces. And if your page has quality content, you can acquire links from it. I hope that sorts out a few things.
myndowen Exactly. And just to add, there are so many niches where no one is willing to share your content so easily (or for free). jesustellezllc Very well said. laurentbourrelly Except spreading Google Propaganda, how are you actually helping out and giving value to OP? Of course you have to buy links, build a proper private links network and outreach hustle like a madman. People who tell you produce great content and the rest will follow don't know what they are talking about, googlers included. Less than the Top 1% of the Content Producers Pyramid can claim to gain organic traction around content. Funny thing, they still promote their content. If you don't belong in this elite group of people who can say whatever and people will pay attention, good luck following the ridiculous Google way of achieving results. I can't guarantee success, but I can bet on failure if you follow this type of nonsense advice. Please show me one single piece of content you produce and got organic traction?
SaaSWriters
People who tell you produce great content and the rest will follow don't know what they are talking about, googlers included.
So, you don't produce great content? What kind of content do you produce, then? goingbloodsimple His point is that Google says "create great content and people will want to link to it. So if you want links then create good content". This sounds perfectly reasonable. The reality is that with all the content produced, even if you isolate just the "great" content (which by the way has never been defined by Google) only the top 1% of that content acquires links in the fashion Google described. Google's direction is based on a premise that does not reflect the reality. Google doesn't really know this but that's not because they are dumb – it's because they don't care. It makes no difference to their bottom line for that premise to be true or not. It sounds true enough and it's the way they would like for things to be. That's all. They continue to say that publicly because they don't want to encourage people to exploit their algorithm but they have zero reason to care if it is actually true or useful. Remember links have existed well BEFORE Google and, yes, people would incentivize others all the time to get links as a referral / promotional play. This internet was built on links, not on "great content". laurentbourrelly I've been spamindexing since 2004 and trying to produce great content at the same time. Please check out SEO Conspiracy and let me know if it's high quality enough for you. Where can I check you out? SaaSWriters
Please check out SEO Conspiracy and let me know if it's high quality enough for you.
Indeed, it's very good stuff. I don't agree with your premise though. So, all your content has no meaning to me, personally. But, the writing is brilliant. It's exactly what your target audience is looking for. The vast majority of content creators are not anywhere close to understanding what their audience wants. So, they fail. But then, that's why people like you (and I) exist in the market.
Where can I check you out?
When it's time, I'll get in touch. I Imgoingtowingit The guy is responding to OPs questions about how Google says you "should" build links. Not how everyone actually does it. laurentbourrelly The guy is saying " "People really don't have much to gain by linking to you so why should they even bother?", they actually do. In the E-A-T principle of Google, the Trustworthiness comes from linking to external quality content pieces. And if your page has quality content, you can acquire links from it. I hope that sorts out a few things." That's a lie. People won't link to you. Period. Imgoingtowingit Yes you are right. But he's not saying to only do that. He is simply answering OPs questions about how Google wants us to acquire links. Most, if not everyone, actively acquired links thru spending too much time or just buying them. That's really the only way to consistently get worthwhile links. laurentbourrelly I guess it's hard to take one more "be awesome and the rest will follow". My podcast started out on the idea to debunk SEO Myths and Google Propaganda.
goingbloodsimple Citing Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness (EAT) to argue that "people have much to gain" by linking out is a bit of a stretch, no? To what degree will major or even minor publishers people seek out links from, benefit? Will they really see a measurable lift in organic traffic? Will they be able to attribute it to the external link they added? Even if they could, would they care? How many people who receive outreach emails or come across content in any way, shape, or form actually know/care about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) let alone EAT? MrRedditKing This explains the propaganda well. Including the "you are not supposed to buy links"-part. But it fails to explain what's really going on. Practically all links from authority websites are bought these days, one way or the other. Of course the designers of this system benefit from it. It makes their own marketing products more lucrative.
IncenseTalk Most of the time, they aren't going to simply link to you for no reason. Try to find related blogs and explain to them why they should allow you to guest post on their blog. You could then write an article (a good one) for them and include a link to your blog either in the content, or in the author bio. Present yourself as an expert in a related niche or sub-niche and tell them why you're the right person to write the article for them. You can also say you will share the article on your social media, etc. Your success rate is going to depend on your niche though. eggie82 You could use a tool like Majestic or Mangools to see where your competitors are getting backlinks and get those for your own site. Also there are a ton of paid directories that provide backlinks for a fee. Whether it's against the big G's Terms Of Service (TOS) or not they've been doing it-and quite successfully-for decades. Backlinks have always been my nemesis but these strategies have worked well enough to rank over ten of my lead generation sites to the top of the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). Feel your pain and best of luck with it. dinegen This is a giant paradox. You have to wait for people to find your content to get a link, but since you do not rank, they can not find you and thus the links are missing. However, you can of course promote your content on social media and other communities, but again if you are a "nobody" then your organic reach is most likely low. My alternative recommendations are cold outreach, which has low hit rate and use of link building tools like ninjaoutreach (good for the outrach process itself, but is an expensive solution) and Tabtimize (all-in-one tool, contextual link prospecting, outreach and process. However, it is in the early stages so there is a waiting list right now, but free registration). But what has really worked for me is to create content that really hits intent and contributes with new knowledge (in the form of data and or research/findings). So in my optics, better post 1 high quality article that you have spent several weeks on producing with your own research per month, than 2 articles per week that provide no real value. I have two posts that I have spent many weeks making and they account for 85% of my total traffic. rpmeg there are two types of sites – those that sell links and those that don't. If they don't sell links – focus on a custom value prop – be GENUINE and CUSTOMIZED in your pitch. mass e-blasts for these types of links simply wont work. some Value props include dead links, giving them a huge sincere compliment, or writing a whole new chunk of content to genuinely enhance their article (including the link of course) – i did this for a Domain Authority (DA) 92 site. they had a "19 ways" article, I wrote a whole new chunk to switch it to "20 ways" and told him "doesnt 20 sound better than 19?" – he direct copy pasted it and thanked me because it legit enhanced their article. if they do sell links, send them a simple "advertising inquiry" it is up to you to research what kind of company they are prior to your pitch – its pretty easy to sniff out after practice – just look at how relevant their outbound links are, and how many outbound dofollow links they have. Also if they have an "advertise with us" or "guest blog" section they are more likely to sell links. chifrijojones Publish a little link-bait content every once in awhile. It takes longer but it's worth it. A good piece of link-bait content is often based around quantitative data. Do a study that is relevant to your topic and then publish it. Send a survey to your database and then build a piece of tightly-targeted content around the quantitative data that comes from it. Aim to rank this content for a tight-topic (some people prefer the term long-tail keywords). Keep in mind that you're not necessarily producing this content for your regular readers. We're producing it for journalists and bloggers that are looking for an answer to the quantitative question that your study and subsequent content addresses. If you only get one monthly organic session from that page but that organic session leads to a good backlink, then that content has done its job.
MrRedditKing I imagine this can work. It sounds like a heck lot of work though.
chifrijojones It does work.
SaaSWriters
I can't imagine someone reading the e-mail and going "oh can we edit the blog and link to this guy?"
People really don't have much to gain by linking to you so why should they even bother?
They shouldn't and the don't bother. If you're thinking like this, it means one thing: your content is not useful. It doesn't benefit the readers. If the blog links to you, their visitors will hate them for the link if they click on it. Of course, you can learn how to write content that attracts links. emuwannabe The first rule of Google. Don't do what Google says. Google's webmaster guidelines are meant to be unclear. But the truth is Google is and always has been about links. Backrub was built on links. Google has always been about links. Therefore you HAVE to build links somehow because natural linking is a myth. How does one get their new article noticed when around 70 million other pages are added to Google daily?
MrRedditKing I'm not building links. I'm not supposed to do that. Can get penalized, I read. Eventually my content will rank, I read, if it's great. I just have to make content great, again and again.
emuwannabe OK I'm going to assume that is sarcasm. Otherwise, if you really truly believe this you better look for another career because your SEO career will be short lived. MrRedditKing I expressed what I've read is the officially recommended way. But yes, I do know this doesn't work. emuwannabe That is why I said: The first rule of Google. Don't do what Google says. I have done lots of testing over the years and every time I tried to do "the right thing" according to G I got screwed. I stopped building links for 1 month. 1 month! and I never recovered my rankings. I was ranked #1 for "how to be #1 in Google" (and variations) for a long time. Then I stopped link building and those rankings went away and never came back MrRedditKing Wow that's a great accomplishment. You must be a great link builder. Too bad you never recovered! So then I know. Just do the opposite.
