Saturday, November 9, 2019

How to Build Backlinks in 2019 (NEW Guide)

Backlinks are the nitrous of every successful SEO campaign.

This new guide will teach how to build backlinks in 2019. Every strategy you will read is battle tested.

Through hundreds of successful SEO campaigns, we now know what does and does NOT work.

Ready to get started? Start watching (or reading):


Need more backlinks? Get access to 7 untapped link building techniques.

Table of Contents
What are Backlinks (and How Do They Work)?
A “backlink” is created when an external website links to yours. This why some people refer to them as “external backlinks” or “inbound links”.

Here’s how it looks in action:

what are backlinks

These links are a large piece of the ranking puzzle.

But before we get into the heavy link building strategy…

You need to make sure that your site is ready for backlinks.

When to Build Backlinks
Many people dive into link acquisition before they’ve built a strong foundation. What you must realize is that a strong foundation (a well-optimized website) makes your link building more effective.

When your backlinks are more effective, you don’t need as many to achieve your desired result!

That ultimately saves you time and money.

So, here’s what you need to cover before jumping into link building:

1. Fix All Technical/UX Issues
Technical issues can hurt User Experience (UX) and UX is correlated to SEO performance (or lack of it).

View this as a foundational stage of the process.

That’s because if speed through this process, you backlinks won’t be as effective.

And what happens when your backlinks aren’t as effective?

You have to acquire more, which costs your company more money.

Here are some technical/UX issues you need to look for:

Site loading speed (use Google’s PageSpeed Insights)
Mobile friendliness (use Google’s Mobile Friendly check
Duplicate content (use Siteliner)
Canonical errors
Duplicate META data
Incorrect uses of directives (noindex, nofollow, etc)
Redirect Chains
Sometimes the most obvious solutions are right in front of your face. Redirect chains are another simple problem that can boost your site’s authority once fixed.

This is what a redirect chain looks like:

Redirect Chain

Do you see the problem with this picture?

The problem is that “Page B” is acting as a buffer between “Page A” and the final destination “Page C”.

This technical issue is robbing “Page C” of authority.

To fix this you need to 301 redirect “Page A” to “Page C” like so:

Fix Redirect Chains

By fixing a redirect chain you will send authority/link equity directly to the page.

That is more effective than making the link equity pass through a buffer.

302s
There’s some debate on whether or not PageRank passes through 302 redirects. For many years, SEOs (including myself) have always stated that you should change 302s to 301s. This is still my stance. However, he’s what Gary Illyes said about the topic: “30x redirects don’t lose PageRank anymore.”

Gary Illyes Redirects

Is Gary telling the truth? Probably.

But I still don’t think it’s worth the risk.

Out of the hundreds of SEO audits I’ve conducted, I’ve seen a few websites using 302s for their actual purpose (a temporary redirect).

In most cases 302s are nothing more than accidental.

With that said:

It’s my preference to change 302s to 301s if they aren’t being used for their actual purpose.

Reclaim Lost Link Juice (404 Link Reclamation)
404 link reclamation is at the top of the list because it is the easiest.

You can use Google Search Console to find 404s (Crawl > Crawl Errors > Not Found):

404 errors

You can also use Screaming Frog to find 404 as well (Response Codes > Client Error – 4xx):

Screaming Frog 404s

Then to see what 404 error pages have backlinks, just use Ahrefs’ or Majestic’s bulk analysis tools.

Ahrefs Bulk Analysis

Ahrefs Bulk Analysis Tool

I recommend doing both just in case you miss some links.

When you find pages with link equity, you must 301 redirect them to a relevant page on the site or to your homepage.

Fix Broken External Links
Every external link you place on your site leaks authority.

That’s why it’s important to audit your site (here’s an SEO audit checklist) to find broken external links.

This applies to both external links in your content and in the comment section.

You can easily find these broken external links using Ahrefs.

Go to “Outgoing links” and click “Broken Links”.

Broken External Links

You can use Screaming Frog SEO Spider to find most of these issues such 302 redirects, redirect chains, 404 errors, canonical errors, duplicate META data and incorrect uses of directives.

2. Develop a Strong Site Architecture
Developing an intelligent site architecture is the single best way to get the most “bang for your buck” when it comes to link building.

My favorite site architecture strategy is to use a reverse silo.

Instead of trying to acquire backlinks to non-linkable pages (homepages, category pages, product pages, etc), the reverse silo is built to acquire backlinks to content-rich pages.

These may be blog posts or individual information-driven pages.

Here’s how it works:

Reverse Silo

This is a more effective approach for link acquisition because people are much more willing to link to valuable information than sales-driven pages.

With that said:

The ultimate goal of the reverse silo is to distribute link authority (PageRank) from your content assets to your sales-driven pages (via internal linking).

I believe this content-centric approach is the safest way to grow your site’s authority.

Bringing me to the next point:

3. Create Linkable Assets
Every effective link building campaign should begin with creating linkable assets.

First, what is a linkable asset?

A linkable asset is usually a blog post or page that is informationally-driven.

For example, this blog post you’re currently reading is a linkable asset. It’s designed to educate and add value to my industry.

Lee Odden Quote

Not only is it easier to acquire backlinks to a valuable content asset, but it’s much more scalable in the long run.

That’s because you can continue to earn new backlinks overtime without much additional effort. That is, if you created the content the right way.

Read my guide on how to create SEO content to learn more.

At this stage, your website is on a strong foundation so it’s time to start building backlinks, right?

Wait a second.

You need to have a clear understanding of what a “quality” link opportunity looks like before you dive in.

This will help:

7 Backlink Quality Indicators
Not all backlinks are created equally and that’s why it’s critical that you know what a good backlink look like. Here are some guidelines to follow:

1. Relevance
Your #1 link building objective should be to get backlinks on websites that are relevant to yours.

But don’t take my word for it. Here’s what a former member of Google’s search quality team, Andre Weyher, said back in 2012:

Not only this but take PR for example, getting a link from a high PR page used to always be valuable, today it’s more the relevance of the site’s theme in regards to yours, relevance is the new PR. – Andre Weyher

This quote is stating the obvious:

Your link acquisition efforts should begin with the most relevant opportunities.

But there’s a problem with this approach:

Getting 100% exact relevancy for every single link is unrealistic.

That’s why I develop The Relevancy Pyramid framework for prioritizing your link opportunities.

The Relevancy Pyramid
Here’s a visual representation:

Relevancy Pyramid

The idea is quite simple.

There is a limited supply of 100% relevant link opportunities. However, as you broaden your research, there will be many more opportunities to go after.

The key is prioritize opportunities at the top of the pyramid (since they’re the most relevant) and work your way down the pyramid (towards less relevant opportunities).

Let me show you how it would work with a more practical example.

I’m going to show you how I would prioritize opportunities for a supplement company.

Tier One: 100% Relevancy
I will designate a “1” to any opportunities that are 100% relevant to the supplement company. An example of 100% relevancy would be a website that reviews supplements. Or, a website that focuses on a specific supplement that the client offers like creatine.

As you can imagine, 100% relevant opportunities are few and far between. This is especially true in the “supplement” industry. That’s because supplement companies create micro supplement sites to persuade you. So the chances of landing a link are low.

Tier Two: 75% Relevancy
All opportunities that are 75% relevant get a “2” designation. On this tier you would want to focus on “body building” opportunities.

Tier Three: 50% Relevancy
On tier three, you would focus on all “fitness” opportunities and assign a “3” to them.

The fitness space has unlimited opportunities.

First, you would focus on pure “fitness” blogs. After that, you could move onto any type of sports, CrossFit, or runner blogs.

It would likely take a year to tap into all the opportunities within this relevancy tier.

Tier Four: 25% Relevancy
On tier four, you would focus on “health” opportunities and assign a “4” to them.

There are countless websites about “health” in general. But, you can also tap into nutrition, elderly health, women’s health, and men’s health blogs.

Tier Five: 0% Relevancy
On tier five, you would focus on more “general” opportunities.

For example, if I link to the fall outfits guide on Joyfully Styled, it won’t be as effective a “Tier 1” opportunity. That’s because SEO and fashion aren’t relevant to each other. But, that doesn’t mean the link I injected won’t work.

We classify “general” (Tier 5) opportunities as authoritative news sites, colleges, and unrelated, but high-quality blogs.

You would assign a “5” to these opportunities.

News sites such as Huffington Post, Fox, CNN, or Yahoo would be targets on this tier.

You are likely wondering what “unrelated, but high-quality blogs” are…

Let me explain.

You would want to ask yourself:

Does the supplement company have a CEO who would like to share success secrets?

If the answer is “Yes”, then focus on entrepreneur, business, small business, sales, marketing, and Internet marketing blogs.

You would also want to consider productivity or self improvement blogs. That’s because both topics could incorporate supplements in one way or another.

Now that you understand the Relevancy Pyramid model, here’s how it would actually look in practice:
Relevancy Pyramid in Practice-min

I wouldn’t normally color code, but I wanted you to see the different tiers.

The cool thing about this process is that you can outsource the entire thing.

So, what I just showed you is how I would leverage the concept of a Relevancy Pyramid for a national SEO campaign.

Now let me show you how you can use this technique on the local level to prioritize link opportunities.

Local Relevancy Pyramid
Geo-targeted backlinks are the Creme de la creme of local SEO. That’s why you must prioritize these opportunities in the Pyramid.

Here’s how our local Relevancy Pyramid looks:

Local Relevancy Pyramid

For this example, I will use a Chicago limo company.

Tier One: 100% Geo-Targeted and Niche Relevant
Your most prized prospects will be assigned here. That’s because they must be both niche-relevant and geo-targeted relevant.

These are rare, but valuable.

An example would be a Chicago limo directory.

Tier Two: 100% Niche Relevant
Tier Two and Tier Three are interchangeable, but we like to focus on niche relevant links first.

Limos blogs, limo directories, and limo associations would fall under this category.

Tier Three: 100% Geo-Targeted
On Tier Three you would focus your efforts on Chicago-targeted opportunities.

Chicago directories and Chicago blogs are all fair game here.

Tier Four: 50% Niche Relevant
At this stage you would focus your efforts on related niches. Wedding blogs and wedding directories would fit into this category.

Tier Five: 25% Niche Relevant
On Tier Five you would focus on travel blogs, transportation blogs, and even dating blogs.

Here’s how the local Relevancy Pyramid would look in practice:
Local Relevancy Pyramid Demonstration-min

I think you get it:

Link relevancy is super important, but how do you know if an opportunity is relevant?

You want to examine:

The general content “theme” of the linking domain. Is it relevant to yours?
The relevancy of the backlinks hitting the domain. The website linking to their website relevant to yours?
I recommend using Majestic’s Topical Trust Flow Topics for this purpose.

2. Authority
The stronger the site, the better the results.

Since Google doesn’t update PageRank anymore, you have to rely on third party metrics.

None of these third party tools are perfect, but they will do the job.

I recommend you analyze opportunities using all available options.

The best link analysis tools are:

Ahrefs
Majestic
Open Site Explorer
3. Link Quality
Third party metrics such as Domain Rating (Ahrefs), Trust Flow (Majestic), and Domain Authority (Moz) can all be manipulated.

So, although a website can appear to be “authoritative” on the surface, it be outright dangerous when you dig deeper.

That’s why you must examine the link profile of your opportunities.


All the tools I mentioned above will do the job.

Use these same standards I’ve outlined in this section to determine whether your link opportunity’s link profile is high-quality or not.

4. Traffic
If you approach link acquisition with the intention of driving traffic to your website, it changes your entire mindset.

Your goal should be to get backlinks on website with real traffic.

This doesn’t mean you’ll get loads of referral traffic, but it’s a good standard to have.

Since you will never know the exact traffic data of a site without getting in their analytics, you will need to use SEM Rush or Ahrefs.

5. Editorial Standards
Why are diamonds valuable? Because they’re difficult to get. That’s how you need to approach your link building. The harder it is to land a backlink, the more valuable it probably is.

On the other hand:

The easier a backlink is to get, the less valuable it is.

Focus on getting backlinks on websites that have editorial standards.

6. Outbound Link Quality
Websites with strong editorial guidelines will likely only link out to quality resources. You want your link to “live” around other quality outbound links.

Examine every prospective website and ask:

What are they linking out to?
Are the outbound links relevant?
Are the outbound links going to respected, trusted sites?
Do the outbound links look natural or do they look like paid links?
7. Indexation
This is by far the most obvious point, but the target website needs to be indexed in Google. If the site isn’t indexed, then your backlinks will be worthless.

Just go to Google and search “site:example.com”. If they don’t show up, avoid the website.

You now know what a squeaky clean link profile looks like.

But now let me show you the backlinks you need to avoid.

Harmful Backlinks to AVOID
There are certain backlinks that should never touch your site.

If you decide to use these backlinks, just know that your risk for a penalty is much greater.

In fact:

I’ve seen websites get penalties for using these backlinks.

I’m telling you that because I don’t want you to think I’m guessing.

It is a FACT that these backlinks can land you a manual or algorithmic penalty.

(Almost) Everything That’s Irrelevant
Your tier one should be a wall of relevancy surrounding your site. I said “almost” every link should be relevant because of the Relevancy Pyramid principle I outlined above.

Public Networks
You can go on almost any SEO forum and buy backlinks on public networks. These networks will often advertise their service as “private blog networks”. But that’s a lie.

Once you are advertising a network, it is no longer private.

Throughout Google’s short history, it has gone out of its way to smash public networks. After that, they go out and destroy every website that is using these networks.

It’s easy for Google to spot these networks because:

A) there are an excessive amount of outbound links (typically 25-50+) on the homepage: homepages on REAL websites don’t have a ridiculous amount of outbound links on the homepage.

B) the outbound links are completely irrelevant to each other: there will be links going to gambling sites, SEO sites, fitness sites, etc. It doesn’t make any sense.

C) the content for each post is thin (only 250-300 words): Google’s Panda algorithm hates thin content.

D) you can run, but you can’t hide: some networks will attempt to block Ahrefs and Majestic crawlers, but its actually a footprint. On the other hand, networks that don’t block crawlers will likely get reported to Google because of an angry competitor. It’s a lose-lose situation.

Follow Blog Comments
These are some of the cheapest backlinks you can buy. They are also the perfect recipe for landing a penalty.

Large amounts of outbound links + irrelevant links + outbound links going to “bad neighborhoods” (gambling, pharma, porn, etc.) = a toxic backlink

Remember backlink quality indicator #6?

You don’t want your link to live in this environment.

Sidebar, Footer Backlinks
I’ll admit that sidebar and footer backlinks can work, but they’re also risky.

Standalone links look like paid backlinks and you know how Google feels about those.

Vendors that sell these high authority backlinks are also selling them to other websites. Most of these website will be irrelevant to yours. That’s because these vendors rarely turn down money.

As a reminder:

You don’t want your link to live with irrelevant or “bad neighborhood” links.

One more important note about sidebar/footer backlinks:

These links are almost always site-wide links.

This can destroy your site if you are using a keyword-rich anchor text.

It will wreck your anchor text profile.

I know web designers, marketing companies, and web hosting companies love footer backlinks.

So, if you do decide to use them, I recommend you use branded anchor text.

There is one exception to this rule:

If you can manipulate the code so that your link only shows on the homepage (where most of a site authority resides).

If you are using WordPress, you can use this Restrict Widgets plugin.

Automated Backlinks
As a general rule of thumb, you should avoid automated link building tools on tier one.

Some of these softwares include GSA, Ultimate Demon, and SENuke.

These softwares leverage spammed platforms and will likely land your site a penalty.

Now that you know what links to avoid like the plague, here are foundational backlinks you should build:

How to Build “Foundational” Backlinks
“Foundational” backlinks are what every normal website should have.

They will create a layer of trust around your site.

That’s because you will be using nothing but unoptimized, branded backlinks from authority sites.

We use this exact approach with every client we take on and it works extremely well.

Important note:

You should only use naked link or branded anchors for foundational backlinks.

Social Media
The first thing you need to do is secure all your social media properties.

At the very minimum, your business should have:

Facebook
Twitter (follow me)
LinkedIn (connect with me)
Pinterest
Instagram
You don’t have to actively market on these platforms, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt.

For example, for Gotch SEO, my social media manager decided that Facebook was our best social media platform based on referral traffic and engagement.

That’s why we are “all-in” on Facebook and not as active on the other platforms.

Choose what platforms work best for your business.

At the minimum, populate these accounts and share some content, so that you at least have a base.

Business Listings/Citations
Google values business listings so much that it is apart of the local search algorithm.

This should be more than enough for you to use them for ANY SEO campaign.

The cool part about listings is that about 50% of them give you a Follow, unoptimized link.

Business citations are a perfect way to build a foundation of trust around your site.

Remember earlier when I said that not all backlinks hitting your site need to be 100% relevant?

I was referring to business listings and social media profiles.

Google trusts these platforms and is well aware that all types of businesses will be using them.

In a sense, they get a pass for not being relevant.

Niche-Targeted Directories
While most directories are pretty much worthless, there are some diamonds in the rough.

Niche-targeted directories offer both a relevant and Follow link.

As you know, backlinks with both of these characteristics are hard to come by.

Use these search strings in Google to find niche directories:

NICHE + Directory (Example: “fitness + directory”)
NICHE directories
NICHE + “submit site”
Geo-Targeted Directories
Geo-targeted directories are a must-have link source for local businesses.

Here are some search strings you can use to find geo-targeted directories:

city + directory
directory + city
submit my site + city
niche + city + directory
city + directories
Niche Relevant Blog Comments
I’m always amazed why so many SEOs skip out on niche relevant blog comments. Too many SEOs neglect them because of the dreaded “NoFollow” tag.

I highly recommend you don’t neglect them.

My agency uses niche relevant blog comments to:

A) create a layer of relevancy around our client’s site
B) improve to the ratio of Follow and NoFollow backlinks
C) diversify our anchors in a meaningful way
D) sometimes get small amounts of referral traffic
Back in 2013, I was the first person comment on one of Brian’s article:

blog comment traffic

This one comment has sent my site 143 visitors since:

Referral Traffic

E) build a relationship with the blogger that you could leverage for backlinks in the future.
Point “D” is the most important and where most SEOs mess up.

Don’t go to a top blog and write a “me too” comment or something general/useless.

This doesn’t build relationships.

You have to contribute to the blog in a meaningful way.

Most important:

You have to ADD VALUE.

This doesn’t mean you need to write a five paragraph essay.

In fact, I advise against that.

Focus on one point and leave a concise, well-thought out comment.

Niche Relevant Forum Backlinks
Participating on industry forums is an excellent way to build brand recognition.

And if you do it right, you will drive some relevant referral traffic to your website.

Here is the traffic the BlackHatWorld.com has sent my site since 2014:

BHW

This is referral traffic coming from 18 different threads in the forum.

Forum members have linked to my content, but it wouldn’t be hard to orchestrate it if you are creative.

There aren’t many forums that allow signature backlinks, but many still allow profile backlinks. These profile backlinks are valuable because they are relevant and Follow in most cases.

To get the most out of your forum profile backlinks, I’m going to show you some quick techniques.

1. Prospect for relevant forums
Use the following search strings in Google to find forums:

forum + NICHE
NICHE + forum
2. Take time to fill out your profile
Since your link will likely be a naked link, you need to leverage co-occurrence.

Co-occurrence is when your website’s target keyword phrase is near to your link.

Just write a legitimate profile description and make sure to toss in your main keyword.

3. Understand the forum “personality” / etiquette
Every forum is different and you need to learn how each operates.

Some tolerate a little self-promotion while others will ban you for it.

Scan through the forum and see if members are sharing links in threads.

4. Increase your post count & start adding friends
The more posts/friends you have, the more trust you build on the forum. Also, more connections send more internal links back to your profile page.

This will slowly build the authority of your profile page.

5. Start a thread
Starting well-thought-out threads is a great way to build credibility on the forum.

Okay, now you might be asking what’s the point of doing all this?

The goal is to increase the amount of internal links hitting your profile page.

This leverages the forums authority. As a result it will increase the authority of your profile page hosting your link.

The second goal of all this work is so you can become a part of the forum community and so that members trust you more.

If you have a good reputation on the forum, you can share your content without getting flamed or banned.

You now know what it takes to build a solid foundation of backlinks. Now it’s time to get into what I like to call “Power” backlinks.

Power Backlinks
“Power” backlinks will accelerate your results because:

A) they are the most relevant and

B) they are the most authoritative

Content-Driven Approach
As hard as it is to produce quality content, there is no better way to drive high authority backlinks to a website.

There are only three things you have to do with a content-driven approach:

Find the right keywords to target
Create a great piece of content around that keyword
Promote the content (social and backlinks)
When you create quality content, you are creating ASSETS for your business.

No matter what Google does, it can never take away your content.

You need to approach link building with a long-term mindset in 2019 and beyond.

I use the investing analogy pretty often, but it’s true for SEO.

There is a compound effect of producing and promoting content on a consistent basis.

Keep in mind:

The following tactics are effective without content.

But you will get even better results if you build links to strong content assets.

Editorial Backlinks
For a link to be “editorial” you can’t have access to the site and your link must pass editorial review. Google values editorial backlinks more than any other type of link.

Sadly, getting these high authority backlinks can be challenging.

First, you have to build relationships with bloggers in your industry. Second, you likely need to produce quality content to get natural backlinks.

My agency has acquired thousands of high-quality editorial backlinks at this point. We can get these high authority backlinks because we have built relationships and have the connections.

Niche Relevant Guest Posts
Guest posts are effective in two ways.

First, if you contribute lots of value, it will build your authority in the space.
Second, your guest post can send relevant referral traffic to your website.
Keep in mind that Google frowns upon spammy guest posting. That means you need to focus your efforts on producing a valuable guest post. If you give value, then there is nothing wrong with injecting backlinks to your website.

To get the most out of your guest posts, you need to get contextual links. Contextual links are far more powerful than author byline links.

Here are some search queries to find opportunities:

NICHE + “guest post”
NICHE + “contribute to”
NICHE + “write for us”
NICHE + “contributors”
NICHE + “guest writer”
NICHE + “guest post guidelines”

The Merger Technique
The Merger Technique is the process of finding a relevant expired domain and 301 redirecting it to your site.

The concept is simple:

You just acquired a relevant business and want to redirect to your mother company.

The key is for the expired domain to be 100% relevant.

These domains are harder to come by, but it is well worth it when you find one.

Resource Pages
This is an oldie, but a goodie.

Although SEO’s have abused this strategy, there are still some diamonds in the rough.

Once you find the pages, it’s best to see if there are any broken links on the page.

Use the Check My Link plugin.

You can use this as leverage when reaching out.

If there are no broken links, then you will need a strong content asset.

Otherwise, you’ll likely get denied.

The White Alternative to PBNs
The White Hat Alternative to PBNs is simple:

Instead of buying an expired domain and rebuilding it, you are going to:

find an expired domain
scrape its backlinks
then reach out and let the linkers know they are linking to a dead resource
If the expired domain is relevant, you can ask the linker to replace the dead link with your site.

To improve your success rate, suggest 2-3 quality resources (including yours).

You can also recreate the original content if it’s relevant. This is obvious, but the content must better than the original.

Reach out and let the linker know about the new, revised piece of content.

This strategy requires more time and effort, but you get more link placements.

Read more about the strategy here.

Grey Hat Backlinks
I stay away from grey hat techniques at this point, but I did live in this world for a long time.

NOTE: if you take the grey hat route, you are increasing the likelihood of getting a penalty.

None of these tactics are safe and I have seen websites get manual penalties using each of them.

If there is so much risk, then why am I showing you?

The reason is because many of these techniques work well.

These techniques are best for people:

Who have a high risk tolerance
Who want to rank without creating great content
Who don’t care if their site gets penalized
If you have a low risk tolerance then you have two options:

A) avoid these backlinks altogether or B) use them on tier two to boost your tier one backlinks.

Leverage Relevant Expired Domains
If you are going to create a PBN, then you might as well do it right.

Don’t just buy any expired domain.

Try to find domains that have relevant Topical Trust Flow Topics to your niche.

This won’t always be possible, but it’s worth the patience.

Getting a link from one relevant domain is more powerful than several irrelevant domains.

Here are my favorite tools for finding expired domains:

Freshdrop
DomCop
Here’s how you can use DomCop to find expired domains:


Some other options include: ExpiredDomains.net and Moonsy.

Web 2.0s
Creating web 2.0s on sites like Tumblr, Weebly, and WordPress.com is an old grey hat strategy that still works. Just be careful because it can land you a penalty. I have gotten manual actions removed from clients because of web 2.0 backlinks.

I recommend you avoid using these backlinks on tier one.

Read The Art of The Super Web 2.0 to learn how to build them correctly.

How to EARN Backlinks
Many people doing SEO confuse earning backlinks with building backlinks.

These are two different concepts.

To EARN, means that you DESERVE backlinks.

Have you ever taken a second to think about why your website even deserves backlinks?

I’ve realized that there is only one way to EARN backlinks…

You must become obsessed with pleasing your users.

As of late, I have become consumed with the overwhelming ambition to please my users.

After hours of thought, I’ve realized that effective SEO starts with the user in mind.

You have to be user-centric.

If you please the user, you will please Google.

I used to spend so much of my time trying to figure out how to “trick” or manipulate Google.

I can’t get that time back, but I have learned an important lesson:

To build a real business, you must focus on pleasing the user.

All the time. On a consistent basis.

Understand that:

Happy users ARE your marketing.
Happy users will EARN you backlinks.
Happy users will SHARE your content on social media.
Happy users will RETURN to your website.
Your SEO campaign will transform when you put your users first.

Let me show you how to earn backlinks by being user-centric:

11 Ways to Earn Backlinks
1. You Have to Become User-Centric
Let’s face it:

If users don’t like your website, then Google won’t either.

Your focus shouldn’t be on manipulating algorithms.

Your focus should be “what can I do right now to help my prospective customers or readers?”

There isn’t a single website online that can’t improve User Experience (UX).

There is always room to help more and give more.

A website that puts 100% effort into pleasing the user, will earn backlinks.

You need to remember how Google interprets a backlink.

It is a vote. Some of these “votes” are better than others.

Think of it this way:

The U.S. just went through an election cycle.

Candidates from the Republicans and Democrats are battling to earn their party’s nomination.

When you cut through all the media noise there is a powerful marketing technique at play:

21 Powerful SEO Resources for 2019

hese 21 SEO resources are all you need to dominate the SERPs in 2019.

Let’s jump right in:

Table of Contents
All the SEO Resources You Need This Year
Stay on Top of SEO Trends
Get Your (SEO) Mindset Right
Develop an Unstoppable SEO Strategy
Optimize Your Site
Create Perfect Content
Build Powerful Backlinks
Make Money with SEO
Learn SEO (10x Faster)
Stay on Top of SEO Trends
Is it true that SEO is always changing?



The annoying answer is yes, and no.

The fundamentals of proper white hat SEO are consistent.

But:

There’s no denying that changes are coming (or are already here).

Read my 7 SEO predictions for 2019 to learn and adapt to coming changes in this market.

Get Your (SEO) Mindset Right
There is no profession or skill like SEO. It takes a certain type of person to see success and continue to achieve success.

You need to be:
Patient
Analytical
Effective (choosing the RIGHT actions)
Adaptable
Unemotional (listen to why overthinking can kill your SEO results)
Nimble
Willing to Learn
Master these 7 skills and behaviors and you’ll be a successful SEO.

Develop an Unstoppable SEO Strategy
Every successful SEO campaign starts with a clear SEO strategy.

My 30,000-foot view SEO strategy is simple:

1. Audit
I begin every new SEO campaign with a detailed SEO audit. This is the best way to identify existing issues and low-hanging fruits.

Then, you can develop a list of priorities based on what will have the highest impact.



I categorize actions from 1-3. 1 is the a high-impact action (example: making your site mobile friendly) while 3 is a low-impact action (writing new meta descriptions).

The second part of phase 1 is to research.

Research involves:

building a keyword database
analyzing competitors and…
finding link opportunities
2. Optimize
Phase 2 is all about executing on the priority list you developed during the audit phase. Then, you need to go through and optimize existing keyword-targeted pages and content assets.

3. Create
Phase 3 involves creating new content for existing or new keyword-targeted pages.

4. Promote
I ranted about this in my SEO predictions for 2019 post, but getting links from quality websites is critical for SEO performance. That’s why I dedicate phase 4 of my SEO strategy to acquiring quality backlinks.

I used this proven SEO strategy to rank for competitive keywords like “blogspot” (127,000 searches per month), “ahrefs”, and “backlinks”.


Then I used it again to easily increase organic search traffic by 21% (without any new content or backlinks).

Optimize Your Site
The process of optimizing your website is a combination of technical SEO, User Experience (UX) optimization, User Interface (UI) optimization, and page-level optimization.

There’s a ton to be tackled under each of these primary categories. I recommend reading my SEO audit checklist to get a broad understanding of what you need to optimize (site-wide).

Then, when you’re ready to optimize on the page-level, read this on-page SEO checklist.

If you’re a little more advanced, then check out my title tag optimization or my 301 redirect guide.

Create Perfect Content
You need to refine and master the skill of creating content because it is the foundation of proper SEO.

Both Google and YouTube thrive by serving their users the best content available. You need to work to be the best, so you can attract organic search traffic in your market.

Read my definitive guide for creating SEO content to learn everything you need to know.

Build Powerful Backlinks
It’s very challenging (sometimes impossible) to rank without backlinks.

The key is to focus only the best opportunities (and avoiding dangerous tactics like private blog networks).

Use these powerful link building techniques instead:


You also need to master the art of anchor text optimization. Most people go overboard with anchor text and get nailed. That won’t be you after you read my guide (that’s stood the test of time since the first Penguin update onslaught).

And don’t forget to use Ahrefs (my favorite SEO tool) if you want to make your link building life easier.

Make Money with SEO
I’m not being dramatic when I say this:

Learning SEO helped me achieve financial freedom, become my own boss, and has given me the opportunity to run a company I love for the past 5 years.

It’s not a joke.

Your life can change (for the better) by learning this skill.

I recommend starting with this guide on how to become an SEO expert.

Then you’ll need to decide how you’ll make money from your skills.

My two favorite paths are:
Niche websites (monetized through your own products, services, or affiliate offers)
Client SEO because I believe it’s the fastest way to make serious money online
But here’s the truth:

Neither of these paths (which I personally took) are get rich quick schemes.

You have to take consistent action and be willing to make (and learn from) your mistakes.

There’s no way around it.

People have become infatuated with this idea of passive income.

But there’s a problem…

…There’s nothing “passive” about running a real company.

Sure… your income sources can be passive.

But the work that you have to do to produce income is never passive.

Listen to this to get a better understanding:



Learn SEO (10x Faster)
Those are all the SEO resources you need to be successful in 2019.

All you need to do now is read, watch, or listen and then take action on the information.

Thanks for reading!

Should You Buy Backlinks in 2019?

Are you thinking about buying backlinks in 2019?

Don’t worry, you’re not alone.

Almost every person who has done SEO has considered buying links.


Need more backlinks? Get access to 7 untapped link building techniques.

Let me start with the reasons why people (like myself) buy or have bought backlinks.

Table of Contents
Why People Buy Backlinks
My company has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on backlinks and these are the reasons why:

1. It Saves Time
What some people don’t realize is that both white hat or black hat link building tactics are huge time killers. Let’s say you want to focus on white hat link acquisition.

If you want to acquire backlinks through outreach, you need to:

Create a quality SEO content asset that’s worth promoting
Prospect for relevant link opportunities
Qualify those opportunities
Build a relationship with each opportunity
Request link placement on the qualified websites
Test different outreach strategies to improve your response rate
If your request is approved, you then need to create content
If you don’t want to create the content yourself, you need to go through the process of hiring a writer
Rinse and repeat
But wait, there’s more:

If you want to have a life outside of just acquiring backlinks, you to create systems, procedures, and hire staff to perform these tasks. Not only that, you will need to train each person, so that they can perform this task the right way.

Oh yeah, let’s not forget that none of this will go according to plan. That means you either have to hire a project manager or be the manager yourself.

So, the moral of this short story is that when people are buying backlinks, they aren’t actually buying a backlink.

They are buying a process.

Now you’re probably thinking:

“That’s just white hat SEO! Grey/black hat SEO isn’t that hard.”

Let’s take the preferred link building method for grey/black hat SEO:

Private Blog Networks (PBNs).

Here is the process of building a network:

Find expired domains that meet a minimum vetting criteria
Qualify each domain based on deeper analysis
Purchase the domain (or participate in domain auctions to secure it)
Buy hosting for the domain
Set the domain up on a CMS (like WordPress)
If you’re using WordPress, install and setup plugins
Create foundational pages and find a theme to make the site look real
Create a fake persona (if you’re getting serious)
Test the quality of the expired domain
If the domain passes your test, you then have to write content for placing your link
Or, go through the process of ordering content
If the site isn’t indexed, go through a process to get it indexed
Create additional filler content
Buy social signals or fake traffic to increase the “realness” of the site
Now, once again, you could do this all yourself, but your life would be dedicated to PBNs.

What I explained above is for one domain. After you get more than one, other operational issues come into play such as managing the network, dealing with hacked sites, dealing with unreliable hosts, and even dealing with your sites getting deindexed.

On the other hand, you could just use a service to go through this entire process for you. Once again, you are buying a process.

You get it:

Buying links (buying a process) saves time.

But that’s not the only reason why people buy backlinks.

2. Faster Results
I’m going to assume you’re trying to do white or grey/black hat link acquisition yourself. If that’s the case, buying backlinks would clearly increase the speed for seeing results. That’s because you aren’t spending hours on these mind-numbing tasks.

Instead, you would be able to focus on other SEO priorities such as content creation, technical optimization, UX, page-level optimization, and even CRO.

So, after what you just read, you probably think I’m all for buying links.

Let’s take it back a notch because there are some caveats that you need to consider.

It’s Dangerous
Buying backlinks is against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. It doesn’t matter whether it’s blogger outreach or whether you are using private blog networks.

Buying backlinks is buying backlinks.

That means the big danger is if Google catches you, you will get a manual action against your site. In short, that means your organic search traffic will get murdered overnight.

Trust me:

This is not a good feeling and I’ve felt on several different occasions.

With that said, there is one undeniable truth when it comes to buying links:

Buying placements on real websites is less risky than investing time and capital into fake websites.

Don’t get me wrong:

All forms of link buying carry risk. But from a risk perspective, it’s very challenging for Google to know with absolute certainty whether a link is natural or not.

The same is not true for private blog networks.

Sure, a guy like Matt slips under the radar because he has developed strong systems. But for most people dabbling in PBNs, you will probably get nailed because you will leave footprints.

Google has no sympathy when it comes to your expired domains, but they would be reluctant to slap Forbes or some authority website with a manual action.

But this is really all common sense:

Getting backlinks on real websites is safer than get backlinks on fake ones.

Now I’m sure after reading all of this, you’re probably thinking…

“Then what should I do?”

Good question.

Option #1: Roll the Dice
If you’re willing to accept the risk of losing your traffic overnight, then just roll the dice. It’s ultimately a matter of risk analysis.

Is saving time and getting results faster worth the risk of getting nailed?

That’s for you to figure out.

Remember that certain link types have elevated risk. For example, buying PBN links is riskier than buying a link placement on a real blog.

Option #2: Use a Proxy Site
One way to decrease risk is to create a site outside of your real business. For example, let’s say GotchSEO.com is my company website. I would create a separate site hypothetically named “SEOdudes.com” and I would focus on ranking it.

That way if “SEOdudes.com” gets hit, at least my company site would still be intact.

This of course isn’t a full-proof strategy because A) it’s a waste of resources and B) your company site could still get nailed if you link the two together.

Option #3: Invest Capital Into Other Areas
I know firsthand how SEO can be all-consuming. When you’re first getting into it, it’s hard to think about anything else.

This isn’t a problem in the beginning because immersion is an effective way to learn, but you have to adapt overtime.

It’s easy to get trapped in the SEO bubble and forget that there are high-impact activities outside of SEO that can explode your business.

The truth is that some businesses are not equipped for SEO out of the gate. SEO is FUEL on the fire. It shouldn’t be your first move.

Creating a great product/service is what matters most. It doesn’t matter how good you are at SEO if no one wants to buy your product or service.

The one exception is for affiliate marketers. Affiliate marketers can make a substantial income without needing a product.

With that said, here are some areas to invest time and capital into outside of buying backlinks:

Product Improvement/Development
Customer Experience (CX)
Content Creation
User Experience (UX) / Technical Optimization
On-Page Optimization
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
Sales Funnels
Growth Hacking
Branding, Design, and Corporate Identity
Paid Traffic (Facebook, YouTube, Google AdWords)
Influencer Marketing
As you can see there’s a lot you can do to grow your business outside of SEO. And this is just scratching the surface.

Now let me explain some basic math, so you can figure out how to allocate capital.

ROI Math
One of the biggest elements of effective marketing is figuring out what gets a business the best Return on Investment (ROI). SEO can produce incredible returns, but you need to understand where to invest your capital. You also need to make decisions based what stage you’re at in your SEO campaign lifecycle.

It’s always going to be better to invest in content if you’re in the early stages of an SEO campaign. There is no good reason to invest in link acquisition if you don’t have a well-optimized site or a base of content assets.

Here’s the ugly truth about buying backlinks in 2019:

Buying quality backlinks are EXPENSIVE.

For example, you can buy a NoFollow link placement on Inc. for $1,500-$2,000.

Do you know what you could do with $1,500?

Here are a few things you could do with $1,500:

Get at least (x4) 1,500 word articles written by a premium writer (~$350 per article)
Reach over 200,000 people with Facebook by boosting your content
50 hours of web design and development ($30/hour)
75 hours of video editing ($20/hour)
The big takeaway is that there are many ways to get an ROI in your business outside of buying backlinks. SEO is a long-term game. That means you would be foolish to avoid investing in these other areas while you sit back and wait for your organic search traffic to grow.

Conclusion
I hoped this post helped you see that there are many different ways to invest in SEO (outside of backlinks).

Stay Informed

The SEO industry is dynamic and always changing. While the fundamentals rarely change, it’s important to stay engaged in the industry.

For general news and algorithm updates, read Search Engine Watch and Search Engine Roundtable.

I also recommend that focus most of your learning time reading top SEO blogs. Don’t just focus on blogs that align with your particular SEO philosophy either. You can learn from the whitest of white hat SEO or the blackest of black hat SEOs. There is no “right” or “wrong” way of doing SEO. White, grey, and black hat SEO are all trying to achieve the same thing. You can learn from everyone.

With that out of the way, I’m going to show you a few blogs that I recommend. Digest, study, and take action on their content.

I recommend you subscribe to the blogs I’m about to list on Feedly.

And also get in habit of capturing good content using Pocket.

Nathan Gotch
Nathan GotchYou knew a shameless plug was coming. All the content on my SEO blog is the product of experience, testing, and from what you ask for.

Our intention with every single piece of content is to improve your life in one way or another. I’m also an SEO consultant, so make sure you reach out if you need some help.

If you’re new here, then start with these guides:

How to Build Backlinks in 2017
Anchor Text: The Definitive Guide
SEO Audit Checklist for 2017
Brian Dean
Brian DeanI’ve learned an incredible amount from Brian and I highly recommend you read everything he puts out.

Brian’s content is so good that it forces every blogger to step up their game.

Here are some of my favorite pieces of content from Brian:

The Definitive Guide to Guest Blogging
Link Building Case Study: How I Increased My Search Traffic by 110% in 14 Days
How To Boost Conversions by 785% in One Day (The Content Upgrade)
Notice that Brian doesn’t publish new content often. It’s not because he’s lazy. It’s because Brian put his effort into promoting and improving his content assets. Analyze how he operates his own blog. Do so and it almost guarantees that you will improve your content creation ability.

Glen Allsopp
Glen AllsoppGlen’s SEO philosophy is a perfect balance between grey and white hat SEO.

Although he advocates PBNs (a grey hat tactic), Glen also promotes the importance of creating valuable content.

Here are a few of my favorite articles from Glen:

13 Advanced Link Building Strategies You (Probably) Haven’t Used
How 16 Companies are Dominating the World’s Google Search Results
51 Profitable SEO Niches to Dominate with Low Competition
Analyze the way Glen creates content. His headlines are powerful and he leverages the concept of “length implies strength”.

Neil Patel
Neil PatelNeil is the king of content-driven SEO. Although his focus is now on digital marketing as a whole, he still drops SEO knowledge bombs on the regular. Keep tabs on him and don’t just read his content… Watch how he creates content and try to learn from everything he does.

Here are some of my favorites from Neil:

How To Generate 20,000 Monthly Visitors Through Long-Tail Search
How to Build High Quality Backlinks in a Scalable Way
How to Drive More Repeat Visitors Through SEO: What We Learned by Analyzing 114,871 Keywords
Ross Hudgens
Ross HudgensIf you are looking for high-level thinking and SEO content, then Ross is your person. His content forces you to elevate your game and think big picture.

It’s impossible to read Ross’s content and not get better at SEO and business.

I get a ton of value from all Ross’s content, but here are a few of my favorites:

Content Marketing in Boring Industries
13 Actionable SEO Tips You Can Use Today
The Advanced Guide to Content Curation
Ryan Stewart
Ryan StewartRyan is a master of outreach, relationship building, and link acquisition. I also recommend Ryan’s work because he is systems and data driven.

If you run an agency, analyze Ryan’s every move because you will learn a lot.

Here’s some great content from Ryan:

Taking a New Site from 0 – 15k Organic Visits in 30 Days
How We Drove $182,324.83 in Sales With Facebook Ads
How to Use “Topical Research” for Explosive SEO Growth
Matthew Barby
Matthew BarbyMatthew is a master of enterprise-level SEO. His content is data-driven and always actionable.

His blog is a good place to start, but he also publishes some awesome guest posts as well.

Check out some of my favorite content from Matthew:

21 Customer Acquisition Strategies to Win New Customers
19 Actionable SEO Tips to Increase Organic Traffic
Zero to One Million: an SEO Campaign Blueprint
Matt Diggity
Matt Diggity

Matt lives and breathes affiliate SEO. If you want to take the affiliate path, you need to be reading his blog.

And if you aren’t, you should still read Matt’s blog because he produces excellent data-driven content.

Here is some of my favorite content from Matt:

How You Should Start Choosing Anchor Text. Starting NOW – this is a good alternative anchor text strategy to test. There are some issues with copying competitor’s anchor text profiles, but I’ll save that debate for another time. 🙂
How to Boost your PBNs with Topical Relevance
The REAL Reason Why Your Backlinks Don’t Work
Jason Acidre
Jason AcidreJason is one of the best link builders on the planet. His strategies are data-driven, intricate, and actionable.

Read everything Jason’s publishes and you will get better at SEO.

Here are a few of my favorite guides:

100+ Advanced Online Marketing & SEO Strategies: Guides & Tutorials
Ultimate Guide to Link Building with Images
How I increased my blog’s Search Traffic by 44% in under a month
One last important point about your attitude as you get better:

Don’t Get Cocky
It is critical that you stay humble. Even when you have mastered the art of driving organic search traffic, you should still act like you know nothing. Never stop learning and growing. There is no “end” you’re going to reach in your skill progression. There is always room to improve.

Be Patient
You don’t become an expert in anything overnight. Becoming an SEO expert is a marathon, not a sprint. Put in the work every day and try to be better than you were yesterday. Your success in anything is the product of what you do on a daily basis.

How to Reach the “Next Level”
At a certain point you will need to stop doing time consuming SEO tasks if you want to scale or amplify your efforts.

I remember when I first got into SEO, I did EVERYTHING. I quickly learned that there was no way I could take my business to the next level if I was trying to do everything.

Doing everything yourself is a good approach in the beginning if you don’t have capital. But as soon, as you start making money, I recommend you begin delegating time consuming tasks.

From day 1, analyze every task that you do. You will see overtime that you perform the same tasks all the time. These are the tasks that you must learn to delegate. That is, as long as you have the right systems in place.

At some point, you will likely want to go from being an SEO expert to being a true business owner (AND SEO expert).

Here’s a quick checklist on how you can scale your SEO efforts:

1. Create processes, procedures, and policies for EVERYTHING you do in your business. It’s impossible to scale without taking this step.

2. Test your processes, procedures, and policies. Have someone with little knowledge of the industry work through your processes, your procedures, and your policies. Why someone with little knowledge of the industry? Because your systems should be easy to understand.

Convoluted procedures lead to confusion. Confusion leads to time loss because of unnecessary clarifying or explaining. Bringing in an outside perspective is key to improving your systems. What makes sense in your own head, may not make sense to others.

3. Hire someone to fulfill your systemized tasks. Use Upwork, hire an intern, or hire employees if that’s the route you want to go. Give this individual their assignment and the corresponding procedure on how to complete it. If they are bombarding with questions, then you need to improve your procedures.

4. Create backup systems. At this point, you should have removed yourself from many time consuming tasks and delegated them. But, you need to always prepare for the worst case scenario.

For example, the person you are relying on to fulfill this work could disappear.

That’s why you must always have a backup solution. Keep some freelancers on your “on-call” roster. These are people you have built relationships with and know you can rely on them.

Another backup method is to avoid relying on a single person. Hire two, three, or even four people to complete a pool of tasks.

That way they have to compete. And even if one falls off the map, you still have the backups. And don’t forget, you have already created the systems at this point.

So, even if all your help disappears, you still have your systems. That means, you can quickly hire someone and get back on track.

5. Focus on actions that have the biggest impact. “Big impact” actions in SEO are creating awesome content assets, building relationships with key influencers, and promoting your content (link acquisition & social).

For example, I write the content on Gotch SEO because it requires my experience and my expertise. I could outsource the writing, but no one could replicate my unique perspective. I know that writing content is the action that produces the most SEO results.

You must figure out what actions you are best at. Maybe you excel at building relationships. Or, maybe you are a master promoter. Either way, identify what actions have the biggest impact on your SEO performance. Focus on those and outsource everything else.

Here are some SEO tasks that you can systemize and outsource:

Keyword Research
Competitor Analysis
Technical Optimization
Page-Level Optimization
Content Writing
Infographic Creation
Blogger Outreach
Citation Building
Conclusion
The key to becoming an SEO expert is to put in the work. Don’t be afraid to fail because SEO can be a roller coster. Embrace volatility and learn from it.

How to Build Backlinks in 2019 (NEW Guide)

Backlinks are the nitrous of every successful SEO campaign. This new guide will teach how to build backlinks in 2019. Every strategy you ...