Michael Akinlaby
Michael Akinlaby is a content strategist and SEO consultant. He’s the founder of RankRain, an internet marketing agency that helps businesses acquire and keep customers.
Links remain the core part of the search algorithm. Without links, it’s impossible to rank highly for competitive keywords. But despite this...
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Links remain the core part of the search algorithm.
Without links, it’s impossible to rank highly for competitive keywords.
But despite this fact, many marketers hope and pray that they don’t need links to rank for their target keywords.
Why?
Link building can be boring and tiring.
There are lots of frustration and rejections in the process. I don’t blame marketers who just want to avoid it.
The truth is that you can’t rank without links.
Not at least when you are targeting a very competitive keyword. I’ve also seen keywords with moderate competition, yet you can’t rank without zero links.
I’ve also seen keywords with moderate competition, yet you wouldn’t rank them without links.
According to a study conducted by Moz, they found that:
Wake up to reality.
Stop hoping and praying that link building goes away, or you don’t have to do it.
Except you don’t want organic search traffic, link building tactics will always be important.
The good news is link building can be easy and fun when you follow the right process.
The tactics I am about to reveal in this article have been very effective for years.
They will continue to be effective as long as links remain a core part of the search algorithm.
What are these link building tactics I’m talking about?
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Experts are respected in our society.
People pay attention to every word they say.
Sometimes, we pay experts just to give us their views.
For example, why do we have life coaches?
Is it that people don’t know what to do with their lives?
Is it that people can’t even make decisions for themselves?
According to reports, life coaches charge around $100 - $200 per hour.
Veteran life coaches can charge up to $600 per hour.
Why do we have consultants?
It’s because they are knowledgeable in their field.
We respect their views.
Many people flock to them and pay them for their service, which is just to give advice. Nothing else.
Including expert interviews in your content improves its credibility.
Writers in your niche will cite the content in their own work because it includes views from experts.
For example, Jon Cooper wrote a post where he published views from many experts in the SEO industry.
The title of the post is “The Most Creative Link Building Post Ever.”
In this post, he included views from SEO experts like Glen Allsopp, Sujan Patel, Nick Eubanks and many others.
The post has received 526 backlinks at the time of writing.
Maybe you are in the toothache niche. Think of dentists you can include in your contents.
Or, maybe you are in the estate planning or elder niche. Think of law attorneys you can include in your content.
Experts are highly respected, and their opinions are valued.
Including them in the content creation process will increase backlinks to your website.
Infographics are reliable assets for link building.
They can spread very quickly.
According to a research conducted by Buzzsumo, infographics receive the most average shares more than any other content type.
Because they are easy-to-digest information, writers can use your infographic on their websites. That means more backlinks for you.
It’s also easy to pitch your infographic to bloggers for the purpose of using it to back up their points (if it includes some facts).
Copyblogger created an infographic titled “15 Grammar Goofs That Make You Look Silly.”
That infographic has received over 250,000 social shares.
The infographic has also received 2,900 backlinks according to Ahrefs.
For your infographic to earn links, the topic should be well researched, and it must be greatly designed. Getting these two right is very important.
A poorly researched and designed infographic won’t get any worthwhile attention to earn links.
Get to see what your competitors have created and come up with something even better.
For example, if you want to create an infographic about how baby sleep, you should do a search for that on Google.
You can click on Google images to see more infographics the competition has created. That will give you a better idea of how to approach yours.
After you’ve got the content and design right, the next thing is to promote your infographic.
The infographic won’t just start getting links by itself.
You’ll need to do the boring work of reaching out to active bloggers who may be interested in publishing your infographic on their blogs.
When a blogger agrees to post your infographic, do not forget to ask for a link back to your website. That link will serve as the source link.
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The link credits you as the creator of the image.
You can use this simple tactic to build links in almost any niche.
In fact, it works in the Casino industry.
According to a comScore’s study, 182 million U.S. Internet users watched nearly 40 billion online videos just in a single month.
That’s a lot.
Many marketers dismiss the video as time-consuming and expensive. That’s very true.
But the ROI can be exceedingly great especially when done for link building.
I must say that you should not venture into video marketing just for the purpose of using it to build links alone.
Video marketing offers great ROI on its own.
Keep in mind that marketing isn’t just about written words alone.
Don’t forget that YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, only behind Google.
YouTube provides you with the opportunity to be in front of your target customers.
YouTube allows webmasters to embed your video on their websites. This could lead to more mentions of your brand which will have a big positive impact on your organic traffic.
When website owners embed your YouTube video, you can reach out to them and ask for a link to your website. This could be the start of a great long-lasting relationship.
You can also create video resources on your website.
People like linking to high-quality resources online.
Anyone can use this strategy.
Whether you offer white label marketing services, or you’re a local dentist, you can use videos to earn links and improve your organic search engine rankings.
These 3 link building tactics are very effective and will improve your organic search rankings starting right now.
Thanks for reading.
Please share this article with your network on social media.
Michael Akinlaby is a content strategist and SEO consultant. He’s the founder of RankRain, an internet marketing agency that helps businesses acquire and keep customers.
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Such an Amazing Post and Really helpful for me,
As a Novice blogger I have no idea and experience about link building, but after reading this article it gave me some useful ideas and I am excited to try them.
Thanks a lot.
Hi Michael and Robin,
Very valuable post on link building to improve your rankings.
I am inspired by the info on infographics. That interests me , I am going to look into doing some. Great guest post ! Of course the link back to Michaels site from yours is a very good one!!
Hi kathryn,
Yes Michael has a very good post too.
Hi, Michael !
I could not agree more, link building is really a boring and tiring job to do and looks like you read my mind there, as I always hoped link building to vanish for ranking metric on search results.
Trust me it is one of the borest job and hard at the same time too. Well I’ve never tried to do the video thing yet, but again its hard. But I will give it a try one day.
Have a good day.
Regards
Hi Michael, I appreciate your tips. You outlined them so that anyone who is an action taker can implement. Creating an infographic has been on my list. Setting a date to finish in 1 week. I found this post encouraging.
Thanks Robin for a great post by a very talented writer Michael Akinlaby
It is interesting to read that it is impossible to rank highly without links for competitive keywords and yet I dominate search rankings for very competitive keywords and never worry about a backlink, and I do so almost instantly and repeatedly in many niches.
The secret sauce is a strategic use of longtail keywords.
I hear the horrors of getting backlinks and I am grateful I don’t need to worry about it although your article made the whole idea of getting backlinks sound like something that was not that hard to do with a little creativity.
To Great Success
Mary
Robin and Michael , I, too, am a Copyblogger Fan!
I created one really good infographic and it still works well for me today. I appreciate this post so much about linking and using infographics. I need to implement them more for more linking!
Deborah
Wow. Glad to see a Copyblogger fan here. Great to hear you’re already using infographics for links and seeing positive results. They are still very effective for link building. Especially if your competitors aren’t using them.
There is such a lot of valuable information here, Michael. Thank you. I poured through the creative link building article you mentioned. I enjoy creating infographics but finding relevant content for them is often the problem. There’s no point in doing them if they aren’t useful or informative.
Hi Sue,
With infographics, there’s a lot of creativity involved. Both the content and the design have to be unique to earn attention and links. Yes, you’re right. No point if they aren’t useful or informative to the reader.
Hi Michael and Robin,
Really enjoyed this post, thanks for the tips.
I look forward to reading up on the resources you mentioned.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend, Joy – Blogging After Dark
You are welcome Joy.
Like or not, linkage will always improve serp rankings. Expert interviews, infographics and videos, are proven methods for getting more links and more eyeballs. Thanks for the info.
Edward
Hi Michael,
Informative! Infographics are great, and I underestimate them. Which is silly because they’re so visual and images speak louder than words, right?
Hi Robin,
Really great guest blog post 🙂 This is awesome information to know about how to improve rankings…thank you for sharing 🙂 Always good to learn these strategies!
Hello Robin, Nice to meet Michael here on your blog! I loved all the infographics and do need to start using them more!
Awesome share
Thank YOU
Chery :))
Hi Chery,
I am glad that you liked the Michael’s post. Have a good day.
Hi Chery,
I am glad that you liked Michael’s post. Have a good day.
Thanks for the comment, Chery. I’m glad you find the article useful.
Hey Michael and Robin
Great post! This post is another example of the high quality information that is shared. This is some superb advice. I think anyone who wants to know the ins and outs of lnikbuilding should do exactly what you have stated. That Brian guy I like his last name. Again thanks for this extremely detailed post.
Hey Michael and Robin,
This is really a great post!
These three tactics are sufficient to give you a great exposure.
We have seen how people like Oprah Winfrey did it, mostly with interviews.
Videos and infographics are awesome too.
Thanks for sharing the informative post!
Keep sharing!
Nice weekend ahead!
Regards
Hussain
Happy to see you here Hussain. I’m glad you find the article useful. Thanks for the comment.
Hey Michael,
Link building would definitely increase the SEO of your blog. You have mentioned some helpful ways here.
It’s always good to go for the visual content than the text. Infographics can really boost it.
An informative post indeed.
~Ravi
Wow. It’s great to see you here Ravi. I follow you very closely on LinkedIn. Thanks for the comment.
I definitely took notes on this one. There are so many fabulous tips that can really help to grow our blogs. Thank you for sharing.
Hi Dr. Elise,
Thanks for stopping by. I’m glad you found the tips fabulous.
Hi, nice to meet you, Michael. Great tips for being genuine, caring, and growing your backlinks simultaneously!
I’ve yet to try them… but maybe now I will!
Robin, great guest! 🙂
Hi Lorraine,
I’m glad you find the post helpful. Do let me know if there’s anything I can help with. Thanks for stopping by.
Hi Louis,
Glad to find another Copyblogger fan here. I’m also a long-time Copyblogger and I’m amazed to see what Brian and co had built with the blog. Thanks for the comment.
Love this post, and I’m a big fan of copyblogger and as a royal reader of copyblogger, I’ve learned so many great stuff they shared.
Hi Robin,
Good to read yet another Guest post on your page.
Thanks Michael, for your informative post here.
It is really good to know some of the link building tactics.
Nice to know that Infographic shares are more than the text shares.
Will try some of the tactics mentioned in this informative piece.
Keep sharing
May you both have a wonderful time of sharing and writing ahead. 🙂
Best
~ Philip
Hi Philip,
There are lots of link building tactics. These 3 I shared are very effective because they won’t look like you’re doing artificial linking building. They have the power to spread on their own after you’ve put in some little work. Thanks for the comment.