Link Building for Startups: Your Optimal Strategy to Earn Quality Links

SEO is king in the digital marketing world. And within it are several effective strategies, one of them being link-building. Link building involves garnering high authority links to a page from other websites. Search engines find a site more trustworthy and relevant to put in front of their users’ top SERP pages if other prominent websites link to its content. Links are somewhat of a vote of confidence from other industry players, and Google takes them seriously when doing rankings. Link building is an essential building block to a robust SEO strategy. Link building for startups, in combination with other elements like excellent content, good user experience, on-page SEO, and technical SEO foundations, does a neat job of driving organic traffic to your business website.

Why is Link Building Important for Start-ups?

Start-ups are ever-foraging for growth opportunities and channels to scale their operations. It can be a challenge, considering that most start-ups may not have the advantage of big budgets. Fortunately, strategies like SEO tip the scale without forcing start-ups to burn a hole in their pockets. Link building services for startups is an SEO element that can help your business generate sales faster.

• It Increases Ranking

Link building is a significant ranking factor for search engines. They will prioritize pages that have high-quality inbound links to them. It is almost impossible to rank favourably if you do not have backlinks. And as a start-up, ranking highly in search engine results means the world. People looking for your kind of business will bump into your page and offerings because of its high ranking in SERPs.

• Increases Website Traffic

Ranking highly in SERPs leads to more organic traffic to a website. A start-up will have more clicks to its site when they have links from high-authority sites. Organic traffic will then translate to more opportunities to make conversions.

• Brand Exposure

As a start-up, a few things will launch you into a path of success more than brand awareness. Being a household name means profitability and scalability for your business. Link building not only increases traffic traffic but also helps with brand exposure. When quality sites link to your domain, you have a better chance of increasing your search volume.

Link Building for Start-ups: 5 Effective Strategies

1. HARO

HARO works by being the bridge between article writers and credible information sources. HARO is an excellent link-building strategy for start-ups since it exposes journalists and other content writers to their offerings. A start-up will be more likely to appear in publications in their area of expertise and earn high-quality backlinks by working with HARO.

Pros of HARO:

• Multiple high authority sites use HARO. That makes links from them more valuable.
• It is a low-effort link-building strategy.
• HARO is free, making it the best fit for start-ups with limited budgets.

Cons of HARO:

• With HARO, there is no assurance that a journalist will plug your website into their content.

Top Tips for HARO Success

Here are some ways to make the most of HARO:

• Be quick in responding to journalists’ queries.
• Ensure that your responses are specific to the details the writers need.
• Reply to the most relevant request, even if they are from small-time publications.

2. Press Links

Press links are an excellent strategy for start-ups with new products to generate links from top publications. The idea is to create a new thing worthy of press attention and reach out to media people interested in covering your story. It is a win-win for everyone since the journalist will get a hot piece, and you can acquire high-quality backlinks in return. It helps to know who to contact to get your campaign in front of the right eye.

Pros of PR Link Building:

PR Link building has the potential to garner several high authority backlinks from high-authority publications.

Cons of PR Link Building

It takes time, and there is no guarantee that the publications will pick your story.

3. Unlinked Mentions

This strategy involves monitoring mentions of your brand. You can then request the publications that have mentioned your brand for links. You can use services like Google Alerts or Mention to get automatic alerts when your brand is getting mentions online.

Pros of Unlinked Mentions:

Unlinked mentions are a low-effort strategy for getting high-quality backlinks. If anything, the people and publications you are reaching out to are already mentioning your brand anyway. There is a good chance that adding a link will not be that much to ask.

Cons of Unlinked Mentions:

You have to be generating some buzz to get mentions. A level of brand exposure is needed for this strategy to work.

4. Guest Posts

This technique involves writing blogs for other websites. And, in return they will link to your website. This strategy works well for start-ups with a wealth of information about their industry which can help other industry players. Guest posting gives the readers a fresh perspective. And you, as a start-up, will generate niche backlinks relevant to your industry.

To search engine crawlers, these links are informative, providing value to the user’s search intent. Moreover, using guest posts marketers can avail perks such as high-quality and niche-relevant content, organic traffic and enhanced domain authority.

If you wish to enjoy these benefits for your website, check out our Guest Posting Services.

Pros of Guest Posts:

It is an excellent way to build relevant backlinks and form meaningful connections with players in your industry.

Cons of Guest Posts:

The outreach stage may be time-consuming.

Writing Effective Guest Post Pitches

High-authority websites are almost constantly getting requests for guest posts. Your pitch needs to stand out to get the opportunity to feature on their website. Here are some pointers to use:

1. Personalize your emails
2. Include appealing blog article ideas in your outreach emails.
3. Reach out to the right people, i.e., Brand content managers and the head of content.

How to Find Guest Post Opportunities

Identify guest post opportunities by creating a list of businesses that could use your content and reach out to ask them to allow you to write for them.

5. Linkable Assets

Linkable assets are content pieces that can attract inbound links. The idea is to create content that is so good that other blogs and websites find it genuinely valuable to their audience. Linkable assets are statistics, surveys and reports, in-depth posts and software.

Content Promotion Is Key

You may have created the most resourceful content, but it will amount to little if it does not get in front of website owners. Content promotion and website outreach are excellent ways to gain initial traction. Google Ads are a great way to do content promotion to get your content out there.

Pros of Linkable Assets:

You can generate multiple links from a single piece of content.

Cons of Linkable Assets:

Creating a valuable asset that people will be lining up to link to is not a walk in the park.

Source: Ahref

How to Decide on the Best Link-Building Strategy for Your Start-up

The market is not short of link-building options. Granted, not all of them will have the same impact. You have to identify the best strategy for your start-up. The most fitting one for your start-up depends on the time you have in your hands, the products and services you offer and your skillset. Competitor research also comes in handy for identifying the best link-building strategies for your industry. Tools like Ahref are perfect for discovering the websites linking to your competition.

How Long Does Link Building Take?

It is not uncommon to want a return on investment in the shortest time possible. However, link building for startups is a different ball game. It is more of a slow cooker than a microwave. Link building has considerable payoffs, but it takes time. It is not unusual to hit peak returns in a year.

Wrap up

Throwing a tailored link-building into your SEO strategy will, without a doubt, increase traffic to your website. Link building for startups will not only improve ranking with SERPs but will also increase overall website authority. And that translates to more ground for conversions and profits for your business!

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