There's been quite a few good tips already, especially by
chrsplmr.
I typically approach a new site in a very similar fashion. Though I never really focused much on social signals and have yet to see a positive correlation with rankings.
Here's my approach to any new site (both local and non-local):
- 50-150x local structured citations (Yelp, Google My Business, Bing Places, Apple Maps, Yahoo Local, Manta, Yellowpages, Mapquest, Facebook, Angiestlist, Isuuu etc. pp.)
- 30-50x unstructured citations via branded / explainer videos (e.g. on youtube, reddit, sendvid, myspace), photo sharing sites (e.g. on reddit, pinterest, myspace, screencast) and social pofiles (e.g. on hubpages, evernote, deviantart, etc.).
- 15-30x manually crafted & branded web 2.0s with unique and WELL WRITTEN content that is extremely targeted to your brand and your niche. Add 2-3 articles to each web 2.0 blog, embed your videos/images that you used for the citations and add a co-citation + link to your website. If you're going for local, add a link to the GMB CID URL as well.
- 5-8x branded guest posts, editorials or sponsored posts for the homepage. .
- 3-5x branded link insertions / niche edits.
- 10-20x manually crafted crowd links (e.g. change.org, quora, etc.).
- Optional: Press release + syndication. Mostly for local sites to add a powerful citation + map embed (if they allow it).
That's a really good foundation of branded links for any site (even non-local websites) and you can build these right away. You can probably get all those links sorted for < $2000 incl. content curation.
After that you can move to more targeted links and somewhat more aggressive anchor strategies (while keeping a balanced ratio in mind, more on that blow) and scale on all fronts, especially outreach.
- Guest Posts
- Guestographics
- HARO
- Niche Edits / Link Insertions
- PBNs
- Branded Editorials
- Tier 2 links (make sure you have the consent to link to your guest posts, editorials, niche edits or PBNs)
- Scale the citations if you're running a local site
As mentioned above, you need to be mindful of the anchor texts you use for your link building campaigns. You want to keep your profile relatively natural, but still varied enough to rank for your target keyword.
A natural anchor profile may look like this:
- Branded & Raw URL anchors (70-80%)
- Generic / Other anchor (10-15%)
- Phrase match anchors (5-10%)
- Longtail anchors (<5-7%)
- Exact match anchors (<5-7%)
As you can see you want to mostly focus on branded and branded variations. The foundation of links outlined above already takes care of a good chunk of it, but you should always throw in a few more branded links as you g(r)o(w).
Let me quick explain the different anchor types you could use.
Branded & raw URL anchors
These are your bread and butter anchors. They are fundamental to keep your anchor profile natural and avoid over-optimization. You can use a few variations of these, namely:
- Branded Anchors + (Partial) Exact Match / Phrase Match
- Branded
- Brand Name
- RAW URL
Let’s say your exact match keyword is “best migrane medication” and your site is abc-pharmacy.com.
Example branded anchors:
- abc-pharmacy.com or https://abc-pharmacy.com (RAW URL)
- ABC Pharmarcy (Brand Name Anchor)
- abc-pharmacy.com – the #1 source for cool gaming laptops (Branded + Phrase Match)
- Buy the best migraine medication on labc-pharmacy.com (Branded + Phrase Match)
- ABC Pharmacy - Best Migraine Medication (Branded + Exact Match)
- Reviews on ABC Pharmacy (Branded)
etc.
## Generic & other anchors
The idea behind generic anchors is similar to the branded variations. A natural anchor profile will have a good amount of generic anchor texts.
Example generic anchors:
- Website
- This article
- Link
- Review
- Source
- Medicine
You get the jist of it.
## Long tail anchors
As the name suggests, long tail keywords usually consist of 3+ words and are hyper focused, lower volume variations that are closely related to your main keyword, or in this case "best migraine medication".
Example long tail anchors:
- what is the best migraine medication
- best migraine prevention medication
- what is the best prescription migraine medication
## Phrase match anchors
Phrase match anchors typically include your exact match keyword in a sentence. These are great for diversity, while still adding relevance with your exact match keyword.
Example phrase match anchors:
- best migraine medication over the counter
- best migraine medication OTC
- best migraine medication prescription
## Exact Match Anchors
Exact match anchors would be when you are just using your main keyword as the anchor text, in this case “
best migraine medication”.
If you keep the anchor ratios in mind, you should have a very natural link profile.
