Linkbuilding: How do I start?

Hi guys,

I started my new job as an online marketing manager in a software consulting company. One of my tasks is to do SEO. I have some experience in onpage SEO and in my first weeks I achieved quite a lot only by optimizing internal linkstructure and typical onpage issues.

But when it comes to linkbuilding, I am relatively new to the business. Quite frankly, I don't quite know what would be the best way to start. I am a regular reader here at bhw, so in theory I have a lot in mind about how linkbuilding could be done with PBNs, Web 2.0, buying and redirecting expired domains, parasites and so on. But these seem to be things which are quite mighty, advanced stuff and at the same time offer plenty of scope to really mess it up. I am wondering what are the basics to look after and in what dimensions? Is it manul blog commenting on niche relevant blogs? Posting and backlinking in niche relevant forums? Directories? Social bookmarks? I am really a bit lost and don't know where to start. Since the niche is not too competitive will I need software like GSA or scrapebox?

What the company does at the moment ist mainly buying backlinks on several platforms which build and sell them. Those are a mixture of blog comments, Q&As, web 2.0 and so on. It is quite random and to my knowledge there are many spammy backlinks. Furthermore all these bought links produce running costs. Wouldn't we be better of building those links on our own or with the help of, say scrapebox?

I appreciate your comments on what to do in my situation. I think I only need a push in the right direction.

I wouldn't suggest building links yourself until you understand the process fully.
For the time being you will probably be better off buying a monthly package from The Marketplace
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/f73-marketplace/
Carry out a site audit, speak to a few vendors, and see what fits the bill.
Check the reviews and go for established names with a decent reputation.

Without knowing about seo and links, start building links can give just harm to your site instead of any rise.

You seem to have the knowledge but haven't put it into action. I was just like you, took me a good year before I decided to try SEO even tho I knew everything that was needed.

Anyway, I wouldn't recommend you start SEO to the company's site, your best bet would be to hire someone honestly.

You don't want to start building some bad links, that would not look good at all.

For sure bet you should build links from social sites (create social accounts pointing to your company site - twitter - facebook pages - pinterest... so on) but try to avoid building links outside social for time being until you feel confident in doing it.

Yeah don't just jump into it. If you want to build some safe links to start off with, building business profiles on high DA sites is a good start.

First Create Some Quality Contest On Your Topic, Then Use On Web 2.0's, Article Submission, Press Release.
After That Try To Build Links For Your 1st Tier!!

I usually start with some related websites. Try contact as many webmasters you can and try to obtain/buy/exchange some links.

Before you start
- learn how to discover when a website is not penalized (in this way you will not get links from bad websites)
- read some articles about the anchor density (quite important)
- read some articles about backlinks diversity (to make it look natural)

I also advice you to start with an another website, just to make some experience. Good luck!

I wouldn't take too many risks with a work-related site. Stay away from any blackhat tactics and don't outsource until you know what you are doing. I like using pbns myself.

1) Read up on link strategies (check starred posts on BHW in the WH section, or Backlinko, etc).
2) Study the "Easy $100 A Day - Perfect For Noobs" thread about doing contextual links using alert tools.
3) Perhaps set up a blog on Blogger or other Web 2.0 and do linking there to train your self in proper linking to rank sites.

Simple way is to download sites that mention or link to your competitors and work from that!

Where ever you can manually place a link, within reason, stick a link on it! Do not use tools etc, until you know 100% what you're doing and most certainly do not out-source link building, until you know the basics aka the difference between a good and bad link

I work in a similar situation. The main company website has a clean link profile and I imagine yours does too. On the one hand you don't want to risk damaging the link profile and on the other you need more links. One of the dangers is that you do nothing.

I would look at where your competitors have links, check the metrics, and also ask yourself if its somewhere you would value putting your link if it didn't give any SEO value.

There might be journals or industry magazines which you can offer to write for, and often they will allow you to link to your website. Offer them relevant quality content (you should also post quality content to your blog frequently)

Another way is your suppliers. Our IT firm had a clients page and we got a link from there. Suppliers and many other companies often haven't bothered with seo and this actually helps as they don't have many outbound links.

When you start link building you should probably try and keep it natural. Don't build loads of links in one month if you never did before. Build up slowly - its more natural.

You could build a PBN etc, but I'd imagine you have a fair amount of responsibilities so you might not have time.

Personally I would not outsource link building to the companies site. You want to be in full control.

1st of all and most important , build links from websites on your country ..
Google and Yandex they know that backlinks from the country of the website is more naturally than other . the other search engine's are working to with that ..
Ask your self . what is more naturally ? a company from France having links from Germany or from France's websites ?
Also don't do tier links building , its not worth it anymore . Google knows that you have equal changes to earn a link from blog's,forums,questbook,directorys and etc.
Avoid to link directly to your homepage all the link. if you have 40pages you need to build links for all of them or at least at 80% of them . not many , but you want some.
Also work on good backlinks. build good backlinks directly to your website "if they are focus on the keyword and not in domain, then don't focus on one keyword but with similiar to. example: seo services, seo services in italy, best website seo services, seo services are worth it , and so on) if you have some typo's as seo serviice are wort it , its good too . Google knows that a typograph false, and looks natural.
Sorry for bad english.

If you're going to be a link builder, the first thing that you need to focus on is do not build link.

I know that sounds crazy but this is 2016.

The SEO game has dramatically changed.

You could have gotten away with simply buying software and manually building links as recently as two years ago, but if you want consistent results that will produce search traffic for many years to come, you need to do things manually and you need to earn links.

The good news is you can earn links by focusing on better content and better outreach.

Look for blogs and websites that are in the same niche as the website that you're trying to promote.

Get content ideas from those sites and ask them to publish content regarding the software consulting services the company you work for provides.

It doesn't take a genius to do SEO outreach.

However, you need to focus on solid quality content and you need to have a longtime horizon.

If you're looking to do completely white hat SEO, you need to have a longtime horizon.

You have to be patient.

This is not going to happen overnight.

Usually, the faster your backlinks, the higher the likelihood that you will get penalized by Google.

I was sure it was otherwise but that's the cold heart truth.

You need to research the Ahrefs blog and find there an article named "How Even SEO Noobs Can Steal (Copy) Backlinks from Top Competitors"

You seem to have the knowledge but haven't put it into action. I was just like you, took me a good year before I decided to try SEO even tho I knew everything that was needed.

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Yeah, that's exactly how I see my situation. How did you start to take action then?

Perhaps set up a blog on Blogger or other Web 2.0 and do linking there to train your self in proper linking to rank sites.

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I think this is what I have to do now!

I would look at where your competitors have links [...] Another way is your suppliers.

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For sure I will do these as one of my next steps!

1st of all and most important , build links from websites on your country [...] Avoid to link directly to your homepage all the link [...] don't focus on one keyword but with similiar to. example: seo services, seoservices in italy, best website seo services, seo services are worth it , and so on)

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Good tipps, thank you!

You know the stuff to get started. So, go with content based link building on free platforms including web 2.0, content sharing websites through which you can grab some nice tier-1 backlinks.

Apart from that find about other techniques, strategies (competitor analysis) explore them and test them on your tier-1 backlinks. Don't go for tools, do it manually. For tier-1 backlinks just go manual. For tier-2 & 3 you can compromise with quality and quantity. Wish you luck mate :thumb:

I would go for content based back links. Post from a variety of sources. And create them gradually, don't over post on any given day, as it has to look like a natural process.

You will have a create a dummy site and try ranking it using different keywords before you implement your learnt techniques on clients.