7 Stupidly Simple SEO Link Building Techniques for Beginners

Once you have your blog up and running online, there comes a point when you might realize that no one is reading your posts. You have no or very little traffic to your site or blog. One technique to start getting traffic is link building.

In this post, I have covered some stupidly simple SEO link-building techniques for beginners!

One thing I want to point out about this post and the techniques mentioned: these techniques are FREE and easy to do.

Why You Need Links to Your Site

In order to decide where and how to rank your website in their search results, search engines such as Google have to make this decision somehow.

So, they look at various things on your site including the quality of your content, your site age, if your site has a clear theme and focus, what social interaction your site gets, and other factors.

Since Google started though, one of the most important factors they have always and still use is the number, quality and relevance of the links that point to your site.

In other words, what links are on other people’s sites, that point to your site? Google has openly admitted that backlinks (links to your site) are one of the three most important factors when they decide where to rank your site.

The concept is that if other people are linking to your site, then your site must have some value right?

Provided though that those links are from decent sites and that have some relation to your own site.

So, one way to begin to start to drive traffic to your site is to focus on SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), meaning improving your site for ranking high in search results and to start building links to your site, so that search engines will start to recognize the value of your site.

Important Link Factors to Consider

Before you look at the 7 free and easy techniques I explain below, it is important first that you are aware of what types of links you need to your site and some other link essentials.

Link Relevance Is Important

If your blog/website is all about fashion and a backlink to your site is from an automobile site, will Google see the link as being very relevant? No!

Now, what about if a fashion blogger or brand has a link on their site to your own fashion blog/site? The link and the sites are all related and relevant, right?

Relevant links are much more valuable to you than unrelated links. You want to track down links from sites that are in your niche!

You might have heard the expression ‘It’s like comparing apples and oranges’ to express comparing two opposites.

In the same vein, with links, you want related and a relevant match and not to mix the apples and oranges. For a fashion blogging site, get linked from other fashion-related sites.

Internal Deep Linking Is Also Essential

Even though the focus of this article is how to get links to your site (inbound links), it is certainly worthwhile making clear that you also want to ensure that you have at least two internal links.

Let me explain.

In every post you write, make sure you link to at least two other pages or posts on your website.

If the words ‘WordPress themes’ occurs in your text, then link to your page on the best WordPress themes, for example.

In other words, create a natural flow within your site to guide users to related and useful pages based on what they are reading.

Google expects to see this flow within a quality website and it is a factor in the search algorithms.

With every blog post you write, you actually want to have at least:

• 2 links to other pages on your own site (called deep linking)
• 2 links to external authoritative sites that relate to the post you are writing (as Google also want to see you sharing and this is another important algorithm factor)
• Some links from other people’s sites pointing to each page you create (not easy but you can use the 7 techniques below).

The easiest way to track that you are optimizing these deep and outbound links is by installing the FREE WordPress plugin Yoast SEO.

High-Valued Quality Sites Mean Better Value Links for You

Do consider also that the greater rated/ranked website you have a link from (and provided that it relates to your niche) then the better the link is for your site.

Links from high-authority sites such as academic institutions can be excellent if you can get them. Likewise, links on well-known news sites and publications sites are great but not easy to acquire.

You can check the value of a site by checking their DA (Domain Authority) value. Just to go SmallTools.com and use the FREE DA Tool Checker.

Enter a domain into the DA checker and you will see results like these above that are for Valeria’s hobby site Worldbellydance.com

You might, for example, choose to aim for links from sites that are DA30 or above.

So if you were a dance site then worldbellydance.com could be a site to target to ask for a link or to have a guest blog post on (more on these techniques below).

7 Techniques to Improve Your Link Profile

1. Adding Profile Links

One of the easiest ways to get started with link building is to add links on profiles for sites that you already use, or that you can easily set up.

Chances are that you have a Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, ResearchGate or some profiles of some type online.

On each of these profiles, you can normally add a link to your own website. Let me give you an example, using Facebook.

You can also create a Facebook Business Page and add a link to your site in the ‘About’ information as shown below.

Twitter is another example. You can easily add a link to your site.

If you have a Pinterest account, make sure to add a link in your profile as shown below.

2. Link Begging (or Asking)

You might not enjoy this technique so much but writing to other website and blog owners in or related to your niche and asking for a link, is one technique that can work well.

For client’s sites, I have in the past, managed to get them linked on university resources pages, by simply writing and asking.

You want to make sure of course though, that you have a good reason why they should add a link to your site. This reason is likely to be because you have fantastic content that will genuinely be worth them linking to.

To get started, consider looking for ‘Resources’ pages that are based on your niche and on university websites. To do this you can try search terms such as:

• “your term here”+ac.uk+resources
• “your term here”+edu+resources

When writing to ask for a link, be sure to compliment the person on their site and be clear when writing to them as to why linking to your site provides value to the resources or the other page you are asking to be added on.

3. Guest Posting

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Writing content for other people for their website, in exchange for being able to include a link back to your own site, is a popular link-building strategy with many bloggers.

To track down guest post opportunities in your own niche, try these search terms in a search:

• Your Keyword “contributor guidelines”
• Your Keyword “guest article”
• Your Keyword “guest post”
• Your Keyword “write for us”
• Your Keyword “submit article”
• Your Keyword “guest author”

TIP: Try to include the backlink to your site as high as possible in the guest post. The higher in the post that the link is placed, the more value your link will be determined to have in the search algorithms.

Another easy way to find guest post opportunities is by looking at your competitor’s backlinks. You can start by using a tool such as the SmallSEOTools backlink checker and writing to the same sites that you see your competitors linked on (more on checking competitor links later in this post).

4. Blog Commenting (the Proper Way)

Adding a genuine comment to the comments section of a blog in your niche can be a great and very easy way to include a link to your site.

Such a link will be what is known as a NoFollow link but do not worry about this and do not worry too much if you do not understand what a NoFollow or DoFollow link is.

The key is that you have links from various sources and not, for example, ONLY from blog commenting or only from guest posts.

TIPS: There are some key things you should consider when adding comments in order to get Your comments accepted and to ensure you avoid being seen as a spammer.

• Make sure that you have set up your Gravatar image because it will give more authority and trust for those moderating the comments on their own site. Having a profile image looks more professional and people will trust you’re more like a genuine commenter.
• Ensure that you make an effort to provide a genuine comment that relates to the content on the page on which you are making the comment. Take at least one or two minutes to scan through the content. A genuine-looking comment is far more likely to be accepted.
• Do not forget of course to include a link to your site in the box provided.

5. Link Baiting and the Skyscraper Technique

You can also consider creating high-quality content as a key technique for getting backlinks.

The idea with link baiting is that your content is so good that people naturally want to link to your post.

This can be quite a time-consuming method but one that is very fruitful. Great and amazing content can go viral and there is the potential to get not one, but dozens or even hundreds of links.

This method is sometimes known as the SkyScraper technique because the post will be long (or tall), much like a building.

Whilst this post you are now reading is roughly 2000 words in length, a SkyScraper might be anything from 5,000 to 10,000 words and will provide great resources.

6. Local Directories

Getting your site listed on the major and local directories for your country can be done for free and is a great way to build some quality links.

I suggest starting by going to SEO Moz Local and first entering your business name to see

After you get your SEO local scores in SEO Moz, you then have the chance to view the directories that you are advised to add your site to.

You can click through from SEOMoz to these directories to add your site.

Also, do a search to identify directories that are specific to your niche or location. If you are a food blogger, for example, check to see if there are any online directories specifically for food blogs.

7. Copying Where Your Competitors Get Links

This is a technique that will be a mix of the other methods mentioned on this page and also additional sources.

Why not analyze the backlinks that your competitors in your niche have and then try to replicate some of those link sources?

You can start by using the HRefs backlink checker. You will see their top 100 links using HRefs for free but this is a great way to start finding places to source backlinks.

Enter your competitor’s website address into the HRefs search box and you will see a list of their top links.

These 7 techniques given are plenty for you to get started with your link building!