We’re gonna go over some SEO backlink tips for beginners.
Now, at this point, you might just be thinking that the only thing you need to know about backlinks — is that you have to build them, right?
I mean, why overcomplicate things? Why not just build your backlinks and relax? In fact, let’s just end this video right now, and talk about something else!
Well, wait, wait, wait, just hold on a minute there!
Look, of course, building backlinks is important.
But…here’s the thing…
There are actually a few points you need to understand when it comes to backlinks — aside from the fact that you have to build them.
If you just jump in and start building backlinks, and ignore a few important things, your SEO plans probably won’t work out how you want them to.
In fact, you may even end up hurting your rankings if you go in all guns blazing!
So, stick around, because this video will cover some of the key tips beginners need to know about backlinks. Some of these tips are generally agreed upon by the majority of SEO experts. But some of them, like tip #2, can be a bit controversial!
Anyhow, if you absorb everything in this video, you should be able to upgrade your backlink knowledge so that you’re pretty much on par with the experts.
Let’s get started!
Tip #1. Quality Is As Important — If Not More Important — than Quantity
What’s more important in life — quantity or quality?
It’s a question as old as time. And if me and you were sitting face-to-face in a bar or something, we could probably argue all day about this, and still not come up with a definite answer.
Well, look — I’m here to tell you that, when it comes to SEO, there pretty much is a definite answer — which is that quality often beats quantity.
After all, one GREAT backlink can often produce the same results as 100 mediocre ones.
Want proof?
Check out this website:
Their traffic doubled in the space of four months. How many backlinks do you think we built each month to make this happen?
50? 60? 70? 100?
Seven. Just seven backlinks a month, and we were able to double their traffic.
Of course, backlinks weren’t the only thing that helped this website double its traffic. But…there’s no denying that these quality backlinks were a pretty huge factor.
Now, at this point, a lot of people wonder if building great backlinks is actually worth the effort.
I mean sure, they produce amazing results. But is there any point in building one great backlink, if it’s just easier to build 100 mediocre ones and eventually get the same result?
Well, for the most part, building one great backlink isn’t necessarily that much harder than building a mediocre one.
Sure, it’s a bit more difficult, but it’s not like the difference between a 5K run and a full-fledged marathon. I mean, if we use this running example — it’s really just a couple of extra kilometers, so kinda like a 5K versus an 8K run.
To be honest, the hard part really just comes down to learning a different approach. And going through the trial and error process to refine everything.
Anyhow, once you go through the process of building quality links. You’ll find that this slight increase in difficulty isn’t that much of a big deal when you consider the benefits a quality backlink can produce.
So, remember, if you’re gonna build backlinks — focus on quality!
Once you’ve got the quality side of things down, you can then start focusing on quantity.
Meaning you can start thinking about how you can build more quality backlinks, within the same time frame.
Tip #2. Don’t Try to Reinvent the Wheel
When you first start building backlinks, you might think that you need to come up with some clever, original link-building tactics.
But, while you’re free to actually do that — you really don’t need to.
That’s because you can actually just copy some of the tactics that are working for other websites.
This can include websites inside of your niche, as well as websites that have nothing to do with your niche.
There are a couple of ways you can copy someone’s link-building strategy.
One way you can do this is by just reading a few SEO case studies.
If you do that, you’ll basically be able to learn how someone built links. And you can then think about using the same approach for your site.
Now, if you read these case studies, you might notice that sometimes they really only just touch on tactics briefly, but they might not go into a ton of detail.
If that happens you can just Google the name of the tactic they’ve mentioned.
If you do that, you’ll most likely come across a blog post that covers how you can get results with this method. You might even find some other case studies that go into a lot more detail.
Another way you can copy someone’s backlink strategy is by just simply studying their backlink profile.
For instance, you might have a competitor that is ranking above you in the search listings.
If you pop this website into an SEO tool like Ahref, you will be able to look at their backlinks by “link type.”
After doing that, you might see that they’ve got lots of links in one particular category.
If you take a closer look at these links, you can see where these links actually are.
Once you have this info, you can then start thinking about how you can reverse engineer their links, so that you can also get similar links.
Tip #3. Don’t Stop Building
When it comes to building links, you might think this is just something you can focus on for a couple of months and then forget about.
But, while that would be nice, this isn’t really the best approach.
That’s because link-building is something you actually need to concentrate on. For pretty much the entire existence of your site — or at least while you’re in charge of it.
There are a few key reasons for this…
#number 1 — If you have competitors, and you’ve overtaken them. They’re probably going to be building links, so that they can get their positions back.
If you don’t keep on building links, they will close the gap and overtake you. And they will then get their rankings back.
So you need to keep building links so that you can maintain your position.
Even if they’re not doing this. You should keep building links just so that you can increase the distance between you and your competitors.
# number 2 — If you’re constantly building links, it will be a lot easier for you to scare off potential competitors.
Tons of people in the SEO space often judge the promise of a certain idea/niche, based on the level of competition.
For example, if someone types in a high volume/high value keyword — and they see that the #1 site doesn’t have a lot of links, they might decide to jump in and launch a site in this niche.
They might also jump in if they see that the #1 site has good links. But hasn’t really built any links in the past couple of months or more.
Checking all of this isn’t that hard, because SEO tools like Ahrefs actually let you see how many backlinks a site has recently built.
The example shown here is gathering tons of links each and every day.
If SEO people see something like this, they’re gonna have second thoughts about competing in this niche.
After all, they’re gonna be up against someone that has a solid base. As well as someone that’s constantly reinforcing their defenses (AKA someone that has the top spot and is constantly building links to keep the top spot).
Of course, building links after you rank #1 does require a bit of discipline.
But, if you develop this discipline, you should find it a lot easier to keep your rankings, once you secure them.
Tip #4. You Can Always Ask for Help
So, at this point, you probably get how important link-building is. And some of the things you need to keep in mind when building links.
But…You might not be sure if you can really commit to building links, especially after everything you’ve learned here. I mean building good links sounds like a lot of work, right?
Well, if you’re worried, you might want to consider getting someone to help you with link-building. As we talked about earlier, there’s not really anything wrong with hiring someone to build links for you. As long as they’re building white-hat links.
So, if you just pay someone to take care of this for you, things should be ok.
Now, in some cases, you might not have the budget to do this — especially if you’re just starting out.
If that’s the case, you can just do things yourself. And then once your website/business is making money, you should take a % of the monthly revenue. And then put it towards a monthly link-building budget.
If you’re treating your website as a business, which you probably should. You may just want to look at this cost as a business expense.
By the way, we have a ton of experience when it comes to helping people build links. If you’d like us to help you with this kind of thing, you can book a free consultation call with us at juliangoldie.com.
Conclusion
Okay, so we have covered some really useful tips that you should keep in mind when it comes to building backlinks.
