Linkbuilding is just as important as on-page SEO. Even for local keywords, you can often face fierce competition that requires a proper strategy to overcome.
Off-page SEO consists of many factors, but one is the number of referring domains. Building a lot of good quality links is going to have a significant impact on your rankings.
Obviously, some link building tactics are better than others. SMBs usually don’t have a huge amount of time to spend on link building. They are looking for high-value links without spending hundreds of hours preparing.
Infographics are an important tactic for SMBs because they are cheap to create and can be shared quickly across social media and with influencers.
One of the best tactics is to use infographics as guest content. Reach out to a couple of hundred websites or bloggers and show them the infographic. Then, you can ask them if they’d like you to write a custom intro so that they can share the graphic on their website (with a link back to yours, of course).
This tactic is perfect for SMBs because once the infographic is created, it can be used on different websites with a little extra effort from you.
All you’ll need to do it continue reaching out to new sites and write the short introductions for each post.
If you’re looking for topics and themes for an infographic, try Googling ‘your industry + infographic’. For example, ‘gardening + infographic’ or ‘construction + infographic’.
This search will return a selection of infographics that other companies have created. You might even find one that you don’t think is well designed but has a good topic.
In this case, you can create a better version. Then, you can contact anybody who has linked to the old infographic and let those who linked to it know that you created a better version.
Matt Cutts renounced guest posting in the past, and SEOs ran for the hills. However, people misinterpreted what he meant.
Cutts wasn’t shaming guest posting in its entirety.
He was critical of SEOs who guest posted anywhere and everywhere. On websites that weren’t even vaguely related to their sites and purely for links.
There’s nothing wrong with being featured on another website as long as it’s related to your industry and real readers of that site will be interested in it.
Guest posting is one of the most powerful link building methods because it gives you an opportunity to network with other industry leaders.
It can also put your website in front of readers who would have never otherwise heard of your business.
This guest post can create other opportunities for you to get publicity on different sites.
Some of those readers might even go straight to your website and become customers. Guest posting will never be a bad tactic; it’s the basis of thousands of the top internet sites.
It only became synonymous with spam because people automated the process and posted on websites where the content wasn’t relevant.
Guest posting is relatively time-consuming. You’ll often be expected to write a 1500 - 2000 word article. That’s why it’s so important that SMBs are selective with where they guest post.
Only taking the strongest opportunities is the best way to remain efficient. Contact some of the biggest companies in your industry and ask if you can contribute to their blog.
If you're known in the industry, it’s likely that they’d appreciate you sharing your experience with their readers.
The last tactic that many SMBs ignore is ego bait. Ego bait is a general term for content that is used to appeal to the ego of other business owners.
This ego bait might include resources pages that include links to other companies or ‘top XYZ’ posts that celebrate the top websites in a particular field.
These ego bait posts can be surprisingly effective. People like to let others know when they’ve won an award on a list of top companies.
You can create your ego bait and then email those on the list to congratulate them. Even without asking some of those listed will go ahead and share it on the company blogs or social media.
This sharing will send targeted traffic and links back to your post.
Admittedly, it’s not as beneficial as a link to one of your product pages. However, every link to your website is helpful.
Some of the best link building tactics are out of the reach of SMBs unless they hire an agency. That’s because content marketing can take time. Many SMBs can’t spare the time or resources to content marketing, and that’s why they hire an agency.
Linkbuilding tactics like infographics and guest posting can be achieved with less time commitment than other methods and with less upfront cost.
However, using a content marketing agency like ourselves is the best way to ensure consistent results from an experienced team.
