Manual link building remains a most relevant and highly ethical SEO strategy, favored by SEO professionals. You might wonder, “Why bother with manual link building when I can automate it?”
According to Google’s ‘Guide to Quality Links’, “manually contributing on forums and blogs can build a reputation that drives people to your site”. This statement proves that manual link building is the recommended way to create quality links, dismissing the use of automatic link building tools.
Manual links set your website apart and help you climb the ranks in search engine results. Investing time in building high-quality and relevant links manually will pay off in the long run. Avoid shortcuts – manual link building is the way to go.
What is manual link building?
Manual link building is a strategic approach to acquiring high-quality backlinks by manually reaching out to websites and building relationships. It specifically involves the following activities:
- Gathering and analyzing the specific link building goals and target keywords.
- Researching and analyzing link building opportunities to meet different SEO metrics
- Reaching out to targeted publishers to build relationships and negotiate links
- Crafting high quality content that is likely to be linked to by other sites, such as blog posts, infographics, or resource pages.
- Keeping track of acquired links and their impact on your website’s SEO performance.
With the fundamentals in place, we can proceed to understand the detailed process of manual link building.
Manual link building process: Step by step guide
Manual link building is a long-term effort. To make it easier for you to digest, our link builders have divided it into involving four core processes. We will explore each process in detail to establish a comprehensive understanding.
For better clarity, understand these crucial terms:
- Publisher: A person or organization that generates links on their web properties like blogs.
- Publisher Website: The website where the links are built.
- Advertiser: A person or organization initiating a link-building campaign.
- Advertiser Website: The website for which the links are built.
With the manual link-building process outlined, let’s begin by exploring how to gather and analyze the essential link-building requirements.
How to gather and analyze the link building requirements?
To gather and analyze the link building requirements we need to follow a few essential steps. It is essential to understand these steps strategically.
The success of any link-building campaign depends on this “requirement gathering” step. To start, first, you need to define the purpose of your link-building campaign. It can be anything such as Local SEO, Brand awareness, referral traffic, and search engine ranking just to name a few.
Looking into the campaign goals is a great way to decide on the types of links to target.
The next step is to list the specific requirements for publisher websites. This might help you:
- Ensure the publisher’s blog niche corresponds with the relevant industry.
- Evaluate the traffic to ensure sufficient exposure.
- Check how often new content is posted.
- Assess the publisher’s social media presence and engagement.
- Look for active discussions and interactions on their posts.
- Check on metrics like Domain Rating (DR), Domain Authority (DA), Page Authority (PA), Trust Flow (TF), and Citation Flow (CF)
- Make sure that the site has a low spam score to avoid penalization.
Having gathered and analyzed the requirements, the next step is to focus on harvesting and evaluating potential link-building opportunities.
How to harvest and analyze link building opportunities?
First, we need to learn how to “harvest” and then move on to “analyze” link-building opportunities”.
There are two methods to proceed with the harvesting task: one is through Google search operators and the second one is by doing a competitor’s analysis.
Google search operators are specialized characters and commands that improve the functionality of standard searches. These operators can be words, punctuation marks, or symbols and can be combined for specific tasks. Google search operators help locate precise information and are beneficial for tasks like harvesting link-building opportunities, conducting content research, and improving SEO. Here’s a list of Google Search Operators that can help you find/search/harvest targeted blogs.
For instance, if your website focuses on iGaming, you’ll want to secure backlinks from websites within the same niche.
Search for terms like iGaming intitle:”write for us” inurl:write-for-us to identify relevant sites. This approach will help you discover numerous suitable opportunities to pitch.
Now moving forward to the second method: Competitor analysis
Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz, and Ubersuggest are some reliable tools for analyzing competitors’ backlink profiles. You just need to enter a competitor’s site in the tool’s search bar, explore their backlinks, and list the sites that meet your requirements. This will give you a list of potential publishers to reach out to. This site collection process can be repeated until you have a comprehensive list of potential link-building opportunities.
Let’s move on to how to analyze potential link-building opportunities:
Here, you need to check and note the SEO metrics, (Domain Rating (DR), Domain Authority (DA), Page Authority (PA), Trust Flow (TF), and Citation Flow (CF), of each link opportunity to finalize which ones to pursue. Once you have screened the listed blogs, it’s time to reach out to the publishers.
First, collect link-building opportunities that match the desired niche, Domain Rating, and Domain Authority. Create a Google Sheet, name the columns based on the factors identified during requirement gathering, and start recording the most suitable publisher websites.
After identifying and analyzing link-building opportunities, the next crucial step is to reach out and establish strong relationships with the publishers.
How do we reach and build relationships with the publishers?
Outreaching to publishers or bloggers from the list of link opportunities finalized in the previous step requires a structured approach. By following a defined protocol, we can secure more bloggers to work with us and improve our outreach efforts. Here’s how to do it effectively:
- Begin by following the bloggers on their social media platforms. Engage with their content by liking, commenting, and sharing their posts. Share their valuable content with your audience.
- Don’t rush into asking for a collaboration. Instead, focus on building trust by demonstrating your appreciation for quality content.
- Do not use automated emails for outreach. Personalized emails have a higher chance of landing in the blogger’s inbox rather than the spam folder.
- When reaching out, have 2-3 different topics ready that match with the publisher’s audience. This shows that you’ve done your homework and are serious about providing valuable content.
- Maintain a professional yet simple communication format in your emails. Clearly convey your message and make it easy for the blogger to understand your proposal.
This process can take 2-4 weeks. Be patient and persistent, as manual link building is an effortful process that requires time and dedication. Once you’ve successfully built a relationship with the blogger, the next step is to collaborate with your content writer to have high-quality content ready for publication.
How to collaborate with the content writer?
To effectively collaborate with a content writer, you should have a clear understanding of your requirements and the publisher’s guidelines. This will help ensure that the content produced is high-quality and meets the needs of both parties.
Effective collaboration between you and a content writer is essential for producing high-quality content that meets your requirements and those of the publisher.
Carefully review the content before sending it over for publishing. This allows for any necessary revisions before the content goes live, ensuring it meets everyone’s standards and expectations.
Once the content is approved, optimize it for on-page SEO. This optimization includes:
- H Tags: Use proper heading tags (H1, H2, H3) for content structure.
- Alt Tags: Add alt text for images to improve image visibility in search engines.
- Image File Name and URL: Make sure images have descriptive file names and URLs with appropriate dimensions.
- Hypertext and Hyperlinks: Use relevant keywords as hypertext and have properly formatted hyperlinks.
- Grammar Check: Proofread the content for any grammatical errors.
- Canonical Tag: Implement canonical tags to prevent duplicate content issues.
- Language Tag: Specify the language of the content using language tags.
- Schema Markup: Add structured data to improve search engine visibility.
Before publishing, double-check the content for any mistakes. Ensure all on-page SEO elements are correctly implemented and the content is polished and error-free. Effective collaboration with the content writer results in high-quality content that satisfies both you and publisher.
With the entire manual link-building process covered, let’s now explore the strategies that can improve its effectiveness.
What are the manual link building strategies?
Manual link-building strategies are a specific implementation of a broader SEO strategy, aiming to improve a website’s authority and relevance through the acquisition of white hat backlinks. When implementing manual link-building, count on these effective and ethical strategies:
Having established the key strategies for manual link building, let’s start by focusing on how to effectively reach out to bloggers to build valuable relationships.
Outreach bloggers to build relationship
Outreaching bloggers is a practice of establishing connections with influential bloggers in your industry. It’s a powerful link-building tactic, where you request bloggers to feature a link to your website in their online content.
Blogger outreach is required in a scenario when your website is not attracting enough organic traffic. Partnering with bloggers helps in creating high-quality backlinks that can improve your search engine rankings. This leads to increased visibility and traffic from search engines.
An outreach strategy can help you expand your target market, drive more organic and referral traffic to your site, and ultimately, generate increased sales and revenue.
After exploring the approach of building relationships with bloggers, let’s now shift our attention to the Skyscraper technique for gaining high-quality links.
Skyscraper
The skyscraper technique is an SEO manual link-building strategy where you create superior content compared to what is currently ranking well and then encourage other websites to link to your content instead. The aim is to acquire backlinks from these sites and outperform the original content in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Here’s how you can implement “The Skyscraper Technique”
- Look for high-performing content within your niche.
- Study what makes the content successful and where it can be improved.
- Develop your superior version that is more comprehensive, engaging, and valuable.
- Share your improved content with the relevant audience and influencers to gain links and visibility.
If you are aiming for highly competitive keywords, employing the Skyscraper Technique can help you produce content that stands out and achieves higher rankings.
Brian Dean, the originator of the Skyscraper Technique, has reported outreach success rates of up to 11%. This Technique saves time in the content creation process by utilizing existing successful content to understand user intent and presentation.
Having detailed the Skyscraper approach, we can now turn to the role of Digital PR in strengthening your link-building campaign.
Digital PR
A Digital PR backlink is a link featured on a media news outlet’s website. Ethical Link Building through Digital PR increases a brand’s credibility by linking it to a respected and trustworthy news source.
Here are some common practices to obtain digital PR backlinks
- Opinionated Articles: Share your expert opinions and insights on relevant topics.
- Web 2.0 Articles: Publish content on platforms that allow user-generated content.
- Guest Posting: Write and publish articles on authoritative websites within your industry.
- Data-Driven Content: Create content based on compelling data and research.
- Product Roundups: Get your products featured in industry roundups and reviews.
PR backlinks are crucial for any digital PR strategy and form an essential part of B2B SEO services. By securing links on reputable websites with large audiences, your brand can experience referral traffic, more link juice, organic ranking SERP, and improved authority.
With Digital PR strategies in place, let’s move on to the benefits and tactics of guest posting for link building.
Guest blogging
Guest posting, or guest blogging, is a widely-used link-building strategy that involves creating and publishing articles on other websites and securing backlinks to your own site in the process. Here’s a straightforward checklist to effectively use guest blogging for organic link building:
- Identify suitable blogs for guest post submissions.
- Create high-quality, engaging content for guest blogs.
- Establish and nurture relationships with blog owners.
- Use relevant anchor text within your guest posts.
- Share and promote your guest posts on social media platforms.
Guest posting for link building becomes essential when your website encounters specific SEO challenges. A common issue is having a lower domain authority (DA) compared to your competitors, which can significantly impact your search engine rankings and overall online visibility.
Having discussed the effectiveness of guest posting, let’s now explore the potential of influencer outreach in your link-building strategy.
Influencer outreach
Influencer outreach is a link-building strategy focused on developing relationships with influencers to promote your content and website. When an influencer shares, mentions, or reviews your content, they typically include a link back to your website. These backlinks are valuable for SEO and traffic due to the influencer’s credibility and reach.
To effectively implement influencer outreach:
- Identify individuals in your field with an established following who are interested in your topic.
- Create content that is valuable, relevant, and engaging for your target audience.
- Build a rapport with influencers and demonstrate the value you offer.
- Reach out to influencers and request that they link to your content or promote it to their audience. You can contact them via email, social media, or other channels.
- Personalize your outreach to make a genuine connection.
It’s important to distinguish between blogger outreach and influencer outreach. Blogger outreach involves collaborating with bloggers who write and publish blogs. In contrast, influencer outreach focuses on engaging with people who have a significant following on social media or within a specific industry.
After exploring influencer outreach, let’s turn our attention to the broken link building strategy, which offers a unique way to secure valuable backlinks.
Broken link building
Broken link building is a strategy that uses non-functional pages on the internet. The process involves identifying a broken page and reaching out to the sites that link to it, suggesting they replace the broken link with a functional one on your website. This approach is appealing because webmasters prefer not to direct their visitors to a dead resource.
By substituting the broken links with your content, websites can improve their user experience, while you gain a valuable backlink. When executed correctly, broken link building is a win-win strategy for both parties.
After covering the broken link building approach, let’s now explore how HARO can be leveraged to secure high-quality backlinks.
Haro (Help a reporter out)
Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is an online platform that connects journalists and bloggers with sources for their stories. It can also be used as a tool for link building, which can help improve search engine rankings, drive traffic to a website, and build relationships with other businesses and potential customers.
How it works? Journalists and reporters submit queries needing expert sources. You can then browse these requests and respond with helpful commentary as an expert. If your response is selected, you’ll be published and get a backlink in return. The turnaround time is usually 2 months. The result is high-quality backlinks that can improve your domain authority.
Why Use HARO for Link Building?
- High DA Link Placement: Secure backlinks from websites with high domain authority.
- Contextual Link Targeting: Obtain links that are contextually relevant to your content.
- Thought Leadership Visibility: Enhance your visibility as a thought leader in your industry.
- Scalable Link Prospecting: Efficiently scale your link-building efforts.
- Ongoing Link Relationship Building: Develop and maintain ongoing relationships with link sources.
After exploring how to use HARO, let’s now turn to the importance of trustworthy citation sites in building a strong backlink profile.
Trustworthy citation sites [business directories-topical directories]
Trustworthy citation sites are a widely used link-building strategy in local SEO that enhances a business’s visibility and search engine rankings.
Citations refer to online mentions of a business’s name, address, and phone number (NAP) and can appear on various platforms, including local business directories, websites, apps, and many other social media platforms.
Key citation-building sites include Google My Business (GBP), Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Bing, Yelp, Foursquare, Apple Maps, and Yellow Pages.
Begin by researching and compiling a list of reputable citation sites relevant to your industry or niche. Prioritize sites with high domain authority, a solid reputation, and a strong user base. Ensure these sites offer valuable information to users and maintain a positive online presence.
Local citations significantly impact your local SEO efforts and determine whether your business appears in search engine results pages (SERPs). Even unlinked citations can drive traffic and enhance local presence, offering opportunities to claim new links and expand your link portfolio.
With trustworthy citation sites covered, let’s move on to the strategy of multilingual link building to expand your reach across different languages and markets.
Multilingual link building
Multilingual link building, also known as international link building, is a tactic in manual link building strategy that involves creating high quality links on multi-regional websites targeting audience that might speaking different languages, too.
For example, you are selling kids indoor games in the United States that can have potential customers in Norway, Sweden, and Germany, too.
This strategy involves creating high-quality links on multi-regional websites targeting audiences speaking different languages.
Multilingual link-building is required for global, multiregional, or multi-continent marketing efforts. For example, if you are selling kids’ indoor games in the United States, you might also attract potential customers in Norway, Sweden, and Germany.
Having walked through the entire manual link-building process, let’s now explore how to unlock its full potential for maximum impact.
How to unlock the full potential of manual Link building?
Manual link building is a crucial aspect of SEO success that counts from improving your website’s authority and search engine rankings when done correctly. Below are some key strategies to unlock its full potential:
A well optimized web page/website
A well-optimized website is more appealing to publishers who are selective about the sites they link to.
Manual link-building requires a symbiotic relationship between advertisers and publishers. Let’s first understand the difference between an advertiser and a publisher.
You focus on increasing the authority of your website by acquiring high-quality backlinks. The publisher, on the other hand, plays a crucial role in the link building ecosystem by providing valuable link placements that you seek.
So, how to ensure that your website is fully optimized for search engines?
This involves implementing several best on-page SEO practices, such as keyword optimization, high-quality content creation, mobile-friendliness, and fast loading speeds. You can use tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to identify and fix issues that are slowing down your site.
With an optimized website in place, the next step is to focus on targeting relevant websites that align with your niche.
Always target relevant website
When building links manually, it’s crucial to target websites that are relevant to your niche. Backlinks should be contextually appropriate and beneficial to enhance your website’s authority.
Focus on websites within the same or a closely related niche. For example, if you’re a digital marketing agency, seek links from reputable marketing blogs, SEO forums, and other digital marketing businesses.
Always aim for websites that are authoritative and have a strong online presence. High-authority sites are more likely to pass on valuable link equity, boosting your website’s search engine rankings. Tools like Moz’s Domain Authority and Ahrefs’ Domain Rating can help evaluate a site’s authority.
After ensuring that you’re targeting relevant websites, it’s equally important to focus on ethical and natural link-building practices to maintain credibility.
Ensuring ethical and natural link building practices
Ethical link building is a practice of obtaining links from other websites to your own in a mutually beneficial and natural manner. Ethical and natural link building practices are vital for maintaining a good standing with search engines and avoiding penalties.
Adhere to Google’s guidelines for link building to ensure your practices are ethical. Google provides a detailed guide on quality link building. These guidelines emphasize the importance of earning links rather than buying them and avoiding manipulative link schemes.
Refrain from participating in link schemes or buying links. These practices can lead to severe penalties from search engines. Common link schemes include excessive link exchanges and using automated programs to create links.
Focus on earning links naturally by creating valuable content that others want to link to. This includes writing guest posts, participating in industry forums, and engaging with your audience on social media. For example, you can contribute expert articles to high-authority sites in your industry, providing valuable insights and linking back to your site.
After ensuring ethical and natural link-building practices, the next crucial step is to focus on creating unique and compelling content that naturally attracts high-quality backlinks.
Unique, and compelling content creation
Unique content is distinctive, valuable, and useful, setting itself apart from other sources and benefiting the reader. It can take the form of text, visuals, or multimedia and should not be copied, republished, or reused without substantial changes.
If you offer content that is unique, and engaging and highlights your expertise, people will naturally want to share it.
According to Google Guidelines, the one of most effective tactics to include “value” for your audience and earn “quality backlinks” is speaking highly about common issues and problems.
- Practical solutions such as a quick tutorial or a video are appreciated by the visitors.
- Publishing survey results or original research can also be valuable, provided it is useful to your audience.
- Using humor is a great way to attract links and generate buzz about your site.
Following these Google-suggested content requirements, you can secure merit-based links and loyal followers who drive direct traffic.
After exploring how to unlock the full potential of manual link building, it’s essential to understand how it differs from automated link-building methods.
What is the difference between automated and manual link building?
There are two ways a webmaster can build links – Automated link building and Manual link building.
Automated link building entails employing software or tools to create backlinks with minimal human involvement. These tools can quickly generate links, which is a considerable advantage.
However, automated methods carry the risk of violating search engine guidelines, which can result in penalties and negatively impact your website’s ranking. A Google Penalty is a manual action towards unnatural or spammy backlinks pointing to your website. The consequences can include a significant decrease in web traffic, domain authority (DA), and PageRank (PR).
Google’s algorithms have improved in detecting unnatural or low-quality backlink structures produced by automated tools for creating links. Such automated methods, particularly those coming from irrelevant or spammy sources, are prone to activating penalties from Google.
In contrast, manual link building entails putting in human effort and selecting trustworthy websites thoughtfully to place links. This approach prioritizes quality rather than quantity, focusing on relevant, credible, and popular websites.
Manual link building necessitates creative thinking, individualized interactions, and strategic preparation for producing top-notch links that are highly regarded by search engines.
Now that we’ve clarified the differences between automated and manual link building, let’s explore why manual methods often prove to be more effective.
Why is manual link building more effective than automated methods?
Manual link building has long been regarded as a more effective and sustainable approach compared to automated methods.
Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo have advanced algorithms and AI capabilities to detect unnatural linking patterns. Automated link building often relies on techniques that can be easily flagged as spammy, leading to penalties that can severely impact your site’s ranking.
For example, in February 2024, an SEO expert, Julian Goldie published a video on YouTube showing how he created high Domain Rating (DR) links with just a few clicks using automated tools. However, after Google’s March 2024 update, his website was penalized due to these manipulative practices.
Manual link building adheres to search engine guidelines, ensuring that your link-building efforts are legitimate and sustainable. It involves personalized outreach and relationship building with other website owners and influencers in your industry.
For instance, guest posting on authoritative sites or contributing valuable content to industry blogs can establish your authority and credibility, leading to more natural link-building opportunities.
Manual link building is a long-term effort that yields sustainable results. While it may require more time and effort initially, the benefits of building a strong, natural backlink profile are far-reaching. Unlike automated methods, which are short-lived and can lead to penalties.
Understanding why manual link building is more effective sets the stage for discussing how it contributes to overall SEO success. Keep reading!
What is manual link building for SEO success?
SEO success is the optimization of a website’s technical, on-page, and off-page elements to achieve and maintain high visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant keywords and queries.
Manual link building is a strategic, human-driven process of acquiring high-quality backlinks to a website through strategic content creation, outreach, relationship development, content creation, and other non-automated means. The primary objective is SEO success by improving the website’s authority, relevance, and trust signals within search engine algorithms.
It involves identifying relevant and authoritative websites, creating compelling value propositions, and engaging with website owners or editors to secure contextually relevant backlinks, editorially endorsed, and sustainable over time.
It is important to distinguish manual link-building from black-hat link-building techniques, which involve artificial and manipulative link-acquisition tactics that violate search engine guidelines.
By adhering to ethical and white-hat principles, manual link-building can be a highly effective strategy for a successful search engine optimization campaign.
With a clear understanding of how manual link building drives SEO success, the next step is learning how to choose the best service provider to support your efforts.
How to pick the best manual link building service provider?
A Manual Link Building Service Provider, like Dolinks, is an entity that offers specialized services to acquire high-quality backlinks for a client’s website through human-driven, strategic outreach, and relationship-building tactics.
They employ a team of experts who identify relevant link opportunities, develop persuasive outreach campaigns, and execute link acquisition strategies in compliance with search engine guidelines.
To pick the best manual link building service providers, follow the below steps;
The experience and expertise of manual link building service provider
Consider partnering with a link building service provider that has consistently delivered successful campaigns and has a wealth of experience in manual link building. Assess their proficiency in your particular industry or niche to verify your understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities relevant to your business.
Quality of backlinks provided by the service provider
Evaluate the caliber of the backlinks that the service provider is providing. Confirm to receive top-notch and credible backlinks that are in line with your business objectives. It is emphasized that quality takes precedence over quantity in the context
Does the service provider follow White Hat Techniques?
White Hat Techniques are ethical and sustainable practices with an aim to legitimate approaches for building links. So your goal should be to avoid providers who participate in unethical tactics, as these can damage your website’s standing and lead to penalties from search engines.
Does the service provider use customized strategies?
Customized strategies are systematic approaches, designed to meet the specific needs, goals, and circumstances of an individual or organization.
A reputable link-building partner will create a customized approach that matches your company’s unique objectives and requirements. They should possess a deep understanding of your ideal customer, industry landscape, and competitive environment, and develop bespoke link-building initiatives that cater to these factors.
What are the reputation and reviews of the link building service provider?
Reputation is the overall perception or belief held by the public about an individual, organization, or product. It is formed through a combination of factors including past actions, behaviors, communication, and the overall experience of others.
Examine the provider’s standing within the industry and seek feedback or recommendations from their customers. Assess their online visibility, website, and social media accounts to gain an idea of their trustworthiness and level of professionalism.
Final takeaway
It’s important to understand that a legitimate link building strategy requires a long-term commitment. While some might promote quick, often spammy methods, these approaches can harm your site’s reputation.
Purchasing links that pass PageRank or engaging in random link exchanges are among the worst tactics and are unlikely to benefit your site’s performance. If maintaining your site’s visibility in the Google index is important to you, it’s best to steer clear of these practices.
