Written by: Stephanie Long, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
To stay ahead of your competitors in 2024, you’ll need to develop a solid SEO backlink strategy. With Google’s ever-evolving algorithm changes and spam updates, your backlink strategy needs to evolve to stay current. Discover the secrets to dominating Google in 2024 with my expert advice and tips.
Why does link-building matter?
Search engine ranking
Search engines like Google use algorithms to determine the relevance and authority of a website. Backlinks are a key factor in these algorithms. Websites with a higher number of quality backlinks are often considered more authoritative and are likely to rank higher in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).
Authority and credibility
Backlinks from reputable and authoritative websites act as an endorsement of your content. They contribute to building your website's authority and credibility in your industry.
Increased visibility
Quality backlinks can drive organic traffic to your website. When your site is linked from other relevant and authoritative sites, it shows Google your website is valuable therefore, it increases the chances of users discovering and clicking on your website because of Google ranking it higher in the SERP.
Referral traffic
Backlinks not only impact search engine rankings, but also are direct referral sources to your website. Users who click on these links are usually high-quality visitors interested in your content.
Brand exposure
Building backlinks can lead to increased brand exposure. When your website is linked from various high-quality sources that have a good Domain Authority (DA), it enhances your brand's visibility to your target audience.
Indexing and crawling
Search engine bots, also known as web crawlers or spiders, scan websites to discover and analyze content on website pages. Quality backlinks can help search engines index your content more efficiently, ensuring that your site's pages are included in search results.
Industry relevance
Backlinks from websites within your industry are more valuable than unrelated links. They indicate to search engines that your content is relevant and trustworthy due to having links on these websites that link back to your website.
Link-building activities
1. Guest blogging
Guest blogging is one of the most effective ways to build backlinks in 2024. With a guest post, you’ll write an article for a blog in your industry that will link back to your site. When looking for websites to be a guest post on, look for ones that have a high DA for better visibility. When you’re writing the guest post, be sure you are providing value to the audience and not just trying to sell your products or services.
2. Social media links
Social media links are a great way to generate traffic to your website while also being an easy way to get backlinks to your website. To maximize the use of social media links, ensure that your content is shareable and keep your followers engaged and active through commenting, replying, and sharing.
3. Skyscraper technique
The skyscraper technique is still a great link building strategy in 2024. The skyscraper technique is about finding authoritative websites in your niche and creating better content than other guest bloggers have written. After creating high-quality content, ask these websites to link to your page instead of the page they are currently linking to. This can be a networking technique as well to show your thought leadership in your industry.
4. Participate in online communities
Actively participating in online communities can be a great way of increasing your website's visibility and building your backlinks if people find your content to be helpful. You can join online communities such as forums like Reddit and Quora, social media groups, and other industry-related associations to engage with other members. By sharing your expertise and knowledge within your niche, you can attract backlinks to your website organically.
5. Broken link building
Broken link building is a powerful backlink strategy. It involves finding broken links on other websites and reaching out to the website to offer a solution that will replace the dead link with a link to your website. You can use tools like Ahrefs Backlink Checker to find broken links.
6. Monitor your competitors
Keeping tabs on your competitors and their backlinks is a great strategy for improving your own backlink strategy. You can identify your competitors' backlink sources with various free online tools such as Ahrefs, Semrush, and Moz. Analyzing your competitors' backlinks can help you identify new potential backlink sources and see what is working best within your industry.
7. Podcast guest
Going on podcasts is a great strategy for link building, as it provides an opportunity to reach new audiences, build relationships with podcasters, and earn backlinks. Here's how you can leverage podcast appearances for effective link-building.
Shareable website content
Another way to help people link to content on your website is to create content that is easy to share and other content websites can reference. A list of content ideas to create for your website is:
Guides
Videos
Case studies
Reports
Surveys
Listicles
Infographics
Quizzes
Interactive tools
Media
Interviews
Link building is still an essential part of how Google determines your website's visibility and position in search results. In 2024, anybody who wants to stay competitive must come up with innovative and solid link-building strategies. Follow SEO trends and ensure that your website is optimized for search engines and that your content is valuable and relevant to your target audience. Try out some (or all) of these link-building strategies this year to maximize the visibility of your website on search results.
Stephanie Long, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
As an SEO expert, consultant, and trainer, Stephanie Long works with business owners to address their SEO needs whether that be auditing and implementation, team training, or consultation on how SEO can help grow their organic traffic. After spending over a decade working in marketing, Stephanie saw a need for a company that only specializes in SEO, so she founded Mrs. SEO. Stephanie loves helping businesses optimize their websites for search engines, ensuring maximum visibility and organic traffic.
