Whenever SEOs talk about link building, the first thing they ask for is content because these two always complement each other.
Now the question is “what to do if you don’t have high-quality content? Should you stop working on link building?” Is it possible to build links without quality content?
Before that, let’s first understand why would a site link to yours? There are a number of reasons such as existing relation, ongoing discussions about your products or services, personal benefits to another site and similarity in the community events you both are involved in. Of course, there are a number of other reasons as well, but these are a few reasons you should focus when you want to build links without creating content.
Link building is all about making relationship and connections by offering value to the other site. To get meaningful links, you just need to ensure that your link provides value to the website as well as its audience. So instead of just content, you should focus on creating value and this can be done in various other ways as well. Here are 5 examples to build links without content.
- Mention
You can easily security quality links with simple mentions. Your business, brand, products or services need to be mentioned in the online market to stay in the minds of the people through discussions. Apart from brand mentions, you can also focus on other options including:
- Prominent employees
- Proprietary images
- Popular products
- Sponsored events
- Company complexes
- Expert interviews
- Taglines and slogans
- Key business activities like mergers, IPO etc.
If anyone is mentioning your brand’s name in their online discussions, it is a great opportunity for you to secure link. To get mentioned in upcoming or ongoing events, discussion or media coverage, you don’t even need fresh content.
- Directories
Directories have been there even before the invention of search engines. Though the use of directories has reduced due to search engines, having you site linked on a relevant directory can still benefit your business by getting your referral traffic.
Over the years, marketers have abused directories by spamming them for links. So while working on the directories for link building, you need to evaluate them closely as you cannot pursue every directory link. Find a relevant directory and check it for traffic, sites listed, topical focus and authority metrics to ensure that it is a beneficial link source for your business.
- Partnership
Besides link opportunities, meaningful partnerships have various other benefits including cooperative marketing, product collaboration, and referral business. Though the widely used technique for a new partnership in the online market is to co-author the content, you can still find link opportunities without creating content through your existing relationships.
Recognizing offline partnerships through links in the online market is a great opportunity to grow your business. Include links pointing back to your site on the sites where your company is part of a professional association.
- Testimonials
We all know the value and importance of testimonials to win customer trust, but you will be surprised to know that these are also a great source of link building. Yes, here you have to leverage the existing relationships to the source link.
To build links through testimonials, you need to write a feedback on the website of a company whose services or products you have used for your business. You can ask the company whether they have a section for testimonials on their website and write your experience with a link.
- Community Engagement
There are companies that devote ample time and resources to help the communities they are working in as it opens doors for a number of brand-building activities. One of the biggest benefits of community engagement is link building that is often overlooked.
You can represent your offline relationship and activities in the online world through the link. Make sure the links are the outcome of the good work you have done for the community. To gain maximum benefit, engage in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities with an intention to support the community not to gain links as doing it just for your personal benefit is a wrong mindset. If you are working for the society with a good intention, the beneficiaries will automatically help you without needing you to ask for the favor.
For more effective content marketing read this 5 Content Creation Strategies to Expand It’s Reach
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