To earn higher-quality links from your campaigns, follow the up-to-date strategies outlined in this comprehensive link-building checklist. As Google has revealed, links are among the top 3 ranking factors for organic search results, and they can significantly enhance a web page’s overall authority and credibility. In addition, building quality links to multiple pieces of content regularly can gradually boost domain-wide rankings over time. Unfortunately, link building went through some dark seasons not long ago when most of the links we created were dull and spammy, with no personalized emails, irrelevant content, and minimal brand mentions.

Gone are the days when link building focused solely on generating many links, regardless of their quality.

In recent times, the concept of link building has transformed with the introduction of new terms such as “link earning,” “link giving,” “link acquisition,” and “relationship building.”

Link earning involves:

• Fostering relationships within a community.
• Creating valuable content that people are eager to share.
• Focusing on meaningful engagement.

This renewed emphasis on quality and engagement has brought balance back to the link-building world.

However, it’s crucial to maintain a diverse link profile as well.

This is where the link building checklist comes into play.

The checklist summarizes all the topics covered in our comprehensive link-building guide, with tasks organized by week and month.

Don’t Overlook Technical SEO

Consider the following inquiries:

What are the consequences of building links to a poorly constructed website? Is it possible to achieve high search rankings through backlinks alone? While this may be a personal issue, many others likely share the same views of “nothing” and “no.”

Will Google prioritize your website with high-quality backlinks if it needs to be better designed? Or will Google favour your website, which is fast, mobile-friendly, and has a clean design, along with high-quality backlinks?

It’s crucial to perform technical SEO work before you begin to focus on acquiring backlinks. Alternatively, you can work on both simultaneously.

Furthermore, if your website is technically sound with a clean user interface, webmasters will likely link to it naturally.

The Anatomy of Link Building

Develop a convenient annual schedule that includes all the essential link-building activities.

These are the essential quarterly link-building tasks you should perform:

1. Backlink Audit Export a comprehensive list of your backlinks from Google Search Console and manually examine each site. Add irrelevant or low-quality sites to your disavow file.
2. Update Disavow List Review your disavow file every quarter, remove unnecessary sites, or add more to the list.
3. Competitor Backlink Analysis Pull backlink data for three primary competitors every quarter. Analyse the data and create a list of potential sites for your clients.

These are the essential monthly link-building tasks you should consider:

1. They pitch at least ten new sites per month and maintain ongoing editorial relationships. You can also email websites you’ve mentioned or linked to in your articles.
2. Monitoring Use tools like Google Alerts or mention tracking to monitor competitor mentions, brand mentions, and even CEO mentions.
3. Write original, high-quality guest blog posts to earn links. The goal is to establish ongoing content relationships with editors and maintaining a monthly contribution.
4. If you have great content, work with publishers to syndicate it. This approach can provide mutual benefits.
5. Writing testimonials and reviews for other brands can be a link-building opportunity. If you provide a testimonial, you could gain a link back to your website.
6. Foundational links can still be gained by submitting your site to directories, but monitoring your business information for accuracy is essential.
7. Affiliate marketing is another way to build links and grow your audience while earning revenue.
8. Broken link building is a tried-and-true method for quickly obtaining backlinks. Finding a broken link on a competitor’s site is like discovering your favourite food.
9. Quality content is still king, and using ego bait, controversy, or data to create valuable content that naturally generates backlinks is one of the best ways to use content to build links.
10. Charities and events can be fruitful source of backlinks. You can give your time or money to a charity and earn a valuable .org or .gov backlink. Co-sponsoring an event is another effective way to gain links, allowing you to collaborate with other sponsors for mutual benefits.

These are the essential weekly link-building tasks you should consider:

Week 1 & 2:

The link builder should conduct internal and competitor backlink audits during the first two weeks. This will help to identify topics for different verticals of link building.

Week 3:

In the third week, the link builder should brainstorm article titles for creating content. They should then send these article titles to the client for approval.

Week 4:

In the fourth week, the link builder should focus on prospecting new link opportunities, including identifying potential co-citation opportunities. They should also work on building out email templates and get the client’s approval. Finally, they should outreach to at least 50 high-quality prospects.

Week 5:

The fifth week is all about content creation. The link builder should start writing articles based on the approved article titles from the client. Once the content is complete, the client should review and support it.

If all of this seems too technical, don’t worry! We offer monthly SEO packages that can handle all of these tasks. Our experts can handle everything from technical SEO to link building, allowing you to focus on running your business.