11 Link Building Strategies That Actually Work in 2024: The Ultimate Guide

Building high-quality backlinks remains one of the most important ranking factors for SEO in 2024. But with Google’s ever-evolving algorithms and spam updates, link building strategies must adapt to stay effective.

In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about succeeding with link building in the year ahead. You’ll learn:

• What link building is and why it’s critical for rankings
• The top link building strategies proven to get results
• Actionable tips for executing a successful link building campaign
• Common link building mistakes to avoid
• Frequently asked questions about link building

Follow our advice in this guide, and you’ll be well on your way to dominating the SERPs with a powerful, white hat link profile in 2024.

The most effective link building strategies for 2024 include creating awesome content, guest blogging, participating in online communities, doing blogger outreach, fixing broken links, building infographics, and leveraging your own internal linking. Avoid manipulative tactics and focus on relationship-building to gain organic, high-quality backlinks. Track your progress with SEO tools.

What is Link Building and Why Does it Matter?

Link building refers to the process of acquiring hyperlinks from external websites which point back to pages on your own site.

These incoming links are called backlinks (or inbound links/inbound links). Backlinks serve as votes of confidence from other sites that signal search engines like Google should trust and rank your content highly in results pages.

In essence, link building helps you earn the links you need to rank higher in SERPs and gain more referral traffic.

Here’s why link building remains a crucial ingredient of any SEO strategy:

• Backlinks indicate authority and trust — The more high quality sites linking to you, the more it shows you’re a trusted source that provides value.
• More referral traffic — External links send visitors to your site. Studies show backlinks generate over half of website traffic.
• Higher rankings — Google factors backlinks into its ranking algorithm. More links = higher SERP rankings.
• Brand visibility — Links help get your pages indexed faster and spread brand awareness.
• Sends ranking signals — Links pass authority, relevance, trust, etc. to your site which Google digests.

As you can see, backlinks impact several critical SEO factors. While other factors also matter, most SEO experts agree you can’t rank highly without a healthy backlink profile.

That’s why regularly investing time into link building remains a smart move in 2024.

Backlink Basics: Types of Links in SEO

Before executing a link building campaign, it helps to understand the common types of links you’ll encounter.

Backlinks

A backlink (or inbound link) is any link from an external site pointing back to a page on your website. Backlinks are votes of confidence in your content.

Internal Links

Internal links point from one page to another within your own site. For example, linking from your blog to a services page.

Dofollow Links

A “dofollow” link passes authority and influence to your site. Search engines crawl and index dofollow links, making them the best for SEO.

Nofollow Links

Search engines ignore “nofollow” links for ranking purposes. But they still hold value for branding and traffic.

Editorial Links

Editorial links come from genuine mentions of your brand on other sites. These are often the most valuable links.

Sponsored Links

Sponsored or paid links come from paid advertising, guest posts disclosed as sponsored, etc. They help with branding but hold little SEO value.

Referring Domains

This term refers to the number of unique domains linking to your site. One site linking five times still counts as one domain.

Broken Links

These links result in 404 errors because the source was removed. You can seek out and claim broken links as an opportunity.

Understanding the lingo helps inform your link building decisions. With the basics covered, let’s explore proven link building strategies for 2024.

11 Link Building Strategies That Work in 2024

Here are this year’s most effective white hat link building tactics to earn quality backlinks:

1. Create Linkable Asset Content

Without great content, link building is hopeless. So regularly create blog posts, guides, tools, and resources centered around topics your audience cares about.

Aim for long-form, in-depth content like:

• Ultimate guides
• Comprehensive case studies
• Data-driven reports and surveys
• Listicles and roundups
• Infographics
• Quizzes, calculators, interactive tools
• Interviews and guest contributor posts

Make assets visual and interactive whenever possible. Include stats, data, multimedia, and images. Promote your content through email, social media, and outreach to tempt others to link to it.

2. Guest Post on Niche Websites

One of the most tried and true link building methods is guest posting on authority sites in your industry.

Start by identifying websites that:

• Relate closely to your niche
• Attract your target audience
• Have a domain authority of 50+
• Accept and actively publish guest contributions

Then reach out and pitch your idea for an awesome guest post. Always provide value for their audience over a blatant self-promotion piece. Aim to secure a dofollow link back to your site within the bio or content.

Guest posts work because site owners are often happy to swap content and links. Just ensure your outreach is personalized and the post aligns closely with their brand.

3. Participate in Online Communities

From Reddit and Quora to industry forums and Facebook Groups, there are endless online communities packed with your target audience. Take time to build your reputation in them.

• Leave thoughtful comments and helpful responses to questions.
• Share insights without constantly promoting your product.
• Post valuable content and images if allowed.
• Build relationships and become a respected member.

Many online communities allow link sharing. Where appropriate, link internally to your content library if it adds value for readers. This community link building generates referral traffic and helps search bots crawl new pages.

4. Conduct Blogger Outreach

Reaching out directly to bloggers and site owners in your space is an effective, but time-intensive opportunity.

Start by compiling a list of sites, bloggers, and influencers who cover topics relevant to yours. Visit and engage with their content without spamming.

Then craft personalized emails pitching relevant content ideas, or new articles and assets of yours they may want to reference or link to in future posts. Follow up politely.

The goal is building relationships that earn editorial links down the road. Even a quick brand mention by an authority helps. Just keep emails short, non-salesy, and specific to their brand.

5. Fix Broken Backlinks

Fixing broken links to your site shows initiative. Here’s how it works:

• Find sites linking to old or removed pages using Linkody and other backlink checkers.
• Reach out kindly notifying them of the broken link, apologize, and offer relevant content of yours to replace it.

Most will happily update the link, giving you a renewed backlink. For bonus points, you can also seek out broken links on authority pages linking to competitor sites. Offer to replace it with your content instead.

6. Build Link-Worthy Infographics

Eye-catching infographics still draw tons of links when shared on visual platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook.

The key is creating an infographic with unique data or insights not found elsewhere. Then include your branding and links back to your site.

Promote your infographic through social media contests and awareness campaigns to generate links. Just ensure it provides real value vs. only promotional material.

7. Leverage Internal Link Building

Internal link building is a major ranking factor that’s often overlooked. Yet it’s one of the easiest link building tactics to enact.

Audit your internal site structure and identify pages, posts, or assets that make sense to link internally to one another based on topic relevance.

For example, you may link:

• From a blog post to a related service page
• From product pages to related buying guides and blog content
• Across navigation menus and site footers

This strengthens the topical relevance between your content while passing authority across your site.

8. Build Links Through Online PR

Online press releases still work to build quick links and exposure. The key is distribution. Post releases on paid wire services like PRWeb to get syndicated across news aggregators.

This seeds initial links. But follow up by pitching your story individually to relevant online media outlets.

Securing press coverage on a popular site within your industry earns a high-value editorial link. Just make sure your story is genuinely newsworthy vs. a thinly-veiled sales pitch.

9. Request Testimonials

Positive brand mentions in client testimonials present linkable opportunities.

Proactively ask happy clients for a testimonial. Then request they include a natural link back to a relevant page like your services or about us page within their words.

For example:

“[Company] exceeded expectations with their incredible customer service. Check them out at www.company.com for more on their [services].”

Most brands are happy to oblige. Just make sure links within testimonials are nofollowed to avoid looking overly self-promotional.

10. Sponsor Events or Webinars

Event sponsorship opens solid link building doors. As a sponsor or contributor, negotiate getting your company name and a link in the event’s promotion across their site, emails and social media.

Look for both local and online events like webinars within your niche. Many accept sponsors and provide special perks and promotion.

11. Refresh Old Content

Don’t underestimate the value of refreshing your own content to build links.

Take well-performing posts that are more than a year old. Then give them an updated headline, new intro paragraph, extra visuals, and finer points that make the content timely again.

Promote the refreshed content on social media and to your email list. The improved usefulness has a good chance of attracting new links and shares.

How to Execute a Link Building Campaign in 2024

With the tactics covered, here is a step-by-step process to execute an effective link building campaign:

Set Link Building Goals

Define specific numeric goals for your campaign, like:

• Earning links from 20 new referring domains
• Achieving 50+ new backlinks in 6 months
• Increasing domain authority by 5 points

Setting benchmarks makes it easier to track progress.

Find Link Prospects

Use tools like BuzzSumo, Ahrefs, and SEMrush to research competitors’ backlink profiles and identify websites linking to them.

Compile a spreadsheet of domain prospects within your niche that make sense to pitch or engage with. Prioritize by authority and relevance.

Audit Your Existing Links

Conduct an audit of your current link profile. Document which pages are already ranking for target keywords and have the most referral traffic.

Identify low-quality or risky links to disavow. Uncover broken backlink opportunities to reach out and reclaim.

Create Valuable Linkable Assets

Brainstorm ideas for long-form guides, data studies, tools, and other compelling content assets centered around searcher intent and topics gaining interest.

Create content worth pitching and sharing to earn links. Optimize posts for SEO including target keywords.

Promote Assets & Outreach for Links

Actively promote new assets through social media, email lists, PR outreach, and direct engagement with brands identified as prospects. Make genuine asks for links where appropriate.

Diversify Link Types

Work to build a diverse link profile with editorial links from mentions, guest posts, links from communities and profiles, and branded anchor text links where possible. Don’t overdo exact match anchor text links.

Disavow Toxic Links

If you spot sketchy links, over-optimized anchor text links, or paid links, use Google Disavow to protect your site from algorithm penalties. Keep link profiles looking as organic as possible.

Track Link Building Results

Use tools like SEMrush, Moz, and Google Analytics to monitor your ongoing domain authority, rankings for target keywords, and number of referring domains. Tweak your campaign as needed.

Common Link Building Mistakes to Avoid

When executing link building campaigns, there are also some common mistakes that can do more harm than good:

• Buying links — Purchasing backlinks is frowned upon by Google and risks harming your site. Avoid any paid link offers.
• Link spamming — Never spam sites with automated, poorly-crafted link requests. This annoys site owners.
• Over-optimizing anchor text — Avoid overusing exact-match anchor text links (e.g. “best desk chairs”). This looks manipulative.
• Paying for posts — Guest posts that involve paying for link placement often get tagged nofollow and offer low value.
• Irrelevant links — Linking content together based solely on keywords without contextual relevance raises red flags. Don’t force it.
• Aggressive outreach — Pitching site owners cold with generic templates annoys them and is ineffective. Personalize all link requests.
• Violating guidelines — Always check a site’s policies before requesting a link. Don’t risk penalties.

Success comes down to staying patient, creating truly awesome content, networking and forging real relationships vs. looking for quick wins or link schemes.

Conclusion

An effective link building strategy requires using inbound links to increase website authority and search rankings. By creating valuable assets, securing guest posts, building community engagement, conducting blogger outreach, and addressing broken/internal links your website will attract more high-quality referral traffic in 2024. Avoid manipulative link tactics at all costs.

What link building strategies have you found most effective? What tips do you have for fellow site owners? Let me know in the comments below!

Link Building FAQs

Still have questions about executing an effective link building campaign? Here are answers to some frequently asked questions:

What is link building?

Link building is the process of acquiring backlinks — links from external sites pointing back to pages on your own website. These backlinks act as votes of confidence to search engines that your content offers value to readers.

Why is link building important for SEO?

Link building is important because backlinks have a direct influence on search engine optimization. The quantity and quality of external sites linking to you signals authority and trust. More backlinks lead to better rankings, referral traffic, and overall visibility.

How do you do link building?

Successful link building relies on creating compelling content assets like blog posts, tools, and resources that websites in your industry want to link to. You can also build links via guest posting, participating in online communities, doing blogger outreach, fixing broken links, leveraging PR, and more.

What are the different types of links in SEO?

The main types of links in SEO include backlinks (external sites linking to yours), internal links within your own site, editorial links, sponsored links, referring domains, dofollow/nofollow links, broken links and redirected links. Understanding the lingo helps inform link building.

How many backlinks per month is good?

There is no perfect number for how many backlinks to build each month. Aiming for 2–3 new high-quality editorial backlinks per month from authority domains related to your niche is an achievable and sustainable goal for steadily growing your website’s authority and organic visibility.

Can you have too many backlinks?

You can have too many backlinks if they are poor quality, irrelevant to your industry, use overly optimized anchor text, or otherwise appear spammy or manipulative. Focus on building links naturally from trustworthy sites related to your niche. Quality over quantity.

Is guest posting still good for SEO?

Yes, guest posting remains an effective link building tactic when done properly. By contributing high-value guest posts to authority sites in your niche, you can include natural links back to your website, earning referral traffic from new audiences.

How do you build quality backlinks?

You can build quality backlinks by consistently creating awesome content that sites want to link to, guest posting for niche websites, participating in online communities and forums, conducting smart blogger outreach, building internal links, and doing PR outreach. Avoid manipulative tactics.

What are the best link building strategies for SEO?

The most effective strategies focus on creating outstanding content, guest posting, online PR, participating in communities, fixing broken links, internal linking, and direct blogger outreach. All provide natural ways to build authoritative backlinks.

How many links per month should I build?

There is no magic number for how many links to build monthly. Focus on the authority and relevance of new links vs. chasing a high quantity. Aiming for 2–3 new editorial links per month from authority domains in your niche is a good steady goal.

How long does it take for link building to impact SEO?

It can take 1–3 months before new backlinks start positively impacting your search rankings and traffic. Link velocity and consistency over time are what matters most. Don’t expect overnight results.

Can too many backlinks hurt your SEO?

Yes, poor quality and irrelevant links can potentially hurt your rankings. The key is keeping link profiles looking natural via editorial links and limiting obvious paid links or over-optimized anchor text links. Quality over quantity.

Should I disavow all bad backlinks?

Disavowing all spam links is usually not needed unless you have reason to believe they are harming rankings. Tools like Linkody help identify risky backlinks to selectively disavow only as needed.

Is guest posting still effective for link building?

Guest posting remains a smart link building tactic for placing natural dofollow links pointing to your site. Just ensure your outreach is personalized and the post provides real value to readers vs. blatant ads.