5 Types of Links that Help SEO and How to Get Them

Links are important for SEO and Digital Marketing, and they will continue to be.

This is how I start a post in which I want to tell you which types of links really work for ranking in 2018 and how you can get them.

And the truth is, despite the fact that great content generates natural backlinks over time, it is not an easy or quick strategy. In fact, it’s a vicious cycle: if your content is not ranked, it will have no visibility or traffic and will not be shared or linked. Therefore, it doesn’t matter if it’s great content if no one sees it, so avoid this linkbuilding option because it is slow and has no guarantees of success. It’s not that simple.

That said, it is clear that in addition to natural links, it is necessary to carry out a linkbuilding strategy involving different types of links. If you are new to this, it is important to know which links are useful for ranking and how to obtain them, so I recommend you keep reading.

Let’s get started!

Types of Links for Ranking in 2018

Contextual Links

These are the links that appear within the body of the text, and if the anchor is surrounded by keywords related to your business or the post you are linking to, that’s even better.

This type of link is very important. So much so that Google’s robot uses them to establish its ratings on relevance, popularity, and authority of each website.

What benefits will they bring you?

• Qualified traffic. Make sure the backlink is highlighted in a different color and is easily visible to users, increasing the likelihood that they will click and reach your page.
• Transfer of more link juice. These links are truly valuable for improving your domain authority and overall ranking in the SERPs, especially if the theme and content around the link are correctly selected based on your sector/product/service.
• Brand impression. If you obtain contextual links on authoritative industry websites or get a popular editor or influencer to mention you in one of their articles, you will increase conversions and trust regarding your product or service.
• Relevant content that can attract leads and conversions to your website.

How to get them:

• Create useful content that adds value and is not a “mishmash” of what has already been published on the topic (for example, the articles that are coming out about GDPR). Two types of content that work very well are:
  • Evergreen content that does not become obsolete over time. This way, you will continue to receive links for life if you manage to rank it in the top results on Google.
  • Practical content that showcases real experiences, yours or your business’s, and serves as a starting point for users interested in a specific topic or product.

I also recommend reading this guide to learn the foolproof phases for writing content that ranks in 2018.

• Build relationships with influencers and content editors who participate in communities or blogs related to your topic. You just need to take a look at the SEO sector and you will see the links that exist between consultants and how they link to each other and share various content. If you are an expert in your field, they will notice and share/link your content.

• Increase your web traffic. There are many strategies you can employ for this. One of them is Facebook Ads, but there are many others: guest posting, messages in thematic forums, social media, content aggregators, slideshares, infographics, blog comments, press releases, hosting a webinar, interacting with influencers…

Real Review Links

Links from positive reviews are one of the best online marketing opportunities. That’s why companies seek users willing to comment on their products/services in exchange for a commission.

Without a doubt, reviews are interesting from a sales perspective, but also from a linkbuilding perspective. Can you imagine a review that mentions your article, product, or service through a link? The click-through rate is insane in these cases.

So, what are the benefits of links in reviews?

• Attraction of potential customers.
• Strengthening your name, image, brand. Recognition. Reputation.
• Improving SEO. If you obtain many positive reviews from different websites, Google will take notice and reclassify you in its particular ranking.

How to get them:

• Contact bloggers and content editors willing to try your product or service and then publish a personal review.
• Create an affiliate program that attracts the aforementioned bloggers. This way, they will post on their websites speaking positively about your product in order to convert their readers into affiliates. They earn a commission, you gain visibility, links, and sales. All in one!
• If you have a business, focus on providing excellent customer service. Look at the case of Raiola Networks. They are essentially a reseller, but their quality service and quick problem resolution have made them popular in the hosting and server world in Spain with countless positive reviews from bloggers and influencers.

Social Media Links

I previously discussed brand positioning with social wheels and explained the benefits of ranking social media on the first page of Google.

But in addition to linking your page from popular social media profiles and ranking by creating a link wheel (some dofollow like about.me and others nofollow like Facebook and Twitter), it is possible to publish links on your wall or timeline.

What benefits does it have?

• Promotion of new and old content.
• Attraction of traffic.
• A great place to build relationships with your audience, which can result in more links, interaction, visibility, and traffic.
• Sending massive brand signals to users and search engines. The latter love to determine your authority based on social media and brand pages.

How to get them:

• Create an account on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, and/or those networks whose majority audience may be part of your target.
• Post useful content, both from your website and from others in the same theme.
• Interact with users who share your content.
• Place social sharing buttons on your website or blog and ensure they are in a visible location and properly configured.
• Promote each social network on other networks so that followers who already follow you on one are encouraged to follow you on the rest.
• Automatically post your new content using platforms like IFTTT or Botize.
• Promote your posts on Facebook Ads with a good title that generates clickbait and good targeting to enhance the strength of that article and increase your followers.

Forum and Community Links

This is where the madness unfolds. The eagerness to obtain dofollow links in forums and online communities is such that many of them are already heavily spammed.

In this sense, it is important to say to be careful and that if a thread or page already has a high volume of links, without any rigor regarding the theme, it is best not to place your link and look for another site.

Also, don’t obsess over dofollow links and incorporate nofollow links into your strategy because this will appear more natural in the eyes of Google. The 80/20 rule can be a good starting point, but don’t let numbers and percentages obsess you. Simply do it thoughtfully, commenting on thematic threads, adding value with your comment, and introducing your link naturally. Otherwise, a mass of forum users will label you as a spammer and your link will last less than a soap bubble.

What benefits do they have?

• Obtaining qualified web traffic interested in your theme, product, or service.
• Brand image.
• Link juice from a thread related to your theme in a forum in your sector.

How to get them?

• Registering on forums related to your theme and being an active user in resolving questions from new users who arrive and ask. This takes time, but it is necessary that you do not register, place a comment with a link, and never return because your comment will probably be deleted and will be of no use.
• Using footprints to find threads and online communities where you can comment with a link. For this, it’s better to read this post by Chuiso that guides you through the wonderful paths of footprints and this other one by Romuald Fons that talks about Google footprints.

You might also be interested in strengthening the authority of your backlinks. Click on the previous link to learn how to do it.

Press Links

Unancor sells links in newspapers, did you think I wouldn’t include this in this list of backlinks for ranking on Google?

Of course I did.

My positive experience with Unancor and press links compels me to include them in each of my linkbuilding strategies for my niches. And you should too.

What benefits do they have?

• Online newspaper domains are authoritative domains.
• They have a high volume of traffic. They will give you visibility.
• They make a high number of publications every day and remain updated in the eyes of Google.
• They are safe and reliable in the eyes of Google.
• They are cheap compared to other sponsored articles (and with the option of groups, even cheaper)
• Improvement of brand image and reputation of your business.
• More links from other news websites.

How to get them:

Well, through Unancor, did you doubt it?

Enter the platform, choose the media with the best metrics that fit your budget, and open new groups or join one that is already open. But be careful, choose groups related to your theme if you want to obtain a valuable link that truly serves your SEO.

You can get a press link starting from 8 euros. I recommend incorporating them into your linkbuilding strategy today.