Back in the early days of search engine optimization (SEO), link building was one of the best ways to grow your online presence. But unfortunately, poor practices led to several problems. Google has become increasingly strict on websites that perform link building in a traditional sense, and financial penalties are at an all-time high.
But despite this, link building is still a crucial aspect of any iGaming affiliate business that wants to achieve serious growth. Knowing how to do it well is a challenge, but it’s far from impossible in this article, we’ll give you a selection of ways that you can link build without harming your business.
Press Releases
It’s easy to think that nobody reads press releases these days, and that this particular form of promotion is dead. However, that is far from the truth; when done correctly, press releases are an excellent way to get more news companies to cover your content. On top of that, you can reach a bigger audience.
When writing a press release, make sure that you only distribute it to companies who might genuinely be interested. The scattergun approach is long outdated, and it’s also annoying; if you get a response, it’ll probably be someone asking to remove them from your mailing list.
Thought Leadership Articles
If you’ve run your affiliate site for a while, you probably have a good level of knowledge in your industry. People always want to listen to authorities, and publishing thought leadership articles are a fantastic way to link build without causing problems.
When looking at places to publish thought leadership articles, start with the big hitters in your industry. From there, you can look at others with good levels of traffic. You might need to pay for spots, but the return on investment is good if you’re smart with how you do things.
When thinking about thought leadership articles, industry trends are a good place to start.
Industry Reports
Regardless of the field you operate in, you’ll probably see in-depth industry reports get frequently released. These could be on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis. The aim of these is to highlight existing trends in the sector, along with providing a look-ahead to what can be expected in the months and years ahead.
If you want to link build the right way, industry reports are an excellent place to start. You can provide analysis on these trends, receiving a link back to your website in the process. And if you see a gap in the market, you can always create your own from scratch.
Responding to Journalist Requests
If you’ve ignored journalist requests for your affiliate journey so far, you might want to rethink that. If you look closely, you’ll find plenty of hidden opportunities to successfully link build.
Journalists that work for some of the top publications are excellent people to have in your network. Besides running stories that relate to your business, you might be able to ask them for a link back to your site – which can potentially grow your audience.
When responding to journalist requests, you’ll want to ensure that you’re selective. If one doesn’t meet your needs, you should still say no.
Disavowing Bad Links
Part of link building is about connecting with others, but that’s not the only thing to keep in mind. You should also remember that while some websites linking back to your website are welcomed, others are better off avoiding.
If you notice that a non-credible website links to your website, it could have a knock-on effect. You want to remain vigilant and ensure that you’re disavowing bad links as and when they occur. You can do so by asking for the site owner to get rid of them, along with disavowing them on Google.
Link Building Isn’t Dead, But You Need to be Smarter With It
Link building is a great way to build relationships and grow the credibility of your website, but you should remove all previous thoughts related to old practices. These simply do not work anymore, and Google will likely punish you quite heavily for adopting them. Instead, it’s time to think about the new generation of link building.
When link building, you need to try and remain as natural as possible. If you create interesting content, you will naturally have more people linking to your website. So, focus on that; you can use the tips in this article as a supplement.
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