Top 4 Link Building Mistakes To Avoid In 2022

Link building campaigns not meeting your goals?

Feel like your efforts have become a kind of SEO groundhog day? You know, the same thing repeatedly with little to no new results?

Break the cycle of bad link building.

Discover which mistakes you might be making and how to fix them.

On February 2, I moderated a sponsored webinar presented by Michael Johnson, Partnerships Development Manager at Page One Power.

Johnson demonstrated how to identify and correct link building mistakes and provided campaign tips for helping you rank higher and drive more traffic.

Here is a quick summary of the webinar.

To access the entire presentation, complete the form.

Issues In Link Building

Time and again, companies of all sizes face the same link building issues.

They consistently dedicate time, energy, and resources. They follow the same processes, yet they get the same lackluster results.

So what are they doing wrong?

Here are the most common link building mistakes:

1. Not looking at on-page SEO & search intent first.
2. Not creating linkable content.
3. Performing bad outreach.
4. Setting poor expectations.

[Get The Steps To Overcome These Mistakes] Instantly access this webinar →

Mistake 1 – Not Looking At On-Page SEO & Search Intent First

Looking at and repairing on-page SEO and search intent issues is a must before you start building links.

How to fix this mistake:

In the webinar recap, Johnson gives a great example of what Paycom.com did when they could not rank on page one for the keyword “payroll:”

• Make sure your target keyword is referenced on your page so that Google knows what you’re all about.
• Look at who is currently ranking, do some competitor and industry research, and get some suggestions on improving on-page SEO.
• Show that you’re an expert on your subject matter through a robust content strategy.

[Steps Explained] Instantly access this webinar →

Mistake 2 – Not Creating Linkable Content

Organic link building is about leveraging relationships and finding a common interest within your relationship’s audience.

Linkable content is one way to do that.

How to create linkable content:

Step 1: Look at competitor content.

Use a tool like Ahrefs to find highly-linkable content ideas.

Check out their “Best Pages by Links,” which helps you see what pages on your competitors’ websites have the most links right now.

Ask yourself, why does the competitor’s most linked content stand out?

• Does it have informational/educational value?
• What is the piece’s defined audience?
• Is there an established link authority?

Step 2: Confirm link opportunity.

Before you start creating new content, make sure that there are great sites that may want to link back to it.

• Use Boolean operators.
  • Small business inurl: links.
  • Entrepreneur inurl: links.
• Look at a lot of pages.
• Check if the page links to external sites and similar resources.

[Learn How To Use These & Confirm Link Opportunity] Instantly access this on-demand webinar →

Step 3: Look for similar resources you want to pitch and see who’s linking to them.

Now, look for and make note of additional backlink opportunities by researching the profiles of resources that are similar to the content you’re planning to create.

Building a robust list of source links that you can work from and pages you can try to get links for will prepare you for your future outreach step.

Mistake 3 – Performing Bad Outreach

Bad outreach will derail your link building campaign and ensure you’re ignored or intentionally avoided.

[See examples of good and bad outreach] Instantly access this webinar →

How To Send Good Outreach Emails:

• In Subject Lines:

• • Be direct: subject lines should be short, simple, and straightforward.
  • Be specific: include the correct details.
  • Be intentional: include the desired outcome.
  • Be personable: if you wouldn’t say it in person, don’t say it.
  • Be editorial: Use proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

• In The Email Body:

• • Get to the point.
  • Explain the value to them and their audience.
  • Show. Don’t tell.
  • Avoid sales or vague language.

• In Follow-Ups:

• • Understand that web admins are busy, and they get a lot of emails.
  • Send three emails.
  • Call back to previous emails.

Mistake 4 – Poor Expectations

Everybody wants a scalable link building campaign that generates quality, organic links.

Usually, this means linking to promotional transactional pages at the mid and bottom of the funnel. This limits your link building campaign from the onset. You can’t have everything.

Therefore, one of the first things you need to do is set expectations.

So, here are the different configurations you can reliably create:

Page One Power, February 2022

[Learn How To Use This Chart] Instantly access this on-demand webinar →

Set your organization’s expectations around why you want to build links to these kinds of pages and how these pages can help accomplish your overall goals as an organization.

Rise through internal linking by creating various linkable assets and internally link to the core transactional pages you want to influence.

By doing so, you can get organic, quality links at scale and benefit from having more successful campaigns.

Key Takeaways

• Sometimes links are not the problem.
• Not having linkable content is a huge mistake.
• Poor outreach will either get you ignored or avoided.
• Have realistic expectations about your link building campaign.

[Slides] Top 4 Link Building Mistakes To Avoid In 2022

Here is the presentation:

Image Credits

Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal