Broken Link Building Strategies for New Websites: A Beginner’s Guide
December 9, 2024What is Link Building and Why Does It Matter for SEO?
December 29, 2024Introduction
Building backlinks can be a challenging process for any website, but it’s particularly difficult for new websites that lack preexisting traffic, connections, or domain authority. This challenge is one of the reasons why a staggering 95% of websites on the internet don’t have any backlinks. Despite this, backlinks remain a crucial ranking factor for Google, meaning that even a few high-quality backlinks can significantly improve your site’s search engine rankings. We cover more reasons why backlink building is a key aspect of SEO for your new website in our article here.
In a previous post, we explored the most effective ways to build backlinks for new websites. This time, we’ll focus on speed: the fastest ways to get backlinks for a new website. If you’re eager to quickly establish your site’s online presence, this guide is for you. And for those seeking the quickest, most hassle-free solution, check out our link building services, where we handle the entire process for you, delivering high-quality backlinks to boost your rankings.
Let’s dive into the strategies!
The Fastest Ways to Get Backlinks for a New Website: Key Takeaways
The fastest backlink building strategies are:
- Directory Submissions: Listing your website in online directories provides a quick and efficient way to secure foundational backlinks. Start with high-authority general directories and then focus on niche-specific ones to ensure relevance and potential referral traffic.
- Infographic Submissions: Creating and sharing high-quality, visually engaging infographics can lead to backlinks from infographic directories, social media platforms, and niche blogs. Infographics are evergreen content that can attract links over time.
- Broken Link Building: This strategy involves finding broken links on other websites and offering your content as a replacement. It’s a mutually beneficial approach that improves the target site’s functionality while providing you with high-quality backlinks.
- Resource Page Link Building: Resource pages curate valuable content for specific niches. By creating useful and relevant resources, you can pitch your content for inclusion on these pages, gaining trust and backlinks.
- Link Exchanges: Building reciprocal links, especially through strategic ABC exchanges, can be an effective way to secure backlinks. Developing relationships with other site owners can also lead to future collaborations.
The Challenge
New website owners face a unique set of challenges when it comes to backlink building. Many commonly recommended methods are time-intensive and laborious, requiring significant effort before yielding results. These challenges include:
- Limited Online Presence: With no established authority or audience, it’s harder for new websites to attract organic backlinks. Without an existing reputation, convincing other sites to link to yours can be a slow process.
- Lack of Connections: Established websites often have a network of industry contacts they can leverage, while new websites must start from scratch. Building meaningful relationships takes time and effort.
- Time Constraints: Juggling the responsibilities of running a new website, creating content, and focusing on growth can be overwhelming. Adding time-intensive backlink strategies to this workload can feel unmanageable.
To address these hurdles, targeted strategies that balance efficiency and effectiveness are necessary. The following methods are designed to help new website owners overcome these challenges and achieve results quickly.
1. Directory Submissions
Directory submissions remain one of the most straightforward and quick methods to obtain backlinks. Listing your website in online directories—both general and niche-specific—helps establish a foundational layer of backlinks while signalling your site’s relevance and legitimacy to search engines.
Why It’s Effective
Directories are often the go-to option for new websites because they:
- Provide a baseline of backlinks to kickstart your link-building efforts.
- Help search engines understand your website’s niche and relevance.
- Offer potential referral traffic from people using these directories.
While directory links may not have the same weight as editorial backlinks, they establish the credibility and visibility needed for further growth.
Steps for Successful Directory Submissions
- Research Relevant Directories: Use search engines to find directories relevant to your niche or industry. For example, terms like “[fitness] directory submission” or “[fitness] business directory” can uncover valuable opportunities.
- Look for high-authority directories, as these provide more SEO value.
- Check reviews or SEO forums to ensure the directories are reputable.
- Prepare Submission Details: Before submitting, gather the necessary information about your website, such as:
- Business name and description.
- Website URL and contact details.
- Keywords or categories relevant to your industry.
- Submit Strategically: Start with general directories such as Yelp, Yellow Pages, or Better Business Bureau, then focus on niche-specific directories. Ensure your listing is accurate and optimized for your target audience.
- Track and Follow Up: Use a spreadsheet to track submissions, approval status, and the directory’s domain authority. Follow up if your submission hasn’t been approved after a reasonable time.
Example Use Case
Consider a fitness blog. Submitting to general directories like Yelp and fitness-specific ones like Healthgrades can ensure backlinks while potentially driving referral traffic from health-conscious users.
Directory submissions may not yield immediate results in terms of rankings, but they’re crucial for building a solid foundation upon which more advanced strategies can be implemented.
2. Infographic Submissions
Infographics are a powerful tool for generating backlinks because they present information in a visually engaging and easily shareable format. They combine the appeal of data and design, making them irresistible to audiences and websites alike.
How to Create Effective Infographics
Creating a successful infographic involves:
- Identifying Data and Trends: Use industry reports, surveys, or original research to gather compelling data. The more unique and relevant your data, the more likely it is to attract attention.
- Crafting a Compelling Narrative: Ensure the data tells a cohesive story. Break complex information into digestible sections that are easy to understand.
- Designing for Impact: Utilize design tools like Canva, Piktochart, or Adobe Illustrator. Focus on:
- Clear headings and concise text.
- A visually appealing color scheme.
- Branding elements like your logo and website URL.
Where to Submit Infographics
To maximize reach, submit your infographics to specialized directories, such as:
- Infographic Journal: Offers a wide audience for diverse topics.
- Cool Infographics: Focuses on well-designed and informative visuals.
- Daily Infographic: Features trending and niche infographics.
These directories help spread your content to a broader audience, increasing the likelihood of backlinks.
Amplifying Your Reach
Beyond directories, share your infographics on visual-centric platforms like Pinterest and Instagram. Reach out to industry blogs, offering them the infographic as a resource they can embed in their own articles. This dual approach ensures both immediate visibility and long-term backlink opportunities.
Infographics also have the advantage of being evergreen content. As long as the data remains relevant, they can continue attracting shares and backlinks over time.
4. Broken Link Building
Broken link building is a mutually beneficial strategy where you identify broken links on other websites and offer your content as a replacement. This strategy not only helps you gain high-quality backlinks but also provides value to the website owner by improving their site’s functionality.
Steps to Implement Broken Link Building
- Finding Broken Links: Use tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Dr Link Checker Broken Link Checker to scan websites in your niche for broken links. Pay attention to sites with high domain authority for the best potential returns. You will be surprised how many broken links; even very well-maintained sites can have!
- Analyzing the Context: Examine the content that the broken link originally pointed to. Understanding its purpose will help you craft or repurpose content that seamlessly fills the gap. You can get the clues as to what the content was from the context of the post the link was placed on, or alternatively you can try finding the broken link using the Wayback Machine to see what the actual content was in the past.
- Creating Replacement Content: If you don’t already have relevant content, develop a high-quality page that addresses the topic. This step ensures your suggestion is genuinely valuable. Make sure the content is truly great to increase the chance of a link. Moreover, you can pitch the same content to multiple websites, by running backlink checker over the broken link to see all the other sites linking to it.
- Outreach and Follow-Up: Contact the website owner with a polite and professional email. Highlight the broken link, explain its negative impact, and suggest your content as a replacement. Following up increases the chances of a response.
Maximizing Results
Expand your reach by identifying other websites linking to the broken page. Use a backlink checker to find these sites and pitch your replacement content to them as well. This tactic can turn one opportunity into multiple backlinks.
Also, look out for broken links where entire page is down. If the broken page is closely related to your niche, run the whole site through backlink checker and you may find many more broken link building opportunities!
To find out more tips about broken link building check out our post specifically covering broken link building strategies for new websites.
5. Resource Page Link Building
Resource pages compile links to tools, guides, and other valuable content for their audience. These pages are often well-curated and attract a high level of trust from search engines, making them an excellent source of backlinks.
How to Identify Resource Pages
Search for resource pages by using specific queries, such as:
- Niche inurl:resources
- Niche “best resources”
- Niche “useful resources”
- Niche intitle:links
- Niche “helpful links”
Crafting Your Pitch
To get your content featured:
- Personalize your email by addressing the recipient by name and referencing their specific resource page.
- Clearly explain how your content aligns with their audience’s needs.
- Emphasize the value your resource adds, whether it’s unique data, actionable insights, or user-friendly tools.
- If you can include original data in the content, or if the content is a useful tool, then you have far higher chances of getting featured.
By combining resource page link building with other strategies like broken link building, you can maximize your chances of success. For example, if you find a broken link on a resource page, this is a golden opportunity with a very high chance of leading to a link for you!
6. Link Exchanges
Link exchanges involve reciprocal agreements between websites to link to each other. When done strategically, such as through ABC exchanges (involving three sites), they can be an effective way to build backlinks.
Link exchanges rely on a mutual value proposition: you link to another website, and they link back to yours. Because both parties benefit, success rates can be relatively high. Website owners see a clear incentive—better SEO, brand exposure, and potential referral traffic—making them more open to collaboration.
How to Approach Link Exchanges
To set up a successful link exchange look for sites in closely related niches, ensuring the backlink exchange remains relevant. There are a few methods to discover potential partners:
- Social Media Groups:
Join Facebook or LinkedIn groups dedicated to SEO and link building. Members often participate in link exchange threads where everyone posts their niche and willingness to swap links.
Advantage: Website owners come to you, making the process more efficient. This approach is by far the fastest way to find link exchange partners. - Email Outreach:
If you prefer a more controlled approach, reach out via email.
Strategy:- First, pitch the concept to one site (Site B) and secure their interest.
- Next, approach another site (Site C) and get them onboard.
- Finally, create an email thread with all three parties to coordinate the ABC exchange.
Once you get the buy in from all partners, coordinate the exchange via a single email thread, or a group chat.
Building strong relationships through link exchanges can also open doors to future collaborations, including guest posts or joint ventures.
One thing to consider about this approach as a new website owner is the fact that your potential exchange partners will look to gain equal value from you, so you will have best rate of success with sites of similar DA and with comparable traffic. As a new website you may be lacking in both departments, but never fear! You can still carry out link exchanges with partner sites similar to yours. Look out for sites that are invested in their growth and with time the value of the links you get will grow with them!
FAQs
How many backlinks can you create in a day?
A general SEO guideline is to build 15 or fewer quality backlinks a day. In practice however, it does take Google some time to track down all the links, so occasionally it is fine to go over 15 links a day, as long as you don’t do it regularly. As you can see, it is likely that you’ll be able to build all the backlinks you want in a day.
Is getting 100 backlinks from 100 different websites better for ranking?
Yes. Generally speaking, having most backlinks come from different websites is better for your SEO, as search engines put more weight on each website you have backlinks from, rather than each backlink. Therefore yes, having 100 backlinks from 100 different websites is likely to yield better results than having 100 backlinks from one website.
Which backlinks are the most powerful?
There are few factors determining backlink’s power. Firstly, backlinks on sites where you can’t submit your own links are generally far more powerful. For example, a broken link backlink is likely to be more powerful than a directory backlink, as Google is well aware of the fact that anyone can gain links from directories. Niche relevant links from websites with high organic traffic and authority are also more powerful.
Conclusion
Building backlinks for a new website doesn’t have to be a slow, labor-intensive process. By leveraging strategies like directory submissions, infographic submissions, broken link building, resource page link building, and link exchanges, you can efficiently secure backlinks and establish your online presence. Each method has its unique benefits, and combining these strategies can amplify your results. For a faster and hassle-free approach, consider our link building services. We’ll craft a customized strategy for your website and handle the hard work, delivering high-quality backlinks to boost your rankings and drive traffic. Start today and watch your website thrive in search engine results!