11 Lesser-known Link Building Strategies That You Can Use in 2024

The most important skill in search engine optimization (SEO) is to know the right link building techniques that don’t trigger Google Penguin.

However, many SEOs still don’t think beyond 4-5 popular linking building methods, such as writing guest posts, submitting sites to reputed directories, insightful commenting, creating infographics etc.?

Reason?

The first reason may be that they are not aware of other link building strategies. And the second reason may be they believe acquiring links through other methods can get their websites penalized by Google.

Well, if you fall into any of the above-mentioned categories, the help is here.

In today’s post, I’m going to discuss 11 fail-safe, less-common link building techniques that you can adopt in 2024 to build the authority of your clients’ websites.

And the best part,

All of these link building strategies won’t trigger Google Penguin if you follow the steps as I’ll explain later.

After reading this post, you will be able to diversify the backlink profiles of your clients’ websites.

Without further ado, let’s dive in:

Lesser-Used Link Building Strategies for 2024

These eleven link building techniques are proven to acquire backlinks.

1- USE HARO

HARO stands for ‘help a reporter out’. It is a free service for journalists to find sources for their stories. Also, HARO helps sources to get valuable media coverage.

How does it work?

After registering on HARO, you will start receiving emails (source requests) three times a day- 5:35 a.m., 12:35 p.m. and 5:35 p.m. ET, Monday to Friday. These emails will be broken down into different categories.

You need to keep an eye on source requests relevant to you or your clients’ industries. Once, you find relevant requests, send perfect pitches to journalists. If the journalists accept your pitches, you are most likely to get backlinks.

Is HARO effective?

Ahrefs has published a detailed case study on how to use HARO to build backlink.

2- Co-Author An Article

If you have any popular blog in your industry, you can pitch the admin of that blog an idea about co-authoring an article.

This is a win-win situation for both – the blog will get unique content and you will get a quality backlink from an authority website.

The success of this link building technique depends on how much well-known you are and the quality of content you create.

A well-established blog will not accept your pitch unless you are known in your industry or you create amazing content on a regular basis.

3- Scholarship/ Contest Campaign

Scholarship link building offers many benefits, such as backlinks from high-authority websites, clearly-defined audience and easily available contact details, efficient outreach, etc.

However, it is not easy to acquire backlinks from .edu websites through a scholarship/contest if you don’t follow the right way.

Here are a few steps that will help you run a successful scholar/contest link building campaign:

• Set your goal
• Publish your scholarship
• Make the list of institutions
• Do outreach
• Run the campaign and select the winner

Amelia Willson has published a long article – The right way to do scholarship link building- on Search Engine Journal.

4- Turn Mentions Into Backlinks

This is one of the most effective link building techniques. But this works often when your brand has got some popularity online.

What you need to do is to find unlinked mentions of your brand name and website on the web and request the webmasters to link those mentions to relevant URLs.

The process may not be as simple as it sounds, but it is not impossible either.

First of all, you need to find out where your website and brand name have been mentioned. To complete this task, you can use Google or any other paid tool like ahrefs or Fresh Web Explorer to find mentions.

After finding mentions, send a mail to webmasters and request them to turn mentions into backlinks.

You should understand that not all mentions are worth turning into backlinks.

If you are popular in your industry, you must have lots of mentions. In such a case, you should focus on only high-authority mentions.

Kaila Strong has written a detailed post on the topic on Moz.

5- Research Report/Case Studies

Research reports and case studies work as a good linkbait. SEOs all over the world agree that research and case studies are highly effective when it comes to generating backlinks.

Your research reports and case studies will have more gravity if you have been in your field for a considerable amount of time and enjoys some popularity.

In case, if you are new to your industry, it will be better if you find a known partner in your industry to conduct a research or case study with. Doing so will maximize the success of your hard work.

6- Host/Sponsor Events

Hosting/sponsoring events relevant to your industry is an easy way to get backlinks and social mentions.

Greg Gifford has the same thought,

“Whether it’s a 4th of July cookout or an Easter egg hunt for the kiddos, if you host an event that’s open to the community, it’s really easy to get links (and social mentions).”

Hosting/sponsoring local events not only help you acquire geo-relevant links and local citations but also help you build a network.

Kane Jamison has created a comprehensive, detailed, easy-to-follow resource on how to do link building with local events on Moz.

7- Give Testimonials

In your daily business day, you must be using some tools to run your business smoothly.

Have you ever thought those tools can provide you with quality backlinks?

Yes, my friend, they can.

Online marketer and entrepreneur, Felix Tarcomnicu, said in his article on Entrepreneur,

“An easy method to earn quality backlinks is to write testimonials for websites you are using. You’ll spend only a few minutes, and you can earn a link from the homepage of an authoritative website.”

When you are pitching prospective companies to write testimonials for them, you should ensure that you should choose companies that don’t have big market shares.

You might not get a reply if you try to approach Microsoft.

8- Get Interviewed

Getting interviewed by relevant websites is a good way to secure backlinks. Our content marketer Sandeep Rathore keeps on sharing his thoughts on various platforms, earning us some quality links.

The best way to get interviewed is to find platforms that regularly publish interviews relevant to your industry. And then, you can approach them to take your interview. You will have more success in your efforts if you try to pitch discussing hot topics in your industry.

9- Build Wikipedia’s Dead Backlinks

Wikipedia’s domain authority is 100 and its Alexa rank is 5 as of today. A backlink from Wikipedia will certainly be a boost for your website or your clients’ websites.

However, it is not feasible to secure a backlink from Wikipedia without a proper strategy and some hard work.

First, you need to find out dead links and broken links relevant to your industry. And then, you need to create a reliable resource on your website relevant to those dead/broken links.

After creating an account on Wikipedia, you will be able to replace those dead/broken links.

Remember, you must add value to your links, or else editors will remove your links.

10- Write Guides on Hot Topics

People love to know more about hot topics. So creating step-by-step guides on hot topics is a good way to get backlinks.

Why will people link to your guide?

In-depth guides often work as the go-to-resources for those topics. And people love to quote reliable resources.

Brian Dean has got huge success with his guide,

“I created one: Keyword Research for SEO: The Definitive Guide.
Because this multi-chapter guide covers keyword research like no other resource online, it’s been linked to over a thousand times.”

When you are creating guides, make sure you cover one topic thoroughly, rather than touching many topics superficially.

11- Skyscraper Technique

Though many SEOs know about it, seldom they use it. Why? It requires lots of time and effort to create link-worthy content. However, this link building technique is highly effective.

Brian Dean got huge success with Skyscraper Technique.

In fact, he was able to increase his search traffic by 110% in 14 days, and he got tons of backlinks with Skyscraper Technique.

To ensure the success of Skyscraper Technique in your industry, you should find out a problem in your industry and address it through your content.

The better your solution, the more you will succeed in acquiring backlinks.

Conclusion:

Backlinks are probably one of the most powerful ranking signals. With Google becoming more and more strict on low-quality links, SEOs are finding it difficult to acquire quality backlinks.

The link building strategies mentioned in this article are legit and fail-safe. So you can follow them without any hesitation.

Over to you,

Which link building strategies do you want to suggest today? Leave them in the comment section. I’d love to know about it.

Tell us what topic you want us to cover in the next blog posts.