How to Build a Link Building Plan

Creating an effective link building plan is crucial for enhancing your website’s visibility and search engine rankings.

This guide will provide a comprehensive approach to building a link building plan, focusing on essential metrics, determining the optimal number of links, targeting the right pages, and selecting the best anchor texts.

1. Key Metrics for Evaluating Link Opportunities

Evaluating potential link opportunities involves assessing key metrics that indicate the quality and effectiveness of a link. Here’s a detailed look:

Domain Authority (DA)

• Definition: Domain Authority is a score from 1 to 100 developed by Moz that predicts how well a website can rank on search engines.
• Why it Matters: A higher DA suggests that the website has more authority and influence, which can positively impact your own site’s rankings when you receive a link from them.
• Example: If your site’s DA is 20, targeting sites with a DA of 30-50 can be more beneficial than aiming for those with DA close to yours.

Traffic

• Definition: This refers to the number of visitors a site receives.
• Why it Matters: High-traffic sites can drive referral traffic to your site and are viewed by search engines as quality sources.
• Example: Using Alexa to find that a potential link source receives over 100,000 unique visitors per month indicates strong traffic, making it a valuable target for link building.

2. Link Velocity: Strategic Planning of Link Acquisition

Link velocity involves the rate and timing of link acquisition, which must appear natural to search engines to avoid penalties.

Understanding Link Velocity

• Rationale: A consistent and gradual increase in backlinks suggests organic growth, which search engines favor.

Planning Your Link Velocity

• Example: If you gain an average of 10 new links per month, suddenly jumping to 100 in a month without a significant event (like viral content) might seem suspicious. Instead, aim to increase gradually to 15-20 links per month.

3. Targeting the Right Pages: Optimizing Link Spread

Selecting which pages to target for backlinks influences the overall effectiveness of your link building.

Selecting Pages

• High-Value Pages: Focus on pages that provide detailed, valuable content like ultimate guides or how-to articles.
• Example: A comprehensive guide to ‘Home Gardening Tips’ on your site is a prime candidate for building links if it provides unique and extensive information.

Link Distribution Strategy

• Even Spread: Aim to get links pointing to different pages across your site to spread the authority evenly.
• Example: If your home page has 100 backlinks, ensure your next best content piece starts receiving links and doesn’t stay at just 10 links.

4. Effective Use of Anchor Texts in Link Building

The choice of anchor text in a hyperlink plays a crucial role in SEO by helping to specify the linked page’s relevance to certain topics.

Anchor Text Best Practices

• Relevance: Anchor texts should directly relate to the page content they link to.
• Example: If linking to a page about ‘Vegan Diet Benefits’, suitable anchor texts could be “benefits of vegan diets” or “why go vegan”.

Strategy for Anchor Texts

• Plan Diversity: Include a variety of anchor texts such as branded (“Company X”), generic (“click here”), and exact match keywords (“best link insertions service”).
• Monitor and Adjust: Track which types of anchor texts bring more traffic and adjust your strategy accordingly to focus on the most effective phrases.

Conclusion

Implementing a strategic link building plan requires careful consideration of metrics, link velocity, targeted pages, and anchor text usage. By integrating these elements thoughtfully, with attention to examples and practical application, you can significantly enhance your site’s SEO performance and achieve better visibility and rankings. Always prioritize ethical practices and quality link sources to build a sustainable and effective SEO strategy.