High-Quality DoFollow Links: 5 New Ways of Building Backlinks in 2021 – Google does not disclose the hundreds of factors that go into page ranking algorithms, but link building is among the top few (besides page loading speed, freshness, HTTPS).
From 1999, when the search giant launched its services, links have served as one of the key aspects to determine the trustworthiness of a page. High-quality link-building services are indispensable when it comes to ranking high on SERP. Over 50% of digital marketing experts think that link building is the key to organic search growth.
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How does link building work and why is it important?
Let’s share a simple example that demonstrates the logic behind link building.
Joe does not know psychology. Yet he is asked to rank ten psychologists as best as he can.
Since Joe knows nothing about the topic, it is no use having a conversation with them and trying to discover whose knowledge surpasses others.
What can he do?
He can ask the psychologists to provide a list of their publications. They must have at least written a doctoral dissertation. Many would have published several academic papers in the years following the doctoral thesis.
Next, he can ask for the number of times others have cited them. Unless someone gives a unique perspective, there is little possibility of being cited. Also, the person citing is from the same field and, unlike Joe, understands the topic well.
At the end of this exercise, Joe will have a reasonably good idea of who is more knowledgeable about psychology.
Link building strategies work the same way. Backlinks are links from one site leading back to content on another.
If you write 1,000-word blog content about real wage decline in the US and a Nobel Laureate in economics does the same, Google has no way to tell the difference.
After all, Google can’t actually peruse the content like a human can. It indexes both a recipe for lasagna and an article about job growth as a collection of numbers and letters.
But the Nobel Laureate’s work would be quoted by the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, BBC, and reputed publishers of content. Ergo, his blog must receive a higher rank than yours.
Of course, this is far from a perfect way to get things done. Your insight might be more intuitive. But there is no way to prove that to a search engine.
The more the number of backlinks from high Domain Authority sites, the higher a page will rank.
Quality versus quantity
It is important to note that the number of links does not matter. If that was the case, a thousand backlinks from Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit accounts would suffice. The quality of the backlink matters. It has to arise from a reputable site. Otherwise, it offers little value to search ranking.
Dofollow versus Nofollow
Note that links might have the rel=”nofollow” attribute. This tag tells the Google spider not to crawl that outbound link. That makes it useless for SEO purposes.
If the link does not have the rel=”nofollow” attribute, then it is effectively “dofollow”.
5 effective dofollow link building techniques in 2021
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Business Listings
This has been a perennial favorite among SEO strategists. The reason is simple. It costs nothing and yields exceptional results.
Consider business directories such as Yelp, Zomato, or Craigslist for listing your business. You would have to provide the location, name, phone number, and URL.
In addition, list on Google My Business and Bing Places. Merchant Circle and Foursquare are also popular in the USA.
No matter where you are in the world, there will be several regional directories such as HomeAdvisor in the US and Europe and JustDial in India. Review sites such as Trustpilot serve the same purpose when it comes to generating backlinks.
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Build Network
Reach out to others in your domain and actively network with them. Locate forums where you can discuss various aspects of your work and answer questions others pose.
If you can provide suggestions that are apt and guide others with wisdom, you would soon develop a reputation as an expert.
Many forums allow contributors to host a personal signature on every post and adding your URL in that space would generate valuable backlinks.
Note that this is by no means the rule, but if you look hard enough, you are likely to find many forums that allow you to plug in your website.
Networking would provide you an opportunity to request others to mention your site on their Facebook or LinkedIn profiles.
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Guest Blogging
A guest blogger is someone who contributes to a well-known site for little or no payment but is allowed to mention his name and URL.
Guest blogging works so well due to link juice. Link juice is the trust that a site earns when there is a backlink from a high DA site.
While links from business directories such as Yelp are valuable, they do not have the link juice to pass on that a top-rated publication such as Smashing Magazine has.
Anyone can list on Yelp, but very few are allowed to contribute to a reputed publication. To Google, this means the contributor must have an expert understanding of the topic and his website has to have valuable content.
The downside is it does not pay and for each guest blog post, you have to spend several hours researching and writing.
Even if you can contribute a dozen every year, that is enough. In a few years that would amount to 20—30 high-quality backlinks.
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Generate Shareable Content
Write great content on the blog of your website and others would provide you with backlinks automatically. This strategy takes time, but it is entirely organic and produces fantastic returns.
Ideally, share a lot of statistics and create an infographic. Content writers are endlessly looking for collated information in one place since it makes research easy. Do their work for them and you would be rewarded with a ton of backlinks.
If you create an infographic, those sharing the same would have to acknowledge you as the source. Helpful infographics are scarce. If you create a few (and host them on your site with accurate alt-tag) they are bound to get referred to by others.
Replying in Quora is also an excellent way to generate backlinks. Unlike other Q and A sites, Quora moderators have no objection to a link back to your site as long as it is not overt marketing.
There are hundreds of questions on Quora and answering a few of these would gain you followers and backlinks in equal measure.
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Broken Link Building
Look for a reputed website in your domain that has a blog. Use a broken link tool, such as Ahrefs, to find the outbound links that are broken. This happens because dead links are a fact of life.
Write a polite email to the webmaster and point out these dead backlinks. Suggest articles from your site that would act as the perfect substitute.
It is a numbers game. Most would reject your request. But even if a small percentage accepts, you get free backlinks with very little effort.
Get experts to do it…
Most entrepreneurs have no time for creating backlinks. It’s hard work that takes focus and energy, resources that would be better spent elsewhere.