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Link building is an indispensable part of search engine optimization (SEO) in the modern age. In case you’re not familiar, link building is building links pointing to your domain on external websites, usually publishers. Every link you create to your domain will convey some “authority” to that domain. Over time, you’ll end up with a lot more links from much better publishers, and your trustworthiness, at least in Google’s eyes, will start to grow.
A good link building strategy can be the anchor of a highly effective SEO campaign. But if your strategy becomes stale and unchanging, the benefits will diminish.
What can you do to shake up an outdated SEO strategy and start seeing the best benefits of this tactic again?
The Problems of an Outdated Link Building Strategy
If you continue to rank well and see lots of organic traffic, you might not see anything wrong with checking out the same sources and building the same kinds of links over and over again. After all, the approach has brought you this far. But there are several downsides to tracking an outdated campaign:
- Diminishing returns. There are a few advantages to building multiple links on the same domain. You will instantly get more exposure for your brand and opportunities for more referral traffic. However, each successive link you build on a domain will convey less authority to your domain. In other words, each new link on the same source will have diminishing returns. It is important to regularly seek out new publishers and new link sources to combat this effect.
- Absence of vertical growth. Most people know that reaching new publishers is important if you want your link building strategy to be successful. But in addition to growing horizontally, you should start growing vertically, reaching bigger and more important publishers as you climb the ladder. The only way to reach these bigger and better publishers is to create better content and push the boundaries of what you can achieve.
- Opportunities for competitors. Letting your campaign go stale also gives competitors an easy opportunity to outrank you. Once you let your guard down and stop investing in continuous improvements, all of your competitors will have a critical chance to exploit your lack of diligence.
- Negligence of new publishers. If you want to stay on top of your industry and stay relevant to your audience at the same time, you need to constantly seek out new publishers. Otherwise, you might miss a newcomer to your industry. Questioning yourself and constantly evolving your strategy will allow you to discover and exploit a multitude of new sources.
- Personal boredom and declines in quality. Another problem associated with “stale” link building campaigns is personal boredom, complacency, and quality declines. If you’re used to linking in a certain way or writing a certain type of content, you might get bored or frustrated with the process over time. This, in turn, leads to a drop in the quality of the material you produce. Of course, boredom can also be a great motivator, so it might inspire you to create something new for your campaign.
Related: Get to know the 3 types of influencers
Ideas to get things moving
If you find yourself in the middle of a stale link building campaign, try these tactics to shake things up:
- Collaborate with other writers. Working alone can be daunting, so consider joining efforts with another writer, link builder, or editor you’ve never worked with before. You might be able to generate entirely new types of content or pursue avenues of development that were previously inaccessible to you.
- Mimic a competitor’s posting strategy. Pay attention to what your competitors are doing. What kind of content do they write? Where do they post? What are their links? You could come up with a totally new idea – or you could try to capitalize on their best tactics.
- Ask the editors for new ideas. Talk to your current editors and any editors you are close with. They may have connections to other editors or new ideas on how to revitalize your content writing.
- Create a whole new type of link. There are many ways to build high-quality natural links online, so consider branching out. Helping a reporter with a story, donating to a charity, or networking with local organizations could all be hugely beneficial.
- Outsource your strategy. It’s also worth considering outsourcing your link building strategy entirely. Let someone else come up with creative ideas!
Related: 9 Ways Your Content Marketing Can Generate Leads and Close Sales
Your link building strategy doesn’t have to be completely new or constantly evolving to deliver benefits to your domain. However, if you want to reach your full potential, you will need to evaluate your efforts and adapt them regularly. Preventing your campaign from becoming stale is one of the best steps you can take for long-term success.