Google’s principle of E-A-T — which stands for expertise, authority, and trustworthiness — is the search engine’s way of determining the value of content on the web.

But, what does it mean for content to reflect expertise, authority, and trustworthiness?

“Expertise, for me, is the amount of knowledge you have in a field,” said Kevin Rowe, founder and CEO of PureLinq, in a recent webinar. “You build more expertise the longer you’ve been in a field.”

“Authority is how other authoritative figures validate you — this is reflected through authoritative links. And trust is [expertise and authority] over time,” he added.

When most marketers consider E-A-T signals, they often focus their efforts on creating high-quality content. And while this is one of the most important factors, these professionals could be missing out on potential ranking signals from authoritative backlinks.

According to Rowe, considering E-A-T when building links to your site — and generating content — is a great way to improve rankings, especially for those in the YMYL (your money, your life) space.

What Google says about E-A-T and YMYL

Google offers marketers a lot of resources for marketers looking to improve their sites’ E-A-T signals, says Rowe. Whether it’s documentation such as the General Guidelines or communication on social platforms such as Twitter, these resources can provide additional context into how the search engine determines site authority, expertise, and trustworthiness.

The information suggests Google relies heavily on the concept of E-A-T when evaluating YMYL content. According to the Guidelines, it’s “possible to have everyday expertise in YMYL topics.” This can be presented in the form of forum posts, articles detailing one’s personal experiences, or any other content that seeks to give searchers advice.

However, despite all of the resources available, Google doesn’t actually offer specific strategies about how to improve E-A-T or even the way its algorithms work in conjunction with it.

“They give a lot of information about how they’d like the search engine to work, but it doesn’t always work that way,” Rowe said. “So, we have to use testing and analysis to understand the cause and effect relationships.”

E-A-T isn’t an update or algorithm; it’s a principle to follow when optimizing your site in general. So, marketers should use Google’s guidelines and documentation to inform their testing and optimization efforts to better adhere to this principle.

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How to establish E-A-T with link building and content

While there aren’t straightforward steps from Google for improving E-A-T, marketers can work on enhancing the quality signals for their sites through strategic link building and content creation efforts.

“It’s all about how authoritative your links are and how expert-driven your content is,” said Rowe.

Rowe highlighted three ways marketers could begin sending higher E-A-T signals.

Create subject matter expert content. Write content from a position of expertise. Your pieces should be the go-to resources for readers interested in a given subject. If you’re not an expert in the area, hire someone who can create this content for you.

Message sculpting. Focus on the needs of the audience you’re writing for. People searching for YMYL content want relatable messages that speak to their personal situations, so make sure your writing reflects this.

Identify link building opportunities. Look for reputable, relatable sites and start pitching your content to them. A great resource Rowe recommends is HARO, which connects subject matter experts with journalists who publish content in those areas.

High-quality content and links from authoritative sources are the foundation of E-A-T. Rowe highlighted how these aspects are inextricably intertwined: “Expertise, authority, and trust are about the amount of knowledge and content shared on [and from] your site. It’s about who you are, who’s writing the content, and what other people think about it.”

Watch this webinar presentation at Digital Marketing Depot.

The post How E-A-T content and link building can drive YMYL SEO success appeared first on Search Engine Land.

I was born a salesperson. Growing up in Texas, my dad had me working at Trader’s Village, selling everything from belt buckles to hat pins (and every other trinket you can imagine).

You didn’t have to know much about the product. You just needed to know how to haggle pricing.

Selling SEO services is different. You must have a keen understanding of the product/service you represent. And very importantly, you must understand how (or if) an SEO effort can benefit the prospects you’re speaking with.

If you’re not one of the agencies that send a one-sheeter to show the various SEO packages you offer, you are trying to customize an approach for your prospects. In my opinion, we should do a bit of heavy lifting before having our initial calls with prospects. This article will provide some thoughts on how you may want to approach the initial call.

Initial questions to ask the prospect

First, I recommend that you ask your prospect to provide some initial information so that you can do the homework for the initial call. It’s helpful if the prospect has already provided you with an RFP detailing the scope, in-house team capabilities and availability for the SEO effort. If they haven’t completed an RFP, you can download the SEO RFP at my company’s blog and re-brand it/use it as a template for what you may want to provide them.

In lieu of that kind of information, you should begin by asking (at least) these four questions:

1. What are you hoping to accomplish with this SEO effort?
2. Who are some competitors that you believe to be doing well?
3. What type of in-house support do you have for this effort?
4. What have you done (if anything) historically for SEO? (Perhaps they have current activity?)

With this information, you can dig into things and determine how you will shape the call.

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Do the research

I begin by looking at the prospect’s website. I want to check to see if there’s any quirkiness. Let’s call this a “mini-audit.”

Should you provide “work product” on a sales call? Honestly, I’ve debated this question back and forth for many years. I’ve settled on the thought that folks still don’t trust SEOs, and we must spend a little more effort to establish trust (and to educate). So I see this as “you must give before you get.” It’s good karma.

What’s involved in a mini audit? A few things:

Run a crawl on the prospect’s website

I use Semrush. I limit the crawl to 500 pages, just enough to get a sense of their website’s “brokenness.”

Perform site queries on their domain (and for their competitors)

When running site queries, if you’re unfamiliar, you search on Google for site:www.sitename.com and/or site:sitename.com. You will see the URLs that Google is aware of.

An example of something that you may be looking for would be finding subdomains when searching non-www (i.e., staging.sitename.com). You may find other weird URLs or subdomains showing in the results, so look at them critically.

Highlighting these opportunities to clean up the search results and make their brand shine could lead to a new client relationship. They will appreciate your ability to be inquisitive.

Investigate their organic performance

I run a Semrush Organic Overview report for the prospect and their competitors.

Make sure to filter to exclude any brand mentions:

How much “traffic cost” are they realizing versus their competitors? Here’s what that looks like, comparing Travelocity to Expedia:

The “Traffic Cost” metric is Semrush’s attempt to provide a “replacement cost” metric to show the estimated value of your organic presence (i.e., if you had to pay for this traffic via Google Ads, what it could potentially cost you, per month)

How many keywords are ranking in the top 10 (versus their competitors)? Are these “good” keywords or junk?

Run a Domain Comparison report (I use Ahrefs for this) to determine whether the prospect is competitive with those websites/domains.

Suppose you see a competitor doing well with their links. In that case, you should run a quick Site Explorer report via Ahrefs and check some of the “better links” (sort by Domain Authority) and see specific examples for how the competitor is gaining these valuable links. If something is relevant to your prospect, share that on a call as an example of what they may want to consider doing.

Is there a reason why Expedia has links from CDC.gov and PrivacyShield.gov, and Travelocity does not? At a minimum, you can create some dialogue to learn more about them.

Your goal in doing all the above is to help to identify whether an investment in SEO is viable. Suppose you happen to notice that many of their competitors have a significant organic search presence (greater than your prospect), yet their domain authority is roughly the same. In that case, one could argue that the potential is there. They need to build a better website, create better content or fix technical items standing in their way.

Having the call

The more clarity you can bring to an effort that many marketers see as “the dark arts,” the better. The more people understand how SEO works, the more likely they will invest in it.

If it remains confusing, they are more likely to choose the cheaper (one-sheeter) SEO plan.

For this reason, I typically host these calls via GoToMeeting. I’ll share my screen, share my research, take their questions and answer them directly (perhaps even by conducting additional research on the call with them).

The idea of the mini audit isn’t to give everything away. The idea is to show an example of how you look into things that you may want to address during the SEO engagement (and show them that you’re capable of finding opportunities).

Real-world example

I recently received an inquiry from an e-commerce company. They were sure they had been hit by Google’s July 2021 Core Update. I confirmed via Semrush that they had lost a significant presence in Google. I also confirmed via archive.org that they made substantial changes to their website navigational structure at that same time.

So, was it the Google update? Or, as is more often the case, were they not aware that the navigational changes they made impacted their organic presence.

I gave them this free advice, hoping that they will determine that I’m an honest broker and, because of that, they will want to do business with my agency.

If they don’t do business with us and take the free advice and run, I kind of figure that they aren’t the kind of folks that I would want to work with anyhow.

At least I’ve done my part to spread some positive mojo. Give before you get.

Summary: Selling SEO starts long before the sales call

When selling SEO, be prepared. Preparation is one of the keys to getting new clients. How you do that is by:

• Understanding your prospect: Their wants, needs, resources and SEO history.
• Doing your research: Finding SEO issues and opportunities.
• Demonstrating your professionalism: Your expertise, honesty, process and curiosity.

Once you’ve successfully sold those SEO services, the real work can begin. Go out and help your clients succeed!

The post How to prepare for an SEO sales call appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Google Search has rolled out the “refine this search” and “broaden this search” in the US based English search results, a Google spokesperson confirmed with Search Engine Land today. These features were previewed last year at the Search On event last September.

Google did say that while some are noticing the things to know/consider being tested, this is not yet fully live in Google Search yet.

Refine this search. Google spoke about this feature at Search On claiming the “Refine this search” features enable users to get more specific with a topic or zoom out to more general topics. You can now see it come up for a number of queries, here is a screenshot I saw on my mobile device for this feature:

Broaden this search. The “Broaden this search” features also enable users to get more specific with a topic or zoom out to more general topics, Google said. You can now see it come up for a number of queries, here is a screenshot I saw on my mobile device for this feature:

Things to know/consider. Google told us the things to know and things to consider feature is not live yet in Google Search. Google is indeed testing it, as we pointed out above, but it is not fully live yet.

US English. Google said the “refine this search” and “broaden this search” have rolled out in English in the US Google Search results.

MUM. It is hard to know if Google is powering these features off MUM right now. Danny Sullivan of Google just posted on Twitter that the Things to know feature is not currently using MUM, so it is not clear if these other features are or not. We have followed up with Google to find out if these features use MUM.

As I covered last month, MUM is currently used in only two applications in search thus far.

Google has confirmed that these features do not yet use MUM, but Google did tell us “we anticipate that applying MUM for ’things to know’ will enable us to uncover even deeper insights and help people explore information more easily.”

Why we care. These new search features may lead to searchers finding more ways to discover your site in Google Search. Or it might distract searchers from clicking on your snippet in the search results they are looking at. In any event, Google is constantly trying new search features and staying on top of what went live in Google Search is useful for many search marketers.

The post Google refine this search & broaden this search now live in search results appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Microsoft Bing’s search results for queries related to the conflict in Ukraine show an Opinions section and two timelines (one in the main column and another in the knowledge panel).

The Opinions section. On Bing, news results typically appear in the “News about” section (at the top of the example above; this feature is similar to Google’s Top stories section) or in the standard, non-rich result listings.

However, media outlets often publish opinions and commentary on current events from non-staff writers. Bing has started highlighting these types of results in their own section, “Opinions.”

For the query [Ukraine Russia], the Opinions section included six results from different media outlets. When a featured image isn’t available, Bing will show a preview of the article (as shown above).

The timelines. For associated queries, Bing may show up to two timelines: the horizontal timeline that appears in the main column of search results and the vertically oriented timeline within the knowledge panel (on the right-hand rail of the search results).

The timeline within the knowledge panel begins on August 24, 1991, when Ukraine became an independent state following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and includes prior events, such as the annexation of Crimea, that have led to the current state of Russo-Ukrainian affairs.

The horizontal timeline in the main column only shows events from February 9 until March 5 (the screenshot below was taken on March 14).

Additionally, the main column timeline cites sources, whereas the knowledge panel timeline does not.

Why we care. The Opinions section may help Bing contextualize some news-related results for users. Informing users that a result is an opinion (and not strictly news) helps them understand the nature of the content, thus potentially reducing misinformation.

Likewise, the timeline features may help users understand how an event has unfolded, which may also help them make sense of the content on that same search results page. For example, if a timeline were present on coronavirus-related search results, it might provide a frame of reference for users, enabling them to better interpret the number of daily new cases or understand whether restrictions are being loosened or heightened.

The visibility opportunities associated with these features are primarily for news publishers, but as was the case with Google’s COVID-related search results page, these features may eventually receive a wider rollout, which could open up opportunities for brands as well.

The post Bing’s ‘Russian invasion of Ukraine’ results show Opinions section and timelines appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Google’s search results for Russian search queries related to Ukraine are almost entirely dominated by a handful of known Russian pro-Putin propaganda publications, such as Izvestia, Russia Today and Ria News.

How is this happening when several credible Ukrainian and Western publications deserving to rank? And how is this happening when Google has stated its commitment to fighting disinformation?

Here’s why Google needs to fix this. 

Why Google’s search results matter for Russian speakers

For many Russian language speakers of all ethnicities and nationalities, accessing credible news that’s free from pro-Putin propaganda is difficult – even outside of Russia. And it seems even on Google.

I count myself among this group. I live in Canada and speak Russian. And yet, I was shocked to see publications that broadcast the state-sanctioned narrative ranking so well on Google: 

Again, this was just me searching on Google for “Ukraine” results from Canada. Not Russia.

It’s critically important for Russian speakers, many of whom might already find themselves isolated in information bubbles filled with propaganda and conspiracies that justify the war, to have access to accurate, vetted and balanced information about the war when they search for it. That isn’t happening right now. 

Sold as a “liberation” and “peace-keeping” mission, the war has a 70% approval rating in Russia. Propaganda fuels a greater ideological divide, with grave consequences.

Russia’s state narratives dominate the Russian web

Russia’s disinformation campaigns are common knowledge. In recent days, western media and tech platforms started scaling back their operations with Russia or cutting ties altogether. 

Facebook restricted access to the accounts of Russia’s top media publications, such as Zvijazda, RIA News, Sputnik, Russia Today, Lenta.ru, Gazeta.ru, and others. TikTok is said to have started to remove video content posted to the platform by RIA News, one of Russia’s largest news channels.

One would think that with more than 160 million Russian speakers globally, these restrictions might be a signal to seek better, more credible information elsewhere. But it appears that that “information divide” is also linguistic.

What’s most shocking? Many critical searches related to the events in Ukraine that are executed in Russian on Google return results filled with pro-Putin propaganda.

Among the highest ranking of these publications are RIA News (with more than 1,200 pages indexed for the term “denazification” in Google), Iz.ru, Russia Today, and Ukraina.ru. 

Search query comparison: “Ukraine” vs. “United States”

There is a vast difference in the type of ranking content when you compare “Украина” versus “United States.”

An exact match Google search for “Украина” (Ukraine in Russian), returns a SERP where, aside from Wikipedia, almost of the results from Russian news sites. This is surprising, as one would expect more results that provide general information and are from Ukrainian domains. 

These are the top 10 URLs that rank in Google’s organic results for the search query “украина” (“ukraine”):

And these are the top 10 results for the search query “United States”:

Search query: “что происходит на украине” (“what is happening in Ukraine”)

This is a less obvious search query, but search volume has risen within the past two weeks. It has also shown up within Google’s related searches and search suggestions. While there is occasional diversity in the video results, the top organic results are RIA, Izvestia and Russia Today. 

Search Query: “украина новости” (“ukraine news”)

Search queries related to Ukraine news are beginning to see more Ukrainian sites appear in Google’s SERPs, but three out of the five top results are still Russian sites, including RIA and Izvestia.

A closer look: why are these sites ranking?

Did you notice that the ranking pages from Russia’s news sites have one thing in common? They are archive pages for tags that match “Ukraine,” not content pages. It’s generally an accepted SEO best practice to noindex archive pages. Many other news websites rank well with their journalistic content. But virtually all of the high-ranking Russian news sites have pursued the strategy of deliberate promotion and link building to their archive pages. 

The pages from RIA News, Izvestia and Russia Today dominate the space for search queries (as well as variants and misspellings) of “Украина” (Ukraine), “новости украины” (ukraine news), and “что происходит на украине” (what is happening in ukraine). There is no significant difference between SERP positions based on location (Russia, Ukraine or United States).

RIA News

The best performer, RIA News, has a bare-bones archives page that includes article headlines, images, and other tags, and comes across as an internal linking tactic in itself. There are 20 headlines and over 100 links on the page. No other content.

Izvestia

Izvestia is also an archive page, but it contains more content than RIA. While there are no images, the 15 article snippets include headlines and descriptions. There is a right-hand navigation, as well as a header content block with the tag description, in this case, mentioning that modern Kyiv is in “confrontational relations with Russia” as well as the “military special operation aimed at protecting the civilian population of Donbas.” The page loads intermittently but is accessible via the WayBack Machine.

Russia Today

An established entity with a global presence, Russia Today has the look and feel of a quality news site with good UX, large article snippets that include a headline, description, and image, as well as links to additional content in the right-hand menu.

Ukraina.ru

This publication contains a mixture of original content and articles syndicated from other Russian websites. The mission statement that appeared on the site early in its existence, 11 years ago, said that the purpose of the project was to fill the gap in the minds of Russians about Ukraine and to allow Russia to “move West.”

Are there no relevant Ukrainian sites for Google to rank?

Is there any relevant content from Ukrainian sources that could compete with Russian results? Absolutely. Not even counting Russian language sites by BBC, Deutsche Welle and other credible news sources, there are many Ukrainian news websites that publish in the Russian language.

Microsoft Bing is far more inclusive of Ukrainian sites in its SERPs than Google. Five of the top six Bing results for “Ukraine News” (​are Ukrainian (either in .ua TLD or owned by Ukrainians and otherwise located outside of .ru TLD).

Shouldn’t YMYL be a factor for Google?

In 2014, to fight disinformation, Google introduced YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) content category to its search quality rater guidelines. YMYL is a term used to describe pages and content that can potentially impact one’s happiness, health, finances, safety and more.

Quality thresholds are considerably higher for this type of content. Google states that “YMYL pages should come from reputable websites, and the content should be created with a high level of expertise and authority.”

According to Google, news publications are expected to measure up high journalistic standards, adhere to clear editorial policies, and present clearly researched, vetted and trustworthy information.

Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines (September 2019) is very explicit about its instructions for content that is harmful to specified groups (7.2), as well as pages with harmfully misleading information (7.3).

Google needs to clean up its harmful, misleading results

Well, Google, it’s time to hold yourself to the same standards you want media and news publications to meet. It’s time for you to remove the Russian propaganda from your search results. And give Russian language speakers the trustworthy content and information they need.

The post Dear Google: It’s time to remove Russian propaganda from search results appeared first on Search Engine Land.

We have learned the tragic news that a member of the SEO community has died. Tatiana Perebeinis was the chief accountant for SE Ranking, an SEO platform. 

Tatiana, 43, her two children (Alise, 9, and Nikita, 18) and another man were trying to evacuate from Irpin, Ukraine, when Russian forces fired on them, according to reports.

What happened

On Sunday, the New York Times documented the final moments of their lives.  (Warning: the article contains a graphic image and video of the mortar attack and the aftermath):

“As the mortars got closer to the stream of civilians, people ran, pulling children, trying to find a safe spot. But there was nothing to hide behind. A shell landed in the street, sending up a cloud of concrete dust and leaving one family — a woman, her teenage son and a her daughter, who appeared to be about 8 years old; and a family friend — sprawled on the ground.

Soldiers rushed to help, but the woman and children were dead. A man traveling with them still had a pulse but was unconscious and severely wounded. He later died.

Their luggage, a blue roller suitcase and some backpacks, was scattered about, along with a green carrying case for a small dog that was barking.

Ukrainian forces were engaged in clashes nearby, but not at the site where civilians were moving along the street. Outgoing mortar rounds could be heard from a Ukrainian position about 200 yards away.

The shelling suggested either targeting of the evacuation routes from Irpin, something of which the Ukrainian authorities have accused the Russian army after a railroad track used for evacuations was hit on Saturday, or disregard for the risk of civilian casualties.“

– Lynsey Addario, New York Times

Tatiana had not tried to leave sooner because she was caring for her ailing mother, according to New York Post.

Message from SE Ranking

Here is the complete post that SE Ranking shared via LinkedIn and Facebook, after learning about the death of Tatiana:

“We are devastated to say that yesterday our dear colleague and friend Tatiana Perebeinis, the chief accountant of SE Ranking, was killed together with her two kids by russian mortar artillery.

The family was trying to evacuate from Irpin – a small city right near Kyiv that has been left without water supply, electricity, and heating. 

There are no words to describe our grief or to mend our pain. But for us, it is crucial to not let Tania and her kids Alise and Nikita remain just statistics. Her family became the victim of the unprovoked fire on civilians, which under any law is a crime against humanity. 

The russian army are criminals, and they should be stopped. 

Our hearts are broken. Our prayers are for all Ukrainians, who are fighting for their right to exist.”

Community Reaction

The search community is heartbroken by this news. Here is just a small sampling of the comments from SE Ranking’s Facebook post. 

A large part of SE Ranking’s team are Ukrainian. They published a blog post, How You Can Help Ukrainians Today (SE Ranking Team Included), if you are looking for ways to help.

I’m also talking to the SE Ranking team to get additional details and comments on Tatiana, to help tell her story. I will update this article as soon as I hear back.

The post Member of SEO community and her two children killed in Ukraine appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Google has announced that the page experience update for desktop is now done rolling out. This update started to roll out on February 22nd and now, 9-days later, it is now fully rolled out.

Announcement. Here is Google’s announcement about the roll out of this update:

The page experience rollout is now complete for desktop.

— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) March 3, 2022

Page experience update for desktop. This update will include all the current signals of the mobile version of the page experience update, outside of the page needing to be mobile-friendly. Google said all of the page experience factors for mobile will be included with the exception of the mobile-friendliness requirement, which is kind of obvious. Here is a chart from Google showing the specific factors:

What is page experience? Google has a detailed developer document on page experience criteria but in short, these metrics aim to understand how a user will perceive the experience of a specific web page: considerations such as whether the page loads quickly, if it’s mobile-friendly, runs on HTTPS, the presence of intrusive ads and if content jumps around as the page loads.

Page experience is made up of several existing Google search ranking factors, including the mobile-friendly update, Page Speed Update, the HTTPS ranking boost, the intrusive interstitials penalty, safe browsing penalty, while refining metrics around speed and usability. These refinements are under what Google calls Core Web Vitals. Please note, Google dropped the safe browsing factor last year from the page experience update.

Search Console tools. Google has released updated page experience reports for desktop a few months ago. You can learn more about that report over here.

Don’t expect drastic changes. Google said with this rollout and this new Google update, do not expect drastic changes. “While this update is designed to highlight pages that offer great user experiences, page experience remains one of many factors our systems take into account… Given this, sites generally should not expect drastic changes,” said Google. We expect the same to be true for the desktop rollout.

Why we care. While I do not believe this page experience update was a significant update, where you probably did not see tons of sites’ rankings drastically change, those working towards improving their page experience have been primarily focused on their mobile pages. This one is focused on desktop and it was a shift that we did expect.

You should annotate your analytics and tools to note the update finished today.

The post Google page experience update for desktop done rolling out appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Link-building isn’t easy, especially if you want it to be done right (i.e., stay compliant with Google’s Webmaster Guidelines). Nevertheless, if your goal is to siphon more organic traffic through high search engine rankings, it is vital to study the intricacies of modern white hat SEO.

Stay tuned as we’re about to reveal ten actionable white-hat link-building tactics (and a couple of bonus ones) that you can use to start building high-quality backlinks today. The strategies we’ll be covering are not only proven to work today but also lay a solid foundation for what’s to come in the SEO landscape in the years to come.

And the best part? In our ultimate white hat backlinking guide, you’ll learn all you need to know to reach your organic traffic goals now and, in the future, as well as get educated about some of the common traps and pitfalls to avoid.

Right now, only thematically relevant backlinks are good enough to move the needle

Fast page load times and mobile-optimized websites are the essential cornerstones of modern on-site SEO, but for Google to rank you alongside the most trusted authorities in your niche, you will need to back it up with strong off-site SEO. Indeed, this means obtaining backlinks from thematically-relevant sources – Google sees this as a vote of trust. Think of it as “street cred” in your chosen niche.

In the past, the primary focus was convincing high-authority websites to link back to you. But nowadays, the topical relevance of the backlinks you build is arguably even more important than the raw authority of the website. Ideally, you would have a backlink cover both of these categories, but in practice, backlinking opportunities like this are hard to find. Therefore, your primary focus when building links should be on relevance – authority, while still important, comes second.

With this out of the way, what’s the ultimate strategy to conquer the search engine rankings the right way and hold them for the long-term, without resorting to any gimmicks or short-lived tricks? You’re on the verge of finding out!

Best link-building services

Before we move on to the best white-hat strategies in today’s SEO landscape, we’ll let you in on a secret and share a few words about why the following link building services can truly help you reach your SEO goals faster than any other method:

1. OutreachZ.com

OutreachZ.com is a self-service platform that acts as a middleman between backlink seekers and webmasters willing to publish your content on their blog. The marketplace is enormous and constantly growing. This is an excellent solution for SEO professionals who prefer to have more autonomy by taking matters into their own hands. It lets you choose the blogs you want to publish your content on (based on industry metrics such as DA and DR).

We picked the platform because it effectively solves your blogger outreach problems through a user-friendly interface. Because every blogger listed on the marketplace has been pre-vetted, you’ll save a ton of time contacting them and negotiating the terms of the deal. As long as you can provide well-written content that’s relevant to their niche, it’s almost impossible not to strike a deal – this is a win-win relationship between you and the blogger who has already expressed their interest!

2. RankZ.co

RankZ.co is a managed guest posting platform and one of the best link-building services to source highly relevant editorial links. Even if you know nothing about SEO, their friendly team of experts will take you by the hand and devise a custom-tailored SEO strategy just for you. Just like OutreachZ.com, RankZ has a broad database of bloggers from every niche who are willing to link back to you in exchange for quality content.

We picked it because it can help any website gain higher search engine rankings at very reasonable prices. Unlike some of its competitors, the managed SEO service provider chooses to take a personalized approach for every one of its customers. Before proceeding with the custom-tailored action plan, one of their experts will thoroughly analyze your website and make recommendations based on their findings. Thanks to their in-depth reporting, you’ll always know where you stand in Google, and every backlink they create will be listed there, right along with the relevant metric (DA, DR, and similar).

Best White Hat SEO link-building strategies

With this out of the way, you’ll learn what it takes to dominate the search engines without triggering the wrath of the algorithms:

1. Resource pages

MAIN IDEA: Writing in-depth resources on trending or niche topics that save time and are helpful will earn you the highest quality links for free.

Link type: Follow

When writing content, you should be willing to go above and beyond to help your audience in any way you can. If you take the concept of writing helpful resource pages and combine it with laser-focusing on trending topics that people are searching for, it won’t take much convincing for other people to link to you.

Moreover, since you’ll be utilizing the power of #hashtags that are trending when sharing your content on social media, people will organically flock to your website even before it starts ranking in Google. This can create a snowball effect as people are actively searching for the topics you’ll be covering. It’s like riding a traffic tornado – you’ll be giving them exactly the kind of content they’re starving for.

So, what is a resource page? In essence, it’s a comprehensive guide featuring helpful guidance on pressing matters (examples include COVID-19, the Ukraine crisis, and similar). Let’s say you decided to create a resource page on COVID-19 where you list a recap of the most important things the reader should know.

You will be covering topics such as:

• What are the symptoms?
• How to isolate properly?
• What should your first response be?

Other ideas:

• If you’re in the SEO niche: Write a post titled “200+ On-Page SEO Factors that Google Uses to Determine Your Ranking.”

• If you’re in the software/entrepreneurship/misc. niche: Write a post titled “200+ Free Websites to Download Free Legal Software.”

Finally, to make this concept truly work wonders for your SEO, you should start searching for other people’s posts on the topic and find out who’s linking back to them. You can use any suitable SEO tool of your choice for this task (Ahrefs is a great choice). Then, reach out to these webmasters and say something along the lines of:

“Hey, I noticed you linked to this post; we created a well-researched article that is even better, more in-depth, and covers more sub-topics. We spent a ton of time making the definitive and most comprehensive resource out there. Would you be willing to link to us instead?”

Even if you only get 1 out of 20 to respond, make no mistake – it’s well worth your time and effort. Keep in mind the backlinks you’ll get will be of the highest editorial quality. In fact, this is one of the top white-hat SEO strategies out there, and it’s not going against the will of Google but giving it exactly the kind of thing it wants to see instead.

By following the strategy explained above, everybody wins you, the webmaster, Google, and the readers.

• Link baiting: an alternative take on the above

Link baiting is a strategy you should use sparingly. But when executed correctly, it can bring you outstanding results. The premise is this: write something provocative or touch upon a sensitive topic and publish it on your website.

Be respectful and stay within the boundaries of the law, but other than that, say it like you mean it, and don’t pull your punches! This way, people will be compelled to reference your post to chime in, and the discussion can heat up well beyond the comment section of your blog.

This won’t always work, but when it does, your article or blog post can truly go viral. Plus, you can get a boatload of backlinks and traffic. A softer version of the same strategy is to post a discount on your products or services, which is also likely to attract links.

Get your creative juices flowing and think of other ways you could bait people into linking to your content. Anything related to politics, football, dating, and celebrity gossip is a good start.

In the beginning, however, your primary focus should be on getting traffic in the first place. This is the toughest part. Once your website starts getting the initial bout of traffic, the link baiting strategy can be a good way to expand upon the idea of “resource pages” and take it even further. 

2. Guest posting

MAIN IDEA: Gain powerful editorial backlinks in exchange for content

Link type: Follow

Guest posting simply works. It’s one of the most efficient ways to secure high-quality backlinks from virtually any niche of your choosing. If the webmaster takes you up on your offer, this effectively grants you access to high-quality editorial backlinks, which are some of the most powerful ones you can get. This is due to the following:

Firstly, these are content-based links. Google looks upon them much more favorably compared to, for example, backlinks that are placed in the footer or the sidebar. The reason being is that backlinks in those side areas are often not human-generated, whereas the ones placed in the middle of the content most likely are.

Secondly, content-based links imply a healthy amount of editorial pressure. In other words, it’s up to the webmaster to either approve your guest post or reject it, meaning it has to offer something valuable to the reader – otherwise, there would be nothing in it for the webmaster to publish it. By favoring editorial backlinks, Google promotes the distribution of helpful and well-written content. It’s a win-win arrangement for everyone involved! The webmaster gets amazing content for free for their readers to enjoy, and you get a powerful backlink.

Best of all, any blog in your niche could potentially be willing to link back to you in exchange for quality content. At this point, you’re presented with two options:

– You can start contacting bloggers on your own. However, bear in mind it’s a labor-intensive process, and it’s quite typical for the majority of your emails to go unanswered. Furthermore, although still effective, the strategy has been chewed to the bone as you’re not the first one to think of utilizing it. Bloggers these days can be very picky with regard to what they’re willing to publish, so you’re going to have to come up with the very best content to stand a chance and pass through their filters. And that’s not even mentioning the time it takes to compile a list of bloggers and email them one by one.

– In case writing and emailing people is not your cup of tea, you’re better off outsourcing it to a professional or finding the best link-building service with native writers on-board (like the ones we mentioned above). But be very careful who you entrust this task to! A no-name blogger outreach services provider could end up promising the sky and under-delivering, or worse yet, providing the wrong type of links that could harm your entire SEO campaign.

Long story short: in the SEO sphere of today, guest posting remains the holy grail of white-hat link building. At the same time, it also helps position you as the authority in your niche and grow your brand. Once your posts get published, don’t forget to count the highly targeted traffic your website will receive directly from the webmaster’s blog when people start clicking through your link. This can drive highly qualified leads immediately, even before SEO benefits start taking place.

3. “Parasite” websites (with high Domain Authority)

MAIN IDEA: Utilize high DA websites that can rank for low-to-medium competition keywords on their own

Link type: Nofollow

How would you like to ride the waves of another website’s authority and capitalize on its high search engine rankings? With the so-called “parasite” SEO strategy, you can quickly claim the top spots in Google for low-to-medium competition keywords.

There are numerous websites you can use for this purpose, with some of the best being:

– Medium

– LinkedIn Pulse

After registering, simply publish an article there, and the platform will let you insert a backlink. Granted, it will have the “nofollow” attribute, but the strategy is worth pursuing for the direct clicks your website will receive alone.

For example, let’s imagine you’ve written an article about “blue widgets” and published it on your main website. Do some keyword research and identify some related LSI keywords (typically, these will have a low difficulty). All of these long-tail keywords are perfect to write a supporting article for – inside, you will mention your website as a reference where they can learn more about the topic.

You could, of course, use the long-tail keyword strategy on your main website as well, but don’t expect a miracle in terms of search engine rankings if it’s new. Although you will eventually rank for your chosen keywords either way, know that “parasite” websites already have a high domain authority in Google and are thus much better suited for ranking quickly. Yes, even without building any additional backlinks to them at all!

4. Infographics

MAIN IDEA: Create eye-catching materials that people distribute without you even asking

Link type: Varies

Infographics have long been a closely guarded secret and a potent link-building weapon in the hands of the best link building services and their clients. Much like press releases, once created, infographics are the kind of content people will happily distribute on their own without you having to lift a finger, provided the content (and its presentation) is truly something remarkable.

Granted, not every topic will perform equally well, so you have to do your due diligence. In general, info-based topics that are packed with stats tend to perform well (hence the name “info”-graphics). When brainstorming ideas, make sure to think about what kind of statistics or facts would invoke the “WOW, I didn’t know that!” response in your readers. Because let’s face it – some statistics are just plain boring. And content that makes people yawn won’t get shared.

Last but not least, consider hiring a graphic designer for the job. Even though you could technically get away with doing it for free using Canva or similar template-based tools, it’s essential to create something eye-catching.

Note: in case you catch someone publishing your infographic without linking back to your site, kindly reach out to them and ask for a backlink. Most will be happy to oblige. But just in case, don’t forget to also include your logo and your main website URL in graphical form.

5. Broken link building

MAIN IDEA: Get a free backlink in exchange for fixing other people’s broken links

Link type: Follow

This backlinking strategy is severely underutilized, but if executed correctly, it could net you some high-quality editorial backlinks. In essence, it works like this:

First, do some thorough research and web crawling to discover whether any bloggers in your niche have published any articles with broken links in them. These can be broken due to typos, but sometimes, the domain they were linking to could have expired or is simply no longer hosting that content. Then, get in touch with them, notify them about the issue, and offer your website’s URL as a replacement (ideally, you’ve already published an article that covers this topic).

As you might have guessed, the hard part is locating these broken backlink opportunities, and if you were to do it by hand, you’d probably go crazy. The good news is, there’s a myriad of SEO tools you can use for this purpose, so this aspect of the equation is semi-automated and practically done for you.

If you’re planning to use this strategy, there’s something very important to keep in mind: don’t try to hide your intentions. Be transparent. Say that “yes, my goal is to get a backlink from you, but if you help me out, we both gain something from it.” The reason being is that you’re solving a problem they’re having, but for this to work best, the replacement URL you’ll provide truly has to contain the kind of content that will leave them breathless. Ideally, it should be better / cover the topic more in-depth than the original. To check out the old article that is no longer reachable or someone has taken down, you can use a free tool like Archive.org.

6. Email those who scrape your content and request they link back to you

MAIN IDEA: Instead of going after copyright violation, turn it into your favor and get a backlink

Link type: Varies

Stealing other people’s content is not only a copyright violation, but it’s also not recommended for SEO (duplicate content issues). Nevertheless, the internet is full of individuals who are utterly unaware of the fact, so expect them to do it regardless.

Even though you’d be 100% in the right to request they take down the content that legally belongs to you, might we suggest a better strategy? Instead of going at them hard, kindly ask them to link back to you as a way to say “thanks.” This way, they can continue using the content, but you’ll get something out of it as they’ll list your website as the source.

Don’t worry about their stolen article potentially harming yours. If you published the article before they did and Google crawled your website prior to crawling theirs, your version will be recognized as the original.

7. Press releases

MAIN IDEA: Raise brand awareness with PR articles that get picked up automatically

Link type: Varies (mostly nofollow)

Although Google claims to be ignoring links obtained by distributing press releases (after all, most of them will have the “nofollow” attribute), it’s unlikely these backlinks will hurt you. In fact, they are not only great for diversifying your backlink profile, but also for the purpose of growing brand awareness. If you get lucky and your PR articles get picked up by the right news outlets, you can even score some high authority “follow” backlinks along the way.

So how do you write an amazing PR article that has the best chance to get picked up by the media? In essence, structure your content in such a way that it addresses the following 5 big questions:

– What message are we conveying / what is our announcement?

– Who are we trying to reach?

– What’s in store for our target audience?

– When will it be launched?

– Who will be the one to deliver the message?

Of course, the exact questions can vary from niche to niche, but you get the idea. As long as you cover the “who”, the “what”, the “when”, the “where”, and the “why”, you should be in good shape.

8. Q&A websites

MAIN IDEA: Get direct traffic by sharing your expertise

Link type: Nofollow

Q&A websites are an under-utilized yet powerful tool to grow your online presence. Not only do they let you leave a link back to you inside your profile and answers, but they also help you establish yourself as an authority in your niche – provided that your answers are genuinely helpful. In other words, you’ll be placing your business directly in front of a highly targeted audience who’s looking for a solution, which is exactly what you need.

The leading Q&A websites in today’s web space are:

– Quora

– LinkedIn Answers

However, you need to approach them with the right strategy in mind – mindlessly throwing your website’s URL around won’t get you anywhere (and it may even get you banned from the platform). In fact, even directly linking to your products or sales pages is NOT recommended most of the time.

What you need to do is research the most common questions people are asking, categorize them, if need be, and write a blog post on your website that addresses them from various different angles. Now, you have a powerful free resource you can share with them if they want to learn more.

So, let’s say you come across a question that asks about X.

In your answer, you would do your best to answer that question to give the reader a good basic idea of what they need to do (but don’t go into the details too much). Then, at the end of your answer, you can say something to the extent of “if you’d like to learn how you can solve X, check out the detailed guide I’ve posted on my blog that answers your question even more specifically.” And inside that blog post (and NOT on the Q&A website directly), you subtly promote whatever products or services you’re offering.

Do you see the difference? By doing it this way, no one will ever flag your answers as spam – in fact, the readers will thank you for it. Moreover, these Q&A websites often rank very highly on Google, meaning you can legitimately piggyback off of their search engine authority and funnel a healthy portion of their traffic your way.

Although things may change over time, these will always be worth it for marketing purposes in one way or another. Even if they suddenly decide to make all of your links “nofollow” (or even prohibit you to insert links in the first place), it’s well worth it to participate as these may net you a handsome chunk of direct traffic.

9. YouTube

MAIN IDEA: Repurpose your content by turning it into videos that generate traffic

Link type: Nofollow

Video distribution sites like YouTube and Vimeo are fantastic for getting your content out there and generating some thematically relevant backlinks while you’re at it. Did you know YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine? It functions exactly like Google in many ways, with the main difference being its focus on video rather than written content. By uploading to YouTube, not only can you leave a link under every video you post, but you will also get direct traffic to your website from targeted visitors.

If you’ve ever published an article, you can repurpose it for all sorts of things, including turning it into a video. Feel free to use the content you’ve already written as a manuscript for your video or amend it slightly if you wish. At any rate, most of the hard work will have already been done at this point – now, you only need to figure out what video production/editing approach would work best.

If you’re camera-shy, there’s no need to put your face on the screen if you’re not comfortable with doing so for any reason. You can make a captivating video by using nothing more than a couple of PowerPoint slides or it can simply be you talking over an image background. As long as you’ve got a decent microphone at hand, you should be able to produce something in a matter of minutes. Alternatively, you could also outsource any part of the video creation process to a freelancer.

10. Blog commenting

MAIN IDEA: Get direct traffic by adding value to the discussion

Link type: Nofollow

Although blog commenting shouldn’t be your primary link-building strategy due to it yielding nothing more than “nofollow” links that don’t count for much, the best link building services still recommend using it in modesty. The reasons are twofold:

– It makes your backlink profile more diverse

– It helps you establish a brand in your niche

Keep in mind that the vast majority of these links will be “nofollow.” In most cases, your author’s name will appear as a clickable link you can use to link back to your website, but don’t try to shove your links inside the body of the comment (this will most likely cause the webmaster to delete your comment straight away).

To be successful with blog commenting, the trick is to find relevant blogs in your niche and, ideally, be the first to leave a comment. This way, you’re almost guaranteed to be noticed and may receive some direct clicks to your website, provided the comment you leave contributes something valuable to the discussion.

In other words, don’t just leave a comment for the sake of doing it. Comments like “hey there, great blog post” are not enough to get your comment approved – you have to do better! The goal is to invoke curiosity in the reader. If possible, try to use your real name with an avatar for your posts to have an added bit of legitimacy and to stand out more.

• Bonus strategy 1: Unlinked mentions

How many times has it happened to you that someone mentioned your name or brand, but it’s in plain text form rather than it being a clickable link? A pity you can’t do anything about it being hyperlinked… or can you? Listen: if someone decided to mention you in a positive context, chances are they will be more than willing to link back to one of your websites when asked nicely. And if not, try your luck with another person who mentioned you somewhere. With SEO tools (or Google directly), you’ll discover more of these unlinked mentions than you can chew on, especially if your brand is popular.

• Bonus strategy 2: Link reclamation

Not every backlink you’ve created will last for a lifetime. Sometimes, sites get taken down for a myriad of reasons, domains expire without being renewed, etc. But in other cases, they get removed deliberately by the webmasters. Chances are, at least one of the websites that used to be linking to you no longer does, and there are several SEO tools that can help you pinpoint precisely what those are. Then reach out to those people and ask if they could add it back. Be polite. Sometimes it’s a mistake on their end, or perhaps they decided to rewrite the entire article. Either way, it doesn’t hurt to try.

• Bonus strategy 3: Superior content

Have you ever stumbled upon a low-quality piece of content that had a ton of backlinks and couldn’t help but wonder how it got them in the first place? If you’re a part of the SEO industry, you’ll come across one of these sooner or later. Then, write an article on the same topic, but make it bigger and make it better. It has to be superior to the original in every way you can imagine. After it gets published, convince the webmaster to link to your article instead. If you’ve done your homework, this should be an easy win.

• Bonus strategy 4: Directories

Obtaining backlinks from directories is an old-school SEO strategy, and most of them will be “nofollow”. While this is unlikely to give you a substantial boost in your search engine rankings, it does serve an essential purpose – diversifying your backlink profile. Do you think it’s natural to have only the highest quality editorial backlinks pointing to your site and nothing more? Of course not. So go out there and claim these surefire victories, as small as they may be.

• Bonus strategy 5: RSS feed

Is your website powered by WordPress? Then you probably have an RSS feed already. In essence, this is a mechanism that broadcasts your newly published content to the world. Unfortunately, some will blatantly steal your content and republish it on their blog. But often, they’ll employ some sort of automation to do it, meaning they won’t bother stripping out any internal links you’ve left in there. So, make sure to insert them in your articles and mention other related content you’ve published on your website – it’s a good on-site SEO strategy you should consider utilizing either way.

• Bonus strategy 6: Spying on your competitors

A wide range of SEO tools allow you to check the backlink profile of any page you’re interested in, including your competitors’. Why would you want to do that? The reason is simple: to see where they’re getting their backlinks from. If they’re willing to link to your competitors, they’re likely ready to link to you as well, especially if your content is far superior. The next step is to identify backlinking opportunities – which webmasters should you reach out to first? Go through them one by one and you should be able to get a response eventually.

• Bonus strategy 7: Social media

Although any backlinks obtained from social media tend to be “nofollow” (Facebook, in particular, is set to “noindex”) and thus not likely to have a significant impact, it’s still a good idea to have them for multiple reasons. First of all, your backlink profile should be natural, varied, and diverse. By sharing valuable content on social media, not only do you get your brand in front of people’s eyes, but also foster healthy relationships with those who could end up becoming your loyal customers. You need to show them that you’re not just another faceless corporate entity; that there’s a real human face behind all of this, someone whose vision is to help others achieve their dreams and solve their problems. As a result, most will feel indebted to you and be more willing to do business with you – that’s the power of reciprocity.

• Bonus strategy 8: Our retailers pages

This method only applies if you’re running some sort of retail or eCommerce store. Simply make a list of the products you carry in your inventory and jot down your manufacturers and suppliers. Then, write them an email and inquire whether they have some sort of “our retailers” page. Ask if they could link to your e-store. Most will be willing to oblige.

• Bonus strategy 9: Tweak your redirects

In case you’ve restructured your website, it’s important to have 301 redirects pointing from the old URL structure to the new one. Without it, you’d be losing out on link juice from anyone who’s linking out to you. Of course, newly launched websites won’t have to worry about this problem, but if yours has been around for a couple of years, it’s good to have this in mind – a little tweak like this could do wonders for preserving your existing rankings.

• Bonus strategy 10: Testimonials

Bought any products recently that you’d have zero second thoughts endorsing? Send an email to their creators, share your love and enthusiasm for the product, and ask if you could write a testimonial for them. In most cases, you’ll also be able to provide a link to your website. This works two ways: their sales pages get more credibility and you’ve just scored a powerful backlink to your site. Nice!

• Bonus strategy 11: Free web-hosted tools

If you have a decent knowledge of coding, you could come up with a free tool and host it on your website. It could be something as simple as a calculator or as complex as an online scraper or SEO tool. These tend to attract quite a bit of organic backlinks. Alternatively, you could also hire a developer to do this for you, but bear in mind that, depending on the length and complexity of the project, it could end up costing you a pretty penny. Alternatively, it can be something creative: maps, tests, quizzes… you get the idea.

• Bonus strategy 12: Blogger reviews

If you have a product to give away, see if they would like to receive a free copy in exchange for a review. It’s quite easy to score some high-quality editorial links this way. However, be careful how you present the offer – it’s against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines to give out a product in exchange for a backlink directly.

• Bonus strategy 13: Get interviewed

Are you an established name in your niche? Perhaps you’re holding a Ph.D. or you’re a well-known athlete? Capitalize on your accomplishments by letting other people interview you. You can bet they’ll be happy to leave a link as well. And in case you’ve been interviewed before and haven’t had a website at the time, reach out to them and ask them to insert your link next to the podcast or interview.

• Bonus strategy 14: Start a petition

Is your niche about a passionate subject, something to do with human rights, perhaps? If there are people who believe in the same cause as you, they will do anything in their power to support it, including linking to it. You might even get featured in the media.

• Bonus strategy 15: Provide a transcription

There are many podcasts and videos online whose creators simply don’t have the time or resources to generate a transcription or provide subtitles. Offer to do it for them in exchange for a backlink.

11. The dos and don’ts of white hat SEO

Before we conclude our guide, here are some of the key points you should apply to your SEO strategy:

1. DO: Go after editorial backlinks

Editorial backlinks are placed somewhere in the body (as opposed to the sidebar or footer). For Google, this indicates that someone has placed the link there intentionally (as opposed to the link being auto-generated by some plugin or a script). Therefore, it acts as a vote of confidence and thus carries more weight.

2. DON’T: Overuse “exact match” anchors

In the past, overusing “exact match” anchors worked tremendously well and was used by many SEO experts as a shortcut to attain high search engine rankings in a relatively short period of time. However, ever since Google introduced its infamous Penguin algorithm update in 2012, this is a surefire way to shoot yourself in the foot and get penalized by the search engines. In other words, you’re 10 years late to the party!

3. DO: Focus on backlink quality rather than quantity

In SEO, quality goes a long way. Anyone can build thousands of spammy backlinks using automated tools, but nowadays, this will kill your rankings faster than you can say “cheese.” The ones you want to shoot for are usually the kind that are the hardest to get. 

4. DON’T: Worry about keyword density (too much)

Keyword density is another SEO metric that used to be relevant back in the day, but nowadays, its relevance is minimal at best. Yes, it’s important to mention your main keyword at least a couple of times but going above 2% in terms of keyword density could get your content flagged for “keyword stuffing.” Just don’t do it – Google is now smart enough to know what your content is about because it can understand its intent (read about the Hummingbird algorithm update if you’d like to know more).

5. DO: Build backlinks at a steady pace

As a general rule of thumb, it’s much better to spread out your backlinks over a long period of time than trying to get it all out there in a single day. Also, it’s normal for your search engine rankings to fluctuate as you do this, so there’s no reason to panic. The odds of witnessing this phenomenon are even greater if your website is new.

6. DON’T: Engage in link exchanges

You may be compelled to link back to someone in case they linked back to you due to common courtesy. But in reality, this could harm your SEO efforts. Google isn’t the biggest fan of link exchanges; it wants to see people linking to you naturally.

12. Conclusion

Off-site SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. As long as you focus on acquiring backlinks slowly and steadily, your search engine rankings will gradually improve. Consider working with the best link-building services to take some of the burden off your shoulders – building quality backlinks is hard work after all. In fact, it’s one of the most challenging aspects of SEO and it’s easy to mess up if you’re not 100% sure what you’re doing. Best of luck on your journey and may you get the search engine traffic your awesome products and services deserve!

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