Link building is a crucial part of search engine optimization. A strong link building strategy is absolutely necessary for brands to drive growth and generate traffic. Ultimately, a strong link building campaign will help your pages rank more highly in Google's search results. If you aren't using links as part of your SEO strategy, you are missing out on valuable organic reach.

This post will outline the steps to build a successful link building campaign in 2019. By integrating these tips into your linking strategy, you'll not only rank more highly on search engine results pages, but get more referral traffic to your site and build content authority. 

Step 1: Outline Your Target Audience

If you want your audience to get larger, you need effective strategies to reach new people. Understanding your current audience and your ideal reader is the first major step to create a successful link building campaign.

Ask yourself two questions about your average reader or shopper:

1. Who is reading my content or buying my product right now?
2. Who does my ideal customer or reader look like?

Imagine a small company that specializes in selling athletic shoes. Their initial audience may consist of professional athletes who use the shoes to compete, but they may wish to expand their reach into casual wearers. By outlining its current customer base and its ideal shopper, this hypothetical brand more closely understands their audience's needs.

How does this relate to your linking strategy?

Simple: by understanding your current and ideal audience, you can adapt your content to a new group of people. Adapting your content is the key to reaching new readers who wouldn't otherwise connect with your brand.

Step 2: Research Websites That Appeal to Your Ideal Audience

Now that you know who you're creating content for, you can tailor your linking strategy. Your main goal is to find websites that create content for the types of people you want your brand to attract.

The idea behind link building is to put your brand in front of people who are interested in your products or content. If you aren't working with websites who appeal to your ideal audience, you'll be less likely to attract readers to your site.

The solution? Find brands and websites that create content for the types of readers you want to attract. It won't serve your link building campaign to work with websites who target a different ideal audience than your own.

Step 3: Write Powerful Content

Before any website can link to your brand, you need to create content that can link to. But you can't expect them to link to any run-of-the-mill article - you should create powerful, one-of-a-kind content that appeals to your audience and offers value.

How can you create content that wins backlinks every time?

Try building “ power pages” for your site. What are Power pages?

A power page is an article or blog post that offers long-form, in-depth content that encourages comments, shares, and interaction. Power Pages stand apart from typical blogs because they offer value beyond that of a standard 500 word post. Google prefers long form content when it ranks pages, so power pages are at a distinct advantage when it comes to search engine optimization.

Adam White, founder of SEO Jet, says in this article (https://seojet.net/blog/backlink-strategy-that-works/) that it is crucial to have power pages on your website. He explains that a power page has amazing content from beginning to end, is at least 2,000 words long, and is so thorough and helpful that people feel the desire to leave comments on it. If you aren't writing powerful content, you'll have a hard time making an impression when you reach out to other websites for linking opportunities.

By creating power pages, you can lay a strong foundation for your link building campaign and create more potential organic reach.

Step 4: Reach Out to Relevant Brands and Websites

Remember the list you made in Step 2? Now that you created exciting content that helps your brand stand out from the competition, it's time to reach out to other websites about link building opportunities.

Start by finding the person in charge of the site's content strategy and send them an email, contact them on social media, or give them a phone call to discuss your proposition. Tell them about your content, your product, and your message, personally asking if they will link to your site or feature you in a future publication. Link building can involve a lot of trial, error, and rejection. 

By identifying your target audience, creating powerful content, and consistently reaching out to other brands and websites in your niche, you can create a valuable network of backlinks to establish authority for your pages. The key to a successful link building campaign is to be persistent and to pay attention. What's working for you? What isn't working? Continue tailoring your content as you learn which strategies attract links and which improve your Google ranking, and you will build a powerful backlinking strategy that increases your online reach without paying or advertising.