How to Start Link Building for Your New Website?

Building links to your website, also known as link building, is one of the most important aspects of search engine optimization (SEO). High-quality backlinks from authoritative sites are like votes of confidence, telling Google that your site provides valuable information. The more quality backlinks you have, the higher your site will rank in search results. But where do you start when building links for a new website? There are some best practices and strategies that can help kickstart your link building efforts and earn backlinks that will boost your site’s visibility and authority.

The Basic Principles of Link Building

Before getting into tactics, it’s important to understand some core principles of effective link building. There are a few main types of links that are beneficial for SEO along with some key ranking factors related to links that should be kept in mind.

Inbound links are backlinks from other sites pointing to pages on your site. Quality inbound links are like endorsements, signaling to search engines that your content is worthwhile. Outbound links are links from your site pointing to external pages. Outbound links show search engines that your site is providing value by linking to authoritative sources. However, too many outbound links can leak “link juice” away from your site. 

Internal links connect pages within your own site together. Strong internal link structures help search engines crawl and index your site’s content more efficiently.

When building links, focus on acquiring backlinks from reputable, high-authority sites in your niche. A few quality backlinks from trusted sources are more valuable than hundreds of low-quality links from spammy or irrelevant sites. Some key ranking factors related to links that should be optimized include:

By keeping these principles in mind, you can ensure your link building efforts are positively impacting search visibility for the long term. Focus on quality over quantity.

Lay the Foundation with Valuable Content

The best way to earn quality backlinks is by creating useful, engaging content optimized with keywords your audience searches for. Long-form, in-depth content over 3,000 words averages over 77% more links than content under 1,000 words. Conduct keyword research using tools like Google’s Keyword Planner to identify topics and questions to answer in detail. 

Craft compelling headlines and use formatting like bullet points, charts, and images to make content more scannable. Promote your content on social media, email newsletters, etc to boost visibility. Content that resonates and gets engagement through shares and comments will naturally attract relevant links over time. 

Consistency in creating and promoting valuable content for your audience is key. Patience is required as high-quality links are earned gradually by providing consistent value.

Research and Analyze Competitors

Analyze top competitors using backlink analysis tools like Ahrefs, SEMRush, or Moz. Look for patterns in the sites, pages, and content linking to them. This reveals potential link building opportunities you can replicate. Specifically, identify competitor content ranking well and consider creating improved versions that would also be relevant for your site. 

For example, if competitors are guest posting on industry blogs, research those same blogs and pitch posts to them too. Since existing links show relevance, with equal or better content you can request they link to you instead. 

You should also compile a list of authoritative industry sites, influencers, and resources to pursue. Competitor analysis provides both tactical opportunities to model and relevant authoritative targets to link to your site. Pursue what works for them while giving your unique spin.

Develop a Link Building Strategy

A sound link building strategy should include a mix of both proactive and passive tactics. Here are some of the main methods you can incorporate:

Add Links

Manually adding links to other websites is one of the easiest link building tactics, but also arguably one of the least effective. This involves going to platforms like social media sites, directories, forums, and profiles and inputting your website link in the appropriate website field.

For example, you can add your link on sites like

The issue with these types of links is they are often seen as low-quality by search engines like Google. Since you create and publish these links yourself, they come across as self-serving. Google wants to see links given more editorially, rather than sites explicitly link building for SEO.

Asking for Links

Asking for links involves actively reaching out to other site owners and administrators to request a link. This is often done through email outreach, social media contact, or other direct communication.

Some best practices for asking sites for links:

Asking for links can generate high quality links, but only if done strategically. Spam outreach often backfires and leads to rejections or complaints. The key is to identify win-win opportunities that add value for both sites.

Buying Links

Purchasing links is extremely risky and not recommended, as search engines like Google will often manually penalize sites engaging in manipulative paid linking. However, there are a few legitimate paid options like Google Ads sponsored listings or sponsored influencer posts that add value for readers. 

Any paid links must be thoroughly vetted, as most sites forbid paid links in policies. Trade carefully, as potential downsides outweigh questionable benefits. Focus on earning links naturally through valuable content production and outreach over buying links. While faster, paid links put sites at risk of penalties. It’s safer and more sustainable to build links legitimately over time.

Earning Links

Source – Loganix

The most sustainable way to build links is by creating high-quality, unique content that provides value. Useful, relevant content will naturally earn links as site owners want to reference it. Promote your content through social media, PR outreach, influencers, and organic discovery to get it seen. 

Establish yourself as an industry thought leader by building relationships with media sites, reporters, bloggers, etc. Actively monitor prospects like competitors’ backlinks, guest posts, and broken links to get mentioned. Earning links through dedicated content production and promotion over time leads to authoritative backlinks search engines trust. This sustainable approach ensures long-term growth and visibility.

Outreach and Build Relationships 

The key to successful link building outreach is taking the time to foster genuine relationships, not just spamming link requests. Here are some best practices:

# Personalize all communication using their name, referencing previous content, and explaining link relevance to their audience.

# Provide exclusive value through content, quotes, data, or resources that benefit them.

# Follow up politely if no response to initial outreach.

# Establish authority by consistently creating great content and guest posting.

# Participate in online communities and build connections.

# Once earned, stay in touch with partners via social media, commenting, sending new offers, and linking to them.

The most effective link builders master the art of relationship development. They provide value rather than just asking for links. They politely follow up while respecting others’ time. And they focus on building connections that foster ongoing mutually beneficial relationships between sites. Patience and persistence pay off.

Tracking and Measuring Link Building Success

It’s crucial to closely track your link building efforts over time to determine what’s working well and what’s not delivering results. Here are some key metrics and methods:

# Use link tracking software to monitor new backlinks, link velocity, anchor text diversity, and referring domains. Google Search Console provides this data.

# Set goals for new referring/linking root domains gained per month/quarter. Measure over time.

# Monitor search ranking improvements to try to correlate with new links. But recognize other factors impact rankings too.

# Look beyond just link numbers to analyze the true business impact on organic traffic, conversions, sales, and revenue.

Continuously measure the results from your link building activities against key performance indicators and goals. This allows you to double down on what works and refine ineffective efforts. Patience is required to see the SEO results, but diligent tracking lets you optimize efforts.

Adapting and Refining Your Approach

Link building needs ongoing optimization and improvement. Look at what content and sources bring the most valuable visitors and sales. Then spend more time and budget getting links for those successful areas. 

Remove low-quality links from spammy or irrelevant sites. This protects your reputation with search engines. 

Use different anchor texts like branded, naked, and partial match. Don’t over-optimize with the same anchor text. It looks unnatural. 

Refresh your outreach lists and find new relevant sites and influencers to contact as you build relationships with more of your initial list. Expanding your prospect pool is key.

Consider expanding link building efforts to other sections of your site over time or building different link types. For example, start with homepage links, then resource pages, images, etc.

Brainstorm creative ways to develop new link worthy assets – such as tools, quizzes, research reports, etc – that influencers will naturally want to link to.

As your site and link profile grow, increase outreach scale. But maintain personalization and relationship building as you automate more outreach tasks.

The most successful link builders regularly audit what has worked well and what hasn’t to shape future efforts. They adapt and refine their approaches, leveraging data to guide optimizations. Ongoing flexibility, creativity, and improvement are the key.

Tactics to Get More Backlinks for New Websites

Here are some of the most effective tactics to get that initial momentum of quality backlinks for a new website:

Create Backlinks Pointing to Your Homepage

Your homepage is the central hub and most important page of your website. So it makes sense to try to acquire as many backlinks pointing to your homepage as possible. This helps send signals to search engines that your homepage and site overall are authoritative and valuable.

Establishing Link on Resource Page

Many websites have dedicated “resource” pages where they link out to other useful sites, tools, or resources in their industry. Getting a link on one of these pages is a great way to pick up a relevant backlink.

Identify websites in your niche that have resource pages and come up with a pitch for why your site would make a good addition. Emphasize why readers would find your content valuable. Offer to exchange the favor by linking back to their site from your own resource page.

Follow Skyscraper Technique

This technique involves identifying already successful content in your niche and creating something even more comprehensive and valuable on the same topic. Once you publish your new “skyscraper” content, you reach out to sites that link to the original piece of content and pitch them to swap out the old link for a link to your new, better resource.

The goal is to essentially make the old content obsolete with your superior version. By picking up the backlinks from the old content, you can give your new content and site a boost in authority and rankings.

That’s all for now folks! Hope, you have your valuable information by now. And if you have any other queries or have your own thoughts, don’t hesitate to comment below! I would love to hear from you and will try to answer your queries!