Link Building Classics

In the link building world, there’s no shortage of new content. I’d wager there are hundreds of decent link building blog posts published every day.

After a while, though, it starts to seem like clutter. Many of the posts seem the same, and it starts to seem like all the good advice is starting to get watered down.

There’s still good content to be had, too. I’ve seen at least a few guides and case studies published in the last month, and I found them quite valuable.

But, at some point, it starts to get overwhelming.  That’s when I recommend looking at the classics.  Even in the days before Google, people were thinking about link building.

Many of them became our wisest experts and elder statesmen. Many of these people are still building links and still helping relative newcomers. With that in mind, I put together this living resource.

I’ll update it every once in a while, but this is a good start. Bookmark this post. The next time you need some clarity, or you just want to cut down on the clutter when you’re looking for new ideas and new inspiration, look to the past. I’ve found several posts by the world’s most respected link builders that still hold up today.

Think of it as Link Building’s Greatest Hits!

For the sake of my sanity, I’ve confined these posts to 2006-2012, but I might widen the range later on.

If you’ve never looked at any of this content from years gone by, you might be surprised at what you can still learn from the past. The next time you’re stuck and need some fresh perspective, look back a few years.

2006

101 Ways to Build Link Popularity by Aaron Wall and Andy Hagans

What You’ll Learn: This post includes 71 good ways to build links and 30 bad ways to build links. This post was originally published almost 10 years ago, but you’ll find everything here is right on the money.

You’ll learn about resource pages, local link building, reviews, lists, Quora, and more. A few of these tactics have fallen out of favor, but you should learn about all of them. Even though there are 101 link building methods mentioned, it’s not an especially long read.

Why It’s a Classic: Going by the old adage, I imagine this is the post that launched a thousand ships.

There’s so much information here, and it’s all good. Obviously Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird, and RankBrain weren’t around in 2006, so you need to use some common sense when applying these tactics.

But by and large, you could still bookmark this post and return to it whenever you need ideas. Aaron and Andy built this list long before the world of link building bloggers got way over saturated, so they learned all this by experience.

The hundreds of comments, which spanned three years, don’t hurt either.

Plus, there’s this:

10 years later, and they weren’t wrong.

5 Rare & Valuable Link Building Tactics By Rand Fishkin

What You’ll Learn: In this post, Rand talks about unclaimed brand mentions and talking to influencers. This is a short post, and back then these kinds of tactics weren’t commonplace.

Because this post is so short and uncluttered by eight years of diluting the message, you’ll understand these five tactics better than ever. It’s written in plain language and you can absorb it in under three minutes.

Why It’s a Classic: This is the genesis of a lot of what modern link builders and digital PR people do. The comments provide even more tactics.

Plus, it’s interesting to see early work by one of the strongest voices in current SEO and digital marketing.

2007

Link Building – How to Build Links for Free by WordStream (presumably Larry Kim)

What You’ll Learn: This is pretty much an all-encompassing, DIY link building guide.

It’s one of the earliest and most comprehensive guides that empowered SEO neophytes to get their hands dirty and do the work themselves.

You’ll learn about how link building works, why it works, and how to build links efficiently– and at low cost.

You’ll also see some of the many tips and tools people were using in 2007.

Why It’s a Classic: Besides the aforementioned information, this is still a great guide to internal linking. Even if the practices are a little different now, this post makes the concept clear. After you read it, be sure to cross-reference it with Moz’s more current internal linking guide.

If you know an absolute beginner who’s wondering about what link building is, have them devote 10 minutes to reading this post.  

Five Link Building Strategies That Work By Brian Clark

What You’ll Learn: Back in 2007, Brian Clark was already thinking about branding, social media engagement, and making sure your guest post links serve the reader.

He talks about linking to your best content instead of your homepage, and why that’s important from both a ranking perspective and a user perspective. He was also talking about influencer marketing and Reddit way before they were hot topics.

Why It’s a Classic: This post will show you just how much link building has changed in nine years.

CopyBlogger has always focused on high-quality content, but they couldn’t predict everything. Neither can I, and neither can you. Submitting dozens of posts to article directories is not something I’d generally recommend in 2016.

Though it seems Brian knew article directories were on the way out. It was 2007, and he was already talking about branding opportunities instead of spamming directories.

This post shows that tried and true link builders are often innovative thinkers. Plus, the first four tactics still work.

2008

B2B SEO: Link Building By Erik-Jan Bulthuis

What You’ll Learn: In this post, you’ll learn the harsh differences between Business to Consumer Link Building and Business to Business Link Building.

This passage explains something many link builders still struggle with, eight years later:

“There are less websites capable of linking to you. A B2B market is much smaller than a B2C market. Compare the travel market with the market of industrial pumping systems. The number of blogs in the travel sector is hundreds of times higher than in the sector of industrial pumps. This means it’s much more important to keep being friends with your linkerati. Keep in contact, comment on their blogs and give away a nice scoop.”

The post talks about finding suppliers for link building, how to run a B2B blog, and case studies. It all still applies today.

Why It’s a Classic: This post, for as old as it is, still gives great advice on how to create effective linkable assets for B2B sites.

If you’re struggling in a B2B niche, give this post a read.

Personalize Your Link Building By Julie Joyce

What You’ll Learn: Before inbound marketing was all the rage, Julie Joyce was talking about creating buyer personas.

Julie explains how to communicate with people. She starts it off from an academic perspective, but then starts focusing on practical communication.

Since link building is all about outreach, and outreach is all about communication, you’ll want to read this.

Why It’s a Classic: With a five minute read, Julie might change your entire perspective on outreach and communication. She talks about erasing preconceived notions and starting from scratch.

You’ll always need to approach people on their own level, and this post will empower you to do so.

A must for anyone who does outreach. This is truly a timeless classic.

2009

10 Goals For Link Building Campaigns: Moving Beyond “Get More Links” By Garrett French

What You’ll Learn: Building links just to build links is a waste of time. You have to know why you want those links, and you have to have a goal in mind.

In this post, Garrett tells the hard truth about what so many link builders get wrong.

He also tells you how to achieve 10 goals with your links: from rankings, to referral traffic, to naturalizing your link profile.

Why It’s a Classic: This post is an early example of someone championing the cause of long tail searches and long tail keyword rankings.

It will also explain how to achieve various goals, so the links you build becomes more targeted and, in effect, stronger and more valuable.

The 5 B’s of Bad Link Building: Borrowing, Begging, Bartering, Bribing and Buying By Pete Caputa

What You’ll Learn: This article was posted on HubSpot, and they invented the term “inbound marketing.” This is an early post that references link building as a purely “white hat” affair, and focuses on user experience.

In 2009, Pete saw the days of ranking real business websites with mass purchased links coming to an end.

For most businesses and legacy websites, these five Bs should still be avoided. If you’re unsure if the link you’re about to build might harm your website, reference this post.

Why It’s a Classic: This post warns against comment spam, spammy cold outreach, and easily traceable manipulative links.

Though you really can’t build links by sitting back and waiting for them to appear, Pete tackles many of the abusive, manipulative, and downright cringeworthy practices that were in style at the time.

Comments, outreach, and working with other webmasters are all still effective tactics, but this post will influence you to approach them the right way.

Recovering From Link Building Mistakes By Eric Ward

What You’ll Learn: In this post, Eric outlines some of the mistakes he’s made and how he’s learned from them. He also outlines mistakes his clients and colleagues have made, and touches on the fact that you rarely find a “perfect website,” as far as SEO and links are concerned.

He also expresses the value of doing link audits and link cleanups every now and again.

Why it’s a Classic: This an early example of someone talking about cleaning up after paid black hat links. Eric’s 2009 perspective on those paid links is basically the same as the industry’s perspective right now, in 2016.

Though some of the info here is a bit outdated, it’s valuable because it reminds you to do some spring cleaning every now and again. And it teaches that relying on your content, brand, and history is more fruitful than relying on shady tactics.

If you’ve made any link building mistakes, check this post out and clean up after yourself.

2010

Five Experts on SEO Link Building By Elisa Gabbert

What You’ll Learn: In this post, Julie Joyce, Ben Wills, Garrett French, Wiep Knol, and Debra Mastaler share their deep knowledge of link building.

You’ll learn what makes a good link, how to create a good linkable asset, how social media intersects with link building, and how you might be able to get away with buying links.

It’s also a quick read, which most expert roundups these days are definitely not.

Why it’s a Classic: This is an earlier example of an “expert roundup” and, as such, was still full of star power and brainpower.

Here’s a sample:

Although link building was by no means unknown, it wasn’t full of hundreds and hundreds of self-proclaimed experts. This post picks the brains of five amazing link builders, and their knowledge is valuable to this day.

Link Building with Google Alerts: A Guide By Ross Hudgens

What You’ll Learn: As the title implies, you’ll learn to build links with Google Alerts.

This mostly focuses on unclaimed brand mentions, but it’s as thorough a guide as you’ll ever find.

If you don’t already have Google Alerts set up for your business or website, this post will convince you.

Why it’s a Classic: This guide offers so much more than just “set up a Google Alert.” It goes deep, and provides examples for valuable alerts you’ll want to know about. It also teaches you to harness what you find with those alerts.

You’ll never look at misspellings the same way again.

8 Ways Backlink Analysis Can Offer Competitive Intelligence By Eric Ward

What You’ll Learn: What’s in a link?

According to “Link Moses” himself, you can learn a lot from simply studying links.

This post is about analyzing your competitor’s backlinks, but it goes deeper than simply following in their footsteps.

Back in 2010, Eric found some surprising takeaways from hours of link analysis. My bet is they can still help you now.

Why it’s a Classic: This is one of those post that just digs deeper than most. It’s not an especially long read, but it helps you think about your competitor’s links in a different way.

Here’s a great passage:

“When you discover 12 different blogs all “reviewing” the same product or website, the odds are you just found a competitor paying for product reviews.”

Need I say more?

10 Questions to Learn Your Niche By Julie Joyce

What You’ll Learn: If you don’t understand your niche, you’ll never reach your full link building potential.

Julie Joyce touches on target demographics, jargon, finding the right social media platforms, and finding the right tactics for your niche.

If you’ve ever hit a brick wall and wondered why no one will link to you, give this post a look.

Why it’s a Classic: Julie has a great way of looking at things. Instead of aggressively pursuing links with a blunt force approach, she’s more thoughtful.

It’s much easier to build links when you’ve done your research, and when you’re truly a part of your niche’s community.

This post takes an excellent look at the human side of link building.

2011

53 Broken Link Building Resources  By Garrett French

What You’ll Learn: This roundup post gives you every piece of information and every tool you need to conquer broken link building.

Why it’s a Classic: This is an early example of a definitive, no-baloney guide. You just look through the link list, find what you need, and apply it. There’s not much more to say here. If you want to focus on broken link building, I doubt you’ll need much more than what’s in this post.

A Link Building Blueprint: The Foundation by Debra Mastaler

What You’ll Learn: Debra outlines how to make a solid foundation for your link building efforts.

She talks about associations, local directories, and more. If you used this in combination with my Ground Zero technique, I bet you’d have great success.

So, this came around five years ago, and it still pairs well with a tactic I’ve been using recently. That should attest to its quality.

Why it’s a Classic: Beyond her wise advice in this article, Debra offers a ton of other resources. This is good, solid advice on building links when you’re just starting out. There’s nothing about creating a huge piece of content or a fancy infographic. It’s just good, basic advice that every small business website link builder should follow.

She actually gives actionable advice on how to find success with DMOZ, as well. Not many people succeed at DMOZ these days– but armed with Debra’s advice, you just might.

2011

Link Building Tactics – The Complete List By Jon Cooper

What You’ll Learn: You’ll learn about any and every conceivable link building tactic you’ve ever heard of, and many you have not.

This is one of those be-all, end-all posts that only comes up every once in a while and because I like it so much I have the archive version bookmarked.

Why It’s a Classic: For my money, this is a post every link builder should have either bookmarked or printed out. Whenever you’re hurting for ideas, come back to this. Whenever you want an entry point to further reading, reference this list.

If you’ve been building links but have never read this post, you’re in for a real treat.

Can you think of any posts from 2006-2012 that deserve to be included here? Let me know in the comments.