Link building is a process in search engine optimization (SEO) that involves getting other websites to link to your website.
These links, also known as backlinks or inbound links, act as “votes of confidence” for your website, indicating to search engines that your site is valuable and trustworthy.
Link building is important because search engines, such as Google, consider the quantity and quality of backlinks when determining a website’s authority, relevance, and ranking in search results.
This article will discuss 7 of the best affiliate link-building strategies you should know about as an affiliate marketer.
Furthermore, we have gathered valuable perspectives from three link-building professionals: Gert, an experienced SEO and link-building consultant; Brian, a seasoned link-building expert; and Alwyn, a skilled manager of successful link-building campaigns.
Why building backlinks to your affiliate site should be a top priority
There are countless advantages to having a solid backlink profile on your affiliate site, but here are three of the most important benefits of a well thought through link building campaign:
1 Referral traffic and potential customers
Backlinks can drive direct referral traffic to your affiliate site. They generate targeted traffic relevant to your niche.
When users click on a link from another website that leads to your site, they are more likely to be interested in your service or product. The result? Higher-quality traffic with a greater chance of converting into potential customers.
2 Competitive advantage
In the competitive world of affiliate marketing, building quality backlinks can give you an edge.
A strong backlink profile with authoritative links can help your site stand out from the competition and gain an advantage in search rankings, resulting in more traffic, more customers, and, ultimately, more revenue.
3 Long-term benefits
Once a backlink is established on a reputable website, it can continue to drive traffic and benefit your site’s SEO for a long time, even if you don’t actively pursue new backlinks. This makes link-building a valuable investment in the long-term success of your affiliate site.
7 of the Best link building strategies
Now that you have a better idea of the benefits of link building let’s now break down the top affiliate marketing backlink strategies.
1 Skyscraper technique
The basic idea of the skyscraper technique is to identify existing content in your niche that has already received a significant number of backlinks, and then create a similar but superior piece of content on your own website.
This could involve making your content more comprehensive, up-to-date, visually appealing, or otherwise more valuable to users compared to the existing content.
Once your content is created, you reach out to the websites linked to the original content and pitch your improved content as a resource they may want to link to instead.
The skyscraper technique requires thorough research, quality content creation, and strategic outreach to be effective.
It can be a time-intensive process, but when done correctly, it can be a successful strategy for building high-quality backlinks and improving your website’s SEO performance.
Here’s how to do
Let’s say you run an affiliate website that promotes camping equipment. (We’ll run with the camping website theme in each of our examples)
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First, you need to identify a piece of content in the outdoor/camping/nature niche that has already received a significant number of backlinks from authoritative websites.
For this example, let’s say you found a blog post listing the Top 10 Camping Gadgets Every Adventurer Needs and has earned many backlinks.
Next, you can create a similar but improved piece of content on your own website, something to the tune of 12 Camping gadgets you can’t do without.
Your new piece of content should be more comprehensive, up-to-date, visually appealing, or otherwise more valuable to users than the original content.
After publishing your new piece of content, you can reach out to the websites linked to the original content and pitch your improved content as a resource they may want to link to instead.
You could mention the additional gadgets you’ve included in your list, the expert opinions you’ve consulted, or any unique insights your content provides.
This is not the first time we’ve covered the skyscraper technique. Check out our other article here.
2 Broken link building
Broken link building is a proactive approach to link building that involves identifying broken or dead links on other websites, reaching out to the website owners, and suggesting your own content as a replacement for the broken link.
It’s a strategic and creative approach to building backlinks by turning a negative (broken link) into a positive (a new link to content on your own site).
The process typically involves finding websites in your niche with relevant and authoritative content but also broken links pointing to external resources that no longer exist.
You then create high-quality content on your website that is relevant and valuable to the website’s audience and could replace the broken link.
Here’s how to do it
Begin by identifying a popular website in the camping niche with a resources page with a broken link to a camping gear-buying guide.
Then you need to identify the broken link.
Use a tool like Dead Link Checker or Ahrefs, and scan the resources page of the camping website to identify any broken links. Let’s say you find a broken link that was originally pointing to a camping gear-buying guide on another website.
Next, create high-quality content.
You can create your own comprehensive and up-to-date camping gear buying guide on your own website. Make sure it provides valuable information and is relevant to the camping website’s audience.
Lastly, reach out to the website owner by politely notifying them about the broken link on their resources page.
You can mention that your website has a relevant and high-quality camping gear-buying guide that could be a suitable replacement for the broken link.
Provide your content as an alternative. In your outreach, you can offer your camping gear buying guide as an alternative resource for their audience, highlighting the value it provides and how it can benefit their readers.
Be sure to personalize your outreach and show genuine interest in helping the website owner improve their resources page.
Side Note: Working along with a link building agency
A skilled and experienced SEO professional can bring a wealth of expertise and resources to the table, including in-depth knowledge of the best practices, access to premium tools, and established relationships with website owners.
They can handle the time-consuming research, outreach, and negotiation process while ensuring that your campaign follows ethical and effective strategies.
By entrusting your broken link-building campaign to a professional, you can increase your chances of success, save time and effort, and achieve better results in building high-quality backlinks for your website.
3 Resource page link building
Resource page link-building is a strategy that targets websites with resource pages, which are curated lists of valuable and relevant content or tools related to a specific topic or industry.
The goal is to get your website or content featured on these resource pages, typically through outreach or networking, to gain valuable backlinks to improve your website’s authority and visibility in search engines.
Resource page link building can be an effective way to increase your website’s link profile and drive targeted traffic to your site.
Here’s how to do it
Start by identifying websites in your niche or industry that have resource pages.
Once you have a list of pages, create quality content related to your affiliate products or services.
Then reach out to the website owners, expressing interest in their resource page and offering your content as a valuable addition.
Remember to personalize your outreach message to show that you have reviewed their resource page and explain how your content would be a relevant and valuable resource.
4 Guest blogging
Guest posting is a practice where you write and publish articles on other websites as a guest author, with the goal of obtaining backlinks to your own website.
By guest posting, you can create valuable content for websites in your niche or industry, and in return, you may be allowed to include links back to your own website within the article or in your author bio.
This can help you increase the visibility of your website, drive targeted traffic, and improve your website’s authority in the eyes of search engines.
Here’s how to do it
As an affiliate site owner selling camping gear, you can use guest posting to gain backlinks by creating content related to camping, outdoor activities, or any other topics relevant to your products.
First, you must identify potential guest posting opportunities by finding authoritative websites that accept guest posts in your niche. You can use Google, social media, or online directories to find these websites.
If you’re unsure about which potential websites to reach out to, just look at this article, where we went into more detail on How to Find the Best Websites to Contact.
Once you have a list of potential websites, you can start creating high-quality, informative, and engaging content that adds value to their readers. For example, you could write an article about “10 must-have camping gear items for a memorable outdoor experience” or “5 best camping recipes for a campfire cookout.”
In your article, you can include a link back to your affiliate site in a non-promotional way, such as in your author bio or as a reference to a relevant product. This will allow readers to click through to your site and potentially make a purchase.
After writing your article, you can reach out to the website owner or editor and pitch your idea for a guest post.
If the website owner accepts your pitch, you can send them the article and wait for it to be published.
Remember that once the article is published, you can promote it on your social media channels and link back to it from your own website, which will help you gain additional exposure and backlinks.
5 Use social media platforms to build and generate backlinks
Have you considered using social media to create backlinks for your website?
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If not, it’s not too late to start. According to one source, more than 4.89 billion people currently use social media. (1)
That’s right, over half of the global population uses social media in some shape or form. In 2024 we tweet, like, subscribe, upvote, and hashtag more than ever before.
So harness the power of social media to your advantage and generate relevant links that will reach your target audience.
Here’s how to do it
Create high-quality and engaging content that adds value to your audience. This could be in the form of blog posts, product reviews, how-to guides, or any other content relevant to your niche and target audience.
Next, share your content on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn, along with a short description and a link back to their website.
This will allow your followers to click through to their site and potentially make a purchase.
Remember to engage with your followers by responding to comments, sharing user-generated content, or running social media contests or giveaways. This will help build relationships with their followers and increase their social media reach.
As your content gets shared and liked on social media, it can attract the attention of other website owners or bloggers in the same niche, who may link to your website in their own content or blog posts.
This helps you to create an affiliate network – a sure way to gain more affiliate sales in the long run.
6 Make Easily Shareable Graphics
Creating shareable graphics can help you to gain backlinks by increasing the visibility and appeal of your content, making it more likely to be shared and linked to by other websites.
When you create high-quality and visually appealing graphics, such as infographics, charts, or diagrams, you can use them to illustrate and explain complex topics or data in an easy-to-understand and engaging way.
This can make your content more valuable and informative to your audience and more likely to be shared on social media platforms or other websites.
As your graphics get shared and linked to other websites, they can generate backlinks to your own website.
This is because other websites may use your graphics as a reference or source of information in their own content and include a backlink to your website as a credit or attribution.
Here’s how to do it
Use online tools and platforms like Canva or Piktochart to create visually appealing graphics and add your branding and logo.
Once you have created your graphics, you can share them on your website and social media channels and reach out to other websites and bloggers in your niche to offer them as a resource or reference.
This can help you build relationships with other website owners and increase the chances of your graphics being shared and linked to other websites, resulting in valuable backlinks to your website.
7 HARO
Help a reporter out, or Haro is a link-building strategy that can potentially boost any affiliate marketing site.
SteveCole Images / Canva
With the Haro network, you can achieve backlinks from extremely high-authority websites. These high-quality links are very sought after as they often impact a website’s ranking more than other smaller website backlinks.
Haro connects journalists and content creators with sources of information and expertise. By signing up as a source on the HARO website, you can receive email notifications of journalist queries related to your industry or niche.
Here’s how to do it
Begin by signing up as a source on the HARO website. You can then receive email notifications of journalist queries related to your industry or niche.
To use HARO for building backlinks, you can respond to relevant journalist queries and offer your expertise or insights on the topic they are writing about. If your response is selected and included in the article, you can get a backlink to your website as a source of information or reference.
For example, if you are an expert in camping gear and a journalist writes an article about the best camping gear for a specific season, you can respond to the query with your recommendations and insights.
If the journalist includes your response in the article, they may also include a backlink to your website as a source of information.
With so many link-building experts using Haro as a source of links, it can take a lot of work to build links with this strategy. If you need help building links using this strategy, consider asking for help from professionals.
FAQ:
How can I create an affiliate link for my website?
To create an affiliate link for your website, join an affiliate program, receive a unique tracking ID or link from the program, and add it to your website or content.
This allows you to earn commissions for any purchases made through your affiliate link, helping you monetize your website and earn passive income.
What is link building in affiliate marketing?
Link building in affiliate marketing is the process of obtaining external links from other websites to your affiliate website.
These links help drive referral traffic to your site and improve your search engine rankings, increasing your visibility and ultimately leading to more affiliate commissions.
Can I monetize an affiliate website?
You can monetize an affiliate website by earning commissions from the products or services that you promote.
To monetize your site, sign up for affiliate programs relevant to your niche, create high-quality content, including affiliate links, and drive traffic to your site through SEO, social media, and other marketing strategies.
How profitable are affiliate links?
The profitability of affiliate links depends on various factors, such as the commission rates offered by the affiliate program, the quality of your content, the relevance of your affiliate products to your audience, and your ability to drive traffic to your site.
With the right strategies and consistent effort, affiliate links can be very profitable, generating a significant passive income stream for your business.
What is a good link-building strategy?
A few white hat link-building tactics involve creating high-quality content that naturally attracts backlinks, creating infographics, reaching out to authoritative websites for guest posting opportunities, and leveraging broken links by finding and fixing broken links on other websites.
These tactics can help improve your website’s authority, visibility, and search engine rankings, increasing organic traffic and potential conversions.
Article Sources
1 – Statista