Link building is a quintessential exercise, not only for effective search engine optimization but the overall content marketing strategy. Many people fail to realize the power of exposure and subsequently readership. If your content has backlinks across dozens of websites, then your outreach is going to be phenomenal. This may not immediately boost your webpage to the first page of search engine results but you are succeeding at reaching out to a much larger audience. The trouble with link building and especially with backlinks is the uncertainty of the whole process.

You may employ various tactics and yet your content may not attract any backlinks. It has happened with almost every content creator, marketer and webmaster. People are spammed with hundreds of emails every day. Webmasters are bombarded with unsolicited emails and they often end up deleting whole bunches of messages in their inbox. Not only do you need your content to attract backlinks, you also need quality links from authority sites.

Promote Unique, Informative and Helpful Content

Good content is a subjective description. The content on a webpage, an article, a blog post or an info-graphic may be good as per your assessment. It may not be as good for another webmaster. There should be some value for the webmaster and for their readers or target audience for any content to be actually good. Unique, informative and helpful content is deemed valuable. Ensure this and your content will entice some webmasters.

Plug Relevant yet Distinct Content for Quality Backlinks

Your content may be unique, informative and helpful. Yet, it may not entice webmasters you reach out to. This could be due to one or several reasons. The content may be irrelevant for the webmaster. Every webmaster will prioritize the interests of their target audience. They want to offer something of value to their readers. Your content may be valuable but might not be for the target audience of a specific webmaster. Do not plug your content to such a webmaster. They will simply ignore your email and you will be wasting your time.

Ensure relevance and then check if the website already has the kind of content you are trying to generate backlinks for. Your content may be addressing the same issues that have already been discussed and resolved on the website where you want the backlinks to be inserted. No experienced webmaster will want to clutter their website with similar contents. You must find relevant websites and then you should ensure your content is distinct. Only then will webmasters find the material to be worthwhile for a backlink.

Good Content is Not Necessarily Link-Worthy

You may be aware of the concept of a link wheel. If you have been working on link building and backlinks, then must have tried to develop a link wheel. It is not exactly a cyclical apparatus where readers get redirected from one piece of content to another, only to return to the original. A link wheel basically facilitates progression. It is kind of a sales funnel but more about information than offers. A link wheel takes a reader from a generic resource to a specific guide, then to a comprehensive study or comparison and finally delivers the resolution. It is not very different from qualifying a lead, converting it into a potential customer and then going all guns blazing to sign them up.

Not all good content is link-worthy. For any webpage to be referred to on a host site as a backlink, the content must be somewhat in sync with what is already presented on that page. There are far too many websites today that use content delivery networks and the links are totally irrelevant. A reader who is not on a browsing spree has specific interests. There may not be a lucid objective but a certain preference will drive their browsing pattern. No user will randomly check out a link if it does not benefit them. Content can be link-worthy only when you choose the right host sites, come up with relevant and distinct pieces but in sync with what readers are accessing on those websites, then deliver more useful information and drive traffic to your webpage or site.

Find Suitable Host Sites and Like-minded Webmasters

There are many tools available now for you to use and discover suitable host sites. You can rely on metrics to ascertain their popularity, search for relevant keywords to know if they are relevant for your niche and you must also find prospects that do not score very well using standard parameters. There could be a great website targeting the same audience as you that is yet to rank well but there may be an untapped readership already. Metrics do not lie but your own assessment of a quality website should also matter. While many webmasters constantly rue about the quality of backlinks they are nagged with, most do not realize that their own contents may not exactly be topnotch.

As a link builder, you want backlinks to be placed on quality websites where the readership is relevant for your eventual objectives. Factor this in when you ascertain the suitability of host sites. You should also try to find likeminded webmasters. It is difficult but not impossible. When you find a webmaster who has similar goals as yours, you can trigger a camaraderie that could go well beyond the customary emails. Many webmasters team up to come up with a collective link building strategy. This can work wonders if websites with a similar target audience are plugging related backlinks but promoting different products and services. Every target audience has distinct preferences but do require related products and services.

Outreach and Follow-up

Your content will not attract enough backlinks after you blast out one set of emails. You cannot keep sending emails to the same webmasters every day. You should have an outreach strategy. It should be well planned and carefully calibrated. When a webmaster has been sent the same email thrice or five times, you should change the content of the email or employ a different tactic to entice them. Likewise, you should have a follow-up strategy. Do not presume all webmasters who are not responding are ignoring your emails. Perhaps some are reading the content but are not convinced for a reason. Follow-up with clarity and they may respond. The whole process is one painstakingly complex exercise but you have to endure it to secure quality backlinks for your content.