7 Effective B2B Link Building Strategies for Marketers
The B2B industry has exponentially grown and expanded in recent years. Companies have been launching new products and services while leveraging the latest technology and digital media to keep up with consumer demands.
When it comes to digital marketing strategies, search engine optimization (SEO) has become the most crucial for online visibility and site traffic—with link building an integral part of SEO.
According to a uSERP State of Link Building survey, 85% of marketers say that link building improves brand authority while 58% agree that backlinks have a major impact on search engine rankings.
That’s why B2B digital marketers are taking their SEO strategies to the next level. Aside from creating relevant content and optimizing their websites, marketers are aggressively reconsidering their link building approach to increase organic traffic, improve rankings, and drive user engagement.
In this article, we’ll cover specifically what SEO means, the importance of link building, and seven link building strategies to optimize your marketing performance.
Understanding B2B Link Building and SEO
Link building is an essential part of B2B marketing strategies. But before we go any further, let’s review some SEO basics:
What Is SEO?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the main pillars of digital marketing, which is aimed at increasing online visibility and website traffic. The ultimate goal is to get the top ranking on the search engine results page (SERP) so you appear on the first page of a user’s search query.
The SEO process involves:
- Optimizing a website (technical SEO)
- Writing relevant content with keyword integration (on-page SEO)
- Building an online reputation outside of your website (off-page SEO)
What Is Off-Page SEO?
Technically, off-page SEO refers to anything you do outside your business website. These include leveraging social media channels, posting guest blogs on other websites, signing up for business listings, earning online reviews, and more. It’s often associated with link building.
What Is B2B Link Building?
Link building refers to the valuable exchange of links between two websites. These include anchor text and hyperlinks that take you from one site to another. Below are basic types:
- Natural link. This happens when a content creator decides to link to your site because your content is valuable to them. It means that you haven’t done anything to earn this link. The editorial link is a worthy example of this.
- Built link. This link building tactic comes to your website through outreach. A perfect example is when you email website owners asking them to publish your content. Guest blogging is an example of this.
- Created link. This occurs when you submit content pieces to blogs, forums, press releases, or even directories. You do this without necessarily performing outreach.
An inbound link to your content can establish your site authority and boost your credibility. On the other hand, linking to credible sources can add value to your content or web page.
The Importance of B2B Link Building
B2B marketing comes with some obstacles and challenges as far as winning customers, which relies heavily on building strong client relationships and brand awareness. That’s why creating a robust link building strategy is of particular importance.
When implemented successfully, link building can result in the following:
- High SERP ranking
- A boost in online visibility
- Increased website traffic
- High site metrics like domain rating (DR), URL rating (UR), and PageRank (PR)
- High customer engagement
- Sales conversion
- Generate quality leads
Aaron Gray, the managing partner at NO-BS Marketplace, believes that link building does more than meets the eye. “Sure, link building does boost your SEO efforts. But on a specific note, it gives you authority, boosts your credibility, and builds your online reputation.”
Seven Top B2B Link Building Strategies
To optimize your SEO results, consider implementing these seven strategies into your link building practices:
1. Employ guest blogging.
Guest blogging is the act of writing content for another business website. Usually, you publish guest posts on industry websites consisting of readers or prospects. As your goal is to drive traffic to your website, include backlinks pointing to your web pages. It's an indirect way of promoting your business and products or services.
For your guest posts, choose websites that most B2B companies visit in your niche. Make sure you provide high-quality content relevant to your target market. You’ll be surprised at how your guest blogging can attract potential B2B customers and translate into sales conversions for your business.
2. Create expert round-up articles and listicles.
When it comes to content for both on-page and off-page SEO, it’s best to round up business experts, social media influencers, and industry thought leaders. Get insights from them and produce valuable content pieces.
You can create long-form content, listicles, guides, and infographics and post them on your blog. You can also share them on your social media pages with essential links. If not, get these content pieces published on industry websites as guest posts.
3. Build social media links.
In this time and age, social media is powerful. People don't only use these channels for personal interactions. Even entrepreneurs and digital marketers leverage social media for business purposes. And this applies to the B2B market as well.
With over four billion users worldwide, social media can offer your B2B company some potential customers. Create business pages for social media like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or YouTube. Regularly create and post content on these channels to drive B2B customers to your website.4. Create linkable assets.
What makes linkable assets? Technically, they refer to any part of your website that can be linked. Not only are they written articles, but they can also be striking images, compelling videos, data-laden infographics, and comprehensive e-books.
Linkable assets should be something people want to link to naturally. It may take time and effort to produce valuable resources for other business owners and digital marketers to use. However, this link building tactic can pay off, especially if people start leveraging your content.
When other businesses start linking to your content pieces, you can establish your site authority and build your business credibility over time. Hence, B2B companies should also focus on building linkable assets too.
5. Replace broken links.
Broken links are what they are. They are no longer beneficial to businesses and their readers or customers. However, your company can still take advantage of them. All it takes is to locate broken links and replace them with valuable ones.
Start using an SEO tool like the SEMrush Backlink Audit to find broken links. From there, reach out to the website owners and inform them about these broken links. Then, offer to publish your content with high-quality links. In the end, it’s a win-win for both parties.
6. Get interviewed on podcasts.
Another vital benefit of SEO is the diversity of practices and approaches. Leveraging podcasts is a unique yet beneficial approach to your link building strategy. As a business owner, you might have developed insights into the B2B market over the years.
It’s best to share these insights about the industry through podcasts. You can start by researching and creating a list of podcasts in your industry. See if they have business websites and check their domain authorities. If all look good and promising as high-authority sites, contact the hosts for interviews.
Once you become a guest on a podcast, you get featured on their website, as the podcast will be recorded, transcribed, and published. Ultimately, you’ll have a chance to attract potential customers for your B2B company.
Or you can create your own podcast! Check out how CIENCE utilizes YouTube to showcase its weekly Enterprise Sales Development Podcast:
7. Have your B2B included on business listings.
As a B2B company, you should not ignore having your business listed on third-party websites. For your SEO, start by signing up for Google My Business (GMB) with your name, address, and phone number (NAP) details. Other business listings include the following:
- Clutch
- SAP App Center
- Capterra
- Yelp
Business listings make your company readily available on the Internet. They can boost your online presence and even build your brand. However, ensure you provide correct information, get positive reviews, and earn high ratings. You’ll be surprised at how you can achieve web prominence through this.
Capitalize on B2B Link Building for Success
SEO is crucial to businesses looking to increase online visibility and site traffic. Specifically, off-page SEO helps boost the credibility, authority, popularity, and relevance of your B2B company. Hence, link building is a crucial part of the overall SEO equation.
Be sure to set objectives and key results (OKRs) for your SEO initiatives to gauge your link building performance, track your progress, and see actual outcomes. You should also consider outsourcing link building to the experts to achieve SEO results faster.
Capitalizing on link building as part of your SEO strategies can work wonders for your business. Not only will it increase your online prominence and site traffic, but it can also translate into overall B2B success.