When considering Link Building Strategies for B2B, your focus should be on the percentage and numbers that you derive as a result. This is calculated as ROI (Return on Investment). Without proper measuring metrics, any link building strategy devised globally will fail. Let’s take a look at some of the strategies you should implement in B2B verticals.
Starting Off:
Before you begin, consider the factors that might influence how you implement a strategic decision in your business. This may include cost, feasibility, inventory limitations, resource limitations, and ability to plan ahead. Worst-case scenarios that might crop up in the middle of link building need to be considered too. It’s always good to be prepared for the worst so that you don’t get surprised at any point. In this, you should consider the below points when working on a strategic plan.
- Feasibility of your model
- Current business scenario
- Duration of your link building process
- Competitor analysis
- Measuring metrics
Based on the above, you should be aware of the strategies that are employed in link building.
- Building Quality Links & Link Exchange
- Scholarship Link Building
- Affiliate link building
- HARO
Now that we have established the factors that influence your link building strategies, let’s go through them one by one to understand the kind of role they play in your B2B strategy.
Feasibility of your model
Market conditions, inflation, trends, and real-time analytics hold true when it comes to link building strategies for B2B. These provide you with an eagle’s eye view of your plan and how it will fare in the current market. If you aren’t planning it for the global stage, you will end up making a fragile plan that will shatter at first impact. There have been many unconventional plans that have shown some success. While they might not suit your budget or vision, you can get input from them either on what to avoid or what to implement.
Feasibility is basically planning on how successful your link building will be in the long term.
- Will it sustain with the amount of effort you place in it, or fall due to lack of action?
- Should you plan your finances around it, or will it sustain itself?
- Will it be a gigantic task taking care of it, or will it take care of you?
This might sound silly, but these questions will help you look and work long-term. Always ask yourself how your plan is going to thrive and not just exist. Most businesses work on a deadline-based model and are relieved once deadlines are achieved. They fail to consider the fact that their business has to go on and not just stop at one milestone.
Current Business Scenario
Analysis of current market conditions will help you plan safely. If you are an avid reader of marketing and business journals, you would probably have the upper hand when it comes to looking for opportunities in niche markets. B2B plans work well with business owners who have foresight. This is just a matter of setting your budget in front before taking up any link building project.
When you have a proper link building agency that can work within your budget and provide you with steady results, your business becomes all the better with sustainability as its prime focus.
Market conditions are a great indication of how far your link building can take you. Ethical white hat link building will get you better results in the long run. Such legally approved practices will help you stay clear of the rush towards temporary and volatile results.
Link building can throw light on your business and maybe place it in the limelight too. The authority, value, and reputation you gain from link building are second to none when it comes to critical market positioning. Moreover, B2B websites get a lot of traffic which, if directed properly, will lead to a sharp increase in conversion rates.
Duration of your link building process
Link building can give you success in a short span of time. But stabilizing the results will take time as your results depend on how search engines treat your site. Besides, the amount of effort that goes into the process is proportional to the results that you get. Link building for B2B sites will definitely take some time since you need to analyze the target audience and keywords and jump in the ranking that you are targeting.
For a link building process that spans up to 6 months, you should choose links proportional to the months. This might contradict the quality over quantity statement, but we insist on getting an exact number of quality links for your business.
- Work with social media trends. These are currently at an all-time high in providing results.
- Do great guest posting. These increase your reputation and chances of getting quality backlinks.
- Regularly check your ranking and site health. This helps you sustain yourself in the market.
- Generate reports on your link building methods. Documentation always helps you gain trust and also track your success.
Competitor Analysis
This might sound like a regular method. But in B2B link building, analyzing your competitors plays a major role in understanding what you need for your business. It also helps you know where you stand in the market and what you require to attain the place you wish to be. Such market analysis can be done using SEO tools such as Ahrefs which provide data on your competitors and how to outrank them ethically.
Additionally, Google has certain methods that help you understand the market and target your audience accordingly. Just type “Related:” followed by your domain name in the search bar and you will get all similar websites like yours.
Importance of Competitor Analysis
- Helps you gain market visibility
- Targeted link building becomes easier
- Your link building goals are simplified
- Avoids unnecessary hassle in legal issues
- Makes sure your link building strategies do not fail
Measuring Metrics
When you have a strategy in development, it is crucial that you plan on how to measure your success and results. This doesn’t always have to be the ROI since it can be an indirect measure. The metrics you set to measure such results are what you should concentrate on. Let’s take a look at some of the metrics you should be looking at when link building strategies are implemented.
Mostly, link building metrics are focused on three pillars.
- Organic Traffic Increase
- Organic Keyword Increase
- Increase in site or Domain Rating (aDR)
Besides the above metrics, you should also consider factors like traffic value, the number of referring domains, site health, and overall growth. These go a long way when it comes to measuring your success after a link building campaign.
Top Strategies for B2B Link Building
Building Quality Links & Link Exchange
Link building is a step-by-step process that requires a lot of attention to detail. Getting quality links is of utmost importance as those provide relevance, authority, and value to your website. There are various factors in a good link building process.
- Site authority
- Relevant Content
- Guest posting
- Email campaigns
- Negotiation
- Backlinking
When it comes to backlinking, you should be careful to choose only relevant businesses and websites as random linking might lead to your site being blacklisted on google or other search engines. The best links that you could ever get are the ones that pass quality link juice to your site and help improve your site authority.
Always choose quality over quantity when it comes to link building since even one good link can change the course of your business.
Scholarship Link Building
Scholarship Link Building is one effective way of making sure your link building process is being utilized in the right way. You can give back to the community through this method too. All you have to do is create a scholarship page on your website and create an application form. You can reach out to various streams as per your company’s nature of work.
This is one of the fastest methods of getting quality links in a short span of time. You still have to send out emails though.
Affiliate link Building
Affiliate Link Building is the process of promoting a brand or a business with a unique affiliate link. These help businesses promote their brands using influencers and others who have sites that are committed to such practices.
Currently, Amazon holds a large number of affiliates for its site for which it has created a marketplace. So in case you wish to work on such methods, you can start small and work up the ladder.
HARO (Help A Reporter Out)
As mentioned earlier, White Hat Link building provides a controlled growth in your link-building process. HARO is one such method that yields steady results. It is a contributor-based model that helps you gain authority and gets you the right kind of help when you need it.
Such innovative methods are a sure-fire way of getting the right setup you want. You should be aware of such modern methods that are making headway in the field of digital marketing.
Related Read:
- 20 Benefits of Link Building
- How To Drive Traffic to your Site Using Forum Link Building
- Ultimate Multilingual Link Building 101 – Rank Your Site Internationally
FAQs
- What’s the difference between B2B and B2C?
B2B refers to Business to Business and is focused on deliverables between businesses. Whereas B2C refers to Business to Customer and is focused on delivering products to customers.
- What are the best examples of B2B companies?
Companies like Samsung and Apple are some of the best examples of B2B businesses. They procure materials from similar companies or OEM companies and manufacture their products.
- Why is B2B link building considered easy?
Since B2B companies thrive on relationships, it is relatively easy to get quality links from their dependable suppliers. This increases the link-building success rates drastically compared to other business models.
Wrapping Up
While some of the above-mentioned methods might be difficult to group together, we usually categorize them as Submission based methods and exchange-based methods. Practices like forum submissions and guest posting fall under the first category. HARO, affiliate link building, and backlinking fall under the latter part.
No matter which strategy you choose from the above, your focus should be on the ROI that you get back from the methods. In case you aren’t tracking any metrics, we suggest that you let the experts at LinkDoctor do it for you.
