The Foundation to a Sound “Link Earning” Strategy
Inbound links are still the powerhouse in determining search engine rankings. But what’s far more powerful than manually building links (which is gray-hat SEO in itself,) is naturally earning links to your website. 
Although more powerful, link earning is much more challenging than link building. You need to build a solid and well-intended foundation to achieve the greatest results.
In this post, I will share with a few key aspects to a sound link earning strategy. These insights should help you set course for a more sustainable (and safe) off-page SEO strategy.
Define Creative Topics for Content Marketing
Ultimately, the success of your link earning strategy will hinge on the content you create and share. Your content needs to be so top-notch that it truly resonates with your target audience. When people find value in what you produce, they will link to you naturally.
This underscores the importance of content marketing in your SEO strategy. The purpose is to offer amazing content so that people will find value and authority in your online brand. Get seriously creative about this and brainstorm compelling topics to produce content about. Pinpoint a specific need, problem, or interest that your audience encounters. How can you enlighten or educate them with your content?
Publishing awesome content can only get you so far. You must also expose your content to your target audience. This is where social media comes into play.
Get Socially Involved, Relentlessly
If you’re intentions are earning links to support your SEO efforts, you need to make your social presence known and strong. Social media has become an essential component to any SEO strategy.
Social signals (e.g. Google +1’s, Facebook Likes, Shares, Tweets, Pins, etc.) are becoming important ranking factors that define quality, socially-favored content. So not only can social involvement help generate value in your website’s content, but your social followers will ultimately be the individuals who will link to your content.
Don’t assume that you need to be on every social media network imaginable to reep the greatest rewards. Rather, focus on a few key social platforms to promote your presence. Three that I recommend are Facebook, Google+, and Twitter. These three either have the largest communities, and/or the greatest SEO value for social signals.
Make Your Presence Known With Subtle Outreach
The word “outreach” is already getting a bad rap in the SEO profession. This is primarily because guest blogging has become the go-to source to build contextually-relevant backlinks. And guest blogger are infamous for relentless outreach.
The story usually starts with an email that sounds something like this:
Greetings,
I am inquiring about writing a guest post for your blog…. yada yada.
Thank you for your consideration,
Backlink Blogger
The response rate tends to diminish for more authoritative blogs that hold the greatest SEO value. So unless your pitch is perfect or your writing examples are stellar, you need to prove your awesomeness as a writer and talented professional in your niche.
This is when subtle outreach can be more effective. Reaching out subtly is hardly considered “outreach” during the initial stages.
Instead of asking for guest authorship directly, start the relationship softly and slowly (like asking out the hottie at the coffee shop.) Get to know their brand first and start following them on various social sites. From time to time, engage with the content they share by liking, +1’ing, retweeting, and commenting on their posts.
In essence, make your presence known by showing love and respect in what they’re doing. After you’ve cultivated a nice relationship (and hopefully compelled them to socially like, follow, or encircle you,) you can then begin to really reap the benefits.
Having authority figures and influencers following you on social media is strong asset. If they share or link to your content, the SEO value is significantly heightened. Additionally, they will be much more inclined to accept you as a guest blogger because they are familiar with who you are.
About the Author
Tyler Tafelsky has over five years of experience in the organic SEO profession. Tyler is the lead SEO and Internet marketing manager here at the Web Presence Group, and spearheads most client campaigns and content marketing projects. In addition to SEO, Tyler is highly engaged in aspects of content marketing and social media.
