CMOs (chief marketing officers) have to keep their fingers on the pulse of current marketing trends. They help business leaders refine and optimize their marketing strategies and, for Fractional CMOs, leave them with the skills to continue building on that strategy for continuous growth.

However, research from McKinsey shows that while the CEO-CMO partnership is of paramount importance, 66% of CMOs believe that their CEOs don’t really understand the finer details of modern marketing. One aspect of this is link building, a technique that Nick Zviadadze, founder of MintSEO, calls, “…the most challenging part of SEO.”

Link Building and Backlinking: A Brief Explainer

Link building means encouraging other people to link to your content — a process known as backlinking. So, in simple terms, link building is getting more backlinks.

Unsurprisingly, explaining it is easier than putting it into action. There has to be a compelling reason for a website to link to yours.

So, What is the Best Link Building Strategy?

Two words: Competitor analysis.

Get out there and look at who your high-performing competitors are linking to and who is linking to them.

You can utilize digital SEO tools to analyze any website’s backlinks. From here, you can list sites that regularly link to your competitors and how.

From here, you may find plenty of websites happy to include links to your products, services, or content — start a conversation and see what happens. Alternatively, look at what content they’re linking to and make something better — everyone wants to ensure they’re linking to the best available source of data, so if you’re an expert on a topic, share that knowledge.

More Backlinking Techniques to Try

These three methods work if you apply them consistently:

• Create useful content consistently. Research, charts, infographics — anything that can be cited as a source or easily shared.

•  Reach out to other growing businesses and offer to host an article and ask if they’ll do the same. You can link to each other and start really building brand visibility.

•  Search for your company name. If you find that blogs or even other companies have mentioned you in a positive light, contact them and ask if they’d mind adding a link to your chosen online platform. The worst they can say is “No” — and if they’re already chatting about you online, you’re highly likely to get a “Yes.”

And remember, if you’re not measuring it, you’re not managing it. Track and record your backlinks so you understand exactly how successful your link-building strategy is.

Final Word

Staying on top of your link-building strategies can be challenging, especially if you’re more “tech guru” than “marketing aficionado.” Take even more stress out of startup marketing and book a 15-minute introductory call to discover how Arch Collective can overhaul your entire marketing strategy.

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