Link Building Checklist to Drive Traffic to Your Website

Link building has undoubtedly become one of the cornerstones of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Whenever we build a website, we start seeking recognition for it, don’t we? That’s even the whole point of all our efforts. We want to increase our visibility in order to reach our desired ranking on SERPs (search engine results pages). Backlinks are one of the main elements that act as connectors, ensuring that our website draws attention. 

What about you? How are you doing with your link crafting activities? If you think that it’s quite demanding work, we totally understand. That’s why our topic of the day is link-building checklists. This kind of tool can assist you in making things more organized and keep your link collection always up-to-date. Keep scrolling to find out more about it. 

Start by Downloading a Sheet

It sounds obvious, right? As you need to follow your building strategies closely, you should start by downloading a checklist. You may then modify and revise it to your convenience. There’s, for example, a model provided by Google Sheets that you can download and use. There are also a few others available for free on the internet.

Indeed, even if we are about to give you a checklist model in this article, nothing is 100% immutable. You may need or want to add, remove, or modify certain elements. Personalized material can even motivate you while spending time on the tasks. So at the end of the day, it’s a matter of preferred style too. 

Chase Link Building Opportunities

No secret here: Link building is, above all, a matter of taking the initiative. The outcome of your link-building campaigns will depend on how well and how much you seize every potential opportunity on your way. Here are some of the objectives that you should incorporate into your checklist and then materialize:

• Make a list of websites where you can obtain guest posting opportunities.
• Conduct competitor analysis and figure out their link sources.
• Join an affiliate marketing program in order to broaden your contacts list and create new partnerships. 
• Find and contact relevant directories. 
• Use SEO tools (Semrush, Ahrefs, Moz Pro, etc.) to receive additional guidance on link-building strategies.

Be aware that the above list is not exhaustive and that you won’t have to do everything on it at once. Those tips are useful mostly when you begin your link-building journey. However, you will need to apply them afterward as well and possibly on a regular basis. Why? Because nothing lasts forever, as they say. The links you get are not eternal, and the business world is subject to constant change. So you will definitely have to sustain your efforts in the long term. That’s, for example, the case of competitor backlink analysis. Especially if you work on link building for an e-commerce website, you should consider these analyses.

Stay Cautious about Your Sources

That’s a fact: The online environment is prone to all sorts of scams. You don’t want these to ruin your hard work. Thus, you must carefully assess your backlink sources and ensure they are reliable. 

• Always go for niche-relevant sources, meaning that the best links are those gotten from those from businesses belonging to the same niche as you. 
• Verify the domain authority (DA) score of the websites you intend to work with. 
• Make sure that the sites in question are not blacklisted in any way. 
• Conduct a content analysis. Assess the quality, relevance, and exemption from spam. 
• Beware of link farming and avoid any suspected website. 
• Prioritize websites that have high levels of organic traffic.
• As said previously, find out any guest posting/blogging opportunities. 

Clean Up Your Backlink Portfolio Regularly

What do we mean? The precondition of a perfect link-building SEO roadmap is… to keep the road clean. You don’t want obsolete, incomplete, or defective material to create useless obstacles between you and the search engine podium. So do apply the following diligently:

• Reclaim any broken links and provide updated ones instead. 
• Track any unlinked mentions of your brand/business. If you find any, do your best to get them linked as soon as possible. 
• Keep an eye on your disavow file. Remove websites that don’t serve you anymore and add new ones if necessary. 

 So one of the key ingredients is to take care of your links. You can’t just obtain them randomly and then walk away. Adopt them as any other essential task of your daily SEO practice. Because really, that’s what link building is all about. 

Create the Right Content for Your Links

Your links are not here to point to thin air. There must be tangible and preferably high-quality content backing them. Indeed, no one, not even your closest friends, would distribute backlinks for nothing, correct? Content creation is probably one of the phases on which you will need to spend the most time and energy. Here’s how you can proceed:

• Determine your topics. Assess their relevance and possible interest for your link providers (people won’t link to anything they don’t have a minimum interest in). 
• Take the time to study your link provider (aka target website). What are their guidelines? What kind of material do they publish?
• Choose your anchor text wisely. That’s where you will add your link. 
• Create original content. Avoid plagiarism, and if you really need to quote someone else, please give them the appropriate credits on your page. 
• Be kind and diplomatic. Return the favor by adding internal links to your provider(s) on your own site. 
• The same goes for other sources. Avoid any egocentric approach by placing external links on your site. 
• It’s usually best to place the links on the top of the content instead of at the end… just in case some people don’t read the whole content!
• Promote your content for finding new contact.

Timeline

Link-building tips are one thing. Applying them in a timely fashion is another. You will need to monitor specific components at certain intervals, and these tend to be different from one another. What this means is that you won’t have to do every task listed every day. You will instead have to proceed mostly in weekly terms. Here’s an overview of the timeline that you may adopt:

Weekly Monitoring

Starting from your initial steps, you need to do a few things weekly. For instance:

• Conduct internal, and competitor backlink audits.
• Browse link opportunities. This is something to be done almost weekly since the link-building market is growing. 
• Choose the most appropriate outreach method depending on the prospect’s profile (e.g., email). 
• Think about new topics and start building content accordingly. Indeed, posting regularly is a must. 
• Submit your content to your target/host website and wait for feedback. 

Monthly Monitoring

• Keep remaining in touch via social media or email. It’s always a good idea to “check-in” and reminds of your existence to your prospects. 
• Verify mentions. Google Alerts is one way to do it. The objective is to count and evaluate the current state of brand mentions, competitor mentions, and such.
• Consider content syndication as a possible bonus. If you find the right publishers, this can become a new way to revive and even “immortalize” your content.
• Check reviews and testimonials. This is not only to get a glimpse of your online image. It can also act as an extra for new link-building opportunities.  

Quarterly Monitoring

This one is about carrying out a broader evaluation of your overall strategy. This is also the maximum interval to review technical aspects. Waiting any longer is usually not recommended. Basically, what you need to do here is to run through almost your entire checklist. The most important part is the audit of your backlinks. You may do it through Google Search Console. Spot any irrelevant or outdated websites. Then transfer them to your disavow list. 

Also, this is a good interval for a more detailed competitor analysis. Select your top competitors and examine their backlink sources as well as their strategy. No need to be greedy here. If you can just pick 3 or 4 brands and manage to investigate them fully, that’s already huge. The goal is not to 100% reproduce what they are doing but rather to get inspired and informed. 

Build Your Links with Confidence

Now that you know about (or have been reminded of) the importance of link building for SEO, it’s time to get to work. A checklist will ensure that you do things in the right order. In effect, backlink crafting can sometimes be tedious since it requires control of many diverse aspects. That being said, if you follow our guidelines, you should be able to start getting significant results in a short while. What results? Increased visibility, recognition within your niche (and beyond), and authority. In sum, the ultimate stairway leads to higher traffic and thus to better rankings.

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