Build links like a machine_1280x720

How to Build Links Like a Machine


Want to dominate your niche but don’t know how many links to build… at which frequency you should build them or worst… which type of links you should build? This guide is for you!

PS: This guide is for people that have a website with some ranked keywords already. If you need help with a fresh website… please wait for my article “How to build links on a fresh new domain”.

If you don’t know yet, I’m good at tons of stuff… but my big strength is the link-building part. In this guide, I will explain to you exactly how I handle my link-building campaigns and how I’ve ranked my sites in the most competitive niche!

1. Detection of Google Trends

A good link-building campaign starts with an analysis of the current keywords’ uptrend. Every month, I check my website’s ranking and look at the “trend” (And I don’t make reference to trends.google.com lol!)  and compare it with historical data to see which keywords are down and which keywords are up.

You don’t select your targets based on their monetization potential?” Sometimes yes, You always need to start somewhere… but when your site has some traction, it’s better to use Google to help you with the selection of the targets.

How to know which pages should I target with new links?

This is a very simple process, every month, I check my current ranking and compare it with the ranking of 30 days ago. It looks like this:

I use my software Link Tracker Pro for that, it also sends automatically your uptrend/downtrend report by email based on your preference (weekly, monthly, etc..) but it can be done with any rank tracker that has the feature to compare historical ranking data.

Once I have a list of the URLs that are currently in an uptrend, I note them and move to the next step.

Note: The reason why I focus on URLs that are in an uptrend is that Google gives them importance… if Google improved its ranking, it’s because Google thinks those pages should be higher in the SERP. See it as a signal from Google… Google is a complex algorithm that does testing all the time… it’s not because those pages have improved in ranking that they will stay at their current position (It’s why you see up and down all the time…).

Google test your pages and wait for additional signals to validate its decision, it’s why it’s important to add backlinks when your pages are in an uptrend because it sends the signal that Google is waiting to validate your position… basically, in building new links, you confirm to Google that they did right in improving your ranking.

Also, I ignore the supporting pages in my selection, I just focus on money pages for this step. You will know why later.

2. Create a Link Building Plan

Once you have a list of the money pages that are currently in an uptrend, it’s time to boost them with the most link juice possible. To achieve that, you will create a list of all supporting articles that link to your money page and add them to your link building plan. Like this:

It’s important that you build links to Money and Supporting pages, one of the biggest mistakes the people do are to build links only on money pages… Don’t do that!

Building links to your money AND supporting pages will benefit your money page in 2 things;

  • Link juice
  • Relevancy

Another thing to take into consideration is that Google will consider that this topic is popular and will reward your most referenced page; AKA money page. (Thanks to the power of internal links!).

Note: The velocity is an important ranking factor, Google-like when content goes viral… When you build multiple links to a set of pages on the same topic, you just show Google that your site is a great reference for that topic, so all your pages on the same topic will be rewarded as well.

This is what is great with that strategy.. you build links firstly to boost your link juice, but you also boost your topic relevancy which will have a positive effect on your entire site (in the case it’s a niche site if it’s a general site that covers multiple topics, in that case only the pages in the same topic will be rewarded)

Depending on your budget, focus only on 1 or 2 money pages per month, I rarely build more than 20 links monthly.

3. Sites Selection for Backlinks

Now that you have a list of the target URLs where to build links, it’s time to select where to get your links. Personally, I use guest posts with DR30-50 for my supporting pages and guest posts with DR50++ for my money pages, because it’s where I want to transfer the most link juice/authority.

If you use my guest posting service, you can choose by DR range and have a guarantee to receive only high-quality backlinks.

4. Anchor Text

Having natural anchor text is the key to success in today’s world. Targeting only exact match keywords is not effective anymore… What I do personally is to check the anchors of top5 competitors for my money keyword and get anchor ideas from there.

Let’s say that your page is “petfinder.com/best-dog-foods/” and you want to rank for “best dog foods”, just try to stay natural in your anchor selection, something like:

  • I have found my dog foods at Pet Finder
  • Pet Finder has great recommendations on dog foods
  • Find the best foods for your dog
  • You can find more on https://petfinder.com/best-dog-foods/
  • etc.

Just mix your naked & branded terms and try to include your money keyword or a part of it. I often target 1 exact match per page though and try to use the stronger site for my exact match (or a PBN :P). However, if your money keyword is in the Slug, Title and H1… you don’t really need an exact match anchor to rank.

Note: There’s no “unique” formula, it’s different for every niche. Always look at the top5 or top10 anchors text for your money keyword and see what is common.. in some niches, it’s pretty common to have multiple exact matches.

Bonus: Boost the Relevancy of Your Backlinks

I think you will like this one. As you probably already know, the relevancy of your backlinks plays a big role in your ranking and this simple trick will guarantee you have tons of great relevant backlinks (Thanks to the guest post link as we can choose our own title!).

First, never let the writers choose the title for your guest post articles… I know that most of us are lazy or just don’t like wasting our time on this aspect but believe me… in the end, it will make a big difference in your results. Also, it’s super easy to delegate this to a VA.

So, to boost your relevancy, you have to choose a relevant title for your target page, that way you will benefit a lot more from your links, and you will get authority and relevancy in the same package!

What I do is simply do a quick search on Google.com with my money keyword, look at any of the top10 sites and take a headline and use it as the guest post title.

For example, let’s search “best dog foods” and let take the site that ranks for that term in the featured snippet, in that case, let’s check https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/best-dog-foods/best-dry-dog-foods/

Scroll down to find the Table of Contents, or just until you see “informative” headings. So after a quick check, I can find some:

  • How much dry food should I feed my dog?
  • What’s the safest way to switch my dog to a new dry food?
  • What risky ingredients should I avoid when buying dry dog food?
  • When should I switch my dog to senior dog food?

All these headings are super relevant and make a perfect title for your guest post articles! Think it one second.

If Google ranked this site so well for your term.. that means that Google believes it’s the most relevant content to show for your query right? So having a backlink with any of those titles will increase your relevancy dramatically.

Simple but effective.