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This is not my story, this is a story from another business visionary who as of now made his own effective website design enhancement firm and doing great.What I'm going to show you, is something I never had. A well ordered, extreme guide on the most proficient method to begin a SEO business. I needed to learn everything through experimentation, which took an amazing measure of time and vitality. I wish somebody had posted a definite guide that would have spared me the time and cash I spent taking in the business side of SEO. That being stated, will let you know all that I learned beginning a fruitful SEO business and going from making a couple of hundred dollars a month to making over $120,000 every month. In the end, my SEO organization was so fruitful an enormous office in Chicago gained it, which is the manner by which and why I established MySiteAuditor. In any case, that is another story.How I Got CustomersThe main question any individual who begins an organization ought to ask themselves is, "How would I get clients?" It's a question that I didn't have a response to when I first began. Along these lines, I simply opened up the telephone directory and began cool calling organizations, truly. In the event that you didn't have a web deliver by your name and telephone number I called you. That was my system. On the off chance that your heart is beginning to race and you're starting to sweat, quit stressing. I'm not going to instruct you to icy get anybody out of the telephone directory. Do they even make telephone directories any longer? All through the 10 years my office was good to go, and before I sold my SEO business to a major organization, I created 10 systems on the best way to reliably get SEO clients.1. I Got Ranked on Page #1 of GoogleYou have to end up noticeably fixated and battle like insane to get the chance to page #1 of Google for SEO benefit related watchwords in your land range. More often than not, the best watchword to target clients is "Website optimization" + your city. At the end of the day, in case you're beginning a SEO organization in Albany, New York, you ought to target "Search engine optimization Albany". I'm certain some of you are getting stressed right now since you live in enormous urban communities where other SEO organizations overwhelm the main page of Google. Quit stressing. While you're battling your approach to page #1 of Google for an exceptionally focused watchword, target low hanging organic product like "Search engine optimization administrations Albany", "web optimization organization Albany NY", or "Albany SEO organization". The trap is that you must be on Page #1 for something. This will give you validity when it's an ideal opportunity to settle the negotiations. Will potential clients discover you, as well as in deals gatherings you can likewise point that your SEO business is on the highest point of page #1 of Google for "Search engine optimization organization in Albany". Your potential clients have no clue which watchwords are the hardest catchphrases to focus in SEO; being on page #1 among and in front of your SEO rivals will awe the hell out of potential clients. I can't tally the quantity of clients who revealed to me they acquired our administrations since we were on the highest point of page #1 of Google, in front of our SEO rivals.Remember that I suggest focusing on greater catchphrases like "Search engine optimization Albany" from the very beginning. You'd be astonished how simple it may be to get on page #1. A considerable lot of your SEO rivals neglect to do a pack of simple SEO strategies, and rather they simply depend on their area's age and expert any that is not generally enough. There is more than one approach to skin a feline in SEO. Here are a couple SEO traps I did to rule page #1 of Google for "Chicago SEO", the #1 watchword for SEO benefits in all of Chicago. Remember, my office's site right up 'til today, has reliably remained in the main a few natural spaces in Google.The most effective method to begin a web optimization business2,000 Words – Hardly anybody does this since they are super sluggish or simply don't have a clue about that this basic methodology has exactly the intended effect. In case you're focusing on "Website design enhancement Albany" on your SEO administrations page, then ensure that page has no less than 2,000+ elegantly composed words or more. This worked for me and the information has demonstrated this to fill in also. Look at this diagram underneath by serpIQ. As should be obvious, there is an immediate relationship between's having more words on a page and higher rankings in Google.Correct watchword in URL – I was on page #3 in Google for "Chicago SEO" for quite a while, and after that one day I changed my URL from "http://ocean19.com/web optimization to "http://ocean19.com/chicago-website optimization". Blast! We hopped up like 20 spots with that basic change.Page Optimization – Remember, Google positions pages in their query items, not sites. So concentrate on upgrading one page for maybe a couple catchphrases. My mystery sauce for enhancing a particular page is distributed and yielded for nothing here on MySiteAuditor. When you run a review and view a PDF report you can plainly observe an agenda of all that I do to a website page to upgrade it for an objective catchphrase. In case you're not as of now a client your don't need to pay for this, simply run a free review on MySiteAuditor, then review and take after the report.2. I Offered a Free SEO Audit ToolAs per the 2015 Form Conversion Report by Formstack, just around 1% of little contact shapes (around 4 fields) get rounded out on sites. That implies just 1 out of 100 individuals that visit your SEO organization's site will round out your contact shape. The other 99 will leave your site and presumably never get in touch with you for SEO administrations. This is a colossal issue. Such a large number of potential customers who require SEO visit and leave your site perpetually, never having reached you. You require an approach to get far a greater amount of your guests, and potential clients, to give you their contact data when going to your site. As I brought up before, depending on your contact shape isn't adequate.This is the reason I made MySiteAuditor. I had precisely the same with my office's site. Our movement was not too bad, however our transformations stunk! MySiteAuditor is a white-name, SEO review instrument that is free for your guests. It takes around 5 minutes to set up and add to your SEO organization's site. Simply transfer your logo, hues, and contact data, then effectively implant MySiteAuditor's SEO review device shapes all through your site… then sit tight for new SEO leads in your email inbox. Your guests will love producing a free 9 page SEO review of their site, the length of they enter their web address, an objective watchword, and their email and telephone number.What's Your SEO Score?Enter the URL of any presentation page or blog article and perceive how enhanced it is for one catchphrase or expression.http://catchphrase+ Competitor URLemailtelephoneFilter NowTakes around 15 secondsAttempt it on your site. It's 100% free for 10 days. You needn't bother with any cash or a charge card. Sorry for the pitch, however this is vital. Once more, I truly made MySiteAuditor on the grounds that the contact shapes on my office's site were so problematic.3. I Gave Away Free ResourcesAll through your SEO organization's site, deliberately put free downloads that your guests will love. For instance, do some exploration on estimating in the SEO business, make a basic maybe a couple page report, and give it a route for nothing on your site the length of the guest shares that free download first. In return for offering your site to a speedy snap, your guest gets an exceptionally important asset (with your name on it). It's a gigantic win for you and your guest. Underneath I've recorded my most loved apparatuses for giving endlessly a free download in return for sharing your website.PaywithatweetWorks for a siteEffortlessly introduceFree and paid adaptationsSee an ExampleSocial LockerChips away at WordPress. (Download the module)Free trialOne-time charge (currenlty $24)See a case4. I Made Strategic PartnershipsAround here you'll see that there are numerous offices who have some expertise in one range of advanced promoting. That could be website composition, versatile, web-based social networking, PPC, online PR, and so forth. Customarily, their customers will get some information about SEO administrations which they don't offer. You need to cooperate with these offices. Offer them a standard 10% discoverers charge on the off chance that they send you any business. As it were, whether they send you a customer that you sign for $20,000, send them a check inside 5 days of marking the new customer for $2,000.You can even make this a stride more remote than your opposition by making an official letter with your signature, just to make it sound all the more genuine and authority to your accomplices. In the event that conceivable, attempt to convey it by hand so you can meet your accomplices.It would be ideal if you recollect that you should take additional care of customers that originate from your accomplices. In the event that they're troubled, the main individual they will gripe to is your accomplice. That is bad for future referrals.Remember that you can send accomplices possibilities customers also. That is an extraordinary beginning stage and an astounding indication of good confidence. Sending another accomplice a customer first is an incredible approach to help take care of business. I did this before I sold my office and it was phenomenal. A couple times each month I would get a couple discoverer's charge checks for doing for all intents and purposes nothing, aside from giving out a name and telephone number to a present customer.5. I Gave Referral RewardsIndividuals love to boast about new organizations they are working with. It's a decent and energizing feeling about their future. Exploit this. Give each new customer a referral letter that offers a money compensate for sending and alluding any new customers that your organization signs. This is like the association program, with the exception of I don't trust you need to pay 10%. A straightforward settled sum or little rate of the main contract is sufficient.step by step instructions to begin a website optimization business6. I Answered Questions on QuoraBefore Quora existed, I was on Linkedin Answers answering questions and always trying to be helpful. One day I answered a question some random person was asking, and the recipient was so grateful they sent us a RFP (Request for Proposal). Long story short, we signed that client for $20,000 per month… just by being helpful and answering questions.You should note that it’s never a good idea to pitch your business in QA forums like Quora. Just be helpful. People will see your profile, and hopefully you’ve linked to your company’s website so they can reach out to you for business if needed.Takeaways:Answer SEO related questions on QuoraWhen: Towards the end of each dayHow long: 30 minutes (answer 1-3 questions)Be helpful, and never pitch your services7. I Marked My TerritoryAdding a link to your site in the footer of your client’s sites use to be great for SEO purposes, but not anymore. Today it’s great for getting new business. Add a clause in the contract that lets you put a link to your SEO company’s website in the footer of the page. When you get your client on page #1, potential clients can easily find your link and hire you to do the same for them.My SEO company landed the business of many of the top real estate firms in Chicago simply by adding our name and link in the bottom of a small real estate agent’s website we were working with. We got this guy to page #1 for “Chicago condos” and of course, all of the big real estate firms wanted to know how we did it and if we could do it for them.Note: Use a “No Follow” tag in the link so search engines don’t think you’re trying to manipulate the search results with links. It should look something like the below:<a href=”http://YourDomain.com” rel=”nofollow”>Powered by: XYZ Agency</a>Note: This clause shouldn’t be mandatory. Let your customers remove it if they want. However, many won’t care. You can also use it as leverage. If you’re having a ton of success with a client, offer free or discounted services if you can add your link to their site.8. I Added a Live ChatLive Chats aren’t the most annoying thing in the world anymore. They actually work really great if set up right. We used Olark for the last couple of years and sold thousands and thousand of dollars in deals because of it. With a live chat on your SEO company’s website you’ll get notified when a potential client is on your site. They can message you for help or you can even message them. Think about walking into store. What if you had a questions but the store had no employees on staff? Strange, right? Be in your store at all times in case a potential customer has a question. Live Chats let you do that.starting an seo businessI love Olark because they let you add a profile photo of yourself in the chat window. Transparency is huge. People want to see people they could potentially buy SEO services from.Takeaways:Add Live Chat (like Olark) to your websiteUpload you profile photo so potential customers can see youBe available and helpfulTest different scenarios like engaging with them first9. I Started Offering Web Design ServicesI believe SEO and web design go hand in hand. In fact SEO should be done before, after and during web design and development. If you don’t offer web design and development services, you could be hurting your SEO results and losing business. When you just offer SEO consulting to a third party web design and development team, and don’t do the actual SEO work, much of what you recommend could get lost in translation. Something won’t get implemented properly and something won’t get done at all. This will hurt results and make you look bad.Start off by partnering with a couple local web design freelancers, then start offering web design to your SEO clients. After all, many SEO projects require an overhaul of the client’s site because the development is super old and very SEO unfriendly. Once you’re getting more web design business, and only when you’re getting enough web design business, bring on the web designer full-time.Do not hire a web designer too early. You need to watch your overhead. Partner on a few projects first and when it makes sense, then bring them on a full-time employee.Takeaways:Add a web design service page to your SEO company’s website.Partner with a couple local web design freelancers (do not hire them full time!)Only offer a freelancer a full-time job when you have enough full-time business.Start offering your SEO clients web design and your web design client’s SEO.10. I Outsourced Cold EmailingUse sites like Upwork, the world's largest online workplace to find inexpensive admins that will send cold emails to your target market. This is key because cold emailing is far below your pay grade. An admin level person should be doing this, not you. If fact you can find someone in Asia or India to cold email for a couple dollars per hour.Takeaways:Create a short cold call email templateHire someone for $3 per hour in Asia or India using Upwork, the world's largest online workplaceSet your geographical and industry target market (i.e.; lawyers in Mobile, Alabama)Set your daily and weekly goalsMap every detail out for your admin. Don’t rely on them to make any key decisions.Track your progress.SEO startupIf you want a little more detail about how I got my customers. Check out the guest post I did for the HOTH, a White-label SEO service for SEO agencies.Your WebsiteYour website is the hub of your SEO business. In the 10 years I ran my agency, I had at least 15 different sites. Pay attention, because I’m going to save you a lot of time, energy and AB testing by telling you exactly what worked and what didn’t work. To make this easy, just remember two simple words, “clean” and “simple”. Forget everything else, and ignore everything you see in web design today. Most website are terrible, even the ones created by amazing and talented graphic designers. Here’s why. When a customer comes to your website they want to know three things. Who you are, what you’ve done and how to contact you. That’s it. Everything else is bullshit. This isn’t just my opinion. It’s a conclusion based on analytics and years of obsessive studying and experience.Who You AreTransparency is huge when selling any service. People want to see and hear the person they will be working with. On the other hand, if you were selling a product like a printer, nobody would care who you were. But when you sell SEO services your potential clients want to work with people they know, like and have a relationship with. You can start that relationship on your SEO website by being super transparent. This is beyond important, and so many of your competitors won’t do this. Add real-life photos of you (and members of your team) throughout your website, not just your About page. Create videos of you talking. Let potential clients see and hear you, and you will win more business than your competitors. That is a guarantee!In my 10 years running an agency, the About Us page was the number one most visited page for us and all our service clients. Nothing else came close, not even our pages that showed previous work and case studies.What You’ve DoneYou’re going to need a page dedicated to the success of your current or past customer successes. This is often the second most visited page on your site, next to the About Us page. If possible, ask your happy clients to whip out their iPhone and shoot a 20 second video about their experience with you. Slap that on your website and watch the leads start rolling in.How to Contact YouMake it super easy to contact you. One thing we noticed at my agency was that the more contact forms we had, the more submissions we would get. So we added a contact form on almost every page and our conversions went way up. We also made sure our contact forms were only 4-5 to fields at most. Statistically, that gave us the most conversions. Here’s a blueprint of the perfect contact form that will get the most conversions.CapitalQuite a few people have asked me how to raise capital to start a new business. My response is always, “what for?” They usually have a blank look on their face when I ask that. The reason they often look perplexed is that most people just think you need to raise capital to start a business. We refer to those people as “wantrepreneurs”, not entrepreneurs. Don’t fall for this excuse.mark-cuban“Sweat Equity is the best start up capital” ~ Mark CubanPricingPricing is alway a tricky topic to discuss because everyone tends to price their SEO services a little different. Pricing is based on experience and industry standards. Since there is no turn key solution, pricing tends to fluctuate a lot in the SEO industry. It’s not like buying a printer or a car, so you have to be very strategic in order to get business. It’s also not an industry where the lowest bid wins the client. There are many factors that come in to play.The best way to charge a client is by charging an hourly rate; however, this can be kind of difficult when starting an SEO business. Your clients will not like paying for your learning curve, and they won’t like an open ended price. Fixed pricing seems a lot safer to most clients… until you get bigger and better clients. So, I recommend doing a combination of both an hourly rate and a fixed cost when starting an SEO business. Here’s a break down:FreeSEO Audit – This is on your website and will get your foot in the door.Manual Website SEO Review – Helps you price out the entire project.1 hour consultation – Helps you win the business.Fixed CostsSEO Strategy Report – This is a word document that lays out a 6-12 month plan of attack, based on the SEO audit, site review and consultation.Website and Web Page Optimization – This is making all the initial modifications to the client’s website so Google can properly crawl and index the site. This is often referred to as “on-site” optimization.Hourly CostsMonthly SEO and Reporting – This is how many hours you’re going to spend consulting, creating, reporting and optimizing content to grow your client’s domain authority and improve their rankings in Google.Whether you’re doing work hourly or for a fixed rate, think about how many hours it will take you. Try to be as accurate as possible. If you think an SEO Strategy Report will take about 20 hours, then charge them a fixed rate of about 20 hours. It’s up to you to stay in the time frame. Here’s a breakdown of current hourly rates in the SEO industry.Beginner (1-2 years experience) – $25 – $50 per hourIntermediate (2-5 years experience) – $50 – $100 per hourAdvanced (5+ years experience) – $100 – $200 per hourContractsLet me start this section by clarifying that I am not a lawyer. If any of this seems like legal advise, it’s not. I’m just telling you my personal experience and preference with SEO contracts. Since 2003, I’ve used about five or six different SEO contracts. In that time, my SEO contracts grew and grew in length until they were about 30 pages. Then, about two years before I sold my SEO company, I threw my giant, colossal, and scary SEO contract in the garbage and started a fresh one, one more time. But this time I did it on my own. No lawyers. No outside advice. I just went with my gut.The goal for my new SEO contact was three things:Keep it simple.Keep it short.Keep it clear.I got rid of all the fluff and removed 80% of the BS clauses random lawyers had added throughout the years. I got the SEO contract down to five simple pages. I re-wrote areas of the SEO contract over and over until each area was super short, simple and clearly communicated everything we need to communicate.ResultsBusiness skyrocketed with my short, simple, and clear contract. In fact, I had several clients remark on how simple our SEO contract was to understand, and that’s the reason they were working with us.Think about it. The longer the contract the longer the decision process. Why make things complicated for your clients? Why make them think harder about whether or not they want to work with you. Again, I’m not an attorney, but shorter, simpler, and clearer contracts close way more deals.Sample Contract TemplateI hope you didn’t think I was going to do all this talking about how great my SEO contracts are without giving you a sample template. My SEO contract template is totally free, but you have to share this article before downloading it. It should only take you 5-10 seconds to do this. Current clients can just login to their dashboard and click on “Free downloads” in the footer. You can also download the contract for free, just by sharing this blog post. Share using the link below and your free SEO contract template will instantly appear.Software and ToolsBe prepared to get slammed and inundated with tools and software in this industry. They are everywhere. Hopefully I can save you some time and energy by listing all the tools I used while running my SEO business.Basecamp – Project ManagementMoz – To manage and monitor the SEO of clientsOlark – Live Chat on my agency’s websiteMySiteAuditor – Free SEO audit tool for my agency’s website visitors. Helps generate way more SEO leads and sales.Checkli – Create checklists for personal productivityGoogle Analytics – Monitor and report traffichttp://SEOinvoice.com – Create free invoice for SEO clientsLess Accounting – Simple accounting software for small businessSocial Locker – Free downloads in-exchange for sharingPay With a Tweet – Free downloads in-exchange for sharingTweet Deck – Manage multiple Social Media ProfilesGrooveHQ – Customer supportGoogle Keyword Planner – Keyword researchCrazy Egg – Visually monitor activity on your siteQualaroo – Ask your website’s visitors specific questions (Qualitative Analytics)Upwork – Find freelancersHow to Resign SEO ClientsI wrote a long, in-depth article about this already, so I will highlight the points here. Re-signing an SEO client is about 10 times cheaper than finding a new one, so I would really focus on this. There are five easy steps to re-signing an SEO client:Step 1: Show clients the slope of SEOThe Slope of SEO is a graph that prepares SEO clients for the time it takes to get results. This graphs helps manage their expectations leading to more trust and continued business.Step 2: Show Clients the ContentDespite what your competitors are doing and despite what you’ve read and may have been doing for the past few years, SEO is not just tweaking, optimizing and link building. It’s optimizing and mostly link earning. Earning links to your client’s site is more natural and safer. you can earn links by creating amazing content that your client’s target market would love to read and share. Here are a few examples:VideosInterviewsInfographicsCharts and graphsBlog postsFree downloadsStep 3: Incentivize Account ManagersOnce you grow a little bit you’re going to want to hire account managers. These are the people who work directly with your clients, making sure the work gets done and properly reported. It’s important that these people aren’t just given a salary. Like sales people, and everyone else in your office, they should be incentivized with commission and bonuses when they re-sign an existing client. Incentivizing account managers subconsciously pushes them to go above and beyond making your clients happy.Step 4 Develop Next Phase Strategy BriefsWhen you client’s contract expires develop a clear strategy brief of things you want to do during the next contract. Make sure you have a clear list of the amazing content you want to create. Excited clients re-sign contracts!Step 5: Schedule End of Contract MeetingsA couple weeks before an SEO contract expires hold a face-to-face meeting to discuss the success of the the contract and the above Next Phase Strategy Brief. After all, SEO, web design and all of digital marketing never ends. There is no finish line. It’s an ongoing process.HiringThere are two areas of hiring I’m going to focus on. These two key pieces of advice helped make my agency valuable enough to be acquired by another bigger agency.Contract to HireThe first thing you need to know is that there are unlimited freelancers and contractors in the digital marketing industry. You can find local freelancers or remote contractors everywhere. That being said, grow your SEO company by hiring freelancers first. Find a freelancer that you’d like to work with and hire them for your different projects. Pay them only when you get paid. You never want to pay your freelancers before you get paid. Maintaining positive cash flow is very important to keeping your business running. Only hire your freelancer or contractor when you have steady business for them. That could be after a few months or even years. There’s no need or reason to commit a salary to anyone until you are ready, and it’s totally OK if you’re never ready.The AssistantI truly belive the assistant should be your first hire. You are the most valuable person in your company and you always will be. Your time is priceless, literally. What you’re going to find out is that 80% of your time is going to be bogged down by B.S. admin work that anyone can do. Following up, contracts, emailing customers, being on the phone and much more that you probably don’t even realize.Your time needs to be dedicated to what you do best, getting SEO results. Trust me on this. Don’t waste your valuable time on things anyone can do. The person you hire as your assistant should be a entry level person, looking to get into the industry. This is the perfect job for them. They can assist you for a couple years, then when they get experience and knowledge of the industry you can move them into a more important position, like doing some of the things you do. After all, they’ve shadowed you for years. They must have learned a lot.IncorporatingAgain, I’m not an attorney, but this is what I did. I waited a few months before creating an LLC for my business. I made a little money first, then incorporated. The reason I did this is because incorporating costs money. In Illinois it’s about $500-$600, plus $250 per year. No need to waste that money if you never get business. I asked my accountant, Gaurang Patel of Southloop CPA in Chicago, IL, about this. Here’s what he said:When you start an SEO Business, you should consider setting a legal entity as soon as possible. A Legal structure as you may know is important for legal purposes. In additional to the legal benefits, it may also help you save on Taxes. Setting a legal entity early also helps develop a track record for the business and is helpful when you decide to sell the business at a future time.The Limited Liability Company and Corporation are the 2 most common legal structures. A Limited Liability Company (LLC) is a hybrid business entity having certain characteristics of both a corporation and a partnership. The primary characteristic an LLC shares with a corporation is limited liability, and the primary characteristic it shares with a partnership is the availability of a pass through income taxation. Corporate tax rates are typically higher than tax rates at the personal level, therefore having income taxed at the personal level may help save on taxes. A Corporation is an independent legal entity owned by shareholders. Corporations are more complex than other legal entities because they tend to have costly administrative fees and complex tax and legal requirements. Because of these issues, corporations are generally suggested for established and larger companies.There are both advantages and disadvantages to each of the legal entities and therefore it is important that you speak with a lawyer or accountant to figure out the best structure for your specific needs.Here’s a critical piece of advice. Always stay a student of the SEO industry. Read blogs, case studies, and everything the big search engines like Google release. So many people stop studying after a couple years. They think they know it all. Those same people soon go out of business. Here are a few good resources to stay educated.Moz Blog - SEO and Inbound Marketing Blog - MozSearch Engine Land | Must Read News About SEO, SEM & Search Engineshttp://www.quicksprout.com/blog/YouMoz - A User Generated Search Industry Blog - MozWhiteboard FridayBlogA Video Guide IntroductionI’ll do my best to monitor this article very closely. So, if you post any questions below, I’ll try to answer them as quickly as possible. If needed, I may even update this article over time. Anyways, I hope this was helpful. Be sure to checkout our free resources page. You might find a few helpful items in there. Thanks for reading and good luck!

One of the fundamental factors toward gaining higher rankings within the search engines is the quality of backlinks pointing to the individual webpages of your website.source: NichehacksHere is a list of link building tips for 2016 that may not be new to some entrepreneurs, but you’ll actually find a different angle that is worth considering to generate more results for your own process.Now, Before we dive in deep in the latest backlinking strategies, I want to address a few important factors.What Are Tier One Backlinks?“Tier one (High Ranking sites)” backlinks are external links directly hitting your website.Like so:There are no other backlinks are as important as those directly hitting your site.That’s why you need to take your link acquisition efforts VERY seriously.But before we get into the heavy link building strategy…You need to make sure that your site is ready for backlinks.How to Determine the Value of a Link?There are several factors that go into how much value and impact a backlink could have for you. Some of those key elements are listed below:External links from high quality and relevant sites have a much bigger impact than irrelevant and smaller sites.Links from unique domains are more important than links from sites that have linked to you before.Links using relevant anchor text pass more keyword focused value. For example, a link is generally more value if someone links to you from keyword rich text like “Content Marketing Machine” vs. “click here”.If you want to get a measure and sense how much authority a website has, thus, much impact a link from an external website could have, check out the tool Website Authority Checker. This tools will give you a few metrics which you can use to compare against other sites to understand how valuable a link from a particular site might be worth to you.Side Note: Never Buy BacklinksBacklinks from scammy, second class cheesy websites that search engines and most importantly google see as really low quality can, scratch that! Will get your site penalized and scratched out. No buneo.Please don’t go to Fivver or freelancer to get someone for 5 bucks, unless you really want trouble lolSet a Backlink Goal & KPIBacklinks won’t just happen magically by themselves. It’s something you need to be putting work and effort into building over time. It’s a long-term strategy but an important one at that. The best way to approach the process is to give yourself some goals to work towards. When you first start out, setting quarterly goals probably will work best.How To Get Quality Backlinks The Smart Way (And Get Better Results)The truth reality is backlink acquisition is a costly and time consuming. There’s no other way to slice the orange. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication, but if you are willing to do, the rewards are rich.That’s why you need to get the most out of every single link you get.The only way for that to be possible is for:You to have a technically optimized siteYou to have a strong site architecture,You to have well-developed, valuable contentSo, let get into our backlinking strategies. You ready?[Ultimate Guide] How To Get Quality Backlinks The Smart Way [Part 1]#1 Help A Reporter OutDid you hear about HARO yet? In case you missed out, HARO stands for Help A Reporter Out. It’s a website journalist go when they need help writing an article.Can you imagine how valuable a backlink from Huffington Post, Forbes or Newyorktimes would be for your website in terms of traffic and increased customers?A link like that is well within your reach if you join HARO (Help a Reporter Out). All you need to do is sign up for their twice daily emails to receive queries from reporters looking for information to publish.The journalists go to HARO to post a question, and if you can help them answer the questions they have, you can get some free press. There are lots of big websites like Entrepreneur - Start, run and grow your business., Small Business Ideas and Resources for Entrepreneurs, Forbes etc. that are using HARO. This makes HARO an amazing place to get some high-quality backlinks to your website.It won’t result in tons of backlinks to your website, but the links that you do get will help you drive quality traffic because these are high profiled and authoritative sites.Side note: Speed matters with HARO if you are not one of the first to respond to the emails chances are you will miss out.2. Link RoundupsDo you know what link roundup is? Every now and then I check my Google Analytics and I notice some traffic from an unknown source.Often, they are link round ups.Link roundups are curated blog updates that link out to their favorite content during a given time period.Your job is to find these opportunities and send them an email pitch, suggesting they link to a piece of your content in their next update.Roundups are a dynamite method to land links in droves.Success depends on the quality content you’re submitting.What does a “link roundup” look like?Using search engine tags in Google, Yahoo, Bing and Duck Duck Go.Look for titles like:intitle: roundup “YOUR KEYWORD”In addition to the word round up, you might want to try variations, such asLink loveLinky loveFriday’s best (or another day of the week)MashupsFriday findsTuesday tipsSpeedlinksBest ofTop 10May editionPost awardsWeeklyMonthlyRoundupsRemember to vary days of the week and months to get all the variations.Below is an example from Techcrunch.comOption b) Search for them on Twitter using keywords and #hashtagsHow do you secure the link?After you’ve identified your opportunity, look for a way to contact the person (email, form, social – email is preferred).Side note: One of my favorite email finder tools is voilanorbertThen, send them an outreach email with a pitch to include you in their next roundup.This is a fairly easy value proposition, as they’re actively looking for content to curate. You merely have to put it in front of them.Here is my email I useYo! Mike.I want to make this sweet and short brother.I was looking for some link round up posts and I came across yours.I am, curious do you accept submission for your roundups?Thanks bro for reading this, really appreciate youP.S- I also do weekly roundups and would love to share your post “Title” Let me know if I can use it.Adios!Ameer3.Guest Posting ArticlesGuest blogging is the most effective way to reach new audiences. Let me repeat that again…“Guest blogging is the most effective way to reach new audiences”Why? Great question Johnny!By publishing your kicks ass articles on other popular websites where you audiences is in droves, your content will be front and center of hungry eyes. Sometimes, it’s not just about the backlink, but about increasing your online reputation or your social media followers.Guest blogging helps you leverage your relationships and expand your audience. In case you have doubts about guest posting, consider that even Google accepts guest contributors! Yeah Google!How to find websites that accept guest articles. Here are three:Use Google search queries to find blogs accepting guest contributors:your keyword + inurl:write-for-usyour keyword + guest-postsyour keyword + inurl:guest-post-guidelinesyour keyword + become a contributoryour keyword + bloggers wantedyour keyword + submit an articleyour keyword + want to write foryour keyword + contributeyour keyword + become an authoryour keyword + guest post byyour keyword + now accepting guest postsFree Bonus: Want the PDF version of this to read offline?Find influencers publishing guest posts on a regular basis and try to contribute on the same websites they’ve had in the past.Pro Tip: use BuzzsumoHere is an example I just did for “Content marketing” and on the left you can uncheck all the options except for Guest Posts.When publishing a guest article, always make sure you are linking to your social media profiles. If someone enjoys your post, he or she can easily follow you for similar future articles.John Doherty, Founder of GetCredoThe best habit of a link builder is constantly reading. I think this is an important habit because link builders need to be aware who is writing online and where they write. The Internet has moved away from everyone having their own place to write and instead moved to a place where writers write for many different publications. You don’t go to TechCrunch to read everything – you find a writer there you like and read all of their stuff.4. Resource PagesA resource page links out to content deemed important (High value authority) for their audience.This does sounds very similar to a roundup, but it’s not!A link roundup takes place on a regular basis and features content recently published.A resource page is a one time update (or page) that links out to evergreen content.The biggest difference is the pitch:A link roundup pitch takes place before the blogger creates the post, asking for a link in the upcoming post.A resource pitch takes place after the content is published, asking for them to add your content to their page.Resource pitches generally have a lower success rate, as we’re asking someone to update content (i.e. do work) whereas a roundup is providing them a link when they’re actively seeking it.What does a “resource page” opportunity look like?Here is an example from SocialmediaexaminerHow do I find “resource page” opportunities?Using search engine operators in Google, Yahoo, Bing and Duck Duck Go.It’s incredibly important to find relevant opportunities, otherwise your pitch will be a complete waste of your time. And DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME!The example below shows a resource page featuring “Content marketing”How do I secure the link?After you’ve identified an opportunity, look for a way to contact the person (email, form, social – email is preferred).Hey!I will make this super quick as I respect your time.I just wanted to say, your resource page is impressive, I mean, really impressive. Shared it with a bunch of bloggers I know.But there was one problem I saw. Your link “Insert link” is super old school, seems like its from 2012.Are you planning to update that link?If so, I would love to share with you our new 2016 guide.Want me to send it over?Thank you and I really appreciate you reading this.P.S- Can I use your page “Insert page” in my monthly round up? We would love to feature you.Try and give them good incentive to take action with a strong value proposition:Offer to share the piece on social, email, etc. to drive new visitors to their siteLet them know you’ve got a better, updated piece of contentFix a broken link….oh wait, I jumped the gunThis is a perfect segway into…#5: Find broken links going to resources or productsBroken link building is hard, really hard. (In fact, I think it’s the hardest) unless you focus on the right type of broken links. A lot of blogs and websites have them, but very few are willing to fix them.What’s broken link building?Essentially, it’s catching link building opportunities that arise from some links on a site being broken, hence the name.Source: link-assistantWhile it has always been more of a white-hat SEO technique, broken link building moved from periphery to center-stage after Google’s Penguin update.Your best bet is to find resource pages related to your field and to look for broken links within those pages. I’ve found that web masters are more likely to fix broken links on resource pages as they tend to generate more traffic than general blog posts.To find these broken links and resource pages, you can use a tool called Broken Link Finder.Method #1If you end up using the tool, make sure the keywords you input contain words like “resources” as it will help you find the right type of broken links.Doing it at ScaleAnyone starting broken link building for the first time, needs to spend time following the process ‘by hand’ – You need to know inside and out. Like I said before, broken link building is hard.Here are some tips for doing it at scale:You need a strategic person who understand the market. This person needs to oversee the operation, the use of contractors and software tools. (Do not hire a overseas VA. Trust me, I have gone through my fair shares)A good outreach manager is essential – to plan the email blasts, respond personally to replies and do everything required to make a link happen.Relationship Building = Content DiscoverFree Bonus: Want the PDF version of this to read offline?#6 Q&A MediumsPeople have questions and I have answers. Wait a second, did I just sound like Gary vaynerchukBut in all honestly,websites like Quora, Yahoo, and various Subreddits are all dedicated to answering your questions. Take some time to create an account on each of these sites, then follow topics, questions, or subreddits that are relevant to your niche. From there, it’s fairly simple:Step 1: Browse through the questions and look for questions that you could answer, better still if you have already written a blog post that answers that particular question.Step 2: Answer the question sincerely, using excerpts from your article. This is the most important step of the process – your goal should be to try and answer the question as directly and accurately as possible. This will inspire people to go read the rest of your answer – whereas if you only focus on promoting yourself, people will ignore you.Step 3: Add a link to your article at the end of your answer. Readers should already gain some value and information from your topic, but they should also have the impression that your link will provide more information that’s worth their time to read. The articles you create should be written with this in mind.Just take a look at my stats in the last 30 days.Not to bad, over 4k in views. Now mind you. The whole point of this is creating links from Quora back to your site. P.S. Want to follow me on Quora?#7 Claiming Unlinked MentionsWhen you’re creating epic fan favorite content, that is engaging on social, your website will get mentioned. This is a given!But did you know? A surprising amount of time the mentioning website won’t link to your site.(bummer this sucks, but don’t just cry yet. For ever down there is an up)Your job is to monitor these “branded” mentions of your site or your brand name itself and send an email pitch asking them to link to you as well.What does an “unlinked mention” look like?Anytime a website mentions your name, brand or website without adding a link to your site.How do you find “unlinked mentions” opportunities?You’ll need a tool, as trying to find these manually is a nightmare. There’s a number of solutions:Google AlertsA free tool that allows you to set email alerts when certain keywords are mentioned. If you track “your name” and “your brand” you’ll get emails of the sites talking about them.BrandMentionsThis has become one of my favorite tools! It’s super clean and above all easy to use…really easy!You can see in the screenshot below, last week Blockchain had more than 1000 web mentions. That’s huge!Once you click on a URL, simply use the find function (ctrl+F) to look for your brand on the page. In our case, we found an important mention for blockchain, an article written on a massive Canadian newspaper. The Toronto Star. As we take a closer look we notice that even if this is a dedicated article, there is no link to our page, blog, social networks or anything.Once you “identify” the missing link, a bit of outreach needs to be done.Who is the author of the article?How do we find him/her?Is he/she affiliated with the website our mention is on?Identifying the author of the unlinked mention is an easy job as all the details were mentioned on the website. As you can see in the screenshot below, we can find a few things about the author and we can even search for him on the social networks.How do I secure the link?Very similar pitch to link reclamation.Step #2: Reaching out to the WebmastersNow that you’ve shortlisted sites that you’ll approach for getting your site/brand mentions on them turned into full-fledged links, here’s a few things to keep in mind:Make sure your email is short and to-the-point.As they’ve already mentioned your brand, chances are they won’t hesitate much about linking to your site unless they have their own reasons of doing so.If a site does hesitate, don’t waste time on them and move on to the next target.Generally, a >50% success rate is decent.Here’s a sample email template that you can use:Subject: To name from name (I found this subject line to be the best)Body:Hey! (name)I was just going through [post], and saw that you’ve mentioned [your site] in it.Big thank you for that! We blasted our whole network with your articleJust curious though? I saw that you didn’t link to our site. Hopefully it’s not broken.If not, is there anyway you can add our link? If not, no worries, No pressureEither way, I deeply respect you writing about us and mentioning us. It means a lotAdiosConclusionsLike nearly any link building technique, sweat equity with a proper team in place (I cant stress enough, creating a team from the beginning will make a world of a differenceAdiosAmeer Rosic | Serial Entrepreneur| Adviser | Investor