3 Insanely Effective White Hat Link Building Techniques

Last Updated on February 5, 2021 by Artem K.

What are the most effective link building strategies these days?

Here are some of the examples I bring up during my link building consulting sessions.

• Guestographics
• The Ultimate Guide
• Competitographics…
• …and good ol’ guest blogging (yeah, that’s a bonus one!)

In this article I will:

1. Explain each of the above;
2. Show their PROs & CONs;
3. Provide you with examples of these strategies working out there in real life (this one is awesome!)

Let’s get to it.

 

Technique 1: Guestographics

The single most effective method for building white hat links is the Guestographics Technique.

Simply put, this is creating an infographic for a relevant audience in your niche and offering it to other websites in exchange for a link.

Similar to guest posting, Guestographics adds value to a traditional guest post, making it more likely to generate backlinks.

 

4 Steps to Getting the Most out of the Guestographics Technique

Step #1: Create a high-quality infographic on a topic.

Determine a relevant subject that would add value to a website. Research the issue carefully and design a high-quality infographic on the topic.

You can create it or outsource it for a reasonable fee.

I outsource it and I can tell you that it is worth it, because I am no good at infographics (I am only good at link building 😎 ).

 

Step #2: Pair the infographic with written content to create a post on your website.

The content should complement the graphics and tell an engaging story that makes your post.

Above is the example I used for my own affiliate site – https://myergonomicchair.com/psoas-release/.

If you go visit it, you will see that the infographic is accompanied by a hefty article, which goes into all sorts of details and semantically related keywords.

That’s how I “exploit” Google’s RankBrain (love you bro <3 ).

 

Step #3: Find other websites that write about a similar topic.

Search for keywords that appear in your infographic to determine likely sites for the topic. Depending on your conversion level, you may want to compile a list of as many as one hundred sites to contact…and even more.

Ideally, you’re searching for an authoritative website that provides backlinks and has high traffic.

In my case there are all of these Yoga websites that might be interested in my infograohic.

In fact, I can approach a ton of different niches, because the topic I picked is so widespread and conventional – fitness, gym, paleo, yoga…this list brings endless opportunities!

 

Step #4: Email the contact person for each one of these websites.

Explain how the infographic can add value to their site and offer to provide a 200-500-word introduction to go with it. This is exactly the introduction you saw above with my “psoas infographic”.

The intro should include anchor text with a link back to your site. This gives them traffic-generating content they can post with almost no effort on their part in exchange for posting a link. This is exactly the formula that makes earning links effortless:

Great Content + Targeted Outreach + Added Value = Links (credit to Brian Dean)

What to write in the outreach email?

Here is the script I like:

Heya,

My name is Artem and I reach out from MEC.

You obviously like yoga (how would I know, right? 🙂 )…

Maybe you will also be interested to check out the infographic we created?

It talks about the 7 yoga poses that help to release psoas (this problematic muscle group).

If you like it enough, I can even send you 200-300 words of custom introduction, so that you can post it on [theirsite].

Let me know!

Best,

Artem the Yoga Loving Psoas Releaser =D

I am not going to go into the technicalities behind this outreach script, but here are the important bits you must take into account:

1. Never send the freaking link right away – ask for permission.
2. Be emotional, lame and make stupid jokes.
3. Send targeted emails (this email would obviously go to a yoga website)
4. Tell them what you got, but don’t take much of their time.

 

Guestographics is not easy.

To create a high-quality graphic, you must invest research time and $150-$500 to design a complex graphic that simplifies a concept.

Add the time you’ll spend writing content, finding potential host websites, pitching it, and then coordinating placement, and it becomes apparent this technique requires a significant investment of both, time and money.

However, once you do so, you can realize a lot of gain from it.

P.S. If you need help with your campaign, get in touch with LinksHero.

 

Advantages of the Guestographics Technique

• You can use and reuse it.
• You have much better control over the anchor text and the target URL, which is critical in ranking your pages.
• It provides you with the potential to provide a lot more shareable content. You can get multichannel traffic.
• You can obtain links from difficult-to-post websites. This can give you a tremendous competitive advantage.
• High return on investment, generating long-term value.

 

Disadvantages of Guestographics Technique

• Some niches are oversaturated with infographics and are less likely to accept more.
• Great designs can be You need to do your due diligence and carefully evaluate the freelancer and his or her pricing.
• The technique isn’t infallible, sometimes bad luck or timing will keep it from getting placed.

 

Real Life Example

HerePup.com used exactly this Guestographics strategy to create their “22 Ways Dogs Make Humans Healthier”.

And here are the results (I am using Google’s Image search to find their work all over the web):

Crazy, right?

All those pages, all those links…

As you can see, Pareto’s 80-20 principle working here, because with just one strategy they really nailed it.

Find what’s working for you and then jump on it (and keep jumping like there is no tomorrow 😀 ).

 

Technique 2: The Ultimate Guide

Creating an Ultimate Guide is very effective for building links.

You would basically create a comprehensive word document on your chosen subject. Guides like this are detailed, thorough, and complete.

Most importantly – these guides should be current and comprehensive (that’s how they get links after all). Ultimate guides often reach 6,000 words in scope.

 

4 Steps to Getting the Most Out of the Ultimate Guide Technique

• Step 1: Choose a relevant topic that adds value to a website.
• Step 2: Research the topic thoroughly and analyze what your competitors discussed about the issue.
• Step 3: Write the content so that it is complete and contains the latest information on the topic.
• Step 4: After you are done, reach out to those linking to your competitors (i.e. sources) and tell them you have something newer, better (faster, stronger… 😉 )
• P.S. Yes, it’s kind of similar to the “skyscraper”.

 

Advantages of the Ultimate Guide Technique

• You can quickly become an authority in a field if you add value and a unique perspective.
• Opportunity for to include multiple keywords and rank for each due to the volume of text created.
• Increases organic traffic.
• Leverage pdf version to obtain subscribers to your newsletter by offering them something of value in return for a person’s email.

 

Disadvantages of the Ultimate Guide Technique

• Your guide must be better researched, up-to-date, and dissimilar from your competitors. This can be difficult depending on the topic.
• Requires significant writing and research. You may consider outsourcing the writing to mitigate this disadvantage.

 

Real Life Example

We had a client that is Airbnb-like website that only targets Iran ( 😎 ). They are called InnIran.

Therefore I naturally wanted to build a travel guide to Iran – it would accumulate links (because it would be super detailed and current) and capture potential clients (that would book an apartment with InnIran).

No sooner said than do – it was ready…longer, more informative, and detailed guide of approximately 6,000 words.

I contacted 59 websites and built 3 backlinks from them. Around 5% conversion rate, which is not that bad at all.

Here is the full case study, if you are interested in link building for a travel niche site:

 

Technique 3: Competitographics

Competitographics consists of creating an infographic from a written blog content that appears in the top ten results on Google.

You merely revamp and improve the post and present it in a different way. This effective technique allows you to springboard off proven high-ranking content on a competitor’s site.

Neil Patel introduced me to this technique but didn’t provide step-by-step instructions on how to make the method effective…and that’s why I am going to do it NOW 😛 .

 

4 Steps to Getting the Most out of the Competitographics Technique

1. Step 1: Enter a keyword you would like to rank for in Google.
2. Step 2: Review the top ten results.
3. Step 3: Create an infographic from the contents.
4. Step 4: Using your competitors’ backlink profiles (via Ahrefs), build the links to your infographic.

Important: you are searching for an authoritative website that has a “wall of text” (ideally a “list type”, because it’s best for infographics) and has accumulated a hefty amount of backlinks.

Once you are done with the infographic, email everyone (that qualifies) from your competitors backlink profile and suggest your infographic would be an excellent addition to their site because they already link back to information on that topic.

You may even ask them to post your graphic in exchange for a backlink.

P.S. If you got super lost, skip to Real Life Example below!

 

Advantages of the Competitographics Technique

• Includes all the advantages of a
• No guesswork involved because the content appears in top ten results.
• Boosts organic traffic.
• Targets more competitive keywords.
• You can leverage the PDF to get more subscribers to your newsletter.

 

Disadvantages of the Competitographics Technique

• The technique may not work in every niche.

 

Real Life Example

All right, real life example!

Here I type in Google “Benefits of Tea Tree Oil” and find this article by Mr. Axe on the very top. I click it to find this:

I go and check his backlink profile with Ahrefs:

Mamma mia! 238 dofollow unique links that come from English speaking websites!

Even if I have a tiny conversion, this is already huge.

Next step?

Create infographic from the list he has in the article!

Once that’s done, post it on your site and, ideally, create some additional written content to go with it (I did exactly that with my psoas example above).

Next – take all the qualifying websites from Dr. Axe’s backlink profile (I use DRs >40 and don’t use Web 2.0s, news etc).

Find their contact details (I have my best VAs for that) and email them using a similar script I used above for guestographics.

And that’s pretty much it. 😉

 

Bonus: Guest Posting

I know…that’s not new, but it works…and works pretty well.

It’s kind of funny how we, marketers, always cry for a “new thing”, whereas good ol’ ways work best.

Yes, that’s why guest blogging is on my list

To make it work, you publish your written content on a relevant and authoritative site in exchange for a backlink.

It’s important to create high-quality, valuable content that will appeal directly to a niche, making it more likely to be accepted and generate backlinks.

Here a video of how you can do it yourself, because buying a guest posting service is not cheap:

 

4 Steps to Getting the Most out of the Guest Posting Technique

1. Step 1: Find a relevant and authoritative site in your niche. Choose an appropriate topic that appeals to your audience.
2. Step 2: Contact the website and discuss the idea, highlighting its advantages for their site. Provide samples of previous work that show your unique approach and attention to detail.
3. Step 3: Write the content and ensure keywords and their variations appear in the text. Consider outsourcing it to a professional writer who can add value and structure to the material to make it more engaging.
4. Step 4: You’ll receive a link in return for your work that will boost your SEO profile and generate more traffic to your site.

Pretty simple, right? 😉

Advantages of the Guest Posting Technique

• Good articles with linkbacks will generate referral traffic.
• You can generate links from high Domain Authority/Domain Rated (DA/DR) websites. I recommend going for websites with DA 35+ (DR 40+). Anything less doesn’t move the needle that well.
• Outsourcing writing to a professional, high-quality writer is relatively inexpensive.
• Scales easily allowing you to add linkback opportunities monthly.
• Footprints make finding guest post opportunities easy to find.

Disadvantages of the Guest Posting Technique

• Currently people have been abusing guest posting and it may be overused. You should never pay for a backlink (unless it is sponsored content and you would get a nofollow link).
• Writing quality posts of 800-1,200 words can be time-consuming if you write them yourself.
• Can be abused by people who buy links.

Real Life Example

Take my furniture affiliate site – myergonomicchair.com.

I need to find some guest posting opportunities – here is what I do.

Use an advanced search operator to find guest posting opportunities.

I use – “keyword” + “guest post” – and it works all the time.

This time I type in “office chair” + “guest post” and get these results:

As you can see, there is a promising list – 3 out of 4 results may qualify for my requirements (I can’t guest post on Pinterest).

Now I am going to check the first one – myrepurposedlife.com

Here is what I see:

Now – watch my reasoning:

• She definitely accepted guest in past – that’s good!
• This particular guest post is from 2013, which is a while ago – maybe not good!

Let’s dig further, shall we?

A few seconds later I find this:

That’s good news!

Now read the guidelines – she is only accepting these from bloggers (i.e. no companies!).

It may or may not work…and this is when your outreach email and value proposition become very important.

I recommend you try “feeling” what the person is like.

In this particular example, I would complement her blog, its design and how she does things.

That’s easy to do, because I genuinely like it.

I would also double-check if she still accepts guest posts…yes, the guidelines are out there, but things change.

Summary

In order to succeed with increasing your site’s traffic, you don’t need to build links to it.

All you need is to create amazing content that can attract links naturally.

Next step – amplify your efforts using a smart link building campaign.

This year these 4 are the most effective link building strategies out there:

1. Guestographics
2. The Ultimate Guide Method
3. Competitographics
4. Guest Posting

Good luck to you with the good things you do!

 

P.S. If you need any help link building, you can hire LinksHero – get in touch!