Understanding link insertion is just as important to SEO as knowing how backlinks can impact your rankings. So if you want your website to enjoy a better online presence, you’d better know how to ask for link exchange and properly insert links in your content.
If you’re new to link insertion (or SEO for that matter), then you’re in luck! Below is a simple guide to help bring you up to speed about the basics of link insertion.
What are Links?
First things first: what are links? To put it simply, these are the HTML hyperlinks used to point to any website. If you asked three people from New York where the best coffee shop is, they’d probably say Stumptown Coffee Roasters or Starbucks. In the same way, links point people to whatever they’re searching for in Google.
Since the late 90’s, links have played an important role in SEO. Search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing heavily rely on it when ranking websites. And that’s the main reason why you need to make sure your sites have the right links to it.
What is Link Insertion?
This is where link insertion comes in. For those of you who didn’t know, link insertion is the technique of getting other websites to host links to your content. You shouldn’t confuse it with link building, although it is one of the main tactics used in the process.
Proper link insertion can be done in two ways. Either you hire a decent SEO agency to do the job for you. Or you can handle it yourself. Keep in mind that choosing the latter is not as simple as it sounds. Gaining quality backlinks for your website takes tremendous time and effort. So if you opt for the DIY path, then you’d better be very patient. Also, you shouldn’t beg other webmasters for links; these are off-putting and ultimately futile.
3 Great Link Insertion Techniques to Try
That being said, there are three techniques to gain links that could bring benefits to all parties involved. These are link exchange, guest posting, and being authoritative. Let’s take a look at their merits below.
Link Exchange
As its name suggests, this technique involves trading quality backlinks with another website. That is, they host a link to your content in return for you doing the same for them.
There are a couple of things to keep in mind when learning how to ask for link exchange. The most important of these is relevance. For both of you to reap rewards, your websites must have similar niches. Otherwise, your content won’t be able to complement each other’s.
Additionally, you should only partner with websites that enjoy more or less the same domain authority score as you (if not higher). This will help boost your reputation in the long run, and it will affect your rankings on SERPs.
Then there’s site traffic. For you to accurately measure your click rates, you need to stick with websites with similar or higher traffic. Deal with low-traffic sites only if they have amazing content and promise to show.
Guest Posting
Meanwhile, guest posting involves you creating content for the other website. Inside this content is a backlink to your website’s content or page. In short, you’ll make a cameo appearance on the website to enjoy free link insertion.
Guest posting is the most heavily relied-upon link building technique you can try. Aside from improving your website’s rankings, it also gives you the opportunity to showcase your credibility and authority in your industry. So better include it in your SEO strategy if you haven’t yet.
Proper guest posting involves more or less the same factors considered when exchanging links. So make sure you team up only with relevant websites with the same or higher domain authority scores and site traffic.
Being Authoritative
Being authoritative is one of the secret ingredients to link insertion and link building in general. And no, this does not mean being too assertive or aggressive when dealing with other websites. Rather, it means knowing your stuff and explaining it in a way that others find engaging and informative.
So while it’s not exactly a link insertion technique, you should still strive to be authoritative when creating content. That way, you’ll attract many people to your content and pages. This will increase the chance of other websites wanting to team up with you in the future, bringing new link insertion opportunities.
Best Practices for Link Insertions
So now that you’re familiar with the three best link insertion techniques, time to learn how to maximize their rewards. These mostly involve doing the tasks below.
Make Your Website EAT
EAT stands for Expert, Authoritative, and Trustworthy. For your website to gain quality links, it must exhibit these traits. So make sure it dies by creating quality content, making sure your site elements are in order, and what-not.
Invest in SEO Tools
To make the entire process of link insertion easier, you need to employ the best SEO tools out there. For example, when checking the domain authority of the sites you want to exchange links with, try Moz. For domain ratings, site traffic, and other variables, try Ahrefs. Other tools to consider include:
- SurferSEO
- Hemingway Editor
- Grammarly
- SEMRush
- Ubersuggest
Set the Links to “Follow”
Dofollow links enable search engines like Google to point back to your website. So whether you’re guest posting or learning how to ask for link exchange, ask the webmaster to set your links to “Follow”. Otherwise, the link won’t have any impact on your site’s authority and rankings. At the same time, you should set the links sent by the other website to “Follow” as well.
Use the Right Keywords
Finally, your links should be accompanied by the right keywords or key phrases. That way, the links will be able to target the right audience, increasing site traffic in the process. Using tools like SEMRUSH and Raventools can greatly help you in this regard, as is thinking like your customers and observing your competitors.
Learn How to Properly Insert Links
For your links to reach new heights, you need to gain quality backlinks. And to do that, you need to learn how to do proper link insertion. By reading the guide above, you’ll be able to know how to ask for link exchange, guest posts, and more! So if you’re new to SEO, best take everything you read above seriously.
