8 SEO Experts on Link Building for Affiliates

Note: See Danish version here: Linkbuilding for affiliate hjemmeside 2.0.

Links are really important in terms of SEO and probably always will be. However, if you have a small affiliate site, it is not always easy to get good, strong links – especially after the recent Google updates, which have made the process more complex. It is no longer quantity, but quality and relevance that you should focus on.

Earlier in the year I asked 10 Danish experts to give advice on SEO for affiliate sites (you can see the post here) and it quickly became very popular. So, I thought it would be fun to make a version 2. But this time I wanted to ask foreign SEO experts. So I did that (it should be noted that there are 7 foreign experts and 1 Danish expert in this post).

It should also be noted that the experts did not see each others answers, so their responses are 100% independent. This ensures that only their own views are represented, as they expressed them. And thanks a lot to Sasa from Alor.dk who helped with the translation.

Jump to

Jason Acidre | James Norquay | Ross Hudgens | Jon Cooper | Brian Dean | Chris Dyson | Henrik | James Agate

Jason Acidre

Jason Acidre’s blog is one of the blogs that I most recently followed; it is simply one of the best link-building blogs at the moment. Jason has a creative approach to SEO/link-building, which has inspired me. You can follow him on his blog Kaiserthesage and Google+/Twitter.

1. What kind of links do you recommend that affiliate marketers need to focus on in terms of link building?

It’s apparent that search engines (particularly Google) have brand bias, which, more and more, somehow eliminates small affiliate sites from search results, as they apply constant changes to their ranking algorithms.

And based on this pattern, it’s important for any type of website/business model to focus more on building brand signals, so as to build a better brand presence (search visibility) online. So the links that affiliates should be using more these days (for obvious reasons) are:

• Get more branded links (branded anchor texts for artificial links). Exact-match and partial-match domains are already on Google’s radar, so working to build a good branding for an affiliate website is one of the best ways to survive in affiliate marketing.
• Get more content and relationship-driven links (pointing to the site’s inner pages). Start creating content that people will have real reasons to search, share and/or link to. It’s also vital to connect with other content publishers in your niche.

2. Let’s say you have an affiliate site that compares mobile phones. Give one or more examples of a link/links you would try to create to this site.

There are two things that I’d mostly focus on:

• Partner up with other tech blogs (who’re seeking regular contributors or columnists) and become their resident topic expert. That way you can continuously get visibility from their readers (and the links that you’ll be able to acquire are far greater than one-time guest posts).
• Create comprehensive content assets. Not just basic product comparisons, I’d definitely go the extra mile by adding my own insights about the products, including video reviews – curate others’ reviews, etc…

James Norquay

James lives in Australia and has been working with SEO for large companies since 2007 and has had articles included on SearchEngineLand, Moz.com, Search Engine Journal and a sea of other sites. You can find him on Backlinks.com.au and you can follow him on Twitter/Google+.

1. What kind of links do you recommend that affiliate marketers need to focus on in terms of link building?

Well I think you have two types of affiliates: the ones who focus on building long term sites; and the ones who build sites with black-hat in mind and might start a new site each month. I respect both styles because they are always testing new/old methods and I can see the benefits and negatives in both methods. I deal more with building long term sites so some strategies I would still advise are:

• In text guest posts, links are still valuable in my eyes, when the site does not actively advertise that they do guest posts. I would also focus on niche-specific high quality sites.
• Broken link building is still a killer tactic which works effectively, one tool I have been using recently is Domain Hunter (free tool) – it is a great tool to source broken links and dropped domains with high quality links.
• Competitive link research is still 100% worth it. Just search for your related keywords, see who is doing well and then reverse engineer the strategies they are using with tools like Ahrefs or Majestic SEO.
• High quality niche specific directories still have their benefit in my eyes, if you have to pay for submission it shows it’s decent. I would always check the PR of the domain to make sure it holds PR; I interviewed ex Googlers last year who said high quality directories are still worth it. See interview here for some other SEO tips – An Interview with an EX-Member of Matt Cutt’s Search Quality team!
• EGO Bait is still a killer tactic if done correctly, I always make ego bait lists using FollowerWonk and target people who relate to my niche. For example, if I want to target mobile phones I make a list of the top 20 mobile phone bloggers and link to them all, then I reach out to them all to say ‘Check out my article! You have made the top 20 bloggers list’. It is an easy way to get links, social shares and build strong relationships.
• Competitions to build links is also an age old tactic. Just have a decent prize like $1,000 in cash. Say to people ‘upload a video on YouTube about our site and be sure to link back to it’, or tell people to Tweet out a specific message with your branded links to go into the running of the competition or tell them to use a particular hashtag.
• Also I have a few friends who make big money with hosting affiliates in the US, they have advised me to try and use below 1% direct anchor text when link building, and have solid onsite SEO. I suggest a good free tool to check anchor text ratios is Remove’em.

2. Let’s say you have an affiliate site that compares mobile phones. Give one or more examples of a link/links you would try to create to this site.

Well I used to work in the mobile phone space for a few years. I headed up the SEO at Virgin Mobile Australia. Mobile phones can be a tough niche as commissions are high for affiliates. Even if you are a branded site it can be a bit tricky. What we did for our client was launch something a bit different that was going to drive links and social shares. It was a “block your phone when you are drunk website app” so people could go to the site or mobile app and block their phone if they were going to have a big night out and not message an Ex-Girlfriend for example. Basically this effective piece of content marketing drove around 71 referring domains and 226 total backlinks.

Overall being creative and different can yield results with link building.

Ross Hudgens

Ross Hudgens Ross Hudgens is called a “big thinker” inside SEO and link building circles and has written many posts on Moz.com, Search Engine Watch and others. In addition, he writes regularly on his own blog. You can find him here on Google+/Twitter

1. What kind of links do you recommend that affiliate marketers need to focus on in terms of link building?

Affiliates should build links that are true citations of the content they have on their website. I think there’s a lot of disconnect (real link building) and that is going to cause problems for you, especially as an affiliate, in the long run. By thinking about the connection between the content on site and the links off site, it will likely result in your content being rewarded in the long run.

2. Let’s say you have an affiliate site that compares mobile phones. Give one or more examples of a link/links you would try to create to this site.

There’s a lot of interesting stuff you could build content around: phone developers (look at this leadgen example about Apple: How Apple Gets at-home worker to work, phone usage (do a cheap demographic survey – 85% of 8 year olds have a cell phone), or, obviously, incredibly in-depth comparisons on micro-areas of new products (How the iPhone 6’s Camera Compares to Professional Lenses).

You can rent many professional products affordably, giving you nice comparisons of phone technology to other products in the market.

Jon Cooper

Jon Cooper has, at a young age, already established himself as a link building expert and had his breakthrough with the release of his “Link Building Strategies – The Complete List” and “Link Building Course”. You can find him on PointBlankSEO and on his Google+/Twitter

1. What kind of links do you recommend that affiliate marketers need to focus on in terms of link building?

As always, contextual links in fresh content. If you aim for these, you don’t have to focus on getting lots of links, just a few well placed ones on blogs that are relevant and that matter. Focus on finding blogs that have multiple or guest contributors, and invest in creating high-investment content for them right off the bat so you leave a great impression. Then, from there, they’ll most likely allow you to contribute whenever you want to, and you’ve now secured yourself a stream of continuous links on a monthly basis.

2. Let’s say you have an affiliate site that compares mobile phones. Give one or more examples of a link/links you would try to create to this site.

I’d create a resource on recycling mobile phones, just because that would be very relevant, and it would appeal to the environmental/green community where there’s lots of great links to be had with just a little bit of outreach!

Brian Dean

Brian Dean Brian Dean is a relatively new name in the SEO world, and he does things that bit differently and has a creative approach to SEO. You can find him on Backlinko.com and on Google+/Twitter.

1. What kind of links do you recommend that affiliate marketers need to focus on in terms of link building?

I think affiliates should build the same type of links that a brick and mortar business would: contextual links from authoritative sites in your niche. I don’t think affiliates should run their sites much differently than any other. Affiliate commissions are just a way to monetize your traffic. It doesn’t have to determine how you build or promote your site.

For example, for my affiliate site, I do the same type of link building that I do for Backlinko: broken link building, guest posting, infographics etc.

2. Let’s say you have an affiliate site that compares mobile phones. Give one or more examples of a link/links you would try to create to this site.

The first thing that popped into my head was “infographic”. Every niche is different and has different link building opportunities. And the mobile phone space has A LOT of authoritative sites that need fresh content. If you could come up with a really cool infographic about mobile phones and cancer, weird people ways use their mobile phones etc. you could get amazing traction with the right outreach.

I’d also consider making an interactive flowchart or tool that helps people figure out which mobile phone is best for them. It could start with something like “What Is Your Budget?”. And then you could choose “Less than “$500”, “$200-$500” etc. Then it would ask them how much they use their phone, their preferred OS, etc. Once that’s done I’d email as many mobile phone webmasters I could to ask them to link to my useful tool.

Chris Dyson

Chris Dyson is an SEO consultant and helps various websites with Content Marketing, SEO and link building. You can find him on his blog/website TripleSEO, where he writes a lot of great posts, and on Twitter/Google+.

1. What kind of links do you recommend that affiliate marketers need to focus on in terms of link building?

The first strategy I would recommend would be linkbait. Large corporate organisations struggle to react quickly to current affairs and breaking news due to complex legal and technical sign-off structures.

Affiliates have the opportunity to create content that will push the boundaries further than any big site ever will. Just look at some of the products that Wish have created, such as a visit to 10 Downing Street or their Valentine’s Day offer to join the “Mile High Club“. Both got links from some very high profile websites and heaps of social shares.

To create truly exceptional linkbait you really have to understand the culture and mindset of the people you want to link to you.

The next area I would look at is helping other webmasters out and getting your name known in the industry. Tactics such as broken link building or fixing hacked sites are great ways to build up good karma and hopefully the other person will reciprocate when you eventually ask them for a link.

2. Let’s say you have an affiliate site that compares mobile phones. Give one or more examples of a link/links you would try to create to this site.

10 Reasons Android Phones are Superior to the iPhone – Apple have hundreds of fan blogs and there are a lot of android blogs out there too. Pitting two communities against one another is always a great tactic to drive traffic and links to your site.

After I hit the publish button I’d start by emailing a bunch of Android bloggers and ask them to share and comment on the post. Once I had a few comments from Android fans I would reach out to the Apple communities.

You could also try newsjacking current events. A big one in recent weeks was PRISM, so creating content such as an infographic on “spying” and “safety” would go down really well right now and should get a lot of exposure from the big technology sites.

Who is listening to your Calls and Reading your SMS? – There is a lot of data out there about ways people can hack in to mobile devices so collating it together with a great headline and some handy tips could be a winner.

Henrik Bondtofte

Henrik Bondtofte has worked in online marketing since 2004 and is one of the leaders in terms of SEO and link building in Denmark. He is also SEO specialist at Bondtofte.dk, and you can find him here on Google+/Twitter.

1. What kind of links do you recommend that affiliate marketers need to focus on in terms of link building?

It all depends on the scenario, is it a website you want to run for a long time or will you just make some quick money in a short time? If you just want to quickly get up in SERP, you might as well run with all the tactics we would not otherwise recommend, such as mass use of splogs, comment links, article directories and stuff like that.

I dropped that to make temporary sites a long time ago; you come to spend too much energy on it. It is more profitable to treat your affiliate website as you would any other website.

I therefore suggest that you work with the same kind of links as you would on your webshop example. The trick with affiliate websites is to build the website first, with a lot of great content, and then start working link profile before you put the affiliate links in! Generally speaking, there are very few sites that want to link to an affiliate website, unless it really gives good value and some sites refuse to do so, without exception.

Create link-worthy content combined with some easy links from the best of the available link directories (under 20), links from your own social bookmark profiles and perhaps from relevant websites you have in your portfolio. Then approach and contact relevant websites and learn about link exchange. You may want to set up 1-2 websites on the same subject and offer links back from them.

2. Let’s say you have an affiliate site that compares mobile phones. Give one or more examples of a link/links you would try to create to this site.

I have had a major mobile website, where I supported Wikimedia Foundation with $ 1,000 to get a link. Wikimedia Foundation is the ones who are behind Wikipedia and the website added my affiliate site with trust over a long period, making it less likely to succumb to any link penalties. It costs 10,000 U.S. dollars now to get on that donor list so the tip is not quite so topical anymore, but there are plenty of similar websites, you can accumulate some trust from.

In addition, I would do my normal link analysis and find relevant link opportunities (read: pages about telephony), establish a contact list and then run email outreach on them, combined with phone calls to the owners of the strongest websites.

Another tip is to create landing pages for different mobile phone models and let them link to my main site. Here I would choose a pair of EMDs for the purpose, with good text and beautiful themes, so that the sites can stand on their own. That is, several positions in the search results, giving a greater chance of conversions and relevant links to the main site. I would then build some extra links to the landing pages so that they can rank and transfer more value to the main site.

James Agate

James Agate founded SkyrocketSEO back in 2010, which is a link-building and content production agency, and has 8 employees in total. James writes some really great blog posts there that I have really learned a lot from. You can also follow him on Twitter/Google+.

1. What kind of links do you recommend that affiliate marketers need to focus on in terms of link building?

As a link-building company we work with a number of super-affiliates helping them with their link-building needs, so we see both ends of the spectrum, in the sense that some of our clients are ultra-cautious; others are ultra-aggressive; and others have an attitude to risk which varies according to the site in their stable.

I think that to succeed as an organic search affiliate nowadays you need to be doing a few things: not relying entirely on Google for traffic; focusing your efforts around a particular niche or handful of niches (don’t spread yourself too thin); and have a two-pronged approach to Site building/SEO/link building. Some of our most successful affiliate clients have low-maintenance sites that are quick to put up and we’re authorised to go to town in terms of links (mainly tiered link building!) and they roll the profits from this endeavour into a longer term, more legitimate website. Building a brand, building a business and adopting the kind of linking strategies that reflect this.

If all the mafia films have taught me anything it is that illegal business pays but it isn’t long term. Obviously link building isn’t illegal, but recognising that the shiftier stuff doesn’t last as long, and being smart with the money that there is to be made (rather than being left without a seat when the music stops) is so important.

I’m aware I’ve kind of strayed from the original question here but I wanted to illustrate that the types of link building I would recommend are very situational. Honestly, we have internal properties where we try to do clean link building activities (guest blogging, content production & outreach). These are slower going in terms of revenue growth but longer-term they have more potential, and then there are our other sites which we hammer with almost any kind of link to act as a testbed for our day-to-day work and also to profit short-term, thereby giving us additional funds to invest in long-term projects.

Diversity is key though when it comes to building links, so think about your profile very carefully…

2. Let’s say you have an affiliate site that compares mobile phones. Give one or more examples of a link/links you would try to create to this site.

That’s a very expansive question to be honest with you, because it would depend on what my intention was for the site.

Let’s assume I am talking about keeping this affiliate site for the long term. Then I would almost certainly be looking to put out a piece of content where there is a great incentive to link back to me, because in reality anyone with the ability to link to my review of a mobile phone, for example, is probably running a competing mobile phone review website anyway and therefore has no reason to help me gain visitors or increase my search engine visibility.

In this instance, we’d need to go outside of the usual bubble and look at producing a piece of content combined with outreach to get in front of a broader audience. At a simple level, this could be a solid guide to mobile solutions for businesses (small business owners with a couple of employees and phones are likely to be interested in better understanding any hidden charges, selecting appropriate handsets, tricks to cut bills – that kind of thing – so editors of small business websites are likely to be very interested in an expert putting together a guide of that nature). At a more advanced level you could look at a timely piece of content or research with a view to baiting press/online editors and other bloggers. Mobile phones touch every part of our life so a nice juicy bit of research can lead to quite a bit of coverage whether it is surprising or kind of light-hearted – like this: 75% of people use their phone on the toilet.