Yearly, the search engine optimisation company Aira conducts a State of Hyperlink Constructing survey.
Within the most up-to-date version, 270 SEOs voted for the link-building strategies they nonetheless use at present.

Let’s have a look at find out how to do these seven techniques.
Often known as creating hyperlink bait, the aim is to create one thing so worthwhile and attention-grabbing that different individuals wish to hyperlink to it.
Find out how to do it
There’s no surefire manner to do that. If it was really easy, everybody can be doing it. That stated, there are methods to search out link-bait concepts. A technique is to piggyback off what’s already working to your rivals.
Right here’s how:
- Go to Ahrefs’ Web site Explorer
- Enter your competitor’s area
- Go to the Greatest by hyperlinks report

This report reveals which of your rivals’ pages attracted probably the most backlinks. Eyeball the record to see what matters and codecs resonate in your trade.
For instance, knowledge research and statistics are in style within the search engine optimisation area of interest:

For those who’re on this area, you possibly can most likely appeal to hyperlinks to this type of content material, too.
Simply keep in mind that creating content material “designed to entice hyperlinks” doesn’t imply you’ll routinely get them. Individuals received’t magically discover your content material and hyperlink to it. You put it up for sale. Learn to try this in my content material promotion put up.
This method is about taking a look at how your rivals get hyperlinks and the way you are able to do the identical to your web site.
Find out how to do it
First, you’ll must verify the backlink profile of your rivals’ web sites.
Right here’s how:
- Go to Ahrefs’ Web site Explorer
- Enter your competitor’s area
- Go to the Backlinks report

Fairly than figuring out particular hyperlinks to copy, search for patterns. This may assist you spot link-building methods that your rivals are utilizing efficiently.
For instance, we see that the Moz staff has appeared on a number of podcasts:

This tells us that podcast link-building is a technique that works in our trade. We are able to do the identical too. We are able to curate podcast alternatives by on the lookout for these our rivals have already appeared on, and we will additionally discover extra podcast alternatives by following the method in this video:
Visitor posting is the place you write a put up for another person’s web site.
Find out how to do it
The perfect web sites to put in writing for are people who already get a number of visitors to content material about comparable matters to the one you wish to write about. Right here’s find out how to discover these web sites:
- Open Ahrefs’ Content material Explorer
- Enter a associated matter and alter the dropdown to “In title”
- Filter for English outcomes
- Filter for outcomes with 500+ phrases
- Go to the “Web sites” tab

This reveals you the web sites getting probably the most natural search visitors to content material about your matter.
From right here, you wish to eyeball the Authors column and prioritize web sites with a number of authors, as this typically factors to them accepting visitor posts.
For instance, Excellent Keto will get an estimated 19K month-to-month search visits from 20 authors for the subject “low carb”:

It’s possible that a few of these are visitor authors, so this may very well be website to pitch.
Reactive PR is the place you react rapidly to time-sensitive alternatives to earn hyperlinks.
Find out how to do it
It varies from trade to trade, nevertheless it’s widespread to make use of Assist a Reporter Out (HARO). This platform connects journalists on the lookout for quotes and suggestions to knowledgeable sources. You’ll be able to join free and reply to any you possibly can reply.
For instance, a journalist at HandicappedPets.com put out a question:

Dr. Jonathan Roberts, a veterinarian at PetKeen.com, responded and earned a hyperlink:

After you join HARO, you’ll obtain three emails a day.
Provided that you need to solely reply to related queries the place you could have the experience to reply, I like to recommend organising some Gmail filters. This may spare your inbox by filtering out irrelevant alternatives.
Right here’s find out how to do it:
- Click on the search choices filter
- Set the “From” area to [email protected].
- Set the “Topic” to “[HARO]”
- Set “Has the phrases” to key phrases you wish to monitor (you should use the OR operator to record a number of key phrases right here)

Hit search and verify that all the things’s right. If all appears to be like good, hit the search choices caret once more and click on “Create filter.”
Damaged hyperlink constructing is the place you:
- Discover a useless web page with hyperlinks
- Create your personal web page on the matter
- Ask individuals linking to the useless web page to hyperlink to you as an alternative
Find out how to do it
First, you’ll must discover a useless web page with hyperlinks. Right here’s how:
- Go to Ahrefs’ Content material Explorer
- Seek for a matter
- Filter for damaged pages solely
- Filter for pages with 10+ referring domains

For instance, trying to find “keto” finds this web page with 104 referring domains:

For those who go to the web page, you’ll see that it’s certainly useless:

Subsequent, click on on the caret subsequent to the URL and click on to view it on archive.org. This may present you the way the web page appeared earlier than it disappeared.


If recreating this content material is smart to your website, do it, then attain out to all of the individuals linking to the useless web page and pitch yours as a alternative.
You will discover these linkers by coming into the useless web page’s URL into Web site Explorer and going to the Backlinks report.

The principle focus of this system is making an attempt to transform unlinked mentions to linked mentions.
Find out how to do it
First, that you must discover your unlinked mentions. You are able to do this by operating the next search in Ahrefs’ Internet Explorer:
[your brand] -outlinkdomain:[yourwebsite].com -site:[yourwebsite].com -intitle:[your brand]
This may search billions of pages for people who point out your model title, however don’t hyperlink to you.
For instance, in case you wished to search out unlinked mentions for Ahrefs.com, you’d seek for this:

On this case, the search finds over 59 million outcomes:

That’s too many to sift by means of, so I like to recommend including these filters:
- Area Score: 30+ to take away low authority web sites.
- Language: English to take away those that received’t perceive your pitch.
- First seen: 6 months to take away previous pages individuals don’t care about updating.
- One web page per area to take away duplicate web sites.
- Filter specific outcomes to take away outcomes your boss received’t wish to see.
- Exclude subdomains to scale back spammy outcomes.

From there, look by means of the outcomes for unlinked mentions that make sense to pitch.
For instance, this web page discusses our new search engine:

Though the article hyperlinks to our search engine (Yep.com), it doesn’t hyperlink to Ahrefs. That’s particularly odd because it mentions “ahrefs” 16 instances and talks about us within the intro:

Provided that including a hyperlink right here can be useful to readers who aren’t acquainted with us, that is an unlinked point out value chasing.
On the lookout for one other technique to earn model mentions?
Strive getting your model included in listicles.
For instance, in case you run a restaurant in London and also you’re not featured in lists of the perfect cafes in London, that’s a possibility.
To seek out related listicles, Google this question:
finest [business type] in [location] -”[your business name]”
For instance, in case you’re the proprietor of Chinese language Connoisseur in London, you would possibly seek for one thing like this:

For those who discover listicles that don’t embrace your restaurant (just like the one under), attain out and see in the event that they’d be prepared so as to add you.

Simply remember the fact that your pitch must make sense. If the creator of the listicle has by no means eaten at your restaurant, they’re hardly going so as to add you simply since you requested. You’ll have extra likelihood of success by inviting them down for some meals and going from there.
This method might imply numerous issues, so I’ll concentrate on the “information” half. Primarily, it’s selling related model info (e.g., your organization goes to IPO) and getting publications to cowl it.
Find out how to do it
This method is the remit of my colleague, Daria Samokish. She efficiently received TechCrunch to cowl our new search engine, Yep.

She shared all the things she did in this X (Twitter) thread:
Continue learning
For those who’re on the lookout for much more link-building strategies that work, take a look at these assets:
Any questions or feedback? Let me know on X (Twitter).