Credibility ensures the sustainable growth of almost every affiliate marketing website.
If people (and search engines) trust you, brands and influencers won’t hesitate to partner with you.
And building online credibility isn’t a tough nut to crack because all you need are backlinks.
Building quality backlinks can improve your online credibility and help you rank higher in the SERPs, and grow your business.
So, in this post, I will tell you 10 simple (yet effective) ways to build backlinks for an affiliate marketing website.
However, before that, let’s get the basics right.
What Are Backlinks?
Backlinks (or incoming links) are hyperlinks that connect one website to another.
For example, Website A publishes a blog and adds a link in it to Website B. So, for Website B, it will be a backlink (or incoming link).
Google considers backlinks as one of the most crucial factors to rank a website and determine its authority.
So, it is advisable to build quality backlinks and remove any low-quality or spammy ones because they can directly affect your SERP rankings and credibility.
Why Are Backlinks Important For Affiliate Marketing Websites?
1. Boosts Credibility
Having authoritative backlinks to your affiliate site increases its credibility in the eyes of both users and search engines. Suppose you get a backlink from Wikipedia, then, don’t you think it increases your site’s credibility? I think it will because Google and billions of people trust Wikipedia for credible information.
2. Increases Commission
High-quality backlinks positively impact your search rankings and increase the CTR. As more and more people visit your site, the CTR of your affiliate links also increases. So does the commission! Your pages (with affiliate links) get more organic traffic and even more conversions.
3. Builds Relationships
Backlinks play an important role in building beneficial relationships. When people click on a backlink (on another site) and visit your site, they are somewhat interested in what you offer. So, they can become your customers and help you establish new relationships.
6 Ways To Build Links For An Affiliate Marketing Website
The right techniques can make link building for an affiliate website a cakewalk.
So, here are 10 proven ways to help you out:
1. Broken Links
Products that don’t provide services anymore are known as dead products. And you can use such products to generate backlinks with ease.
For example, Google Reader, an RSS feed aggregator, stopped giving its services in 2013. While the URL now leads to an error 404 page, some websites still link to it.
These are broken links, and you can leverage this opportunity to build links for your affiliate marketing site. Let’s see how you can do it.
Back then, the access link of Google Reader was ‘google.com/reader’. If you use a broken link checker tool, you can easily find the sites still linking to it.
Next, write an article on RSS feed aggregators or any other relevant topic. It can be a step-by-step guide or perhaps an infographic. Simply put, it must be a high-quality post that people would link to on their website.
Once you’ve created the post, reach out to the website and request them to replace their Google Reader link with your post. Plus, provide an anchor text as well (helps a lot).
In this strategy, your chances of getting a backlink are high because you are doing community service by finding dead links for the website and improving their crawling.
You can use the same article to link to various sites as well. Just be as smart as you can, and build ample links to your affiliate site.
2. Guest Posts
Guest posting is an effective way to build backlinks for your affiliate marketing site. But, you need to go a step ahead to make it more effective.
The tricks you should know include:
- Finding referring domains of your competitors
- Placing links within the first half of your content
- Adding links to pages that have high CTR
You can use the Backlink Analyzer Tool to perform a backlink analysis of your competitors quickly and conveniently.
Here’s what the backlink profile of NerdWallet, a review affiliate site for financial products, looks like:
As you can see, the referring domains of NerdWallet are right here. Similarly, you can easily find the referring domains of your competitors.
When you find the top linking domains of your competitors (that have high authority), you can approach them for guest posts.
Once you get approval, start writing the guest post and adding relevant links (from your site) to it. Make sure it is not too promotional or sale-oriented.
The ultimate aim of your guest post should be to engage your target audience. If you do it right, you can build as many backlinks as you want to your affiliate site.
For help, here’s a step-by-step guide to getting your articles published on top tier blogs.
3. Product Reviews
Product Reviews are one of the most popular content formats used by affiliate marketing sites. But little did anyone know that reviews can be a great way to earn backlinks.
When you are affiliated with a program, you always tend to publish rich product reviews on your site. That’s because you can insert affiliate links in them.
And that’s well justified. But, if you think a step ahead, you can get a backlink.
Simply reach out to the product site (whose affiliate program you’ve joined), share the review link with them, and request them to link back to it.
If you have written a rich review, there are high chances that the product website will want to show it on their site, and you’ll get a backlink.
Look at how UBackup (a free backup software to ensure data security) links to the sites that have reviewed its products:
If you haven’t written product reviews earlier, you can quickly learn how to write a product review. As you get the hang of it, you can review more and link more!
4. Industry Forums
Interacting on industry forums, where people come to share and discuss ideas, also helps you earn backlinks.
By joining forums in your industry and replying to various threads, you can create many super relevant backlinks to your site.
Here are the steps you need to follow:
1. Find top (relevant) forums in your industry
2. Set up your profile and forum signature
3. Start interacting and sharing valuable insights
You can find top forums in your industry using a forum search engine like Boardreader, Find a Forum, etc. When you select the most relevant ones in your niche, join them.
While you set up your profile, make sure to add a forum signature containing a link to your site anchored on your brand’s name.
Some forums might not allow you to add or edit forum signatures after you start interacting. So, you must add it beforehand.
When you post something new or reply to a thread in the forum, the forum signature is automatically added at the end. That’s one way you get a link back.
If you try and find it feasible, you can link to relevant blogs as a resource in your conversations. In this way, you can earn more backlinks.
But, make sure whatever you post in the forum adds value to the conversation. The information should be authentic, reliable and actionable.
Don’t just post anything for the heck of getting backlinks. Be honest, and results will follow.
5. Social Media
Engaging regularly on social networking sites is another way to build backlinks to your affiliate marketing site.
When you create an account on a social networking site and share content through it, you get a backlink (typically a no-follow one).
However, some social media platforms like Pinterest and LinkedIn allow do-follow links as well.
Besides the backlinks, social signals help you rank better on search engines. So, it is more important to build your presence on social networks.
To get started:
- Create profiles on relevant social media sites
- Plan and follow a consistent posting schedule
- Engage with people in comments and groups
- Track your backlink progress and tweak accordingly
With time, you can get a lot of referral traffic from social media besides the backlinks.
So, keep sharing your posts (with affiliate links) on social platforms! It is always a great idea to combine social media with SEO.
6. News & Updates
PR sites make it easy for you to publish news and updates related to your industry. Plus, they offer a great link-building opportunity.
But, most affiliate marketing sites don’t know how to earn backlinks using it. So, it remains an untapped source of links even in 2021.
Let me quickly tell you a creative way to do it. Suppose ‘Nike’ launches a new product this week.
You can write a PR article about the new product, including its features and other details. In the content, just (smartly) add a link to your site.
Since the content is related to news, it wouldn’t promote you directly. So, it has a higher chance of getting published.
Next, submit it to the PR sites. Once they publish it, you build a backlink for your affiliate marketing site.
You can write PR articles and get them published on various PR sites. Some of the popular ones are Newswire, Presswire, Businesswire, Beta News, etc.
If you are new to writing PR articles, you can read this guide on creating the most effective press release for a better idea.
With that, you have 6 efficient and actionable tricks to build links for your affiliate marketing site.
Grow Your Affiliate Marketing Sites with Links
Affiliate marketing has a sparkling future. Most online marketers are choosing this niche to make a mark and earn profits.
But, an affiliate marketing website will succeed when it ranks well on the search engines. That is when it implements result-driven link-building strategies.
For help, you have the tips and techniques mentioned in this post. Good luck!
That’s all for now. If you guys have any suggestions or questions to ask, don’t be shy to use the comment box below.
About the Author
Sahil Kakkar is the CEO and Founder of Rankwatch – a platform, which helps companies and brands stay ahead with their SEO efforts in the ever growing internet landscape. Sahil likes making creative products that can help in automation of mundane tasks and he can spend endless nights implementing new technologies and ideas. You can connect with him and the Rankwatch team on Facebook or Twitter.
