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Niche-Relevant Backlinks

On paper, niche-relevant backlinks are a link-builder’s dream.

Gallons of link juice. Optimal topical authority. Quick and easy.

When implemented properly, niche-relevant links can get you some major SEO value. So why isn’t everyone using them?

The answer, as usual, is that it’s not just about the product – it’s about expert implementation. With SEO, if you don’t get it right, you typically get it very, very wrong.

I’m here to clear that up for you. This guide will cover:

  • How niche-relevant links work

  • How they fit into your backlink profile

  • Google’s view on niche edits and links

  • How niche-relevant links can benefit your business

Let’s get started.

What Are Niche-Relevant Backlinks?

Also sometimes called niche edits or link insertions, niche-relevant links are a type of backlink that is inserted into an existing page rather than published as part of a new page.

This distinguishes them from guest posts, which use new content to publish links.

The pages used for niche-relevant links already benefit from a high volume of organic traffic from search engines. This makes strategic niche edits faster than trying to organically attract links and easier than guest posting to other websites.

The niche-relevant part refers to how you choose the target page for your backlink. You want to choose a page that has a strong, clear connection to your industry and that already enjoys a high volume of traffic.

The edit/insertion part describes how the link is “added” to existing content rather than published as part of a new post.

Given their obvious strategic value, these are highly prized in link-building circles and often yield better results than other types of backlinks.

What Are Backlinks?

A backlink is any link to your website, no matter where it’s found. Broken links count, too. Backlinks can be from social media platforms, blogs, directories, or any other site.

Backlinks in articles are typically linked with “anchor text.” This is the text the link is attached to, and it helps search engines understand a link’s relevance and value to the reader.

How do you get backlinks?

Many optimistic new online business owners expect to attract backlinks naturally. If you publish good content, this may happen – but it will take time.

You may get some organic mentions and some relevant links in the local news and on social media. But businesses also have to be on the lookout for relevant backlink opportunities to balance out their backlink profile.

Relevance of backlinks

Relevant backlinks are links that make sense for your organization. If you’re a dog groomer, a link from an animal rescue group is a relevant backlink, but one from a cigar bar probably isn’t.

An advantage of guest posting for SEO is that you (usually) have complete control over the relevance of the content. However, a disadvantage is that whether the info is relevant or not, you can’t guarantee the page’s performance.

Niche edits circumvent this by embedding links into posts that are both relevant and authoritative.

Search engines identify the quality of the sites providing you with referral traffic, too. A site with higher authority, lots of great content on one subject, and sensible internal architecture will typically provide more link juice than a disorganized pile of posts with no clear focus.

Backlink tiers

SEOs divide potential backlinks into three tiers: tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3.

  • Tier 1: These are the best, most reputable places to link back to you. Think legitimate news sites, magazines, and blogs by true industry leaders.

  • Tier 2: These websites don’t have as much trustworthiness or authority as tier 1 sites but can still be extremely useful for SEO. Think less well-known blogs, industry directories, and local directories.

  • Tier 3: Lower-authority websites that typically point towards tier 2 sites rather than directly to your website.

You should build niche-relevant backlinks only with tier 1 sites. With these high-quality links, you get the most return for your time and effort.

You can link tier 2 sites to a tier 1 site that links to your company. By boosting the tier 1 site in Google’s search engine results, you indirectly boost your own SEO.

Tier 2 links are a great strategy to use in conjunction with niche-relevant backlinks – you can really enhance their reach!

Backlink examples

Backlinks are all around you online! Every time you share a news story with your Facebook feed, you’re building a backlink for the news organization.

The next time you read an article online, pay special attention to the links in the text. Some probably link to other stories on the site, but others may link back to news sites and even commercial brands.

How Niche-Relevant Backlinks Work

Niche-relevant backlinks are a subset of backlinks. They involve you (or, more likely, your SEO agency) finding suitable websites that could benefit from a link to your website.

That may seem inefficient, but there are actually a lot of backlink opportunities in techniques like broken link building. And savvy SEOs know how to find relevant websites with these opportunities.

Some sites in the same industry may already be linking to you, but they have a broken link or dead link. Closing the broken links is a benefit to you, but it also benefits the linking site, as well.

Broken links aren’t the only opportunity. Other sites may be mentioning your company but not linking to your site and giving you referral traffic. This is another easy fix, and many publishers (though not all) are happy to add a link.

You can also try to get your site listed in a list of industry resources. For example, if you’re in industrial safety and you have a great cheat sheet on following a government regulation, other websites may be happy to post a link.

Analyzing your backlink profile

Good backlinks start by researching your backlink profile. How many relevant backlinks do you have, and how do they compare to competitors’ backlink profiles?

This backlink analysis can help you spot opportunities for relevant links. Perhaps you need more geo-relevant backlinks from other sites in your community or region. Perhaps you’re not able to attract links in your specific niche because your content’s not quite good up to par.

Niche edits are best for targeted traffic – that is, traffic from your target audience, the people who are more likely to purchase your product or service.

Along with research on your profile, you should also do research to find relevant websites for high-quality backlinks. You probably already know the major websites in your same niche, but there may be some slightly smaller sites you haven’t thought of.

Niche-relevant backlinks vs. guest posts

Niche-relevant backlinks’ closest cousin is the guest post. These are typically short posts written by you and hosted on other websites. Your post includes one or more links back to your site.

Website owners sometimes struggle with getting enough content, so most are happy to have someone take an assignment off their plate. Each website has its own guest post policy, though, and some can be quite strict.

You’re also responsible for producing brand new content. It’s in your best interests to find niche-relevant websites to host your posts to increase the likelihood of reaching your target audience.

Niche-relevant links and guest posts each have their pros and cons, but both can work together as parts of a coherent link-building strategy.

You can learn more about niche edits vs guest posts here.

Using Niche-Relevant Links Properly

Niche-relevant backlinks sometimes have a controversial reputation – largely because inexperienced SEOs don’t know how to use them. This leads to website owners sometimes thinking they’re dangerous or put you at serious risk of a Google penalty.

The truth is that a niche edit is never dangerous if it provides a relevant reference and a helpful update to existing content. In fact, Google likes it when this happens – much better to have a new, beneficial link than a broken link.

Still, it’s worth knowing how search engines approach link-building, so let’s break it down.

Understanding how Google penalizes irrelevant links

Google is pretty thorough in its linking policy; paying for links, link schemes, and any linking activity designed to manipulate a page’s PageRank can cause a site to incur a penalty. This seems like an extremely broad policy, but it’s worth taking a look back at SEO’s past.

If you were on the internet in the ’00s, you probably remember vast, sprawling blog networks that tied together sites that didn’t really go together. You may remember pages stuffed with links, too.

These practices were both attempts to manipulate search engines that Google got wise to. Google stamped them out because these practices didn’t add any value for its customers.

Google’s primary goal is to provide good value (which means high-quality searches) to its users. If your link-building focuses on adding value and providing high-quality backlinks, chances are you won’t incur a Google penalty.

You may not be so lucky if you use non-relevant backlinks or spammy tactics. That’s why working with a white hat digital marketing agency like SEOButler is mandatory to guarantee the safety and relevance of your links.

Black Hat, White Hat, Grey Hat

The difference between white hat/black hat SEO is sometimes fine, but it ultimately comes down to whether you’re trying to publish helpful information or cheat the system.

White hat SEO agencies stick within the letter and spirit of Google’s policies. When it comes to link building, they tend to be more conservative. To the white hat optimizers, niche-relevant backlinks are a great opportunity to get their clients’ sites linked to in relevant places.

Black hat SEO firms concern themselves more with results than Google rules. Black hat techniques are becoming less common as Google tweaks its policies, but they are still used with low-quality niche backlinks, and they can get some results in the short term.

The problem with these links is that they prioritize the page’s link juice over its topical relevance. This means the link insertion is often irrelevant, spammy, or poorly included – and Google will spot this a mile off.

Make sure you’re on the same page as your SEO agency when it comes to risk tolerance around niche backlinks. As recent updates have proven, Google is always trying to identify sketchy link-building techniques.

Are niche-relevant backlinks safe?

Provided that you’re focused on backlinks within your niche and making sure the links are to high-quality content, you don’t have too much to worry about.

Ultimately, Google doesn’t reveal much about its algorithms. Changes are frequent, too.

That’s why it’s so important to be on the same page as your digital marketing firm. You don’t want them taking risks or using techniques you’re not comfortable with.

What Are the Benefits of Niche-Relevant Backlinks?

1. Links from authoritative websites - and pages!

Tier 1 backlinks are always published on high-authority sites, but that doesn’t mean that your page will attract much traffic.

The pages chosen for niche edit opportunities are already high-authority in themselves. This means your link will be seen by many more viewers and your chances of acquiring referral traffic will be much improved.

2. No need to produce new content

A major advantage of niche-relevant backlinks is that you’re not responsible for any new content. That saves you time.

With new content, even if you have your marketing firm write an article, you still should read it to ensure the information provided is correct. This is especially true in the medical, financial, and legal sectors.

Guest posting also requires you to have other websites accept your pieces. They may not want to publish new content on a certain subject – if they already have that content published, this isn’t a concern.

3. More control over context

When you write a guest post and pitch it to a relevant site, you’re not sure how the page will perform. Hopefully, you’ve done the research to find sites related to your niche that have good SEO, but you honestly can’t know how how traffic will come through your guest blog.

Acquiring niche-relevant backlinks gives you more control. When you pitch a niche-relevant backlink, you already know the SEO for the page. If it’s a resource list, informational article, or another piece of “evergreen content,” the ranking in search engines should even improve over time.

Niche-Relevant Backlinks in SEO Strategy

Choose links based on quality - not quantity

Some link-building services promise that they can boost your website’s search engine rankings in mere days.

That’s because obtaining fast results typically means relying on black hat tactics like shady link networks and paying for links. Once Google finds out what you’re doing, your website will be blacklisted and your search engine rankings will plummet.

One relevant link related to your niche will always be better than a dozen irrelevant ones, especially in the long term.

The best approach – especially with your link-building strategy – is to look at slow and steady growth that builds on your previous SEO campaigns. That’s the surest way to net stable growth in organic traffic over time.

Incorporating niche backlinks in link-building strategies

Niche-relevant backlinks are far from the only game in town when it comes to link building.

Tier 2 links, guest posting, and local SEO like directories are hugely important, too. Think of them like tools in an SEO toolbox – each works well in certain contexts. Local SEO and link building also come together in finding geo-relevant backlinks.

The role of content in link-building

You could have the best strategy for niche backlinks, but if you don’t have valuable content to link to, you may find it hard to get takers.

After you’ve tackled the low-hanging fruit like broken link building, directories, and press releases, building niche-relevant backlinks means asking others to link back to real (and hopefully relevant) content on your site, like an article or blog post.

Building backlinks to your site depends on offering valuable content that people want to link to. That content should also be optimized for search engines with relevant keywords.

If you’re not a writer or just have a lot on your plate, consider working with a digital marketing agency that can write the articles for you.

Niche-relevant backlinks and social media

Google and other search engines rely on signals from shares, mentions, and likes on social media platforms to determine how relevant your content is. Depending on what industry you’re in, these signals can greatly affect your SEO.

You can, of course, share links on your own social channels, but you can also work with a digital marketing company to help seed these conversations. This service is typically referred to as “social signals.”

If you’re placing a backlink on niche-relevant websites, why not boost your SEO even further with social signals? This two-pronged approach is great for getting eyes on an older but still relevant piece.

Implementing Niche Backlinks - the SEOButler Way

Experience

A digital marketing firm should be able to back up its claims with a track record of search engine success. At SEOButler, our track record is almost a decade long.

No matter what your challenges with SEO, we can help. We can help you see how you stack up against competitors’ backlink profiles and help you scope out link-building opportunities.

We’re happy to show off our portfolio or put you in touch with customers who used us for valuable niche-relevant backlinks.

Knowledge

Identifying relevant niche sites for placing your edits requires a lot of industry knowledge. You want to work with a digital marketing agency that really understands your sector of the industry.

SEOButler has been around for close to a decade – a long time in the SEO world! We’ve helped out law firms, contractors, salons, wellness brands, and more. Chances are we’re familiar with your industry and the best relevant websites for your link placement.

Finding niche-relevant sites and determining which anchor text to use can be difficult, but we can help.

We’ve helped dozens of business owners boost their organic traffic through niche-relevant backlinks. Contact us and see what we can do for you.

Transparency

Digital marketing firms use all kinds of strategies (some more above-board than others) to place niche-relevant backlinks. It’s incredibly important that you and your digital marketing firm are on the same page and they understand your risk tolerance.

SEOButler creates an individual strategy for all of our SEO clients, including those who get niche-relevant backlinks. We’re also happy to show you our past strategies for clients in the same niche.

We don’t make any placements of niche-relevant backlinks until you’ve okayed them. Our measured approach helps you gain the value of building niche-relevant backlinks without too much risk.

Full-Service

Niche-relevant backlinks are great on their own, but they work best as part of a holistic SEO strategy, including content, social media, and on-page SEO. If your digital marketing firm only focuses on link building, you’re missing out.

SEOButler is a full-service digital marketing agency with content, link-building, and social media services. That allows us to develop custom strategies for our clients that make use of multiple SEO tools.

Quit getting your marketing services a la carte and go with an agency that can do it all.

Contact SEOButler Today!

If you’re a website owner focused on improving search engine rankings, get in touch today to see what SEOButler can do for you!

Schedule a free consultation or place your first order now to start building your custom-tailored SEO strategy today.


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