Link Building for B2B Sales: A Starter Guide

If you’re diving into link building for B2B sales, understanding the basics and best practices is crucial for your success. Here’s a simplified breakdown of what you need to know:

  • Link building is about getting other websites to link back to yours, crucial for visibility and trust.
  • It differs between B2B and B2C in terms of audience, content, outreach, and intent.
  • Why it matters: Increases visibility, enhances credibility, supports other marketing efforts, and more.
  • Starting points include assessing your current link profile with tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush, and understanding the quality and relevance of existing backlinks.
  • Strategies involve setting clear goals, researching linking opportunities, executing multi-channel outreach, and tracking and optimizing your efforts.
  • Effective tactics include creating valuable content, guest posting, leveraging industry relationships, and more.
  • Monitoring success involves tracking KPIs like backlinks gained, referral traffic, rankings and visibility, and conversions using tools like Google Analytics.
  • Avoid common pitfalls such as buying links, prioritizing quantity over quality, and neglecting the quality of anchor text or existing relationships.
  • Future trends highlight the importance of intent-based link building, value and expertise, holistic SEO, and agility in adapting strategies.

This guide encapsulates the essential aspects of building effective B2B link connections, focusing on sustainable strategies and avoiding common mistakes to enhance your online presence and credibility.

Link building is about getting links from other websites to yours. These links are important because they help search engines like Google see your site as trustworthy and valuable, which can make your site more visible in search results.

For businesses selling to other businesses (B2B), link building does a few key things:

  • Builds trust and credibility: If well-known industry sites link to you, it shows you’re a reliable source of information or services, making other businesses more likely to work with you.
  • Spreads the word about your brand: Getting links means more people can find and learn about your business.
  • Brings in more potential customers: The more visible your site is, the more likely it is that the right businesses will find you.
  • Positions you as a leader: Having your links on respected sites can make you look like an expert in your field.

Basically, good link building helps your business grow by making sure the right people notice you online.

Link building works differently depending on if you’re targeting businesses (B2B) or regular consumers (B2C):

Audience

  • B2B: Focuses on specific professional groups interested in detailed, technical info.
  • B2C: Targets a wider, more general audience looking for easy-to-digest content.

Content

  • B2B: Uses in-depth materials like case studies and ebooks to share knowledge.
  • B2C: Relies on engaging blogs, images, and social media posts.

Outreach

  • B2B: Reaches out to a few important industry sites and influencers.
  • B2C: Aims at getting attention from a lot of different places.

Intent

  • B2B: Deals with longer decision-making processes and larger purchases based on trust.
  • B2C: Focuses on quick buys driven by immediate wants or trends.

In short, B2B link building needs a more focused and detailed approach compared to the broader strategy used for B2C. It’s all about knowing your audience and how best to reach them.

Link building is super important for B2B companies that want to sell more because it helps more people find you online and shows them you’re trustworthy. Here’s why it’s a big deal:

Increased Visibility

Think of every link to your site as a path that leads potential customers right to you. The more good-quality links you have, the more chances there are for the right folks to stumble upon your business. Being more visible on search engines like Google means your brand pops up right when your target B2B audience is looking for what you offer.

Enhanced Credibility

In the B2B world, where buying decisions are big and take time, trust is everything. When well-known industry sites and articles link to your stuff, it tells potential customers that you’re worth listening to. Good links are like a thumbs-up from others, showing that your company knows its stuff.

Supports Other Marketing Efforts

A smart link building strategy helps out with other marketing stuff, too. Getting links usually means you’ve made something really useful, like guides or demos, that keep pulling in visitors. This helps with other campaigns, whether it’s ads, emails, or events. If more people visit and like your site because of links, they’ll be more open to what you have to say in your other marketing efforts.

Basically, focusing on link building is smart because being seen and trusted is key to making sales. When you do it right, it puts your brand in front of buyers, shows you know your stuff, and helps turn visits into sales. The more top-notch links you have pointing to your site, the more chances your B2B business has to make a sale.

Before diving into link building, it’s smart to check who’s already linking to your site. Think of it like knowing who your friends are before making new ones. Here are some tools that can help you see your site’s current friends list:

  • Ahrefs – This tool tells you where your links are coming from, what words are used to link to you, and how your site ranks in terms of popularity.
  • SEMrush – It shows how many links you have, where they come from, and tracks how your links grow over time. It also offers other helpful SEO info.
  • Majestic – Checks your links and rates your site’s trustworthiness and popularity. It also shows you the main sites linking to you.
  • Moz – Keeps track of your links, the sites they come from, whether they’re follow or nofollow, and how trustworthy your site is. It also helps with tracking keywords.

These tools let you see who’s linking to you, helping you spot good opportunities and areas where you can do better.

After checking out your links with those tools, here’s what to look for:

  • The quality of linking domains – Links from well-known, related sites are best. They matter more.
  • Relevance of linking content – Links are more effective when they come from content that’s similar to yours.
  • Anchor text variety – It’s good to have a mix of different types of link text from various sites.
  • Follow vs nofollow links – Try to get more follow links because they help your site more.
  • Link velocity changes – See if your links are increasing steadily. Sudden drops or spikes could be a sign to check things out.
  • Risk factors – Be careful of links from sketchy sites. They can hurt your site. If you find any, it’s best to remove them.

Reviewing your link profile like this shows you what’s working and what’s not. It helps you focus on making better links where it counts the most.

When you’re setting up a link building plan for B2B sales, it’s all about making sure what you do fits with your main business goals. You want to use strategies that show you’re a credible player in your field.

The Importance of Goal Setting

It’s crucial to know what you’re aiming for with your link building. Think about goals like:

  • Getting more people to know about your brand
  • Earning trust to help lead people to buy from you
  • Getting a better spot in search engine results
  • Bringing more visitors to your site from other respected sites
  • Turning those visits into potential sales leads

Knowing what you want helps you focus on getting links from places that really matter for your business.

Researching Linking Opportunities

To build a good link strategy, you need to know where the best chances for links are. Here’s how:

  • Look for top sites and blogs in your industry that people trust.
  • Check out where your competitors are getting their links.
  • Use tools to find influencers who talk about stuff related to what you do.
  • Join industry forums and groups to meet experts who might share your articles.

Keep looking for new places to get links as you go along.

Executing Multichannel Outreach

Now, reach out in different ways:

Email: Write personal emails explaining why your content is a good fit for their site. Don’t forget to follow up.

Social media: Make smart comments on posts to show you know your stuff.

Guest posting: Offer to write unique articles for blogs that fit your industry.

Partnerships: Work with other companies on projects that show off what you both do best.

HARO: Give your expert opinion on topics journalists are writing about.

Influencers: Help solve problems they’ve mentioned and get to know them.

Live events: Go to industry events to meet people face-to-face, then keep in touch.

Mixing these approaches and keeping at it is how you’ll start getting more links.

Tracking and Optimizing

Keep an eye on how well your link building is going:

  • Track new links and see if they’re bringing more visitors or sales.
  • See which links are doing the best and try to get more like them.
  • Watch how your site is doing in search results for certain keywords.
  • Always be on the lookout for new places to get links.
  • Use your good relationships to get more links over time.

Checking in on your progress and tweaking your plan is key to making your link building work better for your B2B sales.

1. Create Valuable Content

Make really good content that helps people in your industry. Things like detailed guides, reports full of data, and stories about real-life examples are great for getting other websites to link to you. Your content should aim to solve problems or teach something new, not just talk about how great your product is. When you share something that’s truly useful, it’s more likely to get noticed and shared by others in your field.

2. Guest Posting and Content Syndication

Write articles for other websites in your industry and offer your best content to be shared by them. This helps more people learn about your brand. When you write for another site, make sure you’re giving fresh ideas and helpful tips. You can also let other sites use your content as long as they link back to you. This is all about making strong connections with websites that your potential customers trust.

3. Leverage Industry Relationships

Use the connections you already have in your industry to find new ways to get links. This could be with businesses that aren’t your competitors, companies you buy from, or groups you’re part of. You could work on projects together or help each other out in different ways. The goal is to help each other grow by sharing links that point to each other’s sites.

Look for links on important websites that don’t work anymore and suggest your content as a replacement. This is helpful for the website owner because you’re fixing a broken link with something useful for their readers. Focus on finding broken links on big-name sites where your customers go.

5. Utilizing Social Media and Forums

Use social media and online forums to share your content and talk about your industry. Places like LinkedIn, Twitter, and forums for your industry are good spots to engage with people. Share your insights, answer questions, and become known as an expert. Remember, the key is to be helpful and share knowledge without pushing your products too much.

sbb-itb-430f9b7

Monitoring and Measuring Success

Keeping track of how well your link building is doing is key. By watching important numbers and using tools that help, you can get a clear picture of what’s working and what needs tweaking in your plan to get other websites to link to yours.

To know if your efforts to get more links are paying off, keep an eye on these important points:

Backlinks Gained

  • How many new links you get every month or quarter
  • How good the websites linking to you are (are they trusted, relevant?)

Referral Traffic

  • How many people come to your site from these links
  • How quickly these visitors leave your site

Rankings and Visibility

  • How high your site ranks for important keywords
  • How often your site shows up in search results

Conversions

  • How many people do something important (like signing up or buying) after coming from a link
  • How much money you make from these actions

Looking at these points helps you see how links are helping your business.

Utilizing Helpful Tools

There are tools out there that can give you more info on your link-building work:

Ahrefs

  • Keeps track of backlinks
  • Shows where links come from and the words used to link to you
  • Helps find new link opportunities

BuzzStream

  • Helps manage emails for link outreach
  • Reports on how your campaigns are doing

Google Analytics

  • Analyzes where your site visitors come from
  • Tracks goals and conversions

Moz

  • Measures the strength of your link profile
  • Keeps an eye on your site’s rank
  • Finds new places to get links

These tools can help you see how well you’re doing and where you can improve.

Adjusting Your Strategy

With better info from your tracking and tools, you can make your link-building even better:

Analyze Results

  • Figure out which links help the most and which don’t
  • Find out what kind of content gets more links and visitors

Improve Outreach

  • Keep doing what works well
  • Try new ways to reach out

Refine Tracking

  • Set up more specific goals and dashboards
  • Use different ways to track success

Watch Trends

  • Stay up to date with the best ways to build links
  • Change your approach if search engines change how they rank sites

Using what you learn will help you get better at getting other sites to link to yours, which is great for your business.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

When you’re working on getting more websites to link to yours, especially in B2B sales, it’s easy to make some mistakes. Here’s what you should steer clear of:

Buying links or using software to send out tons of emails might seem like a quick fix, but it’s not a good idea. Search engines like Google can penalize you for this, hurting your site’s visibility. Instead, focus on earning links the right way by building real relationships.

Prioritizing Quantity Over Quality

Having lots of links from sites that aren’t very good won’t help your SEO or your reputation. It’s much better to have a few high-quality links from sites that are respected and relevant to your business. Remember, a few good links are worth more than lots of bad ones.

Over-Optimizing Anchor Text

Using the same words over and over again in the links to your site can look suspicious to search engines. Try to mix it up and keep it natural.

Ignoring Existing Relationships

Don’t forget about the people and companies who already link to you. Keep in touch with them and see if there are new ways you can work together to get more links.

If you stop getting new links or the pace slows down a lot, that’s a problem. Keep an eye on how fast you’re getting new links so you can fix any issues quickly.

Rushing the Process

Good links take time to get. If you try to speed through the process by not taking the time to build relationships or by sending too many emails too quickly, people might get annoyed with you. Slow and steady wins the race.

The main thing to remember is to avoid shortcuts and tricks. Focus on creating great content, connecting with the right people, offering real value, and building trust. That’s how you get the best links.

As the internet and how people buy things change, so does the way businesses need to build links. Here are some new trends that are important to keep an eye on if you want to stay ahead.

Before, a lot of link building was just about using the right keywords. Now, search engines are getting better at figuring out what people really want when they search for something. This means your links should really help or inform potential customers, depending on what they’re looking for.

For example, you might want:

  • Informational resources for people just starting to look into something
  • Product reviews and comparisons for those thinking about their options
  • Industry news sites to keep in front of people still doing their homework
  • Directories and buying guides to catch those who are ready to buy

Getting links from content that fits what the searcher wants means more people who are interested will visit your site.

An Emphasis on Value and Expertise

Google’s updates show that trying to game the system won’t work. Now, it’s all about earning links by being genuinely useful.

This means B2B brands should really focus on being seen as experts by sharing great content, getting mentioned in the media, and working with others. Offer your deep knowledge and unique insights to naturally get links.

Writing guest posts for well-known industry sites and working with experts can also help build your reputation over time.

A Shift Toward Holistic SEO

Just having a lot of links isn’t enough to rank well. Search engines now look at the overall quality and authority of your site.

So, your link building should work together with other SEO efforts like making your site faster, improving how it looks and works, and using better URLs.

Links are important, but they’re just one part of showing search engines your site is a trustworthy source.

The Need for Agility

Google changes how it ranks sites all the time. This means B2B companies need to be ready to change their link building strategies quickly.

Don’t rely too much on just one or two ways to get links. Spread your efforts across many quality channels.

Keep an eye on your strategies to catch any drops quickly and be ready to adjust. Being able to change quickly is key to keeping up with Google and continuing to get good links as a B2B company.## Conclusion

If you’re a B2B company looking to get noticed online, build trust, find more leads, and increase sales, link building is key. It’s about getting your business mentioned on other websites, which can help spread the word about what you do and show you’re a trusted name in your industry.

But, link building isn’t something you can do overnight. It requires a steady, ongoing effort. You’ll want to steer clear of shortcuts like buying links or just trying to get as many as possible without caring about their quality. The best approach is to focus on sharing helpful content, making real connections, and showing off your expertise.

As the internet changes, being flexible and genuinely helpful will become even more important. Keep up with new trends, track how well your link building is working, make connections in your industry, and fine-tune your methods. Think of link building as a long-term investment.

This guide aims to help B2B brands, whether you’re just starting out or looking to beef up your current efforts. By setting clear goals and using smart strategies, you can improve your online presence, build credibility, and get more people interested in what you offer.

Now’s the time to start reaching out to the right websites and influencers. Put these link building strategies into action so your potential B2B customers can find and trust your brand on the internet.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are a few good ways to get other websites to link to yours if you’re selling to other businesses:

  • Guest posting: Write helpful and interesting articles for popular blogs in your industry. This shows you know your stuff and gets you links.
  • Partnerships: Team up with businesses that offer different but related services. Create things like guides or webinars together and link to each other.
  • Broken link building: Find links that don’t work anymore on big websites, then suggest they use your content instead. It’s a win-win.
  • HARO contributions: Answer questions from journalists on HARO with useful info, and get a link back to your site when they publish it.
  • Case studies and whitepapers: Share stories about how you’ve helped clients or research you’ve done. Let people know on social media and through emails to spread the word.

For keeping track of your link building and finding new opportunities, these tools can help:

  • Ahrefs: Great for finding where to get links and seeing your progress.
  • BuzzStream: Makes sending emails to potential link partners easier.
  • Pitchbox: Helps connect with journalists and websites that might be interested in your content.
  • Google Analytics: Check how many people visit your site from the links you’ve earned.
  • SEMrush: See where your competitors get their links from.
  • Mailshake: Helps with sending out lots of outreach emails without sounding spammy.

Here are some things to steer clear of:

  • Don’t buy links or use sneaky tricks. It can backfire and hurt your website.
  • Don’t just collect any link. Focus on getting links from sites that are respected and relevant to what you do.
  • Don’t use the same words too many times in your links. Mix it up.
  • Don’t ignore websites that are closely related to your business. They’re your best bet for good links.
  • Don’t send out tons of emails without personalizing them. Take the time to build real connections.

To see if your link building is working, look at:

  • Referral traffic: Check if more people are visiting your site from the links.

  • Rankings: Keep an eye on where your site shows up in search results for important keywords.

  • Leads/sales: See if you’re getting more customers from the links.

  • Brand mentions: Use tools to see how often people are talking about your brand.

  • Link growth: Use Ahrefs or SEMrush to see if you’re getting more links over time.

Keep track of these things to know what’s working and what’s not.

A good strategy for getting links for B2B companies is all about making really helpful content that answers questions for the people you want to reach. This should show you’re an expert in what you do.

Then, you can talk to websites, magazines, and people who influence your industry to share your content, hoping they’ll link back to your site. These backlinks show search engines that your site is trustworthy. Getting links from well-known sites in your area can help you show up better in search results and bring more people to your site.

Here’s how to make a link building plan that works:

  • Find the websites and influencers you want to target
  • Check your current links to see where you can do better
  • Make great content like guides and studies
  • Reach out directly through emails and social media
  • Share your content by guest posting, working together, and using HARO
  • Keep an eye on your links, where people are coming from, and if they’re buying or signing up

Keep improving your approach based on what gets the best results. It’s all about making good connections and being helpful over time.

Yes, getting quality links by focusing on relationships and valuable content is still a very effective way to do well in search engines. Google really values links from trustworthy websites as signs that your site is credible.

The most important thing is to get links naturally by being helpful and valuable, not by buying links or trying to trick the system. Going for quality links over just getting a lot of them is key.

How do I get B2B backlinks?

Here are some good ways to get backlinks if you’re a B2B company:

  • Write articles for well-known blogs in your field
  • Get mentioned by giving information to journalists through HARO
  • Create things like guides, studies, and tools that people want to link to
  • Be a sponsor or speaker at events
  • Talk to influencers and get interviews
  • Fix broken links
  • Use social media to get noticed
  • Start making friends with partners and sites in your niche

Focus on being useful, showing you know your stuff, and making real friends. This is how you get the best backlinks over time.

Related posts

Get us working on your business today

CALL TODAY FOR A FREE CONSULTATION: (701) 314-4230