Common Link Building Mistakes: A #CMWorld Twitter Chat with Jessica Thiefels

There are many benefits to link building. It can help content get ranked. It also fosters thought leadership and increases brand authority. But if done the wrong way, it can spell trouble for marketers. To do link building right takes time, patience, and a good arsenal of tips and tools.

Not wanting to make any mistakes, we turned to content marketing pro Jessica Thiefels. We wanted to better understand her process for building links for clients. On a recent #CMWorld Twitter chat, Jessica explained if you want to generate links, you have to put in the work to earn them.

What follows is a brief look at our discussion. Jessica shared great advice the entire hour. If you’d like to see a complete list of her responses, check out our Twitter Moment.

To start the chat, we asked Jessica how search engine algorithms determine which links are legitimate.

A1. There are so many factors that search engines take into account when appointing link value, but a few important ones include: quality of the site (ads, spam links, etc.) and Domain Authority (DA) of the site that’s linking back to you. These are critical. #CMWorld

— Jessica Thiefels (@JThiefels) January 14, 2020

A1b. Relevancy and EAT (expertise, authority, trustworthiness) are very important as well—if you’re a marketing coach linking back to your site from a fitness site, you’re clearly not an expert and you work has nothing to do with theirs, so you can get dinged for that. #CMWorld

— Jessica Thiefels (@JThiefels) January 14, 2020

What content types/formats have the best potential to generate the most links?

A2. Data-based content that’s filled with valuable information! This could be a blog post, but also case studies are great for linking because they’re filled with valuable data that others can learn from and reference. #CMWorld

— Jessica Thiefels (@JThiefels) January 14, 2020

A2: High-quality, evergreen content is great because that’s something people will always want to link to in their own work. #CMWorld

— Express Writers | Your Content Writing Team (@ExpWriters) January 14, 2020

A2. Long-form content that dives deep into a topic and infographics. #CMWorld

— Masooma | Content Writer (@inkandcopy) January 14, 2020

A2: So glad to hear people saying ‘it depends on your audience.’ So true. Don’t let someone fool you into thinking you need to do something specific for link juice. That’s so 2008. #CMWorld

— Mike Myers ? (@mikemyers614) January 14, 2020

How can you minimize or avoid having your content penalized for spammy backlinks?

A3. Manual outreach is SO important. I never use automated tools—they just aren’t good enough. I look at every single site I pitch for myself and clients to give each one the qualitative sniff test (look, feel, frequency of publishing) in addition to relevancy and DA. #CMWorld

— Jessica Thiefels (@JThiefels) January 14, 2020

A3: My acronym for this is NICE. Is this link:
• Necessary
• Interesting
• Consistent (with existing content)
• Engaging

If at least two are true, that’s not spam. It’s value. #CMWorld

— Rachel Wendte (@rkwendte) January 14, 2020

A3. To minimizing getting penalized for spammy links make “disavow links” part of your regular #SEO process.

Also, only work to get listed on good quality industry or location specific directories. #CMWorld

— Tod Cordill (@todcordill) January 14, 2020

A3) #cmworld I’ve found that SEMRush’s Backlink audit helps keep an eye on links and recommends when things might be spammy so that we can take action.

— Diana Richardson (@DianaRich013) January 14, 2020

Many of you have told us you want to guest blog more in 2020. How can guest blogging be used for link building?

A4. This is the main form of link building that I do and it’s all about providing value! You want the editor to keep your link in the text, so tip #1 is to choose a value-based link (blog post, case study, etc.) to link that’s hyper related to the content. #CMWorld

— Jessica Thiefels (@JThiefels) January 14, 2020

A4: Blogging is a great way to answer critical questions your audience is asking. When you answer questions people are asking, they’ll link to you. Simple! #CMWorld

— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) January 14, 2020

The most forgotten link is the one behind the name in a comment. The URL your submit is always acceptable by moderators, so make sure it goes to a relevant post rather than just the homepage.

— Alice Elliott (@alice_elliott) January 14, 2020

Let’s talk internal links. Does a link’s position on a page (i.e. embedded in content, in the footer) affect rankings?

A5. In general, the higher up on the page, the better. This goes for keywords and links. More important, however, is relevancy and quality of the content you’re linking to. #CMWorld

— Jessica Thiefels (@JThiefels) January 14, 2020

A5 I think it has less to do with the position on the page and more to do with the visibility on the page. With the right UI, the right links can be found #CMWorld

— Jim MacLeod (@JimMacLeod) January 14, 2020

A5: Call me a cynic (no, please don’t, it would hurt my feelings), but hitting readers with a link straightaway always looks a bit calculated (= click bait), even tho your motives might be as pure as the new-driven, like mine always are… ? <= pure heart #CMWorld

— Mark Armstrong (@mrstrongarm) January 14, 2020

Are you working on link building in 2020? What are you doing to ensure your strategy is effective? Tell us about it in the comments.

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