Building and earning quality backlinks is a great way to improve your Google ranking as they show that your content is high-quality, engaging and worth referencing. The downside is that link building can be time-consuming. Here are four tactics that make the whole process easier.
Why should websites link to you?
Firstly, there are three questions you need to ask yourself before carrying out any link building:
- Which users find your website useful, valuable and engaging?
- Which other websites do users visit?
- How do those websites compete with yours?
This trio of questions sounds straightforward, but so many websites don’t consider them. This is because they approach their link-building strategy with content in mind rather than context.
A common mistake is to link to a piece of content that solves the same issue or problem your own content aims to solve. Why give another website the chance to solve your own users’ problem? Don’t help your competitors! You should link to websites that complement your content, not provide a better alternative.
1. Get local
Keep in mind the first two questions and apply them to a local event. This can be anything from a music festival to a political summit or anything in between. The majority of events websites will have extra information to complement their own content, a common one being hotels – so why not create a page to target this event?
Creating a page targeting an event that’s happening locally will have a high chance of attracting users further down the sales funnel to your site and can earn you links as you’re solving a problem. Where will the event visitors stay?
A good example of this is the Mövenpick Ibn Battuta Gate Hotel Dubai, which has created a page targeting the international event Expo 2020 Dubai. The site provides information on how to get to the Expo, journey length, extended stays and catering during the event. All of this information targets people who will visit the Expo and gives them an option on where to stay.
The great thing about this tactic is that it’s not just limited to hotels. Whether you’re a restaurant, cafe, car rental company or any other complementary business, you can target these local events – the event website would be silly not to link to you. Note, if you have linked to the event from the new page, this might result in a reciprocal link.
2. Target niche
This may seem risky, but solving the problem of a niche segment active on multiple websites is a great link-building tactic. Hobbies are good niches to target for businesses in the travel industry – here’s why:
Let’s take mountain-bike enthusiasts. Although a small segment of the travel industry, they are active online on multiple websites, including forums, fan sites, clubs and many more. If you can be the travel site that offers these sites with a list of hotels near popular mountain-bike trails, or have the required facilities for this sector, then the other websites will be happy to link to you. There may even be hotel aggregators for these niche travel sectors, such as Mountain Bike Holidays.
Again, this tactic works as you’re providing solutions to a niche segment which is active on multiple online environments, so you’ll be getting:
- high-quality links
- further linking opportunities
- unique links (provided your competitors aren’t serving them).
Sure, it’s a small segment and conversions will be low, but you’ll be earning high-quality, relevant links that help your site rank.
A great way to find niche websites is by using a Google search such as: intitle:mountain bikes – this will search Google for all pages with “mountain bikes” in their title tag.
3. Check out local authorities
Getting caught up in building links can mean you overlook opportunities that are closer to home. Local authorities have their own campaigns to attract tourists to the local area – why not get some links here? You can find an A-Z of local authorities here.
Securing a link on local authority websites is great for two reasons:
• the link will be from a high-authority website
• the link can often be free
For example, if you’re a rental car company based in Hertfordshire, look at the relevant local authority website and see if it offers additional information for visitors – you could be the first port of call for those looking to rent a car on holiday.
4. Outbounding.org
The easiest way to securing links, outbounding.org is a social bookmarking site related specifically to travel and tourism. If you have an interesting piece of content, post it there and if it receives 10 upvotes or more then you gain a dofollow link – easy!
The key to successful link building in the travel industry is to solve a problem and have your solution found in as many ways as possible. The tactics above ensure you’ll secure high-quality, relevant and powerful links that will boost your site on Google. Get out there and start building those links!