Link Building for B2B Businesses

In this fast-paced digital world, link-building remains one of the key ingredients for a successful SEO recipe.

Even as search engines keep tweaking their algorithms, high-quality backlinks remain a major factor in determining a website’s authority, relevance, and, ultimately, those all-important search rankings.

As a B2B business striving to make a mark online and attract your ideal customers, a solid link-building strategy can give you a real competitive edge.

Today, we’ll dive into why link building matters so much for B2Bs, exploring various tactics, best practices, and metrics to track your success.

From understanding the true value of backlinks to leveraging strategic outreach and creating content that attracts links naturally, this guide will equip you with all the knowledge and tools you need to cultivate an impressive backlink profile and boost your online visibility.

Why Is Linking Building Important for B2B Companies?

While search engine algorithms seem to change almost daily, one thing has remained constant from the very beginning — high-quality backlinks are a key ranking factor that you simply can’t ignore.

Building a strong backlink profile is like giving your website a solid foundation to maintain those coveted search rankings over time.

According to a study by uSERP, 67.5% of B2B marketers believe that backlinks have a big impact on search engine rankings, and 85% think that link building has a big impact on brand authority.

Not only that, but 46.5% invest $5,000 to $10,000 a month on link building as part of their wider SEO strategy.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg regarding the benefits of solid B2B link building.

Establishing Authority and Credibility in Your Industry

Backlinks from reputable and authoritative websites in your industry can build (or enhance) your brand’s credibility and recognition.

Backlinks signal to search engines that your website is a trusted source of information within your niche, but, perhaps more importantly, it shows readers this, too.

If someone is reading an article that interests them and sees an expert comment from your business with a link to a relevant page on your site, they’ll see you as a trustworthy, credible business.

The result? Highly qualified traffic heading straight for your website.

Driving Referral Traffic and Lead Generation

Links from other websites can drive referral traffic to your site.

If your backlinks are on relevant websites and articles, readers are more likely to click through to your site than if you have a link on a site that isn’t relevant to what you offer.

This can result in potential leads from those sites. They’ll be somewhat qualified already, as they’re reading articles relevant to your industry and potentially related to the problem you solve, depending on the content you’re linked back from.

A link Thinkplus secured for a client in a relevant article

Backlinks and Search Engines

Search engines like Google use links as signals to determine the authority and relevance of a website.

Websites with more high-quality backlinks are typically ranked higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), making it easier for potential clients to find your business.

This is because backlinks act as a vote of confidence from other websites. When reputable and relevant websites link to your content, it signals to search engines that your website is an authoritative source of information within your industry.

This is a double-edged sword, though — it’s better to have fewer, high-quality backlinks than loads of links from poor, spammy websites.

The poor, spammy links give the opposite effect — if a bunch of shady people are linking to your site, Google’s algorithm thinks it’s because you’re shady too.

What Are High-Quality Backlinks?

The difference between generic backlinks and high-quality backlinks isn’t as straightforward as it seems.

Yes, you can use tools like Moz to check the “domain authority” of a website, but getting a link from a website with a high DA doesn’t automatically make it a quality link.

Think to yourself — “Would I still want this link if Google and its algorithm didn’t exist?”.

If the answer is no, it may not be as high quality as you first thought.

Luckily, there are many ways to measure the quality of a backlink.

Backlink Relevance

The relevance of your backlinks is one of the ways Google identifies what your site is all about.

And, one of the powers you have in B2B is trade publications.

Getting links from a trade publication in your niche not only shows that your website is relevant to that industry but also helps you connect with potential customers who regularly visit those sites.

Again, you need to be offering value to the publication’s readers. They will get 100s, if not 1000s, of requests for links each week, so they’re only looking for the best stories to share with their readers.

If your pitch shows that you know their publication and audience well and that your story will be interesting to readers of that publication, then you’ll stand out among the sea of link requests.

Backlink Diversity

A mistake businesses often make is getting backlinks just to their brand name. These links are helpful, but too many of them start to look spammy to Google’s algorithm. The same goes for too many of the same websites linking to you.

The ideal situation is that the links you secure have anchor text with a bit of variety. If you sell business accounting software, then your backlink anchor text could be:

“Best Accounting Tools for Small Businesses”
“Accounting software”
“Powerful accounting suite”.

Websites will sometimes let you choose the anchor text, but other times, they will just use your brand name. Publishing studies with lots of facts and numbers is often a great way to get various anchor texts, as publications often use the stat that suits their article best for the anchor text, or “According to a study by [business name]”.

What About Domain Authority?

Domain authority is a metric often looked at by marketers when looking for sites from which to secure a link. But how important is it?

DA isn’t a Google metric. It was created by an SEO tool called Moz. This means that Google doesn’t look at this number when deciding where to rank sites or to decide which backlinks show you’re a trustworthy site worth ranking highly.

However, it can be useful for helping you check if a website is legitimate. But it shouldn’t sway all your decisions.

If you’re in a niche industry with niche trade publications, they may have a low DA because they don’t get a lot of traffic, but you know these websites are high quality, even if they currently have a low DA.

Use your experience and knowledge of your industry to make decisions, not just DA

How to Get Backlinks for B2B

There are two distinctive ways to do B2B link building. You can reach out to publications and journalists to ask for links or earn them organically through great content.

Requesting Backlinks

Requesting links is the main way you’ll build backlinks for your B2B.

This includes email and connecting with journalists on X (formerly known as Twitter), Qwoted or PR Newswire.

Earned Links

Earned links are when sites link back to your content without you asking.

This could be because you’ve created a great piece of content or shared a study that other sites want to reference in their content.

Getting links this way is a harder, slower process to get links this way so you should combine this with requested links. Don’t rely on getting links organically.

B2B Link Building Strategies

Now you know the two main ways of getting backlinks, let’s explore the different strategies you can use to help you build earned and requested links.

Great Content

We’ve touched on this before, but creating great content is one of the most important elements of B2B link building.

Below is a link we earned by creating content based on a survey we took of many digital marketing professionals. It’s a well-researched study that offers new information to the industry, presented in an easy-to-read way (using plain English and images to illustrate points)

It’s unlikely that a website will want to link back to your homepage unless you’re giving an expert opinion, and even then, it’s smarter to ask for links back to content on your site relevant to the content that’s linking back to you.

Basically — other websites won’t want to link to your content if it’s bad. Sorry.

If you’re getting a lot of rejections when you’re pitching a piece of content as a great resource for a website’s readers, review your content and see if it’s to the same standard as the other content being linked to by your target publications.

If it’s not, you need to rethink your content. It could be that the angle isn’t attractive enough to the target audience or that it’s just of low quality.
If you’re struggling with content, the masterful content marketing Ninjas at Thinkplus will be happy to help.

Smart Outreach

Way back in the day, sending out as many emails to as many websites as possible asking for links was the link-building strategy of many digital marketers.

But Google soon caught on to this spammy approach and started punishing the sites that did this.

That’s why smart outreach is on this list.

You can’t afford to skip outreach, but you’ll have more success if you do smart, targeted outreach instead of contacting as many websites as possible and hoping someone throws you a link.

Contact sites that are relevant to your niche and industry
Pay attention to their target audience and make sure the business s reading that publication are the ones you want to reach, too
Tailor your emails to each publication. They all have slightly different audiences and tones of voice. Showing you understand that will help you build a relationship with that publication.
Find journalists that specialise in your industry and build relationships with them.

Vendors and Partners

Asking your vendors and partners to link to you is a fairly easy way to secure a backlink relevant to your industry. It’s low-hanging fruit that lots of B2Bs forget about.

As you work closely with these companies, they will likely be open to giving you a link, especially if it benefits both parties.

Reach out and request that they link back to your website from their partner or customer pages, case studies, or other relevant sections of their site.

In exchange, you can offer to do the same on your end, creating a mutually beneficial link exchange that boosts each other’s authority and visibility in the industry.

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Guest Posting

Guest posting on popular, authoritative industry blogs and publications is a powerful way to build high-quality backlinks while also establishing your brand in your niche.

Identify relevant sites that accept guest contributions and pitch unique, insightful article ideas that align with their audience’s interests and will help you connect with your target audience.

When done well, guest posting helps you tap into new audiences, earn a valuable backlink from a respected source, and showcase your expertise on a popular site.

Expert Comments

Expert comments are a powerful weapon in the world of B2B link building.

Position yourself and your team as subject matter experts by contributing quotes, insights, or commentary to industry news articles, roundup posts, or expert features.

Many publications actively look for knowledgeable sources to provide unique, expert perspectives on relevant topics.

You can earn a backlink from a credible source while simultaneously raising your company’s profile and demonstrating your expertise to a targeted audience.

Wins all round!

An expert comment Thinkplus secured for a client on a relevant site.

Press Releases

While press releases are often overlooked in modern link-building strategies, they can still be an effective way to secure backlinks, especially for product launches, major company announcements, or newsworthy events.

Optimise your press releases for search engines and include relevant backlinks to your website.

Then, distribute them through reputable press release networks and industry-specific outlets, as many of these sites will include a backlink when publishing your release. Examples of PR distribution sites include PR Newswire and Prowly.

Think hard about what counts as newsworthy before creating a press release. If the topic of your press release only really impacts your staff or clients, send it to them directly rather than trying to turn it into a press release.

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Industry Directories and Associations

Seek relevant industry directories, associations, and organisations that offer member listings or company profiles with backlink opportunities.

These links can be highly valuable, as they often come from authoritative, niche-specific sources that search engines trust.

Additionally, these directories can drive referral traffic from professionals and businesses within your industry who use them as research or resource tools.

Infographic Promotion and Distribution

Infographics are highly shareable and linkable assets that can effectively be part of a B2B link-building strategy.

After creating a visually compelling, data-driven infographic on a relevant industry topic, promote and distribute it through relevant blogs, publications, and sites that commonly share infographic content.

Include an embed code encouraging others to share the infographic while linking back to your site as the source.

Infographic by Smart Insights

Influencer Outreach and Collaboration

Identify influential thought leaders, experts, and personalities within your industry, and explore opportunities for collaboration or co-promotion.

This could involve guest posting on each other’s blogs, co-creating content assets like guides or webinars, or collaborating on podcast episodes.

By aligning with respected influencers, you can tap into their established audiences while potentially earning backlinks from their websites or other online spaces.

Sponsoring or Participating in Industry Events/Webinars

Gain visibility and backlink opportunities by sponsoring or participating in industry conferences, trade shows, webinars, or other virtual/in-person events attended by your target audience.

Many event organisers offer sponsor packages that include backlinks from their website, while speaking opportunities or panel participation can also lead to valuable backlink acquisition from event recaps, attendee blogs, or industry coverage of the event.

For example, multiple brands sponsor the Crufts Dog Show, and the event links to them.

Tracking and Measuring Link Building Success

You need to track the success of your link-building strategy to know what works and what doesn’t. Tracking your work is a key part of building high-quality backlinks.

Backlink Analysis Tools

Tools like Ahrefs, Moz, Majestic and Semrush (which you can try for 14 days with our friend’s link) allow you to analyse the backlinks pointing to your website and your competitors’ websites.

These tools provide insights into the number of backlinks, the quality of the linking domains and the anchor text used in the links.

Organic Traffic and Rankings

The main reason B2Bs build links is to improve organic search visibility and drive more referral traffic to your website.

You can use tools like Google Analytics to track changes in organic traffic and the performance of specific landing pages targeted by your link-building efforts.

Monitor your keyword rankings using rank-tracking tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or Moz to see if your link building efforts are helping you rank higher for relevant keywords.

Referral Traffic and Conversions

Analysing the referral traffic and conversions (leads, sales, etc.) generated by the websites that link to you is another way to see how well your link-building strategy is working.

In Google Analytics, you can see the top referral sources and conversion rates for each source.

This helps you identify the most valuable backlinks and prioritise link-building efforts on similar high-quality domains.

Branded Search Volume

Monitor branded search volume (searches for your brand name) using tools like Google Trends or Semrush.

An increase in branded searches can indicate improved brand awareness, often a byproduct of successful link-building campaigns.

This can be more challenging if you have a generic brand name that is searched often, but you can use context clues such as the sites mentioning you to see if it’s likely your business is being mentioned.

If it’s a publication in your industry, it’s likely to be your business. If it’s from a completely unrelated industry, it’s less likely to be about you.

Cost and Resource Allocation

Cost often gets forgotten in link-building strategies. Track the costs associated with your link-building efforts, including tools, outsourcing, content creation, and outreach.

Calculate your return on investment (ROI) by comparing the costs to the revenue or leads generated from the link-building campaign.

This will help you optimise resource allocation and determine the most cost-effective link-building strategies.

But don’t go with a low-quality link-building method just because it’s cheaper. Higher quality will often come with a higher cost but also a higher reward.

Link Building Best Practices and Ethics

Link building is an essential part of SEO, but it’s crucial to follow best practices and ethical guidelines to avoid penalties from search engines and maintain a positive online reputation.

These link-building best practices will help you stay on track.

Focus on quality over quantity: The emphasis should be on acquiring high-quality, relevant backlinks from authoritative and trustworthy websites rather than accumulating a large number of low-quality links.
Avoid link schemes and manipulative tactics: Search engines frown upon practices like link buying, link farms, link exchanges, and other forms of link manipulation. These tactics can result in manual penalties or algorithmic devaluation of your links.
Prioritise relevant and contextual links: Links should be placed within relevant content and surrounded by contextual information. This not only provides a better user experience but also signals relevance to search engines.
Disclose sponsored or paid links: If you’re engaging in sponsored content or paid link placements, ensure that these links are disclosed and marked as “sponsored” or “nofollow” to comply with search engine guidelines.
Build relationships and earn links naturally: Reach out to industry influencers, bloggers, and webmasters to create valuable content, participate in communities, and naturally earn backlinks through genuine relationships and collaborations.
Diversify your link portfolio: Aim to acquire links from a variety of sources, such as directories, resource pages, guest posts, and editorial mentions, rather than relying solely on one type of link.
Monitor and disavow low-quality or spammy links: Regularly audit your backlink profile and disavow any low-quality or spammy links that may harm your site’s reputation and rankings.
Be patient and persistent: Link building is a long-term process that requires consistent effort and patience. Avoid shortcuts or quick fixes, as these may result in short-lived gains or penalties from search engines.

Integrating Link Building with Other Marketing Efforts

Link building should never be an afterthought — include it in all marketing campaigns you run.

If you’re launching a new product, think about how to work with publications and websites to promote the product while gaining links.

If you’re releasing a study, consider the publications whose audiences would benefit from this info.

Of course, you can build links to existing content, but working it into your strategy from the start will save you time in the long run.

Link Building for B2Bs

Link building is a long-term investment that requires patience, persistence, and a commitment to playing by the rules.

By following the best practices we’ve outlined in this guide, you’ll be well on your way to building a strong backlink portfolio that not only elevates your search rankings but also establishes your business as a credible, authoritative voice in your industry.

But remember, link building isn’t a one-and-done kind of deal.

It’s an ongoing process that should be seamlessly integrated into your overall marketing strategy.

Keep a close eye on your backlink profile, disavow any low-quality links that could be holding you back, and always be on the lookout for new opportunities to earn those valuable backlinks through genuine relationships, top-notch content creation, and strategic outreach efforts.

As the digital landscape continues to evolve, staying ahead of the curve and consistently refining your link-building approach will be crucial for long-term success.

Embrace the power of backlinks, and watch as your B2B business gains increased online visibility, drives more referral traffic, and ultimately generates more leads and revenue.

Looking for help with link building? Our team of SEO and content Ninjas can take the stress out of building your link profile. Request a free website and digital marketing review and we’ll send you a 15-20 minute video outlining all the opportunities you have to increase your backlinks, along with detailed insights into the overall health of your digital marketing.