In 2018, Google invented an artificial intelligence or AI-based spam-prevention system called SpamBrain; a system used for tracking down spammy links. A few years later, on December 14, 2022, it announced it would launch a system referred to as the December 2022 link spam update; a system aimed at effectively neutralizing spammy links.
This meant that site ranking would be reshuffled as spammy links or nullified, and all credibility accrued from such unnatural links would be lost. According to Google, this overhaul would affect all languages.
Many webmasters have, therefore, changed their link-building strategies. There is no longer an option to post hundreds of links using automatic “spam machines.” Google will penalize your website, going as far as deleting the website’s pages from search engine results pages (SERPs). So, the question is, which types of links are the most valuable and safe for your website ranking?
As you may know, in classic link building, there are only two techniques to get links: crowd link building and outreach link building.
Outreach link building offers a lot of useful types of links, such as guest posts, press releases, translations, product placement, main page links and many others. Without a shadow of a doubt, every type of outreach link has a massive value for website ranking, huge weight for search engine optimization (SEO) and the website’s ability to compete on the market.
So it seems that outreach is perfect as a link-building strategy, right? Well, it is. However, there is a great nuance – it costs a lot of money.
One post price can start at $50 and reach $5,000+. Add a price for content and your time to find a quality thematic website, webmaster outreach, article editing and you will find it costs a lot.
Of course, you can find free websites for guest posting. And there are a few but, it requires a brilliantly researched article, that has value and something new for the reader. Believe me, it is challenging to write at least five qualitative articles. What’s more, for a link building strategy that would work you need to get at least 25 links per month.
This is the reason why most businesses hire a professional guest posting service. It makes sense. The only thing you need is to choose a trustworthy guest post provider and choose the price plan and parameters that fit your needs. It may take much less time and money than fi you were to you do it yourself.
What about crowd link building? There are a lot of types of links in crowd link building, such as profiles, catalogs, job posts, social media posts, images, videos and bookmarks, and that’s not even half. One big advantage of this type of link building is that all links are 100% free.
But, there are disadvantages. The value and weight of these links simply can’t compare to outreach links, unless you know which links have more value than others. While 25 links per month will be enough for outreach, in link building you will need more than 150 links to get the same value.
What You Need To Know About Crowd Link Building
Crowd link building is a sphere with a fast-updating environment; however, it is the most basic and classic way to get backlinks to your website. Surprisingly, not all marketers are aware of this link-building tool or use it to rank high on Google. On the other hand, all experienced SEO professionals use it on a daily basis. So, if you want to compete with the websites of SEO companies there is a lot of work to be done.
Why It Works
- It’s a tool that gives you a strong and diversified backlink profile which increases your rank in Google searches if applied correctly.
- It drives a lot of attention to your website, which increases your brand’s view and relevance.
- You’ll also generate more traffic and have more visitors and prospective customers by following this link-building strategy.
As mentioned before, not all crowd link types weigh the same. When it comes to the choice of link types, it should be based on the principle of equality i.e. “effort = result”.
Useful Link Types in Crowd Link Building
Forums
When it comes to forums in crowd link building it always boils down to three things: profile authority, credence and content quality. It’s important to ensure your content is valuable to readers as this is what increases your favor in SEO. It’s, therefore, not advised to spam links on any forum if you’re serious about ranking high in Google search results. High-quality crowd link building involves searching forum threads that are relevant to your niche.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Forum Links
Pros:
- Targeted traffic: Forum links can drive targeted traffic to your website. You can add your link to the related forum thread to attract potential customers who are already interested in your niche or industry.
- Brand awareness: Forum links can also help increase brand awareness. All you need to do is write a valuable comment in a discussion. Helpful comments with the link in them can attract customers’ attention. This can lead to future referrals, links and business opportunities.
- Improved search engine rankings: Forum links can improve your search engine rankings, especially if the forum is relevant to your niche. As mentioned before, links served as endorsements and eased the process of identifying quality content and authority websites. So, the more links you get from relevant forums and discussions – the more authority you get.
Cons:
- Spamming risks: If you try to abuse forum links by spamming or using black hat techniques, you risk getting banned from the forum, damaging your brand’s reputation and getting penalized by search engines.
- Low-quality links: Some forums may have low-quality links and high spam-score that can hurt your search engine rankings. If you post the links in a forum that has a lot of spammy or low-quality links, it can tarnish the value of the backlink to your site.
- Time-consuming: Forum link-building can be a time-consuming process. You need to find relevant forums, leave comments in the forum threads and build your profile authority. However, it may not be the most efficient way to build links, especially if you are working with a tight timeline.
Tips and Tricks for Forum Links Practice
First of all, when it comes to forum links you should set parameters for websites and threads, as well. Here are some basic parameters you can use for your forum link-building:
- Low spam score. A backlink website must have a low spam score (>8%). If the website has a high spam score, there is a big chance it would be penalized soon. You can check spam scores in Moz, or any free service like WebsiteSeoChecker, Linkody, etc.
- Relevant country traffic. Imagine you sell mountain equipment in Canada. Your target audience is people skiing in Canada, obviously. If you get backlinks from Indian forums, for example, they would be useless. Your link would be ranking in India, however, referrals couldn’t buy anything because your shop is in Canada.
- Relevant discussion. For more efficient forum links, it is better to look for niche or at least semi-thematic forums. Imagine again you still sell mountain equipment in Canada. Your target audience can be in traveling forums, skiing forums, active sports forums, etc. If you post the link in the forum with auto thematic it will be useless, and you even can be banned for spam.
- “Live” forum thread. To make your forum links work effectively you should choose forums and threads that are constantly renewed with new comments and discussion. “Dead” forums make your backlink absolutely useless.
- No links to competitors in the thread. Mostly, users usually close the forum after they get answers to their questions. If your link is published after a couple of competitors, users probably would not scroll down to your link.
- Canonical forum page. It’s not a secret, but not everyone knows what is canonical and why it is crucial for pages with links to have this rel. In simple words rel=”canonical” is where the page weight’s stored. For example, if the page is canonical itself then all the page weight would be stored on that page and transferred to links on that page. But, if page A is canonical to page B, it means that page A is a dummy and has no value, because traffic weight will not transfer to links from that page. Check out the screenshot below. As you can see, the page is canonical to itself. But, if there would be rel=”canonical” href=”https://fuckcombustion.com/threads/sand-castle-vapor-wand.51390/” then page 4 in this forum thread is a dummy and has no value.
- DR, DA and Traffic indicators. When trying to get valuable backlinks from forums, you should pay attention to domain rating (DR), domain authority(DA) and traffic indicators to make the best of it. We recommend looking out for websites with 30+ DR, 20+ DA and at least 10k visitors a month. This would guarantee that the forum is live and trustworthy.
Now, you can follow to the next step and write your forum reply.
How To Write Articulate Forum Replies:
- Your comment should be free from vulgar words and language, have proper grammar and don’t forget to use relevant jargon and slang (it gives your readers the impression that you’re among them, that you belong. It makes them able to trust you, which lowers their guard.)
- Proofread and edit your comment where necessary. You don’t want to be a victim of autocorrect.
- Make sure you don’t come off as a jerk or weirdo. Let your comment flow effortlessly with the context of the overall conversation. Read the post, the comments and the replies and ensure you get a handle on the whole thing before making your comment.
Q/A (QUESTION/ANSWER)
Q&A or questions and answers is an easy link type with great potential. Most people underestimate the power of Q&A threads but it’s one of the best ways to get referral traffic and new customers. Just like in the forums, leveling up your profile is a very important part. For example, let’s consider the popular Q&A platform Reddit. The more answers and upvotes you have, the more trustworthy your profile is. It means more people would listen to your tips and follow your link’s recommendations. Moreover, with an upgraded account, you will have the possibility to post your answers in private groups with high-level moderation.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Q&A Backlinks
Pros:
- Increased referral traffic: Providing valuable answers to questions on Q&A platforms can significantly increase referral traffic to your website. Readers may follow the link from the organic and useful answers to check out the website or even order a service.
- Improved SEO indicators: Backlinks from high-quality, relevant websites can improve your website’s search engine rankings. It also can increase your visibility in search engines and drive more organic traffic to your site.
- Increased brand visibility: Q&A platforms can provide an opportunity to get your brand in front of a new and potentially large audience. This link type can increase your overall brand recognition and authority.
Cons:
- Risk of low-quality links: Not all Q&A platforms are created equal; some may have low-quality content or links. You need to make sure that the Q&A platform meets your spam score requirements and also has informative content. It is also worth making sure that there are live people on the site. Since some unscrupulous platforms use bots to cheat the audience. Links from such a website can harm your SEO and credibility.
- Time-consuming: Providing helpful answers on Q&A platforms can be time-consuming. Sometimes you will need to renew the information every day, especially if you have your group. This can be a huge investment of time and resources.
- Limited control: When you create backlinks from Q&A platforms, you have limited control over the link’s placement and context, which can make it difficult to optimize for maximum SEO value.
Tips and Tricks for Q&A Link Practice
When it comes to Q&A there are the same recommendations as for forums. So, you can scroll up and read recommended parameters for posting. However, we have something interesting to share with you.
Besides common answers that you can post in different relevant threads, you can also create your groups and question threads. There are a couple of topics that can be useful for your business.
“What do you think about…” topic. It is the best topic to reach out to your customers and attract a new audience to your business. For example, let’s again imagine that we are owners of mountain equipment online/offline shops in Canada. Our brand is named “Mountany” (why not?). We can create a group or thread with the question “Hey, folks. What do you think about Mountany equipment? Is it worth attention?”
This call-to-action question would have a lot of organic answers from your customers who bought something from your shop. You would see your advantages and disadvantages, get real review comments and increase your brand authority. Pages like this easily ranked as top 1 pages for searches like “Mountany equipment”, “Mountany review”, “Mountany Reddit/ Quora /any other Q&A platform”, etc. If you want to go for more black hat techniques (which is risky) then you can even wind up a couple of comments.
What about the new customers? They can still find this thread/group. Most customers rely on review comments and scores before buying something in a new place for them. Thread on popular Q&A platforms has a great value for customer choice experience. If you don’t believe me, where would you rather buy something – in the shop with the huge number of reviews or the shop with only two review comments? That’s the point.
Take a look at these screenshots to know how it exactly works.
Great results for the group, and many of the “Mountain Equipment” customers and newcomers that participate in this group probably saw this post.
The second topic that would come in handy is “Recommend me, please”. This topic is a great option for businesses that have a couple of brands in the same market. For example, we have not only the “Mountany” brand, but also “Hiking Folk” and “Highlands”. You can create the next thread in your group: “Please, recommend me some awesome mountain gear shops. I usually buy from Mountany, Hiking Folk and Highlands. These shops are great, but maybe you know other shops?”
What would you get from this? First of all, you recommend all of your brands at the beginning of the thread. All of the visitors will read it. Second of all, you will attract customers who would agree with your opinion “these shops are great”. It is the positive review we discussed earlier. And as a cherry on top, you would increase brand awareness and attract new customers who would come to the thread to get the same recommendations.
In the screenshot below, is the first link we have already seen. But the second one is what the “recommendation” topic looks like.
This person said that brands are bad, and most of the replies disagree with that opinion. As a result, we have a “hot” discussion and a lot of views.
Third-party Blogs or 3RD Blogs
3RD Blogs, which are sometimes called Web 2.0, are somehow similar to guest posts. But there is a key difference. When it comes to guest posts, you should contact the webmaster, write an informative long article and sometimes pay for it. The 3RD blog is free and requires a short or medium size article. The main point is that you need to register an account and create a page with an article by yourself. However, mostly you would have no-follow links from such posts. The most popular websites, which we can call 3RD blog Medium, Steemit, Blogspot, etc.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Third-Party Blog Backlinks
Pros:
- Increased traffic: 3RD Blog backlink is a great way to increase your organic keywords, positions and organic traffic. It can drive traffic to your website. Besides, you can get referral traffic from a nicely-done 3rd blog.
- Improved search engine rankings: Search engines like Google and Bing consider the number and quality of backlinks to a website when determining its ranking. Third-party blog backlinks from high-quality sources can improve your search engine rankings, making it easier for people to find your website.
- Targeted audience: Third-party blog platforms have a large audience of readers with different preferences. If your content is relevant to this audience, backlinks from such platforms can attract your target audience to the website.
Cons:
- Risk of penalty: If the backlinks are from low-quality sources or made by black-hat techniques, search engines can penalize your website. It will cause a lower search engine ranking or even removal from search results altogether.
- Competing content: 3RD blog platforms host content from a wide variety of authors and publishers. Your content may be competing with other high-quality content, which can make it difficult to stand out.
- No-follow links: Most of the Third-party blog platforms use no-follow links, which means that search engines do not give much weight to the links when determining search engine rankings.
Tips and Tricks for Third-Party Blog Practice
When it comes to 3RD Blogs there are quite similar recommendations as for forums, but they still differ. Recommendations that fit this type of link are number 1 (Low spam score), number 2 (Relevant country traffic) and number 7 (DR, DA, and Traffic indicators).
Here are some more tips for parameter choosing.
- Pages are open to indexation. Before the page with your article will be visible in search results Google bot is checking the page and the rules from the website for this page. So, when you are looking for third-party blog platforms check another article of a “Noname” author if it is open for indexation. It can be done by checking the robots.txt file and a code console. For example, you want to post an event at builtinsf.com/event/. Let’s check out its robots.txt. To do it we need to mention the domain and add /robots.txt (builtinsf.com/robots.txt).
As we can see, event pages are disallowed from indexation. We can also check it in Google search. We need to write “site:https://www.builtinsf.com/event/”. 
Only one result means that all event pages are closed from indexation. To check the article for meta-tag index, open the console, press “CTRL+F” and write “noindex”. The meta-tag with no-index would have code such as “<meta name=”robots” content=”noindex, nofollow, …”>. - Page traffic distribution. To get a valuable 3RD blog backlink is crucial to check page traffic distribution. Traffic should be distributed evenly across all pages. If one page gained 70%+ of traffic it is a bad variant of the website to post your article. Check the screenshot below showing bad traffic distribution.
- Quality content and a regular publication. For 3RD blog backlinks it is important to have quality, error-free articles and update your blog with new content at least once a month. It will attract new readers, improve your search ranking and gain traffic to your website. For better content, you can hire a copywriter, or write it yourself. No need to write long reads, 400-500 words articles would be enough to get the best from 3RD blog backlink.
Conclusion
Now you see, that link-building world has something to offer. Well, the guest post links have more value and weight for SEO, but forums, Q&A and 3RD Blogs can perform well if used correctly. Let’s sum up.
Forums with a score of 7/10 are a great choice for all niches. It is one of the easiest types of crowd links that gain weight on your website. Forums will be useful for both commercial websites and informational websites. Mostly recommended using forum links for niches such as technology, gaming and finance. But it would also be useful for the educational, tourism, restaurant business and medical niches.
Q&A with a score of 8/10 would come in handy for websites that offer products or services. It is the best type of link to get referral traffic and new customers. Easy to make and get results. Q&A links are particularly useful for niches such as education, health and technology. Also, it can be used for casinos, gambling and finance niches.
3RD Blogs with a score of 6.5/10 are a great option for informational, product and local websites. 3RD Blogs would help you find new readers and reach out to your target audience. This type of link can be used as a review of the new products and features on your website. Also, it is a good way to get backlinks to your informational website. Third-party blog links are useful for niches such as travel, food and lifestyle. Moreover, it would be good for technology, educational and Saas niches.