Link building 2: grey hat techniques for link building

Link building is one of the most efficient ways to position a website. More than a technique, it is a set of techniques that may or may not conform to Google’s webmaster guidelines. Today we talk about grey hat techniques for link building. You’ll be penalized if you use them… But only if you get caught! 🙂

If you want to position a website quickly, link building is your best ally. That is why we offer a linkbuilding campaign service focused on improving positioning, although we will give you some tips with our articles so that you can improve your own positioning as well.

But not just any type of link building technique will get you results quickly. You will have to enter the fascinating world of grey and black hat.

You’ve probably already noticed that this article belongs to a series of posts about link building. In the previous installment of the series we saw white hat link building techniques (i.e., those that Google likes because they do not violate any of its guidelines). But you must know one thing: when you want to position a website without having to wait for months, creating valuable content, doing link baiting or guest blogging will not work for you. Or at least, their power to move you up quickly in search results is limited or unreliable.

Many of the grey hat techniques that we are going to see allow you to make a qualitative leap in a short time. Or why do you think Google is targeting them…? Because they work!

But before I go any further, let me explain exactly what I consider grey hat techniques in the context of link building.

What are grey hat link building techniques?

Some of the ways to get external links that you will see below will seem completely innocent. And that’s because many of them have to do with what we sometimes say of the digital karma, o arise in tune with the collaborative philosophy implied by the Internet. But don’t be fooled: if it contributes to ranking your website without any quality-related factor involved, Google doesn’t like it one bit. This is the case of link exchange, for example. Google doesn’t care how good-natured you are with another webmaster. This is something that is not approved by the search engine.

Other SEO strategies that we will see could also be considered black hat. Most of them are as frowned upon by Google as the more blackhateras. “So, Xavi, what’s the difference between the ones in the little gray hat and the ones in the black?”. I’m glad you asked me that question! 🙂

The difference is that grey hats, if well thought out, can be done discreetly and without attracting the attention of Google Penguin or some Mountain View Quality Rater. Meanwhile, the link building techniques I’ll talk about in the next installment of this trilogy of posts are so blatant that it’s frankly hard not to end up attracting attention.

In short, for Google there are white hat positioning techniques, and others that are not. Of the latter, there are some that can be camouflaged as if they were natural (grey hat), and others that are blatant spam (black hat).

It’s already clear to you, isn’t it? That’s great. We continue!

12 grey hat link building techniques to climb Google rankings

Take note because you are going to receive a good handful of information about Link building techniques that you can use, and if you work hard, you can implement them without fear, or with a calculated risk.

#1. Request a link

A classic! This is the typical grey hat SEO action that many webmasters carry out with all the innocence in the world and without knowing that they are doing something “bad” in Google’s eyes.

I don’t think we need to go into this at length. Just remember that if you ask for links to friends webmasters or known bloggers, you must watch out that they don’t put it in the footer. And don’t ask for too many at the same time, that could raise suspicions. It is better to do it gradually.

#2. Make link exchange

“I’ll give you a link to your website, will you give me another one? Yay!😀 Another SEO technique that can be done more or less innocently, and that has a lot to do with the collaborative spirit of the online world. But it’s not just Google that is pursuing it. It is also one of the easiest to detect.

Although we include guest blogging in the list of whitehat SEO techniques to get links, this is one of the most common ways to do link exchange nowadays. Publishing guest posts respectively on another webmaster’s blog.

If you do it in a timely manner, nothing should happen. But if you abuse the link exchange you may be penalized.

You should at least allow some time between the placement of one link and the other. Including the link within the content contextually is another precaution you should take.

#3. Practicing Broken link building

This technique to achieve backlinks consists of locating websites with similar themes and examining them to find out if they have broken links.

Webmasters are not interested in having broken links on their site, because it is not good from an SEO point of view, and because it gives a bad image to the visitor trying to access one of the linked resources.

If the site has broken links to a post for example, and you have written about the same topic, you can notify the webmaster of the problem and suggest that he/she insert a link to your article to replace the broken link.

It may take a little work, but the result is worth it.

Tools you can use to scan websites for broken links:

• Ahrefs Site Explorer
• Broken Link Builder
• Domain Hunter Plus
• Screaming Frog

#4. Broken Brand Mention

You will like this technique. It consists of looking for mentions of your brand. If you discover that someone mentions you without including a link, contact that person and ask them to include the link to your site.

To easily search for mentions you can use Social Mention.

#5. Joining business directories

Web page directories, company directories, etc., have a very bad press. In the past, they have been abused to get links.

However, some business directories still work and are not necessarily bad for your SEO, although it is generally best to stick to local directories.

If you are thinking of registering in a business directory, website directory, online store directory, etc., do some research. Check if it has a good reputation, or if it is a bad place to link to your site.

#6. Get links in exchange for donations

Yes, it is true. Technically it is the same as buying links. Only in this case, you only pay “the will” 😉

But technically no one can stop you from making a donation, and the beneficiary from including you on their list of benefactors, right?

To locate pages that support donations you can use the following footprints:

"site:.org + donaciones"

"site:.org + patrocinadores"

"site:.org + sponsors"

"site:.org + colaboran con donaciones"

If you didn’t already know what foodprints are, you’ve already seen a sample. They are operators or search commands to find very specific information in Google. Chuiso explains what footprints are in this post.

With these searches you will be able to locate websites of organizations that accept donations. You can contact them and offer them a donation in exchange for a link on their sponsor list.

#7. Earn links in exchange for something of value

Are you a web designer? Do you play graphic design? Surely many times you have entered a website and you have seen some botched job. A professional that offers services, but lacks a proper logo, or a company with a poorly designed website.

The next time this happens to you, consider contacting the webmaster and offer him a deal. Tell him about the problem with his website, offer him a solution in exchange for a link. Who wouldn’t be interested in having a problem solved on their site for free…? All you have to do is spend the time necessary to place a link on your website. It’s a good deal, right?

#8. Offer SEO consultancy in exchange for a backlink

If you are doing linkbuilding for a personal project or for your company, and you have SEO knowledge, another thing you can do is to offer a consultancy in exchange for a backlink.

So if you come across someone who is doing something they shouldn’t from an SEO standpoint, contact him or her! Present the situation to him and offer him a consultancy. After all, a good link may well be worth an hour of Skype consulting.

Since this is someone who has messed up with something related to SEO, or is not optimizing well one of the important factors, test their page before launching your offer. You are not interested in getting an irrelevant or toxic link.

#9. Offer free hosting in exchange for… you know what!

Do you offer hosting services? If so, you already have something of value that you can offer in exchange for links. This is probably the least risky technique. In fact, there have always been companies that have offered hosting in exchange for a banner ad, for example.

Bloggers are the most frequent users of free hosting. Businesses and professionals will pay for a hosting plan. But bloggers may be interested in accepting a deal that provides hosting in exchange for a link.

Locate bloggers who write about topics related to your industry. Many blog owners tend to venture into new projects easily, and are very likely to accept if you offer them a free hosting plan.

#10. Get linked from .edu sites.

Google gives great authority to university blogs. You just have to convince the blog administrator to agree to put a backlink to you. How? Well, there are many ways to do it, and you don’t necessarily have to buy the link. You could also offer him/her a guest post, propose an interview, etc.

Make an Excel list of .edu blogs as related to your topic as possible. Also write down phone numbers or e-mail addresses. Write to blog owners until you find one interested in your proposal.

To locate the blogs, use the following footprints:

inurl:.edu + "keyword"

And then they say that the University is useless! 😉

#11. Blog-based linkbuilding

I won’t go into too much detail here. Besides, I have already talked about this topic in other occasions, and now I will leave you some internal links so that you can consult the posts where I mention it.

By blog networks, I am not only referring to PBNs. (Private Blog Network), but in general to all the strategies requiring the creation of several blogs to play with links (note that links from other sites, such as social networks, are often included along with links from blogs).

• Satellite blogs: as the name suggests, these are blogs that are created specifically to send links to a money site. They do not have to be connected, and can orbit around the site to be positioned as the moon orbits around the Earth. In solitary.
• Link wheels: this is a technique that Álex Navarro talked a lot about in his day, and which he took advantage of. It consisted of creating link wheels or chains of links from blogs, social profiles, etc., linked to each other, which finally linked to a money site.
• Tiers or pyramids of links: basically consists of creating a pyramidal structure with three levels. Tier 1 is a level with several blogs and sites pointing to the website to be positioned; Tier 2 is a second level with links from medium quality sites pointing, not directly to the money site, but to the Tier 1 level; and finally, Tier 3 with a lot of spam links pointing to Tier 2. A very powerful technique that, if not done properly, has its risks. To learn more, click here.
• Private Blog Networks PBN: this is a network of seemingly unrelated blogs that are used to send backlinks to the money site. If you want to learn more about PBNs, you’re in luck. Some time ago I wrote a guide to create private blog networks or PBN’s quite complete.

Nowadays, PBNs are almost exclusively used as a technique for positioning by means of links from several blogs.

#12. Linking blogs with pingback enabled

This is a very simple way to get backlinks pointing to your site. And the good thing is that it only depends on you, and on a WordPress feature that, if enabled, works automatically.

Search Google for blogs that have pingback enabled. How do you do it? Well, again, with foodprints:

intitle:"keyword" "comment"

Once you have located them, leave a comment.

Pingback is a system that alerts bloggers when they receive a link. If they are enabled, the blogger will receive a notification, and a backlink pointing to your site will appear in the comment. If the post where you leave it has some traffic, you can also benefit by receiving visits from readers of the blog where you have commented.

You can make a list with blogs of your topic with pingback activated. But keep the comments to a minimum. Receiving too many links from pingbacks may raise suspicions.

And that’s it for today. And there are still the black hat linkbuilding techniques! It will be in the next post.

I remind you of the posts in the series:

1. Link building 1: white hat techniques to get links
2. Link building 2: grey hat techniques to get links (the one you see before your eyes)
3. Link building 3: black hat techniques to get backlinks (next)

Have I left out any link building techniques that can be considered grey hat? Do you know of any others? Share it with the blog’s community of followers 🙂

And if you think this information can be useful to someone, help me to spread it by sharing it on your social networks😉 and if you need a boost for your website, we are your seo company in Barcelona 😉