Link Building Strategies [SEO] - Review and Key Findings Data 2022

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29 Key Findings Data from the State of Link Building 2022 Report:

Methodology Adopted and Respondents Background [from Aira]:

The survey opened on 16th March 2022 and closed on 2nd May 2022. During this time, 270 SEOs responded to the survey from across agencies (51%), in-house roles (33%), and freelancers (16%).

The survey received responses from 31 different countries. The majority of respondents were based in the United Kingdom (45%) and the United States (16%), followed by India (6%) and the Netherlands (4%).

34% of respondents have been working in digital marketing for over ten years, followed by 30% who have been working in digital marketing for five to ten years, closely followed by three to five years at 27%.

Team Leaders/Heads of Departments and Seniors make up 49% of respondents.

29 Key Findings Data From Link Building Survey Studies/Research (72 Page Report):

1. Top techniques for link building:

Content as a way to build links (68%). The next two most popular techniques were competitor analysis (54%) and guest posting (47%).

2. Top tools for link-building purposes:

Ahrefs (82%), Google Sheets (60%), and SEMrush (56%).

3. Best tool for link-building purposes:

Ahrefs (51%), followed by SEMrush (9%) [HARO: 5%].

4. Top tools trusted the most when it comes to link data:

Ahrefs (64%), Google Search Console (14%), and SEMrush (10%)

5. Top metrics to measure the authority and/or quality of a link:

Domain Rating (Ahrefs-67%) and Domain Authority (Moz-42%)

6. Best metric chosen to measure the authority and/or quality of a link:

Domain Rating (Ahrefs-44%)

7. Top primary KPIs to measure the effects of link-building efforts:

The clear winner with 53% was rankings, followed by search visibility at 36%.

8. Estimated time for securing a link:

1-2 hours (32%) and 3-5 hours (24%).

9. Brand mentions influence organic search rankings:

80%

10. Effectiveness of link building in influencing organic search rankings:

The average score is 7.8 out of 10 scale.

11. Google Signals:

The vast majority of SEOs (94%) said they believe Google will continue to use links as a ranking signal for the next five years.

12. Estimated time to see the impact of link building on rankings and traffic:

1-3 months (49%) and 3-6 months (30%).

13. Important determining factors whether a link is topically relevant or not (Topical Relevance):

Most popular with 62% was the topic of the page where the link is placed. This was followed by the topic of the domain where the link is placed (52%).

14. Link building positively influences rankings:

Yes (48%) and 34% then said yes, but with a caveat that the website has no major technical SEO issues.

15. Buying links can positively influence rankings:

The majority (69%) said that they believe they do positively influence rankings.

16. Strength of target page or domain:

58% of SEOs felt that links to a target page were most effective in getting those pages to rank, as opposed to the domain as a whole.

17. Attributes of a link that positively influencing organic search rankings:

72% of the votes was links from sites specifically related to a niche, followed by 51% saying that links from new domains (i.e. they haven’t linked to previously) are a key attribute.

18. Influence of on-page SEO signals in improving organic search traffic:

86%

19. Number of links building in a campaign:

The top most selected range for a link-building campaign to achieve was 1-9 links (53%), followed by 10-19 links (49%).

20. Number of links acquired deemed to be successful in a link-building campaign:

The majority (65%) of SEOs believe that a range of 1-19 links per campaign is successful.

21. Usual course of action for missing the link-building target:

• The most popular answer from SEOs (48%) was that they move on to another campaign.

• Just behind this at 41% was the action of keeping going up to a limit of time or budget.

22. Length of time SEOs spend outreaching a single campaign:

• The most popular answer was 3-4 weeks which 36% said was the usual length of time for outreaching a single campaign.

• Next up was 25% of SEOs who said that there was no fixed end date for outreach on a single campaign.

23. Affect website rankings:

SEOs felt that links that aren’t related to the core topic of a website can positively influence rankings (49%).

24. Most challenging part of the content-led link-building process:

• According to respondents, getting links from outreach targets is the hardest part of the process with 40% of the votes.

• In second place was coming up with ideas for campaigns which 20% of respondents said they struggled with the most.

25. Top formats found to be most effective for generating links:

• Long-form, report-style content (56%),

• Interactive piece of content (42%),

• Blog posts (39%), and

• Static infographic (27%).

26. Pricing model used for more clients:

• Retainer fee (45%),

• Price per campaign/project (27%),

• Hourly rate (20%), and

• Price per link (8%).

27. Top hardest and easiest industries to build links in:

• Hardest: Healthcare or Pharmaceuticals (31%), Accountancy, banking or finance (25%), and Law (21%).

• Easiest: Beauty/Personal Care (35%), Marketing, advertising or PR (26%), and Leisure, sport or tourism (24%).

28. Budget for link building:

The most common budget range for in-house SEOs was $10,000-$25,000, with 25% of respondents saying that this was their average monthly budget for link building. Close behind with 19% was the $2,500- $5,000 range.

29. Percentage of SEO budget dedicated to link building:

Upto 50%

If interested, you may access the complete Survey Study Report here.

By the way, if you are interested, you may access: Online Search Usage – Very Interesting 22 Key Stats And Facts

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