- Domain authority refers to the hypothetical authority you have in the organic search landscape based on the amount of links you have pointing to your site.
- If your domain name is new and holds no authority, you’re going to have to be doing a lot of work to build up your authority.
- Fortunately, you can still build links to your site without any domain authority.
- Links can be built via local press, by leveraging your expertise, by participating in interviews, and by creating great content for your own site and others.
We get it; you’re a small business owner or startup founder just learning about the world of digital marketing. You’re reading articles about on-page SEO, content marketing, and link building and probably asking yourself, “How the heck am I going to do all this work on my own?!” You’re absolutely right!
Search engine optimization campaigns, let alone link-building for new websites, can be a team’s worth of work. And if your domain name is new and holds no authority, you’re going to have to do a lot of work to build up your authority. But wait, there is hope! In this article, we’ll share our tips on how you can build links for your new website or start-up, even if you have no domain authority.
Domain authority, what’s the deal?!
Before we give you our recommendations, let’s talk about domain authority and why it’s important. Domain authority, which is also known as Authority Score or Link Equity, refers to the hypothetical authority you have in the organic search landscape based on the number of links you have pointing to your site. Authority metrics are based on a scale of 0 to 100 and give SEOs an idea of the SEO value that a site might have. We go into more detail on domain authority here. Essentially, the higher your domain authority, the more likely you are to rank in search results for the topic you write about.
While the score itself has absolutely nothing to do with how Google perceives your site, it does help you directionally. Domain authority is important because it gives you an idea of the overall growth of your website and backlink profile. Theoretically, if you scale your website all the way up to 100, Google trusts your content and will be generous with its rankings.
Is it possible to build authority without links?
If this is already starting to sound like a lot of work, then you’re probably wondering, “Is it possible to build authority and rankings without links?” It’s a valid question to ask when considering link building for your new site. We’ll answer this honestly: building authority without links is a pretty difficult task, and without them, you may not be able to rank for some of the keywords you’d like to rank for.
Think of links as votes of popularity; the more votes you have, the more popular you are deemed to be. To Google, a website without any links isn’t likely to have any popularity among consumers or other Google searchers, so they probably won’t rank it for anything other than its brand name.
But let’s be honest: Having tons of links doesn’t guarantee you rankings, either. Those links need to be accompanied by great content. So, if you are going to start link building for your startup, you should start by developing some high-quality content.
Ways to build links without any authority
Generate local press (community service events, tradeshows, etc.)
So, if you’re a start-up or small business with no domain authority, the best place to start generating links is by participating in your local community. In our opinion, this is the easiest way to build links because all you have to do is participate! Here are a few ideas:
- Host a networking event and invite local press to promote it on their news sites.
- Sponsor a tradeshow/corporate event: Most tradeshows have websites where they link out to vendors to let attendees know what vendors will be there.
- Participate in a charitable event or community service.
Develop linkable assets
Linkable assets, or link-building assets, are an industry term for content that people want to link to. Currently, this entails extremely well-written blogs, groundbreaking research, surveys, or case studies. It could even include helpful tools or software that might save a person time. One of our favorite linkable assets to reference is this A/B Testing Calculator by Neil Patel. It’s such a simple tool that obviously made for small businesses or new marketers, but it’s generated a good number of backlinks for Neil’s website. Over 700, to be exact.
So get creative and see what kind of linkable assets you can build for your new website.
Directory submissions
When you are trying to build links for new websites, submitting your website or startup to a directory could be a fast, low-effort method for building links. But, it’s important to note that nothing that’s easy is usually worthwhile. And while Google has devalued directory links over the years, there is still some benefit to getting them.
Our recommendation is to be a bit more mindful of what directories you submit your site to. If possible, make sure they are relevant to your industry, have some history, and that being listed on them can generate some leads.
Get more position 1 rankings
One of the most impactful ways to build links for your startup’s website is to get your first position 1 or featured snippet ranking in Google Search. This might sound counterintuitive to what we’ve been preaching because we’ve been saying you need links to rank, but let’s think about this.
If you are in the first position, or even hold the featured snippet ranking, you’re the first thing a Google searcher will see when they are doing research on a topic. And, if this Google searcher happens to be a content writer, then it’s likely that they’d link to your article in a piece of content they are writing. So, the more of these rankings you can secure, the better you position yourself to gain relevant links with the least amount of effort.
Engage on Reddit or forums
Another relatively simple way to build links for your website is to engage on forums or subreddits. Reddit is a community-based social media platform that’s focused on single topics or themes. You can find a community for nearly anything on Reddit! For link building, Reddit is a great place to engage in conversation with like-minded individuals in your industry or niche. Redditors may post questions or share stories which makes it the perfect place to provide your unique perspective and links…
By engaging in conversations, you can include links to articles on your website within your comments or posts, immediately creating a backlink. Google might view these user-generated links differently from organic links on blogs or other websites, but these types of links are great for driving targeted referral traffic.
Leverage your personal expertise
Since you are just starting out and might not have a ton of content on your site, the best way to get links is to leverage your own industry expertise! Reporters all over the world are constantly looking for experts to provide them insight on a specific topic, so Connectively, formerly known as HARO, can help with that!
Help-a-reporter-out, HARO, used to be a 3x daily newsletter where journalists pose questions about topics for articles they are writing. Now, it’s successor Connectively, is a continuous feed of journalistic queries available for anyone to answer. (Yay no more HARO email spam, lol!)
The mutual understanding on Connectively is that if a journalist accepts your pitch, then they are supposed to include you in their article and link to your website. So, if you are starting a business in an industry you know a lot about, Connectively is a great way to leverage the expertise you already have to help journalists out. HARO was very well known and extremely competitive because it was a mostly free service. Now, as Collectively, you’re limited to the number of free pitches you can make, so this might reduce the competitiveness of pitches. On the contrary, it’s now more difficult for small businesses to gain PR since the service is behind a paywall.
Continue to write great content
It’s that simple. When you dedicate as much time as you can towards your blog and stay consistent, the backlinks are just going to roll in. Why, you ask? Well, it’s because Google rewards great content with rankings. So, the more great content you produce, the more organic rankings you’ll get. And, as soon as other writers get wind of your great content, they’re going to link back to it without question.
Your efforts shouldn’t stop here though. You are going to want to amplify this content on social media simply by sharing the link or creating a fun graphic or video around it!
Build up your social media presence
Building links for your new site isn’t just about doing outreach, getting listed on directories, or writing great content. There’s a lot more to it! In fact, one of the best ways to build links is by posting on social media. Link building, at a very basic level, is all about increasing the visibility of your content to earn backlinks. The more eyes you are able to get on your content, the more likely you are to gain links to that content. So, by focusing your time on building your social media presence, you are able to increase brand visibility and boost your chances of getting links.
Write content for others
Say hiring a fancy PR agency is out of the question, or consistently writing great content is too difficult. Then, your next best option is to write content for others and propose they allow you to link back to your website or promote your product in some fashion. In the SEO world, this is referred to as guest posting or guest contributing.
Guest posting is a great way to boost your personal brand awareness and thought leadership while building links for your website. To do this, simply contact each and every blog in your industry, locate the contact information of editors or writers, and then pitch them a great topic!
Participate in interviews
Finally, participating in interviews is another great way to leverage your expertise to build up your domain authority. To do this, simply scour the web interviews with other industry experts, then just contact those writers or editors. You’ll obviously want to pitch them an interview idea and share what value you can bring to them and their readers.
Bonus tip: Tap the experts!
Link building is a lot of work, but thankfully, we’ve given you an arsenal of tactics to use if you don’t have any domain authority. The great thing about these tactics is that some are more low effort than others so depending on your bandwidth there is something in here for everyone! If this still sounds like too much work, do not hesitate to reach out to the link-building team here at Redefine Marketing Group.
