Organic link building involves creating link magnets and letting them do their job.
With a little help, of course!
In this article, we’ll cover:
- What is organic link building and how is it different from outreach link building
- How to do keyword research and create stellar link magnets
- How to build links with the skyscraper technique and guest posting
Let’s get started.
Link building cheat sheet
What is Organic Link Building?
Organic link building, also known as natural link building, is a digital marketing strategy that involves acquiring links that are freely given from one webpage to another without any formal link-building agreement.
These links, both dofollow and nofollow, are organically given to content that is considered valuable and of high quality by the linking bloggerr.
The essence of organic link building lies in creating good content that will attract links on its own.
This strategy works for any website, whether it’s a link building service provider, a fashion blog, a tech site, or a site researching spy apps.
For instance, a blog post that offers practical advice and insights can naturally attract links as it gains organic visibility and ranks high for relevant keywords.
As it receives more backlinks, its visibility increases, creating a self-sustaining cycle where content gains more exposure and links, akin to a flywheel.
Just keep in mind that without outreach, the quantity of these organic links may seem underwhelming.
An example of a link magnet is a data study post that we published on how to book yourself as a guest on podcasts.

This post not only offers valuable insights but also demonstrates our step-by-step process for booking our founder on over 100 shows in around 2 years.
This tangibly helps anyone looking to book shows as a guest and is supported by real-world data collected over a considerable chunk of time.
Organic Link Building vs Outreach Link Building
Organic link building involves acquiring links naturally without any formal agreements or strategies in place.
These links are purely organic, given by another website owner who find your content valuable and worthy of reference.
The process is driven solely by the quality of your content and its relevance to other audiences.
In contrast, outreach link building often involves structured tactics like the ABC link exchange, to avoid the pitfalls of direct reciprocal linking.
In a classic ABC exchange, website A links to website B, website B links to website C, and website C links back to website A.
This three-way linking is designed to bypass Google’s detection of straightforward link swaps, which are often devalued for their lack of authenticity.

Even though it’s technically considered a “link scheme”, it’s very difficult for Google to track them and so remains the most commonly-used link building strategy.
The safest implementation of outreach link building is integrating these exchanges through guest posting – and offering your link partners an indirect placement in your upcoming content.
By writing quality articles for other sites, you can include links in a delayed manner, reducing the risk of detection as a link scheme.
So, in addition to your author bio links, you’ll be able to get your partners links, and they will reciprocate for you in return.
Keyword Research
The first step in creating link-worthy content is to identify relevant keywords your audience is searching for.
Start by selecting core terms that define your product or service—your “seed keywords.” Align these with your unique value proposition.

Think about terms your potential customers might search for, such as “link building software.”
Use tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Google Keyword Planner to analyze search volume, competition, and relevance. Incorporate both short-tail and long-tail keywords to cover a wide range of topics.
Once you have your primary keywords, delve into their semantics to find related terms, known as LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords.

These keywords make your content richer and more relevant to search engines and users.
Utilize Google’s “Searches related to” or tools like LSI Graph and SurferSEO for insights into what your audience searches for.
Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer is particularly useful for generating keyword ideas.
Next, analyze what keywords your competitors are ranking for by listing those offering similar products or services targeting the same audience.
Use Ahrefs’ Site Explorer to evaluate competitors’ organic keywords and understand their positioning.

This data helps avoid targeting overly competitive keywords and focuses your strategy on achievable targets.
Also, Ahrefs’ Content Gap tool practically does your job for you: finds keywords your competitors rank for that you do not.
Compare your authoritative website against multiple competitors and filter results by volume and difficulty. This helps you identify new opportunities to strengthen your keyword strategy.
With all potential keywords compiled, assign scores based on metrics like difficulty, traffic potential, and CPC.

Utilize a formula to prioritize keywords and assign them opportunity scores, ensuring they align with your target audience and business goals.
This formula is:
Opportunity Score: (1/difficulty) * traffic potential * (CPC+1)
Note: this is a formula WE use to prioritize keywords based on their difficulty and traffic potential. It is not the be-all-end-all formula for keyword research.
Skyscraper Technique
The skyscraper link building technique is a strategic approach to content creation and promotion aimed at outperforming existing top-ranking content for a specific keyword.
Step 1: Find Existing High-Performing Content
Begin by identifying content that ranks well for your target keyword.
Research the best pieces that attract significant organic traffic, social media shares, and quality backlinks.
These are often ranked high in search results and are popular within your target audience.

Step 2: Create Superior Content
Craft content that surpasses the current best. Aim to be the “tallest skyscraper” by providing more comprehensive and engaging information.
Enhance the user experience with high-quality multimedia elements like images and infographics. The goal is to create a compelling content piece that stands out in its depth and usefulness.
Step 3: Promote Your Content
Promotion is crucial.
Target websites that have linked to the existing top content, reaching out to suggest your superior resource.
Find the right contacts and send personalized outreach emails. Ensure your backlinks are relevant and valuable to secure recognition as the leading resource for your keyword.
Let’s see how you can do this with Respona.
Using Respona, you can leverage its integration with Moz to access your competitors’ backlinks, even without an existing account with quality backlink monitoring tools.
If you have an account with Moz, Semrush, or Ahrefs, you can integrate it with Respona to enhance your searches, pre-built for this purpose specifically.

Respona offers a pre-built skyscraper technique campaign template, made for this specific purpose.
To use the template, you’ll need to fill in five essential fields:
- URL of your skyscraper article
- Primary keyword your article targets
- URLs of competing articles
- Brief description of your content
- Incentive for the prospect to include your link – like an indirect link back from one of your guest posts
Respona will automatically fetch the backlinks of URLs entered in the third field.
Click “Use this template” to create your campaign.
The campaign template includes a default email sequence, but we recommend creating a customized template for your specific needs.
Respona’s email builder includes tools like a reply chance calculator, which evaluates factors like subject length, body length, and potential spam triggers based on extensive data analytics of previously sent emails.
Let’s also add an AI icebreaker variable to create unique personalizations for reach of your link opportunities on auto-pilot.

We also recommend adding unsubscribe links to your emails.
This allows recipients to opt out, decreasing negative responses and preserving your sender reputation.
With the template prepared, begin your backlink search. Respona, powered by Moz, will extract backlinks from your competitors’ URLs.

If you have connected accounts with Ahrefs or Semrush, you can optimize Respona credits by using these as sources.
Simply proceed with Respona’s default integration, and apply SEO filters to focus on the most relevant opportunities, considering Domain Authority, Spam Score, and Page Authority.

After setting these preferences, Respona will extract backlinks and compile necessary contact information.
Here, you can change the email finder settings as well as provide additional instructions to your AI personalizations.

Once the data is collected, review and refine all personalized variables – and make manual edits where necessary.
Respona can also extract LinkedIn profiles for additional outreach.
Sending a connection request alongside your email can enhance the personal touch of your campaign.

Before launching, Respona will conduct pre-launch checks to ensure no duplicate or unsubscribed contacts are included. Customize your campaign’s schedule, sender email, and strategy to suit your needs.
After initiating the campaign, Respona consolidates all your email communications into a unified inbox, simplifying the management of multiple accounts and ongoing conversations.
Guest Posting
Guest posting is the perfect link building strategy because it merges organic link earning with manual link building efforts.
The organic aspect comes from the author bio, which typically includes a link back to your site.
Meanwhile, the outreach bit involves strategically placing partner links within the content you contribute.
These partners often reciprocate by linking back to your site from their own content or guest posts, creating a mutually beneficial link-building relationship.
So you get the best of both worlds – while being in Google’s green zone!
Link building cheat sheet
Now Over to You
So, in short, organic link building involves:
- Researching and creating high quality linkable content
- Guest posting
- Some white-hat content promotion
Need help generating high quality backlinks?
Don’t hesitate to start your 14-day free trial with Respona to see how we can help.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is organic link building?
Organic link building refers to acquiring backlinks naturally, without formal agreements, because other websites find your content valuable.
It focuses on creating high-quality, shareable content that naturally attracts inbound links over time – which is great both for global and local SEO.
Why is organic link building important?
Organic links are generally more trusted by search engines, enhancing your site’s credibility and authority.
They tend to withstand algorithm updates because they are genuine endorsements from other sites.
How can I encourage more organic backlinks to my site?
Focus on creating valuable, informative, and engaging content that resonates with your target audience.
Utilizing techniques like the skyscraper method, guest posting, and broken link building, you can improve existing content and promote it strategically to encourage more links on a relevant anchor text.
What’s the difference between organic and outreach link building?
Organic backlink building occurs naturally without direct solicitation, whereas outreach link building involves actively engaging with other sites to request or exchange links.
Both methods aim to enhance link profiles but utilize different approaches.
Can organic link building improve my search engine rankings?
Yes, organic link building can significantly boost your search engine rankings by increasing your site’s authority and providing verified endorsements from reputable websites, which search engines view as a positive ranking signal.