Recently, we ranked a client’s website in the local area with literally a $100/month backlink budget. In this video, I’m going to share the exact strategies we used — strategies that not only helped us build top-quality backlinks without a huge budget, but also rank the website and eventually charge the client more.
Now, let me make one thing very clear:
A lot of the link-building strategies people spend most of their time and resources on simply do not work anymore. Many are outdated.
For example, the Skyscraper Technique — where you contact a website and say:
“You linked to Resource A. Here’s our Resource B. Please link to this instead.”
Why would they do that?
That strategy barely works anymore.
Recently, I launched a link-building outreach campaign for a client through my agency, GMS Digitals. We couldn’t get even a single backlink for under $400. And many people think that if they simply write a nice content piece and send it to someone, they’ll instantly get a backlink.
No, things have become tougher now.
My agency has built literally thousands of backlinks for clients, and every time we do this, we learn something new — new strategies, new experiences — and I’m going to share the most important lessons in this video.
If you want to learn backlinks from beginner to advanced level with the latest SEO strategies, you can join my recorded SEO Master Course. It contains 100 hours of practical content from basic to advanced.
Before You Start Building Backlinks
Before building backlinks, make sure:
- Your site has a well-built structure
- Your website has enough content (especially blogs)
- Your content pages are semantically optimized
Once these things are ready, then start backlink building.
And no — don’t start with blog comments.
That’s one of the biggest spam link-building techniques. And it’s not the only one. Other spam methods include:
- Forum links
- Web 2.0s
- PBN redirects
Most of these don’t work anymore.
Yes, PBNs can work — but only if you really know how to build them properly.
You may still see Web 2.0s and forum links in the backlink profiles of big websites, and that’s okay. Build a few if you want. But if you depend entirely on them for rankings, it won’t work.
What actually works are backlinks from:
- Relevant websites
- Authoritative websites
Remember these two words: Relevant + Authority
If your site is about fitness, then your backlinks should come from:
- Fitness blogs
- Yoga websites
- Weight-loss blogs
- Health media sites
Any site publishing content related to your topic can help.
Even if it’s a forum, relevance matters.
Think of it like this:
If your car is stuck, you need a powerful tow truck. A rickshaw can’t tow a Honda Civic.
Green Flags of a Quality Backlink
A good backlink should come from a website that:
- Has at least 1,000+ traffic
- Ranks for realistic keywords
- Publishes genuine high-quality content
- Doesn’t post random unrelated articles
- Isn’t losing traffic according to Ahrefs or Semrush
- Doesn’t have gambling-related content
- Has a real About Us page and real authors
If a website checks these boxes, get the backlink.
Types of Link Building
1. Broken Link Building
This strategy is powerful.
Here’s how it works:
- Find pages that return a 404 error
- See which websites are linking to those dead pages
- Create a similar page on your own website
- Contact those websites and ask them to replace the broken link with your active page
This way, you can get backlinks for free.
How to Find Broken Links
Use the Chrome extension:
- Check My Links
Then search for “resource pages” in your niche using Google search footprints.
Open a relevant page and run the extension.
You’ll find broken links.
Then:
- Recreate a better version of the dead page
- Contact everyone linking to it
- Tell them the page they linked is dead
- Offer your live page as a replacement
Out of 100 outreach emails, you can realistically get around 10 backlinks.
There’s also the Wikipedia Dead Link Technique, which helps find endless broken-link opportunities.
2. Link Insertions
This method is easier to scale and can produce amazing rankings.
Examples of Assets You Can Create
- Beautiful infographics
- Long-form guides
- Original research
- Free tools
Examples:
- “21 Science-Proven Benefits of Weightlifting”
- “111 Productivity Tips from Top Professionals”
- “We Surveyed 1000 Users — Here Are the Results”
- A competitor backlink analyzer tool
When you create valuable resources, people are more willing to link to them for free.
Finding Prospects
Use tools like:
- Ahrefs
- Semrush
Load a competitor’s website into Ahrefs and go to:
Top Pages by Links
You’ll see all the websites linking to your competitors.
Create a large outreach list.
For fitness, target related niches like:
- Yoga
- Weight loss
- Dieting
Finding Contact Information
- Media sites → author email
- Company sites → Head of Content / Editor / Marketing Head
- Personal sites → owner email
You can automate email finding using:
- Hunter.io Chrome Extension
Personalized Outreach Emails
The more customized your email is, the higher your success rate.
If you send the same template to 100 people, getting even 1 response is hard.
Better Approach
Subject Line Ideas
Use:
- Their name
- Their website
- Their niche
- A personal question
Example:
“Question about your fitness article”
Email Body Tips
- Compliment their content
- Mention something specific from their article
- Use natural human language
- Don’t immediately drop your link
Instead say:
“Give me a thumbs up and I’ll send over the resource.”
You can also offer:
- Promotion
- Collaboration
- Payment
- Social shares
Outreach Rules
- Use a dedicated outreach domain
- Don’t use your main business domain
- Use Google Workspace or private email
- Warm up emails using tools like NinjaOutreach
- Don’t send more than 60 emails/day
- Don’t send more than 2 follow-ups
- Don’t include links in the first email
This improves deliverability.
3. Guest Posting
Guest posting means writing an article for another website in exchange for a backlink.
How to Find Guest Post Opportunities
Use Google search footprints like:
- “write for us”
- “guest post”
- “submit article”
Replace with your niche keyword.
Most websites will already have:
- Guest posting guidelines
- Submission instructions
- Contact email
You may eventually need a team or automation tools to scale this.
How to Build Backlinks on a Budget
If you don’t have a big budget:
1. Value-Based Guest Posting
Create such strong content that people can’t reject it.
2. Use HARO and Similar Platforms
These platforms connect you directly with journalists and media authors.
You can earn backlinks from huge authority websites.
3. Build Relationships with Bloggers
- Follow them on social media
- Comment on their posts
- Warm up the relationship
- Then ask for backlinks
Your chances increase massively when trust already exists.
Useful Tools for Link Building
- Ahrefs / Semrush → Prospect research
- NinjaOutreach → Email management
- Link Assistant → Prospecting
- Hunter.io → Finding emails
- MailGenius → Email health checking
