Link building is a complex process of getting links to your travel site, and a really important one. Links determine how credible your site looks in the eyes of Google. Even if you have excellent educating content that users will love, your site has almost no chances to rank if it has no links pointing to it. Apart from serving a SEO purpose, good links can also be a source of traffic and establish connections with other authoritative sources in your niche.
Link building can be paid and free. When working on the long-term project, it’s strongly advised to stay away from buying links. First of all, you don’t even know if those links will work, and this money can rather be invested into the quality content and internal site improvements. Or even worse, a paid link will get you penalised. Free link building has a lot of options that look more natural in the eyes of Google, and in this post I’ll share a few that are most popular among travel bloggers.
Guest Posts
Guest posts are a great way to build links, as long as they are from non-spammy websites, and from related niche. They usually allow you to place 2 links in the post, anchor link from the post to one of your articles, and homepage link from the author bio. It all depends on what SEO strategy you have, some bloggers prefer linking only to posts, while others grow their homepage links number.
Guest posts are time-consuming, you have to write an article from scratch, and include the photos. It’s also recommended to choose the topic that won’t compete with your own blog posts. From terms of SEO, guest posts are the best way to get link juice, because the total number of outbound links from the page is minimal.
How to find guest posts opportunities?
- Search for related blogs using keywords like “write for us” + the topic of your choice.
- Join online blogging communities and check for the bloggers who accept guest posts on their websites.
- Research your competitors backlinks, and contact those blogs for cooperation.
Collabs
Collabs are posts that feature stories of 15-25 bloggers on the same topic. Collab posts usually feature 200-300 words per blogger plus photo, and each of them gets a link to the homepage or a non-competing blog post. It’s the fastest way to build links in the travel niche, however the quality of such links is lower compared to guest posts (more outbound links from the page, less link juice for you).
Collab posts are also a great way to grow content on your own website. When you feature a post and invite bloggers to contribute, it will help to build relations within the industry. Plus, it will get you many social shares by the contributors and their followers.
Link Swaps
Exchanging links with other websites is a fast way to build your DA, and there are a few approaches to do it.
Usual link swap between 2 sites – when you exchange with another website, you link them, they link to you. That’s the simplest method, but does not appear natural for Google. This way your link building efforts get cancelled out. There are also rumors that such activity may get you penalized.
3-way link swap – recommended. Website A link to website B, website B links to website C, and website C links to website A. Everyone gets a link, and reciprocal connection won’t be so visible.
If your website is new and the DA is low, you may find it hard finding the logs willing to swap with you. Don’t be discouraged, look for the new bloggers, and ask to swap with them.
To get the network of bloggers for Link swaps and collabs, check out communities in social media, like this Group on Facebook.
HARO (Help A Reporter Out)-Type Platforms
One of the most effective ways to build high-quality backlinks is by getting featured in authoritative publications. While HARO is no longer operational, there are several HARO alternatives that connect experts with journalists looking for expert insights.
By signing up as a source on these platforms, you’ll receive daily opportunities to contribute quotes on relevant topics. If your response is selected, you have a chance to earn a valuable backlink to your website. However, the response rate can be low, so success often comes down to persistence – the more pitches you send, the higher your chances of securing a link.
Many bloggers and marketers rely on this strategy as a primary method for link-building. Since these publications typically have high domain authority (DA), earning mentions not only boosts your SEO but also strengthens your credibility as an industry expert.
Broken Link Building
Broken link building is another powerful strategy for earning high-quality backlinks. It involves finding broken (dead) links on relevant websites and reaching out to the site owners with a suggestion to replace them with a link to your travel content. Bloggers are often open to fixing broken links—especially if you provide a valuable alternative.
To get started, use tools like Ahrefs or Semrush to scan travel-related websites for broken links. Look for outdated destination guides, discontinued travel resources, or deleted articles. Once you find a broken link, create or identify a high-quality, relevant piece of content on your site that could replace it.
When reaching out to site owners, be short and helpful. Instead of just pointing out a broken link, offer a well-written, informative replacement from your website. This increases the chances of your link being accepted. For example, if you discover a broken link to an old travel visa guide, suggest your updated version with the latest regulations.
Apart from the methods mentioned above, there are many ways for passive link building, such as working on developing high quality content that will attract links and shares. These can be stats posts that feature a lot of data and research on the topic. For example, “55 Surprising Travel Statistics in 2024” – analyse poll and survey responses, and wrap them into a long-read post. The main purpose of such posts is to attract readers with truly good content, and backlinks come as a bonus.
Backlinks are a great way to build authority, and may also become a continuous source of highly-related referral traffic.
I hope this post has given you some inspiration to develop your link building strategy.