{"id":142555,"date":"2020-12-15T18:22:03","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T18:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/?p=142555"},"modified":"2020-12-17T20:54:27","modified_gmt":"2020-12-17T20:54:27","slug":"crowd-marketing-a-link-building-method-that-only-2-use-to-rank-higher-on-google","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2020\/12\/15\/crowd-marketing-a-link-building-method-that-only-2-use-to-rank-higher-on-google\/","title":{"rendered":"Crowd marketing: A link building method that only 2% use to rank higher on Google"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"well\">\n<h2>30-second summary:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Link building still plays a prominent role in SERP ranking, even in 2020.<\/li>\n<li>Crowd marketing is a technique that is based on building backlinks on forums and communities.<\/li>\n<li>Most people don\u2019t use it, and you can take advantage of that.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Crowd marketing: What\u2019s that?<\/h2>\n<p>Crowd marketing is one of those often neglected <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2019\/01\/23\/link-building-techniques-2019\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">link building methods<\/a>, that can give you a competitive edge in Google ranking. It is often called forum or community marketing because that\u2019s where those backlinks come from.<\/p>\n<p>In this article, we\u2019re going to discover why this link building strategy is still useful in 2020, the best practices to apply, and things to be aware of. Stay tuned!<\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Content created in partnership with<\/span><\/i> <a href=\"https:\/\/crowdo.net\/sew?utm_source=sew&amp;utm_medium=article\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Crowdo<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<h2>Why would crowd marketing benefit your SEO strategy?<\/h2>\n<p>There are tens of thousands of <strong>niche-relevant forums<\/strong> with a large number of visitors and great metrics. Crowd marketing does not only provide pure SEO gains, but also indirect benefits. Some of the advantages are as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>A stronger and diversified backlink profile: <\/strong>Links from niche-specific forums can strengthen and diversify your backlink profile. As an outcome, <u>you\u2019ll rank higher on Google Search.<\/u><\/li>\n<li><strong>More views and more brand awareness:<\/strong> You will get a lot of eyes on your website which is <u>great for brand awareness.<\/u><\/li>\n<li><strong>Increase in website traffic and prospective customers:<\/strong> Since we\u2019re interested in targeting very specific online communities, you can expect <u>an inflow of traffic to your website<\/u>, and possibly more leads and customers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As mentioned above, this technique has been largely underestimated, and that\u2019s actually great! That means you can take full advantage of it and <strong>possibly outrank your competitors.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Digital community marketing and its types<\/h2>\n<p>There are a dozen sources that could be relevant to perform crowd marketing campaigns. Those include but are not limited to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Blog (comments section):<\/strong> Heavily overused and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.searchenginejournal.com\/blog-comments-link-building\/350748\/#:~:text=Even%20though%20blog%20commenting%20is,in%20traffic%20to%20your%20website.&amp;text=You%20might%20find%20that%20other,visit%20your%20site%20as%20well.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">no longer effective way of building backlinks<\/a>. Why? Because blog comments aren\u2019t usually moderated well, meaning that it\u2019s an open book for spammers, and that\u2019s not what we are after.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Social media and Q&amp;A Websites:<\/strong> Once again, probably effective for brand awareness, not so much for a boost in SEO. Why? Again, low moderation and the fact that all the links from those platforms don\u2019t build up any authority of a backlink profile.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Forums\/communities: <\/strong>Bingo, we\u2019ve just reached our sweet spot! There is a multitude of forums for every niche, with real human visitors and a high emphasis on moderation and helpful content. That\u2019s what we\u2019re after, as links from those sources can give you a solid boost in SERP.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-142558\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Copy-of-Copy-of-Research.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"728\" height=\"364\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Copy-of-Copy-of-Research.png 728w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Copy-of-Copy-of-Research-300x150.png 300w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Copy-of-Copy-of-Research-768x384.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 728px) 100vw, 728px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>Forum link building: A checklist and best practices<\/h2>\n<h3>1. Search for niche-relevant forums<\/h3>\n<p>Context is king, and this rule holds for link building as well. Make sure to do a thorough search and handpick only those communities that discuss subjects relevant to your niche.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some tips that can help you along the way:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Avoid the so-called \u201chello threads\u201d <\/strong>where people greet each other and discuss literally everything. Those are useless for SEO purposes.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Search for niche-relevant forums<\/strong>. Let\u2019s say you have a car shipping business &#8211; you should only search for resources that discuss vehicles.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Keep in mind, that there is a limited number of websites relevant to your business. <\/strong>No need to be upset though, because you can also find relevant threads on common forums. For example, if you trade cryptocurrency &#8211; you can search for specific threads about crypto on IT forums.<\/li>\n<li><strong>If you find any local websites, that\u2019s even better. <\/strong>If you offer a local service and you happen to find a digital community right in your area &#8211; that\u2019s an additional bonus point for backlink building purposes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>2. Look at the amount of traffic<\/h3>\n<p>You should target popular websites with real human audiences. Websites that receive a high volume of traffic and user engagement look trustworthy in the eyes of Google, and can also put your business right in front of your target audience.<\/p>\n<p>You can use tools like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">SimilarWeb<\/a> to estimate the amount of traffic a website receives. There is no right and wrong here, but at <a href=\"https:\/\/crowdo.net\/sew?utm_source=sew&amp;utm_medium=article_crowd_marketing_1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Crowdo<\/a> we would advise you to aim for forums with at least 30,000 visitors per month. Usually, it\u2019s not a good sign if a forum does not receive a lot of traffic, this may indicate that it\u2019s no longer active or it became a hub for spammers with no human audience whatsoever.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-142565\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Traffic-overview-chart.png\" alt=\"Traffic overview chart\" width=\"602\" height=\"269\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Traffic-overview-chart.png 602w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Traffic-overview-chart-300x134.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 602px) 100vw, 602px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>3. Look at the metrics (here we go, SEO nerds)<\/h3>\n<p>When you decide whether a certain forum will be useful for your backlink campaign, make sure to take a good look at its website metrics. Let\u2019s have a short overview of the important metrics to keep in mind:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>DA\/DR: <\/strong>This figure indicates the overall strength of the domain. The higher, the better, try to look at websites with 50+ DA.<\/li>\n<li><strong>TF:<\/strong>\u00a0This metric is based on the trustworthiness of a website, based on the <strong>quality<\/strong> of its referring domains. For example, links from educational websites or Wikipedia would have a much higher ranking weight, than links from social profiles.<\/li>\n<li><strong>CF: <\/strong>This figure is based on the <strong>number<\/strong> of referring domains. It is useful to see how trendy or viral the webpage is, but it does not say much about the quality of information.<\/li>\n<li><strong>PA\/UR:<\/strong> This metric is calculated the same way as DA, but limited to a specific webpage. It comes in handy when you\u2019re looking at a particular forum thread, as it\u2019s a separate page (hence a separate URL).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-142559\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Copy-of-Research.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Copy-of-Research.png 1000w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Copy-of-Research-300x150.png 300w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Copy-of-Research-768x384.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>4. Check whether a forum is properly moderated<\/h3>\n<p><em>In our case moderation refers to the extent to which forum content is being reviewed\/removed by admins, as well as their tolerance towards self-promotion or even spam. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Whilst you can use tools that assess the \u201cspam score\u201d of a certain website, it\u2019s better to stick to your judgment. Just spend some time and skim around the forum, look at what people post and what they talk about.<\/p>\n<p>If you see tons of lookalike comments that include the exact same promotion, poor wording, and links, this is a warning sign, that the forum is not being moderated, and thus probably <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Forum_spam#:~:text=Forum%20spam%20consists%20of%20posts,abusive%20or%20otherwise%20unwanted%20information.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">contains a lot of spam<\/a> &#8211; this clearly is a<em> \u201cno go\u201d<\/em>, because backlinks from those websites are toxic and will do more harm than good for your SEO in the long-run.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, forums with aggressive moderation will never let you place any link, even if it fits the context and the discussion. To conclude, medium moderation is usually preferable, because it means that a link can be included <u>ONLY<\/u> if it\u2019s relevant.<\/p>\n<h2>Action time: Writing solid forum replies<\/h2>\n<p>Now you know everything you need to pick decent websites for link building. Yet, you\u2019re not a guru of crowd marketing if you don\u2019t know how to use them properly.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s take a look at some do\u2019s and don&#8217;ts when it comes to posting replies with a backlink to your website.<\/p>\n<h4>DO\u2019s:<\/h4>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Use proper language, grammar, and jargon if applicable<\/strong>. The word \u201ccrowd\u201d is here for a reason. If the community you\u2019re targeting uses specific vocabulary, then use it as well. Proofread your comments and check for any grammar issues.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Analyze the discussion before posting anything. <\/strong>Your comment should blend in with the rest of the thread. Make sure to read other user\u2019s replies to get a better idea of the subject matter.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Link back to your website in a natural way.<\/strong> Once you\u2019ve written a solid comment, use this chance and include a backlink naturally. Use appropriate anchor text and don\u2019t even try to do clickbait or push users to visit your website aggressively.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-142566\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/crowd-marketing-link-building-dos-example.png\" alt=\"crowd marketing link building - dos - example\" width=\"602\" height=\"139\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/crowd-marketing-link-building-dos-example.png 602w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/crowd-marketing-link-building-dos-example-300x69.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 602px) 100vw, 602px\" \/><\/p>\n<h4>DON&#8217;Ts:<\/h4>\n<ol>\n<li>Attempt to hide a backlink. This is black hat and will be punished by admins (or even by Google, if used excessively).<\/li>\n<li>Use software for mass posting. This doesn\u2019t work anymore and will likely get you a Google penalty.<\/li>\n<li>Copy-paste the exact same answer template with your link. Context surrounding the link is important, so make sure it\u2019s unique and sound.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>Forum links: dofollow or nofollow?<\/h2>\n<p><em>\u201cNofollow links are useless\u201d<\/em> is probably one of the most common SEO misconceptions you will ever come across. In fact, having a natural mix of dofollow and nofollow links is very beneficial.<\/p>\n<p>It is already confirmed that Google treats \u201cnofollow\u201d as a hint, that can potentially result in higher rankings, depending on the context, anchor text, and the referring domain. For example, everyone claims that <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@coloradodigitalexperts\/wikipedia-seo-strategies-how-wiki-links-affect-your-google-ranking-2fb0d2e034ad#:~:text=Creating%20a%20Wikipedia%20article%20and,about%20your%20site%20also%20help.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Wikipedia backlinks are useful<\/a>, although they\u2019re always nofollow.<\/p>\n<h3>The main takeaway is<\/h3>\n<p><em>If you see that all the links posted in a particular forum have a nofollow tag, that\u2019s not a reason to quit, as they might still be helpful for your ranking<\/em>. Other than that, people click on the links regardless of their tag, so for traffic-generation that does not play a role at all. Just ensure that not all of the backlinks you build are nofollow, because this also doesn\u2019t send Google the right signal.<\/p>\n<h2>Crowd marketing: So is it black hat or white hat?<\/h2>\n<p>The technique itself is entirely organic and white hat if you use it the right way. Basically, any <a href=\"https:\/\/crowdo.net\/blog\/black-hat-vs-white-hat-seo\/?utm_source=sew&amp;utm_medium=article_blog_4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">SEO method can be turned into black hat<\/a> if it\u2019s abused.<\/p>\n<p>For example, the same words can be said about outreach guest posting. If you genuinely reach out to website owners, propose interesting content, and use the opportunity to build a few links &#8211; that\u2019s great and won\u2019t ever get you penalized.<\/p>\n<p>Now if you\u2019re building a blog network solely for link-building purposes (for example, PBN), this is a black hat scheme that won\u2019t go unnoticed.<\/p>\n<p>The same logic can be applied here. If you\u2019re writing genuine and helpful replies, that benefit the community and include relevant backlinks to your website, then you\u2019re doing everything right. A well-carried crowd marketing campaign is not based on spam or volumes, quality is still key.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t try to fool Google and use automated software and spam all night long, because that\u2019s black hat and that\u2019s punishable.<\/p>\n<h2>That\u2019s great but looks like there are so many things to keep in mind&#8230;<\/h2>\n<p>Crowd marketing is definitely time-consuming! Let\u2019s just summarize some of the things that you need to set up for a successful crowd marketing campaign:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You have to do a lot of research to find relevant forums and communities.<\/li>\n<li>You have to check their metrics, traffic, and level of moderation.<\/li>\n<li>You will have to create an account for each of them. In most cases, you\u2019ll also have to build up some reputation before posting any links (or anything whatsoever).<\/li>\n<li>In some cases, you will have to pay a membership fee to join an online community.<\/li>\n<li>You have to search for niche-specific threads and write helpful replies for each of them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-142562\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Research.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"728\" height=\"364\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Research.png 728w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Research-300x150.png 300w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Research-768x384.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 728px) 100vw, 728px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As you can see, this does require a lot of time, resources, and dedication. That is why more often than not, SEO enthusiasts prefer to outsource this task to reputable link building services like <a href=\"https:\/\/crowdo.net\/sew?utm_source=sew&amp;utm_medium=article_crowd_marketing_2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Crowdo.<\/a> There\u2019s no one restricting you from doing this yourself, but soon you\u2019ll find that it\u2019s hard to do on a large scale.<\/p>\n<p>In any case, don\u2019t fall victim to shady backlink providers or freelancers, who are willing to do the job for cheap. You\u2019ve just seen that doing it \u201cthe right way\u201d is not easy, so if you see suspiciously low prices, that often means that either software was used or no research was carried along the way. Both of these will diminish your genuine SEO efforts.<\/p>\n<h2>Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>We hope that you\u2019ve learned everything there is to know about forum link building. If you would like to leave this job to professionals, you\u2019re welcome to check what <a href=\"https:\/\/crowdo.net\/sew?utm_source=sew&amp;utm_medium=article_crowd_marketing_3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Crowdo<\/a> has to offer with a 10% discount, exclusively for SEW readers!<\/p>\n<p><b>If you want to find out more about forum link building, make sure you read their<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/resources\/crowdo-organic-link-building-service\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><b>latest report here<\/b><\/a><b>.<\/b><\/p>\n<p><em>Andrei Cucleschin is a Marketing Lead at Crowdo. Besides writing content, he\u2019s passionate about design, traveling, and coffee.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Discover why crowd marketing as a link building strategy is still useful in 2020, the best practices to apply, and things to be aware of. Stay tuned!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1092,"featured_media":142560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,27488],"tags":[27398,978,20677,27963,53,13859,27460,37,28001,27214,50,147,10670,103,22,32,96,28000],"content_type":[],"class_list":["post-142555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo","category-sponsored","tag-backlink-building","tag-brand-awareness","tag-community-building","tag-crowd-marketing","tag-digital-marketing","tag-dofollow","tag-domain-authority-da","tag-google","tag-link-building-best-practices","tag-link-building-techniques","tag-link-building","tag-nofollow","tag-online-forums","tag-search-rankings","tag-seo","tag-serps","tag-social-media","tag-website-qa"],"acf":{"tad_independentcommercial":false,"tad_content_format":false},"post_info":{"name":"idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com","title":"","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Copy-of-Untitled-1.png","category":"SEO","timeago":"5y"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1092"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142555"},{"taxonomy":"content_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_type?post=142555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}