Niche edit backlinks can be tough to earn, but they’re well worth the effort. Inside this guide, you will discover what niche edits are, how they work, and why your business needs them.
If you need help with creating niche edits for your website, book a call with our head of SEO for thorough consultation!
A niche edit is when a link to your website gets inserted into a piece of content on someone else’s website. This practice is also called contextual linking, link insertion, or curated linking.
It’s kind of like building an online reputation. If a great website links to your website, you earn link juice. And link juice gets your website things like traffic, exposure to new audiences, higher rankings, and higher domain authority.
The reason why niche edits are so valuable is that you earn “link juice” quicker compared to other link-building methods. No need to create content from scratch, wait till it gets noticed by Google and eventually indexed. Simply, get your link inserted in an already published, indexed, and authoritative piece of content and wait for the positive effect.
Moreover, website managers, or webmasters, weave links to your website into their indexed content. This shows search engines that they’re keeping their content updated providing additional value to their readers. So other websites get something out of niche edits, too!
Just like any other link building strategy, niche edits have their own unique pros and cons. Let’s give right in, shall we?
The best way to explain how niche edits work is with an example. So let's pretend and say you have an ecommerce business that sells fitness equipment. Let’s also say that you partner with us (Loopex Digital) to earn niche edits.
First, we find an article online that’s all about how to get fit, and we make sure it’s already been indexed. The article is relevant to your business. It’s likely that your target audience is interested in the topic. And it’s a well-ranking page.
Our team then reaches out to the owner of the website that published the article. We suggest that they add a link to your ecommerce fitness equipment website.
We also point out to the website owner WHY a link would benefit them. In this case, it’s that a link to your website matches their readers’ intent (which is to get in shape).
Curious how to get niche edit backlinks? You’re in luck because we know EXACTLY how to earn organic, qualified niche edit links — let’s go!
First up, figure out WHERE you want those backlinks to point on your website. Is it an article? A service page? Product page? Resource page? So on and so on.
We recommend you define target pages based on three criteria:
There are two ways to find prospects. And by prospect, we mean a qualified piece of content that’s relevant to your industry (or niche).
The first way is “by hand” — or an advanced Google search. Type in keywords and phrases to identify high-ranking pages with authority.
The second way is with the help of a paid tool like Ahrefs. We recommend Ahrefs because of its Content Explorer tool. Simply type in a keyword to pull up relevant results.
Next, it’s time to filter results based on these criteria:
Now that you have a list of qualified websites (and articles), it’s time to find contact information. You can either search the website for an email address, or you can use tools like Hunter or Snov. Both tools have free and paid options. But if you want to run mass outreach, you will need a paid subscription.
You’ve got your list of prospects, you’ve got contact info for each one, now it’s time to pitch!
This should be attention-grabbing. If you don’t get their attention, they won’t read it.
Introduce yourself and talk a little about your brand and what you offer.
This is where you provide value and convince the reader to give you a backlink.
Wrap up with an interesting, open-ended question. This encourages the reader to RESPOND to your email.
Each part of the pitch should feel personalized and like YOU wrote it. Here’s a great example:
In addition, write TWO follow-up emails. Send a follow-up email a few days after your original message (if you don’t hear back). If they still don’t respond, send your second follow-up a few days after that.
Otherwise, just sit back, relax, and watch as those backlinks roll on in!
Time for the fun part — your link is live! We track backlink progress with analytic tools.
This way we know exactly how many links you’ve earned and where those links come from. Voilà!
A lot of our clients wonder if niche edit strategy is white hat or black hat. In other words, they want to know whether niche edits are “above board” with search engines like Google.
The short answer is that yes, niche edits are a legitimate way to boost traffic and ranking WITHOUT penalty. But only if you use white hat practices…
White hat link building is all organic — it’s the “right” way to build quality links. White hat strategies take more time, but they’re free and they set your website up for stable, long-term growth.
Here’s how it works:
As you can see, no money is exchanged. There aren’t any “tricks.” And it’s an honest process that search engines won’t penalize you for.
White hat niche edits earn your website traffic and introduce new audiences to your target pages. This is because when you earn backlinks from a quality website, that site shares its “link juice” with your site.
Black hat link building is a way to “cheat the system.” Black hat strategies often yield fast and effective results. However, they’re expensive, and WHEN you get caught, your website will be penalized. In short, don’t engage in black hat practices like SAPE networks or PBNs.
If you hear the term “SAPE network” … RUN! They’re bad, they’re expensive, and they can get you in trouble — here’s why.
SAPE is a network that buys and sells backlinks.
In short, businesses can buy highly authoritative, aged backlinks from SAPE. This process quickly ranks websites, which in turn, earns a lot of traffic. Sounds like a win-win, right? Not exactly.
That’s because hackers or anyone else with access to an aged website adds a link injection script to that site. This then adds that website to the SAPE network.
Businesses buy backlinks from websites in the SAPE network. And those backlinks end up in strange places on websites. Like footers, sidebars, and even fake advertisements.
So when you buy a backlink from SAPE, you aren’t buying a contextual link. And, most importantly, you likely are buying that link without the website owner’s consent.
Another black hat niche edit practice to stay away from is something called a PBN (or private blog network). PBNs are a type of black hat link-building community that’s designed to boost domain authority (DA) in exchange for money.
The bad part about PBNs is that they’re built on a graveyard of expired domain names with high DA. Here’s how PBNs work:
If you join a PBN, you will notice a high jump in traffic, domain authority, and high-authority backlinks. But it’s way too good to be true. That’s because PBNs violate Google’s Webmaster Quality Guidelines. Such violations result in serious penalties and ignored backlinks.
Basically, if you join a PBN, you will yield short-term results. But Google (and other search engines) will catch on and penalize your website. Stay away!
Yes, niche edits work — but only if you invest in the process. Here’s a quick rundown on what niche edits are, how they work, and why your business needs them to succeed online:
Want to learn more about backlinks and other SEO topics? Check out the Loopex Digital blog for information, resources, and how-to guides.
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