Niche Edits
Niche edit link building is a tactic in which a contextual link is added into an existing blog post or page on a website.
Manual niche edits are done by reaching out to sites directly and asking or bartering to get your link added to a relevant post.
This is not really a new method of link building, nor is it inherently a dangerous link building tactic, as we will discuss in more detail later in this post. Some niche edit links are placed on hacked sites, unbeknownst to the site owners while others can be legitimately earned.
Looking for Quality Niche Edit Links?
Manual Niche Edits
However, not all niche edit (a.k.a. link insertions) services are manual, nor are they safe for your site. To understand the various methods that could be used to gain “niche edit” links, we must first take a look at the origins of this type of link building.
The history of link building has certainly not been lacking in creativity or change. Early on, it was discovered that the authority of a site and page outweighed the the importance of being placed in relevant content. This lead to people adding links to pages in bulk, without a second thought about relevancy.
Modern search algorithms on the other hand do require relevancy for links to have the most value, thankfully!
SAPE Links
Anyway, the early link builders had a hay-day with link inserts. This gave way to networks like the famous SAPE network which enabled you to purchase high PR/DA links very cheaply. As with the earlier predecessor, relevancy was not considered when placing these links in most cases.
SAPE while certainly not a safe strategy was pretty effective, leading Google to mention and target SAPE on more than one occasion. Ultimately, the effectiveness of SAPE links would lead to their demise, as they made it onto Google’s radar.
However, enterprising link builders had gotten a taste of the impact and speed at which links being added to existing content could impact rankings. So naturally, this approach would re-appear in many forms between 2013 and today, sometimes with an utter disregard for ethics…
Beware of Link Inserts on Hacked Sites
The next iteration of this was even worse than it’s origins as people would unknowingly (or intentionally in some cases) purchase link inserts on hacked sites. This went from a dilemma of black hat vs. white hat link building into an actual legal matter of hacking sites.
To this day, some people are still hacking sites and placing links against the will and without the knowledge of the website owners. This means it is very important to work with a legit niche edit service, at a trusted link building company.
Types of Niche Edit Link Building
Any degree of link building comes with some risks, but finding a safe niche edit link building service is possible, if you know what to look for. As discussed, a niche edit is a link that is added to an existing post.
This means that broken link building and press mentions could also fall under the “niche edit” category, both of which are trusted methods of acquiring links.
Not far from the definition you could also group resource page link building as a type of “niche edit”, since you are getting a new link added to an existing page.
So, by definition, a niche edit link can be safe as part of a diversified link building plan that includes other link building tactics like guest post link building.
Guest Post vs. Niche Edits
Guest posting and blogger outreach are both focused on creating relevant, quality content that will be posted on a third-party website, with a link back to the client’s (or your own) website.
Niche edits on the other hand are exclusively links added into existing posts and pages. The benefit of getting some links from existing pages is age and authority.
A post that has been online for 6 months is more likely to be ranking for keywords, to have inbound links, and to be receiving search engine traffic. Because of this, links placed onto existing pages give you a “head start” of sorts.
However, a newly written post that was created specifically for you will often be much more relevant to what you offer and in some cases, written in a manner to generate more referral traffic than a link insert. It can also be shared on social media, with email lists, and possibly even promoted, allowing your message to reach a much larger audience.
Choosing the Right Link Building Tactic for Your Project
When it comes to link building, there are several tactics that can work very well, so long as you select the right tactic for your goals and project.
In some cases, guest posting is going to be the best option, while in other cases, a combination of link building tactics such as media mentions, broken link building, and blogger outreach are going to yield the best results.
