Crypto link building: how to & best practices

What is crypto link building?
Crypto link building involves acquiring relevant backlinks to enhance a cryptocurrency website’s online visibility, particularly on search results. But unlike traditional link building, a crypto project is held to a higher standard.
Here’s how and why:
- Higher scrutiny: Google’s algorithms are more cautious with YMYL topics like cryptocurrency and blockchain. After all, you might affect a person’s financial well-being.
- Industry volatility: Trends come and go in the crypto world. One minute it’s about NFT, the other, it’s about Web3. Your backlink profile must secure backlinks in these topics.
- Niche relevance: Even if they have high domain authority, it might not matter if the website isn’t relevant to crypto. When building backlinks, target relevant websites.
Should you target crypto-specific websites for your link building campaign? Yes and no.
Yes, your top priority should be crypto-related news outlets, blogs, and directories. And no, you can also target websites that are not specifically about crypto, but can relate to it. Here are examples of such niches:
- General finance and FinTech (Financial Technology)
- Technology and software
- Gaming and iGaming
- Digital payments
- Legal and regulatory
- Venture Capital (VC) and startup
If you’re unsure where to start, a reliable crypto SEO agency like Fortis Media can help you. We’ve already established a network within the cryptocurrency community, enabling us to anticipate trends before they emerge. This enables us to future-proof your strategies, including the creation of high-quality backlinks.
Why link building matters for crypto websites
According to Statista, the number of crypto users might reach 962.92 million in 2026. There’s a gold mine of a market to tap into, but you need to earn their trust first.
Building high-quality crypto backlinks is one way to do that. It’s effective in:
- Earning the trust of a naturally skeptical audience. This community is tired of brands that over-promise, essentially scamming them out of their money.
- Ranking higher for high-intent keywords. Boost your website’s position in search engine rankings, especially for money keywords. Examples of such keywords include “buy Bitcoin with credit card” or “low fee crypto exchange”.
- Maximizing digital marketing budget through organic traffic. Sustainably increase your traffic, something that paid ads can’t offer. Launching an ad campaign for crypto is already challenging, given its heavy regulation. To ensure an effective ad campaign, consider working with a reliable PPC agency service, such as Fortis Media.
Link building is an essential aspect of doing SEO for crypto. Now, how exactly can you build these links?
How to build links for crypto websites
Don’t fall into spammy tactics when building a backlink profile. Google will eventually punish you for that, especially if you’re in the heavily scrutinized crypto niche.
To align your efforts with Google’s policies, you must focus on white-hat link building strategies.
- Contribute guest posts to reputable platforms. Reach out to relevant sites and contribute valuable content that addresses their audience’s pain points. Ensure that your guest posting outreach is personalized to each linking website.
- Get listed on crypto directories. Be visible in crypto-related directories and listings, including CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko. These are go-to resources for crypto users.
- Streamline your PR link building strategy with helpful content. Create informational content that crypto journalists and news outlets will link to. You could develop your own research study or interview an industry expert.
- Collaborate with crypto influencers. According to the research by Sprout Social, 86% of US marketers are working with influencers. A successful influencer marketing strategy can help your brand reach a high-value crypto audience.
- Engage with the community on different platforms. Creating content is great, but don’t forget to naturally engage with your audience. Reply to their comments and contribute insights to existing discussion threads. You can even hop in on a podcast or livestream, as long as they’re related to cryptocurrency.
Best practices for crypto link building
Now, you have your crypto link building strategies in place. The next step is to ensure that you’re taking the right approach to executing these strategies.
- It’s not about how many backlinks you get from other websites. A crypto SEO strategy thrives on quality backlinks. Aim for backlinks or link insertions in relevant topics published by authoritative websites. Such links would provide the needed link juice for your own website.
- Use a natural anchor text. Readers shouldn’t notice that you inserted an anchor text just for the sake of placing a relevant link.
- Monitor backlinks and disavow toxic ones. Not all backlinks are high-quality links. You might get links from low-authority, irrelevant websites. Site owners must monitor their backlink profiles and use Google’s Disavow tool to unlink toxic backlinks.
- Find broken links on other sites. Use tools like Semrush’s Backlink Audit Tool to check for broken or dead links from other relevant websites. Take note of these broken links and reach out to their webmasters. Tell them that you can replace the broken links with a valuable resource for their audience. They might be willing to link back to your site.
In addition, you should also track unlinked brand mentions. These happen when reputable websites mention your product without linking to your site. You can politely request the site owner to include a hyperlink.
A social listening tool like Brandwatch can track unlinked mentions for you.
Common mistakes to avoid
We know the struggle. At first, it’s difficult to secure guest posting opportunities and quality links for your website. For you, it might seem that your crypto investments in backlinks are not resulting in anything.
But trust us when we say that you’re on the right track, particularly if you avoid these common link building mistakes:
- Buying cheap, low-quality links. At some point, you’ll encounter low-price offers for backlinks. Don’t give in. These fake link builders will just get links from spammy Private Blog Networks (PBNs) or low-authority crypto sites.
- Stuffing anchor texts with exact-match keywords. You just have to do what comes naturally. Google and other search engines can detect if you’re overstuffing anchor texts with keywords.
- Ignoring link profile health. As we mentioned before, not all internal and external links are helpful. Toxic links from abandoned crypto blogs and spammy directories can pull down your rankings. Always audit your backlink profile with search engine optimization tools like Semrush or Ahrefs.
How to measure the success of the link building campaign
As is the case in any SEO strategy, link building also requires continuous performance monitoring. This is very important because you want only the high-quality links on your link profiles.
For more productive tracking, we recommend focusing on these metrics:
- Track organic keyword rankings. Successful link building improves your keyword rankings because Google trusts you more. If your keyword rankings don’t improve, there might be something wrong with your link building efforts.
- Monitor conversions and traffic from acquired backlinks. For referral traffic, go to the Acquisition section in Google Analytics. There, you’ll see the websites that have sent traffic to your crypto site. This report will also analyze conversions that you got from those referring domains.
- Analyze backlink-specific metrics. These metrics include Domain Rating (Ahrefs), Domain Authority (Moz), and Trust Flow (Majestic). Of course, the most important metrics still point to keyword rankings and more organic traffic. But you can compare your backlink-specific ratings with those of your competitors. If you’re steadily gaining ground over them, you might be on the right track.
The future of crypto link building
Don’t be surprised if we see more tech in crypto link building’s future. At some point, it will be more than just guest posting or broken link building.
To make your link building work, we advise you to pay attention to these trending strategies:
- Optimize your content for E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust). Plan your future content and update existing content around E-E-A-T principles. Optimizing content for SEO improves your brand reputation, thus increasing the chances of naturally acquiring backlinks.
- Streamline your outreach with AI-powered SEO tools. Data-driven insights are very important today, something that AI tools can give you. For example, a backlink tool like Respona identifies related websites based on your keywords and content. Other link building tools you could consider include Pitchbox, Ahrefs, and Semrush.
- Target backlink opportunities on Web3 ecosystems. Web3-driven platforms like Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), blockchain networks, and decentralized communities are natural sources for backlinks and brand mentions. Known as “grassroot links”, you could gain attention both from crypto users and search algorithms.
Moreover, Google’s increasing scrutiny of crypto platforms can hurt you if you’re not prepared. If you don’t have in-house digital marketing services, you might want to connect with crypto link building agencies.
Crypto link building agencies like Fortis Media ensure your campaigns align with Google’s policies. Through press releases, paid advertising, content production, and cryptocurrency advertising, we help you build backlinks safely and efficiently.
FAQ
How is crypto link building different from traditional link building?
Since cryptocurrency falls under the YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) category, Google makes it more difficult for crypto sites to build backlinks. Quality and relevance become more important in crypto link building, as it’s non-negotiable to gain trust and authority in the niche.
Is it safe to buy crypto backlinks?
Buying cryptocurrency backlinks from low-authority and spammy websites violates Google’s anti-spam policies. This could lead to penalties, especially in your search rankings. It’s advised to stay within safe white-hat link building tactics like digital PR, guest posting outreach, and content marketing.
What are the best link building strategies for crypto?
The most effective crypto link-building tactics prioritize securing backlinks from reputable sources, including blockchain blogs, crypto directories, and media outlets focused on cryptocurrency or finance. You could reach out to these platforms to contribute resources or create content that will naturally gain attention.
How long does it take to see results from crypto link building?
Link building, especially in a highly regulated niche like cryptocurrency, could take six to eight weeks before you see significant results in your organic traffic, on-page SEO performance, and keyword rankings. However, this expected waiting time might be longer for newer crypto websites.
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