Pillow links are the type of backlinks used to diversify and help a backlink profile look organic and genuine to a search engine. They aren’t built for power; therefore, they’re not to be compared to traditional backlinks such as niche edits or guest posts.
They are called ‘Pillow Links’ because they act as a cushion for your backlink profile. Anyone aiming to build a strong backlink profile for their domain should know the benefits they offer that no other links can provide.
It goes without saying that understanding backlinks as a concept is not just limited to the most powerful, authoritative links, even if the trend says otherwise.
In the case of Pillow links, if you go with what most industry experts do, you might overlook a key part of link building.
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Why build Pillow Links?
The main reason to build pillow links is to have your backlink profile look organic and natural to Google. No strong website gets backlinks from just powerful guest posts and high DR sites. It’s only natural for these sites to obtain pillow links along the way, even if some of them weren’t manually built by themselves.
If you want any search engine to see your website as natural and organic, you need to diversify your backlink profile. So, to that extent, what can Pillow Links offer your backlink profile that other backlinks can’t?
Well, their benefits change a bit depending on their link identifier. Let’s take a look.
Dofollow Pillow Links with anchor text
In general, pillow links can help you use less powerful anchors that you wouldn’t normally rank for with your stronger backlinks. You see, pillow links primarily use branded, naked URLs and generic anchors. This helps you diversify your backlink profile with these less powerful anchors while using reverse sink or swim, exact or partial match, keyword-focused anchor text on your stronger, more expensive backlinks and maximise their power.
Nofollow Pillow Links
A nofollow backlink only passes little link juice compared to a dofollow backlink. Most pillow links are nofollow. And although dofollow links that pass full link juice, Google encourages using nofollow backlinks for those links not intended for endorsement.
By building nofollow pillow links, you diversify and balance your dofollow to nofollow ratio. This helps you make your backlink profile seem more natural and lower the risk of sanctions to your domain. This is a great benefit since, just like with the anchor text pillow links, you get to have the link power from your dofollow backlinks while your profile appears natural to Google’s spiders.
Are Pillow Links expensive?
For the most part, pillow links are not expensive since they have a completely different purpose, are not comparable in power, and are not as keyword-rich as the main powerful backlinks you can buy.
Remember, you’re not buying pillow links for power; you are buying them solely for link profile diversification. Because of this, they are usually pretty cheap.
Are Pillow Links safe for my backlink profile?
Since their entire purpose is to diversify and legitimise your backlink profile, pillow links are the safest type of link you can buy. Of course, you should always work with agencies that have experience and know what they’re doing, but for the most part, you will only benefit your website with pillow links.
Search engines see pillow links as the links a website would pick up naturally as it puts content, news or products out there, so you don’t need to worry about including pillow links into your link building strategy.
Don’t forget to include strong links in your profile, such as guest posts and niche edits, but think of pillow links as a safe diversifier. They help your other links pass traffic and authority to your site and show Google that you aren’t just spamming backlinks.
Are there any Pillow Links that should be avoided?
Other than ensuring that the pillow links you include in your profile are niche relevant and location-based, there isn’t much to avoid when it comes to pillow links.
Don’t go for foreign or spammy pillow links, and in case you’re an agency to build them for you, settle for a reasonable price. Lastly, as with any link, don’t build too much of the same type of link so as not to risk a Google penalty.
What Kind of Pillow Links Can I Use?
You can include a wide range of pillow links in your link building strategy. Although most are simple to place, they can be very time consuming, so you could stand to gain from having experts handling pillow links for you, especially since they are not as expensive as other backlink types.
Blog Comments
Blog comments do wonders for brand awareness, they are always hyper-focused on niche relevancy, and you can build them in big authority websites within your niche. They can also pass a decent amount of traffic if you do outstanding work on your copywriting.
They are quick to publish and inexpensive if you build blog comments yourself, but they can be very time-consuming. You can also hire a virtual assistant to do these for you, but they will need some training. You can also purchase them through a competent agency which we definitely recommend.
Social signals
A social signal is a backlink coming from any social media platform like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, or Pinterest. The adoption of social media has made it customary for all the biggest websites and brands to have a presence on them. This, in turn, make social signals essential pillow links as you would naturally gain them as your site keeps growing its audience.
Social signals, like blog comments, help you increase your brand awareness while getting a good nofollow backlink from renowned social media websites. They are essential in maximising the chances of any business being seen as a trustworthy source of information by search engines.
Links in directories and citations
If your business has a physical address and it’s vital for promoting your website, they can be an incredible pillow link for your backlink profile. They are a natural type of link that every business with a physical address uses from the beginning of their internet presence. Google sees them as a great trust signal.
There are many directory listing websites that allow you to pass traffic to your site via potential customers and users looking for a good service provider. So, make sure one of the first things you do is get your site information on the best ones out there.
Links in Wikipedia
Wikipedia backlinks are exclusively no-follow links and one of the first types of pillow links. Since Wikipedia is the most trusted source of information for any niche, topic, and search engine, Wiki links are as trustworthy as you can get.
Getting a niche relevant backlink from Wikipedia will pass trust, authority and a great opportunity to receive backlinks from a highly relevant page rather than power. Nonetheless, having a relevant Wiki link in your backlink profile is something Google will be sure to notice.
You can build a wiki link yourself, but you’ll need an aged account to be able to edit the specific Wikipedia page you want a backlink from and edit your target page to add the information that Wikipedia is missing.
If you don’t have an aged Wikipedia account, we recommend hiring an agency that specialises in this type of link.
Links in infographic submission websites
Having a great infographic on your site is a great way to get a pillow link from an infographic submission website. This is content that will make your site look cleaner and classier and allows users to have a better browsing experience by visually condensing written content.
Closing thoughts
Pillow links are a very important part of any link building strategy aiming for long term stability. They are very different from traditional link building backlinks. However, they’re still aimed toward helping your backlink appear natural in the eyes of Google and maximise the power and authority your traditional backlinks bring to your site. A properly balanced backlink profile that uses pillow links correctly allows you to build more powerful traditional backlinks with better anchors.
Getting your pillow links right can be time-consuming and have adverse results, especially if you don’t hire professionals who understand your link-building needs.
Hopefully, this article can give you useful information on where every type of pillow link should be aimed and how to ensure you get the most out of all of them.
If you don’t have time or think you may need the help of an expert, know that we can help you better understand the current needs of your site with our ranking blueprint.
Also, you can check our case studies and customer review sections if you want to know what we can do for your site.
Or better yet, schedule a free strategy call. Together with one of our experts, we can help you get an in-depth look at your site and the services we think can help you achieve your link building goals.
Karl Hudson is an entrepreneur who spends his time in the field of digital marketing. He is involved in a multitude of niches and has many investments in all kinds of businesses. He enjoys spending his spare time reading the news, gymming, and travelling.
With the travel, he meets all sorts of people involved in a multitude of niches, from gambling to finance and everything in between. He is passionate about writing and trying to spread positivity around the world.
Karl is the founder of Searcharoo.
