When building links in Spanish, you will use many of the same strategies you would in other markets, just with a bit of local-focus. There are a variety of link building techniques, but we will present some of the more successful techniques below, as well as how to make them relevant to Spain specifically.
1. Create Spanish Content of Value (or Linkable Assets)
The very first principle of effective link building comes down to having content – or something someone will find so valuable they want to link to it naturally. To create something valuable and relevant to Spanish sites you could create Spanish content that speaks towards a local interest or need. For example:
- Industry Guides and Research: If your business has some data to present out about your industry (especially data that is unique to Spain, or in front of Spanish consumers), you can publish that study or report in Spanish. Journalists and bloggers LOVE to cite new data. For instance, if your company surveyed e-commerce trends in Spain this past year, you could put that together as an interesting blog post, or PDF report that could be of value to readers. This type of content is often leveraged to earn links from articles, or on niche blogs that may be writing about the subject you just researched.
- “Ultimate Guides” in Spanish: Just as we did with this guide, you can create ultimate resources in Spanish. You can think up things such as “GuÃa Completa de [your topic] [Year] “, or “Cómo [solve X problem] en España” and make it the definitive reference. Gradually, other Spanish webmasters, or people in forums (like Reddit), will link out to it if they feel it provides value when referencing to others an excellent resource. (Insider tip: Once your article is live, you can reach out to Spanish sites that have a much lower link quality article than yours or someone else’s article on the same topic and tell them to tell you that you have a better guide – you can literally acquire some links this way.)
- Infographics or Visual Assets: Visual is, at least in part, language agnostic. Depending on the quality of design, there is a good chance a visual infographic on a topic about Spain with minimal wording (potentially with captions in Spanish) will also garner some links. Infographics on topics such as “Internet Usage in Spain [Year]”
- “, or “The Startup Ecosystem in Spain” could end up obtaining some traction. Always provide both a embed code or source attribution to educate the sites using your visual that they need to attribute you and link back to you when utilizing your work.
What you should keep in mind is good quality long-form content is a long-game header – you are not going to wake-up one day and have hundreds of links, but quality links that you earn in the long-run through organic action will be much higher value overall. Furthermore, websites that have an active blog content strategy receive 97% more inbound links on average, so it’s a smart idea to have a blog in Spanish as well. Just make sure to ensure your blog is truly usable and well written in Spanish and that nothings poorly translated, or poor content that won’t earn links (and in some cases might turn off a Spanish user).
2. Spanish Digital PR & Outreach
Digital PR is mainly just tactical PR specific tactics that earn guaranteed backing links. Spain is a pretty strong media market with a strong reputation with some many good reputing Spanish publication, and getting into one of them will be a huge win SERPs-wise, and also your SEO juice. here is how to do that:
- Press Releases in Spanish: If you have any newsworthy content (launching a product, major partnership, releasing a study or white paper etc.) you should definitely consider a press release to Spanish media. Just work through a good sort of story angle by figuring out why your news matters to Spain and would be a good solution for Spanish consumers. Use wire services and/or journalists that cover your industry. Even if the big papers do not cover it you may still get some beat up in industry portals or some local news sites that are looking for content and back links to your site as part of its coverage. Journalists Outreach (HARO and beyond): Services like HARO (Help A Reporter Out) are primarily for English media sources, but Spanish journalists do use sources, too. There are a number of Spanish language platforms and communities (some media outlets or journalists will use Twitter and LinkedIn to post or seek sources). Make your company experts available to comment on topics in their niche, and if the Spanish journalist quotes your company, be sure to ask the journo to link to your website in the article. Building relationships is key when working with journalists and once they know you as a reliable expert, that can mean they may come to you in the future which could mean more media mentions and links opportunities. (Tip: try to respond quickly and in Spanish if possible, even if you need to through an online translator).
- Digital PR stunts or campaigns: Think outside of the box to think what kind of data or stories you could put together that could be potentially viral in Spain. Maybe an anonymous and quirky survey of Spanish consumer habits or conduct a campaign based on some Spanish cultural event or holidays. For example, a travel site could do a list called “Top 10 Hidden Beaches in Spain ranked by Instagram popularity” – it’s a bit tongue-in-cheek and light-hearted, and could potentially get picked up by Spanish lifestyle sites (and therefore have links back to your full list). Data led content on trending topics can be incredibly effective – one strategy for this year is to consider mini-studies and pitch them to journalists wanting to tell a story on that topic – almost like a box of donuts.
- PR through Events and Sponsorship: This is an area that I think if you are sponsoring a conference, meetup or charity event in Spain (and living in Spain) potentially you would get in itself a link from the event website or mention in the PR write up when it gets publicised. I think sponsors of this kind of event is probably a bit more local / grass-roots based but it doesnt mean you cant ultimately get a decent .es link to your domain. You might even get your business mentioned/(linked) on local tech news as a sponsor of a tech meetup in Madrid.
The trade-off with Digital PR is that you then either have to spend time and effort making stories and networking for links, or if you happened to have got just one link from Expansión (a leading business news source), or Europa Press it could be worth dozens and dozens of stub-links. This is why Digital PR is also about quality over quantity, as media links typically have great trust and authority.
3. Guest Blogging on Spanish Websites
Guest blogging – as in, producing an article for another site in exchange for a (usually branded) backlink is still a legit link building tactic this year, including Spain. The real challenge is figuring out how to find the right sites, and then developing valuable content – nothing generic, or fluff. Here’s how to make guest blogging work for you:
- The Site Must Be Active and Accepting Guest Posts: Find active blogs in your industry or adjacent to your industry that are located in Spain, or designed for Spanish-speaking audiences. They could be company blogs, a personal blog, or an online magazine. The process of finding a suitable site could be searching in google.es for “escribe para nosotros + [niche]” or just leverage an SEO tool to see if your competitor has guest posts on any sites. Target those with real readership, and moderate authority, whose domain rating is generally 30-60 because most high authority websites generally are not taking uninvited guest post requests.
- The Pitch Must Be in Spanish, and Personalized: So your outreach email must be in Spanish (or bilingual if you are unsure about their English), and you must personalize the pitch. For example, you could mention one of their recent articles you liked, introduce who you are, and offer a specific topic what would fit their audience. Don’t send generic mass emails either – as Bibi Raven says, “the days of blasting out generic email proposals are gone.” Instead, say, “I have a unique case study on [Topic], and insights that I think your readers would love.”
- Use AI for Pitches (with Caveat): AI does exist to help you to pitch more effectively. “AI is an amazing tool [for pitching]. It can help you with creating anything from catchy subject lines to persuasive messages, and many times attractive images, ” says Bibi Raven. Another option is to chimpanzee the email types with ChatGPT or use Midjourney to create a fun unique image, more related to the theme of that blog as an icebreaker. Just make sure you proof read and humanize the AI-generated text – make it personal and bespoke, not robotic.
- Write Unique Content and Localize It: After a site has agreed, I don’t care how busy you are, you are going to have to really ‘give of yourself’ to write the guest article. It should be informative, well organized, and if you can, just a little localized for Spain (examples or statistics from Spain if you can). If you are thinking “SAY WHAT, no way can I write in Spanish!” – you can hire a copywriter to write it for you, or you can write it in English, get it done professionally translated and then edit the tone slightly. Include a biography about you that mentions your company (with a link back to your site, typically you would put a link in the content in a natural way or in the author bio). The links in a blog post will help with Search traffic, and avoid over optimizing any anchor text – if you can be genuine, don’t worry about the text being your brand – the host site will likely want to avoid spam links, and Google wants genuine anchors.
Besides backlinks the other win for guest blogging in Spain is brand exposure within your target market. A visitor to that blog could decide to click through and find out about you and hopefully convert to a lead or customer. And don’t lose contact with those blog owners – if your post is well received, they may ask you to do a future post down the track.
4. Use Spanish Directories and Business Listings
Most countries have directories online and Spain is no different. Directories can have less authority than editorial links (i.e. a link from a journalist/business’ website) but can definitely assist with the baseline quality of link profile and local SEO (especially if there is local presence or it is a local service in Spain). Here are some ideas to consider:
- Add your website to legitimate directories in Spain. Use reputable, human edited directories. For example: Páginas Amarillas (Spain’s version of Yellow Pages), Axesor or Infoempresa for company information, and either trade, or niche directories for your industry (i.e. a directory for tourism if you are connected with tourism). Make sure your listings are complete, and consistent (i.e. same NAP – Name, Address, Phone if applicable). Don’t use link farms, which incorrectly pretend to be directories – especially those with spammy directory sites, or that are offering a dofollow paid link.
- Google Business Profile (for local SEO). If you have any local presence (office, or customer base in Spain), register (or claim) the Google My Business (Google Business Profile) listing for Spain. While is not technically a back link, it does have value in local search engines, and can possibly spin off your SEO efforts indirectly. In any event many local directories pull most of their data from Google.
- Links from your local Chamber of Commerce, or Industry Association. A good backlink is if you get a link from the website of a Chamber of Commerce, or from a industry association in Spain. For example, if you select a Spanish industry association (like most do) they usually have some way of listing their members on their website. Typically, these associations have .es domains which can generally have decent authority. Look for a “member directory” or “partners” page.
- Spanish Q & As and Forums: Participating in some Spanish forums like ForoBeta (which is for webmasters / SEO) or Q & A sites like Quora en Español can also give you some nofollow links and give you some diversity to your link profile and give visitors back to your site. Again, always try to provide value with your comments / responses and do not just drop your link in the response or you will get banned from the forum. These links do not generate any ranking juice (Chances are; they are nofollow links), however they can provide you with an illusion of a natural appearing link profile and the potential to generate traffic from Spanish visitors.
Member directory / profile links will most likely not drive your site to #1, but they provide a variety of foundational signals of legitimacy and appropriate pathways of discovery for Spanish visitors. Secondly, the member directory and profile links can compliment any high tier links you may be creating, because they represent link coverage that is important in the context of the internet marketing foundation.
5. Use Spanish Influencers and Bloggers
If you think influencer marketing is valuable enough for SEO purposes to mention in this blog post, then why not take some blog or website content. Many Spanish speaking marketers, whether bloggers, YouTube or social media influencers will have websites or at the very least will be able to guest post on news sites. Here are some ways for you to take advantage of this:
- Product Reviews or Mentions: If you have a product or service, you may be able to find bloggers or digital influencers to review your product in Spanish. For example: a company that sells tech gadgets, could contact Spanish youtube tech reviewers or tech bloggers to review their products in exchange for a free unit. Then just ensure that any review that is published on a blog or news site links back to your product page. Authenticity is important: reviews must be authentic, and any compensation must be disclosed to comply with regulations (and you may end up with a rel=”sponsored” tag on the link, which is fine – at least the reader could click that).
- Sponsored Content (Use with Care): some Spanish blogs openly accept sponsored posts. If you choose to go this route, prefer quality over quantity; one link from a quality blog, disclosing it was a sponsored post (with the correct tagged link), is worth far more than ten links from crappy blogs that do sponsored posts just to get paid and for no other reason at all. Google allows sponsored links, as long as it is tagged (nofollow or sponsored), (Jason Thunder, searchenginejournal.com) although that won’t pass any SEO value. An untagged paid link could be less risk to pass value, but is speculation, and is much more risky. It is a slippery slope – many do it in practice, but it may be at your own risk. Ultimately, you are hopefully looking for partnerships that provide organic-seeming mentions.
- Interviews and Guest Spots: Having an opportunity to be interviewed as an expert on a Spanish blog or podcast segment. And like podcasts, Instagram Live is coming on strong too, and typically after appearing on a podcaster or Instagram Live, they will do a small post that promotes their segment and link to your site, or at least the podcast show-notes page would link directly to your site so they are getting and you are getting the benefit. You want to be taking what you can get and proposing yourself for opportunities like this: “we’d love to discuss our expertise on [topic] with your audience – maybe in an interview or guest Q&A?”
- Collaborative Content: Working together on an article or research study with a Spanish academic, or with another company would be another great win-win initiative for both sites, and could lead to additional links from each parties’ networks. For example, team up with a Spanish university lab, to complete some research collaboratively – then once the research is complete, the university site may likely link to your site that reports the research results, and vice- versa.
The goal with influencer and collaboration strategies are not just to obtain a link, but also build your brand’s presence in Spain. If executed correctly, you receive not only a referral traffic and trust, but you also receive the backlink to your site, and further sauces implore credibility in Spain.
6. Broken Link Building – Spanish Style
Broken link building is a long-standing tactic in building links: find the broken (dead) links on other sites, and suggest your working link as a replacement. Now let’s do it Espanol style:
- Find Broken Link on Spanish Websites: There are loads of tools e.g. Ahrefs or Check My Links (Chrome extension) you could use to search popular Spanish resource pages or blog posts in your niche, for broken outbound links. For more example, let’s say you find a Spanish marketing blog that has a “useful resource” cool list with an outbound link to a 404 error, that is an opportunity for you, if there ever was one.
- Recreate or Provide Relevant Content: If the broken link was going to say, an article, or guide or just expired content that relates to your business, think while you walk to yourself, if you have any content on your site that relates to the particular topic, if not, maybe you can generally quickly draft up something new (but make sure the quality of course). Sometimes, the Wayback Machine can provide what the previously broken link was, so you have sort of guideline of what you replacement.
- Contact in Spanish: Contact the webmaster or editor of the Spanish site with a broken link. Simply politely mentioning to them you found one broken link on the web-page (you give them the full URL and which link is dead), and suggest your existing or new article will do as a replacement, that their audience would find interesting, just be helpful and not needy. Most likely Spanish site owners would appreciate you notifying them about their dead link, and since you provided replacement link/substitute, many would just switch it in.
This tactic can yield some pretty awesome links, because you are giving a favour to the site owner, whilst receiving a link from the site owner. Of course you will have to do the work to search and potentially write/recreate content, but the conversion rate percentage can be much higher for broken link outreach completed in the webmaster’s language.
7. Use Local Resources and Grants
One creative way forward may be to sponsor or create something that has links generated naturally from Spanish education or government sites (which are often authority sites):
- Scholarship: If you can create a scholarship for Spanish youth in a subject related to your industry. It does not need to be a large scholarship. For example, if you offered a €1000 scholarship to a tech student you would receive links from the scholarship opportunity pages on the universities’ web pages. A lot of Spanish universities have a site in Spanish on which they have becas (scholarships) listed for students, and they link back to your site for the details of your application process. Just ensure that it’s a real scholarship, and you are actively promoting the scholarship to students through recognisably real channels.
- Awards or Competition: You could run a competition in Spanish – eg you could run a photography competition that is related to your industry or run an award for the best Spanish language blog related to your business. It may be particularly effective to have your competition or award coincide with a press release or if you run it with a Spanish organisation that has a similar audience when it launches. You would have links on the competition page if people sign up to the competition or share it, and if the competition has good engagement from news sites of the submissions.
- Resource contributions: You may be contributing content to a Spanish government or education portal. For example, public bodies, Spain has the government business resource pages in Spain that have allowed contributions (as long as you have the credit of course). If you had a subject matter specialist education, eg cyber security, you would have specific knowledge that could develop a guide for SMEs for a government small business portal, and you would get a nice .gov.es backlink from your guide.
While these options are indirect and while you may be able to provide something of value (either money, recognition and/or content) to the community, these could potentially be some of the highest authority backlinks that you can achieve in Spain with the prospect of being able to engage with the site in the future. Additionally, it indicates a long-term investment in the market, which can be beneficial from a branding perspective.