Always up-to-date guide to social media image sizes

Last Updated: April 28, 2022

Whether it’s a brand promotion, video, news update or even a meme, visual content rules the social media landscape. What has become so important is effectively conveying your brand on social media through images and video.

In this quick-scroll world of social media, the visual face of your brand is often times the first thing your audience sees and possibly the one thing they remember. It’s hard to cut and paste an image and reuse it across all of your social networks unless you have a tool like Landscape.

Sprout Social’s very own tool is free to use to resize, crop and scale social media image sizes. And along with our resizing tool, we’ve provided all the specific dimensions and a few quick tips to help you decide which image best fits each position.

Before we get into it, here are some additional resources:

• Easily reference this social media image sizes list in our always up-to-date Google Doc.
• Also bookmark our social media video specs and ad guide!

Easily manage multimedia content with Sprout

Sprout’s Asset Library simplifies publishing and asset management by providing you with a centralized location to store images, videos and text.

Quickly create, organize, edit and publish assets directly from the Asset Library to deliver on-brand, visually engaging posts for any connected social network.

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Social Media Image Sizes Per Network

These links will make it easier for you to navigate to the specific social media image sizes per network:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• TikTok
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest
• YouTube
• Google My Business

Facebook Image Sizes

With 1.18 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the world’s largest social network. One bad image choice could spell the difference in attracting and engaging with this huge user base and being completely ignored.

One thing to remember when choosing your photos is that there is a difference between how things will display on your personal timeline and how things will display in a user’s newsfeed. Make sure that you are choosing dimensions based on where you want the majority of viewers to see your image.

Learn more about Facebook image sizes

Get specs and tips for implementing the best visual content on Facebook with these guides:

• Always up-to-date list of Facebook ad sizes & specs
• The Picture-Perfect Facebook Cover Photo Size
• Facebook Event Photo Size & Dimensions Guide

Profile Picture: 180 x 180 (Displays 170 x 170 on Desktop)

Say cheese: this is going to be the photo representing you or your brand on Facebook. This is the square photo that appears on your timeline layered over your cover photo. Your profile picture will also appear when you post to other walls, comment on posts or when your profile is searched.

Image Guidelines

• Must be at least 180 x 180 pixels.
• Photo will appear on page as 170 x 170 pixels on desktop and 128 x 128 on smartphones.
• Profile pictures are located 16 pixels from the left and 176 pixels from the top of your cover photo on desktop.
• Profile pictures are located 24 pixels from the left, 24 pixels from the bottom and 196 pixels from the top of your cover photo on smartphones.
• Photo thumbnail will appear throughout Facebook at 32 x 32 pixels.

Business Page Profile Picture: 180 x 180 (Displays 170 x 170 on Desktop)

Facebook recently changed its Profile image for Business Pages to appear to the left side of the screen. The new look helps Facebook Business Pages stand out among personal accounts. However, the dimensions are the same, but the photo appears on the page slightly different.

Image Guidelines

• Must be at least 180 x 180 pixels.
• Photo will appear on page as 170 x 170 pixels on desktop, 128 x 128 on smartphones, and 36 x 36 on most feature phones.
• Photo thumbnail will appear throughout Facebook at 32 x 32 pixels.
• Business Page images will be cropped to fit a square.

Cover Photo: 820 x 312

Your Facebook cover photo will only appear on your Facebook timeline, but it is a lot bigger than the profile picture, which gives you more freedom to choose something creative. Where your profile picture might be a good choice for a picture of you, or a brand logo, use this space to post something that speaks more toward you as an individual or as a brand.

Image Guidelines

• Appear on page at 820 x 312 pixels. Anything less will be stretched.
• Minimum size of 400 x 150 pixels.
• Displays at 820 x 312 pixels on desktop and 640 x 360 pixels on smartphones.
• For best results, upload an sRGB JPG file less than 100 KB.
• Images with a logo or text may be best as a PNG file.
• Business Page dimensions are exactly the same as personal accounts.

Shared Image: 1,200 x 630

A shared image is one of the most common forms of sharing on Facebook. These images will always appear on your timeline, and ideally they will show up in most of your followers’ News Feeds — though with the decrease in organic reach, it’s unlikely that everyone will see your post. The more people engage with your post, the more likely it is that the rest of your followers and their followers will see that activity.

Image Guidelines

• Recommended upload size of 1,200 x 630 pixels.
• Will appear in feed at a max width of 470 pixels (will scale to a max of 1:1).
• Will appear on page at a max width of 504 pixels (will scale to a max of 1:1).

Shared Link: 1200 x 628

Another great tool in your Facebook belt is the ability to share a link. It’s very similar to posting a shared image, but it gives you even more fields to work with. You can choose to create a shared link with a small square image to the left and text on the right, or with a larger rectangular image on top with text underneath.

Image Guidelines

• Recommended upload size of 1,200 x 628 pixels.
• Square Photo: Minimum 154 x 154px in feed.
• Square Photo: Minimum 116 x 116 on page.
• Rectangular Photo: Minimum 470 x 246 pixels in feed.
• Rectangular Photo: Minimum 484 x 252 on page.
• Facebook will scale photos under the minimum dimensions. For better results, increase image resolution at the same scale as the minimum size.

Event Image: 1920 x 1005 (Recommended)

Facebook Events help capture the attention of users and cut through the noise on Facebook. Reminders are sent to your audience and having a good space with an even better image is important. Make sure you have the right dimensions down for a Facebook Event cover photo.

Image Guidelines

• Facebook will scale down to minimum dimensions: 470 × 174.
• Shows in feed: 470 × 174.

Fundraiser image: 800 x 300 (recommended)

Facebook has added the ability to create a fundraiser for charitable organizations or personal causes. The cover photo for these fundraisers slightly varies from a typical Facebook cover photo, with a minimum size of 400 x 150. The best experience across many display types will come from a higher resolution image, though.

Looking for Facebook ad sizes?

Facebook ad formatting can be even more complex than organic posts, so for more guidelines, check out our complete guide to every Facebook ad size!

Find more information on the image sizes for Facebook, visit the Facebook Help Center.

Twitter Image Sizes

Don’t let its logo fool you–Twitter is not just for the birds. In fact, with 313 million monthly active users, Twitter is one of the social media networks that your customers will most often use to discuss your brand. And recently, Twitter made some big changes to its overall layout.

Profile Photo: 400 x 400 (Displays 200 x 200)

Your Twitter profile photo is the main image that represents you or your brand across the network. It’s going to be seen across the site in a number of places by a number of people so make sure it’s of the highest quality. Here’s the places your profile photo will be visible on the site.

• On Your Page: The largest display of your profile picture is on your homepage and can be viewed by your followers as well as individuals who stumble upon your page.
• In-Stream: A smaller version of your profile picture appears in a follower’s Twitter stream every time you Tweet. It also appears in the stream of your followers’ followers every time you’re Retweeted.
• Who to Follow: Your profile picture is also going to appear next to a link to your page in the “Who to follow” box. This is located directly to the right of your twitter stream. Choose a recognizable image here.

Image Guidelines

• Square Image recommended 400 x 400 pixels.
• Maximum file size 5 MB.
• Image types include: JPG, GIF or PNG.

Header Photo: 1,500 x 500

Your header photo is the image that spans the top of your Twitter profile page. It’s quite a bit larger than your profile photo so make sure to save it at the highest resolution possible. Because you have more room to be creative with this picture and it will likely be the first thing your visitors see, make it something captivating.

Image Guidelines

• Recommended 1,500 x 500 pixels.
• Maximum file size of 5 MB.
• Image types include: JPG, GIF or PNG.

In-Stream Photos and Shared Links

Twitter users can attach photos to any of their Tweets. Depending on whether you’re attaching one photo, multiple, or sharing a link, the way photos crop and display in stream will vary slightly.

Fortunately, in 2021, Twitter made waves with #Twittercropisgone, eliminating the sometimes-unfavorable automated cropping for vertical images that had often become the subject of memes and in-jokes among users of the platform. Extremely wide or tall images with unusual dimensions may still get cropped, but for most images in standard 4:3 or 16:9 dimensions (or close to them), you won’t have to worry as much about centering subjects around automated cropping.

no bird too tall, no crop too short

introducing bigger and better images on iOS and Android, now available to everyone pic.twitter.com/2buHfhfRAx

— Twitter (@Twitter) May 5, 2021

The following are some best practices to get an optimal result, and you can also preview the end result in Sprout’s Compose window before you publish.

Recommended sizes for images by types of Tweets:

• Image from a Tweet with shared link: 1200 x 628 pixels
• Tweet sharing a single image: 1200 x 675 pixels (recommended, but most images with standard aspect ratios will not be cropped)
• Tweet sharing two images: 700 x 800 pixels (both images)
• Tweet sharing three images:
  • Left image: 700 x 800 pixels
  • Right images: 1200 x 686 pixels
• Tweet sharing four images: 1200 x 600 pixels (per image)
  • Four is the maximum number of images available on one Tweet
• Recommended aspect ratio is 16:9.
• Can edit images if tweeting from Twitter iOS or Android app.
• Maximum file size of 5 MB for photos, and 5 MB for animated GIFs on mobile and 15 MB on web.

Find more information on in-stream photos at the Twitter Help Center.

Instagram Image Sizes

Instagram is one of the most popular photo-sharing social networks. It’s the best place to showcase your visual creativity, even down to making a compelling grid out of the way your photos’ thumbnails display in sequence.

Profile Picture: 110 x 110

Instagram is based on visuals, which should be an indication of how important it is to follow these image size guidelines. Ensure your profile image is recognizable so users can find you even easier through search or explore.

Image Guidelines

• Appear on your profile at 110 x 110 pixels.
• Square photo: make sure to maintain an aspect ratio of 1:1.

Photo Thumbnails: 161 x 161

When someone goes to your page, they’ll be presented with all of your content arranged in rows of thumbnails. These smaller renditions of your images and videos will expand when clicked and include a place for people to comment.

Image Guidelines

• The thumbnails will appear on the page at 161 x 161 pixels.
• Square photo: make sure to maintain an aspect ratio of 1:1 ratio.

Photo Size: 1080 x 1080

Instagram is all about the images and videos presented in your followers’ feed. In fact, Instagram higher resolution photos when taken from the native application. If you decided to upload a photo or video from any other device, the resolution will be much lower.

Image Guidelines

• The size of Instagram images has been increased to 1080 x 1080 pixels.
• Instagram still scales these photos down to 612 x 612 pixels.
• Appear in feed at 510 x 510 pixels.
• Square or rectangle photos: make sure to maintain an aspect ratio between 1:1 or 1.91:1.
• For portrait (4:5) photos, recommended dimensions are 1080 x 1350 pixels.

Instagram Stories: 1080 x 1920

With more than 300 million daily users, Instagram Stories are a popular source of visuals on the app. There are both video and image options available to publish. And while this feature is meant to be ephemeral, it’s possible to upload your own content.

Image Guidelines

• Recommended resolution is 1080 x 1920.
• Minimum resolution is 600 x 1067.
• Aspect ratio is 9:16.

For those looking for more info on Instagram ad sizes, including video specs, check out this guide!

TikTok Image Sizes

With 1 billion monthly active users, TikTok has grown considerably over the last few years, seeing a 45% growth compared to 2020. With nearly half its users under the age of 30, TikTok is becoming the social platform for younger target audiences.

Profile Image: 200 x 200 (Recommended)

All TikTok users have the option to upload a profile image to their accounts. This is the perfect opportunity for businesses to showcase their personalities through branding or to highlight a specific campaign.

Image Guidelines

• Minimum 200 x 200 pixels
• Image types include: JPG, GIF or PNG

Looking for more TikTok specs? Our Always-Up-To-Date Video Specs guide can answer those questions.

LinkedIn Image Sizes

With 467 million registered users, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network. Where other social networks may be good drivers of traffic and customers, LinkedIn is a great place for you to source great employees and to connect with other industry leaders.

Personal Profile Image: 300 x 300 (Recommended)

LinkedIn started using a new layout for personal profiles and kept the box logo with company pages (more on that below). However, the personal profile dimensions for LinkedIn is very straightforward. This is the main image that represents you on your personal profile. So anytime someone takes a look at your profile for some quick info, this is the prominent image that represents you. It’s important to get the size right.

Image Guidelines

• Minimum 300 x 300 pixels
• Maximum file size 10MB.
• Image types include: JPG, GIF or PNG.

Personal Background Image: 1584 x 396

LinkedIn’s background image is a newer feature for your personal profile. It’s a little bit trickier to find something that really fits that space well, but if you get it right, your profile will look great.

Image Guidelines

• Recommended 1584 x 396 pixels.
• Maximum size of 4MB.
• Image types include: JPG, PNG or GIF.

Company Logo Image: 300 x 300

One of the two brand logos that you should be uploading to LinkedIn is the standard company logo. This is the bigger of the two and is going to show up right next to your brand name on your LinkedIn homepage. This image also appears in the “Companies you may want to follow” section. The more enticing the photo, the more likely you’ll gain followers.

• Recommended 300 x 300 pixels.
• Minimum 300 x 300 pixels.
• Maximum 4MB (Square layout).
• Image types include: PNG, JPG or GIF.

Company Cover Image: 1128 x 191 (recommended)

Unlike the personal background image, the company or standard business background image covers the entire top of the page. The image appears much larger than the personal dimensions, giving businesses a bit more space.

Image Guidelines

• Recommended size 1128 x 191.
• Maximum file size of 4MB.
• Image types include: PNG, JPG or GIF.

Shared Image or Link: 1200 x 627 (Recommended)

This size works for LinkedIn posts that share a photo or a link with image to a blog post or article to your company page’s feed.

Image Guidelines

• Recommended size for images or links: 1200 x 627 pixels based on mobile scaling
• Image types include: JPNG, JPG or GIF.

Life Tab – Main Image & Company Photos

The life tab on LinkedIn company pages lets you provide a more in-depth look at the day to day experience of your company’s employees. Currently, the two types of images you can upload here are the main image, which serves as a hero and highlight to your page, and the horizontal scrolling gallery of other company photos beneath.

Image Guidelines

• Recommended size for main image: 1128 x 376
• Recommended size for company photos: 900 x 600
• Image types include: JPNG, JPG or GIF.
• The life tab only appears on the mobile app, and not the mobile web version of LinkedIn, so exact display sizes will vary by device. Upload the recommended size for the best experience.

Find more information in the Linkedin Help Center.

Pinterest Image Sizes

Pinterest can be an amazing social tool for driving referral traffic to your site. This is mostly due to the fact that 90% of Pinterest pages are external links.

So it’s very important for you to make sure you’re optimizing your Pinterest page regularly and using proper image sizes for your boards and pins.

Profile Picture: 165 x 165

When setting up your Pinterest account you have the option to do so using Facebook, Twitter or email. If you choose Facebook or Twitter, Pinterest will pull in the profile image that you have set there.

If you’re using email, or would prefer to use a different photo, you can do that too: just upload a square photograph (the larger the better) and Pinterest will resize it to fit. Like other social sites your profile picture on Pinterest should be something closely tied to you or your brand.

Image Guidelines

• Recommended size: 165 x 165 pixels
• Maximum 10 MB.
• Image types include: JPG and PNG for profile pictures.

Pin Sizes

When adding a pin to your board, it’s important to remember that Pinterest puts a limit on the width of the image but not the length. This gives you the opportunity to add a photo that’s square or one that will scale to be even taller. Just remember to make sure you’re creating large images because they add more value, not just because you can.

Image Guidelines

• It’s recommended to use an image aspect ratio of 2:3 to 1:3.5
• Expanded pins have a minimum width 600 pixels, so to maintain aspect ratio, 900 px is the recommended height.

Board Display

Creating boards is one of the most important things that you can do on Pinterest. It’s important to make sure you’re using an image that fits the size criteria perfectly. Not only is it important to choose a photo that is enticing to your audience, it’s important to choose one that’s relevant to that particular board.

Image Guidelines

• 222 x 150 pixels (large thumbnail)
• 55 x 55 (smaller thumbnail)

Find more information in the Pinterest Help Center.

YouTube Image Sizes

YouTube has more than 1 billion unique users every month and is available on hundreds of millions of devices. More than 1 million brands have already realized that YouTube is a great opportunity to reach their fan-base.

Channel Profile Image: 800 x 800

YouTube allows you to select different profile image borders, but the dimensions stay the same. Ensure your YouTube has a profile image set up before you select your border.

Image Guidelines:

• Recommended 800 x 800 pixels.
• Image types: JPG, GIF, BMP or PNG.

Channel Cover Photo: 2,048 x 1,152

Spice up your YouTube channel with some “channel art.” When users click through your YouTube videos to your channel, some appealing images could entice them to stay on your page longer and watch more of your videos.

Image Guidelines:

• Recommended 2560 x 1440 pixels.
• Safe area for mobile and web (without text and logo cropping) 1546 x 423 pixels.
• Maximum file size: 4MB.
• Image types: JPG, GIF, BMP or PNG.

Across Different Devices

There are a lot of different platforms and devices that users can stream YouTube on so it’s important that you review your creative across devices and confirm that the most important parts of your image, such as text or logos, are displaying legibly in the ‘safe zone’ noted above.

Find more information in the YouTube Help Center.

Video Uploads: 1280 x 720 (Minimum HD)

Uploading your content to YouTube is the one of the most important parts of establishing your presence on the site. Videos can tell viewers something about you as a person, or it could show off something that your business might offer.

Video Guidelines

• Videos must maintain a 16:9 aspect ratio. Smaller videos such as 4:3 will be pillarboxed to fit.

For more on the specifics of YouTube video optimization, or to size video on any other social network, check out our complete guide to social media video specs.

Google My Business Image Sizes

Google My Business has become an essential platform for businesses with local, brick-and-mortar presences to gain visibility and conduct their review management strategy.

Types of Images for Google My Business:

• Logo: Your recognizable logo image. May not be available for all types of businesses–see Google guidelines for more detail.
• Cover photo: A photo of your business that will typically be the first one shown. Choose a photo that gives the best overall representation of your place of business for this photo.
• Business photo: You can use your other business photos to highlight different elements of your business or offices and help show off what local visiting customers should look for when they stop by.

For all three types of images, Google’s official guidelines recommend the below specs for the best appearance on the platform.

Image Guidelines:

• Recommended resolution: 720 x 720 pixels
• Minimum resolution:250 x 250 pixels
• File size maximum: 5 MB
• Format: JPG or PNG.

The post Always up-to-date guide to social media image sizes appeared first on Sprout Social.

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Link Building Strategies and Resources for Busy Marketers

In the past, link building focused on quantity, not quality.

Today? Link building is a different ball game.

If you’re building a link building strategy, it’s important to know that it won’t be instant. It’s a gradual process—at least, if you do it right.

That said, Brian Dean of Backlinko.com was able to grow search traffic by 110 percent via a link building strategy known as the “skyscraper technique.”

The pages where you build links, specifically the quality and authority of those pages, play a key role in determining how high you’ll rank in search engine results.

Blogging is an obvious way to get backlinks to your website. However, there are plenty of other proven ways to build the best links and raise your ranking in the SERPs.

This blog post will show you 13 fool-proof link building strategies you can put to work today. They’re especially helpful for busy marketers who have a lot on their plate and want to stay mindful of their standing with search engines.

What Is a Link Building Strategy?

Link building strategies refer to the techniques marketers and SEOs use to get other websites to link back to their own.

For example, if you run an e-commerce site that sells camping gear, you could write a blog post about camping safety precautions. Other websites that discuss safety issues may then link to your blog post so their users can find more information on the topic.

Why are Link Building Strategies so Important?

Link building is important for search engine optimization (SEO). It’s one of the major factors search engines use to determine rankings, meaning who gets the first-page search result.

In fact, pages in the top spot in the Google SERPs have an average of 3.8 times more backlinks than the pages in spots 2-10.

When deciding how to rank your website, Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines look at how many links lead to your site (and the quality of those links).

The more high-quality, trustworthy, and authoritative sites linking to you, the higher your blog posts and sales pages will appear on search result pages.

Beyond that, links to your website help users find your site and can increase traffic and trust. After all, users are more likely to trust you if other sites think you know what you are talking about.

13 Link Building Strategies for Marketers

In a 2020 survey taken by more than 800 professional SEOs, nearly 40 percent of respondents said they spent over $1000 per month on link building.

But what strategies, specifically, should you invest in? And how do you get high-quality links from other websites? By following my link-building strategies.

These are the strategies I’ve used over the last ten years to build up Neil Patel Digital and become an authority in the digital marketing space.

Experiment and find a strategy or strategies that work best for you and your business.

1. Use Strategic Guest Blogging

Is guest blogging dead? Yes and no.

The old way of mass guest blogging just for links is dead. You don’t want to post an article on a site that’s not relevant to your niche and has zero authority just to get a backlink.

That style of guest blogging won’t cut it. The search engines are smart and can see you’re not guest blogging to add value.

However, in a 2021 survey, 60 percent of the bloggers who responded said they write between 1 and 5 guest posts a month.

If you want to reap the rewards of guest blogging, you need to be strategic and authentic. Make sure you’re creating a unique piece of content for the other site (for example, a case study) and that the site is relevant, authoritative, and attracts your audience.

When you guest blog selectively, you’ll reap the rewards of higher rankings, increased traffic, and qualified leads.

2. Create and Distribute Infographics

56 percent of companies use infographics, and 84 percent of those who use them find them to be effective. That’s because infographics still work today and can play a vital role in your link building strategy.

The good thing about infographics is you’ll continually generate organic traffic to your blog and earn quality links without even asking for them.

If you’re ready to create and promote your infographic, see the links below:

• How to Create and Promote Infographics to Drive 5,000 Visitors per Week
• 35 Content Marketing Lessons Learned

3. Get Active on Social Media

Ahrefs recently completed a link building case study. They got links from five different states for which they hadn’t done any outreach due to their social media efforts.

Social media networks have revolutionized marketing and can be a huge boon for your link building plan and guest post efforts. If you’re not active on social media, then you’re doing your brand a disservice.

Become active by sharing new posts, images, and updates. Help your fans find what they want to see by sharing it in more places using social media.

When you get active on social media, you can easily boost engagement, even if you’re new to it. Consequently, you’ll expose your brand and site to more people who could share your best posts with their target audience.

This will improve your link profile and bolster your visibility overall.

See also:

• How to Boost Your Social Engagement (Even if You Have No Idea What You’re Doing!)
• 16 Elements of High-Converting Facebook Pages That You Can Copy

4. Use Resource Links From Trusted Sites

It’s time to start using resource links from trusted sites. A resource is like a guide that you create or compile for your target audience.

Some authority sites and blogs like Forbes, Entrepreneur, Huffington Post, Jeff Bullas, Social Media Examiner, and Copyblogger have resource pages that you could tap into as you’re creating yours.

If a leading site in your niche has compiled a list of blogs in your industry, their visitors can more easily find what they’re looking for.

Here’s an example from Copyblogger.

If you can create an even bigger resource article than the one above, you’ll get more backlinks. You can expand yours to 25, 50, or more.

Here are some fresh headline ideas that you can model for your resource:

• 25 Copywriting Blogs That Will Make You More Money
• 50 Copywriting Blogs You Didn’t Know Existed
• 27 Copywriting and Content Marketing Blogs That Will Send You Free Traffic

This kind of resource can be a great tool for a marketing team. After it’s written, get links through email outreach. Send a simple email to all of the people whose blogs you included.

I once sent emails to 30 bloggers whom I referenced in my resource post. Twelve of them linked to my resource page within ten days, and I got lots of social love.

Email outreach tends to work better than the typical broken link or link request email because you’ve linked to them first.

You’ve established a certain level of trust, and you’ve shown some appreciation to them as well. They’ll be more inclined to reciprocate your generosity by linking to your web page.

5. Leverage the Broken Links Strategy

According to a Semrush study, 42.5 percent of websites have broken links. You can capitalize on this with the broken link strategy.

The broken link strategy may be the best way to go if you’re too busy to write content for your blog or a guest post.

As a busy marketer, I know you’ve got limited time to write content. That’s one reason why a large number of B2C content marketers struggle to create engaging content for their customers.

How does broken link building work?

This link building strategy is simple: Find pages on blogs with dead links (links that no longer work) and suggest replacing the broken link with a link to similar content on your own site.

If I linked to a particular web page from my Neil Patel blog and found the links to be dead, I could easily replace it with another relevant and high-value resource. If that high-value page belongs to you, that’s both search engine optimization juice and a valuable link.

There are several in-depth guides to help you understand the concept of broken link building and how to get it right the first time. You’ll find these resources really helpful:

• The Black Belt Broken Link Building
• Don’t Let it Rot: 5 Strategies to Leverage Broken Links
• How To Use the Broken Link Strategy to Get Links

6. Grow Your Personal Brand

One of the top link building strategies is growing your brand. Your brand evolves from your thoughts, then begins to express itself externally.

When it comes to link building that works, recognize that people will naturally link to you as your personal brand grows.

What do I mean by that? Let’s pause for a moment here.

While different definitions might circle through the marketing world, a natural link is a link that’s a) editorially earned, and b) organic in the context it appears.

It’s not part of a sponsorship or paid in any way. Often, a natural link gives credit where credit’s due, and it’s something every pro blogger should be after.

I’ve watched how powerful a natural link can be. Whenever I publish a new blog post, within 24 hours, I usually see new links from authority blogs.

Earning that comes back to the quality of your content and your brand. In a sense, your brand represents you. My definition of a brand is “your representative when you’re not there.”

I’ve been marketing online for over a decade. Throughout this time, one of the most effective strategies I used to grow my personal brand was consistent blogging. When you blog consistently, you get more attention.

If link building is part of your strategy, get serious about blogging. You’ll get 97 percent more inbound links, and that will also improve your search engine rankings.

7. Check Competitors’ Backlinks

If your competitors are ranking higher than you in the search engines, they may be on the right track. You can be there, too.

There’s nothing as powerful as spying on your competitors to know where their links are coming from.

Spying on your competitors helps you see what keywords they’re ranking for, where their best links are coming from, and what they’re currently doing that helps them succeed is called “competitive analysis.”

So how do you check your competitor’s backlinks?

Follow these steps:

• Step 1: Go to Ubersuggest and type in your competitor’s domain into the search bar.

• Step 2: On the results page, click on the backlinks box.

• Step 3: Scroll down to see a list of sites linking to your competitor.

When you know which sites your competitors are generating their backlinks from, you’ve won half the battle—now you can focus on sites that are yielding results instead of reinventing the wheel.

8. Replicate Your Competitor’s Best Links

Now that you know where your competitors got their links, you need to answer the next question: How can you replicate their success?

For example, if you find several links are from related blogs, especially on the author profile, it’s obvious that guest blogging is working for them.

If their links are from corporate sites, your competitors are probably getting links through outreach and networking.

On the other hand, if their links are from high-value sites such as Entrepreneur, Forbes, CNN, Huffington Post, and the like, then you should know that a columnist or editor is likely involved, and this might be a paid placement.

Use Ubersuggest to help you focus on the links with a high domain and page authority. You want natural links from websites that Google (and the rest of your industry) already view as a thought leader.

9. Create Link Building Roundups

Recently, a blogger got over 20,000 page views in six days with his first roundup post.

If you want the right links, you’ve got to give first. Don’t be selfish with your posts by linking to your internal pages only. Learn to link out to other useful blog posts.

Link roundups are a powerful method of networking and a great link building strategy. All you need to do is create a list of blog posts from other bloggers.

How do you create link roundups?

First, find blog posts that are relevant to your topic. For example, if you want to compile a list of 50 blogs that deal with headline writing, you’d simply go to Google and try this search string:

intitle: roundup “YOUR KEYWORD”

You also want to pay attention to your traffic and current link profile. More blogs in your industry may be linking to your posts. When writing your roundup posts, start with the blogs that have sent you traffic.

Remember when you do a roundup post, don’t link solely to your internal pages. Site owners may not be inspired to link back to you because you didn’t use the principle of reciprocity.

Link to their posts, and they’ll be more likely to reciprocate by linking to your resource page.

10. Keep Track of Your Backlinks

Most people spend time and money to get new links, but they don’t track their status.

If you don’t track your backlinks, how will you know whether to build more or pause? You may have over 800 links pointing to your web pages right now, but when you check it after 30 to 60 days, some of the links might be gone.

Why?

You don’t have control over the blogs and authority sites that link to you. The site owners can easily remove your link from their post or resource page without notifying you.

This is why it’s important to monitor your backlinks.

If you’re not sure of the number of backlinks your site currently has, here’s how to find out.

• Step 1: Visit Ubersuggest, type in your site’s URL, and click on “search.”
• Step 2: Click on the backlinks box.
• Step 3: Scroll down, and you’ll see a graph detailing links you’ve gained and lost.

Besides seeing who is linking to you, the backlinks tool also shows each site’s anchor text, DA, and page authority.

There’s also a graph showing your backlinks over time. This is useful to see if your link building strategies are paying off or if it’s time to try something new.

11. Establish Content Pillars

If you want people to take your content seriously, then you’ve got to write things that make people think. Create useful content, content that actually helps them do something, and the links will follow.

Content is the lifeblood of your online business. Whether you’re selling information products, like e-books or software, or you’re into physical products, like digital cameras and hard copy books, you’ve got to give people a reason to publicize you.

The challenge of creating content is frequency.

How often should you publish new content for your target audience?

Constantly bombarding them with one blog post after another may not be helpful, as it generally leads to information overload.

The real challenge is when and how often you need to publish new content for your prospects and customers. Some customers don’t mind if you posted daily, but it seems like a boatload of work to others.

This leaves you with two options:

• ask your customers questions
• create pillar content once in a while

You’ll likely get different responses from your email subscribers, blog readers, prospects, and customers if you follow the first option. This ends up complicating things.

The second option is a lot better. Instead of regularly creating and publishing new content, you can save yourself the hassle and create pillar content regularly.

What is pillar content?

According to Yaro Starak it is:

“A pillar article is usually a tutorial style article aimed to teach your audience something. Generally they are longer than 500 words and have lots of very practical tips or advice…This style of article has long term appeal, stays current (it isn’t news or time dependent) and offers real value and insight.”

When you start creating pillar content, you’ll no longer struggle to write and publish new posts every day of the week, yet your traffic will grow.

Instead, you’ll bring in traffic from users and other sites that are interested in the valuable content you’ve created.

If you want to increase conversion rate, generate organic and referral traffic and improve your search rankings, spend more time creating pillar content. It’s a great way to improve your link profile.

You could format your content pillar using the “how-to” style, as in this example from Yaro Starak:

Alternatively, you could make your post a top list, like this one from Wordtracker.com:

12. Reclaim Links Through Social Mentions

Over 2 percent of external links across the internet are broken, according to Semrush.

Link reclamation is a popular topic in search engine optimization and the social media world. You can reclaim broken 404 links and name drops that don’t link to your blog.

Check your Google Analytics for 404 pages that people link to, then point them to another active and relevant page while you fix the 404 pages.

Alternatively, you could just go ahead and fix your broken page to reclaim your links.

However, we’re particularly concerned about link reclamation through social mentions.

If you’ve been monitoring your brand and social media mentions using Google Alerts and not taking advantage of those mentions, then you’ve been making a mistake.

When you publish infographics with an attribution code below the graphic, your goal is to get people to embed the code on their blogs and link back to you.

How many of these people use your code or link back to the primary source?

I design and promote lots of helpful infographics. A lot of sites may decide to publish my infographics for their readers to enjoy.

They’re supposed to credit my blog, but what if they saved the graphic and just uploaded it to their blog post? How do I reclaim what rightfully belongs to me, the link?

Follow these simple steps:

• Step 1: Use Google Images Search. Do a keyword search for the complete title of your infographic.
• Step 2: Click your infographic and visit the page. Check whether your link is attributed correctly or not.

You can see that Tomer Harel linked to my infographic page on QuickSprout.

Beyond infographics, you may want to know who is mentioning your blog URL. You can ask for the link once you discover that your name or URL was mentioned but not linked to your web page.

13. Earn Editorial Links

Editorial links don’t happen by chance. You create them by providing value. This is what Google has been after since the first Google Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird, and Mobile-geddon updates.

Editorial links are the most valuable and sought-after links because they’re freely given by sites that aren’t looking for anything in return.

The nature of editorial links is this: your content must be compelling before people link to it.

If all of your links are acquired or built manually, you’ll struggle to retain all of them, and Google may penalize you because you can’t be that careful all of the time. To avoid wasting time and effort, why not focus on producing great content?

Yes, I know that I’ve said it over 50 times in the past 30 days, but if it weren’t important, I’d have ignored it. I create high-quality content every day, and thousands of people link to it. My link profile thanks me for it.

To earn editorial links, you can start blogging with a strategy. Write content that will help people move from Point A to Point B. Create more tutorials and pillar content and make sure that you include accurate data in all of your content.

Read this guide on how to create better content that will earn you editorial links.

Link Building FAQs

Is link building dead?

No. It’s changed from focusing on the number of backlinks to the quality of backlinks.

What is a link building strategy?

The practice of gaining links back to your website to improve your authority and search engine rankings. Common link building strategies include creating infographics and guest posting.

Do I need permission to backlink to another site?

No, you do not need permission to link to another site.

What's the most common link building strategy?

Guest blogging is one of the most popular link building strategies. It’s all about creating quality content people want to link back to.

What's the best way to find the authority of a website that gives you a backlink?

Use a tool like Ubersuggest to find the Domain Authority for websites that give you backlinks.

Conclusion: Link Building Strategies

Your website’s link profile is one of the most crucial factors for ranking in search engine results. Remember, Google doesn’t care so much about how many links point to your pages, but rather about the experience you create for users.

Be smart and strategic about blogging, social media marketing, search engine optimization, and any other marketing techniques you use to build links.

Your real challenge isn’t link building, but earning quality, trusted, and natural links. That’s because it’s no longer about the number of links—it’s the quality that matters.

Follow these fool-proof link building strategies, and you’ll be on your way to building a successful blog that both users and Google will love.

Which of these link building best practices have you used?

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The 8 best URL shorteners for engagement and tracking in 2022

Since the beginning of the World Wide Web, Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) have been one of the primary methods for jumping from one webpage to another. Unfortunately, URLs become long and complex as subdomains, subdirectories and tracking codes are added.

As social media grew in popularity, lengthy URLs began to present a problem. When Twitter launched, messages were limited to 140 characters. This meant that a lengthy URL could take up your entire tweet. Finding a way to shorten URLs became a top priority.

Enter URL shorteners, which let you reduce any long and cumbersome URL into a short and manageable link.

In this guide, we’ll explain what a URL shortener is, why your business should use them and share the best URL shorteners for tracking and engagement.

What is a URL shortener?

A URL shortener is an app that converts a long URL into a short URL.

Typically, it shortens the website’s address and adds a random combination of letters and numbers.

For example, a URL shortener would convert a long URL like

https://sproutsocial.com/insights/data/social-shopping-2022/

into

https://bit.ly/3wqfg08

You’ll still reach our report on Social Shopping Behavior in 2022, but it’s much easier and quicker to enter the shortened URL or link.

A URL shortener is also referred to as a link shortener, a link shrinker, a link compressor, a URL condenser or a vanity URL creator.

Why do businesses use URL shorteners?

We know that a URL shortener helps you get the right messages out to your audience without taking up too much space. However, there are several other reasons why brands would want to use URL shorteners.

Create clean, trustworthy URLs

You may find yourself dealing with a long URL if you’re linking to a page buried deep within your website or using UTM parameters to track your visitors.

Long URLs can also look a bit suspicious with letters, numbers, backslashes and question marks. So people might be reluctant to click the link:

https://ift.tt/lY6FEG2

But a link shortener keeps things looking clean and trustworthy.

Allows you to create branded URLs

Some link shorteners let you create a branded URL containing your brand. For example, you may have seen long URLs on Amazon shortened to a branded URL like:

https://amzn.to/3q1xugs

Makes it easy to track engagement

Most link shorteners also let you track engagement with UTM parameters. They track who, where, and when someone clicked your link, so you can measure its effectiveness.  

Businesses need to know the ROI of campaigns to adjust and plan for future campaigns. You can also combine UTM parameters with Google Analytics to get a complete picture of behavior.

Enables you to maximize character counts

If you’re working on a platform with a restricted character limit like Twitter, then it makes sense to shorten the URL and use the available characters for your message.

Twitter previously used TinyURL to shorten links, but nowadays it automatically shortens a link to 23 characters. Still, using a link shortener will make even more room for your message.

Even where there isn’t a character limit, it’s still better to shorten your URLs for readability. Long URLs can often get broken by line breaks, so shortened URLs work best.

Makes your URLs easier to share

Finally, link shorteners make your URLs more shareable and memorable. And they’re also less likely to get mistyped.

Features to look for in the best URL shorteners

Here are five key features to look for in a URL shortener.

Customizable URLs: let you adapt the shortened URL to fit your brand name or indicate what the link is about.

Link tracking: lets you prove the clicks and possibly conversions on your links so you can report on the ROI of a campaign.

UTM parameter support: lets you add and track parameters for source, medium, and campaign, so you can see who, where, and when clicked the link.

Link retargeting: lets you add retargeting pixels to links and expand your custom audience profile so that you can serve ads to them later.

Integrations: Let you integrate the link shortener with other tools in your marketing stack. For example, Bitly integrates with Sprout so you can embed shortened links directly into your content during the social media workflow.

The 8 best URL shorteners for engagement and tracking

Here’s our list of the best free and premium URL shorteners.

Bitly

Bitly is one of the most popular and best all-around URL shorteners.

The free account offers customizable back-half links, plus link history and reporting for individuals. But the premium editions excel with a complimentary custom domain, branded links, bulk link shortening, link redirects, QR codes and a UTM builder. 

The comprehensive data and analytics provide performance metrics like link history, demographics, device type tracking and mobile-deep link reporting in the sleek dashboard.

You can create links directly from your other marketing tools, like Sprout Social, via the Bitly integration. And every link is encrypted with HTTPS to guard against eavesdropping or third-party tampering.

Key features:

• Create branded links 
• Customize short URL/slug
• Auto-branded links
• Manage links
• Create mobile-deep links
• Manage campaign links 
• Build UTM parameters
• Analyze performance data
• Connect to 700+ apps
• Access the API 
• Encrypt links (SSL)

Bitly Sprout Integration

If you have a custom Bit.ly domain, you can use it when adding links to your social posts. This will enable you to shorten any link using branded Bit.ly links instead of a generic Bit.ly link.

How to Connect Bitly to Sprout

• Click Account and settings > Settings > Account Settings.  
• Scroll down so that you can see the Settings by Group listing.

• Click Connect for any group where you want to use your custom Bitly account. 
• Enter your Bitly credentials and click Allow to authorize access to your Bitly account.
• Now, when you’re composing a message that includes a URL, click Shorten Links to add your branded Bitly link.

TinyURL

TinyURL was the original and free link shortener for individuals, and now it also offers a full-scale link management platform for businesses. With a TinyURL premium account, you can create, manage, track and grow your brand through link campaigns of all sizes.

You can customize the end of shortened URLs or use your own branded domain to make them more user-friendly. Then you can track the link performance in the dashboard, so you know where users are clicking from, what device they used, and how many clicks you get over time.  

Key features:

• Create branded and custom links 
• Customize short URL/slug
• Manage your custom links
• Monitor campaign analytics
• Monitor real-time performance 
• Track unlimited click data
• View aggregated metrics in the dashboard

TinyCC.com

TinyCC.com is the premium business version of the original and free Tiny.cc URL shortener. Its simple interface lets you shorten, brand, track, and manage a high volume of URLs. 

You can also create intelligent link targets to automatically route visitors based on language preference and add retargeting pixels in short links to track interest in specific products and maximize advertising ROI.

Key features:

• Add custom domains
• Use branded short links
• Edit links in real time
• Manage links by campaigns and tags
• Create smart link redirects
• Analyze geolocation reporting
• Generate unique QR codes
• Add retargeting pixels
• Monitor broken links

Sniply

Sniply is a URL shortener with a difference. As well as shortening a URL, you can also add a call-to-action (CTA) to every link you share. For example, if you linked to a third-party piece of content, you could add an overlay on that site with a button that links back to your site. 

By curating content from third parties, you can publish more frequently on social media. Then customize the short links with a message that prompts users to take action, like signing up for your newsletter.

Key features:

• Add your CTA to any page
• Customize CTAs to match your brand
• Share shortened links
• Monitor link engagements
• Track results
• Add retargeting pixels
• Integrate with other tools

Cuttly

Cuttly’s link management platform lets you shorten, brand, manage and track all your links in one place. The detailed analytics provide info about clicks, social media clicks, page referrer, devices, browsers, systems and geolocation. 

You can set your custom brand name and get QR codes. There’s also a built-in UTM code generator and the option to create alternative link redirects for mobile devices. 

Key features:

• Customize short URL/slug
• Create branded links
• Generate UTM parameters
• Password-protect short links
• Set alternate mobile links
• Analyze unique clicks
• Manage redirect expiry
• Embed retargeting pixels
• Split-test links
• Generate QR codes
• Remove unwanted links
• Encrypt links (SSL)

BL.INK

BLI.NK is a full-featured URL shortener designed specifically for enterprises but suitable for all-sized teams as it scales with your requirements. Its unique advanced features allow you to dynamically route clicks by date, time, language, device, and location. 

You can also optimize link performance using the built-in reports or integrating with third-party tools. Plus, you can incorporate BLINK with enterprise platforms like Khoros and Sprinklr, connect it to thousands of apps with Zapier and Zoho Flow, or access the API.

Key features:

• Purchase custom short domains
• Create branded links
• Tag links
• Edit long links
• Customize back-half link
• Create mobile-deep links
• Build UTM campaigns
• Bulk link import, edit, and export
• Track links and clicks
• Measure real-time metrics
• Connect with thousands of tools
• Scales as you grow
• Privacy Shield-certified and GDPR-compliant

Rebrandly

Rebrandly is a link management platform that lets you brand, track, and share short URLs using a custom domain name.

You can enhance your brand visibility and trust by putting your brand name on every link you share. Then use the detailed click metrics to track your social media, email marketing, ads, and SEO performance.

Rebrandly connects to your existing marketing stack, so it’s easy to integrate branded links into your current processes, workflows, and tools.

Key features:

• Use multiple domain names
• Create branded links
• Add SSL encryption
• Generate QR codes
• Tag your links
• Redirect mobile-deep links
• Add UTM parameters
• Track clicks/month
• Visualize demographics
• Build custom reports
• Integrate with 100+ apps
• GDPR-compliant

Clkim

Clkim is a URL shortening platform that lets you automatically redirect users based on smart contextual triggers. For example, you can send users to a relevant page based on their mobile operating system or geolocation. You can also split traffic between 2 destinations to see which converts best.

The analytics dashboard provides actionable data to improve your marketing effort, engagement, and results. Discover where your traffic is coming from, which links are most effective, and what impact you’ve made.

Key features:

• Setup branded domain
• Redirect users on smart triggers
• Add retargeting / tracking pixel
• Create full-page interstitial ads
• Track clicks and referrers
• Email daily traffic reports
• ​​Edit destination URL
• Split-test destinations
• Build UTM parameters
• Integrations and API

Which URL shortener is right for your business?

Whatever your link shortening requirements are, there’s a URL shortener out there.

Whether you want a quick, free tool like TinyURL or a complete, all-purpose shortening service like Bitly, take a few for a test drive and see which works best.

Ideally, you’ll want features like:

• Customizable URLs
• Link tracking
• UTM parameter support
• Link retargeting
• Integrations

Additionally, a URL shortener that has been around for some time is more likely to be reliable and trustworthy.

Now that you know about the best URL shorteners to improve tracking and engagement, learn more about other ways you can boost your social media conversion rate with Sprout.

The post The 8 best URL shorteners for engagement and tracking in 2022 appeared first on Sprout Social.

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