Bringing organic traffic to your website involves two elements in your SEO strategy.

The first is Relevance, which is:

  • Knowing what your audience searches for
  • Giving them high quality and relevant content

The second is Authority, or trustworthiness of your content.

And Google determines authority with backlinks.

So, after creating your content, these are two of the factors search engines use to rank your pages on the SERPs.

What are backlinks?

A backlink, also known as an inbound link, are links from another website to yours. 

Backlinks are connections from a different website.

This link could be placed in a:

  • Text
  • Image
  • Button

Backlinks are important ranking factors for search engines in SEO.

Why are backlinks important?

Out of 200 known Google ranking factors, backlinks are one of the most important for Google.

Because a link from another website to yours is:

  • A vote of confidence
  • A recommendation
  • A stamp of approval
  • A way to say your website is a trusted source

Although it’s hard for small businesses or startups to get backlinks.

To improve your SEO performance, focus on earning high-quality backlinks to your website.

High-Quality Backlinks

Quality of backlinks are more important for your website than the quantity of backlinks.

And, the hardest part of SEO is getting high-quality backlinks.

So, make sure to get links that are:

  • Authority – Links from trusted websites drive more traffic and increase rankings in the SERPs. For example, links from .gov, .edu and industry leader websites.
  • Relevance – The web page pointing to your website should share similar topics. For example, A tech company’s page shouldn’t get backlinks from a golfing blog post.
  • Unique – Get backlinks from websites that don’t link to your competitors. Websites linking to your competitors are still good but wont help your website stand out.
  • Natural – Websites should naturally link to yours. No sponsored links, branded or spammy anchor text and linking pages with a natural number of links.

To improve your SEO ranking, use the following list of earning backlinks:

How to get backlinks

  • Unlinked Mentions
  • Contextual Links
  • ‘Best X’ List Mentions
  • Old Content Updates
  • Build Free Tools
  • Publish Ultimate Guides
  • Images to Earn Links & Mentions
  • Directories
  • Broken Link Building Method

Unlinked Mentions

Claiming unlinked brand mentions is a quick and easy way to build backlinks.

Just keep an eye on who is mentioning your brand, on blogs or in the news. 

A free way to track brand mentions on blogs or the news, is:

  • Google Alerts

Or track the amount of shares or the authority of the websites mentioning your brand with tools like:

Because sometimes authors don’t link back to your website when mentioning your brand, product, or service.

So, send them a message asking for a link back.

This gives readers a better experience by learning more about the brand mentioned.

A few examples of sources you can use to claim links with this method include:

  • Events you organise
  • Employees names
  • Research reports
  • Interviews featuring your company’s executives
  • Reports or statistics you’ve published

Depending on the source that mentions your brand, simply ask for a link back to the original source or a page on your website.

Contextual Links

Contextual Links are featured resource recommendations in text or a “Read more” section.

Contextual linking starts with doing outreach.

So look for articles related to your content with a “Read more” section.

For example, for a new content marketing study, find SEO marketing articles that recommend other articles.

To find these article, enter the following in search engines like Google:

  • SEO marketing inurl:blog intext:”Read more”
  • SEO marketing inurl:blog intext:”Recommended articles”
  • SEO marketing inurl:blog intext:”Recommended reading”

Then, reach out to authors and tell them why your content is worth the feature.

Note: write a persuasive personalised email.

“Best X” List Mentions

People like to compare options before making a purchase.

That’s why comparison websites or articles are popular, like:

Use a keyword research tool to check the monthly search volume for these types of articles in your industry.

Mentions on articles that list the best products or services can:

  • Reinforce your brand
  • Get people to try your product or service
  • Earn high-quality backlinks

Get your products or services on list articles with a Google search to find blogs writing about your product or industry.

Use these search terms to help find these blog posts:

  • Best [X]
  • Best [CRM] for [Small businesses]
  • Top [X]
  • Top [10 CRM] for [Entrepreneurs]

List potential websites and prioritise based on:

  • Domain Authority or Domain Rating
  • Backlink profile
  • Ranking
  • Traffic potential

Then, message the author telling them why to feature your product or service on their list.

Note: write a short, persuasive and personalised email.

Old Content Updates

Look for old articles or research reports that need updating and check the amount of backlinks they have.

Then, create more updated content with relevant data.

After publishing the article, reach out to bloggers or journalists previously linked to the old content and let them know about the update.

The benefits of this method are:

  • You see results in days or weeks with backlinks or social media shares
  • You build relationship with bloggers and journalists 

For example, these relationships can result in teaming up on other projects that help grow your brand and your traffic.

Basically, keep a few things in mind when building an email outreach list:

  • Think a long-term
  • Build relationships not just backlinks

Build Free Tools

Free tools are effective at getting backlinks and new leads.

Example of such tools include:

  • Calculators
  • Template generators

To get started, do the following:

  • Do keyword research on “templates”, “tools”, or “generators” in your industry
  • Check the tools in top search results
  • Find the tools with the most backlinks
  • Build something similar but better

If like me, you can’t build these tools then:

  • Hire someone from upwork or fiver
  • Buy codes from code canyon but pick good quality codes with support

Publish Ultimate Guides

An Ultimate Guide is a content with the most in-depth research on a topic.

Covering all the information on a topic, that searchers don’t need to go elsewhere to learn more about that subject.

Ultimate Guides attract backlinks because bloggers and journalists can link to the article instead of fully explaining the concept they mention.

Images to Earn Links & Mentions

Infographics is just one example of a visual asset used to get backlinks.

Other examples of visual assets used to get backlinks include:

  • Data charts and graphs
  • Diagrams visually explaining concepts
  • One-pager templates
  • Free photo galleries for public use

For example, brands use free photo galleries for creative campaign like this:

Creating a free downloadable library of photos featuring real salespeople.

And helping distribution by making their photos available on Unsplash and Pexels to get over 35 million views.

Directories

Directories are one of the best ways to improve your local SEO and help potential customers find your business.

Not spammy directories just for links, which harm your SEO performance.

Directories people actually use like:

  • Google My Business
  • Yelp
  • TripAdvisor

And, you can find other general and niche directories to help your rankings and traffic.

Broken Link Building Method

Basically, reach out to websites with broken outbound links and offer a link to your page to update it with.

But, your page must be a good resource on the topic.

This tactic adds value to the webmasters by:

  • Helping them fix an error on their website
  • Improves the experience for their readers

To find these broken links, do the following:

  • Find websites with broken links and relevant resources on your website to replace it.
  • Find one dead page (404) with a lot of previous links, recreate that article or offer more in-depth, relevant content then reach out to those linking to the previous article.

Use an SEO tool to help find broken links.

IF you have under 250 pages to review:

To round up:

  • Finding websites
  • Get your content ready
  • Start working on outreach

Note: Keep emails short and be helpful, don’t just focus on getting backlinks.

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