There’s no denying that backlinks are still one of Google’s top three ranking factors and that this isn’t going to change anytime soon.
As a result, many marketers and business owners are unsure how to obtain backlinks to their websites. Links from one website to another are votes of trust, authority, and confidence.
Higher rankings on SERPs can mean more visibility and likely more organic traffic for your site due to increased authority. However, not all links are created equal in Google’s eyes, and the wrong type (toxic links) can harm your ranking rather than help it.
Backlinks should essentially:
- Earn editorial respect.
- Come from authoritative, topically relevant websites.
- It hasn’t been paid for or sponsored (including as a result of gifted products).
Backlinks can help boost your SEO strategy, and there are various ways to obtain high-quality links. But where do you even begin?
Resource Link Building
Many people start thinking about big and complicated tactics when thinking about getting backlinks. However, resource link building is one of the most effective ways to build links.
To be successful with this strategy, you must first determine how your company can benefit your target audience. Then you must create excellent resource pages to obtain high-quality backlinks from authoritative sites.
The following are some examples of where resource pages can be found on the internet:
- Boards of tourism and travel
- Universities
- Governments at the local level
And you can often find these opportunities by looking at your competitor’s link profile and seeing who links to them but doesn’t link to you. You can quickly identify resources related to your competitors’ sites using the SEMrush Backlink Analytics Tool.
This way, you can work on a content strategy that will catch their attention and make them want to link to your site instead of their competitor’s.
Broken Link Building
Finding informative web pages with external links to dead pages is the goal of broken link building.
You can quickly build some excellent links if you can identify broken links that lead to 404 pages and present an alternative piece of content as good as, if not better than, the original link.
It would be best if you had a piece of content similar to the one that has initially been linked to (or be prepared to create it). With this strategy, you can achieve a reasonable level of success, as connecting to a 404 page will benefit neither users nor the website from which you want a link.
You’re assisting a web admin in reducing broken links on their site by suggesting a replacement, so they don’t have to look for one themselves. To learn how to use the tactic, read our guide on Broken Link Building.
Unlinked Brand Mentions
It is not uncommon for many businesses to be mentioned across the web, from mentions in regional online newspapers and radio stations to product reviews and references.
While it’s ideal if these mentions also include a link to your website, this isn’t always the case. Unlinked brand mentions are what they’re called.
But how do you track down brand mentions that aren’t linked and try to turn them into links?
Set up the tool to track any mentions of your brand, and you’ll get notifications as soon as they happen.
When it comes to finding existing unlinked mentions, select the ‘no link’ option from the ‘link to website’ dropdown, and a list of unlinked brand mentions will appear.
Then you can start contacting web admins, journalists, and bloggers who have mentioned your brand and politely request that they include a link.
However, you must demonstrate how the link adds editorial value to increase your chances of this happening. You can use this template as a starting point for your outreach (which you can do and manage through the Link Building Tool).
Supplier Links
If you sell other people’s products, you may be missing out on an excellent opportunity to get a lot of high-quality links to your site.
Many manufacturers and suppliers have ‘where to buy or stockist’s pages on their websites.
This is simply a manufacturer directing users to where they can purchase their goods. You should also be listed if you sell a manufacturer’s products (and linked).
Please list all of your suppliers’ names and websites, then go through each one, looking for a page that lists their stockists.
You find a page, but you don’t see yourself listed?
It’s unlikely that this was done on purpose. Contact your company’s contact person, share the page, and inquire about the process for getting your website listed and linked. Your contact may be able to help you with this.
Can’t seem to find a page with a list of stockists? Maybe you could work together differently?
Business Association Links
Are you a member of any professional organizations? Perhaps your Chamber of Commerce or a trade association? If this is the case, you may have some simple opportunities to earn links to your website.
This is similar to supplier links in that it does not require you to stock a manufacturer’s products or that they have a page on their website.
Please make a list of all the organizations to which you belong and their websites. Then, on their website, look for a member’s page or something similar. A member directory, such as this one from the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, is a typical example.
If you are a member but do not see yourself listed, contact your contact and inquire about how you can be added.
However, you can take this strategy a step further by actively seeking out organizations in your area or industry that provide a link to their members as part of their membership. If you’re not a member but think you’d benefit from what they offer, join now and follow that link!
Listicle Link Building
Listicles are an essential part of any backlink-building strategy.
When it comes to gaining links to your website, listicles are a great way to get your products or services in front of your target audience while also earning links that do more than help your search rankings. You’re probably already aware of popular industry listicles that mention your competitors but don’t mention you.
These are usually articles that cover the following topics:
The best…
top ten…
or something similar.
You can find listicles in your industry that round up your competitors using Google search operators and then check to see if you’re included. You’re probably already aware of the post if you’re reading this.
To be included in some listicles, you must contact a journalist or blogger and explain why you are a better candidate for inclusion than others already on the list.
If you can demonstrate how your business adds value to users, the writer may be willing to update and add your company. It all boils down to self-promotion.
To learn more about reaching out via email, read our guide on Email Outreach.
Link Gap Analysis
Conducting a link gap analysis and identifying sites that link to your competitors but not to you is one of the quickest ways to find link-building opportunities.
If a website has linked to more than one of your competitors, there’s a good chance they’ll link to yours as well – as long as you can show them why they should.
You can make this process much easier by using the Backlink Gap tool.
You can see the domains (and pages) linking out to multiple competitors by entering up to five domains. Then you can spend some time figuring out why they’re linked and how you can get your hands on them.
Digital PR
You can’t ignore the power of digital PR if you want to build high-quality links to your website on a large scale.
Journalists frequently rely on public relations to feed them stories to cover. If you can be the brand that stands out and makes the news (even if you don’t have any product launches or similar), it’s not uncommon for a single campaign to generate hundreds of pieces of linked coverage.
It’s not all about the numbers, though.
Digital PR can assist you in obtaining topically relevant links from the most influential publications in your field. These links can help you establish yourself as an industry expert while driving targeted referral traffic.
You’ll need to provide linkable assets and promote them to journalists using tried-and-true PR tactics to get these backlinks.
The Skyscraper Technique
The Skyscraper Technique, which was first introduced to the SEO community by Brian Dean of Backlinko, is a link-building strategy that follows a tried-and-true process:
Look for content that has received a lot of attention and has a lot of links.
Improve your content and promote it to those linked to the original piece.
It works because you are removing the guesswork associated with content marketing by building on a foundation that has already been proven to work.
This technique can and will assist you in generating high-quality links that will boost your organic traffic and help you rank for competitive search terms and keywords.
However, you must be willing to put forth the effort.
Because the Skyscraper Technique is all about creating the best piece of content for your chosen topic on the internet, you must be willing to go all-in on:
- Length
- Depth
- Visuals
Testimonial
You’re probably used to getting customer testimonials, but have you considered that they can also be a great way to build links?
Most likely not.
While this strategy is unlikely to scale, it can help you diversify your link profile by extolling the virtues of another’s tool, product, or service.
If you can write a testimonial or case study for them to use on their website, they will almost always include a link back to your site as a credit.
A typical scenario is identifying who you are a customer of (your suppliers) and thinking about whose offering you love. After that, write a fantastic testimonial for them and permit them to use it on their website.
To obtain backlinks to your website, you can employ various strategies. Which strategy is best for you is often determined by how you’ve previously approached link building, the industry you work in, and what your competitors are doing.
You can identify the best-suited tactics for your website and resources and plan out exactly how you will earn your competitive advantage by putting together a solid link-building strategy.
Good luck with your link-building!