Backlinks are essential for improving SEO rankings and establishing your brand as an authority in its niche. Utilizing news sites for building authority backlinks can significantly enhance content visibility and credibility.
Strategies like creating high-quality assets, guest posting, and using tools like HARO can help build a strong backlink profile. Replicating competitor backlinks and fixing broken links are effective beginner-friendly approaches. Building partnerships with industry experts can create long-lasting backlink opportunities. Backlinking requires consistent effort but can significantly boost visibility and website traffic.
Acquiring backlinks has been a strategy for SEO marketers for many years, and this will continue into 2024. With the ability to push your website up the SERPs and rank your brand as an authoritative source within your industry, it’s no surprise it has become popular in an era of high online competition.
Backlinks aid search engines and their users to judge the value of your site. If your content is constantly linked to blog posts, news articles, testimonials and social content, search engines consider it a sign that your brand is an authoritative player within its niche.
However, a whopping 41% of business leaders still view SEO backlinking as their biggest challenge.
As you can see here, a whopping 60% of business leaders outsource their backlinking to link building experts, simply because they don’t know where to start.
With this in mind, we’ve put together 6 beginner backlinking strategies to try out as you ease into SEO marketing.
Understanding the Importance of Quality Backlinks
Quality backlinks are a cornerstone of a successful link building strategy. These are links from other websites that point to your own, and they play a pivotal role in establishing your website’s authority and credibility in the eyes of search engines. High-quality backlinks can significantly boost your website’s search engine rankings, drive more traffic, and enhance your online visibility.
To grasp the importance of quality backlinks, consider these key factors:
- Relevance: The linking website should be relevant to your niche or industry. A backlink from a site within your field carries more weight than one from an unrelated site.
- Authority: The linking website should have a high level of authority and credibility. Links from well-respected sites are more valuable and can positively impact your rankings.
- Diversity: A diverse range of linking websites can enhance your website’s credibility. Having backlinks from various sources shows search engines that your content is widely recognized and valued.
- Anchor Text: The anchor text used in the link should be descriptive and relevant to the content on your website. This helps search engines understand the context of the link and its relevance to your site.
By focusing on acquiring quality backlinks, you can improve your website’s online presence, climb higher in search engine rankings, and attract more visitors to your site.
1. Produce Linkable Assets
One of the easiest ways to increase your backlink success is to create something other sites want to link out to. This can be in the form of high-quality, link worthy content, data-driven research or even helpful listicals that support current trending issues within your niche.
The best thing about creating high-quality assets is that this is the most natural way to gain backlinks, meaning that Google will favor your site well.
“Focus on creating valuable, long-form content for your blog—the more in-depth your posts, the better. Ideally, your content will allow you to establish yourself as an expert while helping users with their industry-specific goals and pain points,” says John Turner, founder of SeedProd.
“One strategy I use is to include a statistics section on the topic I’m discussing. These articles often see significantly more backlinks than those with no stats. I believe this is because people are more likely to share and link to a post if there’s tangible information worth passing on to peers, friends and customers.”
The key here is to promote this content as soon as it is live. Sharing blog posts across your site and within your social platforms is a great way to raise awareness of this asset, and score some backlinks from other authoritative sites.
2. Replicate Competitor Quality Backlinks
If you’re just starting off on your backlinking journey, it’s important to analyze and review the competitor backlinks that are performing well within your niche.
Not only will they certainly be on sites that are relevant to your industry, but you’ll quickly get a taste for the types of content and anchors you should prioritize when trying to score a backlink.
While you can do this manually, searching for competitor backlinks is done best with an online backlink checker tool. Whether this is Ahrefs, Semrush or Link Assistant, there are plenty of ways to create a competitor backlink profile.
Take Link Assistant for example. By simply entering a competitor’s URL, the tool audits the site and finds out where it has scored the best DoFollow backlinks across the web.
The key here is to find the most powerful opportunities and then reach out to the publications offering your own backlinks for exposure. Analyzing competitors' homepage links can uncover unique link opportunities within your industry.
3. Start Guest Blogging
Guest posting is one of the best ways to score backlinks in 2024. Rather than linking out to your in-house blog pieces during a link exchange, why not offer a publication a full article packed with insights and some key backlinks to important pages?
Whether you write your own posts or outsource your guest publishing to a guest posting service, creating valuable content for a publication within your niche is a great organic way to score unbreakable backlinks.
Including target keywords in your guest posts is crucial. By aligning your anchor text and backlinks with these target keywords, you can significantly increase the likelihood of your content ranking effectively in search results.
Try to write a piece on a topic that is relevant to your industry, and not heavily promotional of your brand. According to Backlinko, 77% of publications prefer long-form content and listicals that aim to help their readers.
Stay on top of industry trends, and review your target publication’s past high-engagement content for a real shot at guest posting success.
4. Help A Reporter Out
Another nifty tool to use in your backlinking strategy is Help A Reporter Out. Otherwise known as HARO, this tool aids journalists in finding sources for their article writing.
Using HARO to gain backlinks can significantly benefit your own website by increasing its traffic and authority through strategic backlinking. All you have to do is sign up and try your best to answer questions from reporters with your own expertise and content.
This is one of the best strategies to use, and can score you links on highly authoritative sites. It’s also a purely white hat method for link building, and will help ensure that your backlink profile stays clean.
5. Fix Broken Links
Did you know that a whopping 67% of SEO experts believe that broken links directly impact search engine rankings?
If you're looking to build your backlinking strategy from the ground up, one way to find success is to identify the broken links on your target publications and offer your quality assets to replace them.
6. Partner With Industry Experts
Partnerships build backlinks for life. In order to succeed in a competitive industry, you must be prepared to also give back in return.
Creating link partnerships with other industry experts and engaging in exchanges is a simple way to build up your backlink juice.
Make sure to keep this looking organic. Don't link out to each other in every post. Instead, find ways to naturally weave organic content into your own blog and social posts.
Finding Relevant Sites for Link Building
Finding relevant sites for link building is a critical step in any successful link building strategy. Here are some practical tips to help you identify and secure high-quality backlinks from relevant sites:
- Use Search Engines: Start by using search engines like Google to search for keywords related to your niche or industry. This can help you discover websites that are relevant to your field and potential link building opportunities.
- Check Resource Pages: Look for resource pages on other websites that link to relevant content. These pages are often curated lists of valuable resources, making them prime targets for link building.
- Analyze Competitors’ Backlinks: Use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to analyze your competitors’ backlinks. This can help you identify websites that are already linking to similar content and may be interested in linking to your site as well.
- Look for Broken Links: Use tools like Broken Link Checker to find broken links on other websites. Reach out to the site owners and offer to replace the broken link with a working link to a similar article on your website.
- Guest Blogging: Look for guest blogging opportunities on relevant websites. Writing guest posts allows you to include a link to your website in your author bio, providing a valuable backlink and increasing your exposure.
By diligently finding and securing backlinks from relevant sites, you can enhance your website’s authority and credibility, ultimately improving your search engine rankings and driving more traffic to your site.
Monitoring and Optimizing Your Link Building Efforts
Monitoring and optimizing your link building efforts is essential to ensure that your strategy remains effective and efficient. Here are some tips to help you keep track of your progress and make necessary adjustments:
- Use Link Building Tools: Utilize tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to track your backlinks and monitor your link building progress. These tools can provide valuable insights into the quality and quantity of your backlinks.
- Analyze Your Anchor Text: Regularly analyze your anchor text using tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush. Ensure that the anchor text is descriptive and relevant to the content on your website, as this can impact your search engine rankings.
- Check for Broken Links: Use tools like Broken Link Checker to find broken links on your website. Fixing these links can prevent you from losing potential link building opportunities and improve the user experience on your site.
- Optimize Your Content: Continuously optimize your content to make it more link-worthy. High-quality, valuable content is more likely to attract backlinks from other websites.
- Diversify Your Link Building Strategy: Diversify your link building strategy to include a range of tactics, such as guest blogging, resource page link building, and broken link building. A varied approach can help you build a robust and resilient backlink profile.
By consistently monitoring and optimizing your link building efforts, you can ensure that your strategy remains effective and that you’re maximizing your link building opportunities. This ongoing process will help you build a strong backlink profile, improve your search engine rankings, and drive more traffic to your site.
What's Next For Backlinking?
Did you know that over two-thirds of clicks go to the first result in a Google search?
If you want to ensure that your site is at the top of the SERPs and has a chance to win some clicks, building backlinks is an essential strategy not to be forgotten in a competitive SEO landscape.
"Building backlinks is a time-consuming process but one your company needs to thrive. I recommend carefully reviewing your options based on your industry and the size of your business,” says Turner. “Look for opportunities to connect with companies and produce high-quality content, and you'll begin to accumulate backlinks for your business.”
Author bio: Neve Wilkinson is a content writer at Solvid Digital and a marketer with a passion for writing long-form content. I'm proud to have work published in The Sun, Yorkshire Evening Post, Edinburgh News, Future of Commerce, and more.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):
1. What is a backlink in SEO?
A backlink is a hyperlink from one website to another. Search engines use backlinks to evaluate a site's authority and relevance, impacting its ranking in search results.
2. Why are backlinks important for SEO?
Backlinks improve your site's credibility, help it rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs), and drive organic traffic from other authoritative websites.
3. What are linkable assets?
Linkable assets are high-quality content, such as data-driven research, how-to guides, or listicles, that other websites naturally want to link to because of their value.
4. How can I replicate competitor backlinks?
Use tools like Ahrefs or Semrush to analyze competitor backlink profiles. Identify valuable linking opportunities and pitch your content to those same sites.
5. What is guest posting?
Guest posting involves writing articles for other websites in your niche, including backlinks to your own site. It's a powerful strategy for gaining organic, high-quality links.
6. How can HARO help with backlinks?
HARO (Help A Reporter Out) connects experts with journalists seeking quotes. By providing valuable insights, you can earn backlinks from highly authoritative publications.
7. Why is fixing broken links a good strategy?
Broken links negatively impact SEO. By offering your content as a replacement for broken links on target sites, you can build backlinks while improving the user experience for the site owner.
8. What are white hat backlinking techniques?
White hat techniques, like guest posting, creating linkable assets, and using HARO, are ethical ways to build backlinks and comply with search engine guidelines.
9. How do partnerships help with backlinks?
Partnering with industry experts allows you to naturally exchange backlinks and expand your site's reach through collaborative content efforts.
10. How can I ensure my backlink strategy is effective?
Focus on quality over quantity. Build links from reputable sites in your niche, maintain a diverse backlink profile, and consistently create valuable, shareable content.
