Key highlights
- Backlink Basics: Understanding the different types of backlinks like nofollow links, dofollow links and sponsored links.
- Importance in SEO: Discover how quality backlinks help improve domain authority, SERP visibility and organic traffic.
- Effective Link-Building Tactics: Learn the latest strategies, from broken link building to guest posting, to create link opportunities for your website.
- Competitor Insights: Analyze competitors’ backlinks to identify successful tactics.
- Recommended Tools: Explore free tools and paid link-building tools to enhance your backlink strategy.
Introduction
You have created amazing content, but you’re still not getting organic traffic to your website. The truth is, just producing quality content isn’t enough. Without building high-quality links, your site may struggle to rank high on search engines. Backlinks are crucial to boosting traffic and domain authority, making them a key part of any effective SEO strategy. As a website owner, it’s essential to learn how to build backlinks that can help your site perform well on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Some businesses pay top dollar to gain a single link from authority websites, but getting quality backlink may seem daunting for new or small businesses. The good news? There are accessible strategies you can use to generate backlinks and build high-quality backlinks to your site.
This guide will give you a comprehensive overview of backlinks, their significance in SEO and seven effective methods to gain backlinks for your website.
What are backlinks?
A backlink, also known as an inbound link, is a hyperlink from one website pointing to yours. Links pointing to your site act as endorsements, signaling to search engines that your site is credible.
It goes both ways. A backlink tells search engines how your content relates to other relevant sites and pages on the internet.
Importance of backlinks for SEO: Why do you need them?
Getting backlinks for your business website is one of the factors Google and other search engines use to determine your search engine optimization (SEO) ranking. Backlinks also foster brand recognition by reaching people who might need to be made aware of your business.
Backlinks empower you to improve your website’s authority when you know how to secure high-quality links for your website.
Domain authority is a metric that determines how powerful your website is with search engines. Unfortunately, small businesses and new websites in the early stages of growing traffic have low domain authority.
When high domain authority websites link to your website, it tells the search engine crawlers that your linked-to website is valuable.
You need high-quality backlinks to improve the visibility of the search engine results page (SERP).
What makes a good backlink?
Not all backlinks are created equal. The value of a backlink depends on several important factors:
- Authority of the linking site: Backlinks from high-authority sites carry more weight. A link from a well-known news site or an authoritative industry publication can improve your SEO significantly.
- Relevance of the linking site: The more relevant sites that link to you, the better. For example, if you have a health blog post, backlinks from health-related websites are more valuable than links from unrelated sites.
- Placement of the link: Backlinks embedded within the main body of an article are generally more valuable than links in footers, author bios or sidebars.
- Anchor text: The anchor text of a backlink should ideally include relevant keywords that align with your SEO strategy.
A strong backlink profile includes relevant backlinks from authoritative websites with contextual links and diverse anchor text.
What are the best backlinks in SEO?
In SEO, certain types of backlinks are more valuable than others. Here’s what makes the best backlinks for SEO:
- Editorial backlinks: These are links that you earn naturally because of the quality of your content. Editorial backlinks are highly valuable because they show that your content is trusted.
- Guest post backlinks: Links earned through guest posts on reputable sites within your niche can boost your authority and help you naturally link with industry influencers.
- Contextual links: These links are embedded within the body of content and relate directly to the topic. They are more effective than links placed in footers or sidebars.
- Backlinks from resource pages: Many high-authority sites have dedicated resource pages linking to useful external sources. Securing a link from these pages can be highly beneficial.
- Backlinks from competitors’ referring domains: Analyze your competitors’ backlinks and target the same referring domains where possible.
Effective strategies for building high-quality backlinks
You have already written and published your content. Perhaps the question in your mind is, “How do I get backlinks to my website?” This can be the hardest part of SEO, especially for small startups.
Many website owners don’t know how to score a backlink from high-domain websites. But, various tactics and link-building strategies can help your website earn high-quality backlinks and improve ranking.
Here are seven practical link-building strategies to help you get started.
Tip 1. Convert unlinked brand mentions to links
People may mention your brand without actually linking to your website. Unlinked brand mentions are a missed opportunity to create organic links.
Unlinked brand mentions are one of the easiest backlink-building opportunities for your link-building campaign. These people already like your brand and know what you do — that’s why they mentioned you.
Converting unlinked mentions requires you to track the mentions and reach out to the website owners to get a backlink.
So, how do you find unlinked mentions?
Here is what you need to do:
- Use the SEMrush Brand Monitoring Tool. Set it to notify you as mentions of your brand occur.
- Use Content Explorer to look for existing unlinked mentions. This is a mini search engine within Ahrefs.
- Reach out to authors who have mentioned your business positively and ask them to link to your brand.
- Using link reclamation to turn unlinked mentions into relevant backlinks is an easy way to build links that strengthen your site.
Look for unlinked mentions of branded products, services, company representatives and slogans.
Tip 2. Collaborate with influencers and niche experts
Building relationships with influencers or industry experts can help you earn authoritative backlinks. These individuals often have blogs, websites or platforms with high engagement. Their endorsements or collaborations can boost your credibility and link profile.
How to get started:
- Identify influencers in your niche with strong online authority.
- Pitch collaboration ideas, like co-creating blog posts, hosting webinars or conducting interviews.
- Offer value in return, such as exposure on your website or free access to your products or services.
- Ask for a backlink when they publish related content.
This strategy builds backlinks while fostering long-term relationships and increasing your visibility in the industry.
Tip 3. Write guest blogs for external publications
Your first concern should be to bring people to your website. But unique, valuable content makes people stick around. Guest blogging is an effective way to gain visibility and backlinks from popular sites in your niche.
One of the best tips for getting backlinks to your website is to submit guest posts to well-established websites by google search with high domain authority and lots of traffic. For example, even Google accepts guest contributors on its Google Analytics blog.
Here are tips for posting your guest blogs:
- Show that you’re qualified as a writer. A testimonial could be an important asset.
- Demonstrate your qualifications by sharing links to your previously published content.
- Make sure you have unique, high-quality content. Writing spectacularly might be your only bargaining power.
- Present your pitches to medium domain authority websites if you’re just starting as a guest writer with no previous work to show.
- Keep pitching. Websites will not always respond to your pitches, but don’t get discouraged.
Through guest blogging, you can build contextual links that not only enhance SEO but also drive targeted traffic back to your site.
Tip 4. Check out your competitors’ backlinks
As an entrepreneur, gathering as much information as possible about your competitors is important.
This empowers you as a blogger to decide if the most effective SEO digital marketing techniques that work for them will do the same for you. In addition, auditing your competitor’s link-building strategies can give your ideas about how to get more backlinks to your website.
Analyze your competitors’ strategies by
- Identify their resource page links and find which websites you can add to your connections.
- Tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush allow you to view your competitors’ backlink profile.
- Following them on social media.
- Subscribe to their newsletters to learn what strategies they implement in their business.
This tactic allows you to find new link-building opportunities from sites linking to your competitors.
Tip 5. The broken link building method
Broken link building involves offering your content as a replacement for broken outbound links on other websites. At the same time, you recommend a link to your website as an alternative to the broken link.
The chances of getting a backlink to your website are high since you’re helping them improve their web page’s quality by reporting the broken links.
Contact website owners, highlighting the broken outbound link and suggesting your page as an alternative to get backlinks.
Here are the broken link method steps:
- Search for relevant websites in your niche and go to their resource pages.
- Type any of the following on Google search to find the links and resources:
- Main keyword + links
- Main Keyword + resources
- Keyword inurl:links
- Download and install the Broken Link Checker extension for Google Chrome to identify broken links on resource pages.
- Download the search results with Ahrefs SEO Toolbar.
When you reach out to the webmaster, introduce yourself and be professional. Tell them in a friendly way that they are linking to a resource that no longer exists. Give them the exact locations of the broken site links so they can find them easily.
Tip 6. Create and amplify infographics
An infographic is a graphic representation of information or data. Visual data is easy to understand and share — which puts it among the most popular methods to drive traffic to your website.
Here are some tips for creating shareable infographics for your website:
- Make well-designed images with well-researched statistical data for your audience.
- Ensure that your visuals address trending topics.
- Research topics that people care about and consider useful.
- Take the time to collect good-quality data. You can use secondary data from trusted sources or collect data yourself.
- Make your infographic easy to share. Their value lies in their ability to be shared and promoted to others.
Tip 7. Legitimize your website & create killer content!
Content marketing requires you to prove to your visitors that your website is trustworthy. They want to feel safe interacting with your website.
Here are a few ways to legitimize your website and give the right impression to your visitors:
- Prove that you are a real business by including your phone number and address on your contact page. You can also post profile photos of you and your employees.
- Cultivate a professional appearance. Avoid cluttering your web pages with unnecessary elements like sponsored ads. Ensure your images and graphics are high-quality and the layout and typography are clean.
- Correct errors. Misspelled words or images that don’t load properly can lower your website’s credibility. Likewise, remove broken links as they give the impression of a neglected website.
- Add trust badges to show that your business partners are trusted industry experts and your website is secure.
- Create 10X content on every single URL that can get crawled and indexed by Google.
- Update content on a regular basis to show your visitors you’re an active business.
Gathering backlinks, or link building, sounds complicated, but there are many other ways you can obtain links to your website with minimal effort.
Link Exchanges – Are they worth it?
A link exchange describes two websites linking to each other. For example, Website A links to Website B and Website B also links to Website A.
Leverage existing partnerships and relationships that you already have. In addition, focus on interlinking content that will be helpful for the user. At the end of the day, a link that generates clicks and website traffic is going to have more value than a link that never gets any clicks, even if it’s on a high DA website.
Link Bait – Is it worth it?
Link bait is a term used to describe articles or pages on your website that are intended to attract backlinks from other websites.
Controversial subjects, useful tools, case-studies and free resources are just a few ideas; link baiting is about creativity – going in an angle never thought of before.
Link bait is the most difficult form of link building, but since the backlinks are 100 percent organic, the results are very rewarding.
When building backlinks, you can use any of the strategies above. However, the winning edge in search engine results pages (SERPs) goes to marketers who know how to implement these backlink-building techniques.
Now that you know how to get backlinks to your website, ensure you are not violating Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
Avoid spam links, paying for links or participating in illegal link schemes. Get authoritative websites to link to your website and you’ll generate conversions and tips to improve your SEO. What other ways can you use to get backlinks for your website? Tweet your thoughts and comments to @bluehost.
Types of backlinks
Backlinks are critical for search engine optimization (SEO) and can be categorized into various types:
Follow links
These are standard backlinks that pass authority and SEO value from the source page to the linked page. Search engines like Google consider these links when ranking websites, making them highly valuable for SEO.
Nofollow links
Nofollow links are tagged with a rel=”nofollow” attribute, indicating to search engines not to pass authority to the linked page. These links are often used for user-generated content or when the website doesn’t want to endorse or vouch for the linked content.
Sponsored or paid links
These links are used to indicate that a link has been paid for or sponsored in some way. They should also be marked with the rel=”sponsored” attribute to comply with search engine guidelines. Failure to do so can lead to penalties.
User-generated content (UGC) links
UGC links are created by users on forums, comments, or social media platforms. UGC links typically have the nofollow attribute to prevent spam.
Editorially placed links
These are links that are naturally earned and editorially placed within the content. They are typically seen as the most valuable type of backlink since they indicate high-quality content and trustworthiness.
Link schemes
Link schemes involve artificial methods of building links that violate search engine guidelines. These can lead to penalties. It’s important to avoid link schemes and focus on natural, high-quality backlinks instead.
Perform competitor backlink research
Performing competitive backlink research involves analyzing the backlinks of your industry or niche competitors to gain valuable insights for your SEO strategy.
- Start by identifying your main competitors and use SEO tools to gather data on their backlinks, including metrics like Domain Authority and the sources of their links.
- This analysis helps you understand where and how your competitors are earning backlinks, whether it’s through content types like blog posts, videos or partnerships with other websites.
- By evaluating anchor text, link sources and content strategies, you can refine your SEO efforts, identify gaps in your backlink profile and target similar websites for link-building opportunities.
- Explore referring domains that link to competitors and consider pitching your own content.
Ultimately, competitive backlink research is a strategic approach to improving your website’s authority and search engine rankings by learning from the successes of your competitors.
How to analyze backlinks?
- Authority score: Evaluate the quality of your backlinks using metrics like Domain Authority (DA) or Page Authority (PA), which indicate the trustworthiness and credibility of the linking websites.
- Referring domains: Assess the number of unique domains that link to your website. A diverse set of referring domains can be more valuable than numerous links from a single domain.
- Backlinks: Examine the total number of links pointing to your website. A higher number of backlinks can positively impact your website’s authority and search engine rankings.
- Monthly visits: Consider the web traffic generated by the referring domains linking to your site. More traffic from backlinks can indicate the effectiveness of your link-building efforts.
- Keywords: Analyze the relevance of anchor text in your backlinks to your targeted keywords. Anchor text should align with your SEO strategy and the content of the linked pages.
- Outbound domains: Pay attention to the websites your outbound links point to. Ensure they are reputable and relevant to your content to maintain a positive user experience and SEO value.
- Follow/Nofollow: All things equal, a followed backlink will have more value than a nofollow backlink.
Why are backlinks often overlooked?
Despite their proven potency in SEO, backlinks are frequently overshadowed in digital marketing strategies.
First, cultivating high-quality backlinks demands effort and long-term commitment, contrasting with the instantaneous allure of PPC campaigns or social media blitzes. Second, the landscape of backlinking is fraught with misconceptions, from fears of penalties due to black-hat practices to uncertainty over their direct ROI. Moreover, with Google’s algorithm updates, marketers are wary of relying heavily on a single SEO tactic.
This wariness is exacerbated by the industry’s rapid evolution, making it hard for marketers to distinguish between outdated practices and modern, effective strategies. Lastly, while on-page SEO offers direct control, backlinking requires third-party collaboration, which can feel less predictable.
As a result, even though backlinks remain a cornerstone of domain authority and organic ranking, they’re sometimes relegated to the backburner in favor of seemingly more controllable or immediate tactics.
Recommended tools for backlink analysis
Here are some digital marketing tools that help you manage and enhance your link-building strategies:
- Ahrefs: Offers extensive backlink tracking and competitor insights.
- SEMrush: Provides a detailed view of backlink opportunities and link-building tools.
- Moz Link Explorer: Useful for analyzing referring domains and identifying linking websites.
These tools can simplify your efforts to track, analyze and improve your backlink profile.
In conclusion
Backlinks are essential for improving your website’s authority, driving organic traffic and enhancing your SEO ranking. By leveraging these link-building strategies — from broken link building and guest posting to competitor analysis — you can build a backlink profile that strengthens your online presence. Remember, building links is a long-term commitment that pays off as your site’s visibility, credibility and traffic continue to grow.
By putting these strategies and insights into action, you can effectively harness the power of backlinks to boost your website’s visibility and authority in the online world.
Common questions about backlinks for SEO
Absolutely. Despite Google downplaying the value of links, they continue to be a pivotal aspect of SEO. They help signal the trustworthiness and authority of a website to search engines. The right backlinks can significantly boost a site’s ranking in search engine algorithms, driving more organic traffic and enhancing online visibility.
A backlink’s value is determined by several factors. Firstly, the authority and relevance of the linking site play crucial roles. Additionally, genuine, contextually appropriate links with diverse anchor text offer the most benefits. Natural, editorially given links, as opposed to paid or forced ones, are also highly prized.
Yes, while backlinks can be potent, they come with pitfalls. Acquiring low-quality or spammy links can result in penalties from search engines. Furthermore, the pursuit of backlinks without a strategic focus can be time-consuming and may divert attention from other crucial marketing endeavors.
Definitely. Tailored strategies cater to specific niches. For bloggers, guest posting on reputable platforms is effective. eCommerce sites might leverage product reviews or influencer partnerships. B2B companies often gain backlinks through webinars, white papers, and industry research collaborations.
Internal linking connects pages within the same website, aiding in navigation and distributing page authority. Backlinks are incoming links from external sites, signifying trustworthiness and enhancing SEO ranking.
