Backlinks are one of the most important Google ranking factors and you can’t rank without backlinks in any decent niches.
Getting backlinks isn’t rocket science but still, a lot of people struggle in getting backlinks.
That’s why in this guide, we will talk about 5 of the best ways to get backlinks that work today.
So, Let’s begin.
5 Best Ways to Get Backlinks
Here are the 5 best ways to get backlinks to improve your website’s authority and SEO.
Guest Posts
Guest posting is when you write free content for another site in exchange for a backlink.
First, you create a list of websites in your niche that you want to get a backlink from. Remember, if your website is brand new, it’s unlikely that an authoritative site will allow you to publish on their site.
You can start with a less established site and over time you can reach out to more authoritative websites.
After creating your list, it’s time to reach out to them asking for a guest post. Find their email address and write an email introducing yourself and asking for a guest post.
But there is a problem, these website owners get hundreds of emails per day from people asking for a guest post. That’s why you have to be unique and here’s how:
- Re-write their old content: Reach out to a website where you want a link form and ask them to rewrite their old content. Also, the link from an old page is more authoritative than the freshly written guest posts.
- Pitch a Topic that they can Rank for: In this technique, you find a topic that their blog can rank for, not just any random topic but you have to do keyword research for them and find topics that their competitors are ranking for but they haven’t written any post about that topic.
Additionally, some sites welcome guest bloggers to write for their websites. To find these sites, search on Google using “your niche + write for us”.
Then reach out to them and ask them for a guest post.
The downside of these sites is that these sites typically accept guest posts and that’s why their link isn’t as valuable as sites that don’t typically accept guest posts.
Skyscraper Technique
In the skyscraper technique, you start by finding a post with a lot of backlinks.
Then, you create a better post than that, your goal is to make it so good that people can’t resist linking to it.
Now, the next step is to reach out to those people who are linking to that page and ask them to link to your page because your content is better.
Here’s how to do it:
- Find an article in your niche that has a lot of backlinks.
- Create better, more in-depth, and more user-friendly articles than that.
- Create a list of websites that are linking to that article.
- Reach out to these websites and ask them to link to your page instead.
Want to dive deeper into the world of Skyscraper Technique? check out this guide on skyscraper technique.
Linkable Assets
Linkable assets mean creating content that attracts links like a magnet. Here are some types of content that do very well:
- Research studies and statistics: Writers reference data when they are writing content and typically when they reference data they link to it. This SEO statistics page by Ahrefs has attracted over 3500 backlinks and still attracting backlinks.
- Ultimate guides: Ultimate guides has the potential to attract tons of backlinks. This ultimate guide to SEO by Hubstop has pulled over 7000 backlinks.
- Free tools: Free tools not only provide value to your readers, but they also attract backlinks. This free keyword research tool by WordStream has attracted over 20000 backlinks.
- High-numbered listicles: High-numbered listicles attract a lot of links because they cover a lot of information about a topic and this high number seems like the information is authoritative. This listicle on the 110 best SEO tools has attracted over 3000 backlinks.
Here’s how to create them:
- Know your audience: What does your audience like, do they like ultimate guides or do they like free tools?
- Analyze your competitor: Analyze your competitors and look at what’s already working by reverse engineering your competitors.
- Do the research and collect data: Do research and collect data from multiple sources to get some credibility.
- Make it visually pleasing: Don’t miss this step, no one wants to link to something that’s a mess.
- Promote it: Post it on your blog, share it on social media, and do outreach about it.
If you’re interested in learning more about linkable assets and how to create them, this guide on how to create linkable assets will be worth it.
HARO
HARO stands for help a reporter out. It’s a platform that connects journalists with sources and sources with journalists.
It allows journalists to get quotes from experts to use in their articles and when they use your quote they link to you.
For example, if a journalist is writing a post on Forbes about people that works online and they want a quote from someone who works online like you.
So they can ask a question like “what has inspired you to work online”
So you hit them up and drop your answer. If they used your quote they will give you a backlink.
To get started, sign up on HARO and each day you will get some requests from different websites.
The key is to answer these questions as fast as possible because thousands of other people are doing the same and also journalists are looking to complete their articles as fast as possible.
HARO is a powerful way to get backlinks from top publications and big media sites. If you want to know more about HARO, consider this guide on HARO.
Broken Link Building
Broken link building is when you find a website that is linking to a webpage that doesn’t exist anymore, maybe that page has been deleted or the website has been shut down.
Then you write a high-quality post on the topic that the website is linking to.
After creating your post, you reach out to that website owner and ask them to replace that link with your post.
Here’s how to get started:
- Go to the Ahrefs site explorer, enter the website address, and under the backlink profile section, click broken.
- After finding some good opportunities, create relevant content.
- Reach out to the website owner and ask them to replace that link with your content.
But, there’s a problem some people don’t care about their old pages, so it’s always better to find broken links in their new content pieces.
Wrap Up
Backlinks are one of the most important factors of SEO but, you should also focus on on-page SEO and technical SEO.
Also, quantity shouldn’t be your sole focus while getting backlinks – these links should be from high-quality websites.
Lastly, make sure to try one method at a time, rather than focusing on all methods at once.