Link Building is a significant part of any SEO strategy. It’s what determines the Domain Authority, which is one way Google determines a sites’ credibility. A website’s credibility will heavily influence its Google keyword ranking. Backlinks are also the source of referral traffic, which can make up a decent portion of overall website visitors.
The bottom line is, your backlinks (partially) define the influence of your website. These tips will help you build more high quality links for a stronger SEO strategy.
Create Quality Content
There is simply no substitute for creating quality content. Whether it’s purpose is to educate or entertain, it has to appeal to a specific audience. Just as great shows make a successful television network, great content makes a great website.
Creating useful and unique content will greatly increase the shareability of your work. If your content offers something refreshing, people will be happy to reference your work by linking back to the original source.
Turn brand mentions into backlinks
Chances are, people are talking about your business, but most of them aren’t linking to your website.
What a waste of a brand mention, right?
Luckily, you can monitor your online brand mentions. Think of it as a more in-depth version of Google Alerts. Once you know when (and where) your brand is mentioned, simply find a way to contact the site’s webmaster and ask them to add a link to your brand’s name.
Contribute to Relevant Publications
Not all backlinks are created equal.
You’re much better off with one backlink from a super credible site like The New York Times than you would from 1000 random spam links. It’s the quality of the links that determine your credibility, not necessarily how many.
Why?
Anyone can buy a bunch of links, but they can’t all get links from respected sources. This is what helps some sites stand out in Google’s algorithm.
So your goal should be to contribute to sources that are respected in your industry. Brainstorm a list of influential publications in your industry and see which welcome contributions. Getting published will not only get you quality backlinks, but will also introduce your work to a whole new audience for more referral traffic and repeat visitors!
Write Guest Posts for Relevant Bloggers
Similar to article contributions, you can submit guest posts for some blogs. Just research quality blogs in your industry that accept guest posts.
If you want to be considered, be sure your work is original. Consider covering popular industry topics, but from a different angle to add perspective. They won’t want to publish the same old stuff, so make sure your work is unique!
If you’re not finding any luck with the top industry publications/blogs, aim for mid-sized sources for a higher chance of getting featured.
Utilize HARO
HARO (or Help A Reporter Out) is an excellent way to build backlinks to your site. It’s a free online tool that allows publishers (bloggers and journalists) to connect with industry professionals when they need a credible source.
Publishers quote thought leaders allowing them to write outside their expertise (and maintain their credibility) while professionals get free exposure with a backlink. Consider the audience of the outlet looking for a source; if their audience isn’t right for your brand, you may want to reconsider.
Subscribe to get daily feeds sent to your email filled with queries from different sources. Simply pick and choose which you want to pitch, and get writing!
Get Your Site Listed in Trustworthy Directories
Regardless of which field you’re in, there are probably people researching your line of work. Directories represent a shortcut for people to find what they’re looking for online. People look to local or niche directories when looking for a service, ranging from an Italian restaurant in New York to a lawyer in Seattle.
Getting your business listed in local or niche directories presents the opportunity for quality online exposure and valuable backlinks. Just search for directories covering your industry or location and contact the site owner to get yourself listed in the appropriate categories. It’s that simple!
Fix Broken Backlinks
Pending the age of your business/website, there are likely many links that used to direct people to your website. This could be the result of technical errors, outdated sources, and more.
You can replace some of the broken links with working ones. This process is also known as broken link building.
Rather than pursuing new opportunities, broken link building focuses on recovering lost links. It’s very effective when you consider how little time and effort it takes compared to starting from scratch.
Start by discovering broken backlinks.
You can use a broken backlink checker by typing in your domain and using the “404 not found” filter.
Once you know which links are broken, create a list of each site (with a way to reach them) and ask their site master to replace the broken link with something new (that works). This could be anything from your home page to a more up-to-date article. Anything is better than linking to a 404 page!
If you’d like to find the broken links on your own site (for free), you can in Google Analytics.
When signed in, click Behavior ➡️ Site Content ➡️ All Pages. Then click Page Title under “Primary Dimensions”.
From here, create a filter at the bottom of the page using your website’s 404 error (ex: “Page not found”). This will filter out all links but the broken ones that go to your website.
Steal Competitor Backlinks
Swiping competitor backlinks is a win-win because you’re gaining links while a competitor is losing them. This strategy (also known as the Reverse Engineering Competitor Backlink Technique) takes time to execute but is worth it in the long-run.
You can start by identifying competitor backlinks. Naturally, most links won’t be possible to steal. Instead, pick and choose the most realistic opportunities and invest time there.
From the backlinks available, you’ll get a pretty good idea of their acquisition strategy. Your next move is to one-up them! Let’s say someone linked to your competitor’s blog post in one of their articles as a way to cite their source. If the linked blog post is outdated, you can write something more up-to-date and persuade whoever wrote the article to link to your (better) article instead.
Are your SEO Rankings bringing enough traffic to your website? Your backlinks are a big part of it. If you’re having SEO issues, consult with the experts at Active Web Group. With over 20 years of experience with businesses of all sizes and industries, we’ll be able to lead you in the right direction. Contact us here or call now at 800-978-3417.
