Ask any SEO expert, and a top recommendation you’ll likely hear (after researching your keywords) is going to be building up your backlinks.
Backlinks are hyperlinks that point from one website to another. About 91 percent of all web pages never get any organic traffic from Google, and that’s mostly due to the fact that they don’t have backlinks.
Don’t be one of those pages.
We all want to improve the search engine ranking of our website, but when it comes to getting others to link to you, it’s easy to feel lost. Plus, you don’t want just any backlink for your site. Quality (meaning that the backlink is coming from a trusted website) is important as well.
Here are seven tips that can help you grow quality backlinks for your website and improve your ranking.
Submit a pitch to guest blog
Instead of reaching out to websites and publications to ask if they will backlink to you for any number of reasons, you can switch up your pitch to vie for a guest blog or article spot on their site.
Why? Because as part of your byline and/or author bio, a backlink can be included pointing to your website. You also could have the opportunity to include a handful of backlinks to your site within your content, depending.
But a successful pitch requires a bit more than offering free content.
First, you’ll want to do your homework on the website you’re pitching to. Who is their audience? How would your content address something that not only appeals to that audience but also isn’t already being covered by the website itself?
Know who you need to reach out to and how. Many websites actually have “how to pitch to us” directions available that include what email address you should send your pitch to, as well as any other expectations they have of pitches.
Regularly conduct backlink audits
You can find websites that others are getting links from by conducting regular backlink audits with tools, such as SEMrush.
These websites are the most likely to accept pitches and add backlinks to your site’s content.
Create more visual content
Quality backlinks truly stem from quality content on your end. One of the highest engaging types of content is visual, and of that, infographics easily draw in an audience (and backlinks).
People following directions with text and illustrations do 323 percent better than people following directions without illustrations.
In short, infographics are simply an effective method of visual communication.
Converting some of your blog/article information into a helpful infographic raises the value of what could have been a text-only post. Other websites will more likely share or refer to your infographic via social media or backlinks.
In addition, videos are a great form of engaging visual content.
About 54 percent of consumers want to see more video content from a brand or business they support.
Depending on the video, other sites could see a lot of value in adding backlinks to you.
Post more interactive content
Just like with visual content, interactive content is more engaging and more likely to generate backlinks.
Interactive content has a wide range from quizzes to slideshares.
Because interactive content is not used as often as you might think, its uniqueness can help draw backlinks.
However, beyond backlinks, interactive content can increase a user’s time on page, which is also a positive signal for your page’s search engine ranking.
Mention (and link to) industry experts
As you’re creating content, consider quoting (and linking to) what the experts are saying about your topic.
It might take a little research, but it will raise the quality and trustworthiness of your own content.
The better the content, the more likely others will link to it themselves.
This can also be done first hand by interviewing an expert for your blog or article. Again, a bit more effort is needed on your part, but the payoff is that the expert could then share and/or backlink to your article as well.
Update your evergreen content
Evergreen content is content that is not necessarily time bound and is relevant either on an ongoing basis or repeatedly (seasonal content, for example).
Types of evergreen content include (but are not limited to):
- How-to guides
- Suggested tool lists
- History breakdowns (possible timeline formatting)
- Industry term glossary
- Infographics
While evergreen content is highly valuable for your website and the potential for backlinks, it’s all too easy to forget about it and not regularly update.
Freshening up your evergreen content is critical to keep up its relevance for others.
Offer a fix for broken backlinks
This method can be time-consuming and is not as commonly used. However, it can be incredibly effective.
Identify a few relevant, trusted websites in your industry and see if you can find any broken links. (These are more likely to happen the older the content.)
Then, contact that website to offer your own relevant link as a replacement.
While you can speed up the process of discovering broken backlinks by using a free tool, such as Dead Link Checker, you may have to invest time in content creation if you don’t already have a relevant page to offer.
While these tips can help you grow quality backlinks, remember that there’s much more to great SEO than backlinks. Check out these 13 SEO mistakes you could be making right now to ensure you’re doing everything you can to rank well in search results.
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