Remember the (not so good) old days when black hat SEO “experts” used to add links to your website on various directories and create spammy content that repeated the same keyword ad nauseam?
Thankfully, those days are gone.
Companies that are serious about their SEO avoid spammy content and keyword stuffing at all costs and invest in exceptional content that positions them as an authority in their field. As for backlinks, they now have to be earned, not bought for pennies.
This is exactly what I want to talk about – how to earn quality backlinks that help your website rank better.
But first, let’s take a brief look at the basics.
Why do you need backlinks?
We already know that backlinks are one of the three ranking factors that Google themselves deemed relevant.
Having Google tell us directly that backlinks matter a lot to your rankings should be enough to get you to focus on them more.
Here’s why: Google bots consider every backlink to your website a vote of confidence. When someone else links to your content, it means they trust what you are saying. It means you are an authority in your field. So you deserve to rank higher.
Obviously, the more links pointing to your website, the higher your authority. And your ranking. Of course, the authority of the website linking to you also matters a lot. So don’t rush into getting links from any website. In fact, you should disavow the links coming from websites with poor authority.
Now let’s see how you can get those quality links the right way.
4 Tactics to get Quality Backlinks to Your Website
1. Publish GREAT content
Good doesn’t cut it anymore. Everyone publishes content, so you have to stand out from the crowd.
Great, authority content is the way to get there.
Long form blog posts are the easiest way to turn you into an authority in your field. But don’t go long form just because you have to hit a certain word count.
Write exhaustively on your topic. Offer explanations, give sources and point to other resources. Write as much as you need to write to give your readers no reason to bounce back to the results page.
But don’t go overboard. Don’t drag it for too long. You will get boring content that’s torture to read.
Producing excellent content that people want to link to is the first step to affordable SEO.
When you hire SEO writers, make sure they are accustomed to writing for human readers and that they won’t simply stuff your content with keywords and call it a day.
Getting links on your content’s own merits is, of course, the best tactic. But you have to help your content along its internet journey.
The best of blog posts is worth nothing if no one gets to read it. So promote via ads, emails or reach out to the experts you linked to in your content to make it famous.
2. Guest blog
Write for other platforms. Share your knowledge with new audiences and get backlinks to your website at the same time.
You are now reading a guest post.
Writing for platforms like SiteProNews is a great way for me to establish my authority in the field, get backlinks back to my own website and even get clients. The vast majority of articles I publish as a guest blogger result in leads.
People read them, click on the link to my agency’s website and reach out to us for copywriting, social media or marketing strategy services.
If you choose your guest blogging platforms wisely, you will have nothing to lose by producing more content. But you stand to win a lot!
3. Become a source for reporters (HARO)
Don’t worry – you don’t have to witness world-changing news to become a source.
HARO is a platform that connects journalists and bloggers in every imaginable field with reliable sources. Remember those “10 experts share their views on…” articles? This is one of the ways they become reality.
The process is simple and completely free. There are also paid options on HARO, but you can always start with the basic, free one.
You sign up as a source, then wait for the first email from HARO. They typically send two per day.
Scroll down to your field of activity – you can find anything from bioengineering to gossip. You will get instructions on how to contact the journalist that needs help and details on what they need help with – a brief, if you will.
4. Reach out via email
There are two situations in which you can reach out via email to someone you’ve never met, but think they may be interested in linking to your website.
First, you saw that they mentioned your brand, but didn’t link to you. This is an opportunity you should seize immediately.
Reach out to them, thank them for the mention, then ask if they could also link to your website to help their readers who are interested in what you do find you easily.
Secondly, you can reach out to someone who hasn’t mentioned you, but wrote about something that’s close to home.
For example, a few months ago I published a collection of 50+ websites for entrepreneurs and business owners. Since that blog post does extremely well in search engines, a lot of people have read it and send me suggestions of other websites I could add to the list.
Some suggestions come from the owners of said websites, while others are from people who genuinely love a certain website that they’re not affiliated with in any way, but would like to help make it more popular.
I sift through the proposals and accept the ones that I deem fit to make my list and reject the rest.
It’s incredibly easy to do the same for your own content.
Whatever your field of industry is, you can surely find articles that speak about products/service providers. Or articles that complement your own. Or articles that could benefit from your latest amazing infographic.
You get the drill.
It may seem like a time-consuming endeavor, but once you get the feel for what works and what doesn’t in cold emailing, it will become much easier.
Conclusions
The best way to earn quality links is to be a responsible “internet” citizen. Don’t do to others what you don’t like done to you.
Don’t comment with spammy links. Comment when it’s relevant. Try to bring some value with each comment you post and each email you send.
And, most importantly, create amazing content of your own. Give people something they want to link to.
If you need help with creating that precise kind of content – the kind that earns links easily – reach out! My team of SEO writers and I would be happy to help you!
