SEO is constantly changing and evolving, but one thing has always been the same over the years – backlinks remain the most powerful factor in Google’s rankings. I’d hate to say this, but many businesses have overlooked this key point. I’ve talked to a few business owners before and surprisingly, some of them have no idea how impactful backlinks can be.
In fact, the best way to boost your site up is to get high-quality backlinks and you can do that by creating valuable, high-quality content, distributing your content through the right channels, and generally publishing “linkable” content.
Without further ado, let’s get started by looking at these 8 effective tips on how you can get quality backlinks.
Doing a research isn’t just citing something that has been said elsewhere. It includes unique statistics and data about a given subject. Whenever someone else wants to mention the information that you’ve provided, the only way to be authoritative is to link to the original source – you.
This kind of content takes time and effort to create, but it usually results in high-quality backlinks because people who bother with citations at all tend to be fairly reputable.
With that being said, research alone isn’t the only thing you need to succeed. The best research comes with insights and interpretations that help to make sense of data. Ideally, these will come from someone who’s positioned as an expert in the field that the research is about. The better their reputation, the better your research looks. And of course, the better the backlinks you will get.
If you don’t have anyone sufficiently reputable in your own company, consider asking an outside expert to provide some thoughts and insights about your research. Trust me, many of them are quite willing to cooperate.
Content that has great visuals offers value that makes your content more link-worthy. There are three types of visuals that are particularly helpful for getting high-quality backlinks.
Infographics are a good way of presenting helpful information, research, and statistics.
A well-made infographic can help to provide some context to the information and focus on the key points that are most important for readers to know. Make sure that your infographics have a URL at the bottom that leads to the full study since you can’t control every site on where it might be posted. So this will definitely help anyone studying it find the original material.
Charts and diagrams are ideal for simplifying the understanding of complex data. These are a lot like infographics, but they tend to focus on one specific piece of information instead of multiple pieces that all lead to a certain conclusion. Charts and diagrams can show the relationships between different people, the Return On Investment (ROI) for a given project and other types of helpful information.
They also tend to serve as good introductory images for a given piece of content, especially if you’re presenting information that follows in a certain sequence.
Finally, videos are an entirely different way of sharing information and if you can create a great video, other influencers will share it around. The ideal length of a video should be long enough to properly cover the subject. If it seems like it’s losing focus, people will just stop paying attention. Therefore, it is always best to keep it as short and direct as you can. (Don’t forget that videos are often watched on mobile devices, so small file sizes are very important.)
An ultimate guide is your definitive take on any given subject and they’re ideal for teaching people exactly how to do a particular thing. For example, right at this moment, you’re reading an ultimate guide that is all about getting high-quality backlinks. The mere fact that you’re reading this sentence proves that this strategy works.
The key concept here is that in-depth content makes your guide a go-to resource when readers have a job they need to get done. As an added bonus, it can be a great lead-generation tool because influencers will happily link to outstanding guides. But when you add SEO content focused on letting people know that you can help, you can drastically improve your ROI.
Regardless of the exact type of content you’re making, though, every guide should be practical and something people can immediately start putting to use. Most guides work best if they cover each topic in 100-300 words each, interspersed with the occasional graphic to catch the reader’s attention and make sure they aren’t drifting off.
Other than your content itself, the presentation is also an important part of getting high-quality backlinks. Most people are far more likely to listen to their friends or at least to people that are in their social circle. This is why it’s important to engage with influencers with high-authority sites.
However, you don’t want to spam them. Don’t ring them up every time you publish a blog and ask them to share it. Instead, try to build a real relationship with them and get them to pay attention to your content on their own terms. If they’re checking you, they will be much more likely to cite your content. You may even inspire them to provide some commentary of their own when they introduce it to their audiences.
Now, there’s no set method for starting a relationship – mostly because everyone is different. Some people, especially researchers and professionals, they tend to react well if they’re asked for an expert opinion on a subject. Others accept submissions from anyone who meets certain requirements, while still other influencers may want to trade content with you in order to maximize their views. As such, I’m not going to give you some kind of secret strategy – those don’t work.
Instead, I’ll just note what will help: Researching influencers and figuring out what kind of people they are. It’s a lot like making a buyer persona, really. Once you get to know what they care about, you can approach them in whatever way that is the most likely to succeed.
A more direct way of getting high-quality backlinks is creating guest posts for high-authority blogs and adding the links yourself.
Now, contrary to certain rumors, guest posting is not dead. It’s very far from it, but you absolutely have to remember the need to create high-quality content. When you do a guest post, you’re usually talking to an entirely new audience. They’re not familiar with you, your history, or the things you’ve said in the past. So you need to approach them on their terms and provide content that’s truly worth reading.
Originally written posts are still the most popular way of making guest posts, but if you have infographics, consider sharing those as well. If you do, people won’t be focused on you as a company. They will be focusing on the content that you’re providing and if you use that to influence them, they’ll probably be more willing to follow through and click a link back to your site.
Many companies don’t realize how useful press releases can be for getting high-quality backlinks. But let’s face the truth – press releases can be a surprisingly reliable way of getting links back to your website. They also help to increase your exposure across the Internet, which is something really worth doing.
Now, if you’re like most companies, you’re probably not familiar with the best ways to get your business seen by others. That’s okay. Press release services like MarketersMEDIA can help you get hundreds or even thousands of new views for each release you make. And many of the people reading the content are mostly professionals who really do want to know more about your business.
As with all types of content, the quality of your press releases matter. Ideally, you’ll be able to add some level of excitement to your content such as things that are new, innovative, and helpful because these content tend to go over better than announcements about minor upgrades or business happenings.
Remember, you’re not writing for yourself. You’re writing for potential customers and what they think is important – this is the only thing that matters. If you’re not sure how you should write the press release, we have an SEO press release writing guide for you.
This is one of the sneakier methods of getting great backlinks. Instead of just creating content, the idea here is to make content that takes attention away from your competitors. Thus, anyone who might have linked to them will instead link to you – and that’s on top of the normal backlinks you could expect to earn with that content.
Start by identifying the keywords you want to rank for. Innovative tools like RankReveal can help you figure out what keywords that your competitors are ranking for.
Once you have that, you can optimize your content with SEOPressor or even Website SEO Checker to make sure you get high SEO score and overtake them.
Chances are they won’t even realize you’re doing it until you’ve had the chance to establish yourself. So my advice is that it’s best to implement this strategy only after you have a solid base of keywords you’re already doing well with. Otherwise, you run the risk of them countering you and leaving you with no useful keywords at all.
In other words, this is a strategy for established businesses, and not those just starting out.
Finally, you might be surprised at how important it is to have a solid internal linking structure for your site. The focus here is increasing the usability of your site. It’s not just about getting people onto landing pages, but helping them find other content, products, and services that you may be offering.
In general, people like useful websites. If your website is easy to navigate, people will remember that. But if it’s hard to navigate and find things besides the content that brought them in, they’re not as likely to link to you.
Ultimately, creating unique and valuable content is crucial to getting high-quality backlinks while improving your content marketing and SEO. It’s very important to add new content on a regular basis, yes, but the quality of your content is the main thing that determines how successful your marketing campaigns will be.
Similarly, the most effective way to get good backlinks is to create linkable content that provides real value to your audiences. This means supporting your articles with references, sharing authoritative content like research, and spreading the word about guides and e-books that can solve problems.
People don’t want answers that stop halfway. If they have a question or a problem, they want a definitive answer that allows them to move on. Don’t settle for second-rate when you’re making content. This is the material that will be many people’s first exposure to your company, and the better your first impression is, the more likely people are to think highly of you and start converting into customers.
As long as you keep your focus on creating high-quality content, it won’t be long before you start getting the high-quality backlinks you’ve been looking for.
What are your thoughts about these 8 effective strategies to get high-quality backlinks? If you’ve tried any other methods, feel free to share it with us in the comment box down below!
Updated: 22/8/17
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