How to get backlinks

Backlinks are definitely one of the main factors in ranking a site in Google. External backlinks help users get information or a service on the site and, also, “inform” the search engine about the presence of useful content with a sufficient level of expertise. So, the presence of backlinks from relevant and high-quality web resources will give the site a certain authority in the eyes of the search engine.

It is quite difficult to get quality links, they are either bought or looking for free placement opportunities. Next, let’s look at 15 proven tactics for getting links.

Skyscraper technology

The Skyscraper Technique is a link building tactic where you find content with a lot of backlinks, create something better, and then ask everyone who links to the content you’ve improved to link to you instead. How to implement it?

1. You need to find relevant content with a lot of backlinks.
2. Analyze and implement content improvements in the following aspects:

• length – you can supplement, expand the existing information;
• freshness – is the article outdated? Update information, images, etc.;
• design – try to improve the design so that it stands out and is attractive;
• depth – if the content in question only skims the surface of the topic, go deeper and explain in more detail

Increasing the value of the content is the most important, changes “for the sake of changes” without real improvement of the content are unnecessary.

1. Reach out to those who have already linked to the specific content you’ve improved.

Reverse skyscraper technique

The backlinking technique is when you take quality content that is already on your site, find similar lower quality pages with a lot of backlinks, and then ask everyone who links to those pages to link to you instead.

It works for the same reasons as the “direct” skyscraper method. The advantage is that you don’t have to create new content, find good reasons why your page is better than theirs. If you find them, offer your link as a replacement for those linking to the page.

Creating links to resource pages

Building resource page links is where you get backlinks from web pages that link to useful industry resources.

To find resource pages, run one of these Google searches with a phrase related to your topic:

• * intitle:resources inurl:resources.html
• * intitle:resources inurl:links.html

eg:

seo intitle:resources inurl:resources.html

seo intitle:resources inurl:links.html

You need to review the results to determine which resource pages are relevant to your niche. Find out the administrator’s e-mail address and offer to post a link to your resource.

It goes without saying that your content should be link-worthy, as the main purpose of such pages is to post links to valuable resources.

Creating broken links

Broken link building is a tactic that exploits broken pages on the Internet. This involves finding a “dead” page and asking linkers to change the link to a working page on your site. The process of creating broken links consists of the following stages:

1. Find broken backlink pages
2. Check the link
3. Create your page to replace the non-working one
4. Outreach – consists in the fact that you offer to replace the resource to those who refer to the non-working page. This is usually done in one of two ways:

• Mass mailing – “shotgun outreach”. You send everyone the same email without personalization.
• Personalized mailing – “sniper outreach”. You send unique, personalized emails to everyone.

301 link building redirects

This is when you find irrelevant 301 redirects and offer a suitable replacement to anyone who links to them. This works for the same reason that building broken links works; site owners don’t want to send their visitors to essentially dead pages.

Submission of “best X in Y” lists

“Best x in y” lists are publications that list the best companies in a specific area or industry. Finding and posting to listings where you are not yet featured can get you more attention and backlinks.

You can find relevant listings by performing a Google search using the following formula:

Best BUSINESS TYPE -“YOUR BUSINESS NAME”, for example:

https://www.sortlist.com/seo/ukraine-ua,https://www.outerboxdesign.com/search-marketing/search-engine-optimization/best-seo-companies-list lists of the best SEO Agencies of Ukraine are presented, where there is no link to Wedex.

HARO

HARO (Help A Reporter Out) is a free service that connects journalists with sources and sources with journalists. This is an easy way to get quality backlinks because journalists are demanding answers from you, not the other way around.

Sign up as a source and you’ll start receiving e-mails with questions from journalists at various publications. The problem is that the vast majority of requests will be irrelevant, so it’s worth setting up a Gmail filter to avoid overloading.

Guest blog

Guest blogging is when you write a post for another website and usually get a link back to your site and attribution in return.

To find websites that are likely to accept guest posts, go to Content Explorer Ahrefs, enter a keyword related to your niche and change the dropdown to “In Title”. This will result in finding millions of pages with relevant content.

You can then apply filters to narrow down the results and find websites to recommend, such as:

Domain Rating: 30+. This weeds out websites with very low authority.

Site traffic: 5000+. Weed out sites with low traffic or no traffic at all.

Page traffic: 50+. Weed out pages with low traffic.

Published: Last 90 days. This allows you to weed out websites that haven’t published content recently and may not be responsive to offers.

You also need to check the box “One page per domain” because it makes no sense to refer to the same site multiple times.

If there are too many sites, go to the “Websites” tab to view the top 100 most visited sites. Pay special attention to sites with multiple authors, as they are more likely to accept guest posts.

Podcast interview

A podcast interview is when you act as an expert on a podcast and the host asks you a question.

Each one will only take about an hour of your time, and if you choose them wisely, backlinks are almost guaranteed. This is because most podcasts have episode pages on their site, which almost always include links to the guest’s site and social profiles.

First, you need to find podcasts for pitching, which you can do by searching Google for the best industry podcasts. Most of the results will be lists, and Google also tends to show a carousel of podcasts in search results.

Before applying, check the podcast episode pages to make sure they link to their guests.

Unrelated mentions

Unlinked mentions are when people cite your brand (or something related to your brand) online without linking to your site.

This is an easily achievable option in link building because you are already halfway there. A person is already familiar with your brand, so asking them to add a link to a mention is often enough to get a link.

Eliminate whitespace in references

Link gap analysis identifies websites that link to multiple competitors but not to you. These links are often easy to get because if someone is linking to several competitors, it might make sense for them to link to you as well.

Get links to stock stores

Supplier links come from companies whose products you sell. These links are easy to get if you sell products from companies that list stockists on their websites.

How to do it.

To find the relevant supplier pages, find the websites of all the companies whose products you carry, then do the following Google search for each:

site:brand.com intitle: “suppliers” OR intitle: “where to buy”

You should see in the search results if they have a page for distributors.

Then just contact them and ask them to add you to the list.

Use existing memberships

To find opportunities, make a list of all the organizations, communities, and clubs you are a member of. Then find their websites and contact them and ask for a link if that makes sense.

Summary of news by links

Link Roundups are roundups of the best new content in a specific industry, usually from the past week or month. The authors of these posts are always looking for worthy content to include in the next review, so this is an easy way to link to new content.

To find review posts, search Google for your topic, then type:

SEO intitle:2023 intitle:”review”

Since there’s no point in looking for outdated posts, filter your search results for the past three months (Tools > Anytime > Custom Range > select the last three months on the calendar).

Finally, read the reviews and suggest content relevant to them for links.

Internal backlinks

Internal backlinks are links from other pages on the same website. Internal links are often overlooked by SEO professionals, which is a big mistake because they are a powerful way to drive “authority” to pages that need it. You also have full control over them – unlike external backlinks.

The tactics discussed are not new or spectacular, but they are effective. No need to try to use them at the same time. Try one, improve your skills and grow. The most important thing to remember is that the purpose of creating or obtaining backlinks is the benefit and convenience of visitors to the web resource. Only under this condition, the link will benefit the business and the site, when search engines will note the positive experience of users and improve its ranking.

Oleksandr Romanenko

Team Lead/Senior SEO specialist

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