Backlink Strategy

80% of SEO professionals agree that link-building is a highly effective tactic to include in your marketing strategy. That said, if you’re unsure which backlinking strategies work, you’ll find it challenging to accrue high-quality backlinks.

Backlinks are created when a third party links back to your website. Most often, websites link to outside sources to further explain something or to endorse the site they are linking to.

This demonstrates to Google that your site is an authority, which will push you up the ranks.

Due to this, the quantity and quality of backlinks you have will affect your domain authority, which affects your Google ranking — a higher link authority leads to a higher Google ranking.

Since 50% of all traffic goes to the top spot on Google, you want to be as near as possible to the number one search result to drive as much organic traffic as you can to your website.

A high quantity of backlinks shows Google that you’re an authority to a wide audience. The top result on Google has 380% more backlinks on average than results in positions two to 10.

High-quality backlinks ( i.e., backlinks from other websites with high domain authority scores) enable you to piggyback off the trust that comes with these high-authority sites. This also pushes you up the ranks.

Bear this in mind when building a linking strategy. 

Research the quality of your link first with a domain authority tool. While there are plenty of SEMrush/Moz alternatives, 65% of marketers use Moz’s domain authority to measure a link’s quality. 

In short, sites that rank at the top of Google see more organic traffic. If you want to get to the top spot and drive more traffic, you need a robust backlinking strategy as part of your search engine optimization (SEO) plan.

Write Shareable Content

Content creation is the number one strategy for generating backlinks. The problem is that 90% of web pages get absolutely no traffic. If your content gets no traffic, nobody is backlinking to it.

That’s why 75% of marketers say they generate content that’s specifically designed to net backlinks.

Build Broken Links

A slightly sneaky strategy, this backlink tactic undercuts your competition, filling their outdated shoes.

While it’s a relatively old-fashioned backlink tactic, it’s still used by 53% of marketers.

The idea is that you find links within your sector that no longer work and create replacement content to fill these broken resources. 

Ideally, you’d target competitor sites to find broken content links on their websites. To do this, you can use a broken link checker tool like the one offered by Ahrefs.

Once you find a broken link, you run this URL through a backlink checking tool. Ahrefs also has a backlink checker tool.

The backlink checker will show you all the websites that backlink to the broken resource. You’d then write an article that replaces the original link’s content and contact all those backlinking sites to offer your replacement.

Write Guest Posts

Guest posting is a very popular backlink strategy. In fact, 75% of SEO professionals build backlinks with guest posts.

The thing about guest posts is that they not only help create backlinks, they also build your persona as a trusted authority on a niche subject.

Plus, you get the chance to infiltrate a new audience and show them the value of your brand. 

Not only that, but since content creation can be very time-consuming, it’s often far easier to convince a website to include your backlink if you’re offering content for free.

This is how Simple Money Lyfe founder Drew Cheneler gets so many backlinks to his personal finance blog.

Cheneler finds blogs with similar target markets within a slightly different niche, such as entrepreneurial magazines.

Listen for Brand Mentions

If you listen across the internet for mentions of your brand or products, you can find any unlinked brand mentions and chase them to gain a backlink.

It’s a common strategy — nearly half of all marketers chase brand mentions for backlinks.

If you’re looking for a free tool to do this, try Google Alerts. This will track content that’s published each day and alert you of any content that mentions particular key phrases, such as your brand name or products.

Influencer Outreach

By leveraging influencers, you can build backlinks and market to a new audience. Not only that, but influencers also serve as social proof by endorsing your products to followers.

That’s why 40% of marketers are using influencer outreach as a strategy.

Don’t feel like you need celebrity-level influencers to help boost your backlinking strategy. In fact, influencers with smaller followings tend to get the highest engagement rates.

Simply reach out to relevant influencers in your niche and offer them free products or a commission in return for a backlink on their website or social media pages. 

Link Exchanges

28% of SEO professionals exchange links to bolster their backlinking strategy. It’s a great tit-for-tat tactic. You offer to scratch someone’s back and they’ll scratch yours in return.

This tactic is relatively straightforward.

Find a list of complementary websites that have a similar target audience to you but aren’t in direct competition.

For example, say you’re a software company that offers maturity assessments to consultants. You may find websites that cater to your niche of consultants that don’t directly compete with you by offering complimentary services. Alternatively, you could exchange links with other software or SaaS companies different from yours. 

Write to them directly and offer to backlink to their content in your blogs in return for That said, if you’re unsure which backlinking strategies work, you’ll find it challenging to accrue high-quality backlinks.

Luckily, you can use several different strategies in tandem, which will net backlinks and boost brand awareness.

Research the quality of your link first with a domain authority tool. While there are plenty of SEMrush/Moz alternatives, 65% of marketers use Moz’s domain authority to measure a link’s quality. 

Guest Blog For Larger Sites

This first strategy will probably take the most time out of your schedule, but it can also have the biggest payout — guest blogging on larger sites including links back to yours. 

Building guest blogging connections and getting your unique content posted on other sites will not only help broaden your brand’s reach and drive traffic back to your website, but also build site authority. 

For this backlink strategy, the benefit is ultimately gaining a long-term relationship with a more established and authoritative website and brand.

By building a relationship with bigger influencers, you open the door to even more marketing opportunities including additional articles and guest blogs, perhaps co-branded projects, speaking engagements, as well as more backlinks. 

Make a List of Possible Sites

The first step is finding sites you’d like to get referral traffic from. Think of it this way: Where are your personas going for information? What are they reading? Start by making a list of the top 20-30 sites you can think of (ask customers if you’re struggling to create a list). 

Yes, you could go after random high authority sites to get backlinks from, but the effort to create content is better utilized if you can also reach out to a broader, qualified audience and get referral traffic to your site.

So, only include sites on your list that buyer personas would actually be reading.

Narrow them down!

The next step is to rank those sites by their domain authority, social authority, and relevance to your services and the persona.

You can use sites like Open Site Explorer, or Moz Bar (free) to identify domain authority, and Followerwonk to identify social authority.

Make note of LinkedIn company followers and Facebook likes to help with your rank. During your search, look for the site’s rules on posting/sharing etc. Some may not accept guest posts outside of their network.

After you’ve completed your analysis (you may have removed some from the list at this point, and that’s ok), start with the sites that are of the highest potential and importance. The majority of your effort should be focused on these sites. 

Perfect Your Pitch

One by one, find the submission forms to submit ideas, or the email addresses of editors/copywriters on each site.

First impressions are SO important in this situation, so you want to make sure you have a well thought-out pitch – or else you’ll get overlooked.

When considering topics to pitch, think about the other articles on the site, the readers, and most importantly, the person you’re pitching to.

What will they see as a valuable contribution? If they don’t see the value, you won’t get the post.

While writing your pitch, keep it concise, explain why you have expertise on this topic, and make note of their work.

It goes a long way to make it known you’ve done your research and actually read their content. They may get hundreds of requests in a week from people that will try anything to get links back to their sites, so make your email memorable, and human.

Follow up on your messages, and continue to build a connection with the person you’re talking to. If there isn’t an opportunity to post at the time, you may have one down the road, so connect with them on social media and share their content. 

Optimize Your Article

If you do get a positive response (it really does happen if you put the right energy into it), keep the editor and readers of the site in mind while writing.

They still have the opportunity to ditch your content even after you’ve written it, so ask for guidelines if they aren’t clear on the site. 

Just like you would choose one call-to-action for your site’s blog articles, do the same with this content. You want the link back to your site to be meaningful if referral traffic does come through.

Keep in mind: the editor may remove links if you include too many or don’t follow their instructions, so it’s best to stay focused and make your links meaningful.

With luck, you’ll get your article posted, you’ll gain valuable backlinks, and the blog article you chose as your ‘call-to-action’ will get more traffic to your blog. 

Ask Bloggers to Consider a Review

This type of outreach is most effective if you sell a product. In a similar way to researching sites and bloggers for the point above, start by building a list of bloggers who might be interested in providing a review.

By searching Google for keywords related to your product, you’ll find bloggers that are potential options for this method of outreach.

If you’re interested in taking this route, you have to ensure that your product is 100% ready to be reviewed. 

After finding your target list, craft an email to send to these bloggers, remaining as friendly, human, and non-spammy as possible. 

Remember to:

• Explain how you found the blogger “you were looking for info on x”
• Introduce yourself
• Introduce the product
• Offer to give the product to the blogger for free
•  If they’re interested, ask that they consider mentioning the product on their blog or write a review

It may take some additional communication past your first email, but by working with the writer, you may build a long-term relationship, opening doors to additional posts and links back to your site or articles, essentially driving more site authority and visits to your website or blog.

Offer Your Content as A Resource

Bloggers and copywriters everywhere are looking for resources and links to help them create content for their readers. By utilizing some of the sites from the list you create for guest blogging, consider offering your posts as a resource for them in the future. 

IMPACT gets emails all the time asking our blog to include links to their resources or redirect deadlinks on our site to them — and if they’re relevant and high-quality, we’re happy to do it!

Another great way to find more bloggers to share your content with is to search for link roundups.

Search Google for your keyword and “link round-up” to find authors posting on a regular basis. 

Reach out to them, citing their recent link round-ups, and offer your content as a link for an upcoming post. 

Try HARO or Answer Questions

HARO (Help a Reporter Out) can be hit or miss for your industry, but it’s worth exploring.

Reporters and authors submit posts that you can offer your expertise or insight on as a way to build research for a topic they’re writing about. 

Find posts that are relevant to recent content you’ve written, and you’ll have a better chance at being quoted or linked back to.

You can also search through Quora, Yahoo! Answers, or social media sites for people asking questions pertinent to your expertise.

Not only will you be helpful and position yourself as an expert, but you may have the opportunity to link to a post you’ve written (getting the backlink).

You may even get insight into questions your personas are asking, or an idea for an upcoming blog topic you’d like to write about. 

Get Listed on Directories

Though thought of as an older method for backlinks, it’s still important to show up in directories. These are usually high-ranking and highly trafficked, so take advantage of them, but remember, find those best-suited for your industry, rather than blanketing to hundreds of sites just for the backlinks.