For some, backlinks are the number one ranking factor for their websites. While Google’s algorithms seem to change daily and expert opinion on backlinks vary, building high-quality backlinks to your website can not only potentially increase your search engine ranking, it will increase your traffic so acquiring QUALITY backlinks should be an essential part of your SEO strategy.
And bringing more visitors to your website is what search engine optimization (SEO) is all about!
Some backlinks are harder than others to secure, but if they increase your traffic from the search engines, then it?s worth the effort!
Try these techniques to earn quality backlinks and get more visitors to your website:
1. The skyscraper technique. This method has three steps:
- Find a piece of content that has lots of links pointing to it.
- Create a piece of content that is in your voice and potentially offers more relevant information, and publish it on your website. If you’re a good copywriter, you can do this on your own. I like to use freelancers on Upwork.com for my copywriting needs. I have a handful of copywriters I use often and they create the base copy and then I will edit it to match more of my style and voice — but this is a great way to get content created within budget and not taking up too much of your own precious time.
- Contact those who link to the original piece and ask them if they would rather link to your higher quality piece of content, instead. Some will!
2. Create an infographic. This is one of the more popular ways to build backlinks. The reason for this is that infographics are easy to understand and share.
- In order to do this, you will need to find an appropriate topic in your field, perhaps a trending topic (Google Trends is great for researching and discovering hot topics), gather the data, and find someone to make this data visually appealing. Again, Upwork is a great resource to find a designer or you can create infographics on your own using templates on Canva.com
- Be sure to include links to your website in the infographic.
- Once the infographic is created, add it to your website and your social media accounts, where it will likely be shared.
3. Write guest articles. When you create articles to place on other websites, you get to put your content in front of a new audience. This increases the exposure to your own website.
This method is good not only for creating that important backlink but can also increase your own reputation and social media following. I cover how to write bylines and get them published in my PR Course (along with how to get media coverage and interviews as well!)
4. Keep tabs on the competition.
Competitive analysis and knowing what others in your industry is essential to growth. While you never want to copy or plagiarize, keep tabs on where their links are coming from and build relationships with similar companies. A tool I recommend to research backlinks on the competition and to uncover good potential backlinks for your business is SEMRush.
5. Write a testimonial.
Many times, you can get a backlink in exchange for a testimonial — for a product or service you use in your business. Make a list of all products and services you use that are relevant, and contact the owner of the website for the product or service. Offer to write a testimonial for their product and ask for a link back to your website.
6. Get interviewed.
Once you become known as an authority in your niche, you?ll find that others will come directly to you for interviews. This is the #1, MOST EFFECTIVE way to get quality traffic and quality backlinks for your site. It’s also one of the top methods to convert visitors to your site into customers because a third-party is recommending you / your product and highlighting you as an expert. Getting write ups in blogs, online magazines is actually easier that one would think! In my course, Harness the Power of PR, I walk entrepreneurs through the process to start a PR engine where you’re consistently getting media coverage that elevates your brand and explodes sales.
Building backlinks can be a challenge but using these strategies, you will certainly start to build the quality backlinks that will improve your search engine optimization and ultimately sales.
