The Top 6 Smart Ways to Get Backlinks for SEO Strategy
2017.03.20
Link building is not just one of the most effective SEO strategies, it is one of the oldest ways to get backlinks It is one of the most effective ways to generate organic search traffic, and if not handled properly, it can harm your traffic also.
Search engines like Google deploy the use of links to identify the websites that are good because links serve as endorsements or recommendations, hence the more links you get, the higher you get ranked. Google updates have always forced web owners to look for more ways to get backlinks. We are now at a point where only the best links can get your website at the top pages of search engines.
How to get free backlinks to your website – the top 6 most essential steps to take
#1 Guest Blogging
If you are looking for how to get links to your site with less hassles, your number one option should be Guest blogging. Though Google has been warning people against guest blogging because of the tendencies to abuse the strategy, and secondly, low-value posts can damage the reputation of your site, but if done right, guest blogging can become the most efficient link building tool.
Your first strategy is to identify the ideal blogs that may infuriate your main competitors. You can achieve this with the use of “Advanced Google search”. Make use of the author’s name in quotation marks, and make use of keywords such as “guest post”- these should also be in quotation marks. Your next step is to include the author’s home domain, with the addition of the minus sign at the front, so that certain unwanted results will be excluded. For instance;
“Author Name ”+ “guest post”- Author site.
Since the Author Name is everywhere on the internet, it can help you get your search results narrowed down a little. You may also want to search in-between the URL before identifying the author. For this reason, you wouldn’t just mention them, but you get more parameters about their blogs and websites.
Now that you have seen what you are looking for, you should take note of the sharing and backlink data, located at the side bar. If your main competitor has been featured on the guest blog, there is a high chance you will also be accepted. Now that you have identified the ideal guest blogs, you can make use of the “Write us” or “Inquiries” form, to contact their editors.
Your next step to get free backlinks is to get an ideal guest post links. Guest blogging will help you build links because links can be put in your guest posts, to link readers back to your own website, and such links can also be included in the Author’s bio.
You need to ensure that your links are contextual and don’t put author’s bio in a position where they are less likely to be clicked. Make sure you put the links in natural and easily detectable position.
#2 Public relations engagement may be the ideal way to go
The use of public relations in link building may also be your ideal options if you are looking for how to get links to your site. In the context of link building, public relations simply means using the same methods or press released to build links, for SEO purposes. PR sources such as Helpareporter.com, and Classic PR, are just two of PR tools you can use for this. You can make use of PR integration options and make sure you submit a press release with the right article that can linked (your article must cover the subject matter in your press release).
The overuse of anchor texts is one mistake most people make when using PR to get free backlinks. The overuse of anchor texts can result in what is referred to as “penguin penalty”. Instead of using too many anchor texts you need to use your PR links to put varieties of anchors linking to your website.
In addition to generating backlinks from PRs, you can also add your press releases to directories, and databases, thus making them more effective for your SEO.
You need to take note of the fact that even when you get mentioned, there is no guarantee that people referencing you through your PR will give you a link. Sometimes they do make this error, but make sure you get back to them and remind them that you need the link.
#3 Why not try the broken link strategy?
If you are looking how to get links to your site, without many hassles, then you should make use of broken links. Even the best websites may suffer from “link-rot”, and this occurs when such website owners move content around and resulting in backlinks that lead to empty locations. Broken link building can help fix this problem. Broken links will help refer people who land on an empty page, to a new unbroken content (this is your web page).
With this strategy, everyone wins because readers will be directed to new information; hence they serve as excellent quality backlinks. You can start this strategy by first identifying the site you will get quality backlinks from, then search for the ideal keywords and identify websites that are ranked for such keywords before identifying the broken links.
#4 You should consider the Skyscraper strategy too
Skyscraping is an effective strategy if you are looking for how to get inbound links. Skyscraping means, searching for valuable contents within your space and then making them more valuable. It helps you create something bigger. When skyscraping, you should ask yourself certain questions; which questions seem to be unanswered? Which instructions seem to be hard to follow? Who is not getting any services here?
Simply create better contents for such topics, contact them, to generate backlinks.
#5 Consider the incorporation of resource links
Resource Links may be the best way to go if you are searching for how to get inbound links. Rather than linking directly to your web post, resource links can directly link back to your contents without you hustling for such backlinks. The key here is to make sure you create resources that are very useful to your readers; hence they will eventually refer to them and even use them in their blog posts. You can build resource links by finding out what exactly your readers want to know and what exactly people are looking for in your competitors’ website. Make sure you address their concerns.
#6 This may not sound good, but it works- Steal your competitors’ backlinks
This may sound like a bad habit, but the fact that any site that links to a competitor has higher chances of linking back to you also. You can start this by simply identifying the top websites for the keywords that you want to be ranked for; you can achieve this through the use of Google search and then pick the top 10 domains. Assuming you want to be ranked top for the keyword “halloween costumes”, you may end up with websites such as halloweencostumes.com, partycity.com, buycostumes.com and so on.
You need to check the top website for this keyword for relevance and duplication; you can simply copy these to “Ahrefs” and then drop them inside the “Link Intersect” tool. If the links generated does not link to a blank page, then you should leave the site, however, if you see something like ‘show link opportunities”, then you should click on them. Clicking on this option will show you the lists of websites that link to all the domains you have entered.
If you get too many domains with this strategy, then you might want to shrink them a little. All you have to do is to go back and remove some of the candidates that are not giving you the best results before trying again. Once you try again, you will notice that the search results generated will be much more useful. The next results will offer you better backlink targets.
Alternatively, you can avoid these stressful steps by duplicating your main competitors’ backlinks profiles. Though this may take a lot more work, but will be more effective in the long run. You can do this by collecting URLs, for each keyword you intended to do, instead of domains, then take them to Ahref again, before dropping them into Site Explorer and then click on “Referring domains”. You may get one or two backlinks the first time you do this, but the more you repeat the procedure for more keywords, the more backlinks you get.
Final take away
Link building is one of the most accurate and effective SEO strategies you can consider because of its accuracy. It is also important that you know how to implement these link building strategies to achieve the best possible results.