Surprisingly, backlinks are still one of the critical SEO factors, ranking at 2024. The better and more relevant the links from other websites that lead to your site, the better your ranking will be with search engines such as Google.
However, not all links to your website are the same. In fact, low-quality, spam, and irrelevant backlinks can negatively impact your website rankings. However, the only way to rank a website is to have backlinks from genuine sites with higher authority than your site, and they must be in the same line.
This being one of the most popular series of posts on the blog, I’ve decided to update it and present to you, dear reader, a guide on 12 white-hat methods for link building. These are the strategies that, if used, will help you on your way to increasing your domain authority, search traffic, and rankings.
1. Create Link-Worthy Content
It should be noted that the best link building efforts start with the creation of content people find valuable enough to link to. Not only is it beneficial to get natural links, but the content you provide should be useful and informative.
Aim to create content like:
• lords of material and comprehensive instruction manuals
• Field and survey studies and examples
• Data surveys/Evaluations
• Reviews and comparisons
The next step involves holding a meeting with the industry experts.
Ensure that your created content solves the problem or answers something in the eyes of your audiences. Reach out, publicize your content and work through Press Releases so as to get those well valued backlinks.
2. Get Guest Posting
It is one of the best practices of SEO to date, and it is possible to get authoritative backlinks pointing to your site from a guest blogging site. When you write a guest post, you end up with a backlink from the particular domain of the blog to which you contributed your article.
The first step here would be to look for blogs which receives good organic traffic and is suitable for your niche an experience. It is usually easier to get your post published if you choose a small specialized industry blog. When doing outreach make sure to be personal and state in reasonable detail what your audience can hope to gain from your work.
Basically, go for sites that accept dofollow backlinks and will let you include your website’s link somewhere on their page. Guest blogging is about delivering value in form of relevant and compelling content while at the same exercising your search engine visibility.
3. Score Backlinks from Roundups
Weekly posts that summarize tips, reviews, or recommendations can produce calls for helpful backlinks.
First, look for roundups in the area of your business on business news feeds, niche blogs, and other trade media. Contact the site owner and present the ideas and experiences that you would like to incorporate at the site. Choosing to write comprehensive and detailed answers can go a long way in making sure your link gets included.
It may also be a good idea to propose other round-up ideas as well, such as an analysis of the roundup of industry trends for the next year. The presence in roundups and the listicle format is a great way to establish the regular creation of backlinks in the long term.
4. Be friends with influencers
Getting the approval of influencers and opinion makers in your industry is a safe link-building strategy.
It should begin with practising the choice of niche micro-influencers and other specialists in blogs, Twitter, specialized communities, and podcasts. Like them, repost, and comment in response where appropriate. After that, try to get in touch with them and request to be invited to provide your quote or commentary on their articles or reports.
You may also request influencers to take the time to use a tool that you have developed for feedback. Make sure there is something the receiver would want to engage in your message so that you can create mutually beneficial exchange relationships.
5. Advertise on Trade and Business Lists
Having your business listed in targeted specific category directories and reviews sites will not only give you the targeted traffic, but back links as well.
For local businesses, Google My Business, Yelp and citation sites are a must. Those only create your business online and signify your web site URL everywhere.
But invest time to get listed on reputable platforms such as Clutch for the service providers or association listing directories. Posting listings on highly rated review platforms such as G2 and Capterra to can get you high value backlinks and traffic.
6. In simple words, you use HARO for backlinks from large publications.
One of the most significant tools for gaining backlinks and coverage still remains untapped – Help A Reporter Out or HARO. Requests to reporters are made by principles with source solicitations for articles, sometimes when they are sensitive to time.
Come up with a specialized HARO request to make sure that only results within your specific industry will be sent to you. Take time and wisely answer all the questions that the reporters have in order to be chosen as the expert. Moreover, there are often backlinks and branding oriented to the formation of authority mentions.
Sometimes, you can develop rapport with reporters who will provide coverage and links again and from big publishing outlets such as the New York Times, Bloomberg, Wired, and others.
7. Your next course of action should be to persuade your customers to write a review and link to your site.
Perhaps one of the most genuine strategies in link building for generating organic backlinks is asking your best customers and fans to spread the word about your brand.
Try to carry out a customer feedback drive to get detailed reviews on the sites such as TrustPilot. Contact some of the customers who are still using the product with the longest business relations asking for testimonial.
Ensure that clients know that they have an additional option with their backlinks. Those appearing on platforms such as Yelp are also accompanied by branded anchor text on your website. It takes time before such natural links really add up.
8. Make Partners and Suppliers Request Backlinks
And your business partners more than likely want to see you succeed also. It can work when contacting vendors, distributors, retailers as well as other partners with requests to backlinks.
They should first of all see which pages on their web site to link from like “partners” or “recommended resources” lists. Compose targeted messages stating the reasons why both Web sites should link to each other.
Suggest exchanging links in both ways on similar pages of your own website. Thus, it seems that the approach of assertiveness, rather than demanding collaboration, is more likely to succeed. They have to offer useful resources and articles that they can share that will also be useful for their audience as well.
9. Sponsor and Attend Events
It told me that events are still one of the most effective ways to network. And the fact that you can become a sponsor or an attendee will help you get backlinks as well.
Check for events available in either online and physical form in your field of interest such as webinars, conferences and trade shows. Think of sponsoring an event that you believe will be attended by your target market. Many will list your link on the site of the event and other connected promotional materials.
For the ongoing events, also research speaking roles candidates may be available for. This comes with one bonus; the conference links your website and social profiles to the session or to your workshop. These, in turn, build up your organic equity to become stronger search assets.
10. Unlinked Brand Mention from Request Links
Even when trying to identify brand name mentions that are not linked the chances of getting link building wins are high.
Begin by entering your keywords and business name into search engines and placing your company’s name in quotation marks. Google Alerts can also be set on the topic of the article or by the writer of the article itself.
This way you are able to find sites that contain your brand and link towards other sites but don’t link towards your site. Just pick up an email and say, ‘Dear [Name], before I proceed reading your articles, may I kindly ask you to include some links to the articles written by me where my brand is being referred to as a reference for your articles?’
Do not post links to every blog – make sure you are linking from sites with prior authority that are relevant in the current scenario. However, briefing relevant links from unlinked mentions can create your domain authority and search existence.
11. Create Resources Pages Which People Will Want to Link Too
The target is one of the most intelligent link-building strategies where you develop web pages whose sole purpose is to attract links. These are typically very useful, linkable resources like:
• Free tool calculators
• Closer look at collected data and own research activities
• Datasets within special topic areas
• Rubrics
• Fun, useful quizzes, tests and questionnaires
By mostly focusing on keywords relevant to these pages and constantly featuring them, these pages stand a good chance to secure backlinks organically over time. You can also initiate contact with sites that post similar resources, informing them to link to your alternative.
It all comes down to creating genuinely helpful materials, which match the topic people are searching for. That continues to provide value for the visitor and links and traffic in the process.
12. Resolve Broken Links That Previously Linked to Your Site
Most link building efforts are centered on getting ‘new’ backlinks however, there is usually a lot of links pointing at your domain. Use free broken link checkers to unveil all the 404 errors to your site.
Webmasters can retrieve old links by visiting the broken ones and asking them to fix the links or, better still, redirect the links to your website. Retrieving links previously lost is useful in maintaining the existing link equity and arresting rankings drops.
Some of the things that you should consider doing as part of your link maintenance and site audit, is to regularly track broken backlinks and then proactively link them. Even good backlinks if lost will be reflected in the organic rankings, so these should be dealt with as soon as possible.
Conclusion
It is still important that one achieves quality backlinks for better or even most optimal ranking in Google or other search engines. The problem is how to establish back links naturally with out compromising the rules of web masters.
This would involve focus in acquiring contextual backlinks from other reputable sites with related materials through provision of great content, marketing and relations. The different link building strategies such as my twelve strategies above will slowly and gradually build up organic authority and keyword rankings.
Link building should become integrated into your long-term SEO campaign. Tend daily to create and manage backlinks to strengthen your position in search results and attract traffic consisting of users interested in your website.
