Top 8 Backlink Strategies to Boost Your Traffic Backlinks are one of the most important factors when it comes to Google website ratings.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Backlinks are undoubtedly one of the most important factors when it comes to website ratings done by Google. Of course, there are also various other aspects you should pay attention to — but make no mistake. By obtaining bad-quality, low relevance backlinks, you could lose a lot of traffic. Therefore, let's focus on the most critical strategies for acquiring backlinks for your website.
Keep in mind that not every strategy is of the same quality. Here are eight different but highly successful strategies that you can apply. It is up to you which one you choose, as they have all been tested and recommended by various website owners before.
Related: 6 Elements Your Link-Building Campaign Must Include
1. Reclaim unlinked mentions
The most straightforward and basic strategy to improve your SEO ratings with backlinks is to reclaim unlinked mentions. To put it simply, just keep track of any mentions of your brand. You can do this either for free, by using Google itself, or by getting a paid app, like BuzzSumo or Mentions and acquiring access to extra stats.
If you notice that an author of a blog post or the website owner hasn't included a link to your webpage when mentioning you, you can always ask them to reconsider. First of all, that would guarantee their visitors a better experience (as they can immediately travel to your webpage), and secondly, you get additional bandwidth. No matter how you look at it, it's a win-win situation.
2. Use contextual links
Another strategy many opt for is using contextual links. It's a great option, especially if you wish to enrich your content with additional resources, such as a "read more" section. Of course, to use contextual links, you need first to determine who are your correct prospects.
In other words, if you have written up a summary of, let's say, the top 10 best graphics cards of 2021, you should reach out to authors who have written similar text and are willing to recommend other articles. Of course, you will need to explain what makes cooperating with you reasonable and why your content is worth featuring.
Using contextual links is not as easy as reclaiming unlinked mentions, but it sure pays off.
3. Become a source yourself
One of the most important things you can do to get more reputable backlinks is to become a source for other publishers yourself. You can do this by creating high-quality content worth being shared or cited by other publishers — and every time you do this, you'll get a backlink!
Suppose you are capable of delivering top-tier content. In that case, you'll find out this method is surprisingly easy.
Remember that quality is not the only thing that counts, as you'll also need to be quite speedy. Otherwise, the publisher may choose another source over you!
4. Remember to update old content
Remember to check for articles that haven't been updated lately and then check how many backlinks that piece has. However, aim only for the best and pick only the articles referenced by many different sources, preferably the most reputable ones.
Based on the details from the article you just found, create a new, "fresh" article after doing your research on the topic. Remove the statements and calculations that were proven wrong, and enrich the text with data only available after the original article was published.
Once you do this, you can contact the website owners who used the old article as a source and inform them about your new, updated version. They will be more than happy to use your data, and you'll earn a brand new high-quality backlink.
5. Build free tools
This strategy requires skills. But if you got what it takes, you can create a real backlink machine. Adequately building that type of tool can even get you new leads.
It is, however, important that you choose the correct tool to build. So, do some research on the keywords first. You can, for example, see what comes up if you input the text "generator" or "template". Next, figure out what type of tool is currently earning the most backlinks for your competitors.
Then simply proceed to create the best tool you can. The process may not be easy, rest assured that this strategy is by far one of the best ones you can opt for.
Related: How to Make an App When You Can't Code (a Step-by-Step Guide)
6. Publish complete guides
Another thing you may try to generate as many quality backlinks as possible is guide writing. Keep in mind, however, that the guides need to be detailed, comprehensive and technical while being written in an easy-to-understand manner to be successful. Pick the topic you specialize in the most as you'll have the highest chance of writing up a high-quality guide.
Much like a free tool, top-notch guides will pretty much attract publishers on their own, for they know that a complete, detailed guidebook on a given subject will turn out to be a huge help to their clients and a huge time saver for themselves!
7. Use a variety of images and gifs
Images and infographics are by far the best ways to present data and to engage followers too. They are as much — if not more — capable of earning you a decent amount of high-quality backlinks as your text content, so do not ever hesitate to add them to any of your articles and blog posts.
Charts, graphs, diagrams with data, some graphic templates and even free photo galleries are good to use. You have many options to choose from, so picking the right one for your webpage shouldn't be too hard. Remember that quality counts as much as quantity.
The choice is all yours, but in general, you should always attach at least one high-quality image per article.
Related: 7 Must-Use Tools for Building an Infographic
8. Use broken links to your advantage
If you have found any topically similar website with broken outbound links, do not hesitate to contact its owner and propose they update the link to instead direct the users to one of your pages. Using this method is yet another example of how with the right approach, everybody wins. You get an excellent, new backlink, the owner can fix broken articles and the readers get a better experience.
Of course, you will have to use proper SEO tools to pick the right websites for your business. There are, however, many options for you to choose from, so you can easily pick the one that suits your needs the best. Remember: Backlinks are invaluable, and a good SEO tool will help you acquire them and more.
