Backlinks are still important in SEO, but some strategies that worked a decade ago are no longer relevant today. It’s time to think out of the box if you want to get incoming hyperlinks from high-credibility websites. Need inspiration? Here are some ideas:
1. Create ‘Skyscraper’ Content.
‘Skyscraper’ content can be a great strategy to establish quality backlinks from an authority site. Here’s how to make it:
• Use Google to find content in your niche or industry that’s doing well in terms of backlinks. Simply search for your keyword and explore the results. Pages ranked on the first page probably have plenty of people linking to them.
• Take a step back to reverse engineer the top-ranking content. Find out who linked to or shared it.
• Create something better than that content. Try to mention influencers in your niche—people with a lot of followers—but only if they said or published something relevant and related to your content.
• Finally, promote your fresh new ‘skyscraper’ content to people you mentioned in your post, so they can share it or even link to it.
2. Make Bloggers and Reporters Link to You.
Aim to become a reliable and trustworthy source for bloggers and journalists—especially those who own or run authority blogs and news sites. To start, use free services like HARO (Help a Reporter Out).
HARO connects you to journalists and bloggers looking for sources, making it useful for building white hat backlinks from high-quality news sites. This strategy requires a lot of work, but it’s worth the effort. Sign up for an account and look for requests you can contribute.
3. Use Content Formats That Can Generate Links.
Did you know that 94 percent of all online content doesn’t get links because people ignore them? That said, certain types of content tend to get more noticed and perform well than others. These are posts that answer questions like why and what, as well as those that have infographics and videos.
If you want to post more of these types of content, make sure they are truly amazing and worth your audience’s time so they can get the backlinks they deserve.
4. Create ‘Ultimate’ Guides.
‘Ultimate’ guides work because they tend to have plenty of content and thousands of words on one page. As per SEO Ranking factor studies, long-form content outperforms short articles and is likely to rank better.
Moreover, ultimate guides cover a whole topic on one page. If your guide becomes a trustworthy resource on a certain topic, more people will link to it every time they write or talk about it on their blog or social media pages.
5. Look for Outdated Resources.
You can build links from outdated but authoritative resources. Here’s how:
• Find sites in your industry that have changed their names or moved to a new URL. You can also look for sites that have shut down, stopped updating a resource, or stopped offering a service.
• Find websites that are still linking to these old and outdated URLs. Reach out to them and gently suggest that they link to you instead.
6. Come Up with Branded Techniques or Strategies.
Do you have unique tactics, tips, or strategies that you think might help others in your niche? It’s time to share them. Don’t forget to add words like method, system, technique, blueprint, or approach in the title to make it catchy. To give your strategy more credibility, publish it as a part of a longer blog post (preferably a case study) proving that it works.
7. Transform Brand Mentions into Quality Backlinks.
Now and then, someone might mention you in their post but forget to link to your site. Reach out and politely ask them to link back to you. Nine times out of ten, the author will oblige. After all, they already mentioned you—which indicates that they like your content and wouldn’t mind giving you a link.
Need help building backlinks? SEOValley offers link acquisition services. We specialize in manual link building that complies with Google’s standards. Contact us to learn more.
