There’s More Than One? All About the Different Types of Backlinks

Did you know that 51% of all website traffic comes from organic searches? If you aren’t ranking high on search engines, you likely aren’t benefitting from this type of traffic. It’s time to change that.

One of the best ways to improve your search engine optimization (SEO) is to implement a backlinking strategy. Keep reading to learn about the different types of backlinks, good and bad.

Editorial Backlinks

One of the many types of backlinks is an editorial backlink. These are common because they are highly valued by search engines.

Editorial descriptions will contain an embedded link to your site with high-quality and relevant material.

Editorial backlinks form when your content is mentioned as an information source or if a business representative gets quoted. This can also happen when your site is featured in a link roundup on a specific topic.

To get editorial backlinks, create evergreen content that establishes your position and site as a thought leader. Build captivating content filled with industry expertise that has the potential to go viral.

Some of the best content types you can create to generate editorial backlinks are:

• How-to guides
• Tutorials
• Case Studies

You can utilize SEO tools to identify keywords that your website has yet to tackle. Something with unique value will be most effective for readers and search engines.

Image/Infographic Backlinks

Creating case studies is a great way to generate editorial backlinks, but they can be time-consuming. There is another way to get quality backlinks with less effort.

Internet users love to engage with and share infographics that implement interesting information in a unique and consumable way. Create a great infographic with vibrant colors and clever designs to attract users.

Infographic marketing can help create backlinks and reach more overall consumers.

Guest Blog Backlinks

Send guest blogs to established websites and attach editorial hyperlinks to receive backlinks from guest blogging. Here are the basics of how this works:

1. Contact the owner of a trusted website in your niche
2. Offer to create original free content for that website including editorial backlinks to your own website
3. Get an editorial backlink through a trusted publication

You can utilize this strategy multiple times. Guest blogging should be a huge part of content marketing and SEO.

Do your research to find high-quality websites to find these opportunities. If the website doesn’t allow backlinks inside a guest blog, ask if they allow them in the writer’s bio section.

These backlinks still affect SEO even though they aren’t linked to editorial content as long as you don’t spam this method.

Business Profile Backlinks

Directory listings are a simple way to attain backlinks, but always avoid spam directories and focus on reputed places to list your business.

Search engine business directories like Google My Business and Yahoo Localworks are great places to start business profile optimization.

As a good rule of thumb, you should set up digital profiles for your company on the following platforms:

• Business listing websites
• Industry directories
• Review sites

You should always have the option to link your website to these profiles. Search engines use these entries as proof that your website has been around for enough time.

Social Profile Backlinks

While working on your business profiles, you can also set up social profiles for your business.

When you create a social media page for your website, you’ll have space to add a link to your main website. When someone lands on your profile, they might click through your website and visit your pages.

In addition to your own social profile, you can enhance your backlink strategy with quality social profile links from people you trust. You’ll need to get people engaged in your brand for this to work.

This typically begins with the internal team. A small company with a few employees can generate a good amount of backlinks by setting up their own social profiles.

You can also ask willing employees to update their personal social profiles with a link to your business.

Webinar Backlinks

Webinars and webinar recordings provide useful information for websites to link to. Websites will put webinars on their pages that can link back to your company and mention what it does.

You’ll receive these backlinks with strategies similar to promoting blogs. For example, your webinar can be used as a resource for websites where you write guest blogs.

Acknowledgment Backlinks

Websites display acknowledgments for companies that send gifts and/or speak at industry events. If your rivals have backlinks like these, determine the source to help you get your own.

Based on your findings, make a strategy to get your website recognition with acknowledgment backlinks.

Press Release Backlinks

Every time your brand has something exciting to share, it’s an opportunity to generate more backlinks.

Use a press release to launch a new innovation or product and distribute it across the internet. This will help drive organic search performance and increase brand visibility.

Types of Backlinks to Avoid

Backlink building can get tricky if you get backlinks that don’t do anything for your business. The backlinks above have a positive impact on how your website ranks in organic search results.

To avoid ruining your organic search reputation, avoid these types of backlinks:

Irrelevant Links

Editorial links appear in the body of an article or other content pieces that direct readers to your website for more information. However, if these backlinks aren’t in the content, they are seen as low-quality.

Avoid placing links in the header, footer, and sidebar. You should also avoid sitewide links that are featured on each page of a website. These are less valuable than links that appear in one place.

Editorial links should only be placed on relevant and high-authority websites within your niche. Website links with unrelated subject matters will have a negative impact on your search engine rankings.

Spam Backlinks

Anything with the word spam in it over the internet should be avoided, right? This is no different from spam backlinks.

Spamming backlinks refers to linking your website too many times. This is the quickest way to end up being red flagged by a search engine. These link types are low-quality spam tactics:

• Comment links
• Spam content websites
• Forum links
• Low-quality directory content

Don’t post a lot of comments on YouTube and other social sharing sites that link back to your website.

Additionally, don’t submit guest posts to spam content websites. These sites have non-existent editorial standards and won’t do you any good on Google’s search engine.

Don’t contribute to these websites and focus on finding authoritative websites in your niche.

Similar to comment links, avoid creating forum profiles just to spam them with website links. Having forum websites and using them proactively is a tactic you can use, but solely using them for spamming links is not recommended.

Lastly, don’t list your website in directories with minimal traffic. Again, always focus on building links on authoritative websites that you yourself would trust.

Paid Backlinks

Websites and service providers that offer backlinks for sale aren’t always to be trusted. A lot of providers do this to improve their own rankings.

Some websites will accept a monthly or one-time fee if you want to publish a link to your website. The paid endorsement is solely based on your ability to pay and not based on your content’s quality.

This is an unethical practice that leads to poor user experience. The website owners that do this also tend to engage in spam tactics you’ll want to avoid.

Paid backlink packages are also offered by these website owners that sell a specific amount of backlinks. These should especially be avoided.

These service providers solely exist to prey on new websites that think they need a lot of backlinks to start ranking. These websites don’t know much about generating backlinks organically.

Now that you know how to generate organic backlinks, you’ll never have to resort to paid backlink packages.

You’ll get a lot of backlinks this way, but they are likely to be horrible quality and cause search engine ranking penalties rather than improvements.

Let Us Improve Your Backlinking Strategy

Learning about the different types of backlinks can help you improve your search engine ranking and attract organic customers.

Although the above backlinks can all improve your strategy, editorial backlinks are the most important. To ensure they help you get seen, you need to find quality websites within your niche.

SEOJet can do the research for you automatically. Our backlink management software can increase your rankings with less.

Are you ready to get started? Contact us today to see what we can offer you.