How to Acquire the Best Backlinks

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Did you know that websites that rank #1 on Google have 3.8x more backlinks than the rest of the top 10 sites they’re competing against?

It’s no secret that link building is still one of the most essential factors if you want to improve your SEO and rank high on Google, and that’s not changing any time soon.

There’s a lot of information out there on how to acquire the best backlinks — some good, some bad. We’ve compiled the ultimate guide on how to find backlinks that really work, so you can start driving more organic traffic to your website.

Let’s dive in.

What Are Backlinks and Why Are They So Important?

Backlinks are when another website links back to your website. These are also known as external links or inbound links. These links are seen by Google as a “vote of confidence” in your website, which means you get more authority as a trusted source of information.

This increased authority leads to higher rankings in SERPs, which ultimately leads to higher visibility and more organic traffic being directed to your site.

For example, let’s say your company sells cookies and you write a great, informative article about the Top Twenty Best Cookie Ingredients. If other blogs or websites read your article and think it’s a great resource, they might link back to it in an article that they’re writing.

That’s it — you’ve earned a backlink!

The more backlinks you get, the more positive signal you send to search engines, showing that your content is valuable and trustworthy.

But you’re competing against millions of companies that are also building their authority as well. Let’s look at some strategies for getting quality backlinks.

How to Find Backlinks: Strategies

There are tons of strategies companies utilize to acquire more backlinks, so we’ve created a backlinks guide to get you started. Let’s take a look at a few that have proven to be effective for getting quality links.

Resource Link Building

Not all backlink strategies are big and complicated. One simple strategy you can begin with is resource link building.

Just identify a place where your business can add value to the audience of another website. Then, create great, informative, and valuable resource pages so you can earn quality backlinks from authoritative websites that are relevant to your niche.

Some examples of companies that use resource pages include:

One great way to find these is by analyzing your competitors’ link profiles using a backlink analytics tool. Find the websites that are linking to them and come up with a content strategy that will catch their attention.

If you’re wondering where to get backlinks, this is a great place to start.

Broken Link Building

As the name suggests, this strategy is about hunting down informative web pages with external links that go to dead pages.

If you can find broken links that lead to 404 pages and offer a great piece of content that can replace them, you can build some quality backlinks. Make sure you either already have a similar piece of content or be ready to create one.

This strategy is great because you’re helping a webmaster repair a broken link without having to do the work themselves while building a quality backlink for your website.

Use a quality backlink finder to help you find relevant targets for your website.

Unlinked Brand Mentions

Another simple way to get more backlinks is to find instances on the internet where your brand has already been mentioned by someone. This is common in online newspapers, radio stations, product reviews, and more.

If they haven’t already linked to you, you can politely reach out to those journalists, bloggers, or webmasters and ask them to add a link to the mention of your business.

Make sure you have something valuable and worthy of linking to — otherwise those people will have nothing to gain from taking the time to link back to you. When you reach out to them, clearly state the benefit that they and their readers will receive by attaching the link.

Supplier Links

If your business sells other companies’ products, an excellent way to earn highly authoritative links is with supplier links.

Most manufacturers will have “where to buy” pages on their website where they point visitors towards places to buy their products. If you’re selling their products, you should be on this page as well.

Make a list of all the suppliers and their websites and see if you’re listed as a place to buy. If you’re not there, reach out to the supplier and see if you can get listed on their website.

Listicle Link Building

Another great way to build backlinks is through listicles. These are not only great for increasing search rankings, but they also help you get better visibility for your products by putting them in front of your audience.

Find popular listicles in your industry that haven’t mentioned you yet (but mention your competitors) and reach out to the blogger and justify why you should be added to the list.

They’ll be happy to add you to their listicle if you can effectively show them why it will be valuable to them and their readers. Make sure to learn how to effectively sell yourself in the email first.

Link Gap Analysis

Another great way to quickly find backlink opportunities is to conduct a link gap analysis on your websites versus your competitors. By doing this, you can see who is linking to your competitors and not you.

Once you find these websites, there’s a good chance you can convince them to link to your website if you can justify it. Several tools allow you to do a full analysis of your competitors that can help you snipe their backlinks.

Digital PR

Digital PR is a powerful way to build quality backlinks at scale. If your brand can stand out and make the news, it’s possible to earn hundreds of backlinks to coverage from a single campaign.

It can also help you build relevant links with some of the most authoritative publications in your industry, which can position you as an industry expert as well.

The Skyscraper Technique

The Skyscraper Technique is a link-building method that follows a simple, proven process:

1. Find quality content that has already earned many links
2.Create better content

3.Promote that content to the people who linked to that first piece

The great thing about The Skyscraper Technique is you don’t have to guess about “what works” with that piece of content. You already know what has proven to be successful.

But make sure you’re ready to put in the time and resources to create great content that is more informative, longer in length and deeper in depth, and has quality visuals.

Help Out a Journalist (HARO)

HARO (help a reporter) is a platform that connects journalists and bloggers to relevant expert sources so brands can tell their stories. If you help them out, there’s a great chance they’ll link back to your website as a credit.

If you sign up, you’ll receive an email three times a day on weekdays from journalists looking for specific sources for an article. If you see an email that is relevant to what you do, respond to it. Make sure you actually are an expert on the subject and reply comprehensively.

If you’re successful, you can build some high-quality links this way.

More Tips For Getting Backlinks

Knowing different backlinking strategies is only half the battle. Here are a few more tips to get more “yesses” for more backlinks.

Understand What Site Owners Are Looking For

You can have the best content in the world, but if you don’t learn how to effectively pitch yourself to other sides, it won’t matter.

Know exactly what your current audience (other website owners) is looking for and make sure you address it in your outreach emails. If you only talk about how great you are but don’t mention their needs, chances are you’ll get turned down.

Most sites are looking for these things:

Mention these in your outreach (and make sure you actually have them).

Write Relevant, Detailed Content

If your content isn’t better than all of the competitions, there’s no reason for websites to link to you.

Make sure your content is comprehensive, detailed, and long enough to cover the subject. Add compelling, high-quality images to keep readers engaged. And make sure to analyze your competition to see how you can do better than them.

Make Your Pitches Short

The bloggers, companies, journalists, and webmasters you’re reaching out to are busy. Make sure you send quick, easy-to-read pitches that sell yourself well.

You want them to know exactly what you’re looking for and how they will benefit from the transaction.

Key Takeaways

That’s just the tip of the iceberg when learning how to find backlinks. There are tons of different ways that you can try to acquire backlinks, and the most effective strategies will depend on your industry, your competitors, and what you’ve done in the past.

But once you put together a solid link-building strategy, it can be the difference between a few hundred site visits and a few thousand of site visits a day.

If you want a proven SEO tool that will supercharge your backlinking efforts, sign up for free for SEOJet today!