Do you need help building high-quality backlinks for the first time?
Or perhaps you have generated backlinks before but have been penalized by Google for doing so?
Either way, building natural links from high authority websites is no easy task, and even the most experienced marketer can struggle to generate great links, which result in an increase in organic traffic and ultimately get you on that first, highly coveted page of Google.
Fortunately, if you are struggling to gain high-quality backlinks, all you need to do is keep reading to discover five brilliant ways to link build that are guaranteed to give your link-building strategy the boost it needs.
1. Build Relationships
No man is an island, and neither should your website be one. Building mutually beneficial and long-lasting relationships, both with publishing sites and influencers, should be one of your top priorities when creating your backlink campaign.
Although this can seem like a daunting task, especially if you are a new business, there are several tried and tested ways to build meaningful relationships that will make the whole process much more manageable.
• Be responsive and engaged online. This can include maintaining your social media profiles, posting comments on other people’s content and blogs, replying to your own reader’s comments, and sharing, liking, and retweeting relevant posts.
• Show you are a real person. To build relationships, you need to be more than just a faceless online entity. You need to be more humane. Achieve this by updating your About Me page and including a photo, including a clear picture of yourself on all your social media profiles, and maintaining your social media presence.
• Demonstrate trustworthiness. You can make sure your website communicates trust by providing a professional appearance in terms of design, being honest about what you want from a professional relationship, keeping your content current and consistent, and practicing good link building.
When you are ready to reach out to someone, try starting a conversation through their blog comments, on a forum post, or via social media networking. Keep the conversation casual at first, as you need to build up a rapport without appearing like you just want something from them.
2. Seek Expert Round-ups
Expert round-ups are one of the hottest content creation techniques currently available, enabling you to create great new content for your audience and enjoy expert exposure and authority in the process.
If you are not sure exactly what expert round-ups are, don’t worry, it’s fairly straightforward. Simply ask experts within your industry or niche to give their opinion or advice on a particular topic, ideally a trending one.
Providing a win-win situation for both parties, the expert gets to share their expertise with a wider audience, maximizing their exposure, and you get to provide your readers with an insightful article that is highly likely to get backlinks from leading industry websites.
To reach out to an expert within your field, look for a new and cutting-edge angle that has not yet been covered, and then send a brief, but friendly, email asking them to participate. Choose to publish the content on your own website, as well as reach out to local or even national news websites for maximum exposure.
3. Regain Lost Links
The process of regaining lost links, or link reclamation as it is also known, is nothing new, but it is a link-building technique that is often overlooked or dismissed completely due to its time-consuming nature.
Link reclamation involves finding broken or removed links to your site and either fixing or replacing them with updated URLs. Although this process is not as exciting as link building, it is important if you want to get the most out of your link profile and improve your current rankings.
If you are still not convinced that regaining lost links is worth your time, consider this. On average, 18% of backlinks currently result in a 404 or redirect to an irrelevant page. Not only is this bad for your overall user experience, but too many 404s can result in Google dropping you further and further down in SERPs.
To simplify the link reclamation process, it can be broken down into three separate categories:
• Fix any broken backlinks to your site
• Request a link for unlinked brand mentions
• Identify the uncredited use of copyrighted materials such as images and videos and ask for accreditation.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these categories below and discover how you can resolve each issue.
Fix broken links
Identify any broken backlinks by using a broken link checker tool which will identify any URLs that are having a negative impact on your backlink profile. Once you have found any broken backlinks, you must then reach out to a webmaster to request they are replaced with a relevant URL.
Gain a link for unlinked brand mentions
Not getting a link when your brand is mentioned online can be incredibly frustrating. Fortunately, it is easily rectified. Simply reach out via email and ask if they would be willing to add a link. To make this process even less time-consuming, set up a Google Alert with your brand name so that each time a website mentions you going forward, you receive a notification.
Secure a link for uncredited use of copyright material
If you notice that a website has used your copyrighted material without asking, you are within your rights to ask them to remove it. However, if they are a reputable site, it can be more beneficial for you to ask them for accreditation so that you can secure a high-quality backlink.
To ask for accreditation, simply send a polite email informing them of their infringement and explain that they can continue to use the image or video in question as long as they give you an accreditation and backlink.
4. Try Newsjacking
If you pride yourself on being quick off the mark when it comes to content creation, then this is the perfect link-building technique for you. In a nutshell, newsjacking is the practice of capitalizing on the popularity of a news story to increase your sales and marketing success.
Or, to put it even more simply, seize a story and use it to your own (profitable) advantage.
As mentioned above, to successfully use the newsjacking technique, you need to be able to create content quickly and efficiently. If you don’t have the time or resources to do this, then consider using a content writing service to help you.
Although it can be a good idea to focus on writing articles within your niche at first, as this is where you have the most expertise, don’t also be afraid to newsjack stories that aren’t directly related to your industry.
Top tips for effective newsjacking include:
• Act quickly
• Be relevant
• Be tactful in your choice of stories
• Inject your own angle
• Monitor local and national news using a media monitoring service
• Don’t forget to do keyword research
5. Create ego bait content
Although this link-building technique may sound slight unscrupulous, it is actually a widely used and highly effective way to build backlinks. In its simplest form, ego baiting comes down to engaging with influencers by playing to their ego.
There are several ways to create ego bait content that will catch the attention of the most trusted and popular influencers within your niche, with each one concentrating on content that is personal, focused, and intentional.
Featured interviews
A featured interview is one of the best ways to get an influencer to share and link back to your content. Providing them with the perfect opportunity to be in the spotlight, who wouldn’t want someone to reach out and ask them all about themselves?
Furthermore, as with any successful link-building strategy, this technique is mutually beneficial for both parties.
Round-up posts
In a similar way to interviews, round-up posts allow experts within the industry to share their advice and knowledge with your audience. However, rather than just featuring one influencer, round-ups include quotes from multiple sources.
To make the most of this technique, look for a topic that is of interest to your audience and one that you think your chosen influencers can add a unique angle to.
Listicles
A listicle, or list article, is a highly popular form of content that typically highlights the “best” of something in a particular niche. For example, the “best link building techniques.” As you would expect with ego bait content, a listicle will appeal to influencers who want to be identified as being the best at what they do.
Listicles can also be used to create a comprehensive list of resources, products, or influencers for your audience to read, purchase or follow.
Conclusion
When it comes to attracting high-quality links, you may feel like you have tried every trick in the book. Whether you are not getting the results you want or you are simply bored with the same tried and tested techniques, the above brilliant ways to link build are exactly what you need to breathe new life into your backlink strategy.
Try one, or why not all of them, and discover just how far a little bit of creativity, ingenuity, and flattery can get you.
We guarantee you won’t be disappointed.
