In the world of SEO, backlinks are one of the major factors that can lead to your rise up the search engine rankings. Of course, there were so many unscrupulous marketers out there in the early days of search engine optimization that the practice became taboo, but it is still important and far from dead.
Here are 10 ways to get backlinks that follow Google best practices and will actually make a difference:
1 – Old-Fashioned Testimonials
Testimonials may seem old and boring to the modern online marketer, but you can get some quality backlinks to your site by offering them and asking that they include a link. It can be for business products you use, partners, vendors or any site that makes sense.
2 – Search for Outdated Resources
Websites within your industry that have changed names or URLs stopped updating, stopped offering a service or even shut down are opportunities for new backlinks. This process may take some time, but it can help your search engine optimization, which is what really counts.
3 – Sign Up with HARO
HARO stands for “Help a Reporter Out” and it is a way to get some great backlinks from some high-quality news sites. When you sign up, you’ll get emails each day from reporters that are searching for sources for stories. You can be one of the experts in your industry and often get a link back to your site.
4 – Reclaim Links
Sometimes, other websites will mention your company, product or service in a post or story, but won’t include a link back to your site. If you can find these mentions, you can contact them and provide a reminder that a link should be included. Mention.com and BuzzSumo are good ways to find mentions.
5 – Look to Twitter for Guest Posting Opportunities
Finding guest posting opportunities can be time consuming to say the least. However, if you go into Twitter and use the search tool, you can find what you need much faster. If you type in “your niche” + guest post, “your niche” + guest author or “your niche” + write for us you should find a list of sites that have tweeted guest posts on that topic, letting you know they are involved in the practice.
6 – Create Useful Infographics
Everyone seems to love infographics these days. They offer quick and relevant information in an easy to digest format. You can also submit them to infographic sites or offer them up to bloggers as a guest post and others in your industry as a way to get quality backlinks and boost SEO.
7 – Seek Out .edu websites in Your Industry
Websites with .edu at the end of the URL are from universities and similar institutions. They provide a lot of power when it comes to backlinks, and you can increase your chances by trying to get mentioned as a resource in their resource pages. Many schools will link to helpful resources, and you could be one of them.
8 – Give Away Your Product or Service to Influential Bloggers
Giving away free samples has always been a good way to get the word out, and if you can find influential bloggers in your niche, you can possibly get some good backlinks by letting them try your product or service for free. If they like it, they will write about it and include a link.
9 – Keep an Eye on the Competition
Spying on your competition should be a regular practice, too. Chances are, they will be doing at least a couple of things you aren’t, so copying them may help improve your link building efforts and give your search engine optimization a boost.
10 – Don’t Forget About Internal Links
Linking to other pages on your own website is a solid SEO practice that you can use regularly. If you work with an SEO agency or do it yourself, link to relevant content on your own site to enhance the user experience.
