How to Create the Best Backlink Strategy
Backlinking is one aspect of SEO that can be immensely intimidating for those who have never done it before. Although things like on-page SEO and content creation are super straightforward and easy to do even if it is your first time, backlinking can be alien and stressful to some.
And yet without backlinking, your entire SEO strategy will be missing a key component that could be the difference between a campaign that rakes in the money and one that simply falls flat no matter how hard you try.
Before you put your head in your hands and sigh in exasperation at the thought of having to struggle, don’t fret, we are going to teach you how to create the best backlink strategy in less than 1000 words.
The Basics: What is a Backlink?
Backlinking is quite literally the process of creating external links on the web that point back to your website. Each backlink built can help your website to become more noticeable, as it will push your site up the search rankings and hopefully onto the first page of Google.
Backlinking is one of the three components of SEO, and yet unlike on-page which is only done once and unlike content which is just the occasional thing, backlinking is a process that can be done on a daily basis, so long as it is done right.
Believe it or not, but since Google has become so strict when it comes to anything related to SEO, there
is a right way and a wrong way to build backlinks, and the wrong way can earn you a nasty penalty that will set you back on your goals to reach that number one spot.
For this reason alone, it is so important that you create a strategy. When you have the foundation in front of you, it will be hard to go off of the path and create a damaging backlink.
Creating high-quality Backlinks Strategy
A backlink strategy is technically more focused on where you will be placing backlinks rather than when.
If you are looking for a way to track when you need to create a backlink, you should create a content type of calendar, with dates and ideas, such as links to places you can create a backlink. You can generally get away with creating quite a few backlinks every day.
What you can’t do is put quantity over quality.
Because Google is all about quality, the best way to appease them is to just give them good stuff. This way, they will decide that yours is the best possible website to work with and so they will rank you higher.
High-quality backlinks all have 4 distinct properties. They are authoritative, they are relevant to your business, they are unique, and they are natural.
So, how can you get or create these amazing, ranking-building keywords?
You have a number of creative ways to do this, and quite a few options, especially if you can be a more out-of-the-box kind of thinker. But to get you started, this is the sort of strategy to follow.
Unclaimed Links
This is a highly effective method, even more so if your company has been around for a while. Unclaimed links are those that can be built into existing articles or news stories, where your company name has been mentioned but where there is no link back to your business.
When you find these sorts of sites, you can send an email to the site owner, or contact person, and ask that a link to your site be placed in the article. This is not just beneficial to you, but also to the reader, as they can click on the link to find out more about you. The easiest way to find articles about your company is to set up a Google Alert for your business.
List Mentions
Those best-of lists are all the rage right now because they are quick to read and they are generally filled with fun images. And bloggers and even other companies are always on the lookout for new and interesting products to list and link back to.
To get on such a list, you can either write your own best of the blog, mentioning yourself and others, which you can then pitch as part of an outreach campaign, or you can just email popular blogs and publications and ask if they’d be keen to mention you.
Talk to Journos
Journalists are always looking for a scoop and while press releases are a little outdated when it comes to newsworthy article creation, if you do have something interesting and worthwhile to share, you can reach out to various newspapers or look for sites like HARO, where journalists find news.
Update Old Blogs
Sometimes, you can end up writing a really smashing piece that you only realise is such a hit years later. Check out your old content, and see how many backlinks are pointing back to it. And then get to work updating the blog. After that, you can share it again and send the link to journalists and bloggers, letting people know it has been updated.
Create Free Tools and Ultimate Guides
Everybody loves to either download free tools or read ultimate guides, and both of these options are fantastic for link building.
Some free tools you can create and share include things like templates, while ultimate guides are pretty self-explanatory.
Ultimate guides tend to be more effective for link building because they are incredible sources of information that give people like potential clients and journalists an insider’s look. Since there is so much repeated, and honestly quite boring, content on the web, having an ultimate guide that shares the sort of information that cannot easily be found online is often a big hit.
Whenever you are working on backlinking, keep in mind that consistency is key. While you will not see immediate results, in time you will find that you are getting good ranking positions and more leads.
And in the end, a backlinking strategy might be the best thing you create for your online marketing campaign.
