How To Build High Quality Backlinks

Backlinks”? Okay, so you stumbled upon this term and sort of think that it can help boost your SEO. So, what does high quality mean and how to build high-quality backlinks?

 

Maybe, you went to a marketing presentation and heard a bunch of talk about high valued backlinks and their relevance to driving traffic to your website.

 

Maybe you searched Google for the term “Backlinks” and read a series of articles that were specifically written to show you the “Power” of backlinks and now, you are intrigued, interested even a little scared..

 

Of having been left behind..

 

seo backlink

 

 

So, others are “Building” these backlinks and all I know is a bunch of words but I don’t know what to do or how to do it..

 

You’re intrigued, even a little frustrated with the whole situation, you ask yourself: Why?? Why am I always the last to find out after it’s all done and over with??

 

Relax…

 

You think, the other sites are getting a lot of relevance and people know them but you are an unknown entity and suddenly you feel that you are on the verge of losing it all…

 

Nothing can be further than the truth..

 

There is one serious problem though if you don’t have any backlinks, how are you going to convince others to link back to you and why would they? How are you going to go about it?

 

You already know that if you want your site to rank on the first page, you really need to work hard. Let’s look at what it takes to rank a page in Google on the first page..

 

High-quality backlinks pointing to your website signals to Google that you are meeting their criteria for having one of the most important search-ranking factors covered.

 

The reason is simple, when a high-quality website link to another site, it is interpreted as a positive signal to the search engine.

 

This signal indicates that the linked-to site is valuable and as a result, it would be relevant for searchers to discover it.

 

It would be a pleasant experience for the user who would be happy to find. These are the exact factors that search engines try to achieve and thus help improve the linked-to website’s search rankings.

 

According to AHREFS, 22% of pages that currently rank in the Top 10 were created within the last 1 year.

 

seo backlink ahref

 

Now let’s consider what percentage of the pages that are less than 1 year old are in the top 10 results: 

 

seo backlink ahrefs

 

Yeah, I know, the results look grim…I get it…here’re some more.. According to AHREFS who conducted a study of 2 Million pages and looked at their ranking –  only 5.7% of the pages were really ranked within the first year for at least 1 keyword

 

seo backlink ahrefs

 

It was concluded that to achieve a high rank, a page needs to belong to a domain with a high DR (Domain rank), notice that Google favors high DR websites and their pages.

 

Now, you might think that, on average, it takes a page anywhere from 2 to 6 months to rank in Google’s Top 10.

 

But that isn’t valid. Remember, this data only represents the 5.7% of pages that Google concluded to be worthy of ranking in the Top 10 within a year — remember, the rest 95% of all the pages that AHREFS studied didn’t make it to the Top 10 within that timeframe.

 

seo backlink ahrefs

 

Now consider, how many backlinks are needed to rank a page on the top.

 

That sheer number is more than enough to send the chills down the spine of almost every average marketer out there.

 

Consider this, to rank in the 9th or even the 10th position on Google, the average number of backlinks you need is around 35K, yes – around 35,000 backlinks!!

 

You already know the story about how long it takes despite having the sheer number of links you need to even rank, now correlate that to the number of backlinks required.

 

Okay, by now, you must be thinking, this is impossible, I’ll never get to the first page and my brand will never see the light of the day…

 

Let me tell you again, Nothing is further than the truth, here’s why

 

There are tons of ways to build backlinks, remember though, you need high-quality backlinks, nothing short of that..

 

What is a high-quality backlink?

A backlink coming from a higher DA (Domain Authority) website, preferably higher than your website.

 

Now, why would a higher DA willing to give you this backlink?

 

Because you asked, that’s right..here’s how you can do that.

 

1. Create Brand Signals With Profiles on Social Media

People discount the value of these very free and in your face ways of building authority and backlinks to your site, its mind boggling sometimes.

 

These are links that you don’t have to ask anyone to give you, You just set them up yourself.

 

 

seo backlink ranking factors

 

 

These are the backlinks on social media websites and online directories (such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn etc) that link back to your website.

 

 

high profile backlinks

 

 

Therefore, if you remain active on these social media sites, post content regularly, get social shares for your content, that will signal Google that you’re active, which is a huge win for your SEO. It definitely relates to better rankings.

 

According to a Moz article, here is how the social signals improved ranking factors.

 

2. Blogging & Guest Posting

 

Launch a blog on your website, write not only about yourself but about what’s around you.

 

Remember, the idea is to appear interesting with the great and researched content that will add value to readers so google can index it and you will naturally attract links back to your website.

It sounds slow but it’s not. In fact, this is one of the most sure-fire ways to build great local authority and obtain free good quality links.

 

The other most talked about strategy for generating backlinks to your website and increasing your rankings is guest blogging.

 

It’s an extremely effective and non-invasive method for your link-building strategy.

 

Guest blogging can seem like a lot of work, but these links are considerably high-value backlinks.

 

They are high-quality because you consciously focus on sources that have a high domain authority and seek guest posting opportunities from them.

 

The more websites you can get these niche content links on, the more your ranking will increase.

 

An issue with guest bloggers is they try to create backlinks by pitching a post idea, the amount of time it generally takes to getting it accepted and then including a link within the content is just not worth it.

 

It can get both awkward and messy and completely out of context and can be a bad signal that you are just scrambling for links which high DA websites will not appreciate and your article might get rejected.

 

Therefore, focus on writing a great piece of content on your own blog or website.

 

Write something that is awesome, something that you would love to read yourself, now you know for sure that’s worth actually linking to.

 

Here are some resource type ideas that you might like:

  • 10 ways, renting a home might be more economical both long term and short term.
  • 5 ways, leasing a car actually helps you get out of debt.
  • The ultimate guide to building out your investment portfolio.
  • 10 ways learning music actually made children focus more on academics.
  • 5 questions to ask your plastic surgeon when thinking of going under the knife.

 

Remember, the higher the word count of your article, the better it is for your own rankings.

 

If you are pitching complete articles to a publication, make sure you check for a few things.

 

The domain authority (DA) of the publishing site should be at least 10, the higher the better.

 

You can do that by searching the following on Google and typing in the URL of the website.

 

Search for: website authority checker tool

 

Then input the website URL you want to guest post on and make sure DA is at least 10 or above.

 

Next, make sure that the links from the website you’re targeting will be follow links instead of no-follow links. Follow links are highly valuable and provide a great signal to Google that you are worth a follow.

 

After you’ve written a link-worthy piece of content on your own website and you have a topic idea to pitch to an editor, it’s time send the email.

 

3. Infographic Link Building

 

Almost all bloggers and content writers love to share images.

 

Images are one of the most effective types of content. They are highly engaging since they are visual and are quick to absorb.

 

Readers love to share them which means you can love to use them.

 

The best performing infographics include data along with clean and simple ways to solve a problem or perform something.

 

Here are a few examples: “Date Ideas in Laguna Beach” or “Leverage Data to power your next job search.”, “How To Save Money For College”, “How to Pay off Debt while enjoying your life”.

 

You can even use a tool like Buzzsumo to get title inspiration ideas.

 

Go to Buzzsumo and search for infographics, you will see a lot of results.

 

If you have performed original research and have the data, you can place it in your infographic. Otherwise, you can borrow stats from other websites and cite your sources at the bottom of the infographic.

 

As long as you cite the original source, please make sure of this point.

 

If you want to create an infographic on your own, you can use Canva for free.

 

 

Now, the real backlink generation magic begins.

 

Find a list of blogs within your niché that have good domain authority.

 

Find the email addresses of the respective editors, you can search on google or use Clearbit to do that.

 

Then, once your infographic is created, email everyone who might be interested, asking them to share it with their own audiences.

 

Just provide information about your infographic and describe it, once you hear that they are interested, send it to them.

 

And voilá! When people share the infographic, you’ll receive a backlink to your own website.

 

Of course, the more people you email, the more responses you’ll receive and the more backlinks you’ll generate as a result of this outreach.

 

I recommended sending at least 500 cold emails asking for a share of the infographic since not every response will be positive.

 

You can use a tool: GMass to do so. It allows you to personalize and bulk-send up to 10,000 individual emails.

 

Happy Infographic Link Building!!

 

4. Write testimonials

 

Unlike the other strategies, this one will be super quick and effective.

 

All you have to do is make a list of business partners, customers, or other trustworthy websites that will allow you to write a testimonial and include a link to your website within that testimonial.

 

Then, write testimonials for these places and include a link to your website.

 

Send it to them for publication and voila!!

 

Each testimonial will win you a backlink, which is a small amount to write for such a big payoff.

 

5. Write Thoughtful Comments on relevant blog posts on other sites

 

A very nice way to start building the relationships that backlinks require is by commenting on content that is written on sites that interest you for backlinks.

 

However, before you shoot off and start doing this, let me explain something.

 

It will not be always that you will get an opportunity to include a backlink in your comment, more often than not, focus on the comment and remember that the chief intent is to start on the path to building a mutual relationship with the author.

 

Blog commenting is a great backlink builder too, find niche relevant sites to your niche and make sure you look at the DA and write thoughtful comments that will engage and hopefully generate questions or other comments.

 

You will not only build authority but you will also stand out as a thought leader on the topic.

 

Backlinks then become just a factor of creating the authority. Done right, this is a very simple and effective way of going about it.

 

Here are a few great examples of Comments

 

Let us know which ones are your favorite ones and why?