Free Report ➝

OUR BLOG

15 May 2014

How To Get High Quality Backlinks

Throughout the past year, we have seen many changes in the world of internet marketing. More specifically: link building. As we have now stepped into this Google penalty apocalypse, getting hit left and right for link penalties, webmasters are now wondering if there are, in fact, any “safe” and effective link building methods still out there that have the potential to produce the identical rewards of traditional link building

Because link building is a well-known essential in online marketing– helping to improve SEO, generate leads, and build relationships and a stronger online brand presence– the last thing you will want to do is forgo link building methods entirely. Instead, there are plenty of other tactics (safe tactics) to think about incorporating into a new link building campaign.

It’s All About Scalability

But before we dive into giving these safe methods a test run, we need to start by erasing the paradigm of link building out of our minds and start thinking about link earning. While it’s true that sharing high quality content can’t guarantee links, great content lays the foundation for which you implement other methods to earn links. Google doesn’t want you to “build” links to your site, and they sure are doing their best to keep the “Wild, Wild West” from happening again, but that doesn’t mean that great content lost its place in the world– it just needs to be integrated along with other methods in order to be turned into not only an effective online marketing strategy, but a scalable one as well.

Quality Beats Quantity Every Time

Before we even get into how to acquire backlinks to your site, the quality of your content should be the priority. Because your social, paid, and organic promotions rely greatly on highly authoritative content, your content marketing will be the main focus. This involves collecting reliable resources and research and building a community that will engage with and share that content. Once that content is in front of a socially engaged, targeted audience, you can then amplify it using Direct Outreach and paid social channels to boost the visibility of that content, helping you to rank organically, naturally, and most importantly, safely.

Vanity Bait, Interviews, Surveys, & Infographics

In this over-saturated environment, it can be difficult to determine what kind of content can guarantee traction. However, by sharing and promoting different types of content, such as round-up articles, interviews, surveys, infographics, etc., you can get a lot of attention from high-end sites and renowned influencers. By making those valuable connections, you’ll have a much easier time earning those backlinks.

Performing interviews on a massive scale can drive a significant amount of natural links to a site. Furthermore, by sharing valuable insights from influencers in your niche, you’ll also be forming valuable, long-term relationships. Just imagine how much more influential you could be with connections like that.

What’s more is that the more unique your content is, the more likely it will gain traction compared to content that has been regurgitated over and over again. Rather than simply recycling information that everyone has already, why not acquire the data yourself and convert it into blog posts, infographics, white papers, case studies, etc.?

Giveaways, Contests, & Sweepstakes

It’s really no secret that the word “free” will always make somebody’s ears ring, and in the case of link building, giveaways, contests, and sweepstakes can serve as great ways to earn links. By getting these events shared through news organizations and authoritative blogs, chances are high that you’ll get some natural links. You can even boost the impact of a competition by contacting suitable partners first for a co-publicity opportunity.

Another option would be to simply pay attention to others in your industry that are running contests or giveaways, and offer an additional prize for their promotion in return for a link. You can do so by searching in Google for “win competition” alongside with a word or phrase that is relevant to your niche.

Amplify & Optimize

Now that we’ve touched base with the importance of great content, the next step will be to make sure that it reaches an audience, and one of the most effective ways to do that is to put it in front of those who are most likely to share and link to it. So whether you’ve got a great survey to share or giveaway to promote, you’ll probably get the most traction by using paid social ads, especially if your business is just starting out. Your domain authority is just as important as your social authority, and without some kind of online presence, one cannot expect to reach much of an audience at all.

While Facebook is often believed to have the most advanced targeting capabilities with their ads, you can use other social promotions channels as well. Twitter, Reddit, Stumbleupon, and (last, but certainly not least) Google Plus, of course, do your research to pinpoint where exactly your targeted audience is most active online.

Moving Forward: What Method Can We Expect to Go Next? 

With so much content being pushed out online each day (aka: content shock), some are saying that even content marketing itself may be at risk. But while it seems like every scalable method to build links has become devalued by Google, there are still safe and natural ways of effective link building to your site to improve ranking. By sharing the most high quality, reliable, and relevant content, you shouldn’t run into issues with link penalties from Google– just be sure to vary your link profile as much as possible by using different types of link earning sources.

The following two tabs change content below.
Search engine marketing expert with 15 years of experience in the industry, working with small mom and pop shops as well as large corporate websites. I have experience with all aspects of inbound marketing, including SEO, Link Building, Social Shares, Usability, Conversions, PPC, Email Marketing, and more.