If you’d like to up your domain rating (and therefore your SEO game), and you’re already on top of your page content, on-page optimisation and blog content, your next stop is backlinks. While it may feel like a foray into the unknown, it’s what’s considered a ‘white hat’ SEO technique, which means it’s no dark art - it preserves your website’s integrity, whilst also raising your rankings.
In fact, earning quality backlinks is a legitimate way of getting your content seen by many through respected and authoritative sites, which in turn tells Google that you’re kind of a Big Deal. Can you tell that we’re big fans? In this article, we’ll be sharing our 3 fundamental best practices for backlinking.
What is backlinking?
A backlink is an external link to your website from another. For you, it’s an incoming link, and when it comes from a reputable source, such as a trusted news outlet, it demonstrates to search engines that the content you write is relevant to the subject matter, and valuable to the user. Google rewards this with a higher ranking, and a boosted domain authority.
How can I get backlinks?
There are plenty of clever and technical ways in which you can support your backlinking strategy, and we could be here all day discussing them. However, if the following crucial elements aren’t in hand, these nuanced add-ons to your link building efforts will be wasted.
Our top 3 backlinking best practices
Create quality, helpful content
If you’re looking to earn backlinks from those holy grail websites, your hopes will be dashed if your content isn’t up to scratch. Your focus initially, as with all content you produce, should be on creating articles that really help your user.
Whether you’re guest blogging or creating articles for your own site, you want to ensure that you’re not only remaining relevant to what your audience are searching for, but also giving them valuable takeaways too.
Need help perfecting your articles? Try these top tips…
- Include infographics - visual content is very shareable
- Try ‘Best X’ articles e.g. ‘The Best SEO Tools for Marketers’
- Create ‘Ultimate X’ articles, e.g. ‘The Ultimate Guide to SEO’
- Include original research and/or statistics
- Consider newsjacking, which involves harnessing the power of a viral story
Work within your niche
Google rewards authoritative content - it’s part of the E-E-A-T guidelines that apply directly to quality content. Authoritative content builds trust, and the only way to be truly authoritative is to write about the area you know inside out.
Not only does working within your niche mean writing insightful content that contributes a valuable voice to your niche, but it also means knowing what other authoritative, popular sites sit alongside you. These could be linking to your content to provide those coveted backlinks.
Connect with journalists
The strategy with journalists who could give you the backlinks that would benefit you needs to have two branches, and these are:
Reaching out
When you believe that you have a unique take on a subject, it can be mutually beneficial for both you, and the journalist or site you’re contacting. The identification of key sites and the journalists who write for them allows you to reach out when you have something to say, so that you can provide their readers with valuable content, which also earns you a backlink in the process.
Looking out for opportunities
Journalists often put out calls on X (formerly known as Twitter) for subject experts to enhance an article they’re writing. You can often find these requests under #journorequest, so keeping a close eye on this allows you to have first dibs on a great opportunity.
How can I get help with my backlinks?
Although rewarding and highly valuable, generating backlinks can be a time consuming process, so we completely understand that so many business owners won’t have the time to dedicate to it. For us, link building is an integral part of your SEO strategy, so it’s something we factor into the work we do for our clients.
Harnessing the power of the 427 team means that you’ve got a multi-pronged approach to raising your rankings legitimately, and with your user in mind always. Chat with us to get the ball rolling on backlinking.