4 Tactics to Increase Your Backlinks

When it comes to your website, it’s not enough to have your on-page SEO down with optimized content and meta tags. While using great keywords is certainly a step in the right direction, a single tactic alone won’t shoot you up to the top of the search rankings, unless you’re focusing on a long-tail or very specific keyword. One of the most valuable ways you can improve your website ranking is to create and foster inbound links, also known as backlinks.

Inbound links are links coming from an external website to your own. The more links you have to your website from sites with high authority (think well-known publications like The New York Times or Wired, to name a few), the higher your website will rank within search engines. In fact, if two competing websites have an equal amount of SEO optimization, the number of inbound links will dictate which one ranks above the other. In short, the more that people link to you, the more authoritative Google thinks you are.

Your backlinks don’t need always need to have keyword optimized link text either. Google pays more attention to the intent of a link rather than the specific wording or phrasing of it, meaning that “learn more” or “click here” can be just as valuable on a website as link text with optimized keywords.

So how to get those links?

Build Backlinks for SEO

1) Build Your Citations

This is one of the few link-building tactics you do have complete control over. That said, it’s also one of the tactics with the least overall SEO mojo, local SEO aside. While inbound links from website directories like Foursquare, Yelp, and 411.ca may not have a ton of authority, the ease of submitting your website to them to jumpstart your link-building efforts makes it totally worth it.

2) Commenting for Links

You may think that an easy way to get a lot of links back to your site would be to comment on every blog post you can find. They almost all have a field to enter your site, right? If you’re only doing it for the backlink, stop right now. Why? Many sites have all links in the comments section set to be ‘nofollow’ which means that they won’t vouch for you with search engines. Google can also tell comment spam from genuinely given backlinks. We think commenting can be great, but only do it if you have something of legitimate value to add to the conversation. It can be a good way to increase your brand recognition but don’t be spammy.

3) Blogging for Links

Blogging consistently is generally considered the number one way to increase your number of quality inbound links. In fact, businesses that blog consistently can get up to 97% more inbound links, according to research from HubSpot. Many people look at blogs solely from the view of being used to share information, but they can also be effective social tools. Try using them to build relationships with influencers, look for guest blogging opportunities, or just link to other resources that are useful. Using blogging at a networking tool may not garner immediate results, but they will come with time.

4) Create Shareable Content

In terms of the kind of content you may want to create to generate inbound links, you should strive to create something that people will want to revisit over and over – something “bookmarkable”. This kind of content, such as templates, tools and infographics, can generate a ton of inbound links. Additionally, if you feel as though you can pull it off, you may also want to consider newsjacking – a process wherein you add your own value proposition to an emerging piece of news. To use the sports phrase, think of it as a ”hot take”. This can certainly bring more traffic to your website and create more inbound links, but given how quickly the news cycle can move, it can be a bit of a risky strategy. You need to act quickly and consider the appropriateness of your content.

With 60% of all organic clicks going to the top three search results, climbing up to the top of the mountain is a priority for many businesses on the web, so it’s best to take advantage of a number of different strategies.

Want to know how your site currently scores? Try my new free website grader tool.


Published On: July 12th, 2017 / Categories: SEO / Tags: /

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