How to Get Backlinks (15 Quick and Simple Strategies)
Do you want to boost the number of backlinks for your website? Backlinks play an important role in improving your search engine rankings.
It’s among the top-ranking factors for Google. And if you can get high-quality backlinks to your website, you have a stronger chance of ranking higher.
In this article, we’ll show you how to get backlinks using quick and simple strategies. By the end of this post, you’ll know amazing ways for link building.
What Are Backlinks?
Backlinks are when another website links back to your site. They are also known as external links and inbound nsterInsights is the best WordPress Analytics plugin. Get it for free!
Let’s say a site XYZ uses your website as an external link in one of its content. The link from site XYZ will be a backlink for you.
Now you may ask, why are backlinks important?
Backlinks are highly valuable for SEO (search engine optimization). They provide a vote of confidence for your website and your content.
According to OptinMonster, sites with the highest number of backlinks tend to rank higher on Google.
With many websites linking back to your site, it sends a positive signal to the search engine, showing that your content offers value and is link-worthy. In return, the search engine will improve your website’s rankings and visibility on the search results.
This shows that link building is important for your site. But how do you get backlinks for your website?
How to Get Backlinks?
Here are 15 quick and simple strategies on how to get backlinks. Let’s dive straight in…
1. Find Backlink Opportunities with Top Referral Sources
You can start by looking at the top referral sources of your website. These are websites that are linking to your content and offering you a backlink.
By finding out which type of websites link back to your site and the type of content they prefer, you can find new opportunities and create similar content to get a backlink.
There are many ways you can view your referral sources. But the easiest option is through MonsterInsights. It’s the best WordPress plugin for Google Analytics and presents different reports inside your WordPress dashboard.
To view your top referral sources, go to Insights and then Reports. The first report you’ll see will be of Overview. Scroll down and view the Top 10 Referral sources.
2. Use Outbound Links to Form Partnerships
Another way of finding backlink opportunities is by looking at your outbound links report. If you are linking to a high authority website and sending a lot of traffic, you can send out an outreach email and form a partnership.
And with MonsterInsights, you can easily view your top outbound links. Just install the plugin and go to Insights » Reports » Publishers and navigate to Top Outbound Links report.
The report will show you the external links on your website that get the most clicks. You can then send an email to these websites and build a relationship. Tell them about your post and how you found it useful that you used it as a source.
And that you’re looking for a partnership opportunity and perhaps work on a content collaboration, like a case study. If they’re on board with the idea, you can get free backlinks along with traffic and a relationship with an industry-leading website.
3. Use Google Search Console Reports to Get Backlinks
Google Search Console can also help you with how to get backlinks for your website. The free tool by Google provides amazing data that you can use to boost your rankings.
And among them is the External Links report. These are websites that linked back to your site in the past. You can go through the backlinks and see what type of content they liked and gave you a backlink.
Since they’ve linked your domain previously, they will be familiar with your website and could provide another backlink. All you have to do is find sites and reach out with relevant content.
You can also check out our guide on how to use Google Search Console to double your traffic.
4. Spy on Your Competitors
Ever wonder where your competitors get their backlinks from? What’s their organic strategy and what type of content they publish? If you want to stay up to date with what’s happening in the industry, then you should know what others are doing.
You can ethically spy on your competitors to find sources for backlinks, look at their organic keywords, top-performing content, social media activities, and more.
To look for backlinks, you can use SEO tools like SEMrush. It provides a complete backlink profile of any website you enter. To view the backlinks in SEMrush, go to Backlink Analytics from the left panel and then enter your competitor’s domain.
Now click Check it. Next, select Backlinks and you’ll have a list of domains from where your competitor gets its links from.
You can then use these sources to capture a backlink for your website as well. For instance, if your competitor has a link from a guest post, you can also publish content on the guest posting website.
And if they have a link from a forum, you can also create a profile in that forum and try to earn a backlink.
Other techniques you can use to stay ahead of your competitors include signing up for their email newsletters and set up Google Alerts. So, you’re immediately notified when they publish new content or were featured on another site.
5. Find Broken Links to Build Backlinks
While you’re looking at your competitors, you can also look at their broken links. The broken link building strategy is another quick and easy way of capturing backlinks.
Broken links are links that no longer exist or work on a website. And they may be caused by the source website removing those links (also known as 404 error), have an improper URL, or the destination website might have closed or moved to another domain.
Whatever the reason, this presents an amazing opportunity for you to get a backlink. All you have to do is find broken links, contact the website to replace the link, and pitch your site as a replacement. It’s that simple!
To find broken links, you can first look at your competitors and then search for more websites in your niche. Then use tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to uncover broken links.
In SEMrush, you can filter the Backlinks report of your competitor. Under the different options listed under Backlinks, check the box for Lost. It will then show you links that longer work.
And if you’re using Ahrefs, then enter the website URL in its Site Explorer and click on Broken under the Backlinks options from the menu on your left. The tool will show you all the broken links of your competitor.
Once you have a list of broken links, the next step is to contact the webmaster of these websites and report about the broken link.
When drafting your pitch, be humble and introduce yourself. Add the exact location of the broken link, since you want to help them out.
Then mention different alternatives for the broken link, including your website. Chances are that the webmaster will use your website as a replacement and you’ll get a backlink in return.
6. Create High-Quality Content That’s Link-Worthy
One of the most basic ways of how to get backlinks is by creating top-notch content. Your goal should be to create a piece of content that other bloggers and industry experts can use and link back to your site.
This may be a time-intensive strategy but if you can get it right, it’s worth the effort. There are different types of content you can produce. You can write how-to articles, create guides, list posts, and run quizzes.
For instance, if you have a fashion blog, you can create a how-to post about how to run a fashion brand with only $100. You can also create a list post about 50 fashion trends that will reshape society.
But how do you know which content type will work?
Here you can use MonsterInsights to get insights. First, you can look at the top landing page report to see which pages get the most traffic and then create similar content to drive traffic and backlinks.
And if you want to further drill down to see which type of posts work the best, then you can set up custom dimensions to see the most popular post type.
MonsterInsights makes the process very easy and you can view the report in your dashboard. Just go to Insights » Reports and select Dimensions from the top. Then scroll down to the Most Popular Post Types report.
From the report, you can see that guides and recipes are among the top post types. It gives you an idea of what type of content you should be producing and promoting to get backlinks.
7. Publish a Skyscraper Content
When it comes to creating content, you can also produce a skyscraper content to get backlinks. These are extensive guides on existing topics and are super detailed and could be as long as 10, 000+ words.
The idea behind a skyscraper content is to write a post that covers all aspects of the topic in detail and is better than the rest. So, you can attract other sites to link your post and generate lots of backlinks.
You can start by simply searching for a topic in your niche on Google. Then closely look at the results because these are the pages that got a lot of backlinks and made it to the first page on Google.
For example, if you’re writing about content marketing, lookup the search results. Then go through the content on each of the links and start creating your own post that’s 10X better.
Once your skyscraper content is ready, it’s time for the most important part – promotion. There are different ways you can go about promoting it.
First, you can reach out to all the people, influencers, companies, tools, and sources you mentioned in your content. Tell them that you found their platform to be useful and if they liked the article, they can share it with their audience.
As the word gets out about your skyscraper guide, others will start to pick up your content and you’ll get backlinks.
Another way of promoting your post is by finding sites that have already backlinked to existing posts and then pitching your content as a better alternative.
For this, you can use SEO tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs. Simply enter the URL of each of the top 10 results in the tool and extract a list of websites that provided backlinks to the original article.
Then use the list to reach out to these websites and introduce your skyscraper content. Explain to them how your post is better and encourage them to give your post a backlink.
You can also take a look at more amazing content marketing examples.
8. Use Infographics to Capture Backlinks
Along with written text, you use infographics to secure backlinks for your website.
Infographics are visual representations of data and information using graphics, images, and charts. They help in providing a quick overview of the topic and break down complex concepts into simple visuals that are easy to understand.
Take the case of WPBeginner. Their infographic on interesting facts about WordPress has over 700 backlinks.
By creating engaging and helpful infographics, you are helping other content creators. They might use your visual creation in their blogs and give you a backlink as the original creator of the infographic.
To create an infographic, you don’t need to be a designer or hire a professional. You can use different free online tools to create one by yourself. Check out the guide on the best visual content creation tools to get started.
9. Write Testimonials
Did you know that by writing testimonials on other websites, you can get a backlink for your site?
Many businesses look for testimonials to show as social proof. They even display them on their homepage.
So, if you’re a regular user of a tool or service, you can write a testimonial in exchange for a backlink. Find companies that are relevant to your industry and submit a testimonial.
Pro Tip: Look for websites that have high domain authority (DA). That’s because search engines consider links from high DA sites to be high-quality backlinks.
10. Use Help a Reporter Out (HARO)
And when we speak of high-quality backlinks, then getting links from news websites and journalistic blogs is like winning the jackpot. That’s because these websites have a high domain authority and getting featured there will also boost your site’s trust level.
The best way to get a backlink from news outlets is through Help a Reporter Out (HARO). It’s a platform that provides journalists and bloggers with sources for news and stories.
To use HARO, sign up as a source from its homepage and then select a pricing plan (you can use the free basic plan to get started).
Once you’ve signed up, you’ll start receiving emails from HARO containing requests from different news and media websites for a quote, advice, tips, stories and more.
Respond to the queries that are relevant to your business and if your answer gets picked up, you’ll end up receiving a backlink from the news website.
11. Start Guest Blogging
Guest posting is an excellent way to get backlinks for your website and is a tried and tested strategy. You can reach out to different sites that accept guest blogs and submit a post.
Many websites offer a contributor account or a write for us section where anyone can write an article and get featured on the site. They even let you link to your site, either in the author bio section or within the text of the content.
You can find guest blogging websites by simply running a search on Google. Write the topic keyword you want to target and add a guest article or write for us or contributor in the end. The search engine will then filter the results and show sites that allow guest posting.
Next, draft a pitch for your topic, along with a description of what you’ll cover in the article. Make sure to explain the benefits and how it helps their readers.
Guest posting helps you laser target the right audience and generate traffic to your website. You can learn more by following the ultimate guide to guest blogging.
12. Take Part in Interviews
Just like a guest post, you can also get backlinks by participating in interviews. You can land an interview by searching through the web and look for sites that regularly conduct an interview.
A great place to start with is It’s a site where you answer questions in real-time about a topic. And in the bio, you can mention a link to your website.
Another way of landing an interview is through HARO. Just keep a lookout for queries that are relevant to your industry and are asking for an interview or a quotation.
13. Do Guest Appearances on Podcasts
You can get a free backlink from the podcast notes if you can appear as a guest on any of the podcasts.
As for finding podcasts, you do the same as interviews and run a quick search for relevant podcasts on platforms like Spotify, iTunes, Google Play, and more.
Then send out an email telling them you’re interested in appearing as a guest on the podcast. And make sure to include your experience, how you’re fit for the podcast, and how you can add value.
Once you start appearing on multiple podcasts, you’ll also build a following. You can then leverage your newly created audience if you decide to create a podcast on your own website.
Check out our guide on the best WordPress podcast plugins.
14. Participate in Different Forums
Discussion forums are a great place to find backlinks for your site. By participating in different forums, you can also become an industry expert and help drive traffic to your site.
If you’re not sure which forums to participate in, do a quick search on Google. Use any of the variations to find relevant forums for your niche:
[your niche] + forums
Forums + [your niche]
[your niche] + discussion
You can also respond to different questions on Quora. It’s a question and answer platform with a wide range of topics. Simply enter a search term on Quora and it will present you with all the questions related to the topic.
Another way of finding forums is by looking at your competitors. As we explained earlier, you can spy on your competitors to find backlinks. Using different SEO tools, you can see which forums they used to get backlinks and then you can do the same.
15. List Your Site on Resource Pages
The last strategy we have for you is to find resource pages and list your website on the page. Resource pages are where the author curates a long list of useful resources and links different products and services.
You can get a backlink by finding resource pages and reaching out to the author or the site owner to mention your site on the list.
To find a resource page, enter your keyword on the search engine along with terms like helpful resources or resource list. Once you’ve found resource lists, contact the webmaster, and pitch your website.
Try to personalize your emails and include the links to where you want your site to be listed. And show how your website or tool adds value to their resource page and helps their readers.
And that’s it!
You now know different ways to secure a high-quality backlink for your website. By increasing the number of inbound links, you can boost your search engine rankings.
We hope you liked our article on how to get backlinks using quick and simple strategies. You can also check out our guide on why businesses need Google Analytics right now.
If you have more ways to skyrocket backlinks, do share with us in the comments. And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more helpful articles about WordPress and Google Analytics.
How to Get High Quality Backlinks in 2021 (7 New Strategies)
Today you’re going to learn how to get backlinks in 2021.
In fact, the 7 strategies I’m going to share with you have helped my site rack up 452k total backlinks:
Let’s get right into the techniques.
1. Become a Source For Reporters and Bloggers
2. Publish “Skyscraper” Content
3. Build Links From Outdated Resources
4. Use Content Formats Proven To Generate Links
5. Publish Ultimate Guides
6. Use Branded Strategies and Techniques
7. Authority Resource Pages
Bonus Strategy #1: Turn Brand Mentions Into Quality Backlinks
Bonus Strategy #2: Send “Feeler” Emails
Here’s the deal:
If you want to rank on the first page of Google, you need to build backlinks from authority news sites and blogs.
(I’m talking about white hat links from authority news sites and blogs. )
Fortunately, this isn’t as hard as it sounds.
All you need to do is use a free service called Help a Reporter Out (HARO).
HARO is like Tinder for public relations.
It connects people that need sources (bloggers and journalists) to people that want links and exposure (you).
And I’ve personally used HARO to build white hat backlinks from authoritative news sites:
And I’m not alone. In fact, I get emails like this from Backlinko readers all the time:
To be clear: this strategy takes work. And it’s not always easy.
But in my experience, it’s one of the best ways to build high-quality backlinks at scale.
With that, let’s dive into the step-by-step process.
First, register as a source.
Next, choose a free or paid plan.
Then, keep an eye out for requests that you can contribute to.
Finally, send the journalist a VERY brief and valuable pitch.
For example:
A while back I saw a request from someone asking: “What’s the difference between graphic design and web design? ”.
So I submitted this pitch:
And I got this sweet link from a DR76 university site.
Not too shabby.
I’ve used “Skyscraper” content to build backlinks from authority sites like
Hubspot:
And I even got an editorial link from the GoDaddy blog:
Yup, you’ve probably noticed that they’re all linking to the same piece of content: SEO Tools: The Complete List.
Well, my list of SEO tools is a piece of “Skyscraper” content.
And that page has generated 7. 76K total backlinks.
But more important than that, as you just saw, many of those links are quality backlinks from authority sites.
The question is:
How can you do the same thing?
Here’s the step-by-step process:
First, find a piece of content in your industry that’s already performed well (in terms of backlinks).
The easiest way to do that?
A simple Google search.
Just search for your keyword…
…and check out the first page results:
As you know, backlinks are a super important Google ranking signal.
So if a page is ranking on the first page, lots of people have probably linked to it.
That’s step #1.
Next, create a piece of content that’s 5-10x better than what you just found.
For example, I noticed that most of the SEO tools lists out there were pretty short.
So I decided to create something that was 10x better.
Unlike most other lists of SEO tools, my post contained every tool on the market (170+ tools).
Was this piece of content easy to make? Nope!
But it was worth it. To date, my SEO tools list has been shared on social media 20, 777 times…
…and has backlinks from over 1. 08K different domains:
Finally, promote your “Skyscraper” content.
This is key.
Yes, a piece of Skyscraper content already puts you ahead of your competitors.
But to get the most out of your content, you need to actively promote it.
Now:
There are a million ways to promote your content.
So let me show you one quick strategy that works really well for Skyscraper content:
Promote to people that you mention in your post.
For example, I emailed all of the tools that I mentioned in my Skyscraper post. Here’s the exact script that I used:
And because I wasn’t pushy or spammy, most people were more than happy to share my content on social media (some of them even linked to it):
Using “The Moving Man Method” I scored links from…
An authoritative site:
A popular resource page:
And several contextual links from relevant sites in the SEO and online marketing space, like this:
And this:
And now it’s time for the steps.
1. Your first step is to find sites in your industry that have:
Changed names
Moved to a new URL
Stopped offering a service
Stopped updating a resource
Shut down
How about an example?
A while back SEOMoz changed their name to Moz (and moved their site from to):
After I heard the news, I realized that this was a PERFECT opportunity to reach out to the hundreds of people still linking to the outdated URLs.
2. Our second step is to find sites still linking to the old, outdated URL
Now that you’ve found a site that was recently re-branded or a site feature that’s no longer there, it’s time to find all of the links pointing to that page.
Just grab the URL of the outdated resource and put it into your backlink checking tool of choice.
(I’m using Ahrefs in this example but there are lots of link building tools that you can use to do the same thing. )
Then, check out all the sites that link to the old URLs.
Depending on the site, you should have quite a few link opportunities to work with.
Either way, you want to focus on sites that have the highest Domain Authority (DA).
3. Last up, reach out and get your links.
Your last step is to reach out to all of the people that still link to the outdated resource.
You want to give them a quick heads up about their outdated link…and gently suggest that they add your link to their site.
I tested a few different outreach email scripts for my SEOmoz/Moz campaign. Here’s the one that worked best:
And because I added value to their site twice (once from the heads up about their outdated link and again by showing them my valuable resource) people were more than happy to add my link to their page:
That’s all there is to it
A while ago, BuzzSumo and I did a study of 912 million blog posts and articles:
So, what did we find?
We discovered that most content is completely ignored.
In fact, they found that 94% of all online content gets ZERO links.
That’s the bad news.
The good news is, we found that certain types of content consistently performed better than others.
Specifically, we discovered that the following content formats tended to generate lots of backlinks:
In other words, if you want to get backlinks, focus on these content formats:
“Why” Posts
“What” posts
Infographics
Videos
Am I saying: “Just publish a bunch of why posts and infographics? ”
Of course not.
If you want to get backlinks today, your content has to be amazing.
But these formats give you a starting point for writing amazing content that actually works.
You already know that the only way to move your site to the top of Google is to build high-quality backlinks (and lots of them).
That much is clear.
But HOW do you get other sites to actually link to you?
Ultimate Guides.
Seriously.
For example, here’s an Ultimate Guide to link building that I published a while back:
Even though I wrote that guide 6 years ago, it continues to generate links today (in 2021).
Why do Ultimate Guides work so well?
First, comprehensive guides tend to contain A LOT of content on a single page. In fact, my guide to link building is a whopping 4, 834 words.
According to lots of SEO ranking factor studies (including ours), long-form content tends to perform better in Google than short articles:
Also, ultimate guides cover an entire topic on a single page.
And because your guide is the “go-to” resource for a topic, people will link to it whenever they write about that topic on their blog:
Here’s exactly how to create an ultimate guide, step-by-step.
1. Your first step is to find a topic for your guide.
This is important.
You want to choose a popular topic that hasn’t been covered to death already.
(In other words: you don’t want to publish the 18th ultimate guide on a topic. )
For example, when I published my link building guide, I noticed the first page of Google had some helpful posts…
…but no ultimate guides.
I also considered writing an ultimate guide to SEO. But there were already a thousand guides on that topic:
So I went with link building.
2. Next, outline your ultimate guide.
This is easy.
Just list out subtopics that make up your larger topic.
For example, for my link building guide, I simply listed out subtopics like this:
What is link building?
Black hat SEO
White hat SEO
Anchor text
Content
Email outreach
Advanced tips
And many of these subtopics each became sections of my guide:
3. Lastly, write your Ultimate Guide.
And remember:
Don’t be afraid to cover everything there is to know about a topic.
That way, your guide will be seen as the definitive resource.
(And like I mentioned earlier, longer content tends to generate more backlinks, shares… and higher rankings in Google. )
Remember strategy #3 from this guide?
You might have noticed that I didn’t just outline the strategy… I also named it.
This wasn’t the first time that I mentioned the “Moving Man Method” in a blog post.
In fact, thanks to naming my strategy, people link to my content on The Moving Man Method fairly often:
(People even publish entire blog posts about it. )
And those links only happened because I gave my strategy a memorable name.
How about another example?
Ramit Sethi created a strategy for looking like a rockstar at meetings called “The Briefcase Technique“:
And because Ramit named his strategy, he got a bunch of amazing links:
Now that you’ve seen how well this can work, it’s time to cover the specific steps:
Step #1: Develop a Unique Strategy, Tip or Tactic
This sounds harder than it actually is.
All you need to do is come up with a strategy that has SOMETHING unique about it.
(In other words, the entire strategy doesn’t need to be unique. )
Derek Halpern puts it best:
For example, let’s look at The Moving Man Method.
People have been using broken link building as part of their link building campaigns for years.
So what made my strategy different?
My unique twist was that the links weren’t necessarily broken (as in, they didn’t necessarily show a 404 error).
The links I used for The Moving Man Method technically worked… they were just outdated:
And that was unique enough.
Step #2: Next, name your strategy.
I called my strategy The Moving Man Method because you’re helping the site owner “move” their link.
Not the most creative name, but it gets the job done.
So yeah, just make sure the name describes what your strategy does.
Other than that, try to use one of these words in your strategy name:
Method
Technique
Approach
System
Blueprint
You get the idea
Step #3: Publish the strategy as part of a blog post.
Your last step is to show people that your new strategy actually works.
How?
Publish your strategy in the form of a blog post. Preferably a case study.
(That way, people have something to link to when they reference your technique. )
For example, here’s the post I used to announce The Moving Man Method to the world:
In this post I didn’t just say: “Look at my new strategy. It probably works! ”.
Instead, I showed people proof that The Moving Man Method works:
And that 1-2 punch (a branded strategy + proof) is an asset that can result in lots of backlinks.
Resource pages are a link builder’s dream.
Why? They’re pages that exist solely to link out to other sites.
Here’s an example:
And here’s an example of a link that I built from a resource page a while ago:
You might be wondering
“OK, that’s great. But how can I get links from resource pages”?
Like every strategy in this post, I’ll walk you through the step-by-step process:
First, you need to find resource pages.
These can be tricky to find. Very few people call their resource page a “resource page”.
Instead, people tend to describe their pages with terms like:
“helpful resources”
“useful resources”
“further reading”
“additional resources”
So to find these pages, you just need to search for these terms… plus a keyword.
For example, let’s say you just published an article about link building.
You’d do a Google search using this keyword:
And within 5 seconds I found this massive list of link building resources:
Second, now that you’ve found a resource page, it’s time to reach out and (nicely) ask for a link.
Here’s the email script that I recommend:
Hi [Name],
I was looking for some articles to read about [You Topic] today, when I stumbled on your [Resource Page Title].
Very cool.
Anyway, I noticed that you have a section on your resource page dedicated to [Your Topic]. I actually recently published a massive guide on that same topic. It might be worth adding to your page.
Thanks and have a great day!
Regards,
[Your First Name]
To be clear:
This script is just a starting point.
The more you personalize your outreach emails, the more links you’ll get.
But his proven script is a proven outline that you can start with.
Every once and a while someone will mention you in a blog post. won’t actually link to your site.
See how that person mentioned my site… but didn’t link to me?
That’s called an “Unlinked Brand Mention”.
These mentions are relatively easy to get backlinks from.
Why?
The author of the post already mentioned you. Which means they like you.
So you just need to send them this friendly email:
I just came across your latest article: [Article Title].
Awesome work!
I just wanted to reach out and say “Thanks” for mentioning [Your Brand Name] in your article. I really appreciate that.
Also, if you have a minute, it would be great if you could link to our site. That way, your readers can easily find the post on our blog that you mentioned.
Again, thank you for mentioning us in your article. And have a great day.
Best,
And you’re set.
When it comes to email outreach, you have two options:
Option #1: Ask people for links in your first email
Option #2: Use a “feeler” email
From running hundreds of link building campaigns, I’ve found that both approaches can work.
But I’ve also found that so-called “Feeler” emails increase conversions by 40%+.
So: what are “Feeler” emails?
Feeler emails are messages you send to prospects without asking for a link.
(You’re “feeling out” whether or not they’re receptive to your outreach… before you make a link pitch. )
Here’s a real-life example:
See how Mike doesn’t ask for a link? Instead, he asks the person if they’d like to see it first.
IF they say “yes”, you send them your pitch:
In Mike’s case, the “Feeler” email got 40% more responses vs. asking for a link in the first email.
What Do You Think?
There you have it: seven proven ways to get backlinks in 2021.
Now I’d like to hear from you.
Which strategy from today’s post are you going to use first?
Are you excited to publish an Ultimate Guide?
Or maybe you want to test “Feeler” outreach emails.
Let me know by leaving a comment below right now.
What is a Backlink? How to Get More Backlinks – WPBeginner
A backlink is simply a link from one website to another. Search engines like Google use backlink as a ranking signal because when one website links to another, it means they believe the content is noteworthy. High-quality backlinks can help to increase a site’s ranking position and visibility in search engine results (SEO).
How Do Backlinks Work?
Backlinks play an important role in search engine algorithm, SEO, and your overall strategy for growing your website.
The easiest way to think of backlinks would be as conversations among websites.
For example, John is a blogger, and he writes a very interesting article about a sports event.
Another blogger, Samantha, links to John’s article when sharing her perspective. Since she writes about the topic on her well-known online magazine site, this creates a backlink to John’s post.
Because the online magazine is popular, many other sites will link back to her article. This increases the online magazine’s authority, and John’s article also gets a valuable backlink from a reputable site.
Basically it’s a win-win.
Types of Backlinks
There are two basic types of backlinks, and one is more valuable than the other. Let’s take a quick look at each one and how they affect your site.
A Nofollow tag tells search engines to ignore a link. They don’t pass any value from one site to another. So, typically they aren’t helpful in improving your search rank or visibility.
Dofollow links are the type of backlink that everyone wants. Just keep in mind that those coming from respected sites hold the most value. This kind of backlink can help improve your search engine rankings.
However, there are dofollow links that are considered being bad or ‘toxic’. These links come from suspicious sites or are gained by breaking the search engine terms of service.
This may cause Google to penalize or even de-index your site. Remember, it’s not about the quantity of backlinks, but rather the quality that makes the difference in ranking.
How to Get Backlinks?
Building backlinks to your site takes time and effort. Here are 7 simple ways you can start building quality backlinks for your website.
Add links to your site on your social media profiles.
Do a Google search for a post that’s already ranking well and then improve and expand it.
Create list posts, “how-to” posts, “why” posts, infographics, or posts with embedded videos. These formats usually get more backlinks than standard posts.
Write the ultimate guide posts. These are very long posts containing several thousand words and cover every angle of the topic.
Write guest posts on other blogs and websites
Contact influencers in your niche or industry and tell them about an article on your site that they may want to link to.
Interview influencers in your industry and send them a link, no doubt they will link back to your site.
You can also begin doing competitive backlink research. In order to do this, you’ll need to see the backlinks of your competitors who are ranking well.
A backlink tool like SEMrush can help you find these links, so you can begin targeting those domains as part of your own link building strategy.
How Can I Check My Backlinks?
There are various backlink monitoring tools that let you check your website backlinks including Google Search Console, SEMRush, Ahrefs, etc.
Keeping an eye on your backlinks is very important. Google Webmaster Guidelines require you to ask toxic website owners to remove their links from your site. If you don’t, then Google can penalize your website, and your page rank will begin to drop in search results.
So, it’s important to know how to answer these 3 questions:
Where can I find all my backlinks?
How can I know if they are toxic?
How can I contact toxic backlink site owners?
Thankfully, the answer is easy with the right tools.
You can use Google Search Console to help grow your site and see your backlinks, but it can take a lot of time and it’s limited on what it can do.
However, there are faster and better tools available. For example, by using SEMrush, you can quickly answer all three of those important questions and much more.
SEMrush has two main areas that deal specifically with backlinks. The first is the Backlink Analytics section which lets you study your competitors, and the second is the Backlink Audit area.
Let’s take a quick look at Backlink Audit section because it lets you find all the backlinks to your site.
Next, SEMrush’s Backlink Audit tool checks every backlink and sorts out those that are toxic. This way you can find and disavow toxic backlinks before Google penalizes your website.
And one of the best things about SEMrush is it lets you email the toxic website owner right from the user screen.
With a tool like SEMrush, you can do keyword research, see your competitors backlinks, and manage yours in one convenient place.
Keeping track of your backlink profile will tell you a lot about the value of your site and is an important part of your site’s SEO strategy.
We hope this guide helped you learn what are backlinks, and how you can use them to grow your website.
Additional Reading
Frequently Asked Questions about building back links
What does it mean to build backlinks?
A backlink is simply a link from one website to another. … High-quality backlinks can help to increase a site’s ranking position and visibility in search engine results (SEO).
Can you create your own backlinks?
The best links to your website are the ones coming from real websites, with good content and lots of social media shares. You can either earn these backlinks naturally or build them yourself. As long as they come from the authority websites in your niche, they have great SEO value.May 18, 2015
How do I create backlinks in 2020?
7 Ways You Can Earn More Backlinks in 2020Create link round-up posts. … Give interviews. … Guest Blogging. … Connect with clients. … Post case studies and industry statistics. … Monitor your competitors. … Connect with experts on Facebook groups.Jan 3, 2020