Introduction

Building backlinks is foundation of any good SEO strategy. Without backlinks, no website can optimise their performance or expect the desired ROIs from their digital marketing efforts. In order to create a high performing website, any SEO expert needs to build backlinks.

According to Google, backlinks continue to be one of the top three ranking factors. In addition to quality content and mobile optimization, the number of backlinks it has, dictates a website’s search ranking.

Very few people understand that Google views backlinks as another websote’s recommendation for your website. In other words, more your website’s backlinks on other sites, more is your credibility and reputation.

In this article, we would look at the top ten ways to build backlinks.

10 Smart Ways To Build Backlinks: The List

1. Blogger Outreach Services-

No other digital marketing service has become such a craze, as has blogger outreach. It refers to the practice of reaching out to bloggers in your industry niche and requesting them to cover your product or service.

Brands prefer blogger outreach to guest posting as it helps in making direct leads and sales. In most instances, bloggers are reviewers and command influence over a targeted audience.

2. Guest Posting Services-

Even though guest posting has lost out to blogger outreach as the number one link building strategy, it is still very important. Placing quality content on high performing publishing sites helps in exposing your content and brand to new audiences.

One of the few benefits of guest posting is its ability to assume a complete ‘White Hat’ dimension, if done in the right fashion. Guest posting continues to be one of the top ways for brand to build backlinks.

3. Quora and Reddit Review Platforms-

Even though the nature of backlinks built on Quora and Reddit are of a ‘No-Follow’ nature, yet there are enough advantages of the platforms. For starters, Google continues to be ambiguous about the relevance of no-follow links.

In addition, Quora and Reddit are high authority sites that can help drive large volume of traffic to a brand site. It also filters the target audiences and helps in an optimised campaign building activity.

4. Create Infographics and request sites to Link-

In my experience, one strong infographic is similar to creating ten articles of two thousand words each. In other words, it is a lot of effort. However, in terms of sharing, infographics tend to perform quite well.

You can create an industry specific infographic and reach out to publishers who are writing on similar topics. Ask them to place the infographic on their site and give you a backlink. Ninety percent of the times, most publishers would be happy to add to their content for a backlink.

5. Write Testimonials and Case Studies for others-

Every brand website wants to build their client portfolio and testimonial section. However, no one wants to pay something extra, This is a perfect opportunity to request someone for a quality backlink.

You can reach out to brand websites in your industry niche and suggest writing a Customer testimonial for them. In the same section, they can cite your name and the link of your brand website. It is a win-win situation for both of you.

6. Social Media Link Building-

While there are many people and sceptics who are of the opinion that social media is not a place to build links, I would disagree strongly. Brands who have a strong and powerful social media presence do well on search engines.

A classic case would be the number of people going from social profiles to websites. From product displays to blogs, social media pages can be an amazing source of redirecting quality traffic to your website.

Read More: Get quality backlinks to your website 101

7. Broken Link Building-

If you are willing to put in the effort, there is nothing, which can give you as many backlinks as broken link building. All you need to do is use a tool like Ahrefs or Moz to find broken backlinks.

Once you have located where broken backlinks are, all you need to do is reach out to the website’s webmaster and request him for a backlink. In exchange, you can pitch him a great content idea and submit a long format article. No webmaster will allow broken links on his platform. If he is getting a great content piece for the broken link, it would be very hard for him to refuse.

8. Local Listing and Directory Submissions-

Please do not confuse this strategy for spammy directory link building. Every business belongs to some association, or organization. For example, doctors have several bodies from which they are affiliated.

You need to add your website’s links to as many local directories of an official nature as possible. This will also help you boost your Local SEO efforts. However, it is important to stay away from spammy link building directories.

9. Citations and Aggregator Websites-

In 2019, start-up owners are aggregating everything they can get their hands on. This includes Food, fashion, health, travel, and almost every other industry. All brands should be part of as many aggregator platforms as possible.

This will help you not only reach out to new audiences and more avenues of sales and revenues, it will help you get a number of backlinks for your website. The number of mentions your brand has digitally on authority websites, the better will be your organic reach and visibility.

10. Ask for Backlinks-

There are sometimes where you would have done it all and you have been unable to build backlinks. All of us have been in that situation. The key is to engage with your community and ask them for backlinks.

You might be surprised about the number of people who will come forward and help you out. However, it is important that you acknowledge their gesture and reciprocate accordingly. If they are looking for something, which you can help them with, please do that immediately.

Conclusion

Building backlinks is the bedrock of SEO. Ninety percent of all SEO is building backlinks. In this article, we looked at the top ten smartest and innovative ways of building backlinks. If you want to have a strong and performance oriented link building strategy, you would need to integrate some of the techniques that have been listed above.