Backlinks are essentially links from one website to another. They are also known as inbound links or incoming links. In the case of your website, a backlink would refer to a separate website directing traffic to your website. Search engines, such as Google consider backlinks to be “votes” for a specific page. Thus, it makes sense that a page with a high number of backlinks would have high organic rankings on the search engine results page (SERP). It is important to note that there is a difference between quality backlinks and non-quality backlinks. 

Importance of Backlinks

As mentioned, backlinks are seen as votes obtained from other websites. These votes inform the search engine that the content on the page is trustworthy, valuable and relevant to users. This is why the more votes you acquire, the higher you will rank on the SERP. 

Unfortunately, not all backlinks are created equal. This means that some backlinks are more valuable than others. In fact, wrong backlinks can even get your site penalised. Thus, your job is to determine which ones are quality backlinks, helping you to achieve higher SEO rankings. To drive this point further, consider that a single quality backlink can be more powerful than 1,000 low-quality backlinks. 

Now that we are all aware of the power that quality backlinks have, the next question is how to get them for your website. In this article, we will share with you 4 key strategies on how you can earn quality backlinks to boost your SEO efforts. 

1. Utilise on Skyscraper Content

Content is key in order to get another website to start linking to yours. One way to do this strategically is to employ a technique known as “Skyscraper Content”. This technique involves finding topics that are already performing well online, and using that to create a content that is even better. Examples of skyscraper content are “The Complete List of SEO Tools” or “SEO 101 For Beginners”. As you can tell, these articles are usually very comprehensive in nature and will include in depth details on a particular topic. 

This involves a lot of time and research work, but the payout will be worth it! Your quality, skyscraper content will be shared and referred to by other websites. 

2. Build Links From Outdated Pages

More often than not, we will come across a page that is not updated. Some reasons for this could be because these sites have:

• Gone through a rebranding and have changed names as well as moved to a new URL, or
• Stopped offering the service but did not update their content
• Completely shut down

While these websites are undergoing their changes to the website, many people are still unaware of this change. This creates the perfect opportunity for you to reach out to the people who are still linking to the outdated pages. 

Your first step in this strategy is to look for sites such as described in the above. The next step requires a bit of reverse engineering work. This is where you look for all the links that are pointing to that page. 

This is a concept where Google will place more priority on a trusted, authoritative source. Basically, the more authority a site has, the more authority it will pass on to your website. Google places a lot of weight on websites with high authoritative domains. Backlinko have shared a great list of link building tools to help you in this process. 

Next would be to sieve out the sites with the highest domain authority. Websites with high domain authority are seen as valuable by Google. You want to reach out to these websites with high domain authority. The objective for this is to inform them of the outdated link on their website, and also to suggest a replacement link. Ideally, this replacement link is a link to your website. 

3. Make Use Of Successful Content Formats. 

Some content formats work better than others, especially for backlinks. Such content formats usually tend to be presented in bite-sizes chunks that are easily digestible. Examples are:

• List posts
• Quizzes
• “How To” articles
• Infographics
• Video posts

While these formats can be a great starting point, it is more essential to ensure that your content quality is also amazing from the get go.  

4. Look For Authority Resource Pages

Resource pages are a wonderful way to earn quality backlinks. This is because the sole purpose of the page is to link out to other sites. Thus, your objective is to be linked to these resource pages. 

You simply need to find resource pages and reach out to them to ask them for a link back to your website. 

Conclusion 

While we have highlighted to you 4 key strategies to help you get started with your backlinking journey, there are actually plenty of other ways to earn quality backlinks. However, there are some common points to note when trying to get some backlinks. No matter which strategy you wish to employ, creating quality content is crucial. Additionally, it is not uncommon to reach out to the website owners to request for a link. Backlinking may be a very tedious and time-consuming process, but the payouts can be very rewarding. 

Don’t have the time to build quality backlinks for your website? Save your time and get in touch with us and we will share with you provide you with customised digital marketing solutions to achieve your business goals.