How To Build Backlinks? 15 Proven Strategies For SEO Success
Want more traffic? Learn how to build backlinks with these 15 actionable tips designed to help you dominate search results.
Author:Suleman ShahReviewer:Han JuSep 25, 202462 Shares15.5K Views
Backlinks remain one of the most essential components of any successful SEO strategy. Not only do they help search engines understand the credibility and authority of your website, but they also play a crucial role in improving your rankings on search engine result pages (SERPs).
If you’re aiming to boost your website's visibility and attract organic traffic, building high-quality backlinks should be a priority.
This guide will walk you through 15 actionable strategies to build backlinks that are both high-quality and scalable. From guest blogging to competitor analysis, you’ll learn the most effective ways to earn backlinks and improve your site’s SEO performance.
What Are Backlinks And Why Are They Important?
A backlink is a hyperlink from one website to another. In SEO terms, backlinks serve as "votes of confidence" from one site to yours, signaling to search engines like Google that your content is valuable and trustworthy.
The more high-quality backlinks your website has, the more likely it is to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).
There are two main types of backlinks:
- Dofollow Links: These links pass "link juice" or authority to the receiving site, helping boost its SEO performance.
- Nofollow Links: These do not pass link juice but can still drive referral traffic to your website.
Backlinks from authoritative, relevant websites enhance your site’s E-E-A-T(Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), a key ranking factor in Google's algorithm.
The 15 Best Ways To Build Backlinks (With Actionable Tips)
1. Create High-Quality Linkable Assets
Creating linkable assets is one of the most effective ways to earn backlinks naturally. Linkable assets are pieces of content that are so valuable that other websites will want to link to them as a resource.
Examples of Linkable Assets:
- Data-Driven Studies: Conducting original research or surveys that provide new insights.
- In-Depth Guides: Comprehensive resources or how-to guides that offer complete coverage of a topic.
- Infographics: Visual data representations that are easy to share and reference.
Case Study: An example is the "100 Most Visited Websites" post, which earned over 9.5K backlinks due to its thoroughness and appeal to journalists and bloggers across industries.
Pro Tip: Ensure your content is unique, visually appealing, and frequently updated to maintain relevance and authority.
2. Guest Blogging
Guest blogging involves writing articles for other reputable blogs in exchange for a backlink to your own site. This strategy allows you to tap into the audience of the host blog while also gaining valuable backlinks.
Steps for Effective Guest Blogging:
- Find relevant blogsin your niche by searching for "write for us" or guest post opportunities.
- Pitch high-quality, unique contentthat aligns with the blog’s audience.
- Include a natural backlinkto your website within the article.
Pro Tip: Always aim for quality over quantity. High-authority sites with relevant audiences will provide much more value than lower-quality blogs.
3. The Skyscraper Technique
The Skyscraper Techniqueis a content strategy that involves finding top-performing content in your niche, creating something even better, and then promoting it to the same audience that linked to the original piece.
How It Works:
- Identify high-ranking contentin your niche using tools like Ahrefsor SEMrush.
- Create a more comprehensive, detailed, or visually appealing version of the content.
- Promote your updated contentto the websites that linked to the original piece.
Example: Backlinko’s "SEO Tools" post generated thousands of backlinks by being the most comprehensive guide on SEO tools at the time.
Pro Tip: The key to success with the Skyscraper Technique is to outperformthe original content by adding unique insights, visuals, and updated information.
4. Broken Link Building
Broken link building involves finding broken links on other websites and offering your content as a replacement. This provides a win-win situation where the website owner can fix the broken link, and you gain a backlink.
How to Do It:
- Use tools like Ahrefsor Check My Linksto find broken links on websites in your niche.
- Reach out to the website owner, inform them of the broken link, and suggest your content as a replacement.
Pro Tip: Focus on high-authority sites with a relevant audience to maximize the value of your backlinks.
5. Resource Page Link Building
Resource pages are curated lists of useful links on a specific topic. Getting your website featured on these pages can be an easy way to earn valuable backlinks.
How to Find Resource Pages:
- Use search operators like “intitle+ [your keyword]” to find resource pages related to your industry.
- Submit your content or website to the page, ensuring it fits the criteria and adds value.
Pro Tip: Personalize your outreach email to the site owner, explaining how your resource can benefit their audience.
6. Unlinked Brand Mentions
Unlinked brand mentions occur when another website mentions your brand, product, or service but doesn’t link back to your website. By reaching out to the website, you can request that they turn the mention into a backlink.
How to Find Unlinked Mentions:
- Use tools like Google Alertsor Ahrefsto track mentions of your brand.
- Contact the site owner and politely request that they add a link to your website.
Pro Tip: Frame your request as a way to improve the user experience for their audience by providing a direct link to relevant content.
7. HARO (Help A Reporter Out)
HARO connects journalists with experts in various fields. By responding to journalist requests, you can get featured in articles and receive backlinks from reputable media outlets.
Steps for Using HARO:
- Sign up for HAROand subscribe to queries related to your industry.
- Respond promptly to journalist requests with valuable, expert insights.
- Include a link to your website when submitting your response.
Pro Tip: Focus on responding to relevant, high-quality queriesthat align with your expertise to increase your chances of getting a backlink.
8. Provide Testimonials For Backlinks
Many companies feature customer testimonials on their website. By providing testimonials for the tools, products, or services you use, you can earn a backlink from the company’s website.
How to Do It:
- Reach out to companies whose products you use and offer a well-written testimonial.
- In your testimonial, ask if they could include a backlink to your website.
Pro Tip: Make sure your testimonial is detailed, authentic, and highlights specific benefits of the product to increase your chances of being featured.
9. Competitor Link Analysis
Analyzing your competitors’ backlinks can reveal opportunities for your own website. By identifying the sites linking to your competitors, you can reach out to those websites and request a backlink.
How to Perform Competitor Link Analysis:
- Use tools like SEMrush’s Backlink Gap Toolor Ahrefsto find backlinks pointing to your competitors.
- Reach out to these sites and offer your content as a valuable alternative or addition.
Pro Tip: Prioritize websites with high domain authority and relevance to your niche for the best backlink opportunities.
10. Reach Out To Suppliers And Business Associations
If you sell products from other companies or belong to business associations, you can earn backlinks by getting listed on their “Where to Buy”pages or member directories.
Steps to Get Backlinks:
- Contact your suppliers and request a listing on their retailer pages with a backlink to your site.
- Join local or industry business associations and get listed in their directories.
Pro Tip: Ensure your website is well-optimized and professional, as this increases your chances of being featured.
11. Build Links From Outdated Resources
Similar to broken link building, this strategy involves finding websites that link to outdated content and offering your up-to-date content as a replacement.
How to Do It:
- Use tools like Ahrefsto find sites linking to outdated URLs or content.
- Reach out to the site owner and suggest your updated content as a more current alternative.
Pro Tip: This method works particularly well when industries change rapidly, such as in technologyor finance.
12. Listicle Outreach
Many websites create listicles, or “best of” lists, where they rank the top products, services, or blogs in a given industry. By reaching out to these sites, you can request inclusion in future lists.
How to Find Listicles:
- Use search operators like “best [your niche] blogs” or “top [your product] sites.”
- Reach out to the website owners, showcasing why your website or product deserves to be featured.
Pro Tip: Focus on local listiclesfor niche industries or specific geographic areas to increase the chances of being included.
13. Create “Best Of” Or Curated Lists
Creating your own “best of” lists can attract backlinks from other websites. For example, creating a “Top SEO Tools for 2024”list could attract links from tool creators or users.
How to Do It:
- Research high-demand topics in your industry and create comprehensive, unbiased “best of” lists.
- Promote your list to the creators of the products or services mentioned.
Pro Tip: Embed shareable infographicsor tables to make the content more link-worthy.
14. Publish Long-Form Guides
Long-form guides that cover a topic comprehensively often attract backlinks, as they become the go-to resource on the subject.
How to Create Long-Form Guides:
- Choose a high-demand topic in your niche and create a guide that is detailed, accurate, and actionable.
- Promote the guide to other websites and influencers in your industry.
Pro Tip: Add custom visuals and unique insightsto make the guide stand out from competing content.
15. Offer To Write Case Studies For Other Businesses
Case studies provide real-world examples of how businesses succeed, and companies often publish these on their websites. By offering to write case studies for tools or products you use, you can earn backlinks from the company’s website.
How to Do It:
- Identify companies you’ve worked with or products you use regularly.
- Offer to write a detailed case studyshowcasing how their product or service helped you achieve success.
Pro Tip: Make the case study professional and data-driven, showing measurable results to increase its credibility.
Top Backlink-Building Tools
To make your backlink-building efforts more effective, several tools can help you analyze, track, and build backlinks. Here are some of the best backlink-building tools you should consider:
1. Ahrefs
Ahrefsis one of the most powerful SEO tools available and is particularly strong in backlink analysis. It allows you to:
- Check backlinksfor your website and your competitors.
- Find broken linkson other websites for broken link building.
- Analyze anchor textsand referring domains to evaluate backlink quality.
Best For: Comprehensive backlink analysis, broken link building, and competitor research.
2. SEMrush
SEMrush is an all-in-one SEO tool that provides excellent backlink tracking and competitor analysis features. It helps you:
- Analyze competitor backlinkswith its Backlink Gap Tool.
- Track your domain authorityand find potential link-building opportunities.
- Monitor backlinksover time, keeping an eye on any new or lost links.
Best For: Competitor backlink analysis, link audits, and outreach planning.
3. Moz Link Explorer
Moz’s Link Explorer offers comprehensive insights into your backlink profile. It helps you:
- Track your domain authorityand identify spammy links.
- Evaluate competitor link profiles, making it easier to pinpoint opportunities.
- Find link-building opportunitiesby analyzing pages linking to competitors but not you.
Best For: Domain authority tracking, link quality analysis, and spam link identification.
4. BuzzSumo
BuzzSumois a content research tool that helps you find highly shareable content. It’s particularly useful for:
- Finding influencersand websites in your niche that are likely to link to quality content.
- Identifying the most shared contentin your industry, which can reveal link-building opportunities.
- Tracking brand mentions, making it easier to capitalize on unlinked mentions.
Best For: Content discovery and influencer outreach for link building.
5. Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free tool provided by Google to help you monitor your website’s performance in search results. It provides:
- A clear view of all incoming linksto your website.
- Alerts for any manual actionsor penalties that might affect your backlinks.
- Insights into which pages are receiving the most links, helping you understand the effectiveness of your strategies.
Best For: Monitoring backlinks and ensuring your site adheres to Google’s guidelines.
6. Hunter.io
Hunter.io is a helpful tool for finding email addressesof website owners, making it easier to reach out for link-building opportunities. It also provides:
- Email verification, ensuring you reach the right contact.
- A Chrome extensionfor quick access to email addresses when visiting websites.
Best For: Outreach for link building, especially when performing guest blogging or Skyscraper technique outreach.
You Might Like: 15 Proven Strategies To Boost Your Email Conversions Fast
7. Screaming Frog
Screaming Frogis a website crawling tool, perfect for finding broken linksand redirect issueson your website or others. It helps you:
- Identify broken pages for broken link buildingoutreach.
- Audit your own website for internal linking opportunities.
Best For: Website audits, broken link identification, and on-page SEO.
8. Pitchbox
Pitchbox is a specialized outreach platform designed for SEO and content marketing. It streamlines the outreach processfor acquiring backlinks by:
- Helping you automate outreach emailsfor guest blogging, link requests, and content promotion.
- Tracking responsesand follow-ups, making your outreach efforts more efficient.
Best For: Streamlining link-building outreach and tracking responses.
9. Majestic SEO
Majestic provides in-depth link analysis and is well-known for its Trust Flowand Citation Flowmetrics. It helps you:
- Assess the qualityof backlinks pointing to your website.
- Identify authoritative sitesfor building links.
- Track the growth of your backlink profileover time.
Best For: Link quality evaluation and competitor backlink research.
FAQs About Building Backlinks
What Is A Backlink, And Why Is It Important For SEO?
A backlink is a hyperlink from one website to another. Backlinks are important for SEO because they serve as a signal to search engines that the content is valuable, helping improve the website’s search engine rankings.
How Long Does It Take For Backlinks To Impact My Website’s Ranking?
It can take several weeks to a few months for backlinks to start affecting your rankings. The speed of the impact depends on the quality of the backlinks, the authority of the linking sites, and the competitivenessof your industry.
What Is The Difference Between A Dofollow And Nofollow Backlink?
A dofollow backlink passes link equity (or "link juice") from the linking site to your website, boosting its authority and rankings. A nofollow backlink doesn’t pass link equity but can still drive traffic and increase brand exposure.
How Can I Check The Quality Of Backlinks?
You can use tools like Ahrefs, Moz, or SEMrushto check the quality of backlinks. Look at factors such as Domain Authority (DA), Page Authority (PA), and the relevance of the linking website.
Is It Worth Buying Backlinks?
Buying backlinks is against Google's guidelines and can result in severe penalties, including loss of rankings. It's better to build backlinks through ethical, organic strategies to ensure long-term SEO success.
Conclusion
Building backlinks is an essential aspect of any successful SEO strategy, but it requires a mix of creativity, persistence, and the right strategies.
By leveraging these 15 proven backlink-building methods, you can boost your website’s domain authority, attract more organic traffic, and achieve higher search engine rankings.
Remember, quality over quantityshould be your focus. High-quality backlinks from authoritative, relevant sites will yield the best results in the long run.
Suleman Shah
Author
Suleman Shah is a researcher and freelance writer. As a researcher, he has worked with MNS University of Agriculture, Multan (Pakistan) and Texas A & M University (USA). He regularly writes science articles and blogs for science news website immersse.com and open access publishers OA Publishing London and Scientific Times. He loves to keep himself updated on scientific developments and convert these developments into everyday language to update the readers about the developments in the scientific era. His primary research focus is Plant sciences, and he contributed to this field by publishing his research in scientific journals and presenting his work at many Conferences.
Shah graduated from the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (Pakistan) and started his professional carrier with Jaffer Agro Services and later with the Agriculture Department of the Government of Pakistan. His research interest compelled and attracted him to proceed with his carrier in Plant sciences research. So, he started his Ph.D. in Soil Science at MNS University of Agriculture Multan (Pakistan). Later, he started working as a visiting scholar with Texas A&M University (USA).
Shah’s experience with big Open Excess publishers like Springers, Frontiers, MDPI, etc., testified to his belief in Open Access as a barrier-removing mechanism between researchers and the readers of their research. Shah believes that Open Access is revolutionizing the publication process and benefitting research in all fields.
Han Ju
Reviewer
Hello! I'm Han Ju, the heart behind World Wide Journals. My life is a unique tapestry woven from the threads of news, spirituality, and science, enriched by melodies from my guitar. Raised amidst tales of the ancient and the arcane, I developed a keen eye for the stories that truly matter. Through my work, I seek to bridge the seen with the unseen, marrying the rigor of science with the depth of spirituality.
Each article at World Wide Journals is a piece of this ongoing quest, blending analysis with personal reflection. Whether exploring quantum frontiers or strumming chords under the stars, my aim is to inspire and provoke thought, inviting you into a world where every discovery is a note in the grand symphony of existence.
Welcome aboard this journey of insight and exploration, where curiosity leads and music guides.
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