How to Get More Backlinks to Your Site (6 Tested Tips)

If you're in business, there's a good chance you know how important it is to get your website found online. You need people to know you exist so they can check out your content, join your email list, and, eventually, make a purchase.

However, it can feel next to impossible to compete with the big brands for those coveted top search rankings, especially considering that 90% of websites get no organic traffic from Google. If this sounds familiar to you, don't worry -- you're far from alone.

The key is strategic link building. With a detailed backlink strategy, you'll have a much better chance of spreading awareness and getting more people to discover your website.

Today, I'm going to show you a little bit about one of my favorite SEO strategies, backlink building. By the end of this post, you'll understand how they work and what you can do to earn more for your site.

Let's get started! 

The Importance of Backlinks for SEO

Put simply, a backlink is a link on a page that goes to a site other than the one it's on.

Search engines like Google follow backlinks to determine how reputable and authoritative a site is compared to other sites in the same industry. If a lot of different publications and businesses all link back to one source, that primary source is considered to be trustworthy and may be shown more prominently in the search results.

The more sites that link to you, the more chances search engine crawlers have to discover your site. And once they find you, those links will help determine how highly you rank for specific keywords.

The process can be time-consuming, but there's no doubt that what you get back for building high-quality backlinks is worth the effort. Yet, despite all the benefits, nearly 66% of all pages online don't have a single backlink.

I want to help as many of you as possible take your backlink strategy to the next level, so here are six actionable tips you can follow to get started. 

6 Actionable Ways to Get More Backlinks

Create Content that Attracts Links

Creating valuable content is one of the best ways to attract high-quality links from other sites without doing too much outreach. The key is to focus your efforts on writing posts that provide real value and useful information for your readers. When people find your articles valuable, they're more likely to cite you in their posts, which will help you earn a backlink and build trust with the community. 

I suggest writing well-researched, in-depth articles that address a common problem since these are most likely to appeal to other site owners looking to link out to helpful resources.

You'll also want to keep up with the latest trends and discussions to identify gaps in existing information where you can contribute something new. Your blog is an excellent way to communicate your thoughts and data, especially considering how easy they are to share and reference. 

Plus, we've found that websites with blogs get 96% more backlinks than those without. So, if you're looking for just one way to earn more backlinks, I'd suggest focusing on creating content that attracts and benefits your target audience, which means more links. 

Publish Eye-Catching Visuals

Creating visual content like infographics, videos, images, and more is a proven link bait strategy to earn high-quality backlinks. In my experience, this type of content can quickly and easily provide real value to your audience, which makes it more likely to be shared on social media and referenced by other websites.

It's also worth noting that 91% of people are actively looking for content that has some sort of interactive feature. So, creating a video with an engaged comment section is a great way to quickly rack up backlinks while learning about your target audience.

Similarly, embedding visual content on your site can make it more shareable and can improve on-page conversions by a whopping 86%.

The best part about this strategy is you don't have to be an expert designer. Many marketers with little to no graphic design experience are able to use tools like Canva and Buffer to create professional-grade graphics that convey relevant, interesting information. 

Look for Partnership Opportunities

Next, you should think about teaming up with other sites and businesses in your industry.

There are plenty of unique opportunities for you to partner with other creators and boost your backlinks. Here are some strategies that work well for us:

• Work together on a case study that you'll each share on your respective sites.
• Ask influencers to review your products and create content about them on social media or their website. 
• Start an affiliate program where you invite partners to link back to your site for the chance to earn a commission. 
• Reach out to bigger publications and ask if they're accepting guest posts. There's a good reason: 60% of bloggers write at least 1 guest post every month.

Partnerships and outreach do require time and effort. However, focusing your energy on building relationships with other reputable businesses and influencers in your space will generate high-value links. Put in the work upfront, and these links can drive traffic and rankings for years to come.

Become a Source

Another creative way to earn more links is to become an industry source. Beyond writing on your own blog, there are plenty of websites that are always looking for expert opinions. These sites normally bring together journalists with professionals so they can publish curated listicle opinion pieces.

Some of the sites that come to mind include Help a Reporter Out (HARO), Featured, and Forches Expert Council. These three sites have questions that you can answer regularly from very well-known sources.

After you answer their questions, you'll need to wait to get published. For HARO and Featured, you can get published on any number of websites depending on who is asking for answers that week. Forbes, on the other hand, will give you backlinks to the Forbes website, which is a big deal considering their 95 domain authority.

Put yourself out there and get involved with some of these question-and-answer sites. You might be surprised at how many backlinks you can earn.  

Find Broken Links

Broken links are a goldmine for earning backlinks for your business. Websites that have dead links are always looking to replace them, and they'll appreciate you pointing them out. Reach out to sites that link to now-defunct resources and offer to provide an alternative link to your content. Say something like:

"I noticed you have a link on your page [page URL] that points to [dead link]. I have an article on the same topic that your readers may find helpful. Would you consider replacing that dead link with a link to my page [your page URL]?"

Most web admins will be happy to oblige. After all, broken links provide a poor user experience and can hurt their search rankings. By fixing their broken links, you're doing them a favor while gaining a high-quality backlink for yourself.

Check Your Top Referral Sources

The best backlinks often come from sites that already link to you. Look through your analytics to see which domains send you the most referral traffic. Reach out to those sites and ask if they'd be willing to link to more of your content. Since they already find your site valuable enough to link to, they may be open to linking to your newer content as well.

This could be a much better option than trying to cold-email web admins you've never spoken with before. Instead, you can focus on nurturing relationships with sites that already know and trust you.

The key to winning people over is to focus on creating a mutually beneficial partnership where everybody wins. You'll create and offer content that will attract more eyes to their site; in exchange, they'll link back to you, which will result in more traffic to your site.

I like to check my referral traffic at least once a month so I can see how people are discovering our site. I suggest you do the same, perhaps more often, if you're just starting out and want to scope out potential partners.

Back to You

The bottom line is that backlinks are vital to your search engine optimization strategy, but it takes time and work to build them. If you follow the tips I've shared today -- and are persistent and patient -- you'll be able to start building your own backlinks, and before long, you'll begin to see your site rise through the ranks for prominent industry keywords.