If you are reading this article, you would have already known that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a key aspect of bringing in traffic for your online business. There are two main aspects of SEO that businesses do in order to help optimize their websites, they are On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO. On-Page SEO generally refers to any effort that a company makes on its own webpage (or rather on its page source) to rank higher on Google’s Search Engine algorithm. The variety of techniques that they could employ range from compressing image sizes to speed up the loading time to adding alternate text to pictures to help them rank better for keywords. Building backlinks is a key technique utilized in off-page SEO efforts of businesses. Today we will discuss 4 simple ways to start building quality backlinks for your business.
What are Backlinks and Why Do I Need Them?
Backlinks are as the name suggests, links that link back to your website from other websites. In order for your webpage to rank well on Google’s Search Engine Result Page (SERP), your website has to have a lot of these backlinks. This is so because backlinks are one of the higher valued variables in Google’s algorithm to determine your website’s score, which will translate into where you rank on the SERP.
As a business, backlinks are key to your success as ranking on the first page of Google is critical in improving website traffic. One popular statistic that you might’ve already heard is that 89% of all the clicks on a search term go to results on the first page. Just imagine how much more traffic can your business get monthly if you’re on the first page! Backlinks are also a great way to help you boost your page’s Domain Authority, which measures how trusted your website is. DA is also another factor that Google takes into account strongly when measuring which websites belong on the first page.
With these much benefits that backlinks can bring you, we hope that you can understand why we take our backlink building very seriously. This is because it is a sure-fire tool to help your website improve its Search Engine rankings. Therefore, it is important that we don’t just get any random backlinks, but also DoFollow backlinks that are of high quality.
DoFollow backlinks are the only kinds of backlinks that Google takes into account in its algorithm when ranking webpages. One way of figuring out whether or not a backlink is DoFollow is to go into the page source of the webpage where the backlink is. On the page source you should press Ctrl + F and find for the term “NoFollow”. If the term “rel=nofollow” follows after your backlink in the page source, that’s when it is a NoFollow backlink. Quality backlinks are defined by backlinks that are from webpages of high domain authority, which can be checked with simple Google Chrome extensions like the Moz toolbar extension or the ahrefs toolbar extension.
Now that you’ve understood the severity and importance of backlinks, let us move on to ways which you can get quality backlinks.
1. Publish Your Blogposts or Guest Write for Blogs
One way to gain solid backlinks of high domain authority and exposure for your business is to guest write for blogs. There is a multitude of different blog guest writing sites that can give your businesses a backlink with a high DA. Sites like Medium and WritingCooperative, with a DA of 96 and 71 respectively are good platforms to kickstart your blog guest posting journey. MyBlogGuest is also another site that we would recommend you to write on as it is a platform for the blogging community which allows people to search for blogs that accept guest posts. Another perk to guest blogging is also that it allows your business to showcase its products and expertise. This helps creates trust and interest amongst readers interested in the topic that you are blogging about, helping to bring in quality leads for your company.
Additionally, guest posting is a good way for you to build backlinks for specific keywords that you are targeting. The technique employed for this aspect is called “anchor text”. Anchor texts are by definition, the clickable text in a hyperlink – which are often in blue and underlined when unclicked. The anchor text is a powerful tool in backlinking because it helps search engines to determine the relevant keyword that the page you are linking should rank for.
2. Use an SEO Software to Look Through Your Competitors’ Backlinks and Emulate Them
Ever wondered why some of your competitors are ranking so consistently on the keywords that you have chosen to compete with them for? You can find out how exactly they are doing this by using SEO tools like ahrefs or Spyfu which allows you to look through your competitors’ website backlink profile. Ahrefs’ site explorer tool is perfect for helping you to reverse engineer your competitors’ website SERP success.
By checking on your competitors’ backlink profiles, you will be able to find a goldmine of sites that you can build your backlinks on. These may come in a variety of blog commenting, online business directories and also (as mentioned earlier) guest blogging. The use of such software also allow you to sort the backlinks by DA and DoFollow and NoFollow backlinks. All of which makes it easier for you to identify good sites and opportunities that you can build your backlinks on.
3. Linkless Backlinks.
Worth mentioning is the new type of backlink which search engines are apparently now employing to help determine your website’s value. The new type of backlink is called “Linkless Backlink” which may sound counter-intuitive, but are said to be the future of backlinking.
These linkless backlinks are brand mentions on any part of the Internet. Regardless of whether or not there is a link to your website, Google will use the brand mention as a signalling of trust for your website. This helps to increase your website’s DA, which is crucial in helping your website rank on the first page.
Linkless backlinks are harder to build though. This is because these “backlinks” are strictly just mentions of your brand on the Internet. For that to happen, you would probably have to generate buzz surrounding your product. This isn’t easy as it would require for your company to create content that gets your target audience talking and engaged.
4. Show Your Expertise by Being Interviewed
One last easy way to earn backlinks are through interviews. Online interviews are a great source of earning backlinks especially if you operate in a niche. There are websites out there offering interview opportunities such as HelpAReporter and ProfNet which helps connect journalists to field experts. All these opportunities are great tools to help your website increase its online visibility as well as score some high DA backlinks. Interviews don’t just act as a way to earn backlinks, they also help increase your brand’s reputation as it helps your brand look reputable in the field that you are in. Social mentions can also be earned through interviews as well. By contributing your knowledge, you can also potentially create a pipeline of social mentions for your company as more journalists seek you out for future interviews.
What Are You Waiting For? Go Score Them Backlinks!
Today’s article is just an introduction to backlinks and some of the ways that your business can earn them. There are also a plethora of other methods that you could carry out to earn them that we have not mentioned. Other ways including finding broken links, asking for testimonials from your clients and including your company’s signature on your client’s website if you’re in web development. You can be creative in finding ways to earn those quality DoFollow links for your business and build your online presence. These four ways are just a couple to help you kickstart your backlink journey. We hope that we have got you sufficiently covered for starting on your backlinking journey!
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