With over 1.9 billion websites out there, you have a lot of competition for the first page of search results. Fortunately, building backlinks can help you show search engines your site is trustworthy.
But you need to get those links the right way. Then, you’ll be able to get traffic from your ideal audience, and you can turn those extra clicks into sales or email subscribers.
Keep reading to learn more.
Start With Current Traffic Sources
One of the best tips that can help with building backlinks is to learn where you currently have backlinks. Go into your website analytics and view all of your traffic sources.
Of course, you may get traffic from search engines and social media. However, you may see a list of other websites that refer people to your website.
Knowing which sites already refer traffic to you can help you find backlinks from the same blogs to get even more traffic.
Look at Outbound Clicks
As you learn how to build backlinks, take a look at what links on your site get the most clicks. Maybe you also get traffic from that site, or maybe you don’t.
If you send people to one site but don’t get traffic back, you can contact that website’s owner. You can ask them to include a link to your website in a relevant post to get another backlink.
Odds are, you know and like the websites you link to in your posts. So it will probably be a good fit to get a link from that site to yours.
Find Relevant Websites
The next step in backlink building is to do some research on other sites that can give you backlinks. Look for popular blogs and websites that post similar content and that have the same target audience as your site.
Once you find a potential website, look around and view at least a few posts and pages. You should also look at more recent content in case the website has shifted gears recently.
If you find a relevant website, you can find some way to contact the owner. Ask them if they’d be willing to include a link either in an existing post or an upcoming post.
Pitch Guest Posts
When you find a good website that you want to get backlinks from, consider pitching a guest post. You can ask the site owner to include a link in an existing piece.
However, by showing you’re willing to write a guest post, you can show you care more about forming a relationship. You’ll also be able to pitch an idea that’s relevant to the link you want to include, and you’ll give them more content.
As you look at a site, see if there’s a page with guest post instructions. If so, be sure to follow those as precisely as you can to increase the chances that the site owner will accept your post.
Publish Good Content
Building backlinks doesn’t always have to require you to contact site owners. If you write and publish good-quality articles regularly, you can start to build a good reputation.
You may start to rank in search results, and you can get people to trust you. Then, other website and blog owners may naturally want to include links to your content.
Over time, multiple other websites may start to link to your site without you having to do anything. Consider creating a content calendar and schedule so that you can maintain a good posting schedule to build trust and get links easily.
Redirect Broken Links
If you’ve spent time building backlinks, you don’t want to lose those links or have them lead to the wrong page. Every month or so, go through your most popular posts and pages.
See if the URLs are correct or if they lead to a 404 error page or something similar. If you discover broken links, be sure to update them, especially if you know you have backlinks leading to that page.
Fixing links may not help you get more backlinks, but it’s an easy way to maintain current links. Then, you won’t have to worry about potentially losing hundreds of visitors.
Research Competitors
If you can’t think of websites to use to get backlinks, take a look at your competitors. They may not publish their backlink-building strategy, but you can do some research with SEO tools.
A good tool may tell you where your competitors get their traffic. You can use that list of sources to inspire your list of sites to get backlinks for your blog.
Researching your competitors can be an excellent way to improve your backlink strategy. A backlink-building agency may help you do the research.
Reply to Calls for Testimonials
If you use a product or service regularly, keep up with that business on social media or via email. Consider if the business ever asks for testimonials from their customers.
You can also send a testimonial to a business you love if they don’t ask for one specifically. Some business owners will include a link with each testimonial that can lead to someone’s social media or website.
As long as you really do like a product or service, you can submit a testimonial to get a backlink.
Do Interviews
Another method for building backlinks is to do interviews on podcasts or for blogs. When the interviewer releases your podcast episode or blog post, they can include a link to your website in the post or show notes.
If you want those links to provide results, pitch for people in your industry to interview you. That way, you’ll be on a podcast or blog where the target audience is more likely to click on your site.
Interviews can be great because they allow you to explain what you do or offer. You may get more targeted clicks than other backlinks.
Building Backlinks Made Easy
Building backlinks can seem almost impossible, especially if your site is relatively new. However, you can do some research on blogs in your niche and pitch yourself for a link or a full guest blog post.
Or perhaps you want to submit a testimonial or have someone interview you. All of those strategies can help you get the backlinks you need to increase website traffic and improve SEO.
Do you want to overhaul your SEO and backlink strategy? Contact us to learn how we can help.
