The Ultimate step-by-step guide to getting quality backlinks for your website

Link building is a crucial aspect of search engine optimization (SEO) and plays a significant role in determining a website’s visibility and ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). 

Link building is important for Search Engine Ranking because search engines, such as Google, consider backlinks as a vote of confidence and trust in a website. The more high-quality and relevant backlinks a website has, the more likely it is to be perceived as authoritative. Websites with diverse and high-quality backlink profiles tend to rank higher in search results.

Your website gets more visibility through quality backlinks that help search engines, discover and Index new content. They act as pathways that lead search engine crawlers to your site, improving its visibility. The website also gets more traffic through backlinks from other relevant websites.

If your website has more high-quality backlinks than your competitors, it’s likely to rank higher in search results. 

In this blog, we are going to reveal the path to build quality backlinks for your website.

Generate quality content 

You might have heard and read it many times before, and probably you might be sick of reading it again. But this is the first and most crucial step to attract quality backlinks to your website. Now we are not going to leave it here just like that. Let’s dive into the depth of generating quality content.

Identify the gaps/needs/trends

You can divide quality content into two broad categories. One is based on the evergreen needs or queries of your target audience and the second is based on the latest trend. In both cases, identifying the gap in information, that people are looking for or their need is very crucial, this step will form the basis of generating quality content to attract backlinks. 

Relevance and value

Ensure your topic and corresponding content are highly relevant to your target audience. The language should resonate with your audience and the information provided should add value. 

Comprehensive approach

If you can make your content more comprehensive and in-depth with researched stats and accurate numbers. It will be noticeable by other websites and most likely they will point their domains to your content, giving you quality backlinks. 

Give citations

Whatever numbers you are claiming, through your research, in your content, Give citations to add credibility to that. It will make your content more trustworthy and most visited. It will also increase the average session duration giving positive signals to the search engine. 

Add social proof

Wherever possible add social proof like testimonials or ratings to the content. This adds to the credibility of your content and more people would like to refer to it.

Reach out with a strong pitch

Now that you are ready with quality content. Prepare a strong pitch and reach out to other websites that will find your content of value to them. You will have to give them a strong and convincing reason to give a backlink to your website, and if some of them do that all the efforts will be worth it. Few quality backlinks from other genuine websites will take your rankings several notches higher. 

Now, you might be wondering, who to reach out to? How to find those websites? Where to find them? 

Well, let us try to resolve these queries one by one. 

Your first reference points can be your competitor websites or the websites that are already ranking on top of search results. 

You need to find from where these websites are getting backlinks and for that, you need help of SEO tools like Ahref or SEMrush. These tools have a special feature, where you can put the URL of the website you want to analyse and see from where they are getting backlinks from. 

From this set of backlinks, figure out which ones will find your content relevant. Email those websites or portals with the pitch you have prepared and ask them to link back to your site. Some of them will not respond and some of them will. If you manage to get a few quality backlinks through this exercise every month, it will be totally worth it.

Identify Broken Links on Quality Websites

The next step in line is to identify broken links on quality websites in your industry and fill those gaps with the relevant content that you create to attract those links. 

How it works, you ask? 

Well, there are several ways you can identify broken links. First, you can look for citations that have 404 errors. You need to take the help of tools like ‘Citation Lab’s broken link finder’ which can automate this process for you. Once you have identified the kind of citation, prepare a genuine good quality content for it and reach out to the the website owners, letting them know that they have a broken link and you have the exact content page to fill the gap. In most cases the website owners will oblige. 

If you are already working on SEO tools like Ahref, it’s great. They have a feature to identify 404 pages. Go under Site Explorer and type the website URL you want to find the broken links for. On the left side menu, click on ‘broken backlinks’ (image below). You will find a list of broken links on that website. Filter the results for that gold mine, create the appropriate content for it and ping the website owners. 

Find outdated content pages

With trends catching up fast, content pieces get outdated soon, and there is an opportunity for you. 

While these content pages will be active and do not show a 404, they would have lost their relevance. Again over here you can create an updated piece of content and reach out to the website for a backlink. 

One way to find out these outdated content pieces is to make a search on Google and check the results like I did for ‘Fashion trends for 2019’. 

Guest Posting

Guest posting is another popular strategy in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) that involves writing and publishing content on other websites or blogs. When done effectively, guest posting can help in acquiring quality backlinks, which can positively impact your website’s search engine rankings. 

Most guest posts allow you to include a brief author bio where you can provide information about yourself and a link back to your website.

Websites that have diverse and natural link profiles are favored by search engines. Guest posting allows you to build links from different domains, contributing to a more varied and natural link profile.

If you have control over the anchor text (the clickable text in a hyperlink) used in your guest post. Optimizing anchor text with relevant keywords can contribute to the overall SEO value of the backlink.

The effectiveness of guest posting for SEO depends on various factors, including the authority of the hosting website, the relevance of the content, and the overall quality of your guest post. You should always prioritize high-quality, valuable content that provides a positive user experience. Additionally, be mindful of Google’s guidelines to ensure your link-building strategies align with best practices.

Leverage Influencers

Influencers can play a significant role in helping you acquire quality backlinks for SEO. Collaborating with influencers often involves creating content together, such as guest posts, co-authored articles, or joint projects. These collaborations can result in backlinks from the influencer’s website or social media profiles to your content.

If an influencer reviews your product or service, they may refer to your website. Positive reviews from influencers can enhance your brand’s credibility and contribute to the quality of the backlinks.

When working with influencers for backlinks, it’s crucial to focus on building genuine relationships and providing value to their audience. Influencers are more likely to share and link to content that aligns with their interests and provides value to their followers.

Conclusion

The pursuit of quality backlinks is a fundamental aspect of a successful SEO strategy. The key lies not just in the quantity of backlinks but in their quality, relevance, and organic nature. By following above points, you can fortify your website’s link profile. Remember, the journey to better SEO is not only about algorithms but about creating meaningful connections and providing valuable content that resonates with both your audience and those influential voices in your niche. Through a thoughtful and strategic approach to link building, you pave the way for improved search engine visibility, increased organic traffic, and long-term success in the dynamic landscape of online presence.