How to Get Backlinks for Your Website

We all know the importance of backlinks. It has even been reported that backlinks are one of the top three biggest search engine ranking factors for Google.

But how do you get backlinks for your website?

In this post, we explore a few methods for generating backlinks.

1. Create Link-Worthy Content

First and foremost, you need to create link-worthy content. This is important because no matter what you do and which strategies you apply, you won’t be able to generate high-quality backlinks consistently unless you have link-worthy content.

Some studies suggest that long-form content may be more likely to receive social shares and backlinks.

However, we recommend analysing your existing content and backlink profile to get a sense of what’s working for you. Shortlist all of your content that has received the most backlinks, and create more content in that style.

2. Broken Link-Building Method

This is one of the easiest and more effective link-building methods. It works like this:

• Find pages online which link to other websites in your niche.
• Search for any broken links on these pages.
• Contact the owner of the website and explain that they are sending their readers to a page that no longer exists.
• Present your web page as an alternate solution that they can replace the broken link with.

The above may seem like a lot of work, but you can very easily find such broken links with tools such as SEMRush and Ahrefs.

3. Manual Outreach

Another method to build backlinks to your website is just by manually reaching out to other publishers and bloggers that may be interested in the content on your website.

An automated outreach campaign can be fast because you can send bulk emails. However, this method has a low success rate because most website owners would just ignore your email as spam.

Therefore, we recommend building relationships with influencers and other bloggers in your industry first.

For example, WDL are listed in a few business directories to help with our back-link strategy like a directory specifically for web design companies called Design Rush.

4. Competitor Analysis

You can also build backlinks by analysing how your competitors are doing it.

Backlink analysis tools (such as SpyFu, Moz, SEMRush, Ahrefs, etc.) can share valuable data and insights into your competitor’s backlink and organic strategy. With competitor analysis reports, you can see their backlink sources, which of their pages generate the most backlinks, what their top organic keywords are, what the level of their social media activities is, etc.

You can also filter your reports by only those domains that link to your competitors’ websites but do not link to yours. This information can be used to increase the number of referring domains to your website and close the gap between your site and your competitors’.

5. Leave Testimonials on High-Quality Websites

One of the easiest methods to generate backlinks is by leaving testimonials on high-quality product websites.

If you are running a business, you must be using numerous services and tools. Make a list of all the different software and services you are using in a spreadsheet and add relevant information such as the URLs, contact email addresses, and the domain authority of those websites.

Then start leaving high-quality reviews and testimonials of the products you are using to make your life and business easier, more productive, or efficient. Make sure to mention your website name in the review (because citations also matter) and send them the URL of your website so they can link it back.

6. Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is one of the most popular methods for building backlinks to your website. The concept is simple:

• You identify the websites that you want backlinks from.
• You create high-quality content that would be useful for the readers of those websites.
• You get in touch with the website owner and offer them to publish your content on their website, for free. The only condition is that you can get a link or two back to your website.

That’s how guest blogging works. It’s an extremely common method, but it is important to do it right.

First, you don’t want to spam website owners with offers for guest posts. Second, pick your target wisely. A couple of factors that you should consider are:

• Contextual, in-article backlinks are more important than links in the author’s by-line.
• You should target relevant websites that are in your niche.

7. Publish Original Data and Studies

Publishing original data and studies is one of the best, most effective ways to get backlinks.

Data is something that a lot of websites mention and refer to in their content, and they don’t do it without linking to the original source. Talking about data points without a source is just not credible.

If you have shared original data exclusively on your website, most of the mentions will link back to you, earning you backlinks.

Conclusion

Generating backlinks regularly is important for your website if you want to dominate search engine rankings. Use the seven methods explored above to get more backlinks for your website.