How to Get Backlinks – 5 Effective Ways

If you are a website owner, you probably already know that creating awesome and compelling content is not the only thing to attract organic traffic.

If you are not complying with SEO’s best practices for higher ranking, you might always be struggling with traffic, leads and sales.

Building quality backlinks is one of the most powerful strategies to enhance domain authority and boost traffic.

A backlink is a link from one website to another. But for this link to be impactful and become a ranking signal for Google, it must come from a reputable and well-trusted website with high domain authority.

Many websites today pay handsome amounts to get a single high-quality backlink from the most well-doing websites, but not every website owner can afford that.

So is it possible to get quality backlinks without spending extravagantly?

The good news is Yes.

Even for a newbie, getting quality backlinks from expert websites is an achievable task.

All it requires is some genuine effort, consistency and following these 7 effective and powerful ways for quality link-building.

How to Get Backlinks?

Here’s how you can get high-quality backlinks to improve your website’s visibility on search engine result pages (SERP) and increase your domain authority.

Let’s start with something that you are probably already doing, and if not, you should start focusing on immediately.

1.     Create High-Quality Content That Will Naturally Attract Visitors

When it comes to the content you are creating, the information you are giving and the graphics you are displaying; there should be no compromise on the quality.

If your content is high-quality and compelling, many websites will naturally want to link you as a source.

Aim to be comprehensive, unique, engaging as well as authentic.

Most websites tend to link assets that include:

• Infographics and visuals
• In-depth, long-form guides covering the topic from every angle
• List posts, How-to posts, and Why posts
• Data-driven studies

If you give due dedication and hard work to creating a piece that is comprehensive, unique, authentic and easy to read, you might naturally attract a lot of websites that would want to link you and pass on some authority to you.

2.     Submit Guest Posts on Well-Established Websites

One of the most effective ways to get a quality backlink and attract more visitors to your website is to write guest posts for well-established websites with high domain authority.

These websites are already receiving a lot of traffic, most of which could be redirected towards you. Google also considers the guest writes on its Google Analytics blog and takes it as a vote of confidence.

Here’s how you can make sure your guest posts are accepted:

• Make sure you have high-quality, accurate and engaging content that is also relevant.
• Demonstrate your expertise as a writer. Include testimonials and links to your previously published posts.
• Write compelling pitches.
• If you have no prior experience, aim for medium domain authority websites and pitch them with your excellent writing
• Stay consistent in pitching. This might take some time, but you can get lucky any time if you keep pitching.

3.     Search for a Post that is Already Ranking Well, Then Improve and Expand on it

This is also known as the Skyscraper Technique, where you try to outsmart your competitor and produce a piece that is more comprehensive, unique and valuable.

Here’s how to approach this Skyscraper technique:

• Search Google to find successful posts that have earned numerous backlinks.
• Try to expand on it and create better content with more information, infographics, lists and an easy-to-read format
• Pitch and promote this post to those who have backlinked the original post.

The idea is again to create the best content and become the tallest skyscraper in your space that people feel naturally attracted to.

4.     Help A Reporter Out (HARO)

HARO is an online platform that provides incredible opportunities to get backlinks from the press.

It is a platform where journalists are looking for authentic and accurate sources to use in their content and may, in return, give you a valuable backlink.

Here’s how Help a Reporter Out works:

• Sign up on HARO’s homepage as a source and select a suitable pricing plan.
• Check your emails three times a day as HARO sends three emails with the list of topics, ideas and articles that the reporters are looking for currently.
• You can choose your area of interest and subscribe to specific niches.
• Work on a perfect and compelling pitch. Send your contact details as well as a link to your website.

You might not get a response each time you try, but the more you respond, the more chances you have.

5.     The Broken Link Building Method

You might have come across a page saying 404: Not found Error when you clicked on a link. This is a broken link and your opportunity to dig out a backlink for your website.

You reach out to the webmaster to report a broken link and propose a link to your website as an alternative, provided that it’s relevant. Chances of getting backlinks are high with this strategy since you are helping the webmaster improve the quality of their website.

Here’s what you can do:

• Hunt for relevant websites in your niche.
• Go to Backlink Analytics and type the domain related to your niche
• Click on the “Indexed pages” tab and check the “Broken Pages” box
• Look for the broken pages that you can provide content for.
• Reach out to the website owner and propose your page as an alternative for the broken link.

This is a great opportunity to get a backlink if you approach the webmaster smartly. Introduce yourself and your website, establish your expertise and be friendly in proposing your page’s link.

Conclusion

Getting quality backlinks is not a day’s work but rather a consistent effort for weeks sometimes. To accelerate the process, you can use multiple strategies mentioned above simultaneously, and if you are providing quality content, chances are you will get a backlink sooner than you thought.