DIY SEO Backlinking Strategy: How To Create Backlinks To Your Business

SEO Backlinking Strategy

Backlinks are one of the key factors Google and other search engines look at when determining where a web page should rank on any given search engine result page (SERP).

This is because no matter how complex search engine algorithms get, a backlink is the only authentic method they have to determine a webpage’s authority.

While search engines can crawl your website for relevant keywords and context, a backlink serves as a testimonial from a real-life person that the content on the webpage is both relevant and credible.

At least, that is the idea.

In today’s modern age, backlinks tend not to be quite as organic as Google intended them to be. 

With every webmaster and their mother knowing the value a backlink holds over search rankings, acquiring high-quality backlinks requires strategizing, a lot of outreach, and, more often than not, a quite sizable acquisition budget.

Still, for businesses aiming to boost organic traffic, having an effective SEO backlinking strategy in place is an absolute must.

In this guide, I will walk you through several backlinking tactics that will help create backlinks to your business. Alternatively, you can save yourself time and resources with my off-page SEO services and start reaping the full benefits of these link building strategies today.

Understanding backlinks and the power they hold over search engine rankings is the first step in creating your own effective link-building strategy. In this section, we will uncover what makes a high-quality backlink, why it is important to your site’s authority, and how to properly leverage it without compromising your SEO backlinking strategy.

Understanding Backlinks

What Are Backlinks?

At their foundational level, backlinks are links from one website that direct users to another. However, in practice, they are a vote of confidence from the linking site that the receiving webpage is valuable and trustworthy.

As such, each backlink you acquire helps establish the reliability of your website, enticing search engines to rank you higher on SERPs than less established websites. 

Why Are Backlinks Important?

As you begin to collect backlinks over time, Google and other search engines will begin to view your website as an authority within your industry. In doing so, these search engines are likely to award you a higher amount of trust, resulting in quicker indexing of new posts and higher positions atop the SERPs.

Naturally, if you can influence your natural link acquisition efforts, you can begin to leverage the way search engines view your websites sooner.

Moz provides an estimated evaluation of your backlink profile with their Domain Authority (DA) score. While this is a third-party metric and not officially used by search engines, using this tool can be a great way to evaluate your current backlink profile to begin developing a successful link-building strategy.

Types of Valuable Backlinks

One of the biggest mistakes new SEOs make is that they try to generate as many backlinks as they can. However, in doing so, they manage to acquire plenty of low-quality links that don’t really manage to turn the dial.

Not all backlinks are created equal.

To maximize the impact of your off-page SEO efforts, you need to focus on acquiring quality backlinks from reputable sources. Generally speaking, valuable backlinks tend to come from authoritative industry websites, news outlets, and well-regarded resource pages. 

The best way to determine the quality of a backlink is through the organic traffic generated by the domain, using its DA as a secondary factor.

Once you have identified these high-quality leads, you can begin pursuing backlinks from them using a variety of techniques.

SEO backlinking strategy

While search engines promote organic backlinks, waiting for links to come can take years and may never happen at all. Luckily, there are a few proactive steps you can take to streamline the process.

1. Create Linkable Assets

The best way to build quality backlinks is by creating linkable assets.

This is an entirely ‘white hat’ approach, meaning it does not go against any search engine’s terms of service and involves creating unique, highly-valuable resources that other websites will want to use as a reference.

Examples include comprehensive blog posts, detailed how-to guides, and engaging infographics, but I find the best-performing assets are those that incorporate self-conducted research or interactive tools.

By providing a one-of-a-kind resource relevant to your industry, you make yourself a real-life authority within your niche that others will reference to further their own credibility. 

2. Publish Ultimate Guides and Skyscraper Content

One of the most accessible ways to create these linkable assets is by publishing Ultimate Guides and Skyscraper Content.

Ultimate Guides are just as they sound. They are an exhaustive and comprehensive resource that thoroughly covers a topic, providing actionable insights on how to solve the topic and related queries.

Meanwhile, Skyscraper Content involves identifying popular content that is already performing well in your industry. You then expand on the existing resources already ranking on search engine results pages, improving the overall user experience with fresh content, new images, and updated information.

In both instances, you are creating the most comprehensive and in-depth resource available online, making it highly linkable to any other website looking to reference the topic of the content.

3. Find and Fix Broken Links

3. Find and Fix Broken Links

Broken link building is a relatively low-effort approach to generating backlinks. The problem is that it can take a lot of time and isn’t guaranteed to generate results.

This is because broken link building involves finding and fixing broken links on high-authority websites. You can use tools like Ahrefs or Screaming Frog to crawl relevant websites for broken links. Typically, these links were once directed to a relevant resource, but the receiving page no longer exists and is having inverse effects on the host website.

This is where you come in.

Having identified a broken link on an authoritative website, you now need to send an email to the domain’s webmaster. Your email should include a link to the webpage with the broken link, a kind message introducing yourself, and a link to a related piece of content on your own website that could fill the hole the broken link has left.

While some of your emails may not receive a response, practicing broken link-building tactics can be a great way to produce backlinks that ultimately don’t require a lot of time or resources on your end.

4. Get Featured on Resource Pages

Acquiring a listing on websites’ resource pages is another relatively easy and quick way to acquire low-hanging backlinks. These pages typically involve an aggregated list of useful tools, guides, and resources favoured by the hosting domain and typically involve many links to several websites.

As such, the link juice they produce is not quite as effective as other forms of backlinks. However, they aren’t without their place in your backlink building strategy, and directory-style listings such as this can go a long way in maintaining an organic appearance for a healthy backlink profile, limiting the chances of being flagged by search engines for black hat practices.

Conenctively

5. Connectively (Formerly HARO)

While now operating under a new name, Connectively promotes the same mission of Help a Reporter Out (HARO), in that it serves as a great platform connecting journalists to sources. 

After signing up for the platform, you receive access to Connectively’s feed of inquiries listed by professional journalists. Scanning through the list, you can respond to any of their questions in which you may have expertise. 

While there is no guarantee the journalist is going to use your submission, if they do, they more often than not include a link back to your website as a source. This can be an amazing way to acquire backlinks on some fairly reputable news channels with high DA scores.

6. Leverage Guest Blogging

One of the most common forms of proactively acquiring backlinks is through guest posting. This is where you write a blog post with the intention of publishing it on an already established, authoritative website in your industry.

Finding opportunities for guest blogging involves first identifying these reputable websites within your niche, and filtering them down to ones that accept guest posts. 

To do this, you can simply search for various terms, such as:

  • [Niche] Blog + Guest Post
  • [Niche] Blog + Write For Us

Search results for these queries will yield plenty of websites in your niche accepting guest posts. All you need to do is weed them down to websites you would like to be featured on, pitch them your content idea, and produce a fantastic blog post that will generate clicks and boost your DA.

7. Create and Share Infographics

Some of the best linkable assets you can create for generating backlinks are infographics. These present complex information in easily digestible formats, making them highly shareable and a fantastic tool for other web pages.

High-quality infographics combine compelling visuals with valuable data that can be adapted across content, encouraging webmasters to use them in their own web content, linking back to you in the process.

8. Build Free Tools or Resources

8. Build Free Tools or Resources

Another great link building strategy that can generate backlinks is to offer free tools or resources on your website, such as calculators, templates, or widgets that are relevant to your industry.

By including these resources on your website, you provide tangible value to your audience, encouraging backlinks to your website. This again boosts your SEO performance in two ways. Firstly, by generating a backlink and increasing your DA, while also improving the user experience and duration time for positive search engine user signals.

9. Turn Brand Mentions into Backlinks

Turning brand mentions into backlinks is one of the easiest ways to capitalize on your existing reputation and generate an effective backlink quickly. However, it really only works if you already have a brand presence.

This is because this link acquisition method involves using tools like Google Alerts and Mention to sweep the web for any mention of your brand name and related keywords. For each instance your brand is mentioned, you then send a personalized email to the webmaster of the host page, requesting a link back to your website using the mention as its anchor text.

Not only does this help boost your DA, but it also ensures you have a healthy backlink profile with varied anchor text that includes descriptive texts, exact match brand mentions, and non-exact brand mentions.

10. Engage in Local SEO and Off-Page Strategies

While they may not have the same results on your site’s Domain Authority, local SEO and off-page SEO strategies are vital for promoting a healthy backlink profile. 

You can start by acquiring local citations from reputable directories in your geographic region to boost your local SEO efforts and appear in local search packages. 

Next, engaging with your audience and local influencers on relevant social media channels not only generates brand awareness and loyalty but also creates social media mentions and opportunities for collaboration.

While this may not have an impact on your backlink profile, it does generate an organic authority in your market that search engines recognize and value when ranking their SERPs.

Analyzing and Refining Your SEO Backlinking Strategy

The key to a successful SEO backlinking strategy is to be committed to assessing and refining your approach when necessary. You need to constantly analyze your backlink profile with a critical eye and compare it to that of your competitor to recognize room for opportunity and act quickly.

Monitor Your Backlinks

Use specialized link-building tools like Ahref, SEMrush, and Moz to monitor your backlink profile. These tools provide insights into each website linking to you, including authority and toxicity scores. It is up to you to analyze each link to determine which are beneficial to you and which ones you should disallow.

Evaluate Your Competitors’ Backlinks

Using a link building tool, you then need to keep a constant eye on the backlink profiles of your direct competitors. By doing so, you can see where they are acquiring their backlinks from, and adjust your SEO backlinking strategy to stay ahead of the competition.

Adjust Your Approach Based on Performance

If you are collecting backlinks but aren’t seeing any results in the SERPs, it may be time to rethink your approach. By adjusting based on performance, you are forced to practice different backlinking tactics, which yield a more varied backlink profile that will be far more beneficial in the long run.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Your SEO Backlinking Strategy

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Your SEO Backlinking Strategy

Building backlinks can be a meticulous task, and steering clear of black-hat techniques is paramount for the long-term success of your SEO strategy. 

Avoiding Black-Hat Techniques

Using black-hat techniques can lead to severe penalties from Google and other search engines. These tactics aim to manipulate search rankings unethically and can damage your site’s credibility. To build a robust backlink profile, you should focus on legitimate and sustainable methods.

Still, to do so, you first need to know what practices to avoid.

What Are Black Hat Techniques?

Black-hat techniques are deceptive SEO practices used to achieve quick results by bypassing Google’s guidelines. Examples include:

  • Buying backlinks from low-quality or unrelated sites
  • Using link farms to inflate backlink counts
  • Cloaking, where different content is shown to search engines and users
  • Keyword stuffing in anchor text for manipulation

These methods violate search engine policies and can lead to penalties or even site deindexing.

Consequences of Using Black-Hat Techniques

Engaging in black-hat tactics can have serious repercussions, including:

  • Google penalties that significantly impact search engine results
  • Backlink disavowal, leading to a loss of valuable links
  • Long-term damage to your site’s reputation and trustworthiness

To avoid these issues, adhere to ethical SEO practices and focus on building quality and relevant links.

Ready to elevate your SEO game? Contact us today for expert advice and personalized support tailored to your needs. Let our link-building services help you achieve a robust and effective SEO backlinking strategy.

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