How to Get Backlinks: 7 Simple Strategies That Truly Work

Knowing how to get backlinks is crucial if you want to rank higher in search results, drive more traffic, and increase online visibility.

Backlinks are one of the most important Google ranking factors. The more high-quality backlinks your website has, the greater your chances of ranking high on search engine result pages (SERP).

Besides improving your website’s visibility, a strong backlink profile also enhances your credibility and authority in the eyes of search engines and visitors.

So, how do you get high-quality backlinks?

For starters, you could just ask a website for a backlink.

But, is it that easy?

Unfortunately not.

That’s why we’ve compiled some of the best strategies for acquiring high-quality backlinks and boosting your website’s SEO.

But first, let’s understand why you need to learn how to get backlinks.

Why Should You Know How to Get Backlinks?

According to a recent study, backlinks were one of the most important Google ranking factors.

Image via First Page Sage

Clearly, high-quality backlinks from authoritative websites have a massive influence on Google’s ranking algorithm. The more high-quality backlinks you have pointing to your website, the higher your website is going to rank on Google.

Of course, there are several other reasons why you should learn how to get backlinks. Here are a few benefits that you can get.

Drive More Traffic to Your Website

Backlinks from authoritative sites can drive more referral traffic to your website. This means more potential users will visit your website, leading to an increase in engagement and a higher sales conversion rate.

Increase Your Domain Authority

Backlinks can also help improve the domain authority of your website. When authoritative sites link to yours, it shows they trust your content. Google considers these trust signals to evaluate your website’s content quality and authority.

The higher your domain authority, the easier it is for you to get on the first page of Google.

Build Relationships with Other Websites

Reaching out to other websites to request a backlink or to collaborate on content gives you the opportunity to build a relationship with them. These relationships could create more opportunities for future collaboration or promotion.

Boost Brand Awareness

Another reason why you should know how to get backlinks is to build brand awareness. When other websites link to your site, it also increases your website’s visibility and exposure. You can connect with new audiences and widen your reach beyond your existing customer base.

Stay Ahead of Competition

Learning how to get backlinks can give you a major competitive advantage in your industry. When you acquire high-quality backlinks from reputable sources, you can easily outrank your competitors.

And as we all know, the higher you rank the more clicks your website gets.

In fact, the number 1 result in Google gets more than 27% of all the clicks compared to the 10th result which only gets 2.4% of the clicks.

Image via Backlinko

Now that you know why it is important to learn how to get backlinks, let’s look at a few effective strategies that will help you earn more backlinks.

7 Easy but Effective Strategies for How to Get Backlinks

Backlinks are the backbone of any successful SEO strategy. But not all backlinks are created equal.

High-quality backlinks from reputable and authoritative websites can boost your website’s reputation and authority, while low-quality backlinks can have the opposite effect.

A single high-quality backlink could be more powerful than several low-quality links.

That’s why it is crucial that you focus on acquiring high-quality backlinks to improve your website’s online visibility and search engine ranking.

If you are here to learn how to get backlinks, we have listed 7 strategies that we have tried ourselves and can vouch for.

1. Create Link-Worthy Content

In today’s digital age, consumers have access to an overwhelming amount of information. For businesses to stand out from the crowd, they need to create great content.

If you want other websites to link to you, you’ll need to first create link-worthy content.

Besides creating amazing blog posts and articles, here are some other ideas for your link building strategy:

Ebooks

If you want to showcase your knowledge and expertise and establish yourself as a thought leader, ebooks can be a valuable marketing tool for you.

Publishing ebooks is an excellent way to generate leads while building trust and credibility with potential customers.

What’s more?

If you create informative ebooks, other websites would be happy to link to them to provide valuable resources to their customers.

You may distribute ebooks with unique content to a wider audience through various channels, such as social media, email marketing, and influencer outreach. Doing so may attract backlinks from other websites that reference or recommend the ebooks.

We also recommend creating a landing page for your ebook on your website and include a CTA to share the ebook. This would increase the chances of it being shared and linked to by others. Here’s an example from our website.

Image via Attrock

Pro Tip: Creating an ebook just for generating backlinks is not a good idea. Your ebook must be of high quality and be valuable to your readers. It’s also important to focus on targeted and strategic distribution and promotion of your ebooks to increase the likelihood of generating backlinks.

Free Tools

Offering free tools on your website can also be a great way to generate backlinks.

For example, we offer several free tools on our website, such as the image compression tool and the email subject line analyzer tool.

Image via Attrock

Such tools organically generate backlinks as other websites would link to them to provide valuable resources to their users.

Here is an article from HubSpot referencing Attrock’s email subject line analyzer, earning Attrock a backlink.

Image via HubSpot

While free tools on your website can potentially generate backlinks, it ultimately depends on the quality and relevance of your tool to your target audience. If the tool is useful, it will naturally attract backlinks from other websites, otherwise not.

Research Reports

Conducting research on relevant topics and offering in-depth reports can also help you generate backlinks. Other bloggers and website owners can use your study or article to support their claims.

Many companies publish annual research reports, such as the one below.

Image via Mailmodo

Such reports can be referenced by site owners and bloggers to support their claims, helping you earn high-quality backlinks from their websites.

Guides

Comprehensive guides that explain a topic in detail can also be an effective way to generate backlinks.

Here’s an example of a detailed guide on how to start a website.

Image via Attrock

The above guide has earned nearly 28 backlinks since it was published, as shown below.

Image via Ahrefs

Pro Tip: When creating a comprehensive guide, always choose evergreen topics. Such topics remain relevant for long periods, allowing you to promote the content for longer without having to make any significant changes.

2. Find Guest Blogging Opportunities

The next strategy in this guide on how to get backlinks is guest blogging. It’s a popular SEO tactic that digital marketers use for generating backlinks.

There are several guest posting sites that you can use for publishing content, reaching a new audience, and increasing your brand’s exposure.

The simplest option is to use a syndication website like Medium to share your content and use backlinks to drive traffic to your website.

Here is an example of our guest blog on affiliate marketing on Medium.

Image via Medium

The idea behind creating guest posts is to create valuable content for the host website’s audience, while gaining exposure for your own brand.

You can include a link back to your own website within the content, like we have, as shown below.

Image via Medium

This will help you generate a backlink thereby improving your site’s ranking in search results.

A better way is to find authoritative websites in your niche and reach out to them for guest posting opportunities.

Guest posting on several reputable websites in your industry can help establish your brand as an authority in your field.

So, how do you get started with guest posting?

Here’s a step-by-step guest-blogging process:

• Identify relevant websites in your industry that accept guest posts, preferably those that have a similar audience to your own.
• Reach out to the site owner or editor to pitch your guest post idea. Be sure to include information about yourself and your website, as well as a brief outline of your proposed article.
• Create relevant content that meets the target site’s guidelines and add backlinks to related content on your website.

Guest posting can be an effective strategy for generating backlinks and improving your website's search engine rankings.

By creating high-quality content and building relationships with other websites in your industry, you can establish your brand as an authority and drive traffic to your website.

3. Use the Skyscraper Technique

While searching for how to get backlinks on the Internet, you must have come across the term Skyscraper Technique.

What exactly is the Skyscraper Technique?

It’s a popular link-building strategy developed by Brian Dean of Backlinko. The technique involves finding the best piece of content out there on a particular keyword and creating something even better.

The idea is to create content so good that people can’t help but share and link to it.

So, how does the skyscraper technique work to help you get backlinks?

To start with, you need to find content that has a lot of backlinks. It could be a blog, a video, an infographic, and so on. The easiest way to do that is to use backlink analysis tools like Semrush and Ahrefs.

Let’s explain.

Say the keyword you want to create content on is “long-tail keywords.” Conduct a Google search using this keyword to look for the top ranking articles.

Here are the top results we got on Google.

Image via Google

Google will give you the top ranking content but it will not give you any information about the number of backlinks these articles have.

However, by using Ahrefs or Ahrefs alternatives available in the market you can easily find the best performing content with the most backlinks.

Just type in the keyword in the search box of Ahrefs Content Explorer, and it will display the results as shown below.

Image via Ahrefs

Once you have identified the content, all you need to do is look for ways to improve the content and publish it.

Here are some tips to improve an existing piece of content:

• Update the content: Updating the content with the latest information is perhaps the easiest way to improve an existing piece of content. Do some research to see if there are any new statistics, research findings, or trends that you can include in the content.

• Updating the content not only improves the accuracy of the content but also makes it more relevant and useful to your target audience.

• Add more visuals: Make the content more visually appealing and engaging by adding more images, infographics, or videos.

• Visuals not only help grab audience’s attention but also increase engagement by making it more interesting and memorable. They also make your content easier to understand by providing visual cues and context to the content.

• Improve the formatting: The way you format your content can also have a big impact on its readability and user experience.

• Improve the formatting of the content by breaking up long paragraphs into smaller ones. Use more headings and subheadings and bullet points to highlight key points.

• Enhance the writing: Try and make the content more engaging and persuasive by improving the writing style. You can enhance your writing by improving the clarity of your sentences, using more descriptive language, and adding more personality to your writing.

• Add more examples: Improving upon an existing piece of content also means providing more value to your readers.

• Consider including more examples and case studies in your content to help illustrate your points and make them more relatable to your audience.

• Optimize for SEO: When improving the content, don’t forget to optimize it for search engines to improve your SEO results. SEO-optimized content attracts more traffic, also increasing your chances of getting more backlinks.

• Optimize your content by including SEO-friendly headlines, meta descriptions, and by using relevant keywords throughout the content.

Once your content is ready, the next step is to promote the content, especially if your goal is to get more backlinks. Reach out to other sites that have linked to the original content to see if they would be interested in linking to something better.

But, don’t just stop there.

Reach out to others too who may not have linked to the original content but may be willing to link to yours.

Pro Tip: As this technique deals with improving existing content, someone will eventually try to create a better piece of content than yours. It’s crucial that you regularly update your content to ensure it remains relevant and useful.

4. Leverage the Broken Link Building Method

If you are learning how to get backlinks, the broken link building method is another technique that you must try.

It involves finding broken links on other websites and suggesting the site owners to replace these links with links to similar pages on your website.

What exactly are broken links?

Let’s explain.

Have you ever come across broken pages that either cannot be accessed or are not displayed correctly? It may look something like this:

Image via Startme

When users click on broken links, they are usually directed to broken pages that look like the one shown above.

A broken link is basically a hyperlink that no longer works or exists on a website, leading to a non-functioning web page.

A broken link can occur for a variety of reasons, such as:

• The web page being linked to has been deleted or moved to a different URL.
• The URL of the linked web page has been changed.
• The web server hosting the linked page is not responding or is down.
• The web page being linked to is restricted by a firewall or other security measures.

So, how do you find broken links?

Again, you can use backlink analysis tools like Ahrefs or Semrush to find broken links.

If you are using Ahrefs, just go to the Content Explorer and type in a topic or keyword. Set the filter for broken links as shown below. You may also set the number of referring domains to 10.

Image via Ahrefs

The results displayed will show you broken pages with backlinks from at least 10 websites.

Now that you have found a broken link, all you need to do is get in touch with the site owner and offer a replacement.

When drafting your pitch, start by introducing yourself, and don’t forget to mention the site of the broken link. Also, make sure the replacement you offer is relevant and offers value.

And just like that, you get a backlink.

5. List Your Website on Resource Pages

Our next strategy in this guide on how to get backlinks is to use resource pages. Resource page link-building is one of the simplest but most effective ways of generating backlinks.

Resource pages are web pages on a website that list helpful links and resources related to a particular topic or niche.

Website owners often use these pages to provide their readers with a curated list of useful websites, tools, and content related to a specific theme.

Here’s an example of a resource page.

Image via BiQ

How can you find resource pages?

Once again, we recommend using tools to analyze backlinks for this. If you are using Ahrefs, type in a relevant domain in “Site Explorer.” We are using eatright.org as shown below.

Then go to the Backlinks report and search for “resources.htm.” In this case, it gave us 344 results.

Image via Ahrefs

Here are some examples of resource pages that you might find on a website:

• “Recommended Reading” page on a blog that lists helpful articles, books, and other resources related to the blog's topic.
• “Tools and Resources” page on a website that provides a list of tools, software, and other resources that the website owner recommends for their audience.
• “Useful Links” page on a directory website that lists helpful links and resources related to a specific industry or niche.
• “Glossary” page that defines industry-specific terms and jargon.
• “FAQ” page that provides answers to common questions that their audience might have about their product or service.
• “Expert Roundup” page on a blog that features insights and tips from industry experts on a specific topic.
• “Resource Library” page on a website that provides free downloadable resources, such as ebooks, templates, and worksheets, for their audience.
• “References” page on an academic website that lists sources and references used in their research or publications.

Resource pages can be a valuable source of backlinks for website owners.

Follow these steps to build backlinks from resource pages:

• Find relevant resource pages using Google. All you need to do is type in your keyword followed by this search operator: “intitle:resources inurl:resources.html”, as shown below.

Image via Google

• Not all the search results will be relevant. So, ensure to vet the pages thoroughly. Basically, you need to identify pages where adding of your link will add value.

• Reach out to the people maintaining these resource pages and suggest your resource.

Getting your website added to a resource page can not only help you get backlinks, but it can also drive traffic to your site and improve your search engine rankings.

6. Do a Link Gap Analysis

Next on our list of strategies on how to get backlinks is link gap analysis. If you are looking for a quick way to find backlink opportunities, then you must try this.

A link gap analysis involves looking for websites that have linked to multiple competitors but not to you. If such a website has linked to many of your competitors, chances are they might link to you too.

So, how do you do it?

If you are using Semrush, you can use the Backlink Gap tool for this analysis.

Image via Semrush

You can also use Ahrefs Site Explorer for link gap analysis. Just go to “Link Intersect” and add the URLs of a few of your competitors.

Image via Ahrefs

Now, how can you get more backlinks through link gap analysis?

Here are some tips:

• Identify your competitors: Identify your top competitors in your niche or industry. These are the websites that are ranking well in search engines for the keywords you want to target.

• Use SEO tools: Tools like Ahrefs, Moz, or Semrush can help you analyze the backlinks of your competitors. You can also use these tools to analyze your own backlinks and identify any gaps in your link profile.

• Identify link opportunities: Look for websites that are linking to your competitors but not to your website. These are potential link opportunities that you can pursue.

• Evaluate link quality: Evaluate the quality of the potential sources using metrics like domain authority, page authority, and relevance to your niche. You want to focus on high-quality links from authoritative websites that are relevant to your business.

• Reach out to link sources: Once you have identified potential link sources, reach out to them and request a link to your website. This could be in the form of guest posts, sponsored content, or other forms of content marketing.

Pro Tip: Link gap analysis can also be used to create amazing content. It is an excellent way to find out what type of content your target audience is engaging with the most. Use these insights to create content for social media and other platforms that generate a lot of engagement.

7. Form Partnerships Using Outbound Links

When learning how to get backlinks, you are probably just looking at your inbound links, also known as backlinks to your website.

Did you know that your outbound links also offer a lot of opportunities for generating backlinks?

Say you have linked to another high authority website in one of your articles. Your content is performing really well and generating a lot of website traffic for that website.

For instance, Semrush has linked to Backlinko in this article.

Image via Semrush

If you too have linked to other reputable websites, why not reach out to them to form a partnership and generate more backlinks?

Tools like MonsterInsights, Moz, and Semrush can help you view your top outbound links. They can easily generate reports showing you external links on your website that get the maximum number of clicks.

Outbound links don’t usually generate backlinks, but if used strategically they can also be a powerful means to get backlinks.

Follow these useful tips to use outbound links to get backlinks:

• Link to high-quality content: When you link to high-quality, authoritative content on other websites, there's a chance that those websites may notice and appreciate the link. This could lead to them linking back to your site in the future.

• Reach out to the website owner: If you've linked to someone's content and you think they may be interested in your content, consider reaching out to them to let them know. If they like your content, they may link back to it.

• Emphasize the benefits: Explain to the site owners how they can benefit by linking to your website. You may cite benefits like well-written content, content relevant to their target audience, and so on.

• Keep your pitch short: When pitching to a site owner, keep it short and simple. Avoid long winding sentences and keep them to the point.

Here is an example of a great pitch.

Image via NeilPatel

• Build relationships with other website owners: Building relationships with other website owners in your niche can help you generate backlinks over time. By networking and collaborating with others in your industry, you can find opportunities to link to each other's content and help each other grow.

The most important thing when it comes to generating backlinks is to create high-quality, valuable content that people want to link to.

Outbound links can help you achieve this goal by providing context and supporting your own content with other relevant resources.

FAQs

Q1. How do I get backlinks to my website?

A. There are several ways to get backlinks to your website, such as:

• Creating high-quality content that other websites will want to link to
• Participating in guest blogging opportunities
• Using the skyscraper technique
• Identifying and replacing broken links
• Listing your website on resource pages, and more.

Read our blog post above on how to get backlinks for more information.

Q2. How can I get backlinks for free?

A. Here’s how to get backlinks for free:

• Create high-quality content to earn backlinks organically.
• Reach out to other websites in your niche and offer to write guest posts.
• Participate in online communities, such as forums and social media platforms, to build a relationship with other site owners.
• Get your website listed on free business directories.

Q3. What is the best way to get backlinks?

A. The best way to get backlinks is by creating high-quality content that other websites will want to link to. This could be anything from informative blog posts to videos or infographics.

Q4. How do I get backlinks from Google?

A. Google is a search engine and so it does not provide backlinks directly. However, it is possible to earn backlinks from other websites indexed by Google.

Follow the strategies given in the blog above on how to get backlinks, such as:

• Create link-worthy content
• Find guest blogging opportunities
• Use the skyscraper technique
• Leverage the broken-link-building technique
• Do a link gap analysis

Q5. Can I buy backlinks?

A. Buying backlinks is never a good idea, as it goes against Google's guidelines and can result in penalties. It's better to focus on creating high-quality content and earning backlinks naturally.

Learn How to Get Backlinks with Ease

Learning how to get backlinks is essential for any successful SEO strategy. While there are various methods for acquiring backlinks, it's important to focus on creating high-quality content that provides value to users.

Building relationships with other websites in your industry and engaging with your audience is also effective in generating backlinks.

Remember to prioritize the quality over quantity of your backlinks and regularly monitor your website's backlink profile to ensure its health and success.

Which of the strategies above do you like the most? Let us know in the comments below.

Need help with your link-building efforts? Our link-building services can help. Contact us to learn more about what we offer.