Despite the many algorithm updates, link building is still one of the strongest ranking signals used by search engines. But if you want to increase your domain authority and rank higher than your competitors in the search engine results pages (SERPs), you need to get high quality authoritative backlinks on a regular basis. In other words, you need to follow effective link building strategies that get results.
The proven techniques you'll find below to get high quality backlinks will help you improve your SEO efforts by increasing the authority of your domain.
As we all know, when you get high quality backlinks, it sends positive signals to search engine crawlers that the linked website is valuable, useful, and deserves higher visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs).
By following the tips below, you can generate more high quality backlinks to your content, many of which are Dofollow links, to help it rank better for your target keywords.
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What Are Backlinks and How Do They Work?
Backlinks are essential links to your website that act as quality signals to search engines to decide your website ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs).
These are inbound links or outbound links, which search engines consider a vote of confidence from other websites.
If you have built backlinks from high authority domains in your niche, they send a strong signal to Google about the quality and relevance of your site.
Search engines consider your website trustworthy and authoritative when several sites refer to your pages by providing inbound links. This exponentially increases your website ranking in the SERPs.
The answer to getting high quality backlinks depends on the quality of the content you produce. If your content has value and offers essential information, others will naturally link to it.
Over the years, Google has become very attentive to the quality and type of backlinks you receive. Initially, Google considered the number of backlinks and anchor text for ranking rather than their quality. But with the Penguin algorithm update, there is a drastic change in the way Google considers backlink quality.
Now, backlinks will only pass link juice if they meet Google's defined quality criteria, among which domain relevance and authority are key factors. Even if you buy backlinks, you have to be very careful about their quality.
Best Way To Get High Quality Backlinks
1. Create quality backlinks from journalists
The first method for getting high value backlinks is to use a free service called Help a Reporter Out (HARO).
HARO lets you connect with journalists, reporters, and bloggers who need expert testimonials, quotes, and opinions for their content. You provide a response and they can include your name, brand, and website URL as editorial backlinks in the published content.
Most journalists who use HARO for their prospecting work for high-authority news sites and blogs like Business Insider, CNN, Fox News, Mashable, Good Housekeeping, etc.
As we explained in this post on using HARO for SEO backlinks, there are three simple things you can do to improve your chances of getting a high value backlinks from journalists:
- Give the reporter exactly what he needs. No more, no less.
- Make a big effort in your response.
- Include a link to your home page below your response.
- Only include the URL to an additional web page if it is directly relevant to the reporter's inquiry.
- Use a real photo of yourself on your website.
- Make your website look like a leading authority in its niche.
2. Jump on current news and trends
A simple way to get high value backlinks quickly is to focus on current news and trending topics.
By posting content on your website that is related to current topics, you can often get backlinks from fast-moving news websites, bloggers, and other media. And if you have a dissenting opinion on the topic at hand, that can also help fuel more links to your site, as others will want to comment on it and link to your article for their audience to read.
The real trick here is to act quickly and post your content online before other popular websites post their responses. This will ensure you get the most traffic and links before the trend or news topic gets saturated.
You can also take note of recurring news and trends that occur every year in your industry or niche. You can then prepare high-quality content in advance that will be published instantly on your website as soon as that popular event occurs.
3. Get high quality backlinks through testimonials
One more trick to building high quality backlinks is to give testimonials about the products and services you use in your business or personal life.
All businesses want to showcase positive reviews of their brand and if you provide an honest review of their products or services, they can place it on their homepage or another high traffic page on their site, along with a Dofollow backlink.
4. Creating backlinks from obsolete resources
The Internet is a constantly changing place. And an online resource that is linked to today may disappear tomorrow without warning, resulting in a dead link.
Brands go out of business, linked content moves to another URL, and articles are deleted, resulting in broken links on hundreds of thousands of websites every month. But lucky for you, this is a great opportunity to build more contextual links from relevant websites to your website.
Broken link building with outdated resources is a great way to get high value backlinks. And it's super scalable as long as you have a good process in place.
Ahrefs has a comprehensive guide to broken link building that can help you with this process; however, here are the quick steps you'll need to take:
- Build a list of authoritative competitors in your niche.
- Use Ahrefs Site Explorer to analyze domains.
- Use Ahrefs Broken Link Checker to find broken links by navigating to Site Explorer -> Pages -> Best by Links -> filter for HTTP 404 errors.
This process can help you find the most linked pages that no longer exist on the website, and then you can scan the referring domains to find out where it is linked on the Internet.
After that, you can recreate similar content and contact the owners of the referring domain website to notify them of the dead links while offering a link to your new content to replace it.
Note: Here is another in-depth guide on how to ask for backlinks the right way if you need advice on email outreach. And an article on how to use keywords in backlinks for SEO to avoid over-optimization.
5. Get good links from Wikipedia
Here is a simple method to know how to get high quality backlinks from Wikipedia.
If you want to read the whole process for more details, visit this page: how to get backlinks from Wikipedia. Otherwise, here are the quick tips:
- Create a Wikipedia account.
- Determine your target keywords that have wiki pages.
- Identify dead links on Wikipedia or relevant sections to add new citations.
- Create a good resource on your website to cite for this Wikipedia page.
- Insert the backlink to your website on this wiki page.
6. Build links of the same quality as your competitors
If one of your competitors is outranking you in the search engine results pages (SERPs), it may be because they have a stronger website link profile than you. So the simplest strategy is to build the same links as them to improve your SEO score.
This is a quick way to get more quality backlinks, but it requires competitive analysis and outreach. But here are the basic steps to follow:
- Choose a web page on your site for which you want to get more backlinks.
- Choose an SEO tool that allows you to analyze the backlink profile of your competitors. - Ahrefs, Semrush, and LinkMiner are popular tools for this task.
- Search for websites with the best SEO metrics, then analyze how the competitor website is linked in content.
- Publish new content that is just as in-depth and comprehensive as the competitor article.
- Contact the owner of the referring site and ask if they will link to your web page in the article as well.
7. Get listed on expert Roundups
Getting listed on expert Roundups is a great way to build high-quality backlinks (many of which are Dofollow) while getting your website and brand out there.
To get started with this backlinking method, go to the Search section of Google and use these advanced search operators:
[your keyword] + "expert roundup."
[your niche] + "expert roundup".
These search operators will give you a list of currently indexed articles that list experts in your industry or niche.
The next step is to contact the website owners and ask them if you can also be included in their roundup lists. Simply provide a quote that matches the style and tone of the experts' current answers, along with your name, brand, and website URL for the link.
8. Get images with link placements
Sometimes people copy images from your website and use them in their own content without giving credit to your site. This is an easy way to get your images back with a backlink.
It's a little bit of a manual procedure for link building, but here are two ways to do it:
- Copy the image web address (URL) and paste it into Google. Google will then display a list of all the websites it finds that use your image.
- Using a service such as TinyEye to upload your images or paste the web address. TinyEye is an image recognizer and reverse image search software that can find other websites that have uploaded your image.
After finding the sites that have used your images without permission, you need to send the website owners an email asking them to cite your website with a backlink. If they are unwilling to comply, they will have to remove the image from their website or be held liable for copyright infringement.
9. Link to good websites and let them know about it
Another simple way to get high quality backlinks is to link to authority websites in your industry and then tell them about it.
This tactic is especially useful for affiliate website owners who often struggle to get links to their business content. By contacting the brands you promote in your articles and telling them that they "made your top 10 list" or that you published an "individual product review," they can give you a free backlink in return.
This way works for any other type of site as well. Just link to the other websites and let them know that they have been featured. Some website owners will give you a reciprocal link in exchange for a free link because it's good advertising for them.
10. Publish more evergreen content
If you want to get more natural backlinks without having to work hard for them, the best approach you can take is to publish more evergreen content.
Unlike focusing on the latest news and trends, as mentioned in tip 2 above, evergreen content includes timeless information and remains relevant for a long time. This allows your web pages to attract endless natural backlinks as new sites discover your content and link to it.
Scalable content should be an important part of any SEO content marketing strategy so that you can continue to build your website authority and generate increasing traffic over time.
11. Create original research for links
Want to know how to get high quality backlinks in the most reliable way possible?
Publish original research.
And then share it with the world.
Conducting surveys, case studies, analyzing industry data, and creating in-depth content based on original research that can't be found on other sites is an effective way to get noticed online.
It is also an advanced method of link building that many people are not willing to spend time and resources on. However, it can yield amazing results for your link building campaign, as other website owners will likely refer to your new information because there is nothing else like it on the internet.
12. Make good infographics for backlinks
Infographics are graphical illustrations of information, data, or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly. And infographics that contain valuable information and good design can be a good tool to use for quality link building.
You can transform existing blog posts and articles into visually appealing infographics or present the data from your original research mentioned in the previous tip.
Once your infographic is complete, you can upload it to infographic submission sites, share it on social media, post it on your own website, and contact other bloggers to ask them to post it on their websites and link to it.
13. Create interactive content to build more backlinks
Interactive content is a great way to build more backlinks without putting in a ton of effort. As people discover your interactive content and enjoy it, the webpage will get more natural shares online.
Good interactive content you can create to get links includes:
- Quizzes
- Polls
- Calculators
- Games
- Maps
14. Ask experts to guest blogging on your website
Would you like to grow your blog content while getting more backlinks?
If this sounds like a good plan, then using the influence of industry experts can help you achieve this goal quite quickly.
Here's how to get high quality backlinks using this method:
- Build a list of the top experts in your niche and up-and-coming influencers.
- Send each person an email or contact them on social media and ask them if they would like to guest post on your website.
- Explain to them that this is an invitation-only opportunity and that you will do your best to share the content with your audience to bring maximum traffic and exposure to their article.
- Once the content is published, ask the expert if they are willing to share it on social media and link to it from their website.
15. Get interviewed
Here's a way to get good quality Dofollow backlinks from other experts in your field while increasing your own brand exposure.
Contact popular podcasters and YouTubers and request if you can be interviewed on their show. Many of these hosts are actively looking for good guests to feature, and if you can provide value to their audience, they will let you get some airtime while linking to your website in the show notes.
16. Start a podcast
Another way to build backlinks to your website is to start your own podcast. Then, contact experts in your field and interview them.
As a courtesy for the interview, you can request a backlink in exchange for free airtime.
17. Create links on YouTube
If you really want to build your brand and take advantage of every opportunity to get your content out there, creating a YouTube channel is a must-have digital marketing strategy.
With every video you upload, you can include a link to your website in the description.
A simple SEO video strategy is to turn your existing blog posts and articles into video content. Then create a link to those web pages in the YouTube descriptions.
You can achieve this video content in a variety of ways, including:
- Summarize your blog posts on camera.
- Make a slideshow with images and the most important text from the article as bullet points on the screen.
- Recording an audio version of the blog post and adding a stock image as video support so you can upload it as a video to YouTube.
- Have a spokesperson or video editor do the entire production.
18. Set up a Crunchbase account for a free backlink
Crunchbase is a website that provides information about private and public companies and allows you to connect with others who share the same interests.
In addition, anyone can create a business account on Crunchbase, add a backlink to their website and get an instant referral domain with a 90+ authority score.
19. Reuse blog posts for social media
If you want to build more backlinks on a large scale, social media can help you in this process.
Every blog post on your site can be repurposed into smaller pieces of content that can be shared endlessly on popular sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Reddit, etc.
The overall strategy is to pick one piece of pillar content, then break it down into micro-content that can be shared on any social channel.
20. Offer a free book, PDF, or course as link bait
Everyone loves free stuff. And if you create a high-quality book, PDF, or course and give it away for free to your audience, you can generate a ton of backlinks quickly as it's shared across the internet.
21. Run a contest
Similar to tip 20 above, running a contest can bring a lot of free publicity and buzz to your brand, as well as an endless source of backlinks.
By offering money or a prize, and promoting it in your industry, people will want to enter for a chance to win.
A good trick here is to require some type of link building strategy in exchange for each contest entry. You can ask people to share a link to your homepage, registration page, or other content to enter the contest.
Just make sure that all rules and regulations are described in detail so that your audience can read and comply with them, and protect you from any legal obligations.
22. Get your brand mentions back
Sometimes a website will mention your brand or company name in an article, but not link back to your site. This unlinked brand reference can be a good opportunity to get a good backlink to your homepage.
After finding an unlinked brand mention, you can claim it by contacting the website owner and asking them to link back to your site. It's as simple as that.
In order to find these opportunities, you can do two things:
-Set up a Google Alert to send you daily emails when the search engine algorithm discovers that your brand name is mentioned.
- Do a manual Google search for your brand name with quotes to find existing websites that mention your business and browse the web pages to see if they are linked.
23. Build skyscraper content for backlinks
The skyscraper technique to get more quality backlinks was popularized by Brian Dean, who used to own Backlinko. And he reveals that this link building method helped him build backlinks from authority websites like Entrepreneur, HubSpot, and Godaddy quite easily.
The basic steps of this strategy are as follows:
- Search for a high traffic keyword on Google.
- Analyze the top ranked results.
- Create content that is 5-10 times better than the one you found.
- Promote your new content like crazy.
You can also analyze the backlink profiles of the top-ranked URLs you found in the discovery phase. Then send direct messages to the sites that link to those pages telling them that your content is better and worth checking out.
24. Create ultimate guides to get noticed
If you really want to get noticed in your industry to build more backlinks, then you can definitely create content called "ultimate guides".
Ultimate guides are super in-depth pages that are usually 4,000 words or more and cover all aspects of a topic. Essentially, the content answers every question a person might have about the topic and removes the desire to go elsewhere to look for additional information.
Ultimate guides are a type of scalable content that can generate hundreds or thousands of links over time. And they are the cornerstone of a good pillar content strategy for SEO.
25. Ask your audience to give you a backlink
Finally, you can get lots of new backlinks from your existing audience just by asking for them.
If you're active through social media, have an email list, or have a lot of relationships in your industry, a simple request for a link to your website could be enough to get a high quality backlink to your site.
If you don't ask, you won't receive.
This link building guide you are reading right now is considered an ultimate guide as I mentioned in tip 24 above. And one of the reasons I published it was to get a high quality backlink to the Amin Educate website. So, to put this last tip into practice, I now ask you to kindly link to this URL from your own website if it is related to digital marketing or SEO. And also to share it on social media so others can benefit. 😊
I hope you enjoyed this guide on how to get high quality backlinks.
Earning High Quality Backlinks Summary
As you have discovered, backlinks are a major ranking factor for most search engines, including Google. If you want to do SEO for your website and get relevant organic traffic, you need to get high quality backlinks. The more backlinks your website has from authoritative domains, the higher your reputation will be in the eyes of Google. And you will dominate the SERPS. As I mentioned above creating links to your website and individual web pages is not as difficult as it seems once you know the best techniques for this task.
FAQs About How To Get High Quality Backlinks
How many backlinks do I need to rank?
The number of backlinks needed increases faster than the difficulty level of the ranking. For example, if a keyword has a difficulty of 10, you probably need about 10 backlinks to rank. But if it has a difficulty of 50, you may need 100 backlinks to rank.
Do backlinks help SEO?
Backlinks are particularly valuable for SEO because they represent a "vote of confidence" from one site to another. In essence, backlinks to your website tell search engines that others are vouching for your content.
Can backlinks hurt your site?
On the other side of the spectrum, links from low authority or spammy websites may not improve your ranking. Toxic backlinks can not only hurt your website ranking but also lead to search engine penalties.
