How To Get High-Quality Backlinks – 28 SEO Experts Share Their Tips
Minuca Elena
If you want to rank a site one of the most difficult issues is how to get high-quality backlinks. Although some people say they can rank a site with no links, that’s not exactly true. You can rank new pages of a site without actively seeking links IF you already have a huge, established brand and you get links effortlessly. If that’s your case, that’s great.
If you don’t have a globally famous business, then you should try to earn backlinks for your site. The most valuable links are links from authority sites in the same niche as yours. Links from smaller sites aren’t to be thrown away either but they won’t have a big impact either.
Like anything else in life and business, something that is very valuable is also hard to get. Influential sites are very strict when they choose to whom they link out.
That is why we hired Minuca Elena to reach out to 28 SEO experts and ask them the following question:
Table of Contents
What is your best tip to get high-quality backlinks from authority sites?
Without further introduction let’s see what the experts had to say.
Bill Sebald – Greenlane
I have been a link builder for a long time. It was a channel dependant on tactics – sometimes very cheap ones. But I’m finding that many of the tactics are losing effectiveness (in both acquisition and influence).
I’m seeing that a bigger strategy devised for acquiring links is almost always a more successful campaign. This means determining the goal(s), thinking through the campaign, doing a bit of research, then spending money on building the asset.
An asset can be many things – content, tools, videos, you name it. But it may not be something that already exists on your site. For example, if you work in a space where there is a clear need for a digital tool, you would not know that without research.
If a wide audience can use that tool, then you’ll get branding and qualified traffic through the development of this tool.
Notice I didn’t just say PageRank (or whatever Google is calling it internally these days).
Once you know what you want to create, spend the money to make sure it’s the best version of the tool. Yes, spend money. I see too much shortcutting on quality to save money. You are competing to be #1 on the web, so find the appropriate budget.
BONUS: FREE Guide on How to Acquire High-Quality Links
Once the tool is built, promote it everywhere. Newsletter, social ads, as well as outreach. (Yes, again spend more money).
Tactics can get you smaller one-off links, but these bigger programs can be like throwing a boulder into a lake. Google will definitely notice, and you can see results that certainly offset all your time and costs. If you are in a competitive niche, this is even more important.
Chris Dreyer – Rankings.io
The best way to get authoritative links is to build and cultivate real-world relationships. In the early days of SEO, it used to be that you could get a site to rank well without talking to or even emailing another living soul.
That’s simply not the case anymore, as Google largely ignores low-value links that anyone can get by creating a profile, submitting a form, sharing a link on a social network, building citations, or submitting sites to directories.
Those types of links are still important for an overall link profile, but getting the referring domains that will move the needle requires perseverance, time, social skills…and a little salesmanship.
I’m talking about things like developing referral relationships, collaborating with other site owners on content production, constructing and promoting news-worthy content, and emailing or calling editors of major publications to learn their audience’s content preferences. Tactics like these lead to high-value, authoritative, and optimally placed links that will improve a site’s Domain Rating.
Glen Allsopp – Detailed.com
Focus far more on the other person than you focus on yourself.
In some industries, you only have X number of great websites that link out consistently. If you start the relationship with a clearly automated email, writing out their full website name unnaturally and just asking directly for a link, you might be burning bridges and opportunities forever.
You could literally always be remembered as the guy or girl who sent that spammy email and that’s your chance gone.
Yet if you start the interaction by focusing on the other person and what they can get out of your deal together, you’ll not only stand a better chance of picking up your first link from the site, but many more going forward as well.
Steve Toth – SEO Notebook
Build relationships with established writers in your niche. Short list a group of writers and look for indications that they like to link out. Put a Google Alert on each of their names and make sure you read every article they write — do this for at least a month.
Get familiar with common topics and themes and tailor your content assets around them. You could even go so far as to ask a writer to contribute a quote to your article. This could increase the likelihood of them wanting to link out to it (YMMV).
Before emailing or going “straight for the kill.” Connect with them on places like LinkedIn or even some common Facebook groups. Avoid making the sales pitch email the first time they’ve heard about you. Be persistent and make it about the relationship, not a one-off link. Good luck!
Mark Webster – Authority Hacker
We’ve had a lot of success lately using the HARO platform to build high authority, high-quality contextual links.
The platform is free and it’s relatively easy to get started. Simply sign up, search their daily email for reporter queries and answer the questions you’re most qualified to answer. If your submission is successful you’ll get a link. And sometimes we’re talking HUGE sites here – some of our most recent DR90+ successes include the likes of Forbes and American Express without paying a penny.
As with most things, optimization is key here. The more responses you send that tick the right boxes, the more links you’ll get. We currently have a team member monitoring the daily request email who will start writing a reply to relevant queries the moment they come in. Over time they’ve perfected how to ensure they say the right things without spending an excessive amount of time on responses.
As a result, this link building method currently yields a success rate of around 15-20%, which when considering the quality of the links makes it a worthwhile time investment.
It’s free to get started and works for almost any niche – if you’re looking for a new way to get high authority backlinks, this is absolutely worth checking out!
Dixon Jones
One big mistake link builders make is not deciding what an “Authority site” looks like to a recipient. For me, the authority of the page is much more important than the site, but even so… one person’s authority is another person’s “Dog’s dinner”.
This leads to the tip… find a “natural match”. That is to say, the topic must be so close, that the authors probably know each other in person!
Almost all my best links come from personally knowing the sites that link to my product. If this tip gets a link, it will very much be the exception, for me!
My tip: Make links personal and you won’t go far wrong… might cost a few beers for influencers along the way though!
Julie Joyce – Link Fish Media
The best way to land a great backlink from a high authority site is to have content that isn’t already covered on that site.
That is such a simple concept but so easily forgotten.
You can have amazing content in the coolest format ever, but if the site you’re pitching to has a competing resource, your chances of getting your own link are lessened.
Chris Labbate – SEO Bank
My Expert Tip: LinkedIn LinkBuilding
People are tired of getting outreach emails (even if they are personalized) yes, I know they work to a point. I too have used them in the past, but instead of fishing for single guest post opportunities, in bulk email scrapes, I use LinkedIn’s advanced search to find editors of the authority sites I’m going after.
Chances are these editors might write for more than a few High DA sites, so you are already talking to the influencers, not single blog owners. Brilliant!
Here is how to do custom searches in LinkedIn for Influencers:
First, you must develop a search string that best matches the criteria of your influencer market. LinkedIn understands Boolean so you can craft your search strings around these operators:
- OR – Author OR Editor – This combination will perform an all-encompassing search that includes all LinkedIn profiles that has the keywords author or editor.
- AND – Author AND Staff – Is much more limiting as the profile must include both terms author and staff.
- NOT – Author NOT Staff – Will deliver a search of profiles that include the word author and not the word staff.
- ” ” – “Vice President Marketing” – Is used when there is more than one word it the title or phrase.
- ( ) – Is used to group phrases together. (“Staff” OR Director) AND (Author OR Editor) will bring up a search of all Directors and Staff that are authors or editors.
BONUS: You can combine search strings or add a company name to the query.
(Author OR Editor) AND (SEJ)
Next, paste the search string in the search bar.
And BOOM! You have 222 Expert Authors in your Niche, doing 1 search, under 3 seconds:
The success rate of reaching out for a guest post, or even an opportunity to be a writer, is much higher in LinkedIn because there is less friction than with the traditional back and forth email pitch. LinkedIn conversations can happen live and in real time.
Allan Pollett
One problem that link builders continuously have is finding new places to get links. One powerful strategy my team uses is to find authority blogs to place links.
Doing a simple search for “target keyword + blog” is a fast way to find potential blogs to approach. Since the top-ranked sites generally are not only themed correctly but usually have the authority associated with them, you can trust they are a good link source.
The next step is to quickly check the blogs post dates. If the blog is currently posting infrequently they might be open to having an article written for them. Often they are keen to have fresh content because content can be expensive or time-consuming to create.
These blog owners want to maintain the appearance of having fresh content. So they will often receptive to your pitch of the idea of writing a blog for them and in return they just need to give credit to the writer, which is the backlink to your site.
BONUS: FREE Guide on How to Acquire High-Quality Links
Often you can add a slogan or keyword phrase within the link text as well which can make the link extra power. So this is a simple but very effective method for building backlinks from authority sites.
Brian Swanson – FlashPoint Marketing
If you are going to get an authoritative backlink then you need to think outside the box. What can angle can you take on a topic that has not already been taken?
We have found with our clients the best approach is to tackle a specific topic featuring some of their knowledge, but also to include insights and comments from others in the industry (that can offer a high-quality backlink).
It’s human nature to promote content that promotes them, so positioning is important.
Let all the experts you include in the content parcel know you have published the blog, ask them to share the link on social media and link back from their website. Even if you get a no-follow link from an authoritative source, it will still have value for the site.
Remember, Google is evaluating a website on its expertise, authority, and trust (E-A-T). Backlinks from authoritative sites will help your company build your site in these areas in the eyes of Google.
So, take a new perspective approach to a topic, seek out insights from experts, feature those insights and ask them to link to the content and promote it on social media.
Marco Benavides Ferlini – Semantic Mastery
The best tip I have for land backlinks from authority sites is to create your own trusted/authoritative sites.
The original Distance Graph patent was granted in 2015 and updated in 2018. The information in the patents tell us how to create our own trusted/authoritative sites. Since they tell us what Google is looking for, we can give Google exactly what it wants.
The patent looks at trusted/authoritative sites. In Google’s relational database, sites are clustered around relevance, trust and authority. If a website has accrued enough trust and authority, it becomes a seed site and any site it links to is part of a seed set.
My thinking is: Why go and try to get a link from a seed site or seed set in a given niche if I can create my own seeds sites and seed sets in the niche? I’ve seen through endless testing that links must not only be trusted and authoritative, they must also be niche-related. This is one of the reasons I prefer building my own links.
What it comes down for me is control. I would much rather be in control of the incoming link than not.
Gabriella Sannino – Level 343
My top tip is the use of HARO, or Help a Reporter Out, and various sites like that. Journalists need quotes, and you – as the expert – have the ability to give those quotes. It’s one of the few ways I can think of for a new business, or any business for that matter, to get backlinks from a high authority website like Forbes, The Daily Mail, Fortune, etc.
#journorequest is similar to HARO. Add your specialty to a Twitter search (example: #journorequest #marketing) and you’ll find open quote requests from journalists. You can drop the specialty hashtag if it doesn’t return enough results and you have the time to dig through requests.
Once you signup to these sites, you’ll need to stay on top of your emails and visit the sites frequently. Quote requests are quickly answered, so you can run out of possibilities before the day is half over.
Make sure your quotes are more about helping people than selling yourself. Journalists aren’t interested in getting your product sold; they’re interested in getting their article read.
As well, remember that it’s not just about building backlinks. It’s also about building yourself and your company up as authorities for your niche.
James Dooley – Fat Rank
Our best tip to land high authority Backlinks is reading the latest few blogs an author has written and see if there are any topics where it’s causing conflict between readers.
We then create a blog supporting the author’s opinion and try to get stats on this to support his thoughts shared. Reach out to the author and he loves the backup so links to our blog to strengthen his opinion on a given topic.
If we don’t agree with everything the author says in his article we wait 2-3 months and then delete our blog and 301 this to the most relevant money page on our site.
Kris Gunnars – Search Facts
The best way to get natural high-quality backlinks is having useful, authoritative content that has information that people find compelling.
You can usually start ranking somewhere without many links, but as people find the content then a small percentage will naturally link to it without asking.
The more this happens, the higher your site rises in Google, leading to a virtuous cycle. This doesn’t work for each individual article, but it can be an effective way to build domain authority for a website.
Floyd Buenavente – SEO Philippines
First off in the world of SEO there are many kinds of “Authority Sites”, but if by an authority site you mean a site having a high Domain Authority with great relevance, organic traffic, and Trust Factor then you still have to satisfy another requirement and that is if the website allows free guest posting in their pages.
Realistically such websites are VERY rare to find except if you have these resources available at your disposal.
They are as follows:
1. Budget
2. SEO Tools such as Ahrefs, Hunter, G Suite, Mailshake and Buzzstream
3. Lots and lots of time
4. Great Content
Linkbuilding nowadays is not a walk in the park, because let’s be honest here, A LOT of websites nowadays asks for payment in exchange for a link that is great in the eyes of Google.
The free ones are still out there although they are very rare and very few.
In the end, it comes down to the number of outreach emails you are able to send out and the number of websites you are able to harvest. In this regard, the help of the tools I mentioned above is essential in achieving your targets.
However don’t let this bring you down, there are still other FREE ways to get links from authority websites.
The technique is simple, go to Google and search (YOUR KEYWORD) “write for us”
And there you go you will have a list available at your disposal, now all you need to do is to gather all of them from Google and be creative with the keywords you are using when you are searching in Google.
BTW: You can also use this technique using the tools above.
Just a caveat, as this is a free opportunity you should expect these sites to be hammered with other links from your competitors and other websites.
Hazel Jarrett – SEO+
Done well, guest posting is brilliant for earning high authority backlinks.
Google loves great content, audiences love content that solves a problem for them or gives them relevant information, and high authority sites love amazing content too.
Guest posting is an excellent way to reach a new audience, build brand awareness, grow your authority as an expert and also land backlinks from authority sites.
To be accepted by high authority sites, your guest articles should:
- Be clearly targeted to the host’s audience
- Include a ton of value through highly relevant, unique content
- Give deep and detailed information that covers the topic from a different angle to what’s already on the host site
- Include some internal links to other content on the host blog’s site
- Be promoted by you to your audience as well as by the guest blog’s host
- Feature a strong guest bio, which includes a link to your site
- Appear on relevant, high authority sites that share a similar audience to you (use Google and check domain authority using Moz’s Open Site Explorer)
And don’t forget that being included in expert roundups like this one can also land you a backlink from authority sites and it takes far less time than writing an entire article!
Dominic Wells – Onfolio.co
Take the time to build up a relationship with the owner or writers of the authority site. This is obviously not something that can be done at scale super efficiently or if you run a bunch of sites, but it’s easily the most surefire way to land links. They’re also links that others might not be able to get access to, as they haven’t bothered to take the time to network and build trust and friendship.
You have to approach it from a genuine angle too, people can spot insincerity, even over email. It’s one of those things where you do a lot of work upfront becoming known in the space, and you don’t get much return for it, but in the long run, it pays dividends, and you build real, long-lasting authority.
Aleks Shklyar – iPullRank
Write for a Niche–Just Not Your Own
If you want to earn links naturally, it’s imperative to do it through great content. But great content isn’t enough. Instead, think of sites where you want to be featured and who THEIR audience is.
For example, if you are a company offering help with filing taxes, writing about what you do can apply to anyone who files taxes. Your content will offer little to no added value compared to H&R Block, TurboTax, etc.
However, if you angle your tax preparation advice towards retirees living in the beautiful state of Florida, suddenly you are speaking to a demographic targeted by tons of publications online.
This type of personal approach is appreciated by both the readers and publications themselves to whom you’ll be pitching.
A great example of that strategy working is for one of our auto insurance comparison sites. While they do an amazing job covering all their bases of building content for their own users, they leverage their blog content for link building.
A post that did unexpectedly well for them was on the family travel when a family member has autism. This in-depth post clearly struck a chord for many publications focused on this developmental disorder and families dealing with its effects on everyday life like family trips.
Christina Nicholson – Media Maven
The best way to land a backlink from an authority site is by providing information that is of value. When you are cited in that article, you can share a link from your website that leads to a blog post that shares a more, in-depth look at the topic you shared in the article.
In an article, you can only say so much due to word count. People may want to find out more and that leaves you the opportunity to link back to that information on your website. This doesn’t only help you get the backlink, but it also helps you get clicks which plays an even bigger role in SEO.
This is also an important reminder to consistently be updating your website with relevant information by blogging. There is nothing worse than getting an opportunity to share a quote, but not have anything helpful to link to if people want to learn more.
Many times, outlets will not link to the homepage of your website. It can appear promotional and it doesn’t add any extra value, so be sure you are updating your site on a regular basis to increase your chances of earning backlinks as an expert in your industry.
Isaac Hammelburger – Search Pros
I’ve been using HARO for years and have found it to be the best way to get mentions on top tier sites. Here are my 3 best tips, which helped me get more than 100 links in the past year:
1. Use Good formatting in your answers. If the question has multiple questions, repeat the question in bold and type your answer underneath.
2. Get yourself a signature, this makes your emails look much better than any other person who sends it in, and making yourself look credible is one of the most important things to do
3. Change your sending identity – This is one of my secret tips, but I’ll share it here. When you respond to a HARO, most of the time people only see your email name. Most of the time this is just your regular name – which is boring and not enticing someone to click on your profile.
Instead, add your profession to your name so it reads “name – Profession” this gives the writers a reason to click on your name.
Pierre de Braux – Spiralytics
My number one tip for landing authoritative backlinks would be to build a relationship with the prospect first.
Put yourself in the shoes of the webmaster that you’re reaching out to.
When you receive an outreach email from someone you’ve never heard of, you’re probably going to perceive it as spam. However, when you receive an outreach email from someone you’ve communicated with before, you’re naturally more receptive to it. This applies when link building, guest posting, or doing any other collaborative outreach strategy.
Building a relationship with someone doesn’t have to be difficult. You just need to do things that make yourself more visible to that prospect. It can be as simple as commenting on their blog posts or joining in on one of their discussions on social media. You can also do things to help their exposure like share and link to their content to get yourself on their radar.
Links from leading websites have huge amounts of SEO and PR value, so take the time to nurture these relationships for the best chances at success. Remember that authoritative sites get unsolicited outreach emails all the time, so get a step ahead of the crowd by making yourself known. Once you’ve had a few two-way interactions with them, only then should you request anything significant like a link, share, or guest post.
Juliana Weiss-Roessler – WR Digital Marketing
You can gain high-quality backlinks by consistently replying to HARO requests. HARO stands for Help a Reporter Out. It’s a service that connects journalists with sources for their stories. You can sign up to receive their interview and quote requests via email. They are organized by subject matter, so it is easy to spot requests that are relevant to you and your industry.
Make a point to check them every day, and respond to at least one. Typically, they just want a paragraph or two, so it doesn’t take long to do.
Make sure to provide an original response that specifically addresses the request from the reporter. And don’t be overly promotional, or you’re unlikely to be featured. The goal is simply to showcase your knowledge — not directly promote your services.
To save time, I recommend keeping a document with your bio, website link, social media links, and a link to your headshot. That way, you can easily copy/paste it to the end of your reply to provide the reporter with all your relevant information.
Not all of your replies will end up being used. But over time, the results more than make up for the time invested.
Sameer Somal – Blue Ocean Global Technology
The quality and relevance of a website, both for a specific subject area or industry demographics, can be attributed to its Domain Authority. The higher the Domain Authority, the better the chance to rank atop search results. Search engine algorithms trust and prioritize the content from websites that have a high Domain Authority. As such, receiving a do-follow backlink from such a website will enhance your visibility on the internet. Below are a few actionable tips that you can use to build backlinks to your website.
Broken Link Building
Broken links lead users to 404 error pages because the pages these were originally directed to is no longer valid or active. They damage a website’s credibility and compromise the user experience. Google bots systematically crawl the internet and account for all broken links.
One strategy for receiving a backlink from a website with high DA is to identify broken links and offer a high-quality alternative to replace it. Such collaborations offer mutual benefits.
Guest Blogging
This is a common practice for earning a backlink. There are several viable guest blogging platforms on which one can author articles that contain a link to redirect the user to your website. Outbrain, Mashable, The Muse, Medium represent some of the more mainstream Guest Blogging Platforms.
Build Real Relationships
If you want to succeed at SEO and attracting the right people for your business on the internet, forge genuine friendships with others in and out of your network. Relationships build on a foundation of mutual trust and understanding will (for example) underpin interview opportunities with online magazines. They will also create a demand for your opinion and thought leadership by other company websites. When done with purpose and genuine intent, this practice will also be effective for generating backlinks.
Use Social Bookmarking Sites
Social bookmarking sites like Reddit, Dribble, Pinterest, etc. are important because they will improve your DA and generate significant traffic for your website. You can also use question and answer platforms like Quora; posting regularly on such open source websites is definitely a great way to get backlinks.
Bibi Raven – Bibi Buzz
HA! My best tip is not what you’re gonna want to hear. If you’re looking for some MIND BLOWING KNOWLEDGE BOMB or super-secret-salsa-effortless-links-forever sauce from me, you’re gonna be sorely disappointed #sorrynotsorry:
As I tell everyone I consult or train: stop thinking like a link builder. This means:
- You disrupt people’s expectations of what link building outreach sounds like
- You think like a writer and are content-centered in your approach
This works with all sites, authority-sized or pea-sized.
The first part of my approach to outreach is all about avoiding anything that makes you sound like a zillion other link builders. The underlying link request remains the same, but you word things in a new, unexpected way.
So stop the fake flattery, the veiled begging and all that. Be surprising, honest & personable. Editors and owners of authority sites get thousands of emails – they’re so sick of “love your blog yada yada gimme linky linky”. If you can jump out with unexpected, original copy, you disrupt their assumptions about link builders and grab their attention.
I see you eye roll – because you kinda knew this already but you can’t be arsed to try it. You know what? Don’t. More power to the few that actually do make the effort (and reap all the winz!).
Still here? AWESOME HIGH-FIVE.
BONUS: FREE Guide on How to Acquire High-Quality Links
About the second aspect: In most cases, a site grows into authority because of its high-quality, specialized, controversial or otherwise engaging content. When you want free backlinks, you increase your chances by getting into the head of their editors. The content should be front of mind, and the link last. Because that’s what THEY focus on.
How do you put content first? For example, when you’re doing a guest post pitch, spend more time than usual on content ideation.
One of my fav methods at the beginning or end of the year is:
- Search for “<niche of link prospect> trends <year>” (Example: luxury trends 2024)
- Take a look at the listicles, pick one trend (Example: existential luxury)
- Research what content already exists. You can use this for title inspiration, to create your own angle, etc. You can also reverse engineer what has already worked well around this and similar topics.
- Generate 5 titles inspired by what you found. Format them in different ways (listicles, narrative, how-to, etc).
- Rinse and repeat till you have a nice list of various topics and title formats
- Pick one or more titles you think will work best for specific authority sites (look at their existing content to check)
- Pitch them, and if you like, explain why you think this piece would work well for their audience. You can even refer to their existing content, and point out how this would tie into that.
There are a lot more ways to do content ideation like this. But my point is: give some love to the content you’re pitching (no matter the campaign type). It’s totally worth it.
In my experience, editors don’t need that much convincing anymore, as the content speaks for itself.
Mandy McEwen – Mod Girl Marketing
My best tip for landing backlinks from authority websites is to build relationships! Follow the authority sites on all of their social media properties and find key employees that would be involved in collaborations. Engage with them on social media – leave comments, share their posts, etc. Twitter is my favorite for this.
When you’re consistent about retweeting content and mentioning the individuals in your tweets, you will stand out. Now, take it a step further after you’ve engaged on social media and send them a direct message AND an email.
In your email make sure it is personalized and mention how you’ve been following them on Twitter and sharing their content. Compliment them.
Then you can find an article that is relevant to your content that you are trying to promote and mention how it would be a great addition to their article and explain why. Try to keep this email short, sweet, and personalized.
It’s a numbers game so the more you do this the more opportunities will arise for you.
Servando Silva – Stream SEO
Getting a link from a high authority site isn’t as difficult as many people think, especially of both sites (your site and the one you want to get a link from) participate in the same niche.
Authority sites love great content, and usually, the owner/s of the site are very passionate about the topics around that niche and always hoping to read and learn more about it. A great tip that works to get them to link to you is to create a super nice post where you write a tutorial or maybe a case study with a ton of data and stats they can quote or link.
This is easier said than done, of course. The article needs to be rich in content, images, and video and easy to understand for the audience. If possible, it needs to link to other authority sites or maybe even quote something that the authority site said or has done before. This highly increases your chances to get linked back.
In terms of scaling this strategy, the problem is you can’t be creating super awesome content to get links all the time. So, for bloggers who are getting started, it might be “easy” as they have a lot to talk about and pretty much every site is an opportunity, but if you’re getting links on a monthly basis or getting them as an agency that seels the services creating this type of content can be either very difficult or very expensive.
Another problem is that you might want the link to point to another post and not your awesome tutorial or case study, but you can also funnel that link juice and authority through your on-page SEO and use it as supporting content while you develop more the relationship with the owner of the high authority site.
Keep in mind many high authority sites get requests for links or guest posts on a daily or weekly basis. In order to stand out from the rest, you need to show that you’re really interested in sharing something special with their audience and not just a clickbaity or generic post with 5 tips to achieve X thing as they will see through your intentions.
Patrik Bindea – Strodin.com
If you’re not well-known in the field so that people can naturally find your content and link to it, the fastest way to get high-quality backlinks is through outreach.
And the first step to successful outreach is to get their attention.
Here are two unexpected ways I had tremendous success with:
Tell the truth right from the start (because no one expects this). I landed a few solid links by simply being unexpectedly honest.
Most people try to sugarcoat their outreach and most bloggers already smell a pitch from the moment they open the email (never use an outreach template!).
So I told the blog owner right from the start that I’m terrible at outreach, that I know they’re being pitched a gazillion times a day, but I would like to write a damn good article.
I got so many replies thanking me for finally sending an email that doesn’t sound like the same old template everyone is sending.
Be funny
Along with my blatant truth, I also included a strange picture with me standing with a cardboard with the website owner’s name on it. I opened the email stating that cold email is so awkward so I want to break the ice with this.
Again, people appreciated the sincerity and trying to be somehow funny.
The next step after getting people’s attention is to tell them what’s in it for them.
An in-depth article based on keyword research? You can fill a gap in their content? Can you offer them a guest post opportunity as well? Promote them to your audience?
Imagine what would you like someone to offer you in order to let them write on your website.
Johnny Baskin – Nomadic Advertising
There are a few different methods popular in the SEO community for generating backlinks from authority sites.
At the end of the day, most of these methods boil down to creating value for the website you are trying to get a link from either through great content, infographics or identifying mistakes (such as broken links).
When trying to get backlinks most authority sites will be more strict about who they are linking to than less authoritative sites. This means if you are trying to get a link from them it will often require more initial work.
Take some time to research the website and the audience you are targeting. You want to make sure when you reach out to the website you are contacting the right person and your message resonates with their audience.
If the website you are reaching out to has a community it is always best to try and interact with the community beforehand to get a better idea of who the users are and what kind of content they would be interested in. This will make it easier to give them a compelling reason to link to you.
For example, if I had an eCommerce shop selling kitchenware and I was trying to get a link from a cooking website I would try and find a way to appeal to that specific audience while also mentioning my products.
It’s important when reaching out to the website to make it about them and not you. I might reach out to the site and offer to make an infographic compiling all the best “one-pan” recipes featured on their website.
This is highly relevant to them, gives me a chance to interact with their existing users and at the same time provide a link to my favorite pan to cook with from my site.
Jeremy Skillings – You Can Be Found
We often want the internet and technology to do our work for us and many people in SEO are data geeks that are searching for great tools to dig into our work. I’m one of them, so I’m not looking down on that.
However, link-building is relationship building, and for data people, sometimes that is the hardest thing to do. Getting out of our shells and creating offline relationships that turn into online links. Reach out and engage with people in your world or your client worlds. You are still dealing with human beings.
Create useful content that is worth linking to and then create real relationships in the industry that can get that information out there. There are tools like HARO that can help with this, but sometimes you have to be creative and reach out to people and show them the value that they are providing their users.
It isn’t easy, but sometimes hard is how and why you differentiate yourself and outperform your competition. Start with creating unique, different, and useful content that is worth sending users to. Without that, the rest doesn’t matter.
Thank you so much to all the experts that contributed to this expert roundup! Let us know in the comments below which is your favorite link building method.
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