Getting backlinks can seem like a daunting task. How do you get other businesses to link to your site online?
If you don’t have a backlink yet, you can get up and running pretty quickly by tapping your existing partners and resources within your community. Things like local Chamber of Commerce online listings, alumni directories for founding schools, and church and community directories are great places to start. This is a low-hanging fruit, and establishing these backlinks is a great way to ease into the next steps in a backlink strategy.
Once you’ve established those links, it’s time to move on to a more advanced strategy. Collecting more backlinks should be an ongoing effort, and if you are looking for legitimate ways to get backlinks, this is the best way to do it.
Research Competitive Backlinks
Start by checking out your competitors. Where are they getting backlinks from? Are they in industry databases or local publications that list providers in their city? Once you’ve discovered these additional places where you can be listed, sometimes it’s as easy as filling out a simple form to list your business.
A comprehensive SEO tool like SEMrush or Ahrefs can help you research your existing backlinks as well as the links acquired by your competitors.
update existing content
Hopefully, you already have some content on your site. Sometimes, you have the opportunity to restructure or refresh the content you already have in order to generate backlinks.
Do you have a blog post that lists providers or tools that are useful to your readers? Take a look at the list and add some new businesses to these lists. Then, reach out to these businesses and let them know that their service or tool is featured; they want to let go their Customers know they’ve had a shout out to an outside site, and so you’re more likely to get a backlink from them.
submit guest post
Guest blogging has long been a popular, more advanced way of getting backlinks. Accessing relevant sites and writing guest posts on their blogs is a great way to get links. However, guest posting trends have waned a bit over the years, so it’s more difficult to get a guest blogging gig now.
It’s worth a try, though! Put together a targeted list of blogs and publications that would be a solid fit for a strategic partner for your business. Write a compelling, error-free pitch email, outlining the topics you can write about and why it will bring real value to their audience. Tailor your pitch to each blog’s specific audience, and take the time to research who you’re emailing so you can send a personalized message. Finally, feel free to approach your contact in a respectful manner if you don’t initially hear back.
join the podcast
While guest blogging is falling out of favor, guest podcasting is my new favorite way to get backlinks. Like guest blogging, guest podcasting is great because it allows you to tap into the existing audience of the brand of podcast you’re appearing on.
And there’s an added benefit that guest blogging doesn’t have: It’s very little extra work. While writing blog posts requires researching, writing, editing and selecting photos and relevant emails, when you’re a guest on a podcast, you simply show up and talk about what you do every day. You are an expert in your field, and you can speak comfortably on your subject with little preparation. And as with most podcasts, you can call from anywhere to speak with the host, so within 30 minutes or so of doing an interview, you’ve generated great backlinks.
A service like Podcast Bookers can get you ready for a podcast very quickly.
write a report
While it’s sometimes challenging to persuade others to guest blog you, if you have specific research to share, you can get everyone’s attention. Offering research is a great way to get media links and even open the door to guest blogging.
Yes, specialized research takes time. However, if you are able to partner with one of your existing business relationships, you can reap the benefits and cut the work in half. You and your strategic partner can tap into your network to find people to interview for research. Then divide and conquer when it comes to creating compelling ways to collect data and share it.
join new content
How can you get attention and backlinks for new content you create? Mentioning relevant influencers, community members or others in your posts is a great way to re-share on new content.
Of course, you shouldn’t just put names into posts to drop names. Make sure the people you are mentioning are relevant to the content you are writing. For example, let’s say you are a home remodeling business. Consider putting together a series of posts showing the families you’ve worked for. If there is anyone who is a pillar of the community they have worked with, ask if they would be willing to be featured. Let’s say you helped the former mayor remodel her kitchen – ask her if she’d be willing to talk about the process and share how her new and improved kitchen made her life better. Is.
After the post goes live, tell the person and ask them to share it again with your network and followers.
publish a press release
With all these new digital marketing tips, it’s possible to forget those tried-and-true methods. But press releases are still a great way to get attention and backlinks! Are you launching a new product or opening a new location? Have you taken a big, declare-worthy fare? Are you participating in any local community events? There can be many reasons for writing a press release.
If you need a refresher on how to write an effective press release, check out this guest post on our Duct Tape Marketing Blog.
link out
It is a long lasting approach to getting backlinks, but it is well worth the effort. When you’re creating content, link to tools and resources that you really love and think are helpful. If you’re showing a specific tool or mentioning a specific person, you can email the business or individual to let them know. But it is good practice to include external links in every post, and many of those external links do not guarantee email to the source.
However, it’s likely that the source is doing exactly what you’re after: monitoring your online presence. They’ll see an alert they’ve been linked to, and something as simple as a link can put your brand on their radar screen. While they may not immediately talk about that content or take back links from them, there may come a time in the future when they may be looking for a link to share that is relevant to your client’s business. and it’s your site that they’ll turn to.
It is important for you to build a repository of backlinks. This matters for SEO ranking and your online reputation, and the more mentions you can get across the web, the more likely you are to attract the attention of a new audience. But quantity is as important as quality. A great marketing strategy can help you gather relevant backlinks for your business.
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