What are backlinks? Why are backlinks useful? And how can you build backlinks without it costing you a fortune?
These are all common questions I hear all the time.
Backlinks are often seen as the third and final leg of the SEO puzzle, focused on only after you’ve produced great content and are technically set up.
Wrong. Backlinks should always be part of your strategy from the outset. Whether that is stalking the successes of your competitors or monitoring wider opportunities and reaching out to other webmasters, you should always include it in your thinking.
Failure to see the value in building your web authority through acquiring more and more backlinks will inevitably see your competitors leap-frogging you quickly.
In this guide, I’ll endeavour to explain the differences and value behind the different types of backlinks and crucially the best avenues to building free ones!
Sound good? Let’s dive in.
What are backlinks?
A backlink is simply a link from one website to another.
The reason they are so important to your website is that Google uses them as a ranking signal.
For instance, if a website links back to a page on your site, this indicates to Google that you have produced some noteworthy and useful content. As a result, your page is now seen as more useful and reliable information than it was previously.
Think of backlinks (or link building) as a vote of confidence in your content.
The more backlinks your site and pages acquire, the more votes Google is able to crawl and monitor. This then leads to a higher indication to Google that your content is highly noteworthy and worth ranking higher.
Simple right?
Well, it can be a little more complicated.
For instance, webmasters can attribute 4 different types of attributes to a backlink which are as follows:
- DoFollow – links that pass SEO value (search equity) to your website. The best kind.
- NoFollow – links that don’t pass SEO value (search equity) to your website.
- Sponsored – links that the webmaster signals have been paid for.
- UGC (user-generated content) – links within content which are generated by site users.
So, that’s a whirlwind tour of what backlinks are. Let’s now focus on the best techniques you can apply to build them for free.
1. Search for Articles and Blogs in your niche
Often the most simple methods are the most effective, and building free backlinks is no different.
The first method I recommend is to identify articles and blogs in your niche and reach out to them.
You may think this is overly simplistic, but it’s usually massively overlooked.
Companies instead will often focus on buying expensive tools to scan the web for this kind of content and map out link building opportunities accordingly.
Why not cut out that often expensive middle man and do the grunt work yourself?
Simply head over to Google and type in one of the following:
Find Best Blog Lists
- “best (YOUR TOPIC) blogs 2020”
- “best (YOUR TOPIC) blogs 2020”
- “best (YOUR TOPIC) blogs to read”
Find Link Roundup Articles & Blogs
- “your keyword” + “link roundup”
- “your keyword” + roundup
- “your keyword” + “best of”
- “your keyword” + this week
Finding Educational Resources
- site:.edu “your keyword”
- site:.edu “your keyword” + “resources”
- site:.edu: “your keyword” + “other sites”
Finding Content In Your Niche
- “Your Keyword” + “resource page”
- “Your Keyword” + “resources”
- “Your Keyword” + “recommended sites”
- “Your Keyword” + “links”
Once you’ve found a series of pages and sites that are relevant to your niche, try to compile a simple Google sheet or Excel document and categorise them in terms of opportunity (e.g. blogs, roundups, resources etc).
The next part is applicable to all backlink building activities – you need to reach out to the webmasters.
I won’t lie to you, this stage takes time and dedication to find the contact details, write a message and monitor your progress.
But, it’s massively a ‘short-term pain, long-term gain’ opportunity.
Now here’s my advice of the do’s and don’t of reaching out to other webmasters (based on trial and error):
What not to do when contacting webmasters for backlinks
- Don’t ignore the content they’ve written
- Don’t write generic emails with no specifics (e.g. ‘I really love your content’)
- Don’t demand a backlink
- Don’t ignore the relevance of your content
- Don’t forget this needs to be mutually beneficial
- Don’t pressure them with time restricted responses requirements
What should you do when contacting webmasters for backlinks
- Introduce yourself
- Compliment the content they’ve written
- Be specific on how you think your content adds value to their page
- Give positive reinforcement on their content and the quality
- Explain the benefit to them and their users of linking to your content
- Mention how you may be able to collaborate in the future (if applicable)
An example of a how to reach out to other webmasters for backlinks
Hi *insert name*
I hope you’re well.
I just read your content on *insert content title and provide hyperlink* and found it really interesting. I particularly liked how *insert specific point on their content*.
I really like the style of your writing and notice we’re both working in the same niche which is great.
I’ve recently been writing about *insert blog or series of content* and really think this would add value to your content on *insert content title* and particularly be a helpful resource for your users.
It would be great to hear back from you soon and if not please keep up producing the great content.
Best regards,
*insert name*
2. Identify relevant broken links
My second tip is to identify relevant broken links in your niche and offer up your content as a solution.
Now this may sound simple. Spoiler alert, it is!
It’s essentially applying the exact same steps from the previous technique, but with the added step of scanning the other site pages for broken links.
It’s also worth noting that instead of the same searches, you can be even more specific by searching for specific keywords that you want to rank for.
The more backlinks that you receive from anchor text which includes the keywords you want to rank for, the more likely your content will rank for these target keywords (e.g. the keywords used as anchor text).
So, make sure to focus heavily on finding content in your niche when you’re targeting keywords amongst the other opportunities.
You’d be surprised how effective this technique is.
Often sites and blogs with a large amount of content are unable to keep on top of everything they’ve produced.
Frequently you’ll find broken links, broken videos and incorrect redirects.
Photo Credit: seo.com
Essentially, what you’re doing as a hero, is providing a simple solution to their problem. You’re offering your content as a way to resolve their broken link issue.
Like all things in backlink building, this should be a mutually beneficial exercise for you and the webmaster you’re reaching out to.
You build strong and relevant backlinks to help build your content and site’s web authority, and the webmaster improves their site and content user experience and page value.
However, you don’t want to spend hours searching for these pages and clicking on all the page links for the one time you can rub your hands together in glee do you?
I didn’t think so. So here’s a shortcut.
Add the ‘Check my links’ chrome extension to your browser (if you don’t have chrome, get it!).
Once you’re on the relevant page simply click this extension in your browser and it will spot any broken links or incorrect redirects and highlight them for you.
This will massively save you time when trawling through your list of sites to visit.
The final step, as ever, is to reach out to the webmaster.
You’ll want to mention how you enjoyed their content, spotted the dead link/s and suggest a relevant piece of your content as a remedy to the situation.
3. Create infographics & other forms of media
Thirdly, there’s the option of creating your very own infographics.
Infographics are basically images that are used to illustrate complicated and relevant points to users.
They have multiple benefits which include adding a new form of media to your content, summarising a key point simply and concisely, improving the flow of your content, increasing the likelihood of social sharing, and most importantly create backlinks.
Now I get that not everyone is blessed with insane photoshop skills, nor have the time to dedicate to producing an infographic which entices other webmasters to use it or users to share it.
Fortunately, there are cheap options that can help you out here. These include the likes of fiverr and Upwork where you can hire cheap freelancers to produce some for you.
This is a massive timesaver, and can hugely add value to your content and incentivise the acquisition of backlinks – it often makes your pitches to other webmasters way more successful!
But why stop there? If you’ve got a great unique infographic that would be useful to other webmasters, why not make it super easy for them to copy and paste?
This is where offering infographic embed codes makes sense.
Ok, to some of you that may sound very technical.
It’s not, it’s basically just supplying a shortcut to the code of your infographic on your page which another webmaster can lazily copy and paste into the html of their own site.
Now, you don’t need to google ‘how to create infographic embed code’ – it’s easy.
Tools like Siege Media Generator have already done all the hard work for you.
All you have to do is complete a couple of fields on their site, click enter and copy the code generated into a snippet beneath your infographic on your site for other webmasters to copy.
It’s really straightforward and just makes that ability to drive backlinks that much easier.
Remember though this doesn’t have to only be infographics, they are just statistically easier to drive backlinks from than other forms of media like videos and images.
That’s not to say the same backlink benefits can’t be achieved with some high quality proprietary images and videos – if you have this content, apply the same practices and reach out to webmasters in your niche.
I know you’re probably hating me repeat the same thing but the last part is always the same – reach out to relevant webmasters in your niche and show them what you’ve created and how it would be really helpful to the content on their own site.
A sneaky tactic here is to reach out and ask for feedback on your infographic to engage the webmaster in a less direct and obvious way.
A simple bit of advice between those in the same field is harmless, and can often be a great way to increase the visibility and value of using your creations.
4. Guest Blogging
Next is where it pays to network and build strong connections within your niche – guest blogging.
It’s exactly what it says on the tin – you’re producing content for another webmaster.
The reason you’re doing this is so that the content you produce provides backlinks to pages on your own website.
Essentially you’re doing the corresponding webmaster a favour by producing quality content for their site which they’re getting free of charge.
You then receive a backlink you added into the content for placed on their website as a fair exchange.
Now, I haven’t come on to the concept of domain authority yet, so let me briefly explain why this is particularly important when applying this strategy.
Domain authority is basically a metric to determine how authoritative a site is. This is important as under Google’s E-A-T algorithm, ‘authority‘ is a key ingredient to build to support and sustain high rankings.
Essentially the higher the number of backlinks a site receives from other high authoritative sites, the higher their own domain authority will become.
In simplicity, you want to build your domain authority over time so you can rank for a wider array of competitive keywords, drive higher site traffic and ROI etc.
The importance of this concept in guest blogging is that you want to reach out to websites with strong domain authorities which add the most value to your website as a result.
For instance, if you create a guest blog for a site with a domain authority of 60 and another with a domain authority of 30, you will drive much more SEO authoritative value for your website by guest blogging for the website with 60 as a score.
Why?
Well, basically Google has considered the website with a domain authority of 60 as more reputable as a judge for what content is noteworthy than the site which has a domain authority of 30.
You can get overly bogged down in running the numbers with domain authorities. When you’re starting out it’s often the case that a higher volume of backlinks can lead to a quicker impact on your site’s domain authority to gain some more attainable traction.
Whereas in the longer-term, higher domain authorities are much more valuable to go after and a far better way to spend your time, even if you’re just earning a couple a month.
As a general rule domain authorities fall into the following categories:
- Weak – 0-20
- Good – 21 – 40
- Great – 41 – 60
- Amazing – 61+
To quickly calculate a site’s domain authority, download the Mozbar chrome extension (you better have chrome by this point in the blog!).
So aside from domain authority, what else should you be looking out for when assessing sources to request guest blogging on?
Well, basically you want to look for relevant sites in your niche which will also drive you relevant referral traffic – traffic from users who click the links from your guest blog to your website.
These users will likely have a much higher intent to take an action on your site (e.g. purchase) if they’re coming through a highly relevant source within your niche than otherwise. This is the ideal situation.
For example, if you sell digital cameras online and a user clicks onto your website from another camera information website, they’re more likely to become a customer than if they came from an astrology website.
Thirdly, it’s worth seeing if you can scan any prospective website with the similar web chrome extension to get a vague idea of the volume of their site traffic.
This is an important metric to better understand if the site is going to offer you much value in terms of referral traffic or not. The higher the traffic the better.
Quick shortcuts to find these opportunities before assessing them is simply to drop the following into Google:
- “Target Keyword” + guest posts
- “Target Keyword” + inurl:write-for-us
- “Target Keyword” + inurl:guest-post-guidelines
- “Target Keyword” + become a contributor
- “Target Keyword” + become an author
- “Target Keyword” + contribute
Not only will this way help you identify good opportunities, but you may even find sites who support guest blogging on a regular basis (a smart move) and are thus more likely to take you up on your offer.
Remember when you’re reaching out to them, focus on your expertise, the quality of the content you will produce and their ownership of it.
Even if some sites aren’t keen on the opportunity of accepting a guest blog at this stage, you’re still building out your virtual network and your visibility which will massively help you in the long-term.
5. Set up Google Alerts & Competitor Monitoring
There’s often a very logical option which businesses forget of when it comes to backlink building, and that’s monitoring your competitors.
If a competitor brought out a new product or service you would want to know, right? You could see if it was successful and if it was bringing in customers and impacting their bottom-line etc.
So, why not do that with content?
By setting up alerts you can quickly be notified on the day your competitors publish new content.
But, why would you care? Good for them right?
Wrong. Often when it comes to generating backlinks it starts with what content is worth writing to earn them.
When you analyse a competitor site’s content you can quickly find which pages are driving the most backlinks. And if you invest in more expensive programmes like SEMrush or Moz you can identify the exact backlinks they’re receiving.
Thus, it’s simple; if you notice pieces of content your competitors have written that’s producing plenty of backlinks, you should do the same but make yours better.
That’s majorly it. If you can show your content is better written, more comprehensive, up to date, clear, and more visually stimulating, then why should your competitor earn the backlink instead of you?
This technique is all about letting your competitors come up with and test ideas while you steal the successful ones by producing even better content on the same topic and leap-frogging them in search results.
It sounds sneaky but it’s super effective. I can guarantee if your competitors are smart they’ve already been doing this right back at you.
It’s really easy and free to set up a Google Alert based on the content your competitor is publishing.
You can set your alerts to be as varied as being aware of any content they produce, or you can target specific keywords which are more valuable to you (more relevant when targeting specific anchor text backlinks).
To set this up simply head over to Google Alerts and type in one of the following to either monitor all new content your competitors produce regarding a specific keyword or all of your competitors new content:
- Monitor a specific keyword your competitor is targeting – keyword:site:competitor site URL
- Monitor all of a competitors new content – site:competitor site URL
That’s it. Once you’ve set this up you will get alerts as and when new content that meets your criteria is up. The success for you is how you react to it.
You can take your alerts further by spotting specific backlinking opportunities with Google Alerts rather than competitors only.
For instance, you can widen your net of alerts to include those related to specific keywords a piece of your content is targeting irrespective of your competitors (just enter the keyword in the search criteria).
This then allows you to quickly find other sites and content across the whole internet who are recently publishing related content to yours. This gives you the opportunity to reach out to them (I know, again!) to see if they would be interested in offering you a backlink.
More often than not, recently published content providers are happy to receive the help, so it’s a great option for you to give a try.
6. Responding to specific Q&A’s – Quora, Yahoo Answers
A final simple tactic is to start responding to relevant Q&A messaging sites.
The best one is without a doubt Quora.
There’s a huge array of questions from users on everything from travel to specific screwdrivers.
More likely than not there will be questions on there which are relevant to your niche.
All you need to do is check out these forums once a week and search for question areas that sit within your niche.
Once you do that, you want to offer the best and most comprehensive answer to user questions whilst offering links to helpful content on your own website.
Now Quora has a blanket rule that any links added to their forums will contain a Nofollow link attribute, so you won’t get the SEO benefits of it initially.
However, what you will likely receive quickly is high intent referral traffic from users who need help with the exact stuff you are the expert in (I hope!).
This is great for business and a free way of building a stronger brand profile to relevant users quickly.
Also, NoFollow backlinks in the future may bring some SEO benefits but I will cover that in a seperate blog.
Make sure to also check out Yahoo Answers, which was the biggest Q&A platform before Quora, and apply the same technique there as well.
There are still plenty of active users today with a lot of free opportunities to take advantage of.
Conclusion
When you’re building your profile in organic search it takes time, dedication and patience to tick all of the content, technical and authority aspects of SEO. Success won’t appear overnight, and if you’re not on your game, this can become incredibly costly quickly.
This is why I’m showing you the free way to backlink building. This guide should successfully help you build backlinks without paying for them. It will help you build your own domain authority and be able to rank quicker for more competitive search terms in the future. That will help you bolster your site’s traffic, build your brand awareness and drive higher ROI to your business.
I hope you found this guide on how to build backlinks without paying for them helpful. I’d love to hear and respond to any questions and comments you may have in the comments section below.
