Series: Complete SEO Marketing Guide

Part 8: Backlink Backlink Backlink

Backlink Backlink Backlink

Search engine optimization (SEO) is an extensive process. There is so much involved in improving the web ranking of your site, such as creating exceptional content, optimizing your Google My Business profile, and leveraging keyword research.

However, the most important trigger for SEO links, particularly backlinks. Websites that receive backlinks are viewed favorably by search engines. This is because these websites can be trusted to provide valuable information.

As such, building backlinks is one of the most important aspects of SEO. If you want to establish your business as an authority and reinvigorate your online presence, you must start to acquire links from authoritative sources.

This guide will break down the concept of backlinks and how you can generate them for your website.

What are Backlinks?

A backlink is simply a reference. It happens when another website links back to your website. In terms of SEO, backlinks are the most important triggers that can influence a web ranking.

In fact, websites with an increasing number of backlinks are more likely to rank in the top three search results of their industry. There is a caveat to this, however. In the early days of search engines, many webmasters would post their links on thousands of spammy websites to impact their ranking.

Google caught on to this trick and has since only recognized high-quality backlinks from reputable websites. The authority of a website can be determined by a metric called domain authority (DA).

This metric rates a website on a scale of 0-100. The higher the DA, the more credible a website is. Websites like TIME and ESPN have a brilliant DA score, which means if you were to receive a link from these sites, your website would experience a large boost.

This isn’t the only reason why acquiring backlinks is important. You can learn more by continuing to read below.

Use the Skyscraper Method

Brian Dean, an internet marketing industry leader, brainstormed the skyscraper method a few years ago. He conceptualized this technique to build more backlinks for his website. As it turns out, he skyrocketed the number of links he received back to his site and improved his web ranking tremendously.

His process of doing this was remarkably simple. Here are the steps of following Dean’s Skyscraper method for your site.

Find a popular topic to write about online, either through keyword or topical research.
Next, browse the topic online and see what ranks at the top of the search engine result page (SERP).
Make your content better by increasing its length, adding statistics, captivating visuals, etc. Do whatever you can to make your article better than the ones that rank well for your topic.
Publish your article.
Use a keyword research tool to see which websites are linking back to the highest-ranking articles on your topic.
Contact them and offer them your article to link to instead.

This method is surprisingly simple and effective. Authoritative websites often hold a strict standard of only linking to the most relevant content. Over time, even the highest-ranking content can become irrelevant.

If you’re simply providing a better mix of content, an authoritative site should have no problem linking back to your article. Still, even if you craft great content, you want to make sure that your website is perfect before following these tips.

The reason why is because many sites with a high DA score will hesitate to link to a site that’s slow and visually unattractive. Get your website under control first before you focus on producing impeccable content influencers can link to.

Guest Post Often

Guest posting is one of the simplest ways to obtain a backlink. If you publish an article on a website with a high DA score, it can create a ripple effect. Publications that boast high readership counts can make sure your links and content are shared throughout the web.

This can be the kind of boost you need to have your website climb the search rankings. It’s quite easy to get started with guest posting. First, you need to have a mastery of whatever topic you plan on writing about. Second, you should be a proficient writer and researcher.

Unfortunately, you won’t have much luck having your work featured in top publications if you don’t have much guest posting experience. That is, unless, you’re a well-known influencer or businessperson.

With that said, you can get your feet wet by contributing to lesser-known publications with a sufficient DA score. Once you’ve built a portfolio of quality guest posts, you can pitch to more well-known publications.

Beware that the pitching process can be time-consuming and drawn-out. For example, if you run a marketing company and want to have your work featured in HubSpot, you should be prepared to endure a long pitching process.

These publications receive hundreds of pitches per day. Also, many forms of content do exist online that may surface into your proposed topic. If your pitch gets selected, you’ll have to go through an extensive writing and editing process to ensure it meets the standard of the publication that has accepted your work.

As you can see, there is a long road to building a backlink through guest posting. However, once you get the process down, you can succeed in establishing yourself as an industry authority while improving your site’s web ranking.

Network With Journalists and Influencers

If you are regularly publishing great content, promoting it on social media won’t be enough. You’ll need to put your content in front of people who can springboard its exposure.

Journalists and industry influencers are always on the lookout for quality sources. If your content fits the standards they are looking for, you can receive a nice backlink in exchange for all of your hard work.

The real challenge here is finding like-minded journalists and influencers in your industry. You can do so by typing in the keyword “top [insert industry] influencers” into your search bar.

This should pull up list articles containing the most prominent influencers in your industry. Next, you can reach out to these people via email to offer your article as a resource.

For example, if you run a plastic surgery practice and are noticing that many of your clients have had botched prior surgeries, you can write an article on the subject and send it to a journalist in the entertainment industry.

Since your work aligns with a topic they are most likely to cover, you can get a free backlink by simply reporting on something you’ve noticed. This can go a long way toward boosting your online ranking.

Publish Industry Research

To take the previous section a step further, you can conduct industry research to provide influencers and other publications with relevant information pertaining to a topic or industry.

It may take a lot of time and effort to craft industry research, but it’s an effective way of building a lot of backlinks in a short period of time. For example, if you run a pest control company, you can conduct a study on the breeding habits of certain insects.

With your research, you can develop statistics and an article that can be quoted and used by other publications. Such research can make you an authority in your field and make more people tune into your future articles.

Publish Ultimate Guides

When people browse the internet, they expect to receive an in-depth solution to their want or need. If you were to search for natural hair tips, would you click on an ultimate guide for natural hair or a short article of a few basic tips?

If you’re like most people, an ultimate guide would be your choice. Ultimate guides are comprehensive and trustworthy sources of information because they answer a lot of questions and are useful for longer periods of time.

It may require a lot of effort to create, but you should focus on developing ultimate guides to entice influencers to link to your article if they are writing on the same topic.

Conclusion

Backlinks are instrumental in the process of building online real estate. By following the tips above, you can acquire a sufficient amount of backlinks to help you usurp your competitors.

The process of building competitors, along with the rest of the topics mentioned in this series, can all result in an increased SEO ranking in 2020 and beyond.

Get started with backlinking

Part 7: Click-Thru Rates

End of Series: Thanks for reading.

Start your project analysis

Reviews

I use SP Marketing for a number of things but I have to mention how useful it’s been having them help with Google Pay per click management. This company is fantastic at what they do. They are on top of everything and they are always so professional. I really don’t know what I would do without them. If you need any kind of digital marketing help this is the first place I would recommend. They put a lot of emphasis on customer care and they have really helped my business grow.
Kenneth Robinson
We hired SP Marketing to run online and social media ads for our company. I wasn’t really sure what to expect but decided it was worth a shot. The uptick in sales has been wonderful. These guys really know what they’re doing and their ads have brought us so many new customers. I’m so thankful. I highly recommend them.
Joseph Qrtiz
I just love SP Marketing Experts. I needed some major help with link and citation building and these guys were able to handle everything for me. Their services have been so useful. I can't remember the last time I worked with a company that had such great customer service. If you're looking for any kind of digital marketing help for your company this is the first and only company I would recommend.
Cherry Peterson
SP Marketing helped us completely redo our website. The old one was such a mess and we needed so much help. The end result was modern, easy to read, and very user friendly. I couldn’t be happier with their services. They did such a great job for us. I would 100% recommend them to anyone who has a business and needs website or marketing help. They do a fantastic job. They really delivered for us.
Harry Warner
In order to stay competitive as a business you have to be regularly posting on social media. However, I own a small business and managing my own social media while I’m trying to run a company isn’t really productive. Thankfully, I found SP Marketing. They have been great. They do all of our social posts for us so that I don’t have to worry about it. It’s really helped the business grow. They are very professional and very easy to work with. I don’t know what I did without them.
Angela Tolbert

Kenneth Robinson
I use SP Marketing for a number of things but I have to mention how useful it’s been having them help with Google Pay per click management. This company is fantastic at what they do. They are on top of everything and they are always so professional. I really don’t know what I would do without them. If you need any kind of digital marketing help this is the first place I would recommend. They put a lot of emphasis on customer care and they have really helped my business grow.
Joseph Qrtiz
We hired SP Marketing to run online and social media ads for our company. I wasn’t really sure what to expect but decided it was worth a shot. The uptick in sales has been wonderful. These guys really know what they’re doing and their ads have brought us so many new customers. I’m so thankful. I highly recommend them.
Cherry Peterson
I just love SP Marketing Experts. I needed some major help with link and citation building and these guys were able to handle everything for me. Their services have been so useful. I can't remember the last time I worked with a company that had such great customer service. If you're looking for any kind of digital marketing help for your company this is the first and only company I would recommend.
Harry Warner
SP Marketing helped us completely redo our website. The old one was such a mess and we needed so much help. The end result was modern, easy to read, and very user friendly. I couldn’t be happier with their services. They did such a great job for us. I would 100% recommend them to anyone who has a business and needs website or marketing help. They do a fantastic job. They really delivered for us.
Angela Tolbert
In order to stay competitive as a business you have to be regularly posting on social media. However, I own a small business and managing my own social media while I’m trying to run a company isn’t really productive. Thankfully, I found SP Marketing. They have been great. They do all of our social posts for us so that I don’t have to worry about it. It’s really helped the business grow. They are very professional and very easy to work with. I don’t know what I did without them.

Statistical Performance Marketing

Statistical Performance Marketing is a full service digital marketing agency and web design firm located in Scottsdale, Arizona.

1-877-347-3376
Monday through Friday, 9:00am - 5:00pm

Statistical Performance Marketing
www.spmarketingexperts.com
9903 E. Bell Rd., Suite #120-B
Scottsdale AZ 85260

Statistical Performance Marketing is a digital marketing agency and web design firm specializing in a variety of online marketing channels. Since our founding in 1999, it has been our goal to help all businesses run more efficiently and effectively online with outreach and remarketing campaigns. Combined, our team of designers, developers, and marketing experts have over 40 years of experience and an ever-growing drive for success.