How to build backlinks for free?

You definitely asking yourself this question as you’re now done with setting up your website and wanting to start giving it some boost in SERPS.

You know what…?

You thought it right as backlinks are ARGUABLY amongst the most important factors Google takes into account for better SERP rankings.

Here’s a Moz chart showing how important backlinks are:

Backlinks have always been, and will remain, one of the best factors for SERP rankings, making them Google’s primary form of “currency.”

According to Andrey Lipattsev, a Google Search Quality Senior Strategist, describing the two most important ranking factors, said:

“It is content. And it is links pointing to your site”.

He mentioned both content and links without specifying which is more important.

But I can say, based upon experience, that they are both TREMENDOUSLY important!

It’s fair to say that you need a linkbuilding strategy if you ever want to achieve any real success with SEO.

The question now is:

How to build  backlinks for free?

Well, there are different ways to go about it and different opinions on which aspects to focus.

In this guide,I’ll be offering my detailed approach on how you can create a linkbuilding strategy from the very beginning and thus, earn valuable backlinks for free.

I am going to highlight the most vital and necessary elements for your SEO surge.

I won’t be, however, able to cover all link-building aspects, but I will provide you with a good starting point to help you build backlinks for free and this, from different reputable sites.

Keep reading…

Steps to How to Build  Backlinks For Free

Start With Compiling a List of Sites

The first thing you’ll have to do in your strategy to build backlinks for free, is to come up with a list of sites you want backlinks from.

This will be for you somewhat of a science as sites vary greatly.

Why?

Simply because websites are not alike in terms of SEO link values.

A link, for example, from a website such as Searchenginejournal, Forbes or New York Times would have an incredibly high link value.

But a link from another low quality website would have the opposite effect on your website and would even result in some Google penalties.

So, which criteria should you take into account for your linkbuilding strategy?

You definitely already know of some good publications, digital resources or blogs that are relevant to your niche.

This would be a great starting point…

If you know for sure that they are very popular and doing really well, you definitely would want to have some free backlinks on them.

Besides that, I SUGGEST you do the following…

Analyze Your Competitors

One of the first techniques you can adopt is spying on your competition to find out what websites they are getting their backlinks from.

SEMrush is one of the best available tools to help you discover a lot of information on your competitors’ backlinks strategy and this within seconds.

SEMrush tool is available in both free and paid versions. If you are of a limited budget, you can start using the free version as it can also provide you with a plenty of helpful data.

Here’s how to proceed…

Start by typing in your competitor’s website URL

I’ll take here as an example “MOZ website“.

After hitting “Start now” button, you’ll get the following data displayed.

Scroll down to the “Backlinks” section.

And click on it:

A list of sites linking to your competitor’s website will be displayed.

You’ll see also some other helpful data such as the anchor text, page score, the specific target URL etc.

Start looking for possible websites that would interest you in terms of getting some backlinks from.

The fact that these websites are linking to some of your competitors, gives you a big chance of getting them linking to your website as well.

By the way, this research has come up with some interesting websites I’ll be targeting personally for some valuable links for my blog.

Search By Keyword

Another technique to come up with some good websites for backlinks is searching by keyword on SEMrush tool.

Begin with typing in a fitting keyword that is applicable to your demographic.

Let’s use, for example, as a keyword “content marketing”.

By clicking on “Search,” button, you’ll get displayed a list of resources.

Scroll down a bit to “Organic Search Results” Section.

This will give you, for sure, some good thoughts.

Take it one step further and click on individual sites.

Let’s take for example that individual blog: Copyblogger

Proceed the same way as we mentioned earlier to know who’s linking to those sites to broaden up you targeted sites for backlinks.

I think that I’ll be adding two more websites to my earlier list to target making it as follows:

The Importance of Domain Diversity

Getting different links from different websites is a good thing when it comes to building your backlinks.

According to a recent research from Backlinko,

The number of your referring domains has a positive impact on SERP rankings. In other words, it’s better to get 10 links from 10 different sites than 10 links from the same domain.

So, don’t limit yourself to only a few websites and go for a link diversity profile.

The point here is that a website with different backlinks from multiple websites will have much more endorsements in Google’s eyes.

And this, will consequently, result in a positive impact on SEO.

It’s NOW time to get down to business and build backlinks for free from as many trustworthy and relevant sites as you can.

“Skyscraper it”

Before you start trying to build backlinks for free, you must ask yourself some important questions like:

Why would others accept linking to your content?

What would motivate them to do that?

Well, the secret is to create a killer content.

A content that will be enriching their readers’ knowledge and adding some added value to them.

At the same time, you’ll have to craft a content that will surpass that of your competition.

I won’t go into details of crafting a content that will outrank your competition, but I will mention the skyscraper technique as a proven way to outperform your competitors.

This should make your life easier with link-worthy content.

Start writing your content like a professional. One of the best ways to do that is using the skyscraper technique.

Keep writing till you get a handful of interesting articles published on your website. They should be covering multiple aspects of your niche, ideally.

Try to come up with something outside the box that others have ignored.

Proceeding that way will help you unlock some big opportunities to seize upon and thus to get your brand to stand out.

This will also makes your content more different and interesting to link to.

For instance, you might start experimenting with videos, slideshows, infographics, etc.

Match Content With Relevant Sites

At this step, you’ll need two important ingredients.

A list of relevant and credible sites you’re interested in and which you’ll be targeting for your link building strategy.

A nice list of link-worthy content created using the skyscraper technique and that is already published on your site.

Now, let’s match each piece of content you have with a suitable site for your link building.

Each piece of content should be in line with the subjects discussed on the targeted site, so that would be a good match.

Contact Site Owners

Now is the outreach step.

Build an email list of those website owners to whom you’ll have to reach out to see if you can convince them to link back to you.

Writing a different email for each and every single website is not practical. Therefore, we recommend using a script to personalize according to the specificity of each website to contact.

The following script would perfectly do the job for you:

This script is to the point, concise and covers all the essentials.

With the help of your link-worthy content, this should help you get the backlinks you are looking for.

Some other additional scripts you can use to acquire more backlinks are offered by this guide from Art of Emails.

Conclusion

You know. Link building is a wide concept.

We have discussed just a few of all the link building techniques that exist to help you build backlinks for free that will help you rank your website.

Now, let me make you a recap.

• Make a list of authoritative and relevant websites that are likely to link to your content.

• Make analyses of your competition and keywords to help you in the process.

• Build up a large and diverse list of websites to reach out for backlinks as diversity in links a good thing in Google’s eyes.

• Create some link worthy content using the skyscraper technique.

• Use the aforementioned script to contact the targeted website owners to convince them to link back to you.

Of course, not all contacted website owners will please you with a free backlink to your website.

But going about the right way with the help of link worthy content will help you convert an important portion of them.

This will make all the difference for your website and be the catalyst for a robust, beefy link profile.

Recommended reading: High Domain Authority Backlinks : How to Get Your First DA 80+ Backlink?

(Featured Image Credit(free) : wallpapercave)

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