If you’re an SEO you’ll appreciate that there are, essentially, THREE things that you need to do to be able to index and rank websites and webpages. They are writing content, getting backlinks, and the on-page (Tech SEO). If you do all three of these things well then you’ll rank high. Period.
In this resource, we will take a look at how to get backlinks that are worthwhile.
Method 1: Reverse Engineer Your Competitors Backlinks
Contents
First, we recommend using professional SEO software like Ahrefs, SurferSEO, SpyGlass, or SEMrush to analyze competitors. You may enter your competitor’s URL and get a detailed report of all backlinks going to their site.
Compile the data, look over each backlink, and ask ourselves: can I – or should I – try and get a backlink from this site? Does the site have a high Domain Authority (DA)?
A high DA link will assist transmit authority from that website to yours. A low-quality, crappy site with a low DA may harm your own rankings so you’d be best off to avoid those types of links.
Is this website relevant to your business? Is there relevance between the site that will link to you? For example, a link from a London umbrella manufacturer to this SEO Hong Kong website would likely hurt our rankings.
If you’re an SEO Agency in Hong Kong then you’ll likely be working with local backlinking which is slightly different – but the principles of relevancy remain the same.
Method 2: Skyscraper Method
This is one of the oldest tactics, that I believe was first coined by Brian Dean at Backlinko.
The Skyscraper Technique examines the quality of existing material around the target term. This is a wonderful chance to generate new material if you think you can improve upon the existing information.
Then, after your beautiful new material is released, contact the people linked to the top 10 results to let them know you’ve changed your content.
Then ask if they may link to your material instead. It’s a win-win situation; you get a backlink and the site’s users get the freshest material.
To gain a backlink, you must move one level above rival material, thus the name ‘skyscraper’. People who used to connect to your rivals now link to you.
Method 3: Find And Recommend Broken Links
Expensive SEO tools are required for this technique. When we find websites broken links that previously linked to your rivals then you can deploy a technique called “Broken Link Building”.
A “broken link” can occur for many reasons:
- This page has just gone!
- The page has completely changed (so not really “broken” just not relevant)
- The page is redirected using a 301
Broken links are more common following major website updates.
This is a wonderful chance to contact the linked website and inform them about the broken connection. Instead, link to your material (if it is relevant and still adds value to their consumers).
Which Links Are Good?
We realize how vital backlinks are to your SEO effort. However, not all backlinks are created equal. Quality always prevails. Backlinks are an essential ranking signal for Google, so keep this in mind.
Here’s a fast guide to sorting your links into the ones worth your attention.
Nom Domain
The more quality backlinks connecting to a website, the better its Domain Rating (DR) or Domain Authority (DA).
A backlink from a high Domain Rating website is powerful. The referring site’s DR should be greater than yours to assist boost your own. We advise you to avoid links from low DR websites since they lack authority and are likely to be of poorer quality.
Relevancy
The referring domain’s content should match your industry, specialty, or theme. Google will only boost your site’s rating if there is an obvious relationship between the two sites. Consistently linking to unrelated sites will likely dilute your SEO efforts.
Follow/Unfollow
When planning a backlink strategy, think about the sort of link you want to build.
One that transmits authority from the referring site to yours. So a meaningful, do-follow link from a high Domain Rating website is worth far more than hundreds of low-quality, spammy connections.
A no-follow link has no web authority, however, Google recently claimed that it can indicate quality or relevance.
A natural balance of no-follow and do-follow links is also critical to consider with your backlinking efforts.