Ace Your Off-Page SEO: The Ultimate Guide To Get Backlinks
Did you know that nearly 91% of all web content does not get a single visitor from Google? An Ahrefs study revealed that a majority of content on the web wasn’t ranking high enough to show on the top 10 results. The same study also highlighted the primary reason behind this–lack of backlinks.
As a matter of fact, more than 65% of these webpages, which had received no visitors, had zero referring domains (website linking to them) and over 25% had only 1-3 referring domains. Needless to say, the study proved that your SEO ranking is directly impacted by backlinking.
Before diving any deeper into the nitty-gritty of getting backlinks, let us explain what backlinking means.
What is Backlinking or Link Building?
You’d often find the terms backlinking or link building used in conversations that revolve around off-page SEO. In simple words, backlinks are the links on other sites that point to your web content. They’re essentially backlinking to you. How a backlink looks, is shown on right side. Accordingly, link-building is the practice of getting more and more backlinks to your webpages.
But the bigger question here is why you should be concerned with other parties linking to your website? How is the quality & the quantity of backlinks checked?
Why Backlinks Matter?
Source: Backlinko
The most popular search engine, Google, uses a tool named PageRank which essentially analyses the quality and quantity of backlinks to rank content. While there are plenty of other algorithms that impact your ranking, PageRank continues to be one of the most impactful ones. As we discussed in our previous article, backlinks are the web’s referral system. The more sites, especially the ones that are considered trustworthy, link to you, the more your credibility is.
Nofollow and Dofollow Links
To understand how backlinks work, it is imperative that you understand the difference between a Nofollow and a Dofollow link. Consider this scenario:
You probably have a Linkedin and a Facebook page for your business. So, you go and post your blog content, your website links on the social media channels. Technically, that means Facebook is linking back to you, right? In that case, that should boost your SEO rankings. However, links from any social media channels don’t impact your rankings. That’s because they’re Nofollow links.
Nofollow links have a “nofollow” tag in their HTML. So, while a third-party site might link to you, due to the tag, PageRank or any other backlink tracking tool would not count it as a backlink. As a result, it would be insignificant to your Off-Page SEO.
On the contrary, Dofollow links let search engines count the link as a backlink and hence improve your rankings. While there’s no harm in getting mentioned on sites, even with Nofollow links, it’s recommended that you focus your efforts more towards getting Dofollow links.
And that brings us to the most important question that’s probably irking you at the moment- how to get these backlinks.
Off-Page SEO Techniques for Link Building
1. Publish “Skyscraper” content
Well, as they say, there’s always a hard-way and a smart way of doing things. When it comes to off-page SEO, the skyscraper technique is the smart way of link building. In this, first of all, you find out relevant content on the internet that matches your brand and has a lot of backlinks. Then, on the same topic/theme, you create content that’s way better in the quality and credibility of the information. Before you know it, you would have smartly attracted their backlinks to your content. However, you’d have to reach out to the website linking to the original content and requesting them to update with your link solely based on the quality of information. It’ll not happen on its own.
A sample email for promoting your Skyscraper content is provided on right side.
Source: Backlinko
Source: Ahrefs
2. Fix broken links
Similar to the skyscraper technique, you can also offer people to update their links pointing to pages that are no longer available. Such links are known as ‘broken links’. No website wants to have broken links on their webpages as that impacts user experience and SEO rankings. As a result, more often than not, if you reach out to someone sharing your web content that can fix their broken link, they are likely to accept your request.
Here’s a sample email you can use for reaching out to such parties on right side.
3. Publish long-form content
As we discussed earlier, websites would link to your content if they find it informative. Now, there’s no denying the fact that you’re more likely to provide more information about a subject in a 3000-word writeup than in a 700-word one. So, publishing long-form content increases your chances of getting a link back.
4. Provide data/content that other websites can use
Just like fixing broken links, websites also often try to make their content is as data-driven and impactful as possible. So, it makes sense to pitch them a data-point or an infographic from your web content that can strengthen their website information.
Here’s a sample email for such backlink outreach:
Source: Backlinko
5. Guest posting and interviews
Sometimes it works to provide information to third-party sources to get backlinks from them. For instance, you can partner with a leading company to have a webinar with your founder with a simple request–they must link to your website wherever they publish the interview. Similarly, you can offer a website that you’d send them an opinion piece or a knowledge-based writeup from a senior person in your company who’s an established expert on a topic. While they’d have all usage rights for the content, you can ask them to link to your website in return.
6. Send out press releases
News websites are one of the most authoritative and high-ranking sites on the internet. So, getting a backlinking from those can impact your off-page SEO massively. Needless to say, the only way to get backlinks from news sites is to become a source of information for them. Your company press-releases become this source of information. Regularly share updates with the journalist community to get backlinks from their media houses.
7. Use branded strategies and techniques
Apart from press releases, you can also use strategies and techniques to get more brand mentions in the digital world. Some of the common ways to do that include influencer marketing, getting features in top listings on platforms, and even by getting more customer testimonials on the web. You need to ensure that there’s a buzz around your brand and the rest would follow.
8. Get listed on authority resource pages
Last but not least, always try to be listed on authority resource pages related to your brand. Resource pages are those webpages that are created to link out to other pages such as online directories. This may be easier to do as most directories have a straightforward process for submitting a link to your website or other web content as a suggestion to be added to their list.
Source: Betapage
Over to You
If you’re beginning your off-page SEO efforts, we really think these techniques can help you get a good head start. Whichever technique you decide to go ahead with, always keep the third-party’s interest in mind. When you reach out to third-parties for link-building, always mention and be clear about what’s in store for them if they give you a backlink. That’s the only way you’d be able to successfully drive link-building for your web content.
