A backlink is one of the most important aspects of SEO. It helps you build a solid online presence and increase your website’s authority. As SEO professionals, we know the value of a strong backlink profile for our clients. You must be creative and develop unique strategies (i.e., Creative link building) to set yourself apart from your competitors to get the best results.
In this blog post, we will discuss creative link building strategies that very few SEO professionals use. You can use it to improve your SEO efforts. We will also answer common questions about link building and provide final thoughts on this essential SEO tactic.
So, let’s get started by defining, link-building,
What Is Link Building?
Link building is acquiring backlinks from other websites to your own. These links help search engines understand the relevance and authority of your website, leading to improved search engine rankings.
Six Qualities Make A Good Backlink
- Relevance – The website linking to yours should be related to your industry or niche. As Google mentioned in their search engine guidelines, links should be natural, not artificial or manipulated.
- Authority – The website is linking to yours should have high domain authority, as determined by tools such as Moz’s Domain Authority score. The higher the DA, the more authoritative and valuable the link.
- Trust – The website linking to yours should be a trusted source with a clean backlink profile, as determined by tools such as Majestic’s Trust Flow score.
- Diversity – Your backlink profile should have links from various sources, including websites, directories, and social media platforms.
- Anchor text – This is the clickable text in a link that indicates the topic of the linked-to webpage. It should be varied and include your target keywords. Using the exact anchor text repeatedly can be seen as manipulative to search engines.
- Freshness – Links should be constantly acquired over time, rather than all at once, for natural link building. Google’s algorithm values links that are recently acquired over older ones.
Now that we have established what makes a quality backlink let’s discuss creative ways to acquire them.
Six Creative Link Building Strategies
Industry Statistics
Industry statistics can be a great way to acquire backlinks. It can be time-consuming to gather and analyze data, but the payoff can be worth it. Create a compelling infographic or data-based blog post and reach out to industry websites or journalists for coverage. They may link back to your website as a source of their information.
Remember, audiences love data-driven content and are likely to share it on social media, leading to additional backlinks.
Quiz Creation
The audience wants fun and interactive content, and a quiz can provide just that. Quizzes are highly shareable content that can also attract backlinks. You can also leverage the quiz to collect email addresses for your mailing list.
Pr mote your quiz to websites in your industry or niche to acquire backlinks. They may be interested in sharing the quiz with their audience, creating a quiz related to your industry, or even collaborating with you on a quiz.
Skyscraper Technique
The skyscraper technique involves finding content in your industry that is performing well and creating something even better. You can use a few tools to find popular content, such as Buzzsumo and Ahrefs.
Once you have found a highly-performing piece of content, brainstorm ways to improve it, maybe add more data or updated information. Once you create the improved content, reach out to websites linking to the original content and let them know about your resource. They may be interested in replacing their link with yours, as it provides more value to their audience.
Interview Or Be Interviewed
Interviews are a great way to get backlinks, whether you are doing the interviewing or being interviewed. If you interview an expert or thought leader in your industry, websites may be interested in linking to the interview as a valuable resource for their audience.
Alternatively, being interviewed on another website can bring attention and links to your website. Reach out to industry websites or publications for interview opportunities, and make sure to include a link to your website in the bio or conclusion of the interview.
B2B Partnerships
Partnering with another business can lead to backlinks in a few ways. Your partner may link to your website independently, or you can collaborate on a joint project or resource. This could be a co-branded ebook, webinar, or infographic with links to both websites.
Always choose the right fit for a partnership and ensure that the partnership aligns with your brand values.
Social Media
It can be easy to overlook the power of social media in link building. Social media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn offer opportunities to share your content and acquire backlinks. Share your blog posts, infographics, and other valuable content to attract links from a wider audience.
Don’t forget to optimize your social media profiles by including a link to your website in the bio section. Additionally, participate in relevant LinkedIn groups, and Twitter chats to share your content and potentially attract backlinks.
Google’s Comment On Creative Link Building
While these creative strategies can help acquire backlinks, it’s important to remember Google’s link-building stance. In their words, “Any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site’s ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.”
It’s important to create valuable and high-quality content that attracts natural backlinks. Creative link building strategies can attract these natural and valuable links. Avoid participating in link schemes or buying backlinks, as this could result in a penalty from Google. Google might penalize your website either by Manual Action or by its algorithmic penalty. So, be aware of these penalties.
As always, track your link-building efforts using a tool like Google Analytics to see what strategies are working for you and adjust your tactics accordingly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Can I Pay For Backlinks?
Paying for backlinks is against Google’s guidelines and can lead to penalties for your website. Buying links can be considered a quick fix and may not provide long-term benefits for your website. It is better to focus on creating valuable, high-quality content to attract natural backlinks.
Q. How Do I Know If A Backlink Is A High Quality?
A high-quality backlink will come from a reputable and relevant website. It is a good idea to check a website’s domain authority and spam score before acquiring a backlink. It should also be a dofollow link, which can pass on ranking power to your website.
Q. How Do I Track My Backlinks?
There are a variety of tools, such as Ahrefs and SEMrush, that can help you track your backlinks. These tools can also provide information on the quality of your backlinks and opportunities for acquiring new ones.
Final Thoughts
Now you know the basics of link building and some creative strategies to acquire backlinks. Remember, the goal is to create valuable content that attracts natural backlinks from reputable websites. And networking within your industry can lead to long-term success in link-building.
If you have questions about creative link building, feel free to comment in the comment section. We will be happy to answer you.
Thanks for reading 🙂
