Legit Ways to Earn Backlinks to Your Site

Backlinks are one of the significant ranking factors for Google. Backlinks are links that land on your website from other websites. Getting more backlinks can help you in gathering organic traffic to your website.
It’s believed that the more the number of referring quality domains, the more the chances of getting a rank on top.
It is imperative to mention that earning backlinks is one of the most challenging SEO business tasks. However, it is crucial to earning backlinks in legitimate ways for your website. In this article, let's learn how you can earn backlinks to your website and the different legit ways of doing it.

What is a Backlink

A backlink is also known as the incoming link or an inbound link. It is a link created when two websites are linked to each other. Of the two websites linking each other, one of them is yours.
Backlinks are one of the top-ranking factors in Google and hence is an important SEO factor.
Having backlinks from authoritative websites can bring organic traffic to your website. You must be aware that website traffic is directly related to your website's backlink quality. Hence it is essential to get backlinks from various authoritative websites. They represent a vote of confidence and a sign of credibility to search engines. The more authentic backlinks you have, the higher your website's ranking will be.

How Can You Earn Backlinks

In SEO, you need to focus on two important things; onsite SEO and offsite SEO. Backlinks are an essential part of offsite SEO. Earning backlinks is also known as link building. Some backlinks are more valuable in terms of credibility.
A backlink will add value to your website, but the value will differ based on the website it is linking from. When getting a backlink from an external site, certain factors can impact your website's search rankings. Factors like the page authority, search engine accessibility, content, etc., of the site can affect your page rankings.
Receiving endorsement in the form of backlinks is one of the most challenging tasks. It is especially true for startup companies and other small business owners.
To boost your business's SEO performance, the best you can do is consistently focus on earning backlinks for your business. You have to be quicker than your rival business owners to gain an edge.

Importance of Backlinks for Your Website's SEO

Backlinks can add credibility to your website. They tell Google that your website content is valuable enough to rank on the search engine pages.
Link building is one of the most common strategies for enhancing your business's SEO score. It will also help you improve your business's visibility on the search engine pages.
Backlinks are also critical bridging elements that link two websites and help each other grow together. When you receive backlinks from similar brands, it proves your brand's credibility to the users. It is a great way to get your website compared with similar brands. Backlinks also help users get the most information about a single query from various resources.

Different Ways to Earn Backlinks for Your Website

There are three primary types of backlinks you can earn for your website. They are:

• Organic or natural links
• Manual links
• Self-created links

How to Earn Natural Links

Building natural links is the process of earning links without generating them on your own. There are several ways in which you can make natural links. Some of them are: by guest posting on different websites, by buying links, and also by reaching out to other relevant websites.
Typically, links are presented with colored texts to show their importance.
Note: Buying or selling links is against Google guidelines. At Haitna, we only follow ethical link building.
In other words, the external website owner would play no role in giving your website a link back. For example, if your website sells sports gear, any external website that deals with sports-related will link back to your website.
The best way to gain natural links is to update your website with high-quality content consistently. The external website owner will not be able to resist linking back to your website. And your website will go up in the search engine page rankings with the backlinks received.

How to Earn Manual Links

You can earn manual links with the help of these link-building tasks. You can request a manual link from any external website. For instance, you can request a backlink from a sports website if your website sells sports gear. Or connect to prospect site’s content or marketing team through social media to gain links.
Guest blogging is another strategic way of earning manual links naturally and organically.
There are specific SEO techniques that can help with the manual link-building process. For instance, you can opt for commenting in relevant forums and blogs. But you have to keep in mind while commenting that the comments must be appropriate, and the content of your comment should be of good quality.
Commenting with keyword-rich content with low-quality links can hamper your website's ranking to a great extent.

How Self-created Links can Help in Boosting the SEO of Your Website

SEO services involve many strategies to make search engines work for a website. Self-creating links are one such strategy.
Some websites pull well-drafted articles, create short snippets and publish them on their site.
These are non-editorial links that artificially manufacture SEO value for your website. Google, however, does not consider such links as valid.
Using self-created links for your website is certainly not encouraged by Google and most SEO service agencies. It would be best if you instead focused your energy and strategy on other link-building styles.

Factors You Should Consider While Earning Backlinks

Although backlinks add to the SEO factor of your website's ranking, not all backlinks are desirable for your website. The site owner who gives you the backlink might specify whether your website will receive a nofollow link or pass the link equity.
For example, a nofollow link does not pass the link equity. But having a nofollow link from a high-quality website can still give your website a specific edge in terms of brand value.
Technically, you can easily understand the difference between nofollow and dofollow.

1. Authority of the External Domain is Also Equally Important

Getting backlinks from low-quality or spam websites will not add any value to your website. Focus on getting links from high-quality sites in your niche and avoid targeting PBN sites (high numbers out there).
Always look for high-quality websites when seeking backlinks for your website.

2. Relevancy of the Link Matters

If you earn a link that is not relevant to your website, Google will know it. For instance, if you get a backlink from a coffee shop and own a sports equipment shop, the backlink is exceptionally irrelevant. It will not offer you the same value as the relevant links. For example, a link from a software site is pointing to a lifestyle site. Search engines give less value to such links.

3. Link Location is Vital Too

The website's link position is also vital for Google to give your website a proper ranking. The architecture of the website is crucial for ranking. If you want to gain credibility from a backlink, ensure the tour website link on the top or middle of the page on an external website. Placement of the link at the external website's footer will not add much value to your website. It's because sometimes, users might not read up to the bottom line and bounce. In such cases, you’re missing out on potential users or clients.

4. Pay Attention to Keywords in Anchor Text

The relevant keywords should link to the website for a backlink. The anchor text should be keyword rich and underlined to add emphasis. As per SEO best practices, hyperlinking to keywords increases the chances of ranking a website higher on SERPs.
Relevant, concise, and non-generic anchor text is always preferable by Google. Anchor text like "why backlinks are important?" is preferable to the generic text like "click here to know more."

Ways to Get High-quality Backlinks for Your Website

There are hundreds of ways to earn backlinks for your website. And several websites are waiting to give you backlinks for your website. But the problem is that not all websites are worth getting the backlinks from. So, you need to search for authority websites that are willing to give you backlinks for your website.
Generating backlinks can be a lot of hard work. But here are some methods in which you can earn backlinks:

1. Earn Contextual Backlinks

The links embedded under an anchor text line within a post are known as contextual links. Google considers the contextual links more significant than the other types of backlinks. If you can feature your web page in the "Read More" sections of different external websites, they can provide you with incredible value.
How to go about it? Search Google for the relevant websites to your business and check whether those have a "Read More" section in them. If they do, you need to approach those websites' webmasters and pitch for your website. It would help if you mentioned why your webpage is worth getting featured on their website.
When you have data to back up your claim, they will indeed consider featuring your website on their sites. It is an excellent way to earn authentic backlinks. Always focus on relationship backlinks instead of link exchanges.
A relationship backlink is the one that is acquired with genuine efforts along with relevant keywords and a credible website.

2. Use Internal Backlinks

Internal links are how the search engine crawlers interact with your website pages. The crawlers then update the search engine pages index when your website's content is relevant to the query generated by a user.
Internal links can also help your website in providing a great user experience. With the help of internal links, a user can navigate from one page to another within your website and find relevant content.
This aspect is a great SEO tactic since it allows you to retain visitors to your website. The internal backlink will give your website SEO a considerable boost. And, since it will help you enhance your website's overall user experience, search engines will rank you higher as well.
However, you also need to be careful about not overloading your website with internal links. The ideal thumb rule is to keep the number of backlinks to less than fifty on a single page.

3. Comments on Forums and Blogs

You need to look for forums that discuss your niche product and services. Find blogs that have relevant content that is similar to your website. Start following these forums and blogs. Start commenting on these forums and blogs with meaningful content/replies to build backlinks for your website.
Many websites invite their readers to add their opinions and stories underneath their blogs and articles. Do not miss these opportunities. If you spot any misinformation or if you find anything missing, you can add your comment with your opinion or suggestion, or knowledge.
These links add great value when you have put on highly relevant websites.
At times, you might also spot some readers looking for some specific answers that are not available on external blogs or forums. Take this opportunity to answer these queries and put a link back to your website.

4. Do Guest Posting

When you seek guest posting opportunities, it can sound like you are trying to help another website build its content. But in reality, it is also a way of helping yourself.
There are numerous ways to find the guest posting opportunities, such as the image’s keywords.
A guest post on an external relevant website will give you credibility for the content and help you with a backlink. It will also help the external website in generating more views for themselves.
Guest posting offers you an opportunity to increase your visibility online and make a name for yourself. It is a great way to build your brand and enhance your reputation.
It can take a lot of time to seek guest posting opportunities on different websites. You should keep an eye out looking for relevant opportunities. One way of searching for such opportunities is to just type "your niche product/service" + guest post on Google.

5. Use Broken Links to Get Backlinks

Often you will find that the old or the blank pages of a website come up with a 404 error. When a site goes down completely, the existing backlinks usually show up with the 404 error. These are known as broken links. Of course, it is imperative to say that the broken links spell bad news for the SEO of your website.
If you find broken links on an external website, take the opportunity to get in touch with the website owner. Find the prospect websites in your niche and check for the broken links.
Mention to them the broken link with the exact anchor text and the webpage detail. In the process, you can mention to them that their website has relevant content for replacing the broken link. Most of the time, the external website's site owner will be more than happy to offer you a backlink on their broken webpage.

6. Add Testimonials to Other Websites

Who wouldn't want to show off to the world how good a website is? Most companies do, and you should do the same too.
Start writing reviews for the companies you have used products or services. Most websites that showcase their testimonials have an option to provide feedback. Every time you post feedback on these sites, they will automatically provide you with a backlink simply because they would like to prove that you are a real person. When they use your feedback on their home page, your website will also get a link back in the process.These links bring great value to websites and send strong signals to search engines.

7. Give Interviews to Social Media Influencers

Almost all the websites run interviews with industry experts regardless of their niche. You should also attempt to get interviewed by such social media influencing websites.
If your business is a startup and not very well known in the market, you can always pitch to the interviewing websites. Do let them know why they should feature your interview on their webpage. You will also get a good quality backlink for your website along with the interview.

Relevant : Influencer Marketing for Ecommerce

8. Reclaim Links from Local Websites

If your product or service is popular in your locality, your business might get mentioned by other local websites.
Often you would notice that some local website has mentioned your business because they have liked what they saw on your website. You can determine if your business gets a mention on an external website via a content alert tool such as BuzzSumo.
Or you can use Brand Mentions which sends you daily and weekly updates about the mentions that your brand is getting online.
If you see your business mentioned, you can always request a link back from that external website. Do not forget to tell the external website owner a thank you for mentioning your business on their website.

9. Use the Services of Website Feedback Sites

There are several feedback websites available freely on Google. Websites like goodfirms, Muckrack, Feedspot let you create business profiles and post your content with links pointing to your main pages.
You can improve your users' experience on your website via such feedback sites. It is also a great way to add backlinks to your website too.
The only effort you need to put in is creating an account in these feedback sites and submitting your site for review. Don't forget to add short descriptions and suggestions for improvement. When these websites publish your review request, they will automatically add a backlink to your website too.

10. Create High-quality Content

Unless the quality of the content on your website is of high grade, other methods of earning backlinks will not work well.
For instance, unless the content is excellent, the broken link method will not work. Having high-quality content on your website can enhance visitors' numbers. Other sites and bloggers will also refer to your website on their pages.
In other words, your website's credibility will enhance manifold if you have good quality content. Always focus on unique content with unique value. You can only add value to your content when it contains useful information. It will also enhance the experience of your visitors and users.
In the recent past, it’s considered that using the Skyscraper technique in a website brings not only large traffic but also a good number of links.

11. Make Use of the Power of Social Media

The world is now running on social media platforms. Social media can make or break your business almost overnight. Make use of this outstanding power of social media.
Various social media platforms are also a great place to earn backlinks for your website. Promote your website's content on social media platforms to generate organic backlinks. Update your social media pages regularly with new posts and content.
Start earning followers on your social media pages and request them to share your posts with their network. It will help you promote your business and generate more backlinks for your business.

12. Keep a Close Watch on Your Competitors' Websites

Apart from generating links for your website on various forums and social media platforms, keep a close watch on the website of your rivals.
Why should you do this?
The answer is to simply check the quality of their content and whether they have good ranks on the search engine pages.
Follow your business rivals' social media handles too. Usually, they will share their updated and relevant content on these platforms. It will also give you a clear idea about which people and companies follow the rival company and how you can reach out to them.
There are specific SEO Tools like Monitor Backlinks that can give you a clear insight into various smart techniques to spy on your rivals. It helps you keep a tab on your top competitors in the market.
Use such tools to check how your competitors are earning their backlinks. You will also gain knowledge about where you can seek guest posting opportunities and where you can seek reviews for your business.

13. Pitch Your Website

The most convenient way to earn backlinks is to ask other website owners directly. But such a direct request might not always work with the different website owners.
If direct requesting does not work, you can make a sales pitch. Keep the email for the sales pitch polite and short. Remember, most website owners receive thousands of emails requesting backlinks every day.
Unless your request stands out with its pitch, your email can land into the spam inbox too. Use polite and precise language to request a link and offer them useful content in return. Use an attractive subject line and add as many details about your website in the email as possible.

14. Conduct Online PR for Your Website

Use online PR techniques to enhance the reach of your brand. It will also earn you backlinks for your website.
The easiest and most straightforward way to start with online PR campaigns is to start blogging. You can also write press releases for your website.
Press releases can also improve your search engine page rankings significantly. If your press release can gain attention from top media houses and media experts, you can earn hundreds of backlinks. There are hundreds of magazines willing to publish Press Releases, so sending PRs often builds you several quality links.
It is a great way to earn backlinks within a short period from different authoritative sites.

15. Create Content that will Benefit Your Users

In other words, create a free repository for your users where they can find useful information. Once the bloggers and users can tap your content's usefulness, they will automatically give backlinks to your website. They will share your website link on their web pages, blogs, and social media platforms. It is needless to mention that such an action will earn hundreds of backlinks for your website.

Relevant : Importance of Blogging & How it Benefits Your Small Business SEO?

How can you create such a repository? The simple way to go about the task is to compile information from Google and add your unique style to the article. If you add links from other websites, please contact them to know that you have given them links on your website. They will most of the time return the favor to you without you even requesting it.

16. Catch Your Users' Attention with Infographics on Your Website

Harness the power of visual marketing with infographics on your website. Create and also promote content that is loaded with relevant infographics. It will work well when you add reliable data on those infographics and get them designed professionally.
It is a well-known fact that you usually understand concepts better when you can visualize them. Thus, when you present complicated ideas and data in the form of infographics to your users, they will better understand what you are trying to say. It is the reason why social media platforms are so popular.
They use ample infographic content on their pages to attract users. Having content with infographics will help you attract more visitors to your website. It will also earn backlinks for you from various other websites that use your infographics.

17. Create Visual Marketing on Your Website

Make use of useful data charts and tables on your website. It will give your website a unique blend of content and designs and increase the visual marketing quotient.
Data charts and tables are an effective way of communicating with your users. Using graphs and tables ensures that your website is data-driven. When you have a website with data-driven content, the external website and marketers will link back to your website for reference. This action will fetch organic backlinks for your website without you having to even ask for them.

18. Use the Services of HARO (HARO - Help a Reporter Out)

HARO or "Help A Reporter Out" is a free service where you can subscribe yourself or your business as a source. It is a free resource that connects sources with bloggers and websites looking for contributors for their articles and blogs.
The HARO team will send you queries from different writers in your business realm every day. You can pick and choose the ones that resonate well with your business. Get in touch with those bloggers, and you can seek backlinks for your business.

19. Conduct and Publish Original Research Data on Your Website

One of the best ways to garner several backlinks is by creating original research-based content. Get the content published on your website and just see how many organic backlinks you earn.
You can use business data or conduct surveys and even case studies to create a useful content framework. Most other external websites will link your website for authentic information if you have researched data. It will give your website lots of organic backlinks for free.

20. Always Update Your Old Content with Trending, Relevant Topics

Old is gold. It always holds, no matter what business is. Do not delete your old content from the website. Instead, update it with relevant new points and data. It will benefit your website in more ways than one. It will help you gain quick backlinks within a short period, especially if news and media sites pick up your content from Google.

Conclusion

The entire process of gathering backlinks can be time-consuming for sure. Especially if you are a small business owner or a startup entrepreneur, the initial days could be difficult.
However, be assured that earning backlinks with the above-mentioned smart techniques can be worth the effort you put in.
There are several other ways of earning backlinks for your website. Explore as many techniques as you can and put them to use. Just make sure that the links received for your website are of good quality, and do stay away from spam websites. Eventually, you will see the desired results on the search engine result pages within a short few months.
Get in touch with us to know how we can help you earn organic backlinks for your website.