In the simplest of terms, backlinks are links in one website that lead to another website. It doesn’t take a lot to see that backlinks are a major backbone to any successful website. Naturally, search engines use backlinks as a way to gauge the ranking of a website and its usefulness to visitors. 

A piece of content that is being referred to in many websites must mean that the content is exceptional. In the olden days, people maliciously used backlinks to fake the importance of their websites, which was a practice that search engines have firmly stopped with an iron-grip, leaving only natural and legit backlinks as the indicator of a website’s importance to visitors. In an effort to unwrap the secret behind backlinks, we’ll be providing you with a brief yet informative guide that should help you use backlinks properly.

Knowing What to Look for

When you are looking for sites that you’d like to have your link mentioned by them, you need to understand what exactly they are looking for. The last thing you want to do is send out random requests of half-baked alternative links to the resources they are using. This is why there are a lot of websites with great content that aren’t getting a good amount of backlinks. It depends on who they are pitching and how good their pitch is. This is one of the dynamics that need to be nailed before you’re able to confidently build backlinks. You have to inform the site owner of the benefits they can get by linking to your website. You don’t have to falsely spin a narrative, but you need to put things in the right perspective. Whether it is the relevancy, attention to detail, articulate presentation, or anything that makes the link legitimate in the eyes of readers, you need to mention it.

Creating SEO Power Pages

Power page is a term used to refer to a page on your website with great content. The type of content that’s displayed on there is one that attracts engagement and shares from your target audience. Power pages are mentioned in the article The 3 Step SEO Backlink Strategy That Works Like Magic as a great way to get Google to recognize your website as a website worthy of a good ranking. You need to keep in mind that the content you create is not just supposed to be helpful and well-written, but also in-depth and takes the time to venture deep into the topic it mentions. You need the article to be at least 2,000 words or more. Instead of writing a lot of short articles every week, focus on creating long pieces that are amazing every once in a while.

Relevant Content

If you’re looking to build proper backlinks, relevancy is not optional. The content you create must be very relevant to the websites you want to link to you. After all, why would a popular and reputable website link their visitors to irrelevant content? Before you write a single word, put yourself in the website owner’s shoes, and see what kind of content you’d be interested in if you were the one linking to other websites. The linked content needs to complement the main content that links to it, and even better, it can fortify the argument that the original piece of content is trying to make. To be able to be credible, you need to make sure that your sources are fool-proof. Making your content not only relevant but also solid in an argument is a pretty good way to get your name out there. If you stay on the path of solidifying your resources, you might find yourself an authoritative resource in no time.

Hunting for Missing Backlinks

If you happen to have a lot of backlinks on your website, it may be time that you do a routine check to see if they are faring well. A few backlinks may not be that hard to track, but when you have dozens on your hand, it can be a pretty troublesome venture. You won’t be able to monitor your backlinks manually, i.e. by visiting and browsing the links, which leaves you with one practical solution, to use a tool. Fortunately, there is no shortage of services and tools that you can use to monitor the health of your backlinks, which means that you can check whether they are updated and still relevant. Your first priority should be hunting down missing backlinks because they can damage you the most. Your content should never refer to a broke website because that not only makes it not credible in the eyes of the readers, it can affect your search engine ranking as well. There is nothing wrong with coupling your search for broken or missing backlinks with a quick reevaluation of whether that backlink is still a credible resource that you should use for your website or not.

Using Infographics

Infographics are a relatively new trend that has been making splashes across the digital marketing pond. They are often used to breakdown complex information into bite-sized, understandable pieces of information. The demand for infographics has increased in the last few years as designs have progressed as well. If you’re going to link to an infographic, you might want to consider spending some time researching it well. Look for ones that your audience would be interested in seeing their presentation, for example, trending topics. You can always create your own infographic and either use them or offer them to other websites.

Guest Blogging

If you’re still starting out and you don’t have enough traffic to get some traction going, guest blogging can be your best way out. Guest blogging means publishing content on other websites. You can get a lot of exposure by managing to post on a well-established website. Naturally, this requires you to create superb pieces of content to be able to get them on popular websites. 

Guest blogging can be seen as a form of networking, where you widen the digital circles you’re in and get an audience who are interested in content that is relevant to the ones they read on their favorite website. There is no shortage of blogs and publishing websites that accept contributions from guest bloggers, but make sure you find the one most relevant to your website’s tone.

Building backlinks can be a lengthy process, where you may meet a lot of obstacles at first, but it’s not an impossible feat, provided you give it your best. As you begin to learn the best practices of building backlinks, you will be able to develop your own strategy to create the branding that you have in mind.