How To Get Backlinks: 19 Proven Strategies for 2024

In 2024, effectively acquiring backlinks remains crucial for achieving top rankings on search engine results pages. A robust portfolio of high-quality backlinks enhances your website's rankings, visibility, and traffic.

This blog post explores the role of backlinks in SEO and offers 19 practical, ethical strategies to build a solid backlink profile and grow your website.

The Importance of Backlinks for SEO

High-quality backlinks come from relevant, authoritative websites, which testify to your content's value and trustworthiness. Think of backlinks as trust votes from these websites. The greater the number of high-quality backlinks in your content, the better your website looks to search engines, leading to:

• Higher Search Engine Rankings: Search engines use backlinks as a critical factor to determine how relevant and valuable your website is to a specific search query. The more relevant and authoritative backlinks you have, the higher your website is likely to rank in search results pages.
• Increased Website Traffic: Higher website rankings lead to more organic traffic, as users are likelier to click on websites at the top of search results.
• Improved Brand Reputation: Backlinks from trusted websites can enhance your brand's credibility and establish you as an authority in your niche.

What Makes a Backlink High-Quality?

High-quality backlinks guide visitors to a website using targeted keywords. However, the term "high quality" encompasses much more in SEO terminology. To assess the validity of a backlink, Google considers several detailed factors, including:

• Link Patterns: Google's algorithm distinguishes natural link patterns from manipulative ones. Links from relevant, high-quality sites with pertinent keywords indicate a healthy link pattern. For example, a custom home builder should receive links from real estate blogs and home-related content rather than unrelated sites. 
• Link Relevance and Authority: The relevancy of a link and the age of a domain contribute to its authority. Ensure your backlinks are both relevant and from seasoned domains to build trust and reliability. Quality trumps quantity—aim for authoritative links to improve SEO.
• Age of Domain: Older domains can elevate a backlink's quality due to their established trustworthiness. While younger links are valuable, older sites with consistent history are more credible in Google's eyes.

19 Proven Link-Building Strategies for High-Quality Backlinks

Building a strong backlink profile requires a strategic and ongoing effort. Here are 19 proven strategies to enhance your website's authority and drive organic traffic.

1. Content Creation and Promotion

Creating and promoting content is the foundation of most link-building strategies. When you create high-quality, relevant, and engaging content, you provide value to your audience, which helps attract backlinks. Effectively promoting your content ensures it reaches the right people, increasing the chances of being shared and linked to by other reputable sites.

Tips:

• Produce valuable, high-quality content that addresses the needs and interests of your target audience. This can include comprehensive guides, industry reports, case studies, and informative blog posts. Promote your content through social media, email marketing, and other channels to gain visibility.
• Diversify your content formats to attract more backlinks. Use podcasts, webinars, and interactive tools. This variety caters to different audiences and increases the chances of your content achieving virality across multiple platforms.
• Enhance your content's SEO and user engagement by strategically embedding internal links. This guides visitors through your site, improves the visibility of deeper pages, and increases the potential for external backlinks. Ensure links are contextually relevant to enhance user experience. Consider using LinkScout, an automated internal linking tool with advanced AI, to streamline and optimize this process.

2. Guest Posting

Guest posting is a great way to build backlinks and boost your brand's visibility. By writing helpful content for reputable websites in your industry, you can show your expertise and reach a larger audience, which can drive traffic and help you build relationships with key figures in your niche. Overall, it improves your SEO and online reputation.

Tips:

• Write and publish articles on reputable sites within your industry. This not only positions you as an authority but also allows you to gain backlinks from these platforms back to your own website.
• Make sure you customize each article for the specific site audience you're contributing to. Understand preferences, challenges, and expectations to tailor your content to connect with the readers of the guest site and increase the chances of your article being accepted and appreciated.

3. Broken Link Building

Broken link building is a strategic approach to acquiring backlinks. It involves identifying and offering replacements for broken links on relevant websites.

Tips:

• Identify broken links on relevant websites and offer your own content as a replacement. This strategy benefits both parties, as you provide value by fixing a broken link, and in return, you get a backlink.
• Before offering a replacement, understand the context of the broken link. What type of content was it? What purpose did it serve on the page? Doing this will help you craft a more relevant replacement.
• Don't just offer any piece of content as a replacement. Ensure your content is high-quality, informative, and even better than the original broken link.

4. Creating Infographics and Visual Content

Using infographics and other visual content is a powerful way to get noticed. People naturally draw to engaging visuals; high-quality visual content is more likely to be shared and embedded on other websites, translating to valuable backlinks for your website.

Tips:

• Develop engaging infographics, charts, and other visual content that others will want to share. Visual content often gets linked back to as a source, providing you with quality backlinks.
• Create visually appealing infographics that tell a story backed by data and research. Use relevant statistics, industry trends, or exciting survey results to provide valuable insights.

5. Utilizing Resource Pages

Resource pages are great for getting backlinks. These pages collect valuable links related to a specific topic. If your site gets listed on a top-notch resource page, you reach a focused audience and get a valuable backlink.

Tips:

• Find websites that list resources in your niche and reach out to them to include your site. These pages are often looking for great content to link to, making them a valuable target for acquiring backlinks.
• Don't settle for just any resource page. Prioritize pages with a good reputation, established traffic, and a focus on relevant content that aligns with your niche. Tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush can help assess website traffic and domain authority.

6. Participating in Industry Forums and Comment Sections

Engaging with others in online forums and comment sections offers an excellent opportunity to build connections, show your knowledge, and get backlinks. By sharing valuable insights, you can become a thought leader in your field.

Tips:

• Engage with your community by participating in relevant forums and comment sections. By providing insightful comments and advice, you can include a link back to your website when relevant.
• Don't just jump in and promote yourself. Review discussions, understand the community norms, and provide genuine value through your comments. Offer helpful advice, share relevant insights, and participate in constructive conversations.

7. Link Reclamation

Link reclamation involves identifying instances where your brand, products, or services are mentioned online without a corresponding backlink to your website - an excellent opportunity to reclaim what's yours and secure valuable backlinks.

Tips:

• Monitor mentions of your brand, products, or services on other websites. If they mention you without linking back, reach out and kindly ask them to add a link to your site.
• Use tools like Google Alerts to monitor online mentions of your brand name, product names, or registered trademarks, helping identify websites mentioning your brand without linking back.
• Send a courteous email to the site owner highlighting the unlinked brand mention. Briefly explain your website and how a backlink would provide context and value to its readers.

8. Collaborating with Influencers

Partnering with influencers in your industry can be a powerful strategy for acquiring high-quality backlinks and boosting your brand visibility. Influencers have established audiences and credibility within your niche, making their endorsement highly valuable.

Tips:

• Partner with influencers or industry leaders for interviews, co-authored content, or webinars. These collaborations often lead to backlinks from the influencer's website or social media profiles.
• When working together on content, include a natural backlink. If you're guest blogging, agree to add a link back to a relevant page on your website. For co-authored content or webinars, mention both websites with links in the description and promotional materials.

9. Leveraging Social Media

Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn are powerful tools for content promotion and brand awareness, even though social media links are typically nofollow (meaning they don't directly pass link juice to your website).

Tips:

• Share your content on social media platforms and engage with your audience. While social media links are typically no-follow, they can lead to increased exposure and indirect links from other websites.
• Hosting contests and giveaways with exciting prizes can incentivize social media engagement and content sharing. Encourage participants to share your content or follow your page to enter, potentially increasing website traffic and brand awareness.

10. Conducting Original Research or Surveys

Publishing original research, studies, or surveys relevant to your industry can be a game-changer for link-building. Untapped insights are valuable assets that other websites often reference, leading to backlinks to your original research.

Tips:

• Publish original research, studies, or surveys relevant to your industry. Exclusive data and insights are highly linkable assets, as other sites may reference your findings in their content.
• Look for gaps in existing industry research or areas where data is limited. Conduct keyword research to identify trending topics and user queries you can address through original research.

11. Writing Testimonials

While writing testimonials doesn't directly generate backlinks to your website, it can be a valuable strategy for building trust and brand awareness, potentially leading to indirect backlinks in the future.

Tips:

• Focus on businesses offering products or services you genuinely use and value. Contact relevant companies and offer to write a testimonial based on your positive experience. Partnering with well-respected companies within your niche strengthens the credibility of your testimonial.
• Don't just write generic statements. Highlight specific features or benefits you've experienced. Quantify your results whenever possible to showcase the positive impact.

12. Submitting to Web Directories

Web directories were once a popular link-building strategy. However, with the rise of search engine algorithms prioritizing quality over quantity, there may be more effective uses of your time than submitting your website to every web directory.

Tips:

• Save time submitting to hundreds of directories. Focus on a targeted list of high-quality directories within your niche.
• Prioritize industry-specific directories that are relevant to your website's niche. Utilize online resources and directory review websites to identify reputable directories.

13. Skyscraper Technique

The skyscraper technique is a link-building strategy that involves identifying high-performing content in your niche, creating something even better, and reaching out to websites that link to the original content.

Tips:

• Use SEO tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to identify content that ranks well and attracts backlinks within your niche.
• Carefully analyze the top-ranking content. Identify its strengths and weaknesses. Brainstorm ways to create more comprehensive, informative, and engaging content on the same topic.

14. Creating Linkable Assets

Linkable assets are valuable resources that naturally attract backlinks due to their informative, insightful, or visually compelling nature. Creating these assets provides website owners with content they'd love to link to, ultimately boosting your website's SEO performance.

Tips:

• Consider what content would be precious to your target audience and other websites in your niche. Ensure it's well-written, informative, and visually appealing, with high-resolution visuals, infographics, and clear formatting to enhance readability and shareability. 
• Optimize your linkable assets for search engines with relevant keywords and meta descriptions. Promote your content on social media and appropriate online communities to increase visibility.

15. Participating in Interviews and Podcasts

Interviews and podcasts offer a fantastic opportunity to share your expertise with a broader audience and potentially acquire backlinks to your website.

Tips:

• Look for podcasts or interview opportunities within your niche that cater to your target audience. Research podcast directories or reach out to industry blogs that host interview sessions.
• Craft a compelling pitch highlighting your expertise and the value you can bring to the podcast audience. Briefly mention your website and how your insights could benefit their listeners.

16. Developing an Affiliate Program

An affiliate program allows you to partner with other websites to promote your products or services. In return, these affiliates earn a commission for every sale generated through their unique referral link.

Tips:

• Focus on partnering with websites that resonate with your target audience and offer relevant content. High-quality affiliates are likelier to promote your products effectively and generate qualified traffic.
• A competitive commission incentivizes affiliates to promote your products. Research industry standards and offer commission rates that motivate affiliates to drive your sales and website traffic.
• Equip your affiliates with the tools and resources they need to succeed, including product information, marketing materials, and training resources.

17. Contacting Authors of Relevant Listicles

Reaching out to authors of existing listicles within your niche can be a successful strategy for acquiring backlinks.

Tips:

• Utilize search queries like "[your niche] + best" or "[your niche] + ultimate guide" to find relevant listicles. Focus on listicles with high domain authority and a solid social media presence. Carefully analyze the listicle's content. Identify potential gaps or areas where your website or content could add value.
• Don't send generic messages. Personalize your email by mentioning the specific listicle and highlighting relevant content from your website that complements the existing list.

18. Utilizing SOS (Source of Sources)

SOS (Source of Sources) is a free service designed to connect journalists and bloggers with expert sources for their stories. Created by Peter Shankman, the founder of HARO (Help A Reporter Out), SOS offers an invaluable opportunity to share your expertise, gain exposure for your website, and acquire valuable backlinks.

Tips:

• SOS sends out up to three daily emails with journalist queries on various topics. Keep an eye on these emails and respond to queries that align with your expertise.
• Only respond to queries where you can provide valuable, relevant information. Pitching off-topic can harm your reputation and may lead to removal from the service. Ensure your responses are always on-point and genuinely helpful.

19. Engaging in Competitor Backlink Analysis

Competitor backlink analysis is like peeking behind the curtain of your competitor's SEO strategy. By analyzing the backlinks they've acquired, you can discover valuable opportunities to build your links and boost your website's ranking.

Tips:

• Look beyond the prominent names. Use SEO tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to identify the websites consistently ranking well for the keywords you target. These are your actual competitors in the search engine race.
• Utilize SEO tools to analyze your competitor's backlink profiles. Uncover the websites linking to them and the type of content that earned those backlinks.

Optimize Your Link-Building Strategy with SimpleTiger

Crafting a powerful backlink profile is essential for your brand's SEO success, especially if you’re looking to boost authority, enhance search rankings, and increase conversions. At SimpleTiger, we specialize in building high-authority, relevant links from established publications. Our comprehensive link-building services are designed to elevate your content across every stage of the buyer's journey, helping you to rank faster and attract more qualified customers.

From identifying the most impactful keywords and content targets to executing detailed competitive analyses, our approach is meticulously tailored to outpace your competition and maximize your online presence.

Ready to transform your SEO strategy with links that lead to real growth?

Schedule a free discovery call with SimpleTiger and see how our data-driven, customized link-building services can propel your brand to new heights.