Backlink Strategies to Improve Your Rank

Also known as ‘inbound links’ and ‘incoming linksHyperlinks, also known as links, are the connection points on a webpage that take you to other webpages.,’ backlinks are considered important if you want search engines such as Google to notice your website and consider it an authoritative source. A website or webpage with a high number of good quality backlinks tend to have higher organic search engine rankings (SERPs) than those that do not.

Backlinks, however, are not easy to come by. There’s a lot of foundational work that needs to be done, as well as a strategy that includes SEO, blogger outreach and the use of press releases.

Not sure how to go about improving your backlink strategy campaign? Well, we’re here to help.

What makes a valuable backlink?

Not all backlinks are considered equal, and when it comes to using them, it’s about quality over quantity. While this may seem obvious, it is still a best practice that can be easily overlooked by many.

What makes a good backlink, then?

Well, it comes down to the websites you are linking to and their domain authorities. Think about it, would you rather have a backlink from Moz… or some guy’s website who you have never heard of before? Not only would we trust Moz more than the random guy, but so would Google – and this means your rank can increase.

Domain Authority (DA) is what you need to consider when looking at websites to reach out to and link to within your own content. A website’s DA will be marked out of 100, so the closer to 100, the better its DA.

This works both ways, so you can link from your site to one that’s got a high DA, but also have them link to your website. This isn’t easy, but it’s worth it in the long run.

So, how can you do this?

Blogger outreach

Considered a form of influencer marketing, blogger outreach allows you to contact a relevant website (or person) so that you can reach (and influence) your fan base. This can give your business organic exposure.

Blogger outreach is easier said than done, however. While you may think it’s about finding someone in your niche, reaching out and coming to a conclusion with them, you usually have to form a business relationship so that both parties trust one another and get something out of the partnership.

First, you have to find the relevant bloggers you want to reach out to – they also have to be active and have a lot of followers and engagement on their social media platforms and website. While this isn’t necessarily difficult to do, it is time-consuming.

Open up an Excel document and have the following headings:

• Blog Name
• Blog URL
• Blogger
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Contact

Add in the relevant information and then keep track of all the different bloggers who may be useful to your backlink campaign.

This spreadsheet should be updated frequently, and once you’ve contacted them, mark them off so that you don’t send them another email by mistake. Bloggers, and people in general, dislike having a lot of emails – especially if it’s from someone or a company they are unfamiliar with – so keep it short, sweet, polite, and personalized.

If a blogger declines your offer, be sure to mark it on the spreadsheet. You should never email a blogger who is disinterested as it can come across as ‘spammy’ and cause problems to your reputation.

How can you find bloggers?

You may think it’s easy, but with there being tons of bloggers out there and even more websites, successfully making contact with one of them can be seen as somewhat of a chore.

Of course, the most efficient way of conducting blogger outreach is by reaching out to the professionals. They will know who to contact, how to personalize an email for them and negotiate with the blogger. At the end of the day, it’s all about getting to know who the blogger is and using that as leverage when negotiating a deal that’ll benefit each party.

However, you can also:

• Look through blog directories
• Look at your competitors
• Leave comments on their social media and website

Building a relationship with a blogger

Get to know them. Research the blogger, know what makes them tick, what they do, how you can benefit them, and how they will benefit you. Influencers hold a lot of influence (obviously). They are big deals, which is why any content you create for them must be in their tone of voice, within their niche, and also organic. Audiences can see a sponsored post a mile off, which is why the influencer needs to have a legitimate reason for promoting your brand.

Know how the best way to communicate with the blogger. Communication is the foundation of every relationship, and it’s no different when it comes to blogger outreach. Knowing how to communicate with a blogger is vital, as a blogger’s time is valuable and you have to stand out amongst other businesses who are trying to get their attention. How can you do this?

Clearly outline what you want to do, what you are looking to achieve, and how both parties will benefit from a guest post. Your email should be to the point, complimentary, and relevant. Transparency is key when it comes to landing a guest post.

Once you’ve landed the guest post through blogger outreach, it’s time to write the content and implement your SEO strategy that coincides with your backlink strategy.

Implementing your SEO strategy

You should have an SEO strategy in place, but if not, then there are many SEO agencies out there who can lend you a hand. Nowadays, a good SEO strategy means the inclusion of keywords and backlinks that are natural and relevant. You cannot undergo black-hat SEO strategies anymore.

Have a good copywriter at hand

Writing the content that’s going to be published on your blogger’s website is not an easy task, so having a specialist copywriter on board is essential. You can hire one on a freelance basis, or if you have a content team already, task one of your best writers with the blog post.

Be concise and relevant

It may be tempting to add as much information into one post, but avoid doing this; not only does it create a long blog post, but it won’t be an easy read, and you will want to hone into the heart of your content – what is it you are pushing or trying to achieve? Never be tempted to waver from your original plan. Doing so could also tarnish the relationship you’ve built with your blogger.

Choose a relevant keywordKeywords are the words and phrases that potential customers might search for to find your business. for your anchor textAnchor text is the text highlighted by a hyperlink. The words highlighted are crucial for SEO, informing Google’s crawling bots about the content of the site linked to.

When linking to your business’s website, you want to choose a relevant keyword that’ll prove useful. You can select natural; however, branded would be best. This will make your link relevant and super transparent, so everyone knows where the link is going to take them.

How SEO and backlinks help one another

Well, backlinks allow the search engines to crawl through a website and locate relevant links and connections so that pages can be ranked correctly.

Don’t forget about PR

PR is a great way to get your brand out there, and many of us marketers overlook PR and the pros of PR sites over influencers. Press releases are different to guest posts – they are more direct and more promotional – but that doesn’t mean you can’t include PR in your backlink strategy.

PR is great for brand management, and if you have press releases on powerful third-party websites, it’ll cement you as a trustworthy brand name. Whenever the likes of Google comes across your business’s name, it’ll be more likely to trust any links to you and increase your ranking.

Getting the balance right when it comes to PR, however, is no easy task. Click Intelligence offer press release services, so your business can be linked to the best, high-quality content.

Reach out to national news sites – this can be extremely worthwhile. You will want to ensure you have something relevant and valuable to discuss, such as a new business venture, partnership or rebrand. When done right, PR is a profitable tactic for businesses to use.

Check your pre-existing backlinks

Now, it’s important to know what sites are pointing towards your website and keeping tabs on them. This means you can see whether good quality or low quality sites are linking to your brand.

How can you check this, exactly?

SEMrush is a useful tool that conducts a backlink audit. This will determine how many quality links are heading your way, but also how authoritative the sites linking to you are. This is ideal for improving your backlink strategies, as you will want to remove any low quality links.

Why is it important to rid your business of bad backlinks?

You may wonder whether there is any point in contacting websites and asking them to remove a backlink to your site, but by having an untrustworthy source connected to your website, it can have a negative impact on your SEO.

What makes a bad backlink, though?

Websites that have been penalized by Google are irrelevant to your website, or deemed untrustworthy. You will want to get rid of them immediately.

How?

Find them by using SEMrush, then once you know the links that are bad, reach out to the sites and politely ask them to remove them. If they refuse to do so, you can contact Google and they can remove them instead.

Still have questions? Don’t hesitate to contact us for more information.