Getting backlinks for a new website can be a challenge, especially if you’re on a tight budget. However, with a little creativity and effort, you can build high-quality backlinks without spending a single penny.
This guide will outline several tactics for acquiring backlinks, including content creation, social media promotion, and leveraging relationships with other websites. Whether you’re a small business owner, blogger, or just starting a new website, these tips will help you establish a strong backlink profile and boost your website’s search engine ranking.
So, what are backlinks? How to get backlinks? What are the best SEO tools and how to avoid being penalized? Just keep reading, and we will answer all these questions and more.
Table of Contents
What are backlinks?
Backlinks, also known as “inbound links” or “incoming links,” link from one website to another. They are considered an important factor in search engine optimization (SEO) as they indicate the popularity and relevance of a website. The more high-quality backlinks a website has, the higher it is likely to rank in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Backlinks are created when one website links to another website’s content, either within the same page or in a separate page. This creates a “vote of confidence” for the linked-to website and can help boost its visibility and credibility in the eyes of search engines.
However, it’s important to note that not all backlinks are equal, and having a large number of low-quality backlinks can actually harm a website’s search engine ranking.
What is a quality backlink?
A quality backlink is a link from a reputable and relevant source to your website. It provides credibility, authority, and trust to your website and can improve its search engine ranking. Quality backlinks typically have the following characteristics:
- Relevance: The linking website should be in a related industry or have a related topic to your website.
- Authority: The linking website should have a strong reputation and high domain authority.
- Natural placement: The link should be placed within the content naturally, without excessive use of exact-match anchor text.
- Original and high-quality content: The linking website should have original, high-quality content that is frequently updated.
- Diversity: A healthy backlink profile should have a variety of links from different types of websites, such as blog posts, news articles, forums, and others.
Having high-quality backlinks to your website can help improve your website’s visibility and search engine ranking, which can lead to more traffic and increased visibility for your brand.
How to have a good link anchor?
There are 8 types of link anchors, an exact anchor (corresponding to the targeted keyword), brand, URL as is, or generic anchor (like “click here”). This anchor plays an important role in the quality of a backlink.
It is important to vary them because, since 2015, the Google Penguin algorithm puts an end to the practice of spamming. This penalizes sites whose anchor link backlinks are always the same. Hence the importance of always using different text to insert a link.
Why backlinks are Important for SEO?
Backlinks are an essential factor in search engine optimization (SEO) and play a significant role in determining a website’s search engine ranking. Below, we will explore why backlinks are important for SEO.
- Improved search engine rankings: Search engines, such as Google, view backlinks as a vote of confidence in the quality and relevance of a website. The more high-quality backlinks a website has, the more likely it is to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).
- Increased visibility and credibility: Backlinks from reputable and high-authority websites can increase your website’s visibility and credibility in the eyes of both search engines and potential visitors.
- Referral traffic: Backlinks can also drive referral traffic to your website, which can help improve engagement and increase your website’s exposure to new audiences.
- Improved brand recognition: Having backlinks from well-known and reputable websites can help build brand recognition and credibility, which can benefit your business in the long-term.
- Improved user experience: High-quality backlinks can improve the overall user experience on your website by linking to relevant and valuable resources.
Quality vs. Quantity of Backlinks
It’s important to note that while backlinks are important for SEO, the quality of the links is just as important as the quantity. Having a large number of low-quality backlinks can actually harm your website’s search engine ranking, while a smaller number of high-quality backlinks can be more beneficial.
To ensure that your backlink strategy is effective, it’s important to focus on building relationships with reputable and high-authority websites and creating high-quality, relevant content that is valuable to your target audience.
A trusted site is a site that has many quality external links. To identify the blogs on which to get some, there are tools to analyze the backlinks of a site.
The main backlink analysis tools are:
- Semrush
- Ahrefs
- Majestic SEO
For my part, I use the last two but especially Majestic, which is much more complete. Above all, Outiref allows you to do an online SEO audit. However, the former is chargeable; the second is free.
You need a paid subscription to use all the features of Majestic, but some data can be experienced for free. But in this case, the research is limited to only two sites per day. However, there is a free Majestic SEO plugin that you can use without limit. But this plugin gives less information than going directly through the site.
It is possible to know its backlinks using Google Search Console. Go to “link” to get the list of “pages of your property referenced on external pages”. The main sites of origin of the backlinks as well as the link anchors are also indicated.
How to Get Quality Backlinks for Your Website
Backlinks are an important factor in search engine optimization (SEO) and can greatly affect your website’s visibility and ranking in search engines. Here are the best ways to get quality backlinks for your website:
Content Marketing
Content marketing is an effective way to build quality backlinks for your website. By creating valuable, informative, and engaging content, you can attract the attention of other websites and increase the likelihood of obtaining backlinks. Some content marketing strategies include:
- Blogging: Writing blog posts on topics related to your niche is a great way to attract backlinks. By providing valuable information and insights, you can establish your website as an authority in your niche and encourage other websites to link to your content.
- Infographics: Infographics are a highly visual and engaging way to present information. By creating infographics that are relevant and informative, you can attract the attention of other websites and encourage them to share your content and link to your website.
- Video Content: Video content is highly engaging and can attract a lot of attention. By creating valuable and informative videos, you can build relationships with other websites and increase the likelihood of obtaining backlinks.
Outreach and Networking
Outreach and networking are critical components of building quality backlinks. By reaching out to other websites in your niche and building relationships, you can increase the likelihood of obtaining backlinks. Some effective outreach and networking strategies include:
- Guest Blogging: Guest blogging is an effective way to build relationships with other websites and obtain backlinks. By writing a high-quality article for another website, you can demonstrate your expertise and attract the attention of other websites in your niche.
- Link Roundups: Link roundups are blog posts that showcase the best content in a specific niche. By reaching out to the creators of these link roundups and offering your content, you can increase the likelihood of obtaining backlinks.
- Online Communities: Participating in online communities related to your niche is a great way to build relationships and obtain backlinks. By providing valuable insights and information, you can establish yourself as an authority in your niche and attract the attention of other websites.
Link Reclamation
Link reclamation is the process of finding backlinks that were once pointing to your website but are no longer active. By fixing broken links and restoring lost backlinks, you can improve your website’s backlink profile and increase its visibility and ranking in search engines.
Monitor Your Backlink Profile
Finally, it’s essential to monitor your backlink profile and ensure that the backlinks you’re obtaining are high quality and relevant. By using tools like Google Search Console, Ahrefs, and Moz, you can monitor your backlink profile and identify any issues that may impact your rankings.
Other Ways to Get Backlinks
Besides guest blogging and broken link building, there are several other ways to get quality backlinks for your website:
Create Compelling Content
Creating high-quality, original, and engaging content is the best way to attract backlinks. The more valuable, informative, and unique your content is, the more likely other websites will be to link to it. If you write a blog post that provides real value to your audience, they will naturally want to share it with others.
Influencer Outreach
Reaching out to influencers in your industry can be a great way to get backlinks. If you have a relationship with an influencer, they may be willing to link to your website or share your content on social media. To find influencers, you can use tools like Buzzsumo, Followerwonk, or Klout.
Offer Testimonials
If you have used a product or service that you really like, consider offering a testimonial in exchange for a link. This can be a great way to get a high-quality backlink from a reputable website.
Host Webinars
Hosting webinars can be a great way to attract backlinks. Not only will you attract potential customers, but you can also ask attendees to link to your website if they found the webinar helpful.
What To Do About Toxic Backlinks That Harm Your SEO
While backlinks are a crucial component of a successful SEO strategy, not all backlinks are created equal. Some backlinks can actually harm your search engine rankings. These toxic backlinks are often low-quality, spammy, or from untrustworthy websites.
Identify Toxic Backlinks
The first step to dealing with toxic backlinks is to identify them. There are several tools you can use to do this, including Google Search Console, Ahrefs, and Majestic. These tools will give you a list of all the backlinks pointing to your website, and allow you to filter out any low-quality or spammy links.
Disavow Toxic Backlinks
Once you have identified toxic backlinks, the next step is to disavow them. Disavowing a link means telling Google not to take it into account when calculating your search engine rankings. To disavow a link, you need to create a text file that lists all the toxic links and submit it to Google through the Search Console.
Reach Out to Google Webmasters
If you have any backlinks from trustworthy websites that have low-quality or spammy links, you can reach out to webmasters and ask them to remove the toxic links. This is a proactive approach that can help you improve the quality of your backlink profile and protect your search engine rankings.
The Bottom Line
Getting backlinks for a new site can be a challenge, but it’s not impossible. By using the strategies listed above, you can get backlinks to your site without spending a dime.
There you have it guys, our definitive backlinks guide for beginners. We hope you get something by reading this article!
Tell us in the comments section what you think.
