How to get backlinks for Free? – Top 5 methods
Have you ever observed when on a website you read an article and find different links in between the lines highlighted in blue? Well, these are known as backlinks. These links are created when one website links to another website. “Inbound links” or “Incoming links” are different names for backlinks. Backlinks are said to be important for search engine optimization (SEO). For example website A hosts an external link to website B, and website B has a backlink from website A.
A ‘vote of confidence’ is represented when one website forms a backlink for another website and this holds a huge value in search engine optimization (SEO). When a well-built website with a maximum number of visitors, backlink a website not-so-popular in the sense of visitors, then this will definitely add up value for the poor website, with an increase in site traffic. When the search engine examines a particular website and finds a backlink, it immediately jumps to that website and gives vouch for your content.
If a website has many backlinks on various websites or web pages then the search engine can infer that the content is worth the time on that particular website which is therefore capable of surfacing on a search engine result page (SERP). Let’s move forward and discuss five methods to build backlinks for free in search engine optimization (SEO).
Top 5 methods to Build Backlinks for Free in SEO
1. The broken-link building method
This is a perfect method for creating one-way backlinks. The website owner has to contact the webmaster in order to report broken links in this technique. Simultaneously you contact other website owners and recommend them to replace the broken link. Here reporting of the broken link is like a favour to the webmaster and the chances of getting back the backlinks are much higher. All you have to do is find relevant sites in your niche containing resource pages in order to use the broken link method. You can find them by making use of these search queries on Google.
- Your keyword + resources
- Your keyword + links
- Keyword in URL: links
In order to find broken links on the parent website all you have to do is search for parenting + links to easily find them. Always approach the webmaster politely and make them aware that they are linking to a few resources that are no longer in existence. Always suggest a few alternatives for replacing those links, do not forget your own website. This technique is quite helpful but sometimes the webmaster may even refuse to link back to your website.
2. Advantage of guest articles
If you are willing to reach out to new audiences then guest blogging is one of the best most effective techniques to use. You will win more exposure as well as fresh readers if you publish your content on other websites. Sometimes gaining social media followers and online reputation stand more important than just the backlinks. Guest blogging helps you in expanding your audience base and leverage your relationships. While publishing a guest article, link it to your social media page so that when a reader enjoys it they can easily follow your page for future articles. A search engine as huge as Google also accepts guest contributors on the Google Analytics blog. There are a number of ways existing to find sites that accept guest articles. Three of which are:
- Find blogs accepting guest contributors with a different number of ways to find them.
- Try contributing to influencer’s websites that they had in the past and find influencers that publish guest articles on a daily basis.
- Utilizing social media in order to discover or find other options.
3. Spying on competitors
Online marketing strategies play a significant role if you look up to staying up to date with your competitors and if you are serious about growing or increasing your organic SEO traffic. All you have to do is stalk your competitor’s social media handles to check their ability of link building, earning techniques, and content marketing methods. A few tips are mentioned below:
- When competitors publish new articles on parent websites, you must put up alarm or push notifications informing you about the same.
- Examine what and when backlinks are earned and built by your competitors.
4. Building internal links
The factor behind the success of a website is ‘internal links’. The overall UX (user experience) of people has increased wherein you can also help the users in navigating through your website only with the help of a well structured. Internal links are automatically created through these especially when on WordPress. Matt Cutts of Microsoft once recommended that webmasters must maintain links less than a hundred per page for both Search Engine optimization and usability.
5. Contact journalists and important bloggers
Always try to spread the word regarding your business in order to get links to your website. You can do this by outreaching influencers and journalists through email specifically from your niche. Well, you might be thinking that from where can we get the email addresses of such influencers and journalists, right? Here are a few ways to find out the email addresses of anyone.
- The format of almost 90 percent of the email addresses at websites and publications are like maria@website.com or smaria@website.com or sarah.maria@website.com, so you can try and send your pitches to such email addresses directly.
- You can also use tools like Thrust.io, Voilanorbert, or Emailfinder.io in case the above-mentioned format does not work out. All you have to do is specify the name of the person and the website they initially work for.
- Apart from these, you can also send messages to these influencers or journalists through social media handles in a professional format that may impress them. Social media handles like LinkedIn. And Google Plus can be used to communicate and reach out to these people.
One thing that needs to be noted is that these pitches and messages shall be short and on point because no one really has time to read boring and lengthy emails that too from unknown parties.
Author Profile
- I'm an SEO Analyst and blogger outreach expert at ClickDo Ltd. & Expert at Building High Authority Local Citations, Also, I help Business Owners in the UK by flooding more Leads to their Business by ranking their website on top of Google for potential Keywords.
I'm an author and enjoys writing UK business blogs to help promote UK businesses online. You can also contact me for guest posting services as I manage over 100 top UK business websites.