{"id":20651,"date":"2020-07-03T03:43:49","date_gmt":"2020-07-03T03:43:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leadautomationsystems.com\/?p=20651"},"modified":"2020-09-22T01:53:06","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T01:53:06","slug":"the-basics-of-backlinks-how-to-get-started","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leadautomationsystems.com\/the-basics-of-backlinks-how-to-get-started\/","title":{"rendered":"The Basics of Backlinks: How to Get Started"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some marketers focus the majority of their efforts on keyword research and content creation. And while those are certainly important pieces to the content marketing puzzle, they\u2019re not the entire<\/em> puzzle.<\/p>\n

You can write post after post of perfectly optimized content, but unless other sources are leading people to that content, your site won\u2019t succeed the way you want it to. That\u2019s why a backlink strategy is so important. Backlinks get eyes on your content and improve your website\u2019s performance in Google search results.<\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t know what I\u2019m talking about, you\u2019re not alone! That\u2019s why I\u2019ve put together a simple explanation of what backlinks are, why they\u2019re important, and how you can start to build yours.<\/p>\n

What is a backlink?<\/h2>\n

A backlink is any external link back to your website. It can come from a blog, news outlet, social media profile, or anywhere else online. But it has to come from an outside<\/em> website. If you link your homepage to your blog page, that\u2019s an internal link, not a backlink.<\/p>\n

Backlinks to your site from reputable websites are a key indicator of something called Domain Authority. Domain Authority is a number on a scale of 1 to 100, with 100 being the best. Google and Facebook\u2019s Domain Authority is 100.<\/p>\n

Domain Authority (DA) is important because it\u2019s one of Google\u2019s ranking factors. Let\u2019s say you and a competitor each write a blog post about the same topic. The blog posts are of equal length, on the same topic, and both provide the same information. But your website\u2019s DA is 14, and your competitor\u2019s DA is 72. Which blog post do you think has a better chance of hitting the front page?<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s why DA is important \u2014 which is why backlinks are important.<\/p>\n

Good vs. bad backlinks<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Not all backlinks provide the same DA \u201cjuice.\u201d The more reputable a website that links back to yours, the better for you. That\u2019s why you want to try to get backlinks from websites with better<\/em> DA than yours.<\/p>\n

Back in the early days of search engine optimization, unethical SEOs would get dozens of backlinks from any site they could, in an attempt to cheat the system. So Google made an update that penalizes an abundance of \u201clow authority\u201d backlinks, and rewards \u201chigh authority\u201d backlinks.<\/p>\n

To find out any website\u2019s DA, use a free tool like Neil Patel\u2019s UberSuggest<\/a>. Just type in the URL to get a basic DA report.<\/p>\n

So now that you understand the basics of backlinks…<\/p>\n

How should you get them?<\/h2>\n

Write valuable content<\/h3>\n

To start, you have to provide something worth linking to. Your blog posts should be in-depth and authoritative. Length isn\u2019t required<\/em>, but the most detailed and useful pieces of content usually come with higher word counts.<\/p>\n

Ask!<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Reach out to bloggers or other businesses in your niche. Offer to write a guest post for them in exchange for a link back to your website. Content marketers always need more content! This has the added advantage of exposing your name and work to a new audience.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re having trouble getting responses from people who may see you as a competitor, reach out to industries that are adjacent to yours. For example, a SaaS marketing firm may not want to publish a guest post from another SaaS marketer. But a restaurant marketing firm may be interested in what a SaaS marketer has to offer.<\/p>\n

Become a reporter\u2019s source<\/h3>\n

Ever wonder where reporters and journalists find all the experts that they quote in their articles? These days, many of them use Help a Reporter Out <\/a>(HARO).<\/p>\n

To become a source for writers, create a \u201csource\u201d account on HARO\u2019s website. Then, you can choose the industries where you have expertise, like High Tech or Business and Finance. You\u2019ll get emails from HARO a few times a day with queries from reporters all over the world who need experts to weigh in for their articles.<\/p>\n

If a journalist or blogger uses your quote, you\u2019ll get a juicy backlink. Plus, you\u2019ll be cited as an expert and that\u2019s pretty neat.<\/p>\n

Find unlinked mentions<\/h3>\n

You might have backlink potential you don\u2019t even know about yet in the form of unlinked mentions. An unlinked mention is any citation of you or your company that doesn\u2019t<\/em> include a backlink to your website.<\/p>\n

To find sites that have listed your name, search for your brand, but subtract out your own URL, plus any social media sites. To subtract a URL, just type in the address with a minus sign in front of it, like this: -pinterest.com<\/p>\n

A search for your brand could look like this: \u201cMy company\u201d -mycompany.com -facebook.com -pinterest.com -twitter.com – instagram.com<\/p>\n

If the search returns thousands of results, click Tools under the search bar. Then click \u201cAny Time\u201d to the left, and filter by date. Start with the past month. Check the results for unlinked mentions.<\/p>\n

If you find any, send a quick email to the webmaster or any contact you can find. Be very clear about where the mention is, and ask them to insert a link! (Make sure the page has good Domain Authority before you request the link!)<\/p>\n

To stay on top of future mentions, set up a Google Alert<\/a> for your brand going forward. Any time someone mentions your brand name, you\u2019ll get a notification, and you can double check for those backlinks.<\/p>\n

The basics of backlinks<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There are dozens of strategies you can use to increase your backlink volume. These are just a few to get you started. Once you\u2019ve started along this process, you can start using more advanced backlink strategies. Some can be done for free, but others become cumbersome unless you invest in some helpful technology to make the job easier.<\/p>\n

But as always with SEO, the best way to get quality links is to put out quality content!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some marketers focus the majority of their efforts on keyword research and content creation. And while those are certainly important pieces to the content marketing puzzle, they\u2019re not the entire puzzle. You can write post after post of perfectly optimized content, but unless other sources are leading people to that content, your site won\u2019t succeed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20655,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,16],"tags":[224,221,222,225,223],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadautomationsystems.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20651"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadautomationsystems.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadautomationsystems.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadautomationsystems.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadautomationsystems.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/leadautomationsystems.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadautomationsystems.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leadautomationsystems.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadautomationsystems.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leadautomationsystems.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}