7 Proven Ways to Generate Residual Backlinks

Looking for ways to generate backlinks for your website? Then read on because in this article, we cover seven proven ways to get high quality backlinks that are guaranteed to help increase your website reputation and ultimately your search engine rankings.

Without further ado, let's dive in:

What Are Backlinks?

A backlink or inbound link refers to a link from one webpage to another. For example, if another website includes a link to this article in their content, it becomes a backlink to this webpage.

Backlinks are like trust signals for search engines. When a webpage receives a backlink, what it tells search engines is that there's something of value on that page. Hence, the more people link to your website, the more search engines trust it.

Why Are Backlinks Important?

First off, Google holds backlinks in high regard [particularly, links coming from high authority sites]. So, when Google crawls your site, it’s often on the lookout for your site’s backlinks to understand how your pages interlink. 

While there are about 200 ranking factors embedded in Google’s algorithm, backlinks stand tall at the top of the SEO pecking order.  

But…getting quality backlinks isn’t a walk in the park, right? Exactly!

Good thing is there are smart ways to get backlinks—to have high authority sites link to your site]. And, below are 7 ways to get this done like a pro…

How to Get High Quality Backlinks

1. Build Backlinks From Broken-Links

Have you ever gotten on a site, browsed through an interesting content piece, found a link to some other content you found potentially valuable – only to click through and see the annoying ‘404’ error message? We bet you have!

Well, you can leverage this by checking out sites you’d like a backlink from for possible broken-links. 

What to do?

Once you find a broken link on a target site, contact the site owner and report it. But don’t just stop at reporting - recommend links to replace the broken link [and add yours too of course]. 

Because ‘one good turn deserves another,’ the target site owner is likely to return the favor by linking back to your site and then…everyone is happy!

How to?

Start by finding relevant websites in your niche [those with resource pages]. The following footprint would help: 

1. Keyword + Links
2. Keywords + Resources
3. Keywords inurl:links

For instance, if your site is on freelancing, you can search for: [Freelancing + Links] or [Freelancing + Resources] or [Freelancing inurl:links] on Google.

A quick search for Freelancing + Links showed the following results…

You can see the above screenshot displays results relating to freelancing, right? Good.

Often times, it can be too much work scouring these pages for broken links. A smarter, faster way is to download and install the Google Chrome plugin tagged ‘Check my Links’ right here. 

Once this plugin is downloaded and installed [or added as an extension to your Chrome browser], it’s a breeze tracking down broken links on any page.

After you track down the broken links, the next step is to reach out to the site owner:

• Introduce yourself in a warm and friendly manner
• Inform them you found some broken link(s) on their site
• Point them to the exact link(s) in question on their site
• Provide alternative links that can replace the broken ones [and include yours]
• Don’t directly ask them for backlinks – allow them make that choice

2. Create Useful Infographics

Infographics are visual representation of information or data either in chart or diagram format. It’s designed to make data easily understood, at a glance – which is why it’s become one of the most popular ways to drive traffic to your site and gain valuable links.

Because it’s easy to understand and share, the demand for infographics continues to rise [and therein lies the opportunity].

So, start by doing some research and creating a niche-specific infographic that grabs the attention of your target audience. It should for instance include a unique and interesting angle to connecting the dots and telling a story about something of interest in that niche.

To quickly determine what topic or keyword to create an infographic on, just be on the lookout for the currently trending topic in your niche and create corresponding infographics from statistical data.

Once you’re done gathering relevant data, it’s time to transform all of that information into some hard-to-resist infographic.

Can’t create one yourself? No worries. There are 100’s of good freelance designers out there eager to take you on at a bargain on popular freelance sites like Upwork. 

Once your infographic is ready and shinning through, it’s time to distribute. You can submit your infographic at any or all of the 100+ sites here or find and send emails to those who have previously linked back to similar infographics in your niche – and ask for a review of your infographic. Needless to say, if they like what they see…they’d do the needful.

3. Use Testimonials

Everyone loves a great testimonial. It puts products or services forward in the best light and open doors for more customers eager to have a taste of the same experience. 

Are you using a website and satisfied with their service? Take the time to write a really engaging or highly converting testimonial that will win over even more customers for the site. 

If done right, you can earn as juicy as the homepage spot of an authoritative website who falls in love with your testimonial and decides to place your name and site link right on top their most valued digital space. 

What to do?

Make a list of all the services or tools you’re currently using and reach out to target websites to discuss the possibility of showcasing your testimonial on their site.

4. Pitch Journalists and Influencers

Sometimes the best way to get word out about your website is to pitch it directly to journalists and influencers in your niche. 

These people are always on the lookout for juicy or newsworthy information to share and the only way to know if your website is something they’d be interested in talking about is to reach out and introduce yourself and your business.

It can be tough finding their contact emails, right? We know. But that’s if you’re looking in all the wrong places.

How to?

Simply use tools like Anymail finder or Find emails. Just plug in the name and relevant website of the contact whose email you’re trying to get and voila!

A quick search for Danny Margulies’ email at Anymail finder reveals…

You can perform any email search using the person’s name and website as showcased above.

You can also send pitches via social media [especially via LinkedIn Inmail or along with a request to connect].  

Whichever option gets you the results you need faster, just remember to keep messages short and to the point considering this is a cold pitch.

5. Get Interviewed

Yep...we mean online interviews. They’re hot and trending these days and it’s something you should explore. If you’re already an authority in your niche – that’s easy. All kinds of people will reach out naturally to get a piece of you on a given topic.

But, if you’re still ‘climbing the ladder’ that’s fine too. All you have to do is reach out to target websites running interviews and pitch them the idea of interviewing you at a future date on something interesting you’d like to contribute your expertise to.

Either way you earn backlinks in exchange for adding value to the website and their audiences – and that’s a win-win for all.

6. Use The Skyscraper Technique

Fancy name, right? Well here’s how it works…

Step 1 - Find a content piece in your niche with loads of backlinks

Step 2 – Create content that beat it hands down

Step 3 – Go ahead and ask those linking to it currently to consider linking to your superior content instead.

Or…

Step 1 - Take your best piece of content on a given topic or keyword

Step 2 - Find similar content [with backlinks] that you feel are inferior to what you have written

Step 3 – Approach those currently linking to the inferior content to consider linking to yours.
Bear in mind though that people will rarely replace existing links with yours without some glaringly compelling reason. Give them exactly that and you’re good to go. 

7. Spy on Your Competitors

Admit it – sometimes your competitors are way better at driving traffic via backlinks to their site than you. 

Don’t be shy – spy on their traffic-generating activities often and adapt whatever backlink strategies they’re using successfully to your advantage. 

How to?

• Use Google Alerts to track whatever new content pops from your target competitors
• Subscribe to their newsletters
• Follow them on social
  

What to do?

Once you track their content and find those with ‘rich’ backlinks, research what makes them ‘thick’ and adapt those…

Are they getting backlinks from reviews? Get same bloggers to test your tools

Are they getting backlinks from guest blogging? Work on becoming a guest author on same or similar websites.

Wrapping Up Backlink Building

Getting quality backlinks is no walk in the park. In most cases, it requires the right strategy and some staying power till you see desired results.

However, using a combination of the techniques above can earn you high quality backlinks [quickly] that would do your website a world of good in terms of consistent traffic and qualified leads – the type that invariably supercharge sales.