Simple outreach strategies for getting backlinks
We will introduce you to methods that will give you results without significant cost.
You can use these methods on your own; they are simple but effective.
Simple does not mean you will not need to invest time and effort. Simple means it is available to everyone.
In this article, you will learn how to choose quality backlinks, and understand their impact, and we will provide you with some simple yet effective strategies for acquiring backlinks.
Let’s dive into the topic.
What are backlinks and how do you determine which ones are valuable?
Backlinks are all the links that point to your website from different resources.
The number of backlinks is one of the big predictors of Google’s algorithm for the quality of the website.
Backlinks will help you rank higher for your keywords and in building your domain authority.
And if you develop topical authority – backlinks that are connected to your main topic – you can skyrocket!
What characteristics to look for in backlinks?
Not all the backlinks (pointers) are going to be of the same value.
And this is critical because how backlinks can increase the value of your website, can decrease it as well.
Here are the parameters for backlinks that are essential to follow so you can get maximum results from your outreach strategies and acquiring of backlinks:
1. Domain rating or domain authority
The first thing that needs to be checked is someone’s domain rating or domain authority.
Metrics alone do not exclude such things as a basic human review of a website and common sense. Does the website cover topics like gambling, etc?
These basic metrics – domain rating, will give you the free backlink checker from Ahrefs. The term domain authority is related to another free tool Semrush, for the same thing.
Your selective search will yield the best results if you check both.
2. Traffic
An important predictor of a website is its traffic and bounce rate.
Check their traffic in the last 3 months, and check their bounce rate.
The bounce rate represents how many users “bounce” back, leaving the website as soon as they open it.
SimilarWeb is another free and great tool for this.
Simply paste the homepage website link in SimilarWeb and see the metrics for each website.
3. Website niche
Before entering into any of the metrics analysis you first need to answer this question: is this website niche relevant to mine?
So, this part requires some internal work within the company or team.
With whom do we want to cooperate? What niches are complementary to our own?
4. Link placement
Your link is not of the same worth whether it’s hidden somewhere down in the post or author bio, or if it’s in the actual post and in the relevant context.
Aim for contextual links.
5. Do-follow and no-follow
No-follow links literally tell search engines not to connect your websites from the ranking perspective, so you are missing all the link juices that you can get from backlinks.
No-follow links are still helpful for branding, and for getting people to know you, but they will not impact your rankings.
On the other hand, do-follow links pass on the whole link juice to your website, they add in terms of credibility, authority, relevancy, and in terms of rankings (of course, if we are talking about do-follow backlinks from quality websites!)
With the help of the SEOquake tool, you can easily check if the link is do-follow or no-follow.
SEOquake is a free browser plugin and it will show you in the green rectangle do-follow links and in red no-follow links.
6. Anchor text
The anchor text is the visible text part of the link that you can click on. This anchor text should point to the basic information you can find on the page where it is leading.
Anchor text should be related to some of your most important keywords for ranking.
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What is an outreach marketing strategy?
Outreach is the process of reaching out to someone whether it is a website, blogger, or client (any external resource).
Outreach marketing is one of the basics for building backlinks.
There are several pros and cons to outreach marketing strategies.
Benefits include improvements in SEO results, help in promoting your content and brand, and fostering and empowering collaborations.
Some of the downsides are that you will need to develop the right strategy to do this with results; it is time-consuming and can cost a lot.
But, do not worry we will show you how to maximize your outreach results.
Simple outreach strategies for getting backlinks that work in 2022
Backlinks as a powerful engine for your website growth and relevancy need a special strategy for acquiring them.
Luckily, there are many ways you can try this and see which one suits you the best or use them all.
The order is random, use depends solely on your business needs and strategy.
1. Guest posts
Guest post is writing for another blog on the topic that has mutual benefit. The topic is adjusted to the website audience and it allows you to link naturally to your website.
You can do this with websites that pass all 6 filters we mentioned at the beginning:
- Domain rating
- Traffic and bounce rate
- Website niche
- Link placement
- Do-follow and no-follow
- Anchor text
2. Roundups
Roundups are a hot thing now.
To provide uniqueness in their content, marketers started sharing the opinions of the leaders in their field. Who can give you a more unique perspective from the person actually doing that job day by day for several years successfully?
Participate in roundups, and give your perspective on the given topic you are an expert in. It will also establish you as a thought leader and promote your company.
How to find proper roundups? Actually, they can find you. Check the next strategy 🙂
3. PR outreach
There are services that connect journalists with experts.
The goal of these services is to provide both sides with something useful – for journalists to get an expert’s opinion, and for the experts to get a chance to be featured.
This way you can get exposure on websites like Forbes, Entrepreneur, etc.
Services that we in Localizely use are:
We in Localizely (translation management system) managed to build a lot of links through such PR services once we got recognition from the Innovation Fund for being an innovative company.
They are both free, simply register and you will receive emails from them.
Opportunities land in your inbox daily 🙂
4. Content
The most natural way of building backlinks is to create something worth sharing.
There is a list of stuff you can create that could be shareable, lets’s just name a few:
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Infographics
Point out some interesting facts and numbers from your industry, and collect them in one infographic that will have your logo on it. Include embed code for easier sharing.
Infographics will require some research from your side, but there are a lot of statistical websites on the internet.
I recommend you find some reputable sources and devote time to read them thoroughly and point out some surprising facts.
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Templates
Templates save people time. People love templates! Templates usually consist of some formula that helps people in a more structured way to finish something.
Be generous in creating those templates, and share your best tips and tricks, it will pay off a lot when people start sharing it because it helps them. Have your link in it.
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Free services
Offer free services to educational institutions. Imagine all the students from the group trying your product and sharing it.
Firstly, backlinks from .edu domains are worth a ton! Secondly, here you can get not just backlinks but also product feedback.
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Presentation
There are several websites for sharing presentations:
Slideshare
and Scribd
Links inside the presentations are also “read” by Google and impact the rankings. So, go for it!
5. Directories
Business directories online are like the yellow pages before. Having filters for these, which means you need to choose the relevant directories with high domain ratings.
If they passed your filter for relevancy and high domain rating use them maximally, fill in all the details about your business, and add photos too. Directories can be especially beneficial for local businesses.
6. Podcasts
Podcasts are popular for several years already. They can provide you with new learning on the go.
Because of their popularity nowadays you can find podcasts on all kinds of topics.
Find the one interesting to your niche and participate. It will give you the credibility of a thought leader and it will give credibility to your website as well.
Creating content sometimes can consume too much time and getting new ideas every time too while preparing for the interview will require just a draft from your side.
7. Crowd Marketing
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Comments
Commenting on blogs from your niche can be impactful. It will help you to form a relationship and it will earn you a backlink if done naturally.
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Newsletters
Subscribe to 20 newsletters of interest, actually read them, and comment on their newsletters, when you have something meaningful to add or suggest.
After a few months ask them to include your article in their newsletter.
Send them the one you are most proud of in the latest period.
Not to mention that you will learn a lot from good niche-specific newsletters.
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Q&A platforms
Question and answer platforms like Quora and Reddit are places where people go to find answers for them.
Focus on actually answering their question and add a link to one of your articles relevant to the given topic. Be careful not to be spammy or promotional. Every subreddit has its own rules you need to follow, and they all sanction promotional content.
Key Takeaways
There are many tactics for getting backlinks. To find the one that will work for you, you will need to experiment with at least a few outreach strategies.
Do not give up too soon on any strategy, because those strategies tend to have a delayed impact. And some by nature give results only after a few months.
Backlinks are a powerful way to position your website in terms of domain authority, rankings, and branding. You don’t want to neglect them.
Did you use any of these strategies?
Which one did you like the most?
Author bio:
I am Kristina, a Marketing manager from Localizely (translation management platform).
I translated my love for marketing and languages into writing, and now I support the development of a translation management platform that takes localization to a whole new lead