Backlinks are the foundation of off-page SEO.

Without them, even the best content isn’t going to reach high enough on the SERPs to bring you any real traffic.

Most people are constantly generating new content, but what if we told you there are ways to increase your backlinks without having to come up with yet another SEO-focused blog post?

If you’re looking for ways to build a solid backlink profile without having to constantly write new content you’re in luck. We’ve compiled eight of the best ways to reach out and get links without having to make new content.

1. Broken Links

One of the most time-honored ways to get backlinks is going through pages in your niche and trying to find broken links.

While most people will suggest you use an expensive SEO program there are a number of free resources which will allow you to find broken links on a page.

Once you’ve found one, see if you have a piece of content that will fit for the outbound link which is broken. If so, send an e-mail to the webmaster letting them know about the broken link and your piece of content which will fit in its place.

2. Social Media Outreach

Social media is an essential part of digital marketing. You can also use it to help gain backlinks, although links directly on sites don’t count for much.

When people find content that they liked they’re more likely to share it. The resulting organic backlinks can be extremely powerful.

You’re not limited to the usual Facebook/Instagram/Pinterest affair either. For informational websites you can easily link people to your page on sites like Quora, just make sure it’s relevant.

The key here is to add value for the reader.

3. Scholarships for .edu Backlinks

.edu backlinks are powerful. As such, they’re also highly coveted by SEO experts.

If you’re not a contender for academic knowledge in your niche, however, it can be hard to attain them.

One of the easiest ways? Start a scholarship with a school. Add an essay or article contest and a relatively small bonus for the winner. It’s a little bit more expensive than outright buying links, but the high authority of most school’s pages can really round out your backlink profile.

4. Article Directories

Article directories used to be one of the main ways for people to gain backlinks.

These days they have a bad reputation, many of them are in shady online neighborhoods and you can actually hurt your link profile by using the wrong ones.

Finding reputable directories can be hard but if you put in the effort to find them you can gain links quickly and easily with your existing content.

5. Unlinked Mentions of Your Brand

If you have some brand recognition then regularly searching for your brand name is a great idea. Link it up with some other keywords and find mentions of your product or service on the web.

From there, you can contact the webmaster and request a link to your page be included in their content.

Unlike many of the common link building strategies, this one has a high rate of success. The person posting is already aware of your brand and probably views it positively. That leads to a higher percentage of “converted” pitches for you.

Of course, you may want to avoid any negative impressions of your brand when using this strategy.

6. Forum Posts

Posting on forums can be a great way to pull backlinks as well as increasing awareness of your brand.

You have to approach the situation carefully, however, or you’re just going to end up with an e-mail address that’s banned from every forum in your niche.

Don’t just throw links out there. One to a landing page in the signature is fine and you’ll need to integrate yourself into the community for the best results. Offering high-value posts and linking back to your page is a great way to do it.

Avoid anything that looks or feels “spammy.” It’s often best to make a few posts a day for a week or two before you begin linking back to your page and you want to avoid dragging up your project in every discussion you partake in.

7. Use Affiliates

Affiliate marketing isn’t just a business model — you can also use it to get other people to do the advertising for you.

By connecting with an affiliate network like ClickBank you can get people marketing your product or service for you. The CPA segment of the marketing community is extremely active and someone out there will advertise for you.

Affiliate marketing will take a chunk of your revenue since you’re paying other people to make the sale. It will raise brand awareness and score a ton of backlinks from people linking to your website while trying to make the sale.

8. Use Internal Linking Structures

Many would-be SEO types don’t include internal links between their pages. If they do it’s often only in a call to action at the end of their posts.

Having a coherent internal linking structure pleases the search engine spiders. It can also boost your SEO juice by quite a bit, although it’s not quite the same as the backlinks you’ll get from other pages.

SEO aside, internal linking is a good way to increase your user retention rate. If someone clicks on another article they’re interested in from the initial article you can increase the time-on-page which also helps with the technical side of SEO.

Build Links Without Building New Content!

You don’t have to be constantly producing new content to bring in the backlinks you need to get ahead in the SEO world.

Shift your focus to learning how to build links without having to produce posts, articles, and pages on a constant basis. You’ll still have to spend money on most of these methods but the time savings can be invaluable.

If you want to learn more about SEO, why don’t you hit the blog?

Backlinks hold as one of the top Google ranking factors. So much so that Google has remained steadfast in weeding out bad links from good ones. Abundant links still mean a higher rank.

Though, it’s more challenging than ever to cull from diverse and relevant domains. Link building is a profession unto itself. As crucial as links are, you can torpedo your SEO efforts by overpopulating your site with links.

Broken links and weak backlinks are other offenders. Worse, Google can slap you with a penalty, causing a significant loss of organic traffic.

SEO is a wide-reaching discipline. Let’s focus on backlinks. What does Google say about them? And what are the best link building tools to help you create effective backlinks? Stick around to find out.

Why Quality Backlinks are Essential

Backlinks exist on another page and reference your web page. Another website mentions a link to your website. Backlinks are also called inbound links (IBL).

These are not at all like internal links or outbound links, which lead outside of your web page. All these links have their place in SEO. Though, your site won’t rank without backlinks.

Relevancy of External Sites

Consider the relevance of the external sights where your backlinks appear. Are your mentions in sites within your niche? If you sell photography equipment, for example, you want your backlinks to appear on photography-related web pages.

Almighty Google’s Hand in Link Building

In a nutshell, Google Penguin changed how backlinks impact your SEO. Before it went live in 2012, more links of any kind meant higher rankings. Google Penguin added a spam filter to Google’s core algorithm.

This filter works in real time to spot overused and nonrelevant backlinks. In this way, poorly-chosen links pose a risk.

Basic Link Building Tips

When starting a link building campaign, deliberation is the key. Not all backlinks are equal. Your goal is more than improving rankings. You are building links for your company as well as your customers.

Links should be relevant to both. Of course, you must associate them with good content. The result is happy users, a growing business, and favorable Google search results.

Natural Is Best

Make sure your links are natural. They should be of high quality, relevant, and focused on users. Otherwise, Google may conclude that you’re manipulating its search algorithm.

Google considers such links to be a violation of its Webmaster Guidelines. Next are some simple ways to build the best SEO links.

Ask Friends and Colleagues for Backlinks

Old-school networking is the best place for beginners to start. Ask people you know who have their own websites and blogs. Ask for a backlink to your site.

You can reciprocate of course. In-content links are always better than links in the footer or sidebar. Take care to ensure that the backlink comes from a website that is relevant to your niche.

Give Testimonials

Testimonials benefit all. You say a few words about your experience using another company’s products. The company gathers customer trust with each testimonial. And you can leave a backlink and generate traffic from their site.

Build Relationships

Build new contacts by joining niche-related communities. Blogs, social groups, and discussion forums provide networking opportunities. Contribute with relevant and engaging posts and comments.

Your goal is to provide contextual value to the conversation. You’ll also generate some good backlinks.

List Your Website in Directories

Google excludes those directories from search results that provide little to no value. Though, there are legitimate directories, which make excellent places to list your website.

Niche directories offer a place to leave your link as well as an opportunity to provide useful information to potential users. Find directories from informative websites related to your industry.

Listing there creates an opportunity for getting indexed in major search engines.

Write Engaging Guest Posts

Numerous sites will publish articles and blog posts from guest writers. Reach out to a blog or website that relates to your topic.

That being said, your topic should NOT be an advertisement for your company. Focus on the quality of your content so that you present a professional face through your article.

Best Link Building Tools

Link building is a challenging job. Once you are past the basics listed above, you’re ready for advanced link building techniques. At this point, you need to add some professional backlink tools to your arsenal.

Here are a few proven SEO link building tools. Take some time to learn about each (and others) so that you can generate more positive results for your search engine rankings.

Check My Links

Check My Links is a Google Chrome extension you can use to find broken links from other websites. It’s among the easier backlink tools. Once you find the broken links, reach out to the host website.

Suggest that they replace the link with one to your site. Backlink checks are quick, and broken links are easy to pinpoint. Most backlinks display as green, or active. Those that display red are broken external links.

Broken Link Builder

Broken Link Builder is another backlink checker. Rather than search one page at a time, this tool searches the web. It reports broken links related to your chosen subject matter within seconds.

You can begin the same outreach process of getting in touch with whoever can replace the broken link with one of yours.

Linkbird

In many ways, Linkbird (part of the Contentbird suite) is a do-it-all SEO tool. The focus is on link building. Though, other features allow you to analyze your backlink profile and popularity.

You can also track your rankings and conduct keyword searches for SEO. With Linkbird, you can integrate your link-building strategy with content marketing and SEO.

Additional features include the capability to locate websites for quality incoming links. You can find out what your competition’s backlinks are and go after them.

You can integrate with email ticket systems to aid in the outreach process. Finally, this backlink tool has a collaboration feature. Your company may have a marketing team charged with the link building strategy.

By collaborating, the teams reduce redundancy and increase efficiency.

Pitchbox

Pitchbox is one of the more powerful backlink tools, especially in the areas of prospecting and outreach. This tool automates much of the otherwise tedious process of finding targeted opportunities.

Outreach is the key here. Pitchbox helps you build natural links based on your search preferences. With it, you can pinpoint targeted opportunities down to the profiles and contact information of each prospect.

Pitchbox even generates an automated follow-up feature, keeping you in contact with incoming link prospects.

One more thing. Pitchbox comes with Intelligent Templates that makes your outreach messages stand apart. Your communication is styled, customized, and professional.

Whitespark

One of Whitespark’s key features is helping you improve your ranking for local search terms. An example is “Philadelphia coffee shop.”

An example of this would be the search phrase “Philadelphia Coffee Shops.” In addition to a list of local coffee shops, Google results include targeted web page titles like this:

22 Essential Philadelphia Coffee Shops – Eater Philly
Where to Find the Top Coffee Shops and Espresso Bars in Philadelphia
The Best Coffee Shops in Philadelphia Right Now – Fitt

As a local SEO tool, you can use Whitespark’s link prospector to find opportunities for niche directories, guest blogging, and link pages.

It can also discover opportunities for you to make donations and find professional organizations related to your niche. Any of these opportunities leads to more quality backlinks to your site, thus improving link popularity and local rankings.

Monitor Backlinks

This SEO link tool is more for analysis than link generation, though it does add some punch to your link building strategy. Besides monitoring your own backlinks, it lets you monitor your competition’s backlinks as well.

Monitor Backlinks generates information on new backlinks. It generates keyword ranking and site speed information. And, it sends you alerts when competitors obtain new links. This tool is exceptionally useful when it comes to link building.

Through the dashboard, you set up your competitors. Pay attention to new incoming links that your competition gets. From this, you begin to understand their link building strategy.

It also positions you to reach out and match their links. You may even pull off having the competitor’s backlink replaced with your own.

Monitor Backlinks also provides useful SEO metrics, including link status, anchor text, and IP host detection. Additional metrics are MozRank, external link counts, and the number of social shares.

Linkody

Link building has a clear goal. Generate as many high-quality links as you can. Yes, quality outweighs quantity. But, more quality links give you an edge. So does knowing when you gain a new incoming link. Linkody is a backlink checker tool.

The motivation factor here can’t be ignored. It’s exciting to see it when you secure a robust and free backlink, right? Linkody highlights who is most interested in your content, something you can leverage in the future.

Sometimes folks link to your website for negative reasons, like a bad review. Far from an optimal link. Now that you can see it, though, you can take action.

On the other hand, when you find content that’s generating links, you can capitalize on it. Say a blog post is getting traction. You can run with it and promote the post on social media to spread the message.

It emails you when one of your competitors gets a new backlink. You can jump on the change to grab the same link. You can also review your competition’s backlink profile and evaluate how they are faring with their link building strategy.

Linkody provides the number of links, when your competitor discovered the link, and where the URL originates.

It also shows the anchor text, Moz Domain Authority, IP, TLD, and EFL. All these details can help you understand why you are (or are not) outranking a competitor.

GroupHigh

GroupHigh is more complex than some tools, though there’s a good reason why. It has a few more features. With them, you can find top bloggers and influencer. You can manage your relationships and the value of your of your content.

To get started with GroupHigh, enter some industry-specific keywords. Filter your results by the most recent posting date and Domain Authority. Why? So you can reach out to active blogs with a strong reputation.

The GroupHigh backlink check tool also tracks your results from its dashboard. This way, you have a clear view of what is working, what is not, and how you can modify your link building strategy.

BuzzStream

BuzzStream simplifies the outreach process for you. Outreach is more than a buzzword these days. It means connecting with website owners. And offering them something in exchange for a free backlink.

Email outreach can be a troublesome process. With BuzzStream, you can track your email communication. The tool allows you to set reminders to follow up, track progress, and share chosen tasks with your team.

Such a tracking tool eliminates redundant tasks and improves overall processes. Not every email you send will result in a positive response. Though, the more you can generate, the higher the chance of making an advantageous connection.

BuzzStream takes most of the headache out of this process.

Expand Your Link Building Strategy

Learning how to do link building involves some pretty simple concepts. Though, orchestrating the related tasks takes time and effort. This article contains some of the best link building tools out there.

Any one of them helps you simplify your efforts to gain more free backlinks. SEO is less complicated than it seems at first. Using tools like these leaves you more time to dedicate to creating sharp content in your niche.

At the same time, you can avoid “spammy” SEO moves that drag your rankings down rather than up.

At some point, you will want to expand your reach beyond free backlinks. If you have any questions about paid backlinks, please contact us.

There are over one billion websites on the internet. This means your content can easily get lost or ignored if you don’t take steps to make yourself noticeable online.

Getting your website noticed is where SEO comes in. By optimizing your website to rank on search engines, you can increase the chances your ideal customers will find you. You want your website to rank on the first page of search results if possible.

75% of searchers won’t look past that first page of search results. There are many SEO practices you can use to rank higher. One of the most important steps is link building.

There are several types of linking you can use to do this link building. Some work better than others though. It’s important to understand which types of links will get you the best ranking results.

What Is Linking?

Link building involves building up links from other websites and pages to individual pages on your website. These links help you build up your SEO rankings. These links connect your content to other relevant content.

This practice helps you build authority which builds up your search engine rankings. When link building, you establish your link with anchor text. This text involves keywords you want to rank.

Why Is Link Building Important?

Google and other search engines determine your website rank based on your content. They also base this rank on the number of links that point back to your content.

It’s not just the number of links though. Search engines look at the quality of the websites that link back to you. The number and quality of websites linking to you help search engines determine the relevancy of your content.

Outside of SEO, links send referral traffic to your site. If you have a link on a high-traffic website, you have a better chance of getting more traffic, no matter where you rank.

Link building also grows brand recognition. This helps you establish authority in your industry. You need something worth linking to first though.

Types of Linking

The link type falls into two categories. These categories are inbound and outbound links. Both types of links help establish and build your website authority. This helps you move towards that coveted first page of search results.

Inbound Links

Inbound or internal links are links on your website to your own content. These internal links help visitors and search engines find your relevant content.

These internal links work in a couple of ways.

• Including links to relevant content on individual web pages.
• Including links to other content when publishing new content.
• Updating old content to link to new content.

Each of these internal link options helps you lead visitors and search engines through your pages and content. It’s important to make sure that all links lead to high-quality information that’s relevant to the page or content they are found.

You can also use social share buttons to help build traffic to this internal content. This doesn’t build SEO, but it does make it easier for visitors to put your content in front of other possible leads.

Backlinks

Backlinks are the links that appear on other websites to lead people to your content. These links establish authority by showing your content’s relevancy to others. The more of these backlinks you have, the more relevancy search engines place on your information.

How to Build Backlinks

There are several ways to build these backlinks. Each of these methods is part of your link building campaign.

Interviews

Do you know an expert in your field that you could interview? This acts as a great way to establish your authority in your industry while opening a backlink opportunity.

To make this method work, you send the link to the person you interviewed and ask if they want to share it. They will usually want to include the interview link on their news or press release pages for their own site. You now have a backlink on an expert’s website and you’ve established the beginnings of a relationship.

Guest Posts

Guest posts are another way to get links on other websites while adding value and building relationships. A guest post is a method where you write content for another site. You can include one good link back to relevant content on your site in the post.

It’s important to make sure the site you guest post for is relevant to your industry. You also want to choose a site that has plenty of traffic and established authority for the best results.

Broken Link Building

Many people use links from other websites to add value to their content. Sometimes these links get broken or the other website goes offline. When this happens the person who linked to them are left with a useless link on their website.

You can search for these types of broken links on websites relevant to your industry. When you find broken links that fit your content, you can email the owner of the website offering one of your links to replace the useless one.

Self-Created Links

Self-created links are links you add to outside websites. This type of link includes

• Links in forums
• Website directories
• Article directories
• Anchor text in press releases
• Links in guest post signatures
• Links in blog comments

These methods are easy ways to distribute links to other sites, but they’re not ideal for building authority. Google doesn’t give much value to these types of links because of people abusing these methods.

Outreach Links

Outreach links are the most common links for increasing SEO. This is an important aspect of your link building strategy.

Outreach links involve contacting blog and website owners to ask them to link to you. You contact them with a specific link in mind for them to use.

You should contact people who are relevant to your industry for this method to work. You also need to make sure you have high-quality content for them to link to, or they’ll likely ignore you.

Natural Links

Natural links are the most coveted type of link for people wanting to increase SEO. They’re also the hardest type of link building to get.

Natural links are links that another site uses to direct people to your site without you asking them. They share the content because they believe your content is valuable enough to share.

To start accessing natural links, you will likely need to establish some outreach links. This puts your content in front of more eyes so these other sites can learn of your content naturally.

Strategies to Get Your Links Noticed

To find link building opportunities, you need to build relationships with others in your industry. You want to establish yourself as part of the community. You also want to establish yourself as someone worth paying attention to.

There are several ways you can reach out to people in your industry. Remember, it’s about establishing and building relationships so you can network further.

Social Media

Social media is a great way to establish your company. Not only can you use it to connect with leads and customers, but you can also use social sites to connect with others in your industry.

By connecting with your peers and building those relationships, you have an in for contacting them down the road. Plus, you can share high-quality content to increase the chances they will see it and want to use it.

You also have the opportunity to get your content in front of others in your industry you haven’t connected with. Every time someone shares your content, you increase your chances of having it linked to other sites.

Email Website Owners

Another easy way to get your links in front of the right eyes involves emailing them to share your content. Do your research and find websites that are relevant to your industry and niche. Also, make sure they’re an established website.

Once you locate the right people, check your content and make sure it’s worth sharing. Then contact the website owners.

Tell them who you are and what you have to offer. Send them the link you want them to use and ask if they can include it on their site. It really is that simple.

Create Content that Digs Deeper

You can get more links by knowing what information is already available. Search for content relevant in your industry and see what people have already said about your industry’s topics.

You can use this information to dig deeper into a particular topic. Once you have deeper content, you can contact other site owners to ask them to link to your content in something they already have on the topic.

Participate in Expert Roundups

Expert roundups are collections of content relevant to a particular industry. One website will gather relevant content on a particular subject and post links on their website for people to find in one place.

You can look for these opportunities online, or you can create your own roundup. When you reach out to people for links to create your own roundup you create a relationship with them. It makes them more likely to consider your website next time they need a link for content on their site.

Don’t Forget Outbound Links

A link building strategy isn’t just about getting your links on other websites and pages. It’s also about linking to relevant content already available.

When you link to a high-quality site, you establish authority for your own content. Search engine crawlers will take this relevancy into consideration when they rank your site.

Your Link Building Strategy

In order to get your links noticed, you need a plan in place. This requires research and networking. You need to make certain decisions so you have a real link building strategy in place.

Do your research on the places to ask for backlinks.

• What are the best websites in your industry?
• What type of content do they link to?
• What type of content do you already have available?
• What content can you create to make them want to link to you?

Make sure you know who you want to reach out to for backlinks. Know their website so you don’t offer content they already link to. Also, know who to contact and the best way to contact them.

Evaluate Your Content

You also want to take a good look at the content you already have. Does it provide valuable information? Is it still relevant?

Go through your older content and update it to share new insights or data. Make sure it’s not sloppy. Most importantly, make sure the information actually provides value to the reader.

Look for places that you can expand on past content as well. Can you create another article to go more in-depth on something you brought up in a past article? Take the time to research and add to these past topics.

Organize Your Efforts

Make a list of the websites you’d like to work with. Determine how you want to establish the backlinks from these sites.

Make lists of people you want to guest post for or you want to contact to ask them for links. Keep up with who you’ve already contacted. Create a follow-up schedule.

Also, make sure you keep a list of backlinks you’ve already established. This includes keywords used as anchor texts. You want to make sure you’re not using the same keywords for every backlink.

You also want to track how effective these backlinks are. Put tracking tools in place to know how much traffic you get from these links. Use this information to evaluate your efforts and tweak your content as needed.

Get Started on Your Link Building Strategy

If the idea of link building seems daunting, there are some steps you can take to make it easier. The different types of linking strategies are easier to wade through once you get started.

Do you want to start building links right away? Contact us to find out how we can help you get your first backlink.