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?