Google has come out and stated that links are one of their two most important factors when determining SERPs of websites, the other being content. However, although Google has not stated which one of the two are more powerful determining signals, it is of the opinion of most SEOs including me that links are the number one factor.
Well, considering that, building links is actually touch for newbie bloggers or for those who do not like cold pitching emails, one after another for building links to their website. While guest posting is a viable and powerful option to build links, in this post I shall show you some very easy, underused and kind-of secret methods you can use to grab backlinks to your site fast as hell.
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#1. Make Expert Roundups
While I really like writing for others’ sites (high authority sites, however), creating expert roundups has always been one of my most loved techniques. The novelty about this technique is that all you need to do, is write for your own site.
To create an expert roundup, all you have to do is publish content along with the opinions of experts.
Here’s how you can create an expert roundup step by step.
Step 1: Getting the Pitches
There’s two ways to go about this. One, is to use HARO, acronym for Help A Reporter Out. All you need to do is select the option that you are a journalist and fill in your query. Your query will be sent to all the experts in that niche. When they pitch you, HARO will send you their pitches at the email you put in.
While HARO does not allow sites above one million Alexa ranking, there’s a work around that you could apply. It is kind of non-ethical, but hey, who am I to judge?!
Anyhow, if your site belongs to an Alexa rank above one million, you could put in the URL of some high authority website, in the box where they ask you put in the homepage of the website you are associated with instead of the actual site where you belong and post the query as an anonymous person. Your HARO query will be accepted and the experts will not be aware who they are pitching to.While this may reduce the number of pitches you receive, it still works like magic.
Note: Put in a disposable email ID in the column where they ask you of the details so that your original email ID doesn’t get flagged by them, on the off chance someone reports you.
The other way, you can get high quality pitches from experts in your niche is by contacting them through email or Twitter.But to be honest with you, why should a person who does not know you, even answer you?So, to increase your chances of having your email or Twitter reach-out witnessing a reply, I suggest you come up on their radar by commenting their blogs and sharing their Tweets. Do mention them when retweeting.
As you can see, HARO is a lot easier than the other process. But the second process has a much higher chance of you reaching out to top end bloggers and influencers. Richard of Clambr used this second method to reach out to top bloggers and experts in the SEO niche of the likes of Neil Patel, founder of QuickSprout, KISSmetrics and Neil Patel among other blogs and SEO tools.
Step 2: Creating the Roundup
Now that you have got their pitches, you need to create the post. There are two ways of doing it. One is by creating a vote, followed by putting in the participants names and then putting in the experts comments and opinions in the following format:
[Name] – [Website]
[———-Quote———–]
[Name] – [Website]
[———-Quote———–]
To put it in words, the name of the expert goes first followed by the website they belong in followed by their pitch.
The other way is by putting in the comments of the bloggers in a very non-chalant way which is interesting for viewers to actually read.
Here’s one example of that. It’s one of my posts and is on “How to use Technology to Grow your Startup”. Here’s another example. It’s “How To Build Your Online And Offline Assets”. As you can see, unlike the usual format, it has got opinions of different experts smoothly put inside the body of the post that does not bore the viewer from reading the entire post.
Step 3: Notifying the Experts that the Roundup is Ready
After you finish the roundup, notify the participants that they have been featured in your post and their pitch have been selected. Here’s an ideal email that you can send after your post has been published.Replace “Ray” with the name of the expert you are reaching out to and put in your name after “Warmly”.And that’s all. Just sit back and watch the links pour in. To maximize the number of links that you get, you should try, reach out and get as many pitches from experts as possible.The more pitches you get from experts, the more links you get.
#2. Create List Posts
If you asked any Search Engine Optimiser what type of content brings the most links, he would definitively say list posts. The thing about list posts is that they do not provide much detailed and actionable content but oddly, bring links like hell!
If you happen to check any top site like Backlinko, QuickSprout, Writers in Charge or Shoutmeloud through Moz’s Open Site Explorer, you will find that list posts bring a huge chunk of links and are among their most linked to pages.
To prove my point, Backlinko’s post on the 200 Ranking factors used by Google brings about the most number of links after its Home and About Page. Also, Shoutmeloud’s post on 101 ways to get quality backlinks is among its top link earners.
However if your site is not that big, just creating a list post may not be enough as you need top influencers and experts in your niche to view your content to link to it. If they don’t even see it, they can’t link to you.
And for that, you need to use the Skyscraper Technique. It is a technique used by several SEO experts but was given the name Skyscraper Technique by Backlinko founder Brian Dean. The basics of the Skyscraper technique is
- Creating content that’s highly linkable (list posts! XD)
- Making something even better (if there are lists of top 10, 15 or even top 30 stuff, you need to go above and beyond and create top 100 or 150 to make an impact)
- Reaching out to the right people
By reaching out to the right people, it means reaching out to the experts in your niche that you have created a post on the topic concerned and wish them to check it out. Be sure to mention that it is the most detailed stuff out there, to intrigue them. Here’s the pitch that Brian Dean recommends you try out.
While, this is all you need to try the strategy out, I would recommend you give the Skyscraper Technique a read.
#3. Give Quality Testimonials
This is again another SEO technique that is highly overlooked. In fact several brands have high authority pages, which accept testimonials from users of their products. If you happen to use some of their products, just give them a heads up and tell them how you found their product useful. (You can even lie to bag links through testimonials!)
TOP 5 WAYS TO BUILD UP QUALITY BACKLINKS TO YOUR SOCIAL PROFILES
Anyhow, several sites like Moz, HubSpot and Ahref accept testimonials. If your testimonials stands out, you get a link back to your site.But the question is, “how do you get your testimonial published?”Well, the simple answer is, it must be catchy, relevant, contain useful information and be powerful enough to make a potential user of the program or a potential buyer purchase the product.If you successfully create such a win-win situation, there’s no reason why your testimonial should be rejected.
Conclusion
Link building is a very vast and expansive subject. While there are numerous other ways to build links like guest posting, infographics and building broken links, the strategies mentioned here, are some of the most underused and highly effective technique that you can try right now to build quality links really fast.