5 Ways To Get Links With Quality Content

One of the best ways to get quality links back to your website is by leveraging your content. It definitely helps to start off with content that is share-worthy, so make sure what you’re putting out there is relevant, interesting and created with the reader in mind. If you’re writing a blog, posting photos and videos, and using social media to share your work, that’s a great start. But, you can take your online marketing efforts to the next level by using your content to create backlinks on other websites. Those links will not only generate traffic to your website, but improve your odds of being favored by search engines as well.

Guest Blog Posting

Let’s say you sell sneakers. You’ve got a website where people can buy them, and you write a weekly blog posts that cover everything there is to know about athletic footwear. Now you’re asking yourself, “How can I make sure people are actually going to see this?” Well, what are your ideal customers already reading on the web? You can bet there are plenty of well-known blogs out there about running, or fitness in general that get tons of traffic. See if you can find a fitness blog geared toward your target audience that accepts content contributions. Be on the lookout for pages that say “write for us” or “guest posting” and check out their guidelines for submitting your guest post. Just make sure they are in good standing with Google (having a decent Pagerank), and are willing to include a link back to your website in the body of your post, or at least in a blurb about you at the bottom. Guest blogging can be tricky, especially when it comes to pitching your ideas to other bloggers. Looking for help? Kristi Hines shares some great pointers on the KISSmetrics blog.

Submit Your Content To Social Bookmarking Sites

If you create some particularly “sticky” content (meaning it’s incredibly relevant, interesting or hilarious) consider submitting it to social bookmarking sites like Digg and Reddit. These sites give readers the opportunity to “up vote” or “down vote” and comment on content submitted to various sections or niche areas within the site. If your submission is deemed worthy in the eyes of the site’s loyal readers and receives enough upvotes, the link you’ve created will stay visible for days or even weeks. If it makes it to the “front page,” your website will be flooded with traffic. On the other side of the coin, your content can just as easily get cast to the depths of whatever section you submitted it to and receive a myriad of harsh comments. It’s a risk you take, but regardless of reader opinion, the link is valuable.

Take Original Photos And Offer Them To Bloggers In Exchange For A Link

I don’t know about you, but one of the most time consuming aspects of writing blog posts is finding great photos to support them. If I don’t have any relevant photos of my own to use I’ll look for ones on the web that are free to use and share, which can be really tough— especially if you’re writing in a less-popular niche. If someone offered me high quality, original photos to use in exchange for a link I’d be all over it. So, If you come across a popular blog in your industry that might be having trouble sourcing good photos, take a few of your own and offer them up in exchange for a link back to your website. I wish I could take credit for this gem of a tip, but the idea comes from Neil Patel. For specific instructions on how to do this and get good results, read No.3 in Chapter 7 of his all-encompassing Advanced Guide To SEO.

Writing About Other People On Your Blog

This is more of a solid way to promote your blog content, but it could also result in a link if you’re lucky. Notice how I mentioned and linked to a few prominent people in the SEO industry within this post? The next thing I’m going to do after I publish this post is share it on social media. I’m going to highlight the fact that I’ve included Neil and Kristi’s helpful tips by using their Twitter handles in my tweet. If I’m lucky they’ll retweet it, and if I’m really lucky they’ll mention my post on their own websites with a link back to it. There are many other ways to get links by writing about other people, like interviewing them, for example. Not many people like to toot their own horn, but if someone else toots it for them they’re almost guaranteed to show some interest. Julie Joyce has a great, expanded post about this link building tactic on Search Engine Land that can help you get the results you’re after. (See what I did there?)

Set Up A Muck Rack Account

This is an online community I just recently discovered that I’m super excited about. Muck Rack is a community for journalists, but you don’t have to write for a distinguished newspaper or magazine to sign up. Muck Rack was started to create connections between the writers and bloggers that have made social networks the bottomless news resource that they are today— the muckrakers if you will. Sign up and curate your profile. Include a link back to your website and/or blog, write a few words to describe yourself (or default to your Twitter bio), and then develop your portfolio. You can fill your portfolio with your guest blog posts on other websites for indirect links. Needless to say, this is also an excellent resource for getting in touch with other bloggers in your industry, and there are other communities out there just like it.

These are just a few ways you can use your content to get high value links. There are hundreds of other ways. If you have a link building tip you’d like to share, leave us a comment.