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Backlinks to websites are like getting celebrity endorsements for your fashion brand. It helps your website be anchored in the world wide web as opposed to floating adrift. Backlinks are your website’s badge of endorsement from others on the internet. Therefore, every website owner needs to employe basic link building tactics to set up their website’s success.
At the end of the day, the best backlinks are badges of validation from others. Therefore, the best chance of getting backlinks is to have exceptional content. Then socialize and promote that content so others can find it to discover and then endorse it with a backlink.
Barring that most link-building approaches are tactical patches to help lift a website from obscurity to potential discoverability. Therefore, these are basic tactics to help anchor the website lightly in the internet ocean. Remember, the best way to get backlinks is:
Don’t skimp and don’t try to take shortcuts. However, if you’re just starting out, that might not be possible, and you’ll need to invest time and effort to get there. Until then, here are some ways to help a website to start ranking, ie be taken tiny bit more seriously by Google’s Search Engine. Even if they don’t lift your website domain authority right away, these are steps to start building legitimacy for your business and your brand.
These are actually not even discovered as backlinks from backlink tools like SEMRush. Because anyone can create social media accounts, these backlinks have low credibility. However, they do help because those sites have audiences. It can help your site’s discoverability if you’re on more platforms.
Note that just because you set up an account doesn’t mean you’ll get visitors, but at least your one website in billions is anchored to something.
Example Sites:
Online business directories are like the olden day’s Yellow Pages. And actually, YellowPages is now online. Like social media, business directories help with discoverability. Some of these directories will be considered backlinks because they are just treated as websites that link to other websites, though if they are recognized as directories they won’t boost your domain much.
In particular, Google Business Profile, which we categorize as a directory and focuses on local physical businesses, will help businesses get found on local searches and on maps results. Ever searched for something + “near me”, then the results that pop up by Google will likely list relevant Google Business Profile at the top of search results.
Example Sites:
Reviews are immensely important to validate businesses. But did you know that review site also gives you a backlink? Some of these overlap with business directories such as Yelp. However, Yelp is first and foremost used as a reviews site, so we list it here. Some of these are such small sites that they don’t stand out as review sites but are just regular sites.
Some review sites have really high domain authority. Take Yelp for example. What’s pretty great about Yelp is that if your business is well ranked on Yelp, given Yelp’s high domain authority, you can get your business to pop up in search results via Yelp as opposed to through building your own website’s authority. This can be a viable approach for small businesses who have neither the expertise to make their own website or the capital to hire help for one.
Example Sites:
Some of the sites for directories also offer users to submit reviews such as Google Business Profile, Doordash, and Angie’s List, to name a few previously listed.
Review sites and directories are great for service oriented businesses. By listing yourself there you can both get back links AND get good potential leads for your business. But what if you’re in the business of selling things. Then maybe the better option is to build up your presence on online marketplaces. Aside from social media, marketplaces are excellent options to lift an e-commerce business’ visibility.
Example Sites:
One thing to know is that if you’re listing your business on these sites, you’re setting up a storefront. It’s not enough to throw up a profile. It’s important to list a few of your products there. It doesn’t have to be all of your products, but enough to get interest and be discovered on the marketplace, backlink aside.
Those are the free options to get your name out there. If you’ve got more capital, then there are more options available based on spent capital, aside from just advertising. An example is sponsored placements. This could be as simple as a guest blog post on a well-known independent website or an article on a large media or publisher website.
Example Sites:
Events and conferences do fit every business model, but events can be a great way to not only expand your professional network but also get backlinks. By hosting, sponsoring, attending, or help promoting an event, your company can get listed in local publications that help to promote local events. There are two main ways to get backlinks here: 1) events with their own websites can send a link back to their sponsors and/or attendees, and 2) event hosts can list the event in multiple online publications (because people like attending events) and get a backlink from that publisher. It is however hard to host events, so those links are well earned.
Example Sites:
Find your people. They are probably also building links, so you can create partnerships where both promote each other. This is backlinks at its most pure intention: as a mark of validation from another person or business. Some of these partnerships be with larger well-known firms, which will require your business to adhere to their standard. This further supports the backlink model with leans credibility to the site being linked to.
Examples:
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This is venturing into PR, but these are the ultimate gold standard for backlinks. Large publishers are constantly looking for newsworthy stories, and their team of editors and publishers act as the best filtering mechanism for the world wide web of submissions. This means that a backlink from these placements can really lift your website’s domain authority. However, without a dedicated PR strategy, this may be immensely difficult to do.
What small teams can do is to submit their content to the subsections of those publishers that are looking for stories like yours. An example is the Business Insider, that often features stories about everyday people. On these articles, they’ll even actively promote how people can submit their story to be published.
Example Sites:
Lastly, an often overlooked place to get backlinks are careers pages. In a number of companies I’ve worked in, the careers page oddly is an often visited page that attracts not just job seeking candidates, but just general interest. And don't throw up pages to mislead people. Only list what is needed, but do so in a way that will also take the opportunity to promote and present your brand to new audiences.
Examples Sites:
Building backlinks is a slow and manual process that takes time a dedication. As a subdomain of SEO, it can end up being an all encompassing endeavor. Instead of finding the endeavor futile and overwhelming, try out these basic link building techniques to teach yourself how you do want to go about building links organically and in a way that isn’t just about SEO, but also about expanding your professional network and enriching your daily life.
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