In our last post, we talked about how backlinks work and what makes them valuable in Backlinks 1: What’s the Recipe for Good Backlinks? This week, we are going to talk about how to get quality backlinks that help your client’s search engine rankings.
One thing we want to caution you about is paying for backlinks. Services that promise to buy you backlinks will usually provide you with only low-quality links. That’s of no help with your SEO. Instead, learn how to get high quality backlinks.
Before you start, you will want to list some sites from which you would like to get backlinks for your client. Look at sites that are related to their industry, everything from editorial sties to those of related businesses that are not your competition. You will want to target those sites then monitor to see if your strategy for how to get valuable backlinks is successful.
Before beginning your campaign to increase both the quality and quantity of your client’s backlinks, check out who is linking to them now with Google’s Links Report. Use it regularly to check on what content is attracting backlinks and from where.
You aren’t limited to checking on your client’s backlinks. There are tools that enable you to see the backlinks that go to any website. Start with your client’s, and then check out your competition’s backlinks. Determine if you should follow up to get quality backlinks from any of these sites.
Your client is probably not going to be posting the sheer volume of content it takes to get the backlinks you want without further effort, but good content is your starting point. If you want backlinks, create informative content people will want to read.
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If you very consistently create educational, interesting content for your client, you will get some backlinks. But understand, your client’s business site probably isn’t The Harvard Business Review. You are not going to get the constant flood of backlinks of a research or editorial site.
So beyond great content, what else can you do to get quality backlinks for your clients? Read on.
Guest blogging is a great way to get quality backlinks if you have a strategy. Take a look at that list of high domain authority sites we suggested you make. Which ones are candidates for your client to add value as a guest blogger?
There are sites that will accept anybody as a guest blogger. Those sites are unlikely to be high authority. That means the backlinks will not be worth that much.
Instead, look for high domain authority sites that are noncompetitive with your client’s company, but which have a similar audience. You may want to do a guest blogging swap. Or you could just pitch the other site on some ideas that would fit so well into their content, they don’t even care about blogging on your client’s site.
What you don’t want to do is just send an email telling the other company that your client wants to be a guest blogger without giving any additional information. Offer your client’s credentials, some blogpost ideas, and anything else that would sell the idea.
Whether your client is writing the post or you are ghost writing if for them, if you can, put the backlink right into the copy. Some sites do not allow that but will allow you to put a backlink in the author bio. This is still good, but a backlink in the blog copy is better.
It’s important to put backlinks in your client’s online business profiles such as Google My Business and as well as directory listings that are specific to their business.
And while you’re at it, make sure all their social media accounts have a link to your website in the bio.
Any time you produce content that may be published somewhere other than your website, try to include a link to your site. Press releases are no exception.
It’s a no-brainer when sending out your press releases to a wire service such as PRWeb, include a link to your website. A backlink is certainly not the primary purpose of a press release, but it’s a nice bonus.
You know that a lot of blog comments are spam. You certainly don’t want to go that route when commenting on blog posts or social media on behalf of your client.
But if you can add real insight to the issue being discussed, those kinds of comments are welcome and are a good way to get quality backlinks on an ongoing basis. Any links you share should be relevant to the content. Look for high authority domains that will be seen by your audience for this strategy.
An acknowledgment backlink can be had for many reasons. They are an acknowledgment of your client’s company. For example, if they are a speaker at an industry event, the website will likely link back to their website from their bio. You may also be able to offer a testimonial to a brand related to your client’s industry (but not competitive with your client) on condition you can include a backlink. You can even get a backlink from donating to a good cause. Brainstorm with your team and check out what your competitors are doing.
As a marketer, you should have a handle on SEO basics. But you only need enough information to sell SEO services; you need not perform them yourself. If SEO is not the focus of your agency, you can resell white label SEO services from Umbrella. Umbrella’s experts can do the job from beginning to end while you take the credit.
Contact Umbrella for a free consultation to discuss how we can help you provide SEO services to your clients.