Building Backlinks can be really difficult for businesses today but it’s so important for your SEO.
That’s why in this blog we’re going to explain three easy ways to build backlinks in 2024. These 3 big tips will help you to establish high quality backlinks as part of your SEO and Marketing Strategies to move you forward!
What is a backlink and why is it important?
A backlink is simply a link from one website to another. For example, a link to your website may be on a business directory website which potential customers could click on to send them to you.
But why is it so important?
Well, a long time ago when Google was first founded, they realised that a backlink counted as a little vote of confidence between one website and another. Google needed a way of ranking different websites on their search platform and backlinks were considered little marks of credibility that they could use to measure the reliability and trustworthiness of a website.
Google simply wants to deliver their customers, the searchers, the highest quality information based on the search terms inputted. With literally thousands of new websites launched every day, Google needed a way of finding the most trustworthy and high quality websites, and ranking them.
Backlinks are one of the key ways that Google does this, so if you want to boost your SEO long term and start acquiring some really high converting traffic then you are going to need to have a backlink strategy.
However, not all backlinks are created equal. Backlinks from websites with a high domain authority, that are considered relevant to your business, will always carry more weight with Google than links from low domain authority websites.
What is domain authority?
Domain authorities are a score between 1 and 100 that is assigned to websites. When you build a new website with no history for example, you would start with a low score of 1, whereas the likes of BBC for example, would have a score nearer to 100.
If you were to link from a low value website with a low domain authority to a website with higher domain authority then this is going to carry a lot more weight and help push you further up the rankings.
So here are 3 tips that show how you can start identifying backlink opportunities, and some simple and free ways that you can start building them.
Tip 1
Ensure your business is fully listed with all free business listing sites.
Whilst this may sound simple, it often gets overlooked. At Lilac James, we ensure this is done when we are completing an SEO project for a client but you can do this yourself by checking where competitors are listed and making sure you are listed in those places too.
Whilst it varies from industry to industry, places like Yell.com and Trustpilot are ones to consider. There are paid services that will do this for you such as Brightlocal, which is quicker but it can be done manually just as well if you spend some time on it.
Just make sure all the places you’re listing your business are credible and trustworthy sources. If you want to see where your higher ranking competitors are listed, simply search their brand name in Google and see what listings come up in the first few pages of the Google search results.
Tip 2
Conduct a backlink analysis of your competitors and compare them against your own backlink profile.
The manual way of doing this can be really painful and laborious, so we would recommend that you take advantage of a free trial of software such as SEMrush or Ahrefs.
These software platforms allow you to enter a range of competitors into their backlink analysis tools, they will then provide you a list of backlinks that your competitors have in common, that you do not. This then gives you the opportunity to explore establishing these backlinks.
Always prioritise the highest quality, highest domain authority backlinks that are relevant. The chances are, if your main competitors all have the same backlinks, then you can easily, and cheaply establish them too.
Many websites need great content, and you could be in a great position to write is for them!
Tip 3
Give your time and expertise to deliver webinars, podcasts, and guest speaking at events.
As an example, we recently delivered a presentation for the Cambridge Network. This created a backlink from that business networking group who have a domain authority in the 60’s. As part of this presentation, we also established backlinks on Eventbrite and Ticketmaster, both high domain authority sites that are seen as highly credible by Google. As an additional benefit, these backlinks are highly relevant to our business.
Using your expertise like this is a great way to market yourself in general as this kind of material gets shared and referenced within your target market and improves reach and opportunities. Therefore, we would consider this to be one of the most important ways to increase both your visibility and website traffic.
Think of it from Google’s perspective. Google has a real problem trying to distinguish credible businesses from poor quality businesses, so if it sees your business offering events, demonstrations, and education to your target audience, this quickly establishes your business as an authority, which reassures Google that when it promotes your business, it’s searchers are getting good information.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
All these tips can be implemented for free which will work towards improving domain authority and moving you higher up the search engine rankings.
We really hope this blog helps you to consider your backlink strategy and how it can be used to your advantage.
If you would like a consultation or training on SEO for your business, please email us at info@lilacjames.com.
You can see more great video content on our YouTube channel.