10 Tips For Building Backlinks For SEO
This post was originally posted on Tuxbee Digital.
One of the most important things you can do to improve your websites and traffic is building backlinks for SEO. This simply means that your website is being recommended from another website. This can be as easy as posting a pin to Pinterest to direct traffic back to one of your blog posts to as complex as writing an entire guest blog post for someone else’s blog.
Here are some free and simple ways that you can implement to build more backlinks directing to your site.
1. Building Backlinks for SEO: Create share-worthy content
One of the most important things that you need for building backlinks is content that is worth linking to. Keep in mind that creating content is quality over quantity. It’s better to publish one great blog post, podcast episode, or video (or whatever you are creating) a week or month than it is to publish subpar content more often. People are going to have to want to refer to your site, so give them something good to share!
2. Appear as a guest on other people’s podcasts or videos
Do you know how Lil Wayne rose to fame? If you take a look at his track record, you will see that for a lot of years while he was coming up and making a name for himself, he was featured everywhere. Do you think that happened by accident? No. I am willing to bet that he was out there looking for and asking for opportunities.
Putting yourself out there and offering to be a guest on other people’s podcasts or videos is a great way of building backlinks and making great connections in your industry. Prepare a quick media sheet that has a great picture of you, a bio, your speaking topics, and contact info. You can use a free Canva account to put it together. Then find podcasters looking for guests. There are soo many podcasts out there, and there are always hosts looking for guests. Don’t forget to look in more obscure categories that may be related or complementary to your industry.
I have found some great podcast guest opportunities in Facebook groups, so take a look there. Search for podcasts and see what groups come up. You’ll be amazed at the number of opportunities that you will find! There are also directories for podcasters looking for guests that you can join. I recommend you stick to the free methods of finding podcasts while you are discovering your voice and getting practice.
The idea here is that you appear as a guest expert to other people’s audiences, which will expand your audience. When you book your recording, you will be asked to send your info, including your website. That will be included in the show notes (ask to make sure) which will then appear across all of the podcast player websites like Apple, Amazon, Google, and more.
3. Host guest experts on your website or podcast
Starting a podcast is a great way to create content and create great connections in your industry. Offer other entrepreneurs the opportunity to share what they do with your audience. When the episode goes live, they will share it with their audiences, which again, puts your website in front of entirely new audiences.
If you are starting a podcast, don’t sweat the details. Forget editing the episodes. Forget the microphone, forget all the drama. All you need is Zoom, BuzzSprout, and Calendly- those are all free, y’all! You don’t have to pay guest speakers anything. The benefit to them is building the backlinks and getting in front of new audiences, so if someone asks for a fee you can politely decline.
The first 40-50 episodes will be practice- you are still finding your voice- so don’t stress them too much. This is going to require taking imperfect action, so don’t let that stop you.
If you are interested in starting your own podcast for free and aren’t sure where to get started, be sure to check out Podcasting For Free: Resources and Tools!
4. Link to your website from social media
Every time you make a post on social media using the link to your website, you are creating a backlink! That’s right. By sharing your website on Facebook, Instagram, Linked In, TikTok, or Twitter, you are creating a backlink. This also counts if someone else shares your link. In fact, some of my SEO software can track how many times a link has been shared on each social media site, so share away!
If you do a Google search of a business you can see that the social media profiles can appear near the top, sometimes even ranking above their own websites.
5. Be a guest expert in someone else’s summit or course
Another wonderful way to build your authority (not to be confused with domain authority) is to be a guest expert in someone else’s summit or course. You provide value to their students or audience and can be featured on all of the promo materials that are shared in preparation for the event. This is also a great way to developing new connections in your industry.
I have gotten paying work from a speaker that I was introduced to during a virtual summit. She wasn’t selling, she was teaching. I loved her demeanor, followed her on Facebook, and responded to a call to action for help on her blog when she asked for writers for a project.
You never know who you are going to meet through these incredible events, whether you are attending or presenting.
6. Only get backlinks from reputable sites
There are a few things to consider when deciding whether you want a website pointing back to yours, like Domain Authority and overall reputation. You can get an idea of a website’s domain authority by using tools like Ubersuggest.
Overall reputation is something you can research on your own like does the website have restricted content (ex: porn, weapons, tobacco, and fireworks websites- check with Google for a complete list of the restricted website types)? For the recommendation to carry weight, the website that is referring your website should be reputable and have strong domain authority.
Keep in mind that we all start with a low domain authority that will grow as our website grows. A low Domain Authority could mean someone is starting out (like you) so trading backlinks can be helpful. You also have to have a good domain authority for reputable websites to want to link to you, so keep this in mind as you are starting and growing your stats.
7. Backlink checker plugin
An important aspect of SEO is the outgoing links on your website. I use a Chrome Extension called “Backlink Checker Plugin” to check the status of the links on my site. This can help me correct and links that lead to a 404 without having to open every single link. You can also run this on competitor websites to take a peek at their backlinks and more.
8. If you change the link structure, don’t forget to set up the proper permanent redirects
One of the biggest issues that I see with websites is improper permalink structure. When you set up WordPress the permalinks are usually set up to show with date and post name. This can make your links long and look clunky. To make it easier for your readers to find and improve your SEO, your permalinks should be set to Post Name. However, if you have already created and shared posts from your site, you cannot just switch the permalink structure without setting up permanent redirects.
If you are a lyrical host customer, you can submit a ticket to have the team help you take care of this. Otherwise, check here for more info on setting up your redirects.
9. Don’t forget to properly tag nofollow links
When you share a link that compensates you, there are several rules that you have to follow. One of those rules is that your affiliate links must be disclosed. There are several specifications to follow, like the disclosure must be above the link. Amazon has specific wording that must be included in your disclaimers if using the Amazon Affiliate program.
Another rule that must be followed with links that compensate you is that they must be no-follow. This is a piece of code that can be added with the link or can be added with a plugin (I recommend you add the code manually so there’s no chance of it breaking).
Keep this in mind if you set up an affiliate program for your own products or services. Include some recommended wording for your affiliates to easily add to their sites.
10. Pinterest
A powerful way of creating backlinks to your website is pinning graphics with your links on Pinterest. Keep in mind that Pinterest is NOT social media. Pinterest is a search engine, which means that your posting strategies are going to be a bit different. Create folders with your main categories and then share content from your site, saving them to the appropriate folder. Only use these folders for your own content. You can also create several different graphics that lead back to the same link. You can use something like Tailwind LINK HERE to scheduled your pins out so you can batch that content out as soon as you make it, but it doesn’t all go out at once. This can increase the chances of your pins being seen. Take note of the pins that do well and replicate whatever worked (for example, notice if a certain template gets more views than others and use it more).
11. Create backlink opportunities in your Facebook Groups or other social media
Speaking of Pinterest, this next tip is from Pinterest Expert Angela Tempest over at Skylark Virtual Services. She runs a free group on Facebook and she simply posted in that group asking if anyone was looking for backlink opportunities. Don’t have a Facebook group? No problem. You can ask on your personal Facebook profile, Instagram, Tik Tok, Linked In, or whatever you use. I commented on her post and asked if I could add this idea to my blog post, and then I linked it back to her website. See how easy it can be?
