Link building is one of the key SEO strategies but you can expect results only if you prioritize diversity in your backlink profile. Additionally, you need to focus on building natural backlinks. These refer to attractive and relevant links that entice others enough to link with them. Further, they have the anchor text included strategically into the content so that it appears completely natural. Such links are truly valuable in nature as they offer rich and contextual information to the readers rather than just having content for the sake of link building.
While determining whether a link is natural or not, you need to consider its relevance for your website. This parameter will help you to decide whether or not it is worth pursuing for making it a part of your link profile. Further, there are some tactics for competitor backlink analysis that can embrace t render true value for your business website and take it a notch higher. Let us list them for you.
- Offer value instead of requesting for or buying links
To start with, offer value to people instead of requesting for links. For instance, if you want an industry professional to give you a backlink, create a post that they would be interested in publishing. This means that you are creating a backlink that is completely natural. The rule of thumb is that any link that has an actual value is natural by default. Paid links, on the other hand, have a bad reputation in this context and are not recommended.
- Create targeted and purposeful content
When it comes to building natural backlinks, nothing works as well as content does. The idea is to offer something new and juicy in terms of the information that the content serves. Start by listing the sites frequented by your target audience and understand the type of content they might be interested in. Focus on creating content that they would want to read and share as this would encourage natural backlinking.
- Identify the favorite channels of your audience
Once you have identified your target audience, it is equally important to know the channels frequented by them. Even the best content will not get you quality links unless you promote it on the right channels. Social media is a great promotional channel for propagating content effectively. Create compelling content, post it on social media and encourage users to share it for fetching genuine links for your site.
- Choose relevant topics
Of course, you need to serve valuable content that the audience would search online. This can be best done by sifting through quality Q and A websites like Quora, where you can find topics according to the trending searches by real audience. Beyond that, there is always a chance of connection with niche influencers on these websites. You can even convince them to publish your content and give you a valuable backlink.
- Diversify the content types
Diversity is the key to a natural backlink strategy because Google prioritizes websites that offer diverse content to the audience. This makes it essential to create as many content types as possible. Look for adding variety to the classic informative and how-to posts by blending them with ebooks and infographics. Each of these forms needs to be treated and promoted differently for best results. This can translate into considerable effort but the benefits are absolutely worthwhile.
- Don’t forget visual content
Speaking about content diversity, visual content is one form that you should not forget. Marketers believe that this is the content form that is capable of fetching the highest ROI. At the same time, it is extremely valuable from SEO perspective as it can improve the rankings considerably. Therefore, contextual videos should be an integral part of your backlink plan if you want your portfolio to be natural.
- Collaborate with influencers
One of the best ways to get natural backlinks is by collaborating with the top influencers, both individuals and companies, in your domain. If you have quality content to offer, they will surely be interested in sharing it. It is a good idea to write feature news that covers them as they may probably be interested in sharing it in their press section. And of course, remember to inform them and get a quality backlink in return.
- Optimize content for searches
Ideally, content is to be created for people rather than the search engines. Obviously, organic searches do matter, so you need to churn out content that caters value to the readers yet is optimized for search engines. To begin with, you need to insert relevant and high-search keywords within the content but all has to be done seamlessly, without appearing stuffed. Remember that Google’s algorithm prioritizes content that has natural placement of keywords while allocating search rankings.
- Offer something exceptional
Another secret to building backlinks naturally is offering something exceptional in content. For example, you can pick a viral post by someone else and create something that is exceptional enough to surpass it. This will enable you to catch the attention of the users who were already interested in the competing content, which could be a significantly large number. This is known as the Skyscraper technique and is widely used by marketers for great results.
- Maintain consistency
Having an effective strategy is not enough; rather you need to focus on maintaining consistency in your link building efforts. There may be times that target websites may not give positive response, but you should keep persevering. Continue supplying engaging content on trending topics and sharing the pieces across the right channels frequented by your target audience. Pursue the right influencers for natural backlinks as well.
Following these tactics is the best approach to building natural and valuable backlink profile for your website. These may be complex and time consuming but can be highly effective for achieving tangible and sustainable results for your business. The best way to create and implement this strategy is to have a professional team that is capable of handling the entire aspects of natural link building for your website.