6 Creative Ways to Generate High Quality Backlinks

In 2024, securing effective backlinks remains a key strategy for boosting your website’s SEO performance.

There are several proven methods to enhance your backlink profile significantly, contributing to a stronger online presence.

From positioning yourself as a reliable source for reporters and bloggers to creating and sharing engaging “Skyscraper” content, these techniques have demonstrated substantial results.

With a focus on creating valuable content and leveraging existing online resources, these strategies also include using blended methods like ultimate guides and branded tactics.

1. Become a Source For Reporters and Bloggers

Platforms like Help a B2B Writer and Featured.com can connect you with journalists and bloggers seeking expert sources. These services often function like matchmaking tools for public relations, linking those in need of quality information with those seeking backlinks and exposure.

Help a B2B Writer and Featured.com are effective in building white hat backlinks from authoritative news sites. For instance, notable backlinks have been secured from major publications such as Entrepreneur:

Many users have had successful experiences, frequently receiving positive feedback:

This strategy, while requiring significant effort, offers substantial returns in terms of high-quality backlinks.

1. To begin, register as a source on the chosen platform
2. After registration, select a suitable plan based on your needs
3. Stay vigilant for relevant requests where you can provide valuable input
4. Craft a concise and insightful pitch to send to the journalist. For example, responding to a query about the difference between graphic design and web design yielded a valuable link from a high domain authority site
5. This approach secured a high-quality backlink from an educational institution

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2. Publish “Skyscraper” Content

Using “Skyscraper” content to attract backlinks involves creating superior content that stands out in your industry. This approach has yielded impressive results. 

Step-by-Step Process:

First

Identify a piece of content in your industry that has already performed well in terms of backlinks. This can be done with a simple Google search. For example, searching for “SEO tools” reveals top-ranking pages that likely have numerous backlinks.

High-ranking pages usually indicate that many people have linked to them. As backlinks are an important ranking signal, content that ranks well likely attracts significant backlinks.

Next

Develop content that surpasses the existing top-ranking content. Aiming to create something 5-10x better will help it stand out. For instance, most lists of SEO tools are relatively short. A thorough list containing every tool on the market, such as a compilation of 170+ tools, ensures comprehensiveness and value.

Creating this content may be labor-intensive, but it can yield substantial benefits. The SEO tools list mentioned earlier, for example, has been shared on social media 20,777 times.

Additionally, it garnered backlinks from over 1.08K different domains.

Finally

Promoting your “Skyscraper” content is crucial. While superior content gives you an edge, active promotion maximizes its impact. Promoting your content can be done in many ways, such as reaching out to people mentioned in your post.

3. Build Links From Outdated Resources

Using “The Moving Man Method” can help in obtaining valuable backlinks. This approach involves securing links from websites that have changed their URLs, stopped offering services, or even shut down.

Steps to Build Links from Outdated Resources

Presenting them with valuable content or resources can enhance your chances of earning a backlink. This dual value proposition (alerting about the outdated link and offering valuable content) makes webmasters more receptive to adding your link.

4. Use Content Formats Proven To Generate Links

A while ago, BuzzSumo and I did a study of 912 million blog posts and articles:

So, what did we find?

We discovered that most content is completely ignored.

They found that 94% of all online content gets ZERO links.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is, we found that certain types of content consistently performed better than others.

Specifically, we discovered that the following content formats tended to generate lots of backlinks:

In other words, if you want to get backlinks, focus on these content formats:

• “Why” Posts
• “What” posts
• Infographics
• Videos
  

Am I saying: “Just publish a bunch of why posts and infographics?”

Of course not.

If you want to get backlinks today, your content has to be amazing.

But these formats give you a starting point for writing amazing content that works.

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5. Publish Ultimate Guides

Creating ultimate guides is an effective method for attracting high-quality backlinks. Ultimate guides are comprehensive resources that cover a specific topic in great detail, making them a go-to reference for anyone seeking information on that subject.

Take, for instance, an Ultimate Guide to Link Building that was published years ago. Despite its age, it still generates backlinks today.

Ultimate guides work well because they pack a significant amount of content on a single page. The link-building guide mentioned is an extensive 4,834-word piece. Longer content often performs better in search engine rankings, driving more traffic and backlinks.

Since ultimate guides thoroughly cover a topic, they become a primary resource. Bloggers and other sites frequently link to these guides when they write about related topics.

To create an ultimate guide, start by identifying a topic. Choose one that is popular but not oversaturated. For example, when developing the link-building guide, the choice was made because there weren’t existing ultimate guides on the first page of Google.

In contrast, SEO is a topic with numerous existing guides.

Next, outline the guide by listing subtopics that form the larger subject. For a link-building guide, topics might include:

• What is link building?
• Black hat SEO
• White hat SEO
• Anchor text
• Content
• Email outreach
• Advanced tips

6. Use Branded Strategies and Techniques

Leveraging branded strategies and techniques can significantly enhance link-building efforts. Naming a unique strategy not only makes it memorable but also increases its shareability among bloggers and content creators.

For instance, the “Moving Man Method” is a unique twist on broken link building. Rather than solely focusing on broken links, this method targets outdated links that still function but lead to outdated resources.

Naming the strategy effectively led to a significant number of backlinks and content shares. Similarly, Ramit Sethi’s “The Briefcase Technique” demonstrates how a well-branded technique can garner numerous high-quality links.

Steps to Create a Branded Strategy

• Step 1: Develop a Unique Strategy, Tip, or Tactic The strategy doesn’t need to be entirely original but should have a unique element. The Moving Man Method, for example, focused on updating outdated yet functioning links rather than just fixing broken ones.
• Step 2: Name the Strategy A memorable and descriptive name is crucial. Utilize words like Method, Technique, Approach, System, or Blueprint. The name should succinctly describe what the strategy accomplishes.
• Step 3: Publish the Strategy as a Blog Post Publishing a blog post, preferably a case study, demonstrates the effectiveness of the strategy. This provides content for others to link back to when they reference your technique.

Utilizing Resource Pages

Resource pages are dedicated to linking out to useful content, making them ideal for gaining backlinks. Finding these pages involves searching for terms like “helpful resources,” “useful resources,” “further reading,” or “additional resources” along with relevant keywords.

Email Outreach for Resource Pages

Reaching out to site owners with a personalized email increases the chances of getting your content linked.

Bonus Strategy #1: Turn Brand Mentions Into Quality Backlinks

Every once in a while, someone will mention your brand in a blog post but not link to your site. This is known as an “Unlinked Brand Mention.”

These mentions are relatively easy to convert into backlinks because the author already likes and trusts your brand enough to mention it. To turn an unlinked brand mention into a backlink, all you need to do is send a friendly and concise email to the author.

Bonus Strategy #2: Send “Feeler” Emails

When engaging in email outreach, leveraging “feeler” emails can dramatically boost your conversion rates. Rather than directly asking for a link, these introductory emails gauge the recipient’s interest in your content.

Feeler emails are about testing the waters. Instead of diving straight into your link request, you’re subtly checking if the prospect is open to your proposal. This approach can increase response rates by over 40%.

Here’s a practical example:

In this example, Mike doesn’t ask for a link immediately. Instead, he inquires if the recipient would be interested in seeing the content first.

When the recipient responds positively, the door is open for a more direct pitch:

Mike’s approach of using a “feeler” email yielded 40% more responses compared to requests made in the initial email.

This table shows the improved reply rates:

Using feeler emails is a subtle yet effective strategy to enhance your outreach campaigns.

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