When it comes to optimizing your website, it can be easy to focus on things that are directly visible on a webpage, or “on-page SEO.”

On-page SEO is important on any website for the following reasons:

  1. It helps Google, Bing, and other search engines easily find out what your content is about.
  2. It can make the information easier for your users to read and digest.

But backlinks are a form of off-page SEO that can help people find your website through other sources, or “referrals.’

Think about when you are on a social media platform. The URL that you add to your profile directing users to your website or landing page is a backlink.

Backlinks are amazing for several reasons:

But how do you go about getting backlinks that are both free and won’t get your penalized by Google?

You earn them!

Building or “earning” backlinks is the process of getting a website owner to link to your site without payment or sponsorship.

Although this might sound extremely difficult, I can assure you it is simple.

Here are 3 simple ways to earn quality backlinks to your website:

1) Be a Source For Reporters

HARO is a great tool to earn some high-quality backlinks

Helping reporters by being a source for their articles can earn you some pretty high-quality backlinks if done correctly.

HARO is simple to use and sign up for. All that they ask for is basic information such as name and email, and what website you will need links to.

Three times a day, their team of curators put together a list for each industry of the most recent articles that reporters are in search of and sends it directly to your inbox.

All you need to do is find which article you think would be relevant to your website and send a pitch! Easy right?

The first thing you will want to do though will be to make sure that this site is offering a valuable backlink.

I typically prefer to use Google Search and a basic operator to get this information.

By typing site:domain into the search bar, Google will only show results relevant to that specific website.

For example, if I want to find out how many pages Raw Shorts has, I would type site:rawshorts.com into the search bar.

Site:Raw Shorts backlink

After hitting Enter, you will see a list of every page from rawshorts.com.

Here's what a backlink search for Raw Shorts looks like

The higher this number is, the more authority the website has. In other words, if the number of total results is low, then it probably is not worth pursuing.

If you come across a search that does not yield any results for a given website, avoid any links from it.

Avoid links from shady sites or black hat SEO sites.

This means that it is not indexed and therefore recognized by Google.

Having a link from a site like this can result in Google penalizing you and hurting your website’s traffic.

After you have identified that the website will be worth your while, it’s time to pitch.

Each HARO request will have an email to send your pitch to all you have to do is copy and paste that into a new email.

I typically give them a very brief background on myself to show them why my input would be relevant to the topic then begin my answer.

Here is an example of a pitch that I recently did:

Hi [Contact Person Name],

I’m an internet marketer that helps businesses get more traffic. And my years of content marketing and SEO come into play with almost every client that I work with!

Here is the answer to your question: What is one effective tip to boost success in both SEO and social media?

The answer would be to add more backlinks. An easy way to do this would be to simply assure that each of your social media profiles provides users with a link leading them directly to your website.

This is a quick and simple way (especially when first starting out) to leverage the domain authority of these giant platforms and begin building quality links without much effort.

If you have any follow up questions feel free to email me at [Your Email]. Cheers,

[Your Name]

If they like what you sent (and how couldn’t they, right?) you will receive an email from their contact person with further instructions.

Haro can be used for guest posts and earning backlinks

And just like that – you’ve earned yourself a backlink!

2) Get Featured in Link Roundups

This is one of the less-talked-about ways to get backlinks but works amazingly.

Link roundups are websites that post curated lists of other websites specific to a certain industry.

If you do a search for “digital marketing agencies” you will find many examples of these.

Such as a Top 100 list with each agency’s general information as well as a link back to their website.

These are great ways to get your website in front of a large audience.

You can find these link roundups by using a similar search operator to what we used before.

This time, you are going to type “keyword” + “link roundup”

Here is an example:

Here are some of Raw Short's backlinks

 

This is going to tell Google to only show results of pages that contain both the keywords “social media marketing” and “link roundup.”

Once you do this, you will notice many results with dates that they were published. Your goal is to choose one that has the most recent date.

Now for the pitch.

Here is a script that I typically use for link roundups:

Hi [Site Owner Name],

I just stumbled on you [Saturday Roundup] this afternoon. Good stuff! I’m reaching out because I recently published a content marketing case study that might be a good fit: [Your Webpage]

Either way, keep up the awesome work!

Cheers,

[Your First Name]

And just like before, you should receive a response from the site owner with further instructions and a link to your site!

3) Guest Post On Other Blogs

This is probably the most common way of getting a link back to your website. Blogs are comprised of multiple writers that each have a different perspective on specific topics.

Sometimes they will outsource though, and look for someone to write a post for them.

This often works great for both parties because:

  1. The blog gets a fresh perspective and new audience reach.
  2. The guest writer earns a backlink and can interact with a new audience.

Everyone wins!

But how does one exactly go about finding a blog to guest post for?

Well lucky for us, there is a resource that has this information for us.

It is called AllTop.com and it is extremely simple to use.

AllTop most popular sites for backlinkg

Just find your niche and submit to them! Easy right?

This technique has gotten me guest posts on several websites and still remains one of my most valuable resources.

That’s How You Can Earn Quality Backlinks!

So there you have it – 3 simple ways to earn backlinks to your website. If used properly and regularly, these techniques can seriously help your website rank higher, and build authority with search engines.

Now I’d like to hear from you: Which of these tactics will you use first? Are you going to start guest blogging or searching for link roundups?

Let me know in the comments section below.

Author Chris Davis

Chris is the founder and lead internet marketer at Philadelphia based digital agency, Trickle. Prior to launching the agency, he was part of the learning and development team at Comcast. For more, be sure to follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.