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Search engines generate a huge percentage of the traffic on the web. However, these platforms take a massive collection of variables into consideration when calculating the ranking positions whenever a search is performed.
Ensuring that these variables increase your chances of success is crucial, but verifying that only quality sites link back to your content can make or break your efforts. Fortunately, you can implement a variety of techniques to help you collect free backlinks from reliable sources.
Backlinks have been an essential search engine optimization (SEO) variable for some time.
Even though the exact algorithms that search engines use to calculate positions aren’t public, we know that Google and other leading search platforms evaluate the sites that link to your pages in order to determine how well your content will rank.
But getting the right websites to link back to your content isn’t always easy, even if you always produce high-quality materials.
In this article, we’ll go over the definition of a backlink and discuss the importance of getting the right pages to link to your site.
Additionally, we’ll go over tips on getting free backlinks and go over the best platforms to aid your link building efforts.
And, if you need help with developing a custom link building strategy, the professional SEO Fannit team is here to help.
What Is a Backlink?
Before diving any deeper, it’s important to define a backlink and explain why these affect your online marketing efforts. In its simplest form, a backlink is created when a page contains a hyperlink that takes users to content located on an external site.
The website that contains the link is called the referring domain, while the site that received the traffic is called the target page or URL. Backlinks can also be called inbound links or incoming links, but these terms refer to the same scenario described above.
When Google and other platforms evaluate a website, they analyze its content, architecture, and backlink profile. The backlink profile refers to the list of links that send traffic to a specific page.
For example, pages that have a lot of inbound links from high-quality sources have quality backlinks. If a site doesn’t have many backlinks or only receives visitors from low-quality sites, then it has a poor backlink profile that needs to be improved.
There are dozens of tools you can use to identify the sites that are linking to your content, some of which are free.
Remember, if you’re considering working with an automated free backlinks platform, make sure that it’s developed by reliable providers.
More helpful reading:
- https://www.fannit.com/seo/local-seo-ranking-factors/
- https://www.fannit.com/seo/link-building-mistakes/
Why Are Backlinks Important?
Digital marketing has become one of the most popular forms of advertising out there.
That said, many business owners and beginner marketers focus solely on content without considering the technical elements that influence search engine rankings.
This is the reason why many companies struggle to generate good results from their SEO marketing strategy.Content is and will always be king, but you also need to focus on improving the technical areas of your site, specifically your backlinks.
Examining and improving your site’s backlinks can have a great impact on your rankings. This means that if you manage to find high-quality backlinks at no cost, you’ll give the rest of your marketing efforts a boost while saving your resources for other parts of your campaign.
Some of the benefits of improving your backlinks include:
Higher SEO Rankings
The single most important benefit of improving your backlinks is that this practice boosts your SEO.
If you focus on link building, which are the steps you take to collect more backlinks and boost your organic rankings, your pages will gradually get higher positions whenever a relevant search is performed.
Link building has a positive impact on SEO because Google assumes that websites link to platforms with similar content, in terms of both topic and quality.
For example, if you have an online store that receives backlinks from Nike and similar brands, Google will reward you with much higher rankings.
However, remember that the opposite is also true.
So, if you are getting a lot of backlinks from low-quality referring domains, your site will have a hard time cracking the first page, even with the right content creation system in place.
More Helpful Reading:
More Referral Traffic to Your Site
One of the most underrated benefits of having awesome backlinks is that these can significantly increase the amount of referral traffic that goes to your site. Sites with a high domain rating tend to attract a high number of visitors.
Even if a small percentage of these users click on a backlink that takes them to your site, you can easily double or triple the number of users you get on a regular basis.The best part of getting a lot of referral traffic from authoritative sites is that these visitors are often ultra engaged, which makes it easier to convert them into leads.
Remember, users are constantly looking for solutions online. If you manage to get a backlink from a relevant platform, there’s a higher chance you’ll end up with visitors that are actively interested in learning more about your industry and hiring your company.
Boost in Brand Visibility and Authority
Building a better link building profile can give your site better rankings, which literally makes your brand more visible.
Consumers are used to picking companies from the first page of Google because they know the search giant provides results based on relevance and quality. If your site is among the first results, consumers will start noticing you and feel more compelled to explore your site and evaluate your content.
The variables that affect your SEO ranking are all connected in one way or another. Better SEO positions and improved visibility increases the amount of traffic you get from search platforms.
As long as you develop super high-quality, engaging content, a larger number of visitors will also boost the authority metrics of your site.Instead of simply being a company with great SEO, you’ll become one of the thought leaders in your industry.
Which, in turn, makes you a more attractive option for your potential customers.
Allow Users to Discover Your Content
At Fannit, we usually compare great content that has poor visibility with a beautiful billboard out in the desert. Regardless of how good your content is, if you don’t make it easy to find for your target audience it won’t generate the results you’re looking for.
The goods news is that link building makes it easy for your audience to find your content, assuming that the rest of your SEO strategy is sound.
When consumers need to find information or track down a new company, they now perform an online search.
By acquiring quality backlinks, you’ll improve your site rankings and allow users to find you through a simple search.
Plus, assuming that relevant sites are sending backlinks to your website, there’s a strong chance these users will be very interested in your content.
- More helpful reading: https://www.fannit.com/seo/what-is-seo/
Explaining the Concept Behind Backlinks
There is no doubt that getting quality backlinks free of charge can have a great impact on any digital marketing campaign.
However, understanding the background and concept behind link building can actually make the process a lot simpler.
To some, the idea behind creating high-quality links comes directly from nature, where the most important points of interest often experience the highest number of interactions.
For instance, a river in a jungle.
If we had the ability to examine a jungle from above and see where the most action occurs, it would be along the banks of the river. The animals that access the river to drink its water and feed off its resources create “links” that connect all living beings in this ecosystem. Therefore, a company’s content, SEO structure, and backlinks should work to transform its website into a river that others flock to.
- More helpful reading: https://www.fannit.com/seo/what-does-seo-stand-for/
Defining a High-Quality Backlink
To an inexperienced marketer, getting 1000 free backlinks sounds better than netting only 10 links at no cost.
But, not all backlinks have the same impact.
Good backlinks come from authoritative platforms that have a high domain rating, so these have a positive impact on SEO. However, poor links can actually give your site a bad SEO rank and hamper your search engine visibility.
All websites are different, so the definition of a good backlink will vary depending on your platform. In a nutshell, if the referring domains have a higher authority rating than your website, it’s safe to assume that these are good backlinks.
But, keep in mind that you want your SEO to improve over time, so what constitutes a good backlink now may actually have a negative impact later on.
This is the reason why it’s important to use a backlink checker and evaluate your link building strategy periodically.
Google Preference: Getting Backlinks the Organic Way
Google is the world’s leading search platform and its main goal is to provide the best results every time a user performs a query.
The search giant actually discourages websites from purchasing, exchanging, or otherwise acquiring backlinks through paid methods to avoid manipulation.
While occasional guest blogging has been proven to be effective for many companies, the search engine promotes the idea of acquiring organic backlinks to your website instead.
Organic backlinks are generated when third parties find your content while conducting research and link back to your site without any prior influence.
As a matter of fact, organic backlinks are the best types of links you can get for your site because they bring the most engaged users while also boosting your other SEO metrics.
Just remember, if you want to create backlinks free of charge using this method, you need to focus heavily on content development.
Are Free Backlinks Reliable?
Not only are free backlinks reliable, search platforms absolutely love it when a website has a high number of quality unpaid links.
And even though you may end up with a few unwanted links, developing great content in itself is a great way to work on your backlink profile while also boosting your website SEO.
As we mentioned before, not all links are the same.
If you are racking up a substantial amount of bad links, you can always use backlink tools like Google Search Console to disavow these backlinks and reduce their negative impact.
As a general rule of thumb, you should avoid getting your links from a free backlinks generator because these usually focus on quantity rather than quality.
It’s much better to get one free backlink from a reputable referring domain than to get a dozen links from sites with a poor domain authority rating.
How to Acquire Free Backlinks
Now that we’ve discussed the definition, importance, and concept behind link building, let’s take a look at the steps you need to take to get high-quality backlinks free of charge.
There are many techniques you can implement to increase the number of backlinks to your site for free.
These range from SEO suggestions to contacting other site owners, but it’s important to analyze leading competitors to see where they are getting their backlinks from.
Your business is unique, so you need to develop a tailored approach to help you make the most of your backlinks and overall search engine optimization plan.
In addition to the above, you should also find a reliable backlink checker tool and learn how to use its features properly.
This will help you monitor the performance of your site, and if you implement other SEO and backlink tools, you can actually automate a variety of processes and get notified only when you need to perform an action manually.
Let’s take a look at some of the best ways to get free backlinks to your website.
Develop Quality Content
Although having a link building strategy is essential, developing quality content is the best way to get free backlinks.
Therefore, website owners that develop a consistent content marketing and SEO plan tend to have better backlink profiles even if they don’t necessarily have a dedicated strategy in place.
The key to delivering quality content is to study your audience, examine leading competitors, and determine what pieces will have the most value.
For example, if you notice that there’s a problem that your audience constantly faces and it’s also one of the themes that leading competitors cover in their content, you should definitely develop your own materials about this topic.
With the above in mind, always work on creating a link building strategy that works in unison with the rest of your content marketing strategy.
Review Your Internal Linking Structure
When companies research how to create backlinks online free of charge, they tend to forget that the internal link structure also affects their overall link building strategy.
Internal links impact the user experience as well as the way search engines parse your website.
As long as you have the right intersite links in place, your audience will be able to navigate your content and easily access other pieces of relevant information.
In an ideal scenario, some of these users will even fill out your contact forms and ask questions about your service.
In addition to the above, search engines use simple pieces of software called crawlers to read your content and click on every single link on every page on your website.
By implementing internal links and using the right anchor text on each one of them, you can improve the way crawlers analyze your site.
While these two may not directly get you more backlinks, they influence SEO and the quality of your content. This can result in higher SEO rankings, better visibility, and best of all, more organic backlinks.
Write Guest Posts for Other Quality Sites
Even though Google technically discourages companies from doing this, writing guest posts for quality sites within your industry is a great way to get backlinks for free.
Google and other search engines monitor excessive backlink exchanges to identify this practice.
The good news is that you can avoid detection by writing only one post for each potential guest.
Similarly, you should avoid seeking guest blogging opportunities just to get backlinks. Writing a guest blog is a great chance to increase exposure and gain traction with a new audience.
But, you have to invest resources into writing a blog that won’t appear on your site. So, you should find a potential guest platform that is also in your industry.
Just avoid working with competitors as the conflict of interest will make it hard to get the right results.
- More helpful reading: https://www.fannit.com/seo/how-does-seo-work/
The HARO Trick
If you are looking to get free backlinks for website linking building from reliable news platforms, Help A Reporter Out (HARO) is one of the best places to find these opportunities.
In simple terms, HARO is a tool that reporters use to track down good resources without spending hours conducting research.
After signing up as a resource on HARO, companies receive a few emails per week, which contain summaries of articles that reporters need information for.
What’s in it for website owners? If you have information that the reporter can use as a resource, you’ll get a free backlink.
And, the best part is that these can sometimes come from regional, national, or even international platforms.
Needless to say, getting a backlink from a national news channel can have a great impact in terms of SEO and overall visibility, which makes the HARO trick an attractive option for scoring free backlinks.
Offer to Be a Testimonial
Whether you are running a brick and mortar business or a fully digital marketing agency, there’s a strong chance you rely on many different providers to offer your product.
If you work with any renowned platforms that serve your industry specifically, you can proactively offer to become a testimonial and share your experience with the leading providers in exchange for a free backlink.
Before offering to become a testimonial, make sure that your provider will definitely send a backlink to your website.
You can check the company’s testimonials page and see if they include links to the client pages and what type of anchor text they have in place.
Reach Out to Review Blogs
If you’re researching how to create backlinks to your site for free, contacting a review site may not be the first thing that comes to mind.
After all, some review sites often charge companies to write about their solutions, so these count like paid backlinks rather than free links.
However, not all links that appear on a review site are paid for, especially if the article is a listicle that includes several platforms.
If you have a relatively new or unknown business and you feel review site owners would proactively want to assess your company, you can contact the leading platforms and let them know about your brand.
Transform Company Mentions Into Links
Transforming company mentions into links is one of the best ways to create free backlinks for your site.
This process is also known as link reclamation and this practice focuses on scouring the web to find instances where users have mentioned your company, products, or services, but did not add a link to your website.
Once you’ve identified these instances, you can reach out to the website or blog owner to ask if a link can be added to the existing content.
This technique doesn’t always work, but you should be able to get a few good links as long as you’ve published enough content before.
- More helpful reading: https://www.fannit.com/seo/small-business-seo/
Review Platforms and Local Listings
Review platforms and local listing sites were developed to help customers, but these are also great alternatives to get free high-quality backlinks for your website.
Many of the leading review sites have sparking authority metrics, so making sure that you have a profile on these platforms with a link to your website can result in a superb free backlink.
As an added bonus, having updated information on review sites and using the right anchors for the backlinks placed on these platforms can also boost your local SEO and overall website SEO.
Appear on Interviews
Although younger generations are known for listening to podcasts, audio content is actually a popular alternative for many consumers.
Besides showcasing your knowledge, finding interview opportunities is also one of the best free backlinks techniques you can employ.
This is especially true if the interview is published on a renowned platform that receives a significant number of visitors every month.
Before accepting any interviews, remember to ask where the content will be published and in what format.
You should also use backlink tools to check out the publishing platform’s metrics and ensure that these are better than your website’s statistics.
Pump Content Through Social Media
The impact of social media on SEO is one of the most debated topics in the world of content marketing.
But, there’s no denying the fact that social media can exponentially increase the reach of your content while also having a positive impact on your link building.
Remember, to get free quality backlinks from social media you’ll have to spend a significant amount of time cultivating a large group of followers.
That said, if you take the time to create a tailored plan and share a solid number of links on social media, you’ll have higher chances of getting natural backlinks.
Analyze Competitors
Starting a campaign from scratch requires a lot of testing, so finding the right combination can take some time.
To cut the learning curve, you should use marketing analysis tools to see what the industry leaders are doing and implement similar techniques.
There are many different marketing analysis tools you can use to analyze a URL using just the domain name, but we’ll go over the most reliable SEO tool providers later in this article.
Just keep in mind that you don’t want to mimic everything your competitors do.
For example, using the same backlink tool is fine, but you should avoid using a free backlink generator even if you see leading brands employing them to increase the number of links pointing to their sites
Develop and Share Rich Media Resources
Whether they are B2C or B2B, consumers love rich media resources that help them solve common problems and provide large amounts of data in easy to understand chunks.
For example, infographics, tutorial videos, and similar types of content.
The main goal of your content should not only be to get backlinks, but you also need to keep your content quality requirements in mind.
In other words, develop videos and other types of materials that hold true value and address issues that your customers face on a regular basis.
Ask Professional Connections and Clients About Backlinking Opportunities
There’s an adage that says “you don’t get if you don’t ask” and that concept holds true in link building.
Your customer base is one of the best places to look for link opportunities, especially if you provide B2B services to other companies in your industry.
As with other guest blogging opportunities, you also need to write a blog post every time one of your clients agrees.
But, that single blog post can have a profound effect on your website backlink data, especially if the client that published your blog has superb site metrics.
Optimize Content to Boost the Performance of Existing Materials
Developing content is hard work, so this practice represents a significant investment.
To maximize the impact of the content you already have, you should create new materials and optimize them to amplify existing pieces.
For instance, if one page is responsible for driving most of your website traffic, you should create supporting materials like YouTube videos or answer relevant questions on platforms like Quora.
Make sure to include a link back to the original piece of content you are trying to promote, then share these new materials on social media.
This will create a sort of ripple effect that creates more opportunities while also improving backlink popularity and quality metrics.
- More helpful reading: https://www.fannit.com/blog/what-is-digital-marketing/
Interview Industry Leaders
We’ve highlighted the fact that appearing in an interview can help you generate great links.
However, it’s important to note that organizing the event and conducting the interview has a similar impact.
There is a strong chance that the person being interviewed will create an article to promote the interview and post it on his or her business platform.
And, in these cases, the article will definitely include a free backlink to your site.
If you want to make the event interactive and expand your reach as much as possible, you can conduct a live interview and then post the recording on a page on your site.
Create a List of Resources for Your Industry
Creating a free backlink strategy takes a lot of creativity.
In our experience, creating content about your favorite providers and vendors is an effective way to increase your backlinks and improve your website authority.
It doesn’t matter if you want to rate an SEO tool, review an imported products provider, or even list local accountants that specialize in your business.
As long as your blog post delivers clear information about service providers in your industry, it will be viewed as a valuable, relevant resource by Google and other search platforms.
10 Tools to Help You Acquire High-Quality Free Backlinks
Using a tool for generating backlinks automatically is not a good idea because you lose control of the sites that link back to your content.
But, this doesn’t mean that you should avoid all backlink tool providers.
Let’s take a look at some of the best tools to help you identify broken links that point to your website and other backlink opportunities.
Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is a free SEO tool that unveils a huge amount of information, including the backlinks from the leading brands.
All you have to do is log in with your Google account and enter the URL of the website you want to analyze.
The tool will analyze the site and reveal the information about backlinks, where they come from, which pages they point to, and whether the link comes from an image or text, among other details.
In a nutshell, Ubersuggest is the perfect tool for companies that have a small budget, but want to start working on improving their backlinks.
Not only this, but it’s also a great alternative if you want to analyze your own URL, repair broken links, and improve Google rankings without adding another expense to your budget.
Check My Links
Check My Links is a Google Chrome extension, so it’s among the most effective and easiest to use tools at your disposal.
As you may have noticed in this post, backlinks are valuable! But, it’s normal for external sites to have broken links, which means that you’ll likely lose a percentage of your backlinks to this phenomenon.
Luckily, Check My Links can help you see which external sites have broken links that point to your URL.
You can then contact the third-party site owners, inform them about each broken link, and potentially restore a link you had previously lost.
And, this platform is also free, which means that it’s ideal for businesses that have little-to-no budget flexibility.
Broken Link Builder
If using Check My Links to find every broken link one site at a time is too inconvenient, you can always opt for Broken Link Builder.
Instead of conducting individual assessments, this platform scours the entire web at once and it allows you to see any and all incoming links that have an error.
As with Check My Links, this platform can help you identify the links that need to be repaired, but you need to contact the website owner through your own means.
It’s important to note that when you reach out to the website owner, you’ll need to provide the link that will replace the broken hyperlink. So, you need to make sure that you have another piece of content that covers the same topic.
ContentBird
Like Ubersuggest, ContentBird is not a specialized tool, but rather an all-in-one solution that features a super backlink analysis feature.
The platform provides a huge amount of information about competitor link building techniques, including the anchors, referring URLs, refer Alexa rank, and the date each backlink was added.
Keep in mind that ContentBird is a paid solution, so you’ll need to set aside part of your budget to invest it into this platform.
Additionally, you’ll need to get used to the platform before you know how to use it properly, so consider the learning curve and the amount of time it will approximately take you before you opt for this specific website analysis tool.
Pitchbox
Even though most companies see the benefits of backlinks in terms of Google and search rankings, link building can actually help you reel in more customers.
Pitchbox is the ultimate tool for link prospecting and outreach, which are crucial steps in the lead generation process.
The platform automates a variety of processes and provides suggestions for potential backlink opportunities.
Pitchbox customizes search results based on parameters you can edit manually.
Moreover, the platform also provides contact information for each link prospect as well as an automated follow-up feature, so you can stay on top of your outreach opportunities without constantly checking for a reply.
Whitespark
Not every company owner realizes this, but getting good search rankings requires a unique approach for websites that target local audiences.
When a user’s search contains location terms, Google uses a slightly different algorithm to determine the Google search results page rankings.
Whitespark is a superb tool that allows you to identify potential backlink possibilities specifically for local SEO.
This platform allows you to see review sites, guest posting platforms, directories, professional organizations, NGOs, donation sites, and similar opportunities in your industry.
Furthermore, it also allows you to identify the best platforms to place name, address, and phone number (NAP) citations.
Besides the number of backlinks, the platform also helps ensure that your NAP data is updated and consistent across the most relevant platforms.
But, even though it can be used on a larger scale, the platform was designed specifically for localized campaigns.
Monitor Backlinks
Monitor Backlinks combined traditional features found in a link building tool with innovative features that help you stay ahead of the competition.
This tool provides information on every new backlink you add to your site.
At the same time, it also displays information related to the keyword rankings, site speed, and other performance metrics of each page.
With the above in mind, it’s important to note that Monitor Backlinks was designed as a marketing intelligence tool.
This means that you can (and should) also monitor your competitor backlinks and figure out what these website owners are doing to improve their link building.
Some of the variables you can track in this platform include:
- Moz Rank
- Anchor texts used
- Link status
- Social shares
- IP hosts
Linkstant
Although you can acquire backlinks through different methods, the best way to rake in a large volume of quality links is through organic methods.
But, you still need to keep track of how many backlinks you have and which platforms are sending this type of visitors to your site.
Linkstant was designed to send notifications and keep you updated about every new backlink you get to your site.
- More helpful reading: https://www.fannit.com/seo/show-up-first-page-google-search/
Linkody
Linkody is very similar to Linkstant in the sense that it provides backlink monitoring for your site as well as competitor platforms.
Besides analyzing what your competitors are doing, you can also set up notifications that inform you whenever the leading brands get a new backlink. With Linkody, you’ll be able to see:
- See the number of backlinks for each competitor
- Know exactly when each backlink was added and the referring domain
- Domain authority rank by Moz
- Anchor texts
- IP address and other technical details
BuzzStream
Rather than focusing on the technical side of backlinks, BuzzStream is a platform designed to simplify the actual process of getting new links to your site.
In simple terms, BuzzStream allows you to keep track of all your website link building efforts and reminds you to take the steps that help increase your chances of getting free backlinks.
Checking Backlinks on Your Site
Keeping a close eye on the competition is essential, but you also need to track the performance of your website backlinks to ensure that you’re progressing.
Therefore, you need to have a reliable backlink analysis platform that lets you see where referring links are coming from.
There are dozens if not hundreds of options, so you need to research the different alternatives and find one that fits your requirements as well as your budget.
In our experience, the top backlink analysis tools you can use to monitor your own website include:
SEO SpyGlass
SEO SpyGlass is a comprehensive tool that goes beyond backlinks.
It’s the perfect option for website owners that have budget flexibility and want to make improvements that affect Google rankings as quickly as possible.
In terms of backlinks, the platform allows you to sort your website backlinks by parameters like:
- Linked pages
- Anchor text
- Link attribute
- Authority metrics
- Penalty risk and much more
Google Search Console
The Google Search Console is a free tool developed by the technology giant to help webmasters keep track of how their sites are performing on search platforms.
This free SEO and backlink tool allows you to see which sites are sending visitors your way.
That said, keep in mind that Google implements a filter in Search Console, so you don’t get to see every single backlink to your site.
This means that you can’t use the platform to catch every single low-quality link that’s pointing to your site.
Seobility
If you are looking for a dual tool that can help you monitor your own backlinks as well as competitor backlink data, Seobility may be the best alternative.
This two-way tool is available at no cost as well, but note that there is a limit to the number of backlinks you can see in the free plan.
AHREFS
AHREFS needs no introduction as it’s one of the best overall marketing intelligence tools out there.
The platform’s website analysis feature reveals a huge amount of information, including all backlinks that point to a website.
In simple terms, AHREFS boasts the same features as any other leading platform, but keep in mind that it’s high price tag means that it’s not suitable for all businesses.
DoFollow vs. NoFollow Links
A few years ago, link building was all about getting free backlinks that have a dofollow attribute, rather than hyperlinks with nofollow tags.
The terms “dofollow” and “nofollow” were tags that companies used to define a link’s attribute.
If a website owner wanted to add a link to his or her content without impacting SEO, this person could include a nofollow tag that told search platforms not to crawl the destination URL.
However, at the end of 2019 Google announced that it had changed its crawling and backlink analysis processes.
According to the search engine, crawlers will now determine on their own when to follow a link based on the destination’s domain rating and other variables.
Therefore, it’s not necessary to include dofollow or nofollow links anymore, but don’t be surprised to find competitors are still attempting to use this technique to influence their linking profiles.
Want to Acquire Backlinks for Your Site? Contact Fannit Today
Are you interested in learning more about getting backlinks to your site? Get in touch with Fannit to learn more about our link building services and our team will be glad to help.
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