18 Strategies to Attract More Backlinks in 2024

The concept of link building is a lot like the Law of Magnets, which I’ll explain in a while. In this blog article, we’re going to share with you 18 strategies to attract more backlinks to your site, to gain more authority, and higher rankings that will eventually lead to more traffic and sales. I will walk you through how to get backlinks for free as well as what is the backlink strategy for link building.

What is Link Building in blogging?

In case you’re new to link building. Link building in blogging is a process for your website to earn new inbound links or in other words, backlinks from other websites to your website, or internal linking opportunities. The goal is to have good enough reasons for other websites to link back to your website.

Link Building in blogging is very important to get organic traffic because the more backlinks to your website the more authority will be built which is the Google loves and ranks those websites quickly that have a large number of backlinks.

Now you know what it is called “Backlink”?

Backlinks are kind of like a popularity contest. In the contest, the currency is links. Each link your site gets from other sites is like a vote. But not all links are equal. Just like in some singing contests where they allow public votes, the votes from the judges carry more weight than the public votes. But the public votes still matter.

So with more backlinks, it gives a positive signal to search engines that your site is authoritative and trustworthy, which leads to higher rankings on search engines and more search traffic. Other benefits include these. Referral Traffic, Partnerships, Brand Recognition and more.

As a blogger and site owner myself, I get a lot of requests for backlinks every day. So let’s talk about the things that will prevent me from linking back to you. We’ve got to understand this to talk about the strategies, right?

What are examples of communication for asking for the backlink to your website?

Why Won’t You Get Backlinks? Here are some examples of communication for asking for the backlink to your website:

• 1. Me: Hey, would you link back to this page of mine? Site owner: No! Your site is new, how can I trust it? Pass!
• 2. Me: How about this? My site is more established. Site owner: No, this is surface content. There’s no depth. I’ll pass.
• 3. Me: Hey, we are in the same niche. This article competes for the same keyword. Maybe we can…
• Site owner: Maybe some other articles I’m not trying to rank for? I’ll pass.
• 4. Me: My product review is very in-depth. Site owner: It’s too salesy. Why should I give my traffic to you to make money? I’ll pass.
• 5. Me: How about this? Site owner: Too many pop-ups. Too many ads! Me Don’t throw. Just put it back to me, please.
• 6. Me: Hey, what up dude? Link to this. I’ll pay. Site owner: You want me to grind more?
• 7. Me: How about this? Site owner: Oh, Me: wait, it’s loading. How long more? Soon. Soon. Site owner: Get out of here.
• 8. Me: How about this? Site owner: Nice! Has great info. A unique statistic is that no one else has good images for my site visitors to consume the information easily. Very engaging. I need this resource I’ll link to it. Me: Cool, I know you like it!

So, you get the idea. It’s not that site owners don’t want to link to your site, it’s just that you’re not giving them good enough reasons for them to do so. With that, let’s talk about the methods that will give other sites good enough reasons to link back to you.

Link Building Phases Overview (Best Strategies to Attract More Backlinks)

Maybe your question is how to create backlinks step-by-step Therefore We have divided this Blog article into three phases. The first phase talks about the things you could do as your site is new because not all strategies are suitable for new sites. Then the tips for the second phase are meant for sites that are developing their authority. These are the strategies that will help you expedite the number of backlinks to your site.

And finally, the third phase is strategies meant for you if you have already established some form of authority in your niche and want to firm up your authority.

So without further ado, let’s start with the tips from phase one.

Phase 1 – Infancy Stage
Now, if your site is new, don’t even try to ask for links because 99.99% of site owners will not link to you. So it’s better for you to build your foundation and find link opportunities within.

1. Have A Good Site Structure

So the first tip we have for you is to build a good site structure by having strong contextual links that is the best way to acquire links. If you don’t know what contextual links are or what a good site structure is, you might want to check this blog post out. In short, a good site structure allows site visitors and search engines to find your content more easily and lets them know what it is all about.

Inherently, contextual links are internal links between topics that are closely related. For example, if you want to write an article about how to make money online, other articles on your site that will be helpful are probably “How to make money from Blogging”, “step by Step on How to Create a Successful YouTube Channel”, “top websites to find freelance work”, “freelance jobs that pay the most”, and many others.

Internal Linking these articles will give strong contextual links and tell search engines what this group of content is all about. With strong contextual links, it builds a good site structure and with a good site structure, your site will benefit a lot more when it starts to gain backlinks.

SEO Juice received from external sources will be distributed evenly across your site. When your site starts to gain natural backlinks, that’s when you can start to formulate a link-building strategy.

2. Get Links By Providing Testimonials

You’ll be surprised that there are many product sites that have a dedicated testimonial page and are willing to link back to your website. Regardless if it is a “dofollow” or “nofollow” link, they still carry weight. If you are one of their customers and you’re willing to give them a positive testimonial, more likely than not, they will put your testimonial up with a link to your site.

Of course, you don’t want links from products that are unrelated to your site. You want to have links from products that matter to your site. For example, if you’re in the SEO niche and you have used Rank Math, do you know they have a dedicated testimonial page where they link to many bloggers? Since they are kind enough to share their experience with Rank Math, they are happy to place a link back to them.

So, go do some research on the product you have used that relates to your site and see if they have a testimonial page. You want to reach out to them and share your experience. We have a more in-depth written guide on this tip. So, if this tip is something you want to work on, you may want to check out our blog.

3. Find Internal Linking Opportunities

When your site is gaining a little traffic and you’re about to move to phase two, at this time, you should be getting some natural backlinks. You can visit your Google search console to find internal linking opportunities. On your search console, go to “Links”, and you will see your top pages that have the most backlinks as well as the top pages that have the most internal links.

Now, more often than not, you will see informational articles such as the “How To” and tutorial articles having more external backlinks than money articles, for example, product reviews and comparison articles.

Matthew Woodward the writer of searchlogistics.com exclaims that:

“The truth is that “how to” posts are very beneficial for your readers, but they don’t attract as many natural backlinks.”

Now, those pages that have the most backlinks enjoy the most SEO benefits. The question is, should you share those links juice to other pages so that they will rank better? So what you want to do is to see if there are any related pages in both the external and internal links.

For example, “Upcycle Gift Ideas” is one of the pages that have the most backlinks and it is related to another article in the top internal linked pages, such as the “eco-friendly gift ideas”.

So you want to pass the link juice from the Upcycle gift ideas to the eco-friendly gift ideas. And since the eco-friendly gift ideas page has the most internal links, this means that the link juice we got from the Upcycle gift Ideas is now passed on to the other pages that are interlinked with the eco-friendly gift ideas page.

This is a very effective link building strategy, but you want to go one step further to visit the page we have just linked to and we want to review the content to see if there are more contextual links we can add to the page so that we can maximize the distribution of link juice.

This is something you want to consistently practice on your site because the top internal and external link pages will change over time as your site goes into phase two or three. Maybe visit this strategy every six months to find more internal linking opportunities. This will help your site grow much faster.

Phase 2 – Maturing Stage
Now that your site is starting to gain some traction, it’s time to formulate a link-building strategy with these tips.

4. Contribute Your Content & Expertise To Other Websites

This is probably one of the most effective strategies for link building because who doesn’t like free content, right? I don’t know about you, but I do. Now don’t be mistaken. Free content doesn’t mean that you outsource poor-quality content and expect other site owners to publish it and link back to you.

As a blogger, I would not publish poor-quality content on my site even though it is free. By poor quality content, I mean content without any depth or seems to be written by someone who doesn’t understand the niche. An outsider. So don’t try to pay someone else to write the content.

Write it yourself as though it is good enough to publish on your site. That way, the blogger on the other side will feel you are genuine and most likely publish your content with links back to your site. From there, you can start building a relationship with them and it could be a doorway to guest post and maybe even becoming a regular contributor.

To find sites that accept guest posts, you can try to do a Google search using these combinations.

Sites that accept guest posts will usually have these words mentioned on a dedicated page.

5. Use Keyword Alerts To Track Mentions

• Site Owner: “Everyone! Johnson from Forbs just said hard to get links are like diamonds.”
• Me: Hey, you mentioned me and you didn’t link to me. What gives? Site Owner: Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot. I’ll add it now.

Google Alerts or other similar services are very useful with regard to tracking brand mentions. And you can easily score links if it is a linkless mention. All you need to do is sign up for Google Alerts and create an alert. Maybe it is your site name, brand name, or simply your name. It depends on your business. But do you know there is a different function for it?

Instead of tracking your brand, you track your competitor’s brand. When there is a competitor mentioned, make yourself known to sites who mentioned them and build a relationship that will eventually turn into a backlink. This is like a PR stunt. Wherever your competitor’s name appears, you want to be seen with it.

6. Get Unbiased Reviews

• Product Owner: Hey, I see you are a site owner in my niche. Can you write an unbiased review of my product?
• Site Owner: But I haven’t used your product.
• Product Owner: I’ll give you a walk-through. There’s no obligation. We just need your honest opinion on the review.
• Site Owner: Cool. I’ll write a review for you.
• Product Owner: Oh, and maybe when you write that review, can you add a do-follow link?
• Site Owner: Haven’t you heard? It’s against Google’s guidelines. Links on giveaways and sponsored reviews should be no follows.
• Product Owner: Oh, is it? Thanks for looking up to me.
• Site Owner: Don’t worry. If your product is good, I’ll add a no-follow link for you.

Yup! If your product is good enough, site owners naturally want a link to you so you don’t have to ask for it. The referral traffic you get from those nofollow links should be more than useful to you. But you should never offer money or give products. Otherwise, the review is going to be biased and you’ll likely get into trouble as it is a violation of Google’s guidelines.

So if you are a product owner, this strategy is not only going to give you a backlink but also help your product gain exposure and sales. So start using it.

7. Get Broken Links On Other Websites

• Site Owner: This is the list of high-authority websites I want backlinks from. I’ll check their broken link. Brokenlinkchecker.com Nice! This site is willing to link to this type of content which my site has. I’ll contact them. Let’s go to LinkedIn, and find who’s in charge of the site. Let’s do it.
• Site Owner: Hey man!
• Me: What up?
• Site Owner: You’ve got broken links!
• Me: So what?
• Site Owner: Link to me! I have the resources you need.
• Me: Do I know your site? How can I trust it? I’ll pass.

Now this strategy used to be very effective, but now it is still effective, but not so much. What we recommend is not to target big authority sites because they don’t trust sites that are smaller than them easily. Instead, target sites that are similar in both authority and size and maybe do not target sites in your direct niche, but sites that are somewhat relevant.

For example, if your site is in the baby niche, you should target sites that are in the parenting niche because they are somewhat related but not directly related.

That will give you a higher chance as sites from indirect niches will not view you as competition and will be more receptive to your link replacement pitches. Remember, like poles repel, unlike poles attract.

8. Comments On Relevant Blog Posts

You may say Yeah, yeah. This is spammy, you won’t get to do-follow links, blah blah blah! Let me ask you a question, What are the chances of you opening up an email if you know it is a backlink pitch, as compared to reading a blog post comment? For me, I will read the blog comments because if a blog comment is helpful, even though it is a pitch, it is beneficial to my site. Blog commenting is a backdoor to site owners, but you have to be tactful.

Don’t try to force a comment like “Wow, this is amazing”. Instead, you should share your insights about the topic, better yet, something that wasn’t discussed in the article, and leave an open-ended question asking for the site owner’s opinion. Think of this as starting a conversation that will lead to a strong relationship with the site owner. So don’t start to add links to your comments just yet.

Make yourself known to the site owner. Make him feel that you are his regular site visitor. Comment on not only one post but many other posts. And when the site owner starts to take notice of you and is comfortable striking up a conversation with you, that’s where the magic happens. It could lead to many link opportunities going forward.

9. Be The Source (Link Worthy Content)

Just imagine yourself as an authority site owner in the online marketing niche and you’re writing an article about tips to drive more traffic from social media. What are the possible contents you will link to?

For me, I will link to sites that will give me unique statistics that will support my article. For example, if somebody has conducted research by interviewing hundreds or thousands of site owners and is able to provide a unique statistic as to which social platforms get the most traffic, that’s an incredible resource and what we call “link-worthy” content.

And even if your site does not have much authority, it is still trustworthy because work has been done on it. Just make sure that you have the data to back it up. And with such unique statistics, you can turn it into an infographic that can be shared on, for example, Pinterest.

The key is to be the resource that will help other sites in your niche. Now, this kind of content is “need” based, so it is kind of hard to pitch this kind of content on email outreach to site owners unless they are writing an article where they need your data. The best way to promote this kind of content is through social channels and groups.

10. The First (Link Worthy Content)

Be the first to talk about a new product, service, or upcoming event. This works best if you own a blog and you have a corresponding YouTube channel. For example, there is a new Canon camera coming out and you get your hands on it.

People who are interested in buying the camera will want more information and they will likely watch a video review on YouTube. Hardly anyone will read a written review if something is new. If that’s you, I’m sorry, no offense. So following the trend would give you the biggest advantage because there is a huge demand for information but there is a lack of supply. If you are the first to talk about the product on YouTube, there will be lots of views. But how do you gain links to your website?

Do you create a written product review and link to it through your YouTube description? Na-ah! No site owners in your niche will want to link to your written product review because they can write it themselves and earn affiliate commissions. Why would they want to give their traffic to you and help you make money?

Doesn’t make sense right? Now, what if you have written a complete tutorial on how to use the camera? This will take a lot of time, but not many bloggers or site owners are willing to spend that time. So what will they do after writing the product review? Link to your tutorial because there aren’t many tutorials out there yet.

And in your YouTube video you want to mention your tutorial because more likely than not, other bloggers in your niche will be watching your video and maybe writing reviews based on what you said. So you’re kind of promoting your written tutorial and subtly telling them to link to it. Sneaky, right? But it works.

11. Quizzes (Link Worthy Content)

Now, depending on the niche you are in, quizzes are extremely useful for earning backlinks. For example, if you’re in the sales niche and you’re teaching people how to do sales presentations effectively on your website, the best quiz that could bring in a lot of backlinks is probably a free and accurate personality test to see which type of salesperson you are.

If you shared a quiz with social groups where there are a lot of salespeople trying to learn the trade, don’t you think that this is something that might interest them? And if you run a website in a similar niche, don’t you think you want to link to that quiz? Since the quiz is accurate and you can’t replicate it you do not know the mechanics behind it?

So if you want to use this strategy, you’ve got to brainstorm a quiz that people in your niche will want to do. But it is not that simple that other site owners can replicate. If they can replicate it, why would they want to link to you right? Are some ideas flowing already? Anyway, if you run a WordPress website, you can check out the WP Quiz plugin to quickly set up and launch a quiz.

12. Interview Influencers (Link Worthy Content)

There was a time when it seemed like every marketer under the sun was trying to do a Roundup post. Even though the fervor has died down a bit, it is still a viable link-building strategy, especially when you’re not an authority yet. It is good to reach out to influencers in the primary and secondary niches to interview them on a particular topic, asking them about their views and opinions on it.

The best strategy for this is to ask a question that is current or trending and nobody has a straightforward answer to it.
That will not only make the most enticing to read, but it will also generate a lot of backlinks because it is something new. And the interviewees will also link back to your article because it becomes a resource. If you’re only asking questions that have been asked many times, you’re just another fish in the pond.

You’ll hardly gain any reach or backlinks you desire. So pick an interesting and trending question in your niche that nobody is asking. Reach out to influencers, asking them their opinion. Compile the answers into a great-looking post and promote the heck out of it.

13. Tutorials (Link Worthy Content)

The key to creating link-worthy tutorials is to break down a difficult topic and make it simple and easy for others to understand.
For example, on our blog, you see many “How-to” style posts.

Much of what we cover is technical, but we break it down into bite-sized steps so that it’s easy for our readers to DIY SEO-related issues. Sites that are in your direct niche may not appreciate your content so much, but sites that are somewhat related and do not see you as competition will appreciate your content and most likely recommend it to their audience. Hope you now see why tutorials will attract backlinks.

14. Reverse Image Search To Reclaim Links

Now we have talked about creating infographics and over time your images might have been used by someone else, but they have not credited you and have not placed a link back to you. So you can conduct a reverse image search on Google Images, to look for sites that are using your infographic. Go to Google, and on the Images tab, click on this Google Lens icon.

Upload your image by clicking upload an image.

If there are results that pop up, visit them, and if they have not linked back to your site, reach out to them in a polite way, not a threatening way. Most of the time, if you are polite and sincere, they will add a link back to your site.

15. Email Outreach And Building Relationships

I’m actually quite hesitant to put this tip in phase two because email outreach will work better if your site is fully matured and sites around your niche know who you are.

Still, it is appropriate if you have somewhat of an audience. Think of this strategy as more of a relationship-building than transactional, and homework needs to be done. It is not a numbers game as most people say. Don’t try to automate the process and use some email templates because what you’ll attract are low-quality backlinks.

Remember this the harder it is to gain a backlink, the more valuable the link is. We’ll give you an example. You see this email we sent out. This has earned us a mention for a recent article we have published.

It’s worth noting that one of the main reasons for this work is that we didn’t reach out with no effort like everyone else would have.
We actually spend the time on their sites getting to know who they are and whether this is somebody who will be worth reaching out to. If you want our guide on email outreach, you can visit our written guide on Link building we mentioned earlier.

16. Appear On Popular Podcasts Or Interviews

You’ve got to look at your digital marketing strategy as a whole. It is not completely about blogging anymore. If you just expose yourself on popular podcasts or interview shows, you gain instant credibility, if what you share is good. Blerina Xhigoli Kelmendi the Off Page SEO Specialist of seotactica.com said in her blog post Effective Link Building Strategies

“Podcasts have highly engaged audiences, these links are more likely to generate referral traffic. This can be a good way to get high-quality, relevant links that can boost your ranking significantly.”

No matter if your site has low authority, if your name is on it, the site will gain authority and backlinks quickly without much effort on outreach. But of course, it is easier said than done. A lot of work needs to be done to get you on the show. You’ve got to gain a little credibility first before getting noticed. That’s why this tip is not in phase one.

No interviewers will want you on their show unless you already have an audience, right? These shows want to expand their reach too! It’s business. So we think that this strategy is viable for you if you have gained some success and have achieved some results related to your niche. People love success stories, so they definitely want to learn about your success.

It is even better if you are, for example, a somewhat popular YouTuber who hasn’t had a blog and you are now starting one. This strategy will expedite your blog authority and backlinks a lot quicker.

Phase 3 – Matured Stage
Now that your site is somewhat of an authority in your niche, it is time to firm it up.

17. Coin A New Phrase

If you are in the blogging and SEO world, you have probably heard of phrases like link creators, Linkarati, skyscraper technique, inbound marketing, etc., right? Who came up with all these names?

If you go to most SEO blogs or websites that talk about the skyscraper technique, you’ll probably see people mention Brian Dean from Backlinko and they will place a link back to his website. That’s because it is a technique thought out by him and he has put a name to it. Now everyone in the niche that wants to talk about the skyscraper technique will want to place a link to the original creator of the phrase.

Is Brian Dean the first to use the technique? I’m pretty sure there’s somebody else who has done it. But Brian Dean was the first to put a name to the technique and because he already has an audience, his coined phrase can spread like wildfire. If he wasn’t that well known in the niche and he hadn’t gained credibility yet, this wouldn’t have happened.

So you’ve got to be somewhat of an authority before you can coin a new phrase and be successful with it.

18. Create A Community

Forums and communities are breeding grounds for deep discussions on a topic and it can be a great place for you to score links.
However, each community or forum has its own restrictions and sometimes they are counter-productive to link building. So how about we flip the script and create a community instead?

For example, optimists use Slack to create an online community for like-minded peers to join together to chat about various subjects from work opportunities to content promotion, where others can link to your content.

If you can build a strong community, you can have many sites in your niche wanting to recommend your community, which means they are placing links to your site.

But the downside to this strategy is that it takes a lot of time and effort to build a strong, self-sustaining community. It doesn’t seem like a task that can be done alone because you’re managing your site and have a lot of other responsibilities. The truth is, nobody wants to join a community if they don’t see themselves benefiting from it.

So a lot of initial work has to be done to gain traction and eventually make it self-sustaining. That’s why this strategy is in phase three because by then, you will have the resources to hire a community manager to make things more interesting to attract more people to the community.

So, what do you think about these Strategies to attract more Backlinks and link-building tips? Did they help? Let us know in the comments. Anyway, if you have some other link-building tips we have not covered, feel free to share them in the comments as well. We love to learn from you.

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