You might be thinking, “Isn’t the idea of ‘acquiring natural backlinks’ a bit contradictory?” If you’re a firm believer that natural backlinks are purely organic, you’re probably asking yourself if there’s any way to influence their creation beyond just making great content.
To tackle this question, we need to go deeper into what natural backlinks really are. Essentially, these are links that other websites give you voluntarily, based on the value and relevance of your content, without any solicitation or manipulation.
So, are there strategies for acquiring natural backlinks? Absolutely. While the core of earning these links lies in producing top-notch, engaging content, there are specific tactics you can employ to encourage their creation.
Let’s explore these methods in detail to help boost your website’s credibility and visibility.
What Are Natural Backlinks?
While there’s no single definition of a natural backlink, some common characteristics are clear. The most valuable backlinks:
Are in a natural context: The surrounding content is relevant to the linked page.
Provide value for readers: They offer additional, useful information on a topic.
Have meaningful anchor text: The text integrates seamlessly with the page content.
These features help determine the relevancy of a backlink for your site. Depending on your business goals, you can decide whether a link is worth pursuing and if its creation is truly natural.
If you believe that pursued links can still be natural, consider these strategies for acquiring natural backlinks. Even if you’re skeptical, take a look and see if any might work for your website.
What are the Strategies for Acquiring Natural Backlinks?
#1. Identify Your Audience’s Favorite platforms/Channels
Identifying your audience’s favorite channels is crucial for encouraging organic content promotion. For example, posting research on Academia.edu can increase your citations by 75% over five years, according to the site.
Sometimes, emailing people about your content is effective, but it doesn’t always guarantee your email will be opened or answered. That’s why you should consider other communication channels, with social media often being the most efficient.
Set aside time to explore relevant hashtags and Twitter chats that gather industry leaders. These chats sometimes announce future topics in advance, providing a great opportunity to create targeted content and have a ready promotion channel.
Utilizing these channels effectively is one of the key Strategies for Acquiring Natural Backlinks, ensuring your content reaches the right audience and attracts organic links.
#2. Invest in Visual Content
Visual content is highly effective in marketing, with 52% of professionals citing video as the top content type for ROI. SEO experts also value visual content for boosting search rankings.
Since videos are widely loved, they should be a vital part of your natural link building strategy. Infographics, when posted on infographic submission sites, can attract interested visitors to your site and may even lead to republishing.
Incorporating visual content like videos and infographics is a key strategy for acquiring natural backlinks. It enhances engagement, attracts traffic, and increases the chances of others linking to your content organically.
#3. Diversify Your Content Types
Expanding your content range is vital for acquiring natural backlinks. These links can come in various forms from diverse websites.
That’s why you should offer multiple linking options by creating a wide range of content types. From traditional how-to guides to infographics and ebooks, aim to produce a variety of content and promote it accordingly.
This strategy not only increases your chances of earning natural backlinks but also enhances your content’s appeal to different audiences and platforms.
#4. Search Q&A Websites for possible Topics
One crucial aspect among the strategies for acquiring natural backlinks is choosing the right topic. To create exceptional content, start by identifying trending issues. Platforms like Reddit and Quora are goldmines for discovering unanswered questions.
Quora, especially, offers a bonus—it’s a hub for influencers! By researching their expertise, you can pinpoint the perfect question to engage them. When you approach influencers with well-researched content ideas, you increase your chances of earning valuable backlinks from their platforms and networks.
#6. Court Influencers With Ego Bait
Interviews serve as valuable content that appeals to both you and your interviewees. Conducting interviews entails thorough research and reaching out to multiple individuals, but the outcome is a unique, relevant, and highly shareable post.
A helpful tip: Including multiple experts in a single interview enhances your chances of getting shared by them.
This approach, often called “ego bait,” benefits everyone involved. You gather insights from influencers for compelling content, and they gain visibility through your platform.
While creating such content demands time and effort, the rewards usually include multiple natural backlinks from the interviewees’ own platforms and networks.
#6. Collaborate With Influencers
Once you identify key influencers and companies in your industry, you can collaborate with them to create outstanding content. Many industry players have press sections featuring news from others. Monitor these sections for important updates and cover these stories on your blog.
Make sure to inform them about your coverage so they don’t miss it. This approach benefits both parties, boosting visibility and generating natural backlinks. Collaborating with influencers is one of the most effective Strategies for Acquiring Natural Backlinks and enhancing your content’s reach and credibility.
#7. Collaborate With Influencers
Identify influential people or companies in your industry and collaborate with them to create exceptional content. Many companies have press sections featuring news from others. Keep an eye on these sections for important updates and cover these stories on your blog.
Make sure to inform them about your coverage to ensure they see it. This strategy benefits both parties, boosting visibility and generating natural backlinks. Collaborating with influencers is one of the most effective strategies for acquiring natural backlinks, enhancing your content’s reach and credibility.
#8. Build Something Better
This technique requires you to first identify your target and create content based on the opportunity you find. Building on someone else’s content is especially effective for controversial topics. If your story is relevant, others may adopt your perspective when discussing the topic.
This is known as the Skyscraper technique. It involves finding a popular post and creating something even better. For example, if everyone in your industry offers “10 Tips to Managing Personal Finance,” you should consider creating “50+ Tips for Managing Personal Finance.”
However, creating great content isn’t enough—you need to reach out to the right people to see results. Brian Dean, who coined the term, outlines three essential steps:
#1. Find link-worthy content.
#2. Create something even better.
#3. Reach out to the right people.
The third step is crucial but often overlooked by content creators. They might believe that great content alone will attract backlinks. If that were true, the Skyscraper technique wouldn’t be a strategy but rather a stroke of luck. Using these steps is one of the most effective strategies for acquiring natural backlinks.
#9. Make Your Content Targeted and Purposeful
Before creating content, check if anyone might be interested in republishing or linking back to it. Recycling old topics can maintain publishing consistency, but for natural backlinks, you need to offer something new and valuable.
First, make a list of websites that attract your target audience and consider the types of content they find interesting. For instance, if you want to be featured on a site that publishes industry news and research, develop newsworthy research on a hot topic.
Approaching content creation this way can be more effective than sticking to the same content forms. A single white paper or ebook can bring more natural backlinks than generic 500–1000 word posts. Adopting these strategies for acquiring natural backlinks will significantly boost your link-building efforts.
#10. Offer Value Instead of Asking for Links
Offering value instead of asking for links is a powerful strategy for acquiring natural backlinks. It involves creating high-quality content or resources that naturally attract links from other websites. Here’s an expanded explanation of this strategy:
#1. Create Exceptional Content: Focus on creating content that is informative, valuable, and engaging. This could be in the form of comprehensive guides, insightful articles, data-driven research, infographics, videos, or interactive tools. The key is to provide something that stands out and offers real value to your target audience.
#2. Address Common Challenges: Identify common challenges or pain points within your industry or niche and provide solutions through your content. This not only positions you as an authority but also makes your content more likely to be shared and linked to by others seeking solutions to similar problems.
#3. Offer Unique Perspectives: Provide unique insights, perspectives, or opinions on trending topics or industry developments. Originality and thought leadership can attract attention and naturally lead to backlinks from others who find your viewpoints valuable or intriguing.
#4. Provide Actionable Tips: Include actionable tips, strategies, or how-to guides that readers can implement immediately. Practical content that helps people achieve their goals or solve specific problems tends to get shared and referenced, leading to natural backlinks.
#5. Collaborate with Experts: Interview industry experts, influencers, or thought leaders and feature their insights in your content. When you publish content that includes contributions from respected figures, you increase the likelihood of them sharing and linking to your content, thus earning natural backlinks.
#6. Create Link-Worthy Resources: Develop comprehensive resources such as toolkits, templates, checklists, or curated lists of valuable resources within your niche. These resources become go-to references for others in the industry, attracting links naturally over time.
#7. Engage in Thoughtful Outreach: Instead of directly asking for links, engage in thoughtful outreach by sharing your content with relevant websites, bloggers, journalists, and industry influencers. Focus on building relationships and demonstrating the value your content provides. Genuine engagement can lead to organic linking as others recognize the quality and relevance of your content.
#11. Ask Others to Share
Encouraging social sharing is a valuable strategy for acquiring natural backlinks. It involves actively engaging with your audience and industry peers to promote your content.
Instead of just sharing your content on social media, directly ask others within your industry or niche to share and recommend your posts publicly. This can increase visibility and attract natural backlinks.
However, it’s crucial to target your outreach strategically. Focus on reaching out to individuals or organizations that are likely to be interested in your content and find it valuable. Avoid spamming everyone on social networks, as this can be counterproductive and dilute your efforts.
When you ask for shares from relevant and interested parties, you can amplify your content’s reach and increase the chances of earning natural backlinks from those who appreciate and resonate with your content. This approach fosters genuine engagement and connections within your industry, leading to more organic linking opportunities over time.
#12. Focus on Long-Term Benefits
It’s important to remember that these techniques require persistence for success. Even if your first attempt doesn’t result in a backlink, don’t get discouraged. Keep refining your approach and trying new strategies. Each piece of quality content you create adds value to your website and builds your online presence, making it a worthwhile investment of time and effort.
The key is to connect all the elements effectively—finding the right target audience, addressing the right topics, using the right content formats, and leveraging the right promotional channels. While it may take time to perfect this process, the long-term benefits are substantial.
When you adopt a strategic mindset towards content creation and natural link building, you’ll gradually see the results pay off over time. It’s not an overnight success story, but a consistent and well-executed approach leads to sustainable growth and visibility in your industry.
#13. Leverage Unconventional Platforms
Exploring niche forums, community websites, or industry-specific platforms for SEO and backlinking strategies can be highly beneficial. These platforms often have passionate and engaged users who are actively seeking information and discussions related to your niche.
Here’s how you can leverage them effectively:
#1. Identify Relevant Platforms: Start by identifying forums, communities, and platforms where discussions related to your industry or niche are active. Look for platforms with a good reputation and a sizable user base.
#2. Participate Actively: Once you’ve identified the platforms, participate actively in discussions. Share your expertise, answer questions, and provide valuable insights to establish yourself as a knowledgeable and trusted member of the community.
#3. Share Valuable Content: When appropriate, share links to relevant content on your website that adds value to the discussion. Ensure that your content is genuinely helpful and not overly promotional.
#4. Subtly Link Back: Instead of directly promoting your content, subtly link back to it within your contributions. For example, you can mention that you’ve written a detailed guide on a topic being discussed and provide the link for those interested in learning more.
#5. Build Relationships: Focus on building relationships with other members of the community. Engage in meaningful conversations, offer assistance, and show genuine interest in helping others.
#6. Attract Organic Backlinks: As you contribute valuable insights and share relevant content, you’ll naturally attract organic backlinks from users who find your contributions helpful. These backlinks are more likely to be genuine and valuable for your SEO efforts.
#14. Contribute to Podcasts
Being a guest on relevant podcasts in your industry is a fantastic way to showcase your expertise and reach a new audience. When you contribute to podcasts, you have the opportunity to share valuable insights, experiences, and knowledge on topics that resonate with the podcast’s audience.
Podcast hosts typically provide show notes or blog posts summarizing episodes. These show notes often include links to your website, social media profiles, or resources mentioned during the interview. This not only increases your visibility but also creates backlinks to your site, which is great for SEO.
When pitching yourself as a guest on podcasts, focus on topics that align with the podcast’s theme and audience interests. Highlight your unique perspectives, experiences, and expertise that can add value to the discussion. Remember to be engaging, informative, and authentic during the interview to leave a lasting impression on the listeners and encourage them to visit your website or follow you on social media for more insights.
Conclusion
In conclusion, acquiring natural backlinks involves a strategic approach that goes beyond just creating great content. When you identify your audience’s favorite platforms, invest in visual content, diversifying your content types, leveraging Q&A websites for topic ideas, collaborating with influencers, creating exceptional content, and encouraging social sharing, you can enhance your link-building efforts organically.
Contributing to podcasts as a guest is also a powerful strategy, allowing you to showcase expertise and gain backlinks through show notes or blog posts.
Remember, persistence and a focus on long-term benefits are key to success in natural backlink acquisition, building credibility, and visibility in your industry.
