Are you still using outdated methods for natural backlink growth to boost your rankings? If so, you’re probably not seeing much success. This guide will show you top strategies to gain more high-quality backlinks and brand mentions from various channels and relevant sites.
Traditional tactics like guest blogging, blog commenting, forum discussions, answering on Quora, and promoting content on social media can still be useful. However, they’re often not enough to get you onto Google’s first page. Plus, Google’s strict link guidelines pose a risk of penalties against older link-building strategies.
Google’s Search Essentials guide warns:
“Any links that are intended to manipulate rankings in Google Search results may be considered link spam.”
This means that paid links, link exchanges, and offering freebies for links are considered spam tactics. Despite this, link building remains as important as ever, especially with Google’s recent algorithm updates.
According to Backlinko’s list of Google’s 200 ranking factors, backlinks and brand signals are key ranking elements.
Given Google’s guidelines and the importance of backlinks, it’s time to switch to advanced techniques for natural backlink growth to improve your SEO and boost your ranking chances.
Let’s go into the top advanced techniques for natural backlink growth that will help you avoid penalties and double your rankings.
What Are The Top Advanced Techniques For Natural Backlink Growth?
#1. Skyscraper Technique for Natural Backlink Growth
Creating original content is still crucial, but now, quantity and quality play equally important roles. Enter the evergreen Skyscraper technique, a favorite among marketers aiming to outdo existing content.
This advanced technique for natural backlink growth involves finding the best content related to your keywords and creating a version that’s 10 times better. In other words, you’ll produce high-quality content that people will want to share and link to.
For example, if you search Google for “how to be resilient,” you might see an APA.org article ranking first.
Your task is to analyze it, identify its weaknesses, and enhance it by adding missing elements. This could mean incorporating more SEO images, data, videos, better examples, or trending content like “How to be resilient in the face of adversity.” Once you’ve done that, your high-quality content is ready to shine.
To find the best content, use tools like BuzzSumo, YouTube, Quora, and, of course, Google searches. Apply the Skyscraper technique to create a superior version.
#2. Spy on Your Competitors for Natural Backlink Growth
Ever wondered about your competitors’ backlink strategies? By monitoring their approaches, you can uncover where their links are coming from and which anchor texts they use. The SpyFu competitor keyword research tool is excellent for studying your competitors’ best keywords and advanced link building tactics.
You don’t have to copy their methods, but you can certainly draw inspiration from them. Once you’ve identified their link building strategies, apply the Skyscraper technique to outperform them. Whatever your competitors are doing, strive to do it better.
For instance, contact the sites or people linking to your competitors and offer them superior content. Provide compelling reasons for them to link back to you instead. SpyFu also has a built-in tool that reveals which sites are linking to your competitors, making this process faster.
When you leverage this as one of the techniques for natural backlink growth, you can increase your chances of obtaining backlinks from websites that already provide link juice to your competitors. This way, you’re not just matching their efforts but surpassing them, enhancing your own SEO in the process.
If you’re creating better content in the same format, look for high-authority sites to publish it as a guest post. Ideally, target sites in the same industry as where you found the original post. They’re more likely to accept your content since it’s relevant to their audience.
Alternatively, if your content is in a different format, reach out to the website with the original content and ask if they’re interested in publishing your improved version.
Another advanced technique for natural backlink growth is to publish the finished content on your own blog, encouraging other sites to link back to you.
When building backlinks, prioritize quality over quantity. You’ve likely heard about the dangers of bad backlinks, but it can be tough to judge without clear standards. What makes a link good or bad? A quality link comes from a reputable, relevant site and adds value to your content.
#3. Guestographics for Natural Backlink Growth
The Skyscraper tactic is a powerful tool in your advanced link building strategies. Beyond creating 10X better content, you can also develop different versions of existing posts to make them more shareable and link-worthy. One effective approach is creating infographics based on evergreen content.
The real magic happens when you reach out to the same site (like Business Insider) and request them to publish your infographic.
This method, known as guestographics, involves contributing infographics to guest posting sites. It’s an extremely effective technique for natural backlink growth that you should definitely consider adopting. By offering high-quality, visually appealing content, you significantly increase the chances of earning valuable backlinks.
#4. Instructographics for Natural Backlink Growth
Pushing the boundaries of infographics, you can create instructographics—infographics that convey instructional content, essentially replacing entire articles. These instructographics tell readers what to do and what not to do in a visually engaging format.
Instructographics, due to their highly informative nature, tend to get a lot of shares and can help you earn valuable backlinks. They can be a crucial element in your techniques for natural backlink growth.
Take, for example, author Jackie Blum, who created an instructographic about the popular book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. The instructographic shared key instructions from the book and received tremendous response on Medium.
Similarly, you can take your old content and convert it into instructographics. This strategy not only refreshes your content but also enhances your advanced link building efforts by providing highly shareable and link-worthy material.
#5. Publish Original Research for Techniques in Natural Backlink Growth
Now that you’ve mastered optimizing existing content, it’s time to create something original. One of the most effective techniques for natural backlink growth is conducting and publishing original research. This can take the form of surveys or hypothesis-based studies.
For example, a coffee chain could conduct research on their customers, exploring questions like:
How many times do people drink coffee in a day?
How does coffee intake increase during stressful moments, and what are its effects?
What’s the most common time to have coffee?
Publishing these findings and creating content around them can generate significant interest. People want to link to original studies and research that are relevant to their industry, making this an excellent strategy for natural backlink growth.
Don’t worry if your findings aren’t what you expected. Sometimes, unexpected results or opinions that challenge common assumptions can attract even more backlinks as people discuss and counter your findings.
In addition to research, creating case studies of your achievements is another powerful technique for natural backlink growth. Case studies are highly valued because they provide concrete evidence and actionable insights. Publishing these on reputable sites in your niche can significantly enhance your backlink profile.
Brian Dean is renowned for his case study content on Backlinko, which attracts substantial traffic through case studies packed with actionable strategies that readers can apply instantly.
Incorporating these techniques for natural backlink growth can help you build a robust backlink profile and improve your search engine rankings effectively.
#6. Mention Influencers for Effective Techniques in Natural Backlink Growth
How often do you reference industry influencers in your content, whether through examples, quotes, or case studies? Have you considered letting them know when you mention them?
You might think that reaching out to big-name influencers is a waste of time, but it’s actually a smart move. Whenever you feature their work or insights, make sure to tag or notify them. Even if they don’t engage directly, their followers might take notice, and the influencers themselves are likely to appreciate the recognition, leading to valuable backlinks for your site.
For instance, Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Work Week, often engages with his fans by retweeting their mentions. Similarly, tagging or mentioning influencers when you share your content can boost engagement and leverage their audience. This method can be a powerful advanced link building strategy.
Tip: Don’t limit your mentions to just big-name influencers. Micro-influencers can also be highly effective. Engaging with them can increase your chances of being noticed and shared, contributing to your techniques for natural backlink growth.
#7. Become a Thought Leader for Effective Techniques in Natural Backlink Growth
Become a Thought Leader for Effective Techniques in Natural Backlink Growth
One powerful way to boost your backlink profile is by establishing yourself as a thought leader. Share your unique perspectives, innovative ideas, and personal success stories across social platforms. By doing so, you create engaging content that resonates with people, even if they’re not yet familiar with your products or services.
Take Gary Vaynerchuk as an example. While he’s known for his wine business, he’s also celebrated for his motivational insights and life lessons. His influence extends beyond his primary business because he consistently shares valuable, inspirational content.
When you embrace this approach, you tap into techniques for natural backlink growth. When you position yourself as a thought leader, you naturally attract backlinks as others reference your authoritative and inspiring content.
#8. Develop an Abundance of Content
Gary Vaynerchuk is renowned for his prolific content creation, and he achieves this by repurposing a single piece of content into various formats. For instance, he takes one detailed article and transforms it into videos, podcasts, infographics, and more. This method streamlines the content creation process and maximizes reach across different platforms.
You can adopt this content strategy to enhance your advanced techniques for natural backlink growth. By regularly producing a piece of long-form content, then breaking it down into multiple formats—like videos for YouTube, images for Instagram, and podcasts for iTunes—you’ll save time and effort while boosting your content’s visibility.
A well-planned content schedule ensures that you’re not only creating diverse content but also consistently promoting it on relevant social media channels. The wider your content’s reach, the more likely you are to attract valuable backlinks.
#9. Create Supportive Tools for as One of the Effective Techniques in Natural Backlink Growth
Don’t just stick to creating content—expand your strategy to include tools, templates, and widgets that make life easier for your audience. These resources can naturally attract backlinks without you needing to ask for them.
Take Travis Bradberry, co-author of the best-seller Emotional Intelligence 2.0. Besides writing about emotional intelligence, he offers valuable tools like psychological tests and daily calendars on his TalentSmart website. These tools help users gain insights into themselves and are highly valued.
Because these tools are useful and well-regarded, they receive numerous mentions and backlinks from reputable sites, including Harvard. Incorporating such supportive tools into your advanced techniques for natural backlink growth can significantly boost your site’s authority and link profile.
#10. Leverage Influencers
Influencers have dedicated audiences within specific niches and are constantly creating content to engage them. This makes them a powerful asset for your advanced link building strategy.
Partnering with influencers can directly connect you with their followers—your target audience. When influencers promote your content, products, or services, it can lead to valuable backlinks as they advocate for your brand.
To kick off, identify influencers relevant to your niche and explore collaboration opportunities. For instance, if you’re running a travel company, seek out influential travelers who regularly share their experiences. Their followers are likely travel enthusiasts, making them a prime audience for your brand.
Here’s how to find the right influencers:
Use BuzzSumo’s influencer discovery tool. Enter relevant keywords to get a list of top influencers in your niche.
Conduct a Google search for “top blogs/experts in [your niche].”
#11. Develop a Link pyramid
To rank a specific page, you usually link directly to it using relevant anchor text. For example, if you want to boost the ranking of your homepage, www.yoursite.com, you’d create blog posts linking to it with appropriate anchor texts.
A link pyramid takes this concept further by adding multiple levels of backlinks, creating a structured network of links that supports your target page. Here’s how it works:
Level 0: This is the page you want to rank, such as www.yoursite.com/SEO.
Level 1: Create content like blog posts that link directly to Level 0, for example, www.yoursite.com/blog/SEO.
Level 2: Develop additional content that links to Level 1, such as www.yoursite.com/blog/internetmarketing.
Level 3: Generate more content that links to Level 2, like www.yoursite.com/blog/contentmarketing.
This method is one of the safest techniques for natural backlink growth. It helps build a robust link structure without risking penalties from search engines. You can apply link pyramids across various content formats, including guest posts, images, infographics, and videos, to enhance your link building strategy effectively.
#12. Develop Link-Focused Wikis
If you haven’t leveraged Wikipedia for your brand yet, now’s the time to start. Wikipedia entries often appear in Google’s snippet area or sidebars, making them highly visible.
When you create detailed Wikipedia pages about your brand with multiple relevant links back to your site, you can tap into a vast audience actively seeking information.
This strategy is a powerful technique for natural backlink growth, drawing attention and driving traffic to your site through well-placed, authoritative links.
#13. Get Featured in Round-Up Posts
A highly effective advanced link building strategy is to get featured in round-up posts. These posts aggregate top content, tools, or resources within a specific industry. For instance, you might encounter titles like:
“10 Best Advanced Techniques for Natural Backlink Growth”
“Top 10 Advanced Link Building Strategies from Industry Experts”
To tap into these opportunities, seek out content curators who create such lists. Reach out to them and propose including your resources, whether it’s your insightful content, useful tools, or valuable templates.
But don’t limit yourself to listicles. Explore other round-up formats like podcasts or YouTube videos that highlight top products or tools in your niche. These platforms can also offer valuable backlinks.
When you integrate your resources into these curated lists, you leverage effective techniques for natural backlink growth, gaining visibility and credibility while connecting with your target audience.
#14. Provide Updated Content
Ever come across articles filled with outdated tips and information? This is a golden opportunity to refresh and update that content, turning it into a powerful tool for building backlinks.
Here’s how you can use this strategy: identify outdated articles in your niche and offer to replace them with your updated, accurate information. Not only are you providing a valuable update to the publisher, but you’re also positioning yourself as a helpful source.
For instance, if you notice that a popular 2016 Pew Research article on “Wikipedia pageviews per month” still holds the top spot on Google, it might be time for a refresh. Gather the latest data and create new content around the same topic. Reach out to the original publisher with your updated content and suggest they swap out the old information.
Publishers are likely to appreciate the updated insights and may link back to your content, helping you earn valuable backlinks and improve your SEO.
#15. Tap into Your Networks
Once you’ve implemented various networking strategies and built a solid list of influencer contacts, it’s time to leverage those connections for further link building. These influencers may include those you’ve mentioned in your content or who have promoted your products or services.
Here’s how to effectively utilize these relationships: Reach out to your influencers and ask if they’d like to receive more of your content in the future. If they’re interested, add them to your subscriber list. This allows you to send them personalized emails whenever you publish new content.
To make it even easier for them to support you, include shareable buttons in your emails. These buttons let influencers share your content with just a single click, which can amplify your reach and contribute to your techniques for natural backlink growth.
When you keep your content top of mind and making it easy for influencers to spread the word, you can enhance your link-building efforts and drive more traffic to your site.
#16. Recover Your Links
Have you ever reviewed the links you’ve built over time to see if they’re still active? It’s crucial to ensure that the links you earned in the past are still live. Sometimes, these valuable backlinks can become broken or be removed altogether.
To maintain and enhance your link profile, start by checking the status of your old links. If you discover that some are missing or broken, reach out to the publishers or webmasters to request that they restore or replace them. This simple yet effective tactic is one of the key component of advanced link building strategies and can significantly support your techniques for natural backlink growth.
By reclaiming and repairing these links, you ensure that you’re maximizing the value of your existing link-building efforts and maintaining a robust backlink profile.
#17. Identify and Repair Broken Backlinks
Broken backlinks, or broken inbound links, are those that point to your site but lead to non-existent or incorrect pages. These issues often arise when a page on your site is removed, or if there’s a mistake in how the backlink was created on a third-party site. For example, a link might have extra characters appended to the URL, causing it to break.
To maintain a healthy backlink profile and bolster your advanced link building strategy, it’s crucial to identify and rectify these broken links. Here’s how you can go about it:
#1. Identify Broken Backlinks: Use tools like Google Chrome’s Broken Link Checker extension to scan for broken backlinks pointing to your site. This tool helps you quickly locate these issues by crawling through your inbound links and highlighting any that are no longer functioning.
#2. Fix the Broken Links: Once identified, you need to take action to fix these broken backlinks. If the issue is on your end, such as a removed page, consider setting up redirects to relevant content or updating the links. For errors on third-party sites, reach out to the webmasters or content managers of those sites and request that they correct or update the links.
#3. Monitor and Maintain: Regularly check your backlink profile to catch and address broken links promptly. This ongoing maintenance ensures that you retain the value of your backlinks and continue to benefit from them.
Fixing broken backlinks is a fundamental part of advanced link building and is essential for sustaining and improving your techniques for natural backlink growth. By addressing these issues, you ensure that your backlink strategy remains effective, helping to drive more traffic and boost your site’s authority.
#18. Identify Brand Mentions
Sometimes, your brand might be mentioned across the web, but without an accompanying link back to your site. This can be a missed opportunity for valuable backlinks. Here’s how you can turn these brand mentions into effective techniques for natural backlink growth:
#1. Use Brand Monitoring Tools: Instead of manually scouring the web, leverage brand monitoring tools like Mention or Google Alerts. These tools help you track where your brand is mentioned online, making it easier to spot instances where you’re referenced but not linked.
#2. Reach Out for Link Requests: When you find mentions of your brand without links, contact the content owners or website managers. Politely request that they add a link to your site. Make sure your request is relevant and adds value to their content. For example, if your brand is mentioned as a case study or example, this is a great opportunity to ask for a link.
#3. Be Selective and Balanced: While it’s tempting to seek links for every mention, it’s important to maintain a natural balance. Google prefers authentic, organic brand mentions over a constant barrage of link requests. Avoid pressing for links in every product review or informal mention; instead, focus on opportunities where your brand is discussed in a meaningful context.
#4. Prioritize High Domain Authority Sites: When you’re reaching out for links, target sites with high Domain Authority (DA). Links from reputable and high-DA sites are more valuable and will positively impact your SEO efforts.
When you effectively find and leverage brand mentions, you can enhance your techniques for natural backlink growth. This strategy helps build credibility and drives more traffic to your site while maintaining a natural and balanced backlink profile.
#19. Position Yourself as a Newsworthy Company
To truly capitalize on advanced link building, becoming a newsworthy company is key. Here’s how you can make continuous progress and naturally attract backlinks:
#1. Constant Innovation and Growth: Keep your company in the spotlight by consistently launching new products, enhancing existing offerings, or adopting cutting-edge technology. By staying on the cutting edge and making notable advancements, you create ample opportunities for media coverage and industry buzz.
#2. Promote Your Developments: Actively promote any new developments or innovations. Whether it’s a groundbreaking product, a major upgrade, or a unique service offering, ensure that your announcements reach the right audiences. Use press releases, blog posts, and social media to spread the word.
#3. Attract Media Attention: When your company is making headlines, it naturally draws the attention of journalists and industry influencers. They are likely to cover your news, creating content that references and links back to your site. This kind of media coverage often results in valuable backlinks.
#4. Leverage Media Coverage: As you attract media attention, make sure to leverage it effectively. Share articles and news features about your company on your platforms, and build relationships with journalists and bloggers who cover your industry. This can lead to even more opportunities for backlinks and mentions.
When you position your company as a dynamic and newsworthy entity, you can harness these techniques for natural backlink growth. Continuous innovation and strategic promotion will not only keep your brand relevant but also attract high-quality backlinks from authoritative sources, boosting your online presence and search engine rankings.
#20. Embrace Content Curation as one of the Effective Techniques for Natural Backlink Growth
Content curation is a powerful strategy in advanced link building that can significantly enhance your techniques for natural backlink growth. Here’s how you can leverage it:
#1. Create Valuable “Best Of” Lists: Compile and showcase the top content in your industry on a weekly basis. For example, you might put together a “Best Marketing Articles of the Week” list or a “Top SEO Tips from Leading Experts.” This not only highlights your expertise but also positions you as a go-to source for valuable content.
#2. Attract and Engage Industry Contributors: By becoming a trusted curator, you’ll naturally attract attention from content creators and industry experts. They’ll see you as a credible source and may reach out for inclusion in your curated lists. This reciprocal relationship often results in them sharing your curated content and linking back to your site.
#3. Enhance Your Online Visibility: As you curate and share high-quality content, your reputation as a knowledgeable resource grows. This can lead to more industry figures contacting you, seeking inclusion in your lists, or linking back to your site from their own platforms.
#4. Encourage Sharing and Link Building: When content creators and industry influencers see their work featured in your curated lists, they are likely to share your content with their audience. This not only drives traffic to your site but also results in more backlinks from authoritative sources.
When you integrate content curation into your strategy, you effectively utilize these techniques for natural backlink growth. It helps build relationships with key industry players and boosts your content’s visibility, leading to more organic backlinks and enhancing your overall SEO efforts.
Conclusion
As we conclude this guide, it’s clear that employing advanced techniques for natural backlink growth is crucial to enhancing your SEO strategy and climbing the ranks in search engine results. Traditional methods like guest blogging and social media promotion still have their place, but to truly excel, you need to embrace more sophisticated approaches.
Think of skyscraper techniques where you create content that’s exponentially better than what’s already out there. It’s not just about creating original content but about making it superior, more engaging, and more valuable. By outdoing existing content, you’ll naturally attract backlinks as other sites will want to reference your enhanced version.
Another powerful strategy is spying on competitors to learn where their backlinks come from and what tactics they use. By leveraging tools like SpyFu and applying the Skyscraper technique, you can surpass your competitors and secure high-quality backlinks from reputable sources.
Guestographics and instructographics are also game-changers. These techniques involve creating visually appealing and highly shareable content that can attract backlinks effortlessly. By offering unique infographics and instructional content, you increase the chances of getting your work featured on high-traffic sites.
Publishing original research and case studies stands out as another highly effective method. By providing fresh, data-driven insights, you create content that’s not only valuable but also likely to attract backlinks from industry professionals and publications interested in your findings.
Mentioning influencers and becoming a thought leader can further enhance your backlink profile. Engaging with influencers through mentions and building your reputation as an authority in your field can drive significant traffic and earn valuable backlinks as others reference your expertise.
Developing a link pyramid and creating link-focused wikis are strategic ways to build a robust link structure that supports your main pages. This approach helps in distributing link equity effectively while avoiding penalties.
Lastly, getting featured in round-up posts and offering updated quality content can provide excellent opportunities for natural backlink growth. By contributing to curated lists and refreshing outdated articles with new, valuable information, you position yourself as a reliable resource that others want to link to.
When you integrate these techniques for natural backlink growth into your strategy, you’ll not only avoid penalties but also significantly boost your search engine rankings. Embrace these methods to build a strong, credible backlink profile that drives sustainable SEO success.
