How to Get Backlinks: 5 Proven Tactics ( Part 1)

Link building is not rocket science. There is no secret club where only a select few learn how to make connections. Anyone can do this.

But without reliable, proven tactics, it's harder than it needs to be.

Here are five proven ways to get backlinks:

1. Make "best x in y" listicles

"Best x in y" lists are posts that rank the best companies in a specific field or industry. Finding and hitting up the ones you're not already on can help you get more exposure and backlinks.

How it goes

You can find relevant listings by searching Google using this formula: Best BUSINESS TYPE in LOCATION -"YOUR BUSINESS NAME".

2. HARO

HARO (Help A Reporter Out) is a free service that connects journalists to sources and sources to journalists. It's an easy way to earn quality backlinks because journalists want answers from you, not the other way around.

How it goes

This includes queries from large, well-known websites such as Business Insider and The New York Times.

The problem is that most requests are irrelevant, so it's worth setting up a Gmail filter to save your sanity.

Here's how:

Click on the search option filter
Set the From field to [email protected].
Set the "Subject" to "[HARO]"
Set “Has the words” to keywords you want to monitor (you can use OR operator to list multiple keywords here)

3. Guest blogging

Guest blogging is when you write a blog post for another site, and in return, you typically get attribution and a link back to your site.

How it goes

To find sites that are likely to accept guest posts, go to Content Explorer, type in a keyword related to your niche, and change the dropdown menu to "In Title". This searches billions of pages for suitable content.

You can then apply filters to narrow the results and find sites to pitch to.

These filters are a good place to start:

Domain rating: 30+. This will filter out extremely low authority websites.
Website traffic: 5000+. This eliminates websites with little or no traffic.
Published: Last 90 days. This will weed out sites that haven't recently posted content that may not be responding to pitches.

You should also toggle the "One page per domain" box as there is no point in hitting the same website multiple times.

4. Podcast Interviews

In podcast interviews, you are introduced as an expert on a podcast and asked questions by the presenter.

Each will only take about an hour of your time, and if you choose them wisely, backlinks are pretty much guaranteed. This is because most podcasts have episode pages on their site, which almost always link to the guest's website and social profiles.

How it goes

You must first find podcasts you want to feature, which you can do by searching Google for top industry podcasts. Most of the results will be lists, and Google also tends to show a podcast carousel in the search results.

5. Unlinked Mentions

Unlinked mentions occur when people cite your brand (or something related to your brand) online without linking to your site.

They are low-hanging fruit in link building because you are already halfway there. The person is already familiar with your brand, so you can often get a link just by asking them to add a link to the mention.

How to do it

To find unlinked mentions, search for your brand in Content Explorer and add site:yourwebsite.com to exclude results from your website.