Every day, there are 3.5 billion online searches by users looking for information on Google alone.
In the face of search engines being the new hunting ground for eyeballs, brands and businesses are looking for ways to earn customer trust and dollars. Using inbound links to show that others find your content valuable is essential in the race for online mind share. Not only does your audience value inbound linking, but search engines also use it as a signal to identify relevant content.
Thus, you need to learn the right way to work with inbound linking. Here is an overview of some approaches you can rely on to gain white hat inbound linking.
What Is an Inbound Link?
In simple terms, an inbound link is an incoming link from another site to your website.
An inbound link sends users from other websites to yours and, as such, can drive your site’s rankings. In essence, an inbound link is like a vote for your website. Thus, you want that vote to be one that matters.
Using a quality inbound link is critical as it’s akin to a trusted person voting for your website to rank higher on search results.
What Makes a Good Inbound Link?
If an inbound link delivers essential benefits to your business that can impact your ranking, you need to know what makes for quality linking.
While inbound linking can boost your search performance, you can only receive the benefit if you’re dealing with quality backlinks.
A quality inbound link is one that comes from a quality website, and that uses a natural anchor text.
Ways You Can Get Inbound Links for Your Business
A quality inbound link is perhaps one of the hardest links you can get. However, if you do land one, the payoff is quite compelling.
There are good (white hat) and wrong (black hat) ways to source an inbound link. When you use black hat ways to get an inbound link, you risk having the search engine knock down your rankings.
There are several approaches you can take to help you land this whale:
1. Develop High-Quality Content
The first and most accessible method of getting a quality inbound link is to develop content that others will love and find useful.
Sink your teeth into in-depth research to come up with content that features original insights.
Material with original statistics, charts, graphs, and other forms of original research tend to drive engagement. People are highly interested in gaining new knowledge on topics that matter to them. As a result, many users will end up linking to your content.
Another ingenious way to cultivate inbound linking is to create hilarious or outrageous content. These kinds of content trigger high-value emotions in people that often lead to them sharing it with others through linking.
Consider running an interview series with experts in your niche. These experienced people can bring fresh insight that can help your audience learn new things about the topic at hand. In turn, you will find people linking to such an interview series, giving you quality inbound linking.
Curating in-depth information can also help you achieve the same objective as with interviewing experts. A list of resources and round-ups are popular formats that regularly deliver quality inbound linking. Remember, though, that the resources you highlight need to be from high-quality sources.
If you do curate information that features other companies, these firms can most likely link to your content. That can help you achieve quality inbound linking.
2. Give Value Then Request a Link in Return
When you want to get value, you first must give value. When it comes to inbound linking, you can’t keep emailing bloggers and other professionals requesting for links. That will get you nowhere fast.
Instead, look for ways you can help other professionals add value to their business, while they give you a quality link in return.
For example, online reporters are always looking for credible sources to support their content. Find out the most notable reporters in your niche and reach out to them with an offer to help them with a high-value link source. The critical concept here being high value. If you happen to talk to the right reporter who needs the content you have, they might link to your resource.
Do you have a favorite blogger? You can reach out to them with a trade offer where you help them develop a more impactful headline in exchange for an inbound link. If you’re in the B2B space, such a proposal can be offering to sit on a panel for the partner, in return for a quality inbound link.
Whichever way you approach it, the essential point to note is that asking something for nothing should be avoided. When you help someone make tangible progress in their work, they can be more amenable to doing you a favor in return.
3. Leverage Current Events
Tapping the popularity of a popular breaking story or event to drive your marketing (newsjacking) is an approach you can use repeatedly. Once you spot an issue of interest, aim to be among the first to publish engaging content on it.
As the story gains traction, your content will rank higher on search engine result pages as people seek information on the matter. Consequently, others who develop content on the same issue can link to your material.
4. Create Free Webinars and Publish Archived Copies Online
Informative webinars that others can access on-demand are valuable sources of learning for many people. Once you host a high-value webinar, you can turn it into a SlideShare presentation that’s available on-demand online.
In the future, when others come to sign up for a webinar, they can check out the presentation. If they find it to be of value, chances are high they will share it (as webinar audiences are typically looking to learn).
Make Your Content More Valuable
Many people use search engines to find the products and services they need. To tap into this burgeoning customer source, you need to make your content more visible.
Inbound links are one useful tactic to help people get more value from your content and, therefore, boost your ranking and traffic. Learn the right way to use inbound linking to avoid negatively impacting your site’s organic traffic performance.
If you are looking to learn more about digital marketing, check out the rest of our content to find out how digital marketing can work for you.