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How to Get Backlinks for SEO
When I first started learning more about backlinks for SEO, I had absolutely no idea where to start or what to do.
I knew that backlinks were one of the most important strategies to put in place for a blog to be successful, but I really didn’t know how to do it effectively or even without wasting a lot of time.
I am a busy blogger and blogger outreach and other strategies really did not appeal to me. That’s when I connected with Debbie, an amazing blogger and SEO Expert.
I enrolled in her coaching services and I was absolutely blown away.
Paper and pen in one hand and one hour later, I had 10 pieces of paper full of notes about how I was going to take my online business from doing okay to doubling my income.
Growing your blog requires having a solid strategy in place and implementing these strategies on a regular basis!
If you care about the long-term success of your blog, then you really want to take the time to look into backlinks and how it can help you grow.
Lucky for me, my friend Debbie will share some amazing tips that all bloggers can use.
But before we get started on the best way to get backlinks for SEO, we would love for you to join our growing Facebook group right here! Be sure to give us a quick follow on Instagram as well!
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Building Easy Backlinks for SEO
If you are like me and you hate the thought of sending out 100 emails a day begging for a single backlink, you are going to love Debbie’s strategies on building them the easy way.
Now that you know that backlinks are crucial to the success of your blog, I went ahead and asked Debbie a few more questions about it.
I like to really dig deep and understand what I am doing in order for me to really dive in.
Remember, I wanted the easiest possible way to build backlinks and this is what she suggested:
1// What are Backlinks and Why Do they Matter?
Backlinks are links from other websites back to yours.
When you get more backlinks, it improves your authority and trust with Google which enables your site and articles to rank much higher on Google and the other search engines.
Many bloggers realize that backlinks are important for SEO, but they just don’t know how or where to get them.
So, they just give up.
And, most don’t realize that backlinks and off-page SEO account for 50% of how well your articles rank.
Yes, 50%.
In fact, Google confirmed that backlinks are one of the top 3 factors for SEO…on par with the content you write.
If you’re not building backlink, you are majorly limiting your SEO potential.
SEO traffic is extremely valuable and it has been the key to the success of my home décor blog.
My blog now earns over $20,000/month (net profit). I get over 500,000 page views per month (60% SEO traffic/40% Pinterest traffic).
While Pinterest traffic is great, SEO brings in more money.
In fact, it appears that every pageview from SEO is worth 3 times as many dollars as Pinterest (or other social media traffic)!
Why is that?
SEO traffic converts much better!
These users are in buying mode and actively searching for something so they are much more likely to buy the affiliate product you’re recommending or your own product that you’re promoting.
They are also more likely to join your email list and will stay longer on your page which drives more ad income.
Also, SEO traffic is more consistent and more passive (requires less on-going maintenance (vs Pinterest where you need to keep creating new pins, repinning/scheduling, etc.).
It really enables you to scale your blog.
2// How do Backlinks Increase Blog Traffic?
First, backlinks rarely generate traffic..at least initially.
And, this is a big misconception that newer bloggers have.
Even if you guest post on a very large blog, only a small fraction will follow the link back to your website.
BUT, the main benefit to backlinks is that they strengthen the page they are linking to.
So, over time, those articles can move up the ranks to Page 1 of Google, and that is what will get you a LOT of traffic.
However, you need to focus on getting the right backlinks which mean quality backlinks.
Ideally, you want to get backlinks from sites that have a high DA (Domain Authority) from yours.
3// What are Some Smart Ways to Build Backlinks for SEO
I think it’s important to get backlinks from a variety of places.
Diversity of links (i.e. more sites, higher domain authority sites, related niche sites) and a variety of method.
Here are 3 common ones:
– Guest posts. This works best when you find blogs in your niche with higher Domain Authority (In my Easy Backlinks for SEO eBook), I have list 60+ bloggers sites where they are willing to accept guest posts and several tips on how to find more and prioritize your time best.
– HARO – This stands for Help A Reporter Out, and you can enroll for free. On a daily basis, you’ll receive requests from reporters looking for expert advice. You can answer them and sometimes they will link back to your site to give you credit.
– Internal backlinks. This is one of the most overlooked methods for building Page Authority. Link back to your most important posts. It is so simple to do. Prioritize the posts that are most important. And, link to them from other relevant posts.
There are many methods to build backlinks, and many bloggers just give up because they don’t know where to start or they feel that some of the methods are very time-consuming.
So I put together Easy Backlinks for SEO to make it easier for bloggers.
I outline 31+ ways and places to build those links…without blogger outreach.
I also share more advanced methods to build backlinks.
This is like a handbook where you can keep building your arsenal for years to come.
4.// How Often Should You Focus on Link Building?
This really should just become part of your blogging process.
It’s part of what you do AFTER you launch a post (as well as when you’re trying to strengthen an existing post).
Like everything with Google, you want to be consistent and pace yourself.
I generally recommend building just 2-3 backlinks for SEO per week (and you can do these after you post new articles).
This will both strengthen the articles and help Google index them and rank them faster.
Once you get going and do some of the basics, this work can usually be done in just 1-2 hours per week.
It’s more important to do this than to write a 2nd post for the week.
In blogging, it’s more about quality over quantity.
5.// Where should you start if you know NOTHING about SEO?
If you’re a beginner or intermediate when it comes to SEO, then you should start with On-Page SEO.
This is all about how to optimize the articles you are writing (and have written) so they are optimized for the user and for SEO.
In this eBook, I outline all the steps to take to make readers and search engines happy.
I even have a 12 step printable checklist.
I also have the 9 step plan on what to do right after you publish. This will help your articles index faster and rank higher.
I wrote both eBooks in easy to understand language so it works for all levels.
About the author:
Debbie Gartner is known as “The Flooring Girl,” and she has been blogging since 2010. She is the author of 2 SEO ebooks: Easy On-page SEO and Easy Backlinks for SEO.
Read this next, if you are interested in SEO:
How to Increase Organic Traffic From Google: Without tearing your hair out
I Guarantee, this will increase your website traffic IMMEDIATELY
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I can see that I should be putting more effort into backlinks. Most sites want original guest posts. At the moment I am struggling to find the time to keep up with my blogging schedule (and work schedule) for my own blog, without looking to write an original post for someone else’s blog. I will have to try and change this!
As a new blogger with low DA I need to build backlinks to get more traffic through SEO to my website. I will start with your recommendation to guest post on websites that cater to my specific niche.
This is so so so helpful! Thank you!
I am glad you found the post helpful.
As long as you are building quality backlinks for SEO purposes, your blog will do well.
Another blogger contacted me about backlinks and I didn’t know much about them but figured it would, be worth a try. I have done a few backlinks with my own posts. This was a lot of good info, I’m still learning a lot, so I will pin this to refer back to for sure, thanks so much.
Yes, backlinks for SEO is crucial for the growth of your blog. You just need to focus on getting quality links and I have been doing a lot of guest posts lately.
Wow, great information! I will definitely start using backlinks in my blog. Really appreciate it. 😊
I have been blogging for about a year now and always been on the fence about Backlinks. Some of the things you mentioned in the post make sense. I have started the internal backlinks and have seen increase in traffic. Seems like they actually do work. Thanks for the info.
Absolutely.
I neglected to build healthy backlinks for SEO for a while and now I am just getting back into it. Hopefully, everything will pay off soon.
Thanks girlfriend. I’m in my “learning SEO” stage now and really trying to learn as much as I can and this post is GREAT. I’m saving for later too ❤️
What a fantastic, insightful post! I really understood the concept of backlinks from your explanation.
Thanks for sharing strategies to get us more page views!
Basic SEO knowledge is so important in this economic climate. Great skill to have, great article to read. Great stuff!
Yes, it is, thank you for your thoughtful comment.
Thank you so much for sharing! I had no idea that internal links help with backlinks! I just thought that it was a way to get readers to stay on my blog so it’s a win-win!
Thank you so much for featuring me in this article. I’m so honored.
You are welcome Debbie!
Omg, I’ve forgotten the importance of link building since I started blogging 3 years ago. This article was a great reminder. Tha is for this post.
I definitely need to work on my SEO and backlinks so thanks for providing such a useful article.
Nice article. I will definitely have to look into HARO.
Very detailed and clear! I’m starting to use SEO when I write a post and everyday I’m learning. This resource is very helpful.
Very, very useful! Thanks a lot for your advice. I’ve been blogging for quite a while, but never focused on SEO. Now it’s time!
Wow, I honestly never even understood what backlinks were until now. Thank you so much for this post! I totally agree that really working on SEO and promoting your content is more important than simply posting more and more content that you’re never actually optimizing. I’ll definitely return to your blog to read more about SEO!
This is definitely something I need to work on, I have very few backlinks currently. I could probably stand to improve my SEO game as well to increasee traffic. It’s interesting that the focus is on building backlinks before adding new content. I’ve always heard it’s better to push out more posts so that’s a new take for me.
Thanks for these amazing tips on backlinks. I have been looking for a good post on backlinks. Thanks for sharing