What makes high quality backlinks

1. Resource Link Building

When thinking about ways to get backlinks, many often start by thinking about big and complicated tactics. But one of the most effective ways to build links is with resource link building.

To be successful with this tactic, you need to identify where your business can add value to your audience. Then you need to create great resource pages so you can earn quality backlinks from relevant authorities. 

Common examples of where resource pages exist online include:

• Travel and tourism boards
• Universities
• Local governments

And you can often find these opportunities by analyzing your competitor's link profile and taking a look at who links to them but not you. By using the SEMrush Backlink Analytics Tool, you are easily able to identify resources that link to your competitors' site. This way, you can work on a content strategy that may attract their attention, and they will want to link to your site instead. 

2. Broken Link Building

Broken link building is all about finding informative webpages with external links to dead pages.

If you can identify broken links that point to 404 pages and present an alternative piece of content that is as good, if not better, than the original link, you can pretty quickly build some excellent links.

You need to make sure that you have a similar piece of content to what was initially linked to (or be prepared to create it). You can drive a reasonable level of success from this tactic, as neither users nor the website you want a link from will benefit from linking to a page that 404s. You are helping a webmaster to reduce broken links on their site while suggesting an alternative replacement, so they do not have to go looking for one themselves. You can read our guide on Broken Link Building to learn how to use the tactic.

3. Unlinked Brand Mentions

From mentions by regional online newspapers and radio stations to product reviews and references, it is not uncommon for many businesses to find that they have been mentioned across the web.

While the ideal situation is that these mentions also link out to your website, sometimes they do not. These are known as unlinked brand mentions.

But how do you find unlinked brand mentions and try to turn them into links?

You can find these with the SEMrush Brand Monitoring Tool.

 

Set up the tool to monitor for mentions of your brand, and you will receive these straight into your inbox as they occur.

When it comes to finding existing unlinked mentions, simply click the 'no link' box on the 'link to website' dropdown, and you will see a list of unlinked brand mentions. 

Then you can begin reaching out to the webmasters, journalists, or bloggers who mentioned your brand and politely ask them to add a link.
However, to maximize your chances of this happening, you need to be able to showcase how the link adds editorial value. You can use this template as a base for reaching out (which you can do and manage through the Link Building Tool).

Hi [Name],
I’m getting in touch regarding an article published on [publication], with the title of "[article title]" - It was written based on research conducted by my client, [client].
It was fantastic to see that the research was of interest, thank you for the coverage. It’s really appreciated.
I was wondering, however, if it would be possible for you to add a link to the research page itself?
This would enable readers to [demonstrate the editorial value here] and to view the original research and associated data in more depth, as well as provide full credit to my client for their work. 
Here are the relevant links:
Article: [link to the publication’s article]
Research: [link to the research / linkable asset]
If you have any questions or I can help in any way, please feel free to get in touch.
[Email Signature]

4. Supplier Links

If you sell other people's products, you could be sitting on an excellent opportunity to earn a bunch of really authoritative links to your site.

Many manufacturers and suppliers have 'where to buy' or 'stockists' pages on their website, just like this:

this is simply a manufacturer pointing users to the places where they can buy their products. And if you are a seller of a manufacturer's products, you should be listed (and linked).

Pull together a list of all of your suppliers and their websites and work through one-by-one to look for a page that lists their stockists.

Find a page but see that you are not listed? 

It is probably not intentional. Reach out to whomever your contact is at the company, share the page, and ask what the process is to get your website listed and linked. Oftentimes, your contact can arrange this for you.

The Authority Score indicates a domain's SEO quality. A higher number means a stronger domain and a better backlink prospect, but keep an eye on how it correlates with the average score, as the impact of a link strongly depends on the website's niche.

 

5. Business Association Links

Are you a member of any type of business association? Maybe your Chamber of Commerce or a specialist industry body? If so, you could have some easy opportunities to earn links to your site.

In many ways, this is similar to supplier links but does not rely on you stocking a manufacturer's products or them having a page on their site.

You need to compile a list of all of the associations that you are a member of and their websites. Then look for a 'members' page or a similar page on their site. Often this is in the form of a member directory, like this example from Long Beach Chamber of Commerce. 

These are usually articles that cover:

• The best...
• Top 10...

Or similar.
You can use Google search operators to identify listicles in your industry that round up your competitors and then look to see whether you are included. That said, you would likely already be aware of the post if you are.

To get added to some listicles, you need to be reaching out to a journalist or blogger and justify why you are a better inclusion than some of those that are already on the list. 

Sometimes you will find that the writer will be happy to update and add your business if you can demonstrate how it adds value to users. It all comes down to selling yourself.

Read our guide on Email Outreach to learn top tips on how to reach out.

7. Link Gap Analysis

One of the quickest ways to find link building opportunities is to conduct a link gap analysis and find sites that link to your competitors but do not link to you.

If a website has linked out to more than one of your competitors, there is a very good chance that they will also link out to yours - as long as you can justify why they should do so.

And you can use the Backlink Gap Tool to make this process much easier. 

 

There is no getting away from the fact that backlinks remain one of Google's top three ranking factors, and that it is unlikely to change any time soon. This means many marketers and business owners are left wondering how to get backlinks to their site..