Introduction

The number of links pointing to your website is one of the most important factors in increasing traffic. Because the more backlinks it has, the higher the ranking on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs).

But not all backlinks are created equal. Quality is more important than quantity, and it is better to have a few high-quality backlinks than many low-quality ones.

High-quality backlinks are:

• Earned
• Relevant
• From high-ranking, trusted sites

The best way to build high-quality backlinks is to use white hat link building techniques that follow Google’s guidelines.

Purchasing links, using link building programs, or applying other black or gray hat link building techniques will result in building a backlink profile full of spam links.

While it may be tempting to take shortcuts, these tactics can backfire. Black and gray hat link building techniques are against Google’s guidelines and your site could be subject to a penalty if you are caught using these techniques.

Generating quality backlinks may take longer, but will result in more traffic to your website in the long run.

In this article, you’ll learn what high-quality backlinks are and how you can incorporate them into your link building strategy.

What are Black and Gray Hat Techniques?

Black-Hat-Links: These techniques, like using PBNs or leaving spam comments, blatantly violate Google’s rules. They may give you a quick boost, but they can also result in severe penalties that affect your rankings.

Grey-Hat-Links: These are not generally banned by Google, but can be viewed as manipulative. An example is links that point to your website from guest posts. While these are not as risky as black hat techniques, they can still pose some danger if used excessively or if you link to poor quality websites.

Key Takeaways:

• Quality backlinks are earned and considered relevant when they come from websites in your niche.
• You are more likely to build high-quality backlinks using white hat link building techniques than gray or black hat techniques.
• Generating high-quality backlinks may take longer, but it will drive more traffic to your website in the long run.
• PR campaigns, linkable assets, connectively, image linking, guest posts and search unlinked mentions These are all great ways to earn quality backlinks.

High-quality backlinks are “earned”

You will never pay directly for quality backlinks. The owner of the linked website should have chosen to link to your content because it provides value.

Paying for links or manipulating a site owner to include them is against Google’s rules. These tactics attempt to trick search engines into thinking your content is getting more attention than it actually is.

Most of the time, Google simply ignores links that it believes have been purchased. However, in some cases there may be a penalty.

The only time you may pay for links is when using a Linkbuilding-Service like with us.

In this case, you did not pay for the link directly. Instead, you paid for someone to find ways to build quality backlinks on your behalf.

High-quality links come from relevant sources

Search engines evaluate the websites and pages that link to your website to see if the content matches. This is to ensure that the linking occurred naturally.

Imagine your website is about guitar lessons and you have two links to your homepage. One is from a local guitar shop and another is from a travel blog.

The guitar shop website is highly relevant to your business and is viewed by the search engine as a high quality link.

If a backlink is completely irrelevant, like that of a travel blog in this scenario, Google may conclude that you purchased it or obtained it through a link building program. In this case it would be ignored.

Quality backlinks come from high authority websites

Most search engine optimization (SEO) tools like Semrush, Moz, and Ahrefs assign each website an authority score from 1 to 100.

This rating reflects the site’s reputation as a thought leader or source of valuable content in its niche or industry.

Authority ratings like Domain Authority (DA) or Page Authority (PA) are based primarily on the number and quality of your website’s backlinks.

If you have lots of backlinks from High authority websites, Google will likely rank your website higher in the SERPs.

That’s because these backlinks tell Google’s algorithm that many reputable sources trust your website.

High authority alone does not define a high quality backlink. There are many websites that use their high authority to sell links.

This link trading is against Google’s guidelines and any link generated in this way is not a high-quality backlink.

Google will ignore a link if it thinks it isn’t deserved or relevant, no matter how high the authority value is.

Likewise, low authority links are not necessarily poor quality.

If you got a backlink from a relevant, low-authority website, it will improve your ranking, but not as much as a backlink from a relevant, high-authority website.

How to get high-quality backlinks with link building

There are several ways to get quality backlinks for your website. This includes:

1) Generate PR backlinks through campaigns

PR backlinks, sometimes known as PR outreach, are among the most sought-after links in SEO. These links are earned through your PR efforts.

For example, let’s say you’re creating a compelling story about a study your company conducted. You present it to several high-profile news outlets and one of them publishes an article that links to your website.

This earned backlink will have a significant impact on your website’s authority because it comes from a highly reputable source.

This is why PR backlinks are so sought after:

Of course: They are earned organically without resorting to paid or manipulative tactics.

Earned through campaigns: They come from engaging, valuable campaigns that attract media attention.

From Top Ranked Sites: They typically come from reputable news websites and major publications, giving your website a significant boost of credibility.

But there is a downside: getting these backlinks can be incredibly difficult.

Journalists and editors are inundated with pitches, making it difficult to stand out from the crowd. Additionally, creating truly attention-grabbing content requires time and resources.

There is also no guarantee that your pitch will be successful. Journalists are inundated with great content from companies, so even if your piece is good, it might get rejected.

How to get PR backlinks

Come up with a campaign idea

Think about what makes your company or product special. Is there a unique story or aspect that hasn’t been covered before? Maybe your company has an inspiring origin or you’ve developed a product that solves a common problem in a new way.

Look at what’s trending in your industry and whether you can tie your campaign idea to a current event or popular topic.

For example, as interest in sustainable practices grows, you could highlight your company’s eco-friendly initiatives.

Research publications

First, create a list of publications that are relevant to your industry and have high authority.

Start by searching Google for key terms related to your industry, along with terms like “top blogs,” “top news sites,” or “industry publications.”

For example, if you’re in the technology industry, you might search for “Top Tech Blogs” or “Best Technology News Sites.”

Look at the first few pages of search results and compile a list of frequently appearing publications. Then check their domain authority using tools like Ahrefs, Moz or SEMrush and prioritize those with high authority.

Get in touch with them

You can use the target publication’s social media pages such as LinkedIn and Twitter to find contact information if you cannot find it on their website.

Once you know which publications you want to target, write a concise, engaging pitch that clearly explains the value of your story.

Start with a strong hook to grab the journalist’s attention. For example: “Did you know that our new study reveals surprising trends in eco-friendly consumer behavior?”

Mention something specific about the journalist’s previous work or the publication’s recent articles to show that you have done your homework.

If you don’t hear back after a week, send a polite follow-up email. Sometimes a timely reminder can make all the difference.

Another way to get PR backlinks is to submit your story to an automated press release service. While your content has a good chance of being published, Google’s algorithms quickly identify whether these types of publishing websites are relevant or high quality.

Publishing on these sites will not help you get quality backlinks.

An example of an effective PR campaign

A great example is a campaign we created for Accounting Institute for Success. We have created a timeline of the tax evasion allegations surrounding Donald Trump. This required intensive research and design work, but it paid off.

Since Trump was President of the USA at the time, we were able to build high-quality backlinks from reputable websites like Slashdot and Mashable.

Good PR campaigns require creativity and persistence. You may need to try a few ideas that don’t work at first. Read our article about how we achieve this PR-Backlinks for more information.

2) Create linkable assets

Linkable assets are content or resources that are so good that other websites want to link to them. This makes them excellent sources of quality links.

Good linkable content has practical use and long-term value. This may include:

• Reports and original research
• The statistics list
• Online-Tools
• Führer
• Resource summaries

How to create a linkable asset that will earn you backlinks:

Research your audience

Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to find out what keywords and topics your target audience is searching for.

In addition to looking at relevant keywords, ask yourself what specific problems people are trying to solve with these search queries and think about how you can create content that answers their questions.

You can take it a step further by interacting with your audience through polls, social media, and forums. Ask open-ended questions to understand their pain points and needs.

Analyze competitors’ links

A link intersection analysis shows you which websites link to your competitors but not to you.

Knowing this is valuable because it reveals potential link opportunities with sites that are already interested in content similar to yours.

If these sites find your competitors’ content valuable, there’s a good chance they’ll also link to your content if it provides equal or greater value.

To perform a link intersect, go to Ahrefs and then the Link Intersect tool:

Enter your competitors’ URLs:

Ahrefs will show you all the URLs that point to your competitors but not you:

Now that you have a list of websites that link to your competitors, it’s time to create content that could get them to link to your website too.

Come up with great content

Ask yourself what types of content attract the most links for your competitors. Can you create a similar or improved version of this content?

Think about unique aspects or stories that haven’t been covered in detail. Consider creating detailed guides or innovative tools, or do your own research.

For example, if you notice an information gap in existing vegan bodybuilding guides, you could create a detailed guide that covers vegan diets, specific workouts for vegans, and success stories.

Look at your competitors’ successful linkable assets and think about how you can improve them. Update outdated information, add value, or present it more attractively.

Share your content

Like PR backlinks, linkable asset campaigns involve reaching out to obtain backlinks.

But this time you will Reach out to other blogs and websites instead of publications.

Avoid contacting link farms, PBNs and others Link building scams, as these do not lead to high-quality backlinks.

The websites you contact may require payment for a link. While paying for links is against Google’s policies, it is Common practice in some industries. It’s up to you whether you want to do this.

An example of an effective linkable asset

For one of our clients, Identity Guard, we managed a great linkable content campaign.

We researched ideas that would be useful to the Identity Guard industry and attract significant search traffic.

We came up with the idea Dark web monitoring.

The Dark Web is a hidden part of the Internet that is not indexed by search engines and is only accessible through special browsers such as Tor.

Cybersecurity is a hot topic, with news of hacks and data breaches common. We quickly realized that Dark Web Monitoring capitalizes on this relevance and makes it an interesting topic for readers.

3) Attract image links

• Image link building is a long-term strategy, but if implemented correctly will attract high-quality links.
• The best part is that it is passive and requires little effort once set up.
• When building image links, you create high-quality, relevant images that people will want to share or use.
• For this strategy to be successful, you need to set up your images to post a link to your website when someone shares them.

The types of images people like to share include:

• Infographics
• Logos, badges and banners
• Product photos
• Graphs, charts and statistics
• Cards

How to set up an image link building campaign.

1. Analyze competitors’ images – Keep an eye on what’s working for your competitors all year round. This will give you an idea of ​​which images are suitable for your campaigns.
2. Use Google Trends – This is a great way to see the type of image content people would like to share.
3. Narrow your search – Use tools like Answerthepublic and Keywordtool.io to narrow down your list of relevant keywords. There are free and paid versions of both tools.
4. Use keywords with link intent – Search your long-tail keywords on Google and find images that might be suitable for your niche. Find out who is linking to these images and target these sites with an outreach campaign.
5. Create unbranded images – The people who use your images are not interested in promoting your brand. They will likely stay away from branded images because it will make their content look like it is sponsored by you.
6. Optimize your images – This includes adding relevant titles that contain your image box keywords. This helps Google understand which image it is. These fields include:
   • Alt-Text: Use this to describe the image
   • title: a short explanation of the image that includes keywords
   • Image file name: Again, use keywords
   • Subtitles: Use this to make it easier for website visitors to understand your content

Create a URL for your image – This is the important part: you need to create an image URL to link back to your website. We recommend using it imgur.com to do this. Read ours Guide to building image links for more information.

4) Help a journalist with Connectively

One of the easiest and most effective ways to get quality links is use Connectively (formerly HARO).

This is a service that connects journalists looking for experts with people who can help answer their questions.

If you provide a journalist with information to help them write their article, they will include a link to your website when publishing.

That’s what that means Links von Connectively Answers are relevant and deserved.

Connectively is free to sign up for sources and is used by thousands of high DA sites. These sites include big names like GQ, Business Insider, FT and Vice.

This is how it works:

1. Visit the Connectivity-Website and register as a source.
2. Search the in-app feed for searches relevant to your expertise.
3. Answer them as completely as possible.
4. The journalist in question will contact you if they would like to use your answer or would like further information.

The key to Connectively success

Connectively has some disadvantages. First, it can be time-consuming to find a question to answer.

Second, reporters are usually inundated with responses; There is no guarantee that they will choose yours. You can expect to receive one link for every 5-10 responses submitted.

How to be successful with Connectively:

• Quick answers – Responding quickly to a Connectively query will put your pitch at the top of the journalist’s feed, meaning they’re much more likely to choose your response. If you leave it waiting for 24 hours, it’s likely that more than 50 people have already responded and the opportunity is wasted.
• – Find relevant queries and topics If you go all out and answer every question, you’re just wasting your time. Focus on questions that you can answer with some authority. For example, if you are a digital marketing agency, you can answer almost any question about marketing, business, entrepreneurship, advertising, management, etc.
• Be concise – Don’t write more than 200 words in your answer – and don’t start placing self-promotional links on your social profiles and posts. The journalist just wants to gain insight.
• Use actionable and valuable tips – Don’t write general nonsense, but provide quotable expertise. Tell them about the tools and strategies you use. Start your answer with actionable advice and then explain what you mean.

5) Write guest posts

Guest post This involves writing content for another website to get backlinks to your website.

Websites offer guest blogging opportunities because they provide new, high-quality content for free. It also helps improve their ranking and authority score since blogs are often shared by the person who wrote them.

Although it’s technically against Google’s rules if done solely for the purpose of link building, it can be very effective if done with quality and relevance in mind.

However, there are ways to do a guest blog post well and get quality backlinks.

Find the right websites

The first step is to find websites that:

• Have a high Domain Authority (DA) score: This means the website is considered trustworthy by search engines and can pass valuable link juice to your website.
•  Have a guest posting policy: This indicates that the site regularly accepts guest posts and has a structured submission process.
•  Have high editorial standards: This ensures that the content published is of high quality, which has a positive impact on your backlink.
•  Publish original and well-written content: This attracts real readers and earns respect from search engines.

An excellent example of this is Hubspots Blog. It is Guidelines are lengthy and strict. This ensures that only the best and most authoritative content appears on their website.

You can also do a simple Google search to find websites that accept guest posts. Start with questions like:

• Your keyword + “guest post”
• Your keyword + “Write for us”
• Your keyword + “submit blog post”

For example, if your niche is digital marketing, you could search for “digital marketing + guest post” or “SEO tips + write for us.”

Come up with a great idea

• Next, you need to think of an article that the blog owner wants to publish and that visitors want to read.
• Use keyword analysis to find out which Google searches are popular for your industry. Brainstorm ideas about these terms. Research and plan your idea thoroughly. Write down everything you know about this topic.
• Next, enrich this information by reading what others have written. Don’t just look at articles – YouTube videos, Reddit threads, and books are great reference materials.

Pitch your idea

Once you’ve created great content and a list of prospects, it’s time to reach out to website owners.

This is where you sell your idea to the blog owner.

Many guest posting strategies fail because outreach attempts either fail to communicate ideas professionally or not enough effort is put into presenting ideas.

Here are a few tips for writing a good outreach email:

1. Introduce yourself and your company and explain why you want to write for the blog (don’t just say you want to get a quality backlink!).
2. Explain your idea, including why people want to read it and the expertise you bring to the topic.
3. Explain how you will promote the post. Companies guest blog to increase the number of links and traffic to their websites. Explaining how you do this will increase the likelihood of your post being published.
4. Get an experienced writer. Finally, make sure you hire a professional writer with industry knowledge to create your article. Sites like ProBlogger and Upwork are great places to look for experienced freelance writers. Create a detailed brief for your chosen author and call them to discuss the idea. If your writer is good, they will offer their own ideas and advice – so ask for their input.

Follow up

If you don’t hear back from the blog owner within a week or two of sending them your pitch, send a polite follow-up email.

If you’re targeting websites with high domain authority and organic traffic, the site owner may receive hundreds of contact emails every week – it’s possible your emails slipped through the cracks.

If you don’t get a response after following up, cut your losses and reach out to other interested parties. Sending multiple follow-up emails can seem pushy and unprofessional.

How to identify low quality blogs

Avoid poor quality publishing services. These sites typically lack editorial standards, charge for guest posts, or publish content on random topics without clearly focusing on a specific niche.

It is easier to create content for this type of website. but Google will not consider it as a quality backlink.

Avoid sites with a lower authority rating than yours – you don’t want to put a lot of effort into creating a post only to have little to no improvement in your page ranking.

6) Find unlinked mentions

Unlimentions NO Are A great way to build high-quality backlinks with relatively little effort. This strategy is all about finding instances where your website, business, or content is referenced but not linked to.

Most of the time this is because the site owner forgot, and they are usually happy to add the link when asked.

Here is an example of an unlinked mention where the blog creator listed the top cars of 2022 but did not link to any of the brands:

Unlinked mentions can be a goldmine for getting quality backlinks because they are:

• Relevant: Unlinked mentions are often found on websites relevant to your niche. These mentions occur naturally and are contextual, making the backlinks more valuable for SEO.
• Naturally: This happens when someone mentions your company or content because it provides value. This indicates that your content is viewed as an authoritative resource, which is why they chose to link to it in the first place.
• Easy to get: Because the mention is already there, linking requires minimal effort compared to other link building strategies.

Here’s how to spot unlinked mentions:

1. Go to Google Alerts
2. Set up alerts for your company name, product, or other branded terms.
3. Choose how often you would like to be notified.
4. When you receive a notification, go to the page to find out where the site mentioned you and whether or not it linked to you.
5. If the website does not contain a link to your site, contact the person who wrote the article and ask for a link.

7) Submit your content to resource sites

A Resource page is a page on a website that curates valuable links and resources on a specific topic.

These pages are intended to provide readers with a one-stop shop for high-quality, informative content that matches their interests, such as:

Resource pages are a great source of quality backlinks because they often come from reputable websites with high domain authority. Being featured on a reputable resource site increases your credibility and authority in your niche.

However, resource sites typically have high editorial standards and only link to the best content. Your content must be as good – or better – than the other content listed on the page.

How to submit your content to resource pages

The first step is to find the right audience targeting resource pages. Use Google search operators to find these pages. For example, you can use queries like:

• Your keyword + “inurl:resources”
• Your keyword + “intitle:resources”
• Your keyword + “useful links”

Not all resource sites are created equal. Make sure the pages you target have high domain authority and are relevant to your content.

Let’s look at the DR Score of one of our top search results, In short:

Understand domain authority and domain rating

Domain Authority (DA) and Domain Rating (DR) are metrics that reflect the strength and credibility of a website in the eyes of search engines.

Developed by Moz (DA) and Ahrefs (DR), these metrics are on a scale of 0 to 100. The higher the score, the more authority a website has.

In addition to identifying sites with high DA or DR, you should also consider their relevance to your niche and the quality of their content.

Once you’ve determined that your target resource page is relevant and has a high DR score, take a look at the content and assess whether you have or can create content that will improve or add value.

In this example, Nutshell’s page lists digital marketing resources including:

• Podcasts
• YouTube channels
• Blogs

Once you have found or created content worth including, the next step is to contact the website owner.

When contacting the site owner or publisher, make sure your email is personalized and highlights the value of your content. Clearly communicate the value of your link and how it aligns with the existing content it contains.

After your content is featured, interact with the traffic or comments it generates to build relationships within your niche.

Increase your ranking in search engines

Getting quality backlinks for your website seems like a lot of work. But the backlinks you create using the techniques in this article will be more effective than the ones you would generate through black hat link building strategies or by purchasing links.

This will benefit your website in the long run and Google will view it as a trustworthy source of content that deserves to rank higher in the SERPs. Ultimately, this will lead to more traffic to your website.

Gone are the days when SEO was a game about outsmarting algorithms. Today, content strategy and valuable, sustainable strategies are essential, not just tricks and links.