There are 3 primary reasons why one website links to another:
- It has high domain authority
- It posts high-quality content
- It doesn’t follow any black hat SEO techniques
If your website checks all these, people will link to it blindly (unless you are a competition).
But, what about a website that launched yesterday?
It wouldn’t have much content, let alone a high authority that grows over time. So, how would you get backlinks for your website then?
Well, that’s what you will learn in this article:
- What are backlinks?
- What are the types of backlinks?
- 8 ways to get backlinks for your website.
However, before we start, allow me to clarify one thing…
Do NOT Buy Backlinks
People who’ve just started a website tend to pay for backlinks hoping that their domain would quickly rank in the top SERPs.
This is called link buying, and it is frowned upon by Google (and other search engines) since it falls under black hat SEO techniques.
If Google finds out (and it will) you’ve bought links for your website, it will get penalized. That means Google will remove your domain from its index and SERPs.
So, if you have bought backlinks or are thinking about it, I’d suggest that you stop and remove them right now.
All the 8 ways I’ve included in this article are 100% ethical, won’t get your website penalized, and are absolutely free.
Now that we got this out of the way, let’s begin.
What Are Backlinks?
A backlink is a hyperlink created when one website links to another.
If Website A links to Website B, it will be a backlink or incoming link for Website B.
Search engines count backlinks as votes of confidence, thus making them valuable from an SEO perspective.
In other words, backlinks indicate to the search engines that others trust your content, and it is worth displaying on a SERP.
So, building more backlinks enhances your search visibility and positively impacts your rankings.
But, you must ensure they are relevant, have high quality, and increase naturally.
Quantity and Quality of Backlinks
The number of quality backlinks pointing to a website can affect its SERP rankings.
For example, Website A has 2000 quality backlinks, but Website B has 1500.
Since Website A has more quality backlinks, it will rank higher in the SERPs than Website B (assuming their on-page SEO is on point).
Consider a scenario where Website A has 500 backlinks from low-quality, spammy domains, and Website B has 300 backlinks from high-quality websites. In this case, Website B will outrank Website A.
So, you should focus on building quality backlinks. But, if your quality backlinks are less than your competitors, they will rank higher in SERPs.
Backlink Relevance
Backlinks should be closely connected to or appropriate for your site or pages. If the linking is irrelevant, it is not going to provide value or authority.
For example, you link a page about fixing a car to an article about baking a cake. By intuition, you know that the linking is not suitable. Hence, irrelevant.
Such backlinks will not be as effective as they should be. So, you must keep backlink relevance in perspective when building links for your site.
Backlink Count Over Time
Google also monitors the number of backlinks a site receives over time. It ensures people are not paying to get backlinks but are building them naturally.
For instance, Website A gets 3 backlinks per month, and Website B gets 10 backlinks per month (on average).
After some time, Website A gets 3 to 5 backlinks per month while Website B receives 30 to 50.
As soon as Google notices this abnormal rise, it puts Website B under scrutiny. If it finds that the backlinks are unnaturally acquired, it can penalize Website B.
Therefore, you should build links naturally and gradually increase their count over time.
How Many Types Of Backlinks Are There?
There are two types of backlinks:
- Do-follow
- No-follow
Do-follow is the default state of a link between one site and another. Search bots crawl the internet with the help of do-follow links and pass no-follow links.
SEO experts prefer building do-follow links over no-follow links.
But, they should be quality do-follow links. If you get do-follow links from spammy sites, they won’t help your search rankings.
Also, you should not completely dismiss no-follow links. They help you build your natural backlink profile and drive more traffic to your site.
How To Get Backlinks For My Website?
1. Acquiring Backlinks by Analyzing Competitors
When you start building links for your brand new website, analyzing your competitor’s backlink profile is the first thing you should do.
Use Backlink Analyzer Tool by RankWatch to uncover your competitors’ backlinks.
Simply enter your competitor’s domain and click on ‘Explore Backlinks’. The tool will present your competitor’s backlink profile within seconds.
Now, note down your competitor’s top linking pages along with their referring domains.
Here are the steps you should follow:
- Note down your competitor’s pages that are getting backlinks and their referring domains.
- Select a topic and write a better, detailed, and interesting article.
- Go in-depth and add amazing visuals to your content.
- Finalize and finish the article.
- Reach out to the sites linking to your competitors, requesting them to have a look at your article.
If other sites find your article more comprehensive, they can link back to you in place of your competitors.
2) Finding Unlinked Mentions & Linking To Them
Unlinked mentions are direct mentions of your brand on another website that do not link back to it.
Transforming unlinked mentions into backlinks is another widely used backlink-building practice.
It’s a 3 step process:
- Locate sites with your brand’s unlinked mentions
- Select sites with higher authority
- Target them to link back to your site
Here’s an example of an unlinked mention of RankWatch:
There are several ways you can use Google to find unlinked brand mentions. But, it is less convenient.
For ease, you can use WebSignals, a powerful brand monitoring tool. It will help find ALL your brand’s unlinked mentions across platforms in one place.
Here’s what you should keep in mind while finding unlinked mentions:
- List out all the historical mentions
- Check all the websites that are not linking properly
- Target the websites with higher authority
- Persuade and not push the websites to link back
The conversion rate to get backlinks from unlinked mentions is high. But since you have a brand new website, you won’t have many unlinked mentions.
As your website grows over time, you will find more unlinked mentions. Hence, more backlinking opportunities.
3) Giving an Interview To Another Website
When you have a new website, you can build backlinks by giving interviews to reputed websites.
In the interview, you generally share expert views on a given topic. Your thoughts add value to the content on the interviewing website and help you get a backlink.
Here’s how you will get backlinks:
- The published interview will have a short introduction about you initially or in the end. You can request the interviewer to add a link to your site there.
- There can be places in the published interview where you have talked about your website. You can also get backlinks wherever the website name is present.
Look at this interview backlink from Optinmonster:
Sounds good? Add it to your link-building strategy!
4) Informing Web Admins About Broken Links
Broken-link building is a great way to acquire backlinks for your brand new site.
It is the practice of building backlinks by replacing links to 404 pages with working links (that belong to your website).
Using tools such as Site Checker, Semrush, Ahrefs Broken Link Checker, etc., you can easily find broken links on a site.
When you find one, look at the hyperlinked text, and you will get the topic of the previously linked content.
Now, you need to create informative and interesting content on that topic. Make sure it has all the relevant and up-to-date information.
Once the content is ready, here’s what you should do:
- Reach out to the website informing them about the broken link.
- Inform them to change it to a live URL with similar or detailed content.
- Share the content piece you have created to link in its place. (Undoubtedly, this live URL will be a link to your site.)
If you can convince them that your content is valuable, you can easily get a backlink.
Also, reach out to other websites linking to the same dead article and build more backlinks. In this way, you can build several backlinks with one content.
5) Contributing To The Write-ups of Journalists
Journalists and reporters have access to news websites and magazines. And they often look for resources and stories to quote in their publications.
You can ALWAYS use your knowledge and expertise to contribute to the writings of a journalist or reporter.
If you know a journalist or a reporter, you can share valuable insights and relevant stories with them.
Otherwise, you can use platforms like HARO and Source Bottle to share your thoughts and connect with them.
When they pick and publish your content in their writings, they mention you in the source and link back. So, you get backlinks.
6) Publishing Backlink-Attracting Content Formats
You must have already created a blog on your newly launched website. But how will you get backlinks using your blog?
It’s simple. You have to publish content formats on your blog that other websites want to share and link back.
The popular content formats that get backlinks are:
- Infographics/Images
- E-books/Whitepapers/Documents
- List posts/Why posts/How-to posts
You can naturally build backlinks if you put in a little extra effort and create content in these formats.
Link Building Using Images/ Infographics
When a site uses an image/infographic from another site, it links back to the source to credit the creator. In this way, the creator (site) earns a backlink.
So, by creating valuable images/infographics, you can easily build backlinks.
You can approach websites that might use your image/infographic to have a look at it.
If they get interested, convince them to use it and credit you in return. As a result, you get a backlink.
Link Building Using Documents
Documents like whitepapers, e-books, PDFs, and case studies help you build backlinks.
If they are detailed and valuable, other sites would want to share them. And while they do so, they mention and link back to its source.
Optimize all file elements when you publish case studies, surveys, e-books, pdfs, etc., on your site.
Give it a relevant filename, title, and description, which contain keywords. Don’t forget to include your logo and colors to make sure it stays associated with you.
Link-building Using Why posts, How-to posts, & List posts.
People on the internet are in search of answers and list(s) of things. So, most websites want to link to valuable content.
You can start creating valuable content in the form of why posts and how-to posts on your site, increasing your chances of getting backlinks.
Here is an example of a how-to post from RankWatch:
Similarly, you can publish list posts (also known as listicles) on your website and earn backlinks.
Here is an example of a list post from RankWatch:
7) Convincing an Influencer/Blogger to Talk About Your Brand
Influencers and bloggers in your industry have a huge fan-following.
And so, their social media handles and blogs have high authority and trust value.
When you convince one of them to talk about your brand, they get content to share.
Influencers and bloggers link to your site in their content, and that’s how you get backlinks.
Things to keep in mind while connecting to bloggers or influencers:
- Know them thoroughly
- Make an initial contact
- Propose an appropriate offer
- Communicate your needs
- Measure the results
As you have a new website, it might not be easy to convince bloggers and influencers to talk about you. But you shouldn’t give up trying.
Sooner or later, you will be able to convince them and build backlinks.
8) Getting Featured in Round-up Posts
Round-up posts are a curated collection of resources or links which audiences might find interesting.
They often center around a specific topic or a specific period (for example, a weekly or a monthly round-up post).
Here’s an example of a round-up post from Nutrition Fox:
Round-up posts are very helpful when it comes to building backlinks for a new website.
You can get many backlinks in a short time frame by reaching out to magazines or forums that publish round-up posts in your space.
To get on a round-up, you need to have:
- Excellent content. No website would want poor content in its round-up post.
- Less promotional. Sale-oriented content gets omitted from round-ups.
If you do it right, websites might also insert your links in future round-ups (even if you don’t ask them to do so). That’s more backlinks coming.
These were the 8 ways to build backlinks for a new website. All of them are ethical and white hat techniques that need zero funds.
It can be quite time-consuming. But, with consistent, coordinated, and targeted efforts,it gets easier.
Track Your Link-building Progress
RankWatch offers a free Backlink Analyser Tool to help you track your link-building progress.
The tool provides you with the following data:
- Active and Deleted Backlinks
- Do-follow and No-follow Backlinks
- Referring Domains
- Anchor Text
Here’s the backlink profile of Wikipedia to help you understand the tool better:
When you start link-building for your new site, you can use our tool to create checkpoints and measure your success.
Last Notes
Backlink-building is not easy. And when you have a brand new website in hand, it becomes more exhausting.
You never know how many backlinks you will build over time and if they will impact your search visibility or not.
But it shouldn’t demoralize you. Great things take time.
Which of the above strategies will you adopt, and which ones worked for you? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below. We would be happy to help.