The Beginner’s Guide to Finding High Quality Backlinks

Looking for high quality backlinks, but not sure where to start? We’ve got the guide for you. This is backlinks 101, and we’re leaving no stone unturned.

By this point, you know how important backlinks are for search engine optimization.

Studies show that 99% of websites within the first 50 SERPs have backlinks pointing to their site.

But these aren’t just any backlinks, these are high-quality backlinks.

The more high-quality backlinks you have, the higher you rank. And your SEO end goal is to sit pretty on that first page.

But it’s not just keyword competition that you have to contend with.

Your backlinks also have to be penguin-approved. That is, your backlinks need to be up to par with Google’s quality control algorithm for links.

If not, your website will tumble down in search, or worse, get de-indexed altogether due to improper link building.

That’s why we’re sharing our favorite tips for finding the best backlinks for link building.

Run a Backlink Report

First and foremost you need to know the current state of your backlinks.

How many do you have? Are any too spammy or irrelevant to your niche?

After you’ve retrieved your backlinks from your report, proceed with the following tips to make sure they’re not dragging your rankings down:

Check your backlinks’ domain Authority (DA) and page authority (PA) scores.

Scores fall between 1 and 100, with 100 being the most authoritative and trusted site with Google.

The domain authority score is an indicator of how powerful a domain is compared to others. That score is determined by roughly 40 different ranking signals, including domain age, monthly visitor traffic, and you guessed it, high-quality backlinks!

The same method applies to your PA score. Except, that measures the strength of the domain’s individual pages.

Moving forward, check the DA and PA scores of prospective backlinks before you court them.

Next, check the content quality of your backlinks. Is their content well-produced and relevant to yours?

While you’re still looking at your backlinks’ content, check to see how they link to other websites. You want to strive for backlinks that are included within the text of a blog or article.

If you find any backlinks that are irrelevant to your niche or practice prohibited link building strategies, don’t hesitate to contact the webmaster to have that backlink removed.

Now that you have a good idea of where your own backlinks stand, go ahead and run a backlink report on your competitors. This is a great way to find more high-quality backlinks and get a clearer picture of your competitors’ link building strategies.

Get High-Quality Backlinks From Social Media Influencers.

Social media influencers are the best.

Influencers create valuable content that search engines love, and if you play your cards right, they may provide you with a very powerful backlink.

In fact, 92% of consumers prefer the recommendations of influencers, and more businesses are reporting higher conversion rates with influencer marketing.

Moreover, influencer-driven strategies result in higher customer retention rates.

So how do you get noticed by top influencers in your niche?

Try these tips for grabbing their attention:

First, you need to find out where these influencers are.

A competitor backlink report may reveal a few leads, but what you really need to do is conduct hashtag research on Twitter.

Thoroughly research any topics that are trending in your niche.

Find out what relevant hashtag campaigns are currently trending with influencers.

Generate a list of popular yet evergreen hashtags that influencers might use year round.

You can get a good feel for who the right influencers are by the amount of engagement their posts receive, overall number of followers, biography, and content quality.

Once you’ve identified your social media influencers, try the following tips for reaching out and acquiring that backlink.

Follow your target influencers’ active social media accounts.

Use a social media management tool to track their activity. What hashtag conversations are they participating in? What are their peak posting times?

Re-share content that’s relevant to your website, niche, or company message.

Leave relevant comments on their social media posts that add substance to the conversation.

Email influencers thanking them for their quality content and the value it brings to your own life.

Don’t hesitate to email with a question. Influencers are passionate about their niece, so inspire them to engage.

Last but not least, create valuable content that influencers want to read and share themselves. After all, their   great content brought you right to them!

Hunt for Broken Backlinks

One of our favorite link building strategies is hunting down broken backlinks that we can replace with our own web pages.

There’s a good chance your competitor backlink reports will reveal potentially broken backlinks that you can fill.

We also recommend performing good old-fashioned SEO keyword research to find authoritative websites in your niche.

This process can take a while, and there are tools you can use to make your search less time-consuming. Plus, your SEO consultant can always help you speed up the process as well.

Once you identify broken links that your website can reasonably replace, go ahead and contact those webmasters to see if they will replace those broken links with yours. Chances are good they will replace them. After all, they care about their SEO too and don’t want back broken links on their site.

An even easier strategy is finding and replacing broken backlinks in Wikipedia.

We love Wikipedia’s high-quality backlinks and you don’t have to bother with emailing a website owner.

Simply research the most relevant pages to your website and look for any broken reference links that can be immediately replaced with yours.

If you don’t have the content, then this is a great opportunity to create fresh and authoritative content that you can add to a Wikipedia reference list.

If you really want to go the extra mile, you can even create a brand new Wikipedia page on a relevant topic, figure, or event that has not yet been covered in Wikipedia.

Be careful with this last one, as Wikipedia has a reputation for being sticklers about quality and sourcing. Make sure there are enough editorial pieces to construct a substantial Wikipedia article. If everything goes according to plan, this strategy will produce backlink gold!

The web is filled with high-quality backlinks, and now you have the tools to grab their attention.

Start putting these tips into practice today to build a backlink profile that Google penguin will definitely appreciate.