How to Build Powerful Links to Your Website

In this article, I'll share 8 ways that I've built powerful links from large websites, without ever paying.

(In my blogging career, I have received links from Lifehacker, Popular Science, Forbes, INC, Fast Company, USA Today, CNBC, New York Post, and more.)

Introduction: Why Build Links? (and What Types to Build)

Inbound links to your website (AKA "backlinks") send a powerful signal to search engines (like Google) that your content is valuable, helpful, and worthy of being seen more...

A new backlink can bring an immediate rise in search rankings for your page, or sometimes multiple pages on your site, which can bring thousands of new visitors.

Quality is the key here, though.

Link building is not a numbers game.

When it comes to links...

More isn't better. Better is better.

I'd rather receive one link from The New York Times than 50 links from small, unknown sites.

So we primarily want links from quality websites with active readership, and who themselves have many strong inbound links.

How to Evaluate Sites Before Getting a Link: 3 Useful Tools

Before we jump in, here are 3 free tools that will help you.

First, use this free tool by Ahrefs to check if a website is receiving any organic traffic.

No traffic? You don't want a link.

Next, use these 2 free tools by Moz and Majestic to determine if a site has a lot of links/trust themselves, which is what you want to see before getting a link.

Majestic's "Trust Flow" and "Citation Flow" metrics are useful and I like to see a score of 15-20+ for both metrics before I try to get a site to link to me.

Now let's get into what you came here for... proven methods to earn links from top websites.

Method #1: HARO, Qwoted, etc.

HARO is a popular site where journalists can submit an info request/query, and then people like you can respond with your experiences/advice and possibly be featured in an article.

For example, a HARO query might read, "Looking for people who have sold their home and moved to a new state."

Or, "Looking for hiring experts: What are the biggest red flags that job seekers give off?"

You can subscribe to HARO (for free, or for a premium/paid option) to receive daily emails with reporter queries that you can respond to, in a variety of categories:

I always did Business and Finance, and that gave me plenty to respond to.

And I aimed to respond within an hour of receiving the emails from HARO. Usually, earlier is better.

HARO has become quite competitive lately but is still worth doing. Qwoted is another alternative to try.

On HARO, you can often see the website name that a journalist is writing for (occasionally it's anonymous but usually not).

So you're able to be picky/selective about who to pitch.

While you'll probably have a pretty low success rate with HARO (I was at around 6-7% at best in terms of how many submissions got me features/links)...

...I think the fact that you can be so picky and only pitch the BEST sites makes HARO worthwhile.

Here's an example of a real, successful HARO pitch I sent. The query was, "What's your idea of an evergreen ad or content?"

Hi Brett, I run a blog that gets 1 million+ monthly readers, and we only publish evergreen content.

What evergreen means to me: Evergreen content is content that will still be relevant to readers who discover it 2-3 years after publishing (or more).

That's the only type of content I aim to publish in my business, and I always ask myself before writing a blog post: "Will readers still find this useful in 2-3 years?"

If the answer is, "no," then I typically won't write it.

For example, people are always going to experience back pain. So if you write an article about 10 Amazon products that reduce back pain, people are going to be interested in that for years to come.

It's never going to become irrelevant or need to be rewritten.

However, with ads, nothing lasts forever in my experience.

Even the best-performing ads eventually see market fatigue and therefore reduced effectiveness or higher costs.

At the very least, you'll need to change ad images and media every couple of months, and slightly adjust the ad copy, too.

However, if you choose evergreen topics for your ads (like how to reduce back pain), you'll have fewer adjustments required! So the "evergreen" approach is also effective in advertising when choosing topics and angles.

As seen above, you want to start your HARO pitch with some background/credibility, but keep it brief.

Next, go into answering EXACTLY what they asked for. I'll often restate their question in bold just so they can see exactly where the answer is.

If they asked for three tips, write a numbered list and put the numbers 1, 2, and 3 in bold. Make it dead easy to read/find the info you're sending.

Providing quotes, numbers, statistics, etc., is also helpful for getting featured by reporters.

One of my other successful HARO submissions included the line: "I've also found that my infographics perform 25-40% better when I customize the template and layout."

So, stats are good to share any time you can.

Method #2: Testimonial Links

Write down a list of all of the services, tools, and other products that your company is paying for and using. Both one-off purchases and ongoing subscriptions.

Then, check these companies' websites to see if they have a testimonials page.

You can also search each brand name + "testimonials" in Google to see if a page comes up.

Example: Microsoft testimonials

If a company displays people's testimonials on their site, and if they link to the website of whoever provided a testimonial, then email the company and offer to provide them with a new testimonial of your own.

Thank them for a great product and then offer to write a testimonial where you share specific results you've seen and how you've benefited, or how easy it was to use/implement.

Method #3: Build Relationships with Journalists

I used to pitch journalists on LinkedIn, trying to get them to interview me or feature/quote me. It rarely worked.

Here's what DID work, though:

I simply connected with journalists (usually on LinkedIn), asked for nothing at all, and then waited for them to see the valuable content I put out.

And in the meantime, comment/like THEIR posts/content. Give before you get.

Then, after a few months, a few of them approached me for a feature/interview/quote.

So, any time you see a great article in a publication you'd like to be mentioned in, connect with the author on LinkedIn and send a customized message along with your connectoin request, such as:

"Hi <Name>, I just read a great article of yours over at <publication name>. I write about <niche/topic> as well and wanted to follow your content here if you're open to it. Thanks!"

Of course, this only works if you're active on social media and sharing content yourself, or else how will the reporter know you've got good ideas to share?

Method #4: Publish Data/Studies

This is a more active approach to get journalists' attention.

Collect and compile data. Whatever data you can get access to through the day-to-day operations of your business.

Look at trends. Poll customers via email. Talk to other business owners/colleagues. Etc.

Then, write articles about the data you've uncovered. Make a few charts/graphs, summarize the data into key takeaways, etc.

Use a keyword research tool like Ubersuggest to find out what questions people are searching in your niche.

Then, after you publish/organize your data, pitch your findings to journalists in your industry.

An example of a data piece I wrote was: How many candidates are interviewed for the average job?

Job seekers want to know this type of info, and reporters/journalists often search it to use in their articles. That's a winning combo.

Reporters will likely find data and studies to be more interesting than the typical pitch they receive.

You can also use some of that data to create an infographic, and reach out to websites with that angle.

Method #5: Grab Featured Snippets

The featured snippet is Google's attempt to show readers an answer without them having to visit any third-party websites.

The featured snippet in Google is taken from one of the pages currently ranking on the first page of search results, but not necessarily the top page.

You can often "steal" the snippet by writing an article containing a clear and direct answer to the question in a format that's easy for Google's bots to understand.

Usually, you'll want to put the question as a header (H2, H3, etc.) and then immediately below the header, give a clear answer in easy-to-understand language (so Google's bots recognize it as being a response to the question).

You should even look at the word count of the current featured snippet and try to mimic that.

Also, look at the snippet's format. If the current featured snippet for a query is a bulleted list, then you should write your answer in a bulleted list format.

Here's a detailed article by SEO expert Matt Diggity on how to grab the featured snippet:

https://diggitymarketing.com/how-to-steal-the-featured-snippet/

Journalists often search questions when writing their articles, and then will cite your data in their article (without ever speaking to you).

I've successfully grabbed the featured snippet for some small, low-competition keywords and then gotten over 100 backlinks to that one article.

How? Because a big percentage of the people searching this term were bloggers/journalists who were going to use that data in their articles.

I don't want to reveal the exact keywords I've done this for, but here's the general idea, via some examples:

• "How many pounds of food does a husky eat per day?"
• "How long does it take for tulips to grow?"
• "What is the average salary increase in the US each year?"
• "What is the average height of a CEO in the US?"
• "What's the best time of day to study and memorize information?"
• "What time is best for going to sleep?"
• "How many times is the average person fired in their career?"

These are the types of phrases that other journalists/bloggers might search when writing their own articles. That's what you want to go after.

And they're usually not too tough to rank for, with your own site, since there's not much commercial value in these long-tail, informational keywords.

Just make sure there's some search volume for a keyword/idea first. You can use the tool Ubersuggest to validate whether a phrase has any search volume in Google or other search engines.

Or if you already pay for a premium SEO tool like Ahrefs or Semrush, use those; they're better (but cost more).

Method #6: Go on Relevant Podcasts

Next, try to get yourself on a few podcasts in your industry. Or, general business podcasts if you're a business expert with a strong track record.

(So if you're running a successful fashion shop online, you could take a two-pronged approach: Go on fashion podcasts but also e-commerce/business podcasts).

Most large podcasts have their own website where you'll receive a link in the show notes.

They'll also publish the episode on iTunes, Stitcher, and other large podcast sites.

Method#7: Get Featured in Roundups

A roundup is an article featuring various experts, each chiming in with their best tip or opinion on a topic. Here's an example:

To find sites that publish roundups, search the following on Google:

• KEYWORD + roundup
• KEYWORD + best of
• KEYWORD + "link roundup"
• KEYWORD + "this week"

Write a short email to the site owner/editor, compliment them on their content, show you've truly read it, and mention that you've got some great tips/insights for any future roundups on the topic.

Maybe share one or two ideas of what you could contribute. Make it appealing to them and their audience.

A website owner isn't immediately looking for how to help you; they're looking for how to help themselves and their readers.

I've pitched website owners after seeing a great roundup that I missed out on, and occasionally, they'll even offer to include me after-the-fact. I've had site owners say, "Send me your best tip and I'll edit the article to get you in there."

Consider doing your own roundups on your site and inviting others, too. This is a great way to build relationships, and people will likely return the favor in the future.

Method #8: Write for Large Publications and Authority Sites

Many large websites accept guest contributors, either as a one-off contribution or regular occurrence.

I've written for Entrepreneur.com, Business.com, Social Media Examiner, Job-hunt.org, and many more.

Just like with podcasts (mentioned earlier), you can take a two-pronged approach:

The two angles you can take when writing guest articles:

1.

First, you can write for niche publications in your industry (for example, I'm a former job recruiter so I wrote job hunting advice for The Muse, Job-hunt.org).

Here are some searches you can run in Google to find niche-relevant sites to write for:

• YOUR NICHE + “contribute”
• YOUR NICHE + “write for us”
• YOUR NICHE + “contributors”
• YOUR NICHE + “guest writer”
• YOUR NICHE + “guest post guidelines”

2.

Second, you can also write general business advice/tips, if that's something you know. That angle is how I got myself into Entrepreneur, Business.com, Social Media Examiner, and many others.

Think about some large, general sites you'd like to write for, and then search Google for the website name plus "contribute" or "write for us."

If a website doesn't provide instructions for how to contribute, you can still find an editor's email and pitch them.

Also, try pitching contributors with your best ideas, or a data/study you've done.

Contributors are constantly trying to get more views and great content ideas, so if you show them something that they feel will go viral or be popular, they may accept your idea and feature you.

Contributors are pitched less than editors, so you may have a better chance of getting a response from a contributor.

Warning: I recommend avoiding pay-to-contribute programs like Forbes Coaches Council and Entrepreneur Leadership Network.

It'd be another 500 words into this article if I explain every reason why you should avoid Forbes Coaches Council and other pay-to-publish programs, where you pay them a fee each year to contribute.

But if you're curious about this, then leave a comment and I'll try to share a bit of what I know.

If you have any questions, leave a comment below.

Also, please let me know if this guide helped you...

The tips above are approximately 20-25% of the tactics I could share. If this article becomes popular, I'll consider putting together an in-depth guide or even mini-course with word-for-word templates/examples and many more tactics.

Until next time,

Biron