Alert: This blog post shows some easy link building strategies for new bloggers. It’s time to learn how to get free quality backlinks to your blog. As you read until the end of this post, you’ll be able to get natural backlinks to your website.
It’s no secret that backlinks are still important for ranking. Google prefers websites that have quality backlinks. That means backlinks are still major indicators Google uses to analyze the quality and authority of a web page.
In short, backlinks are needed to improve the overall website SEO. But, it’s not as simple to get quality backlinks.
In this post, I have discussed easy ways to get free quality backlinks to your blog. Even if you’re a new blogger, these beginner tips are easy to implement. By the end of this post, you will have a better understanding of how backlinks work.
What Is A Backlink?
Let me give you a quick definition.
A backlink is a link given to a website from another website. These are also called ‘incoming links’. Backlinks are links that point to your website from another website. These links give signals to Google and other search engines about the quality of your web page.
In past, there was a race for maximum backlinks. If a website had more backlinks, it used to be on the first pages of Google. But, things started to change after Google Penguin updates.
A website still requires backlinks to improve the authority of a web page and the overall ranking. However, it’s about getting quality, natural and relevant backlinks.
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Why are backlinks important?
Take this example.
You have a blog about skincare essentials and you are generating backlinks from sites like cat food, skateboards, books, so these links will be of no benefit.
You should aim to build links from relevant and authoritative sites.
If you believe in Google traffic, and want to increase your organic traffic for free then do check out my recent post ‘How it’s possible to get free Google traffic with a proven system’. I have mentioned a step by step system to strengthen your SEO, find keywords, and drive free traffic from Google.
Below are few reasons to understand why it’s important to get quality backlinks to your blog;
- Improves search engine rankings
- Helps in faster indexing
- Build relationships with other influencers, and bloggers
- Get referral traffic
- Establishes web page authority
By now, you probably understand that backlinks will help you rank on Google. When someone links back to your site, you will receive new referral traffic. So, if you have an awesome blog, people will more likely to subscribe too.
If you’re unfamiliar with SEO-friendly blog content, learn all about in the beginner’s SEO guide ‘how to do SEO for blog posts’.
There are countless benefits of backlinks. As I said, I’m talking about natural SEO link building strategies. No paid link exchanges. No links from low-quality sites etc.
Avoid bad link building strategies!
Always go for natural link building.
But, we have another question.
How to find out backlinks to your blog?
There are many free backlink checker tools. With these tools, you can find out how many backlinks your blog has generated. Most of these tools give you a number of links to your site whereas some tools show the limited data. In some cases, you don’t even need to register to use the free version of these tools.
These tools can be also used to find out the competitors backlinks which can be a master trick.
However, you can always consume the free trial and see if the tool has more advanced features.
Some favorite backlink tools are;
KwFinder Link Checker
Moz Open Site Explorer
SEMRush
Just put your blog URL and note down the total number of backlinks to your blog.
Now, let’s get straight to the meaty content.
10 Smart Ways To Get High-Quality Free Backlinks To Your Blog
Let me be very honest with you.
Most of you are individuals bloggers who do everything on their own. From writing blog content to content marketing, you are the only one who’s responsible for every blogging activity.
Some strategies can help you get quick backlinks whereas natural link building takes time. Just keep practicing and you will see natural backlinks coming to your site.
Do you want to get free traffic from Google? Yes, the organic traffic! I have published a step by step content guide to learn how to get google traffic for free! Even if you don’t read it now, bookmark it because it’s so so helpful.
Now,
Let’s find out how to get free natural backlinks;
1- Guest posting
Guest posting is my personal favorite link building strategy. It’s obvious that you write an awesome blog post for someone else website for free which usually benefit them. But, it also benefits you in several ways.
When you do guest posting, you network with other bloggers. You get a chance to speak to a newer audience. Guest posting gives you exposure and builds your reputation online. It also helps in increasing subscribers and new readers to your blog.
Of course, submitting a guest post will also give a free backlink to your blog. In most cases, site owners also allow you to promote your product, freebies, social media links or any other resource.
I have submitted a number of guest posts to multiple websites. I often receive a little amount of traffic from them. It thus helped me build fruitful relationships with other bloggers.
You can check the complete list of my guest posts for other websites.
2- Publish awesome content that gets natural backlinks
It’s no secret that writing great content will naturally create free high quality backlinks. As a blogger, you should always aim to produce valuable articles that people would love to read and share.
When your content is a valuable source for the right audience, you will receive backlinks. When I find highly valuable content with examples, I definitely try to give an external link to their website. Because I know that this information will further help my readers understand what I’m trying to say.
I want to show an example.
In 2017, I created an ultimate resource for new bloggers on ‘40+ free blogging courses for new bloggers’. This post actually converted into my biggest source of traffic, and natural backlinks. It got me more than 26,000 social media shares, multiple comments, and backlinks.
Now, many bloggers give a free backlink to this post to help their visitors avail several freebies. In the post, I also gave several backlinks to other course creators which excessively benefit them every day. I notice that every other day people click on these courses and I’m sure they sign up.
Here’s a screenshot;
The point is, you’ve to be helpful and meaningful to your audience. Don’t afraid to add links to other sources. Either way, it is going to help you. Also, if someone gives a backlink to your blog, appreciate them. Write them an email, or make a comment. Share their post on social media etc.
Helpful content: 28 Best Sites To Find Paid Blogging Jobs
3- Expert roundups/Interviews
In few cases, roundups can be an excellent way to generate a free high quality backlink to your site. Basically, you invite a number of bloggers, or influencers to participate in one roundup. Everybody submit their answers, you edit them well and combine it into one single post. Of course, these roundups provide insightful content. People share their experiences and tips. Some roundups are based on favorite products, expert tips, examples or top brands to work with. People would like to know what other bloggers recommend, or share.
Mostly, these participants are willing to mention the roundup links on their own blogs. As they got mentioned on someone else blog, they will more likely do the same so their audience know. These sort of posts also get maximum social shares and comments.
The same goes for Interviews. Furthermore, you can even ask influencers if they will be willing to give a backlink to the interview on their websites.
Recently, I did a roundup post. I collaborated with 11 blogging experts and asked them to share their top tips on how to get a blog noticed.
4- Get advantage from broken links
If you’ve been blogging for a while, you’ve found out broken links or 404 error page. It’s very common that some links get expired or don’t work properly. Why not take advantage of those broken links?
That means you will have to do research and find broken links of relevant websites to your niche. Simply use free chrome extensions like Check my links to find out broken links on a web page.
After finding the broken links, you can contact the blog owner and notify them of the broken link. When they will find out, they will probably appreciate that you have let them know. Once you got a response from them, you can actually pitch your relevant blog post to them and suggest how your content will be a great replacement.
5- Writing testimonials and reviews
Testimonies and reviews can be a clean way to build a free backlink. Start with making a list of products and services you have used. Now, you can spend some time and find out if they have a testimonial page on their website. If they do share customer reviews or testimonies, take out time to write a short testimonial.
A lot of businesses love showing off testimonials from their clients. This link building strategy can probably work if you spend out time to do research, write reviews and then, submit to the websites.
In many cases, you even don’t need to ask them to give a backlink because they naturally do give a link to the client’s authenticity. However, you can send a friendly reminder.
Find out ‘How to make $1000 per month with an Amazon niche site’
6- Design interesting infographics
A captivating infographic can actually get quality backlinks to your blog for free.
Many businesses hire designers to create infographics for their website. We all know that infographics are long vertical images that represent the whole idea of a blog post, case study, a product review, how to do something etc. These sort of infographics are evergreen and usually get maximum shares.
But, how to build a free backlink to your site with an infographic?
Many businesses outsource work to freelancers at websites like Fiverr. Within a minimum budget, they get pretty infographics. Sometimes, they offer their own data and research to make a research-based infographic. However, some businesses leave the whole design, data, and creativity to the designer.
After having the infographic ready, they approach bloggers who belong to the same niche. They send an email and inquire if they’re willing to share their infographic on the website.
Once the request gets approved, the businesses get a free backlink. Mostly, people agree to publish it on the websites because it can be a great content source for their blog readers. Moreover, these infographics can also increase social media shares to their blog.
As a blogger, you can do the same approach and outreach relevant bloggers.
This point takes us to the next method.
7- Email outreach
When you become a blogger, be prepared to get dozens of email every day. Honestly, It can be frustrating at times to open such emails. Those automated emails about the lottery price, charity funds, marketing services etc. TRASH!
The fact is that email outreach is still effective. However, avoid the robotic approach completely. If you have been blogging, you may know some bloggers who write in a similar niche. Connect with them on their blogs. Read what they write, and what content might interest their readers. Afterward, send them an email and ask if they would be interested in reading your content.
The next step is to do a follow-up email and inquire if they find that post interesting enough to be mentioned in any of their posts.
I don’t know to what extent this strategy works but there’s nothing wrong.
Helpful read: How To Build An Email List For Free, And Grow Your Audience
8- Make insightful comments
Blog commenting is another strategy for making connections with bloggers. It’s another excellent way to bring yourself in front of other influencers, and their targeted audience. There was a time when comments were used to get a backlink to a website. Now, they cannot generate a direct backlink to the website but they’re still effective in the overall link building.
Make sure, the comments are thoughtful and insightful.
It should hold a conversation with the site owner.
When I say ‘insightful comments’. I’m talking about comments that trigger a discussion, or where you actually leave a feedback on the certain topic.
Susan Velez is a good blogging friend. She always adds insightful comments on my blog and as I said, we are blogging friends, I do the same. Here’s one comment she made on my recent post;
Moss Clement truly knows the power of connecting with other bloggers, and how to make good comments on other blogs. Look at few comments he made on my blog.
Related: 9 Surefire Ways To Get Authentic Comments On Your Blog
9- Actively Participate in communities
There are many social communities where you can discuss and participate.
Platforms like Quora, Yahoo Answers, LinkedIn are authentic places to get high-quality backlinks. Be willing to help and share advice in the communities. Ask questions, and give replies. Try to write meaningful answers for the community readers. When necessary, you can also link your own blog post for further reading.
I personally use Quora to engage with a new audience and a free backlink doesn’t hurt, right?
Sometimes, people also click on those links and read further on my blog.
If you’re interested in reading more about Quora, go to this post where I explain how I use Quora for engagement, leads, and some referral traffic.
10- Free Resources
Along with super valuable blog posts, outstanding freebies and products can also generate backlinks to your website. If you create awesome freebies like Ebooks, Ecourse, printables, planners, videos then these will possibly get more eyeballs.
The free resource will further get backlinks for your blog.
Many bloggers mention free resources of other bloggers in their blog posts. Remember, I told you about the ‘40+ free blogging courses’. It is the post where I added more than 40 free resources for my readers. That means I have given backlinks to a number of websites that offer free courses.
When you create freebies for your audience, your chances of getting backlinks increases.
On this blog, I have in-depth content guides on subjects like blog traffic, free courses, make money online, Instagram content ideas etc. With that, I created a free blogging ebook, a profitable blogging email course, and several other content upgrades.
Now, tell me one thing.
What steps do you take to get free backlinks for your blog?
I’m sure, you are working on a few methods. Make sure that backlinks take time. Don’t get too fast in generating backlinks. Keep your focus on natural link building strategies which can be achieved through quality-packed content.
So, do you struggle with building free backlinks for your blog?
Hopefully, this post has given enough content to backlinks.
Just when I was confident that you’re great with Pinterest, i stumbled upon this post.
You’re a great content writer, seo & Pinterest expert! That’s too much for 1 person 🙂
Hello Arfa, I love how you have detailed every step that could possibly help to generate backlinks. Our site is a newborn, and SEO has to be an integral part of the process from day one. Will try to incorporate your techniques on this post (and your articles). Wish me luck, and I hope to be able to update you with our success someday!
#MinAndLiang
Wow, these tips are amazing! I had no idea how to find backlinks or how important they are! I’m still trying to figure them out and this post helps so much! Thanks for sharing!
Great tips! definitely would use them 🙂
Perfect!
Hey Arfa,
Thanks for the tips you have given about the back-links. I’ll try the broken link strategy which i did found every interesting. 😎
Cheer!
Hi Hussain,
I’m glad you have found these strategies helpful. Let me know how it worked for you!
Thank you very much for sharing such information with us.
Hope, you found this helpful!
Hi Arfa,
I like this article. you have detail information about what to do for a backlink. Thank you so much for this.
Really those 10 ways to build high authority backlinks are going to skyrocket ranking position in SERP(Search Engine Result Page).
I was familiar with a few of the link building tips but I found awesome 10 wats to get quality backlinks for free.
Thank you,
It’s great that you’ve summarised all the great ways to get backlinks in one post, Arfa. There is one problem with guest-posting and that problem is domain authority. Bloggers with a DA less than 25 are generally never considered for guest posts. And backlinks are considered essential for increasing DA. It’s a Catch-22 situation for low DA bloggers.
Hi Arfa,
You have done a great job regarding backlinks. I would appreciate you and I am following your tips in my blog.
Hi Ahmad,
I’m happy to know that like the posts and you are implementing these tips on you blog! Good luck.
This was quite an insightful post. Over the years I’ve found that blog commenting had been helpful and also gives me an opportunity to engage with other bloggers in my niche. So it’s a two-for-one 🙂 I also love interviewing business owners on my podcast, which helps with back-linking for both of us. I plan to do more guest posting this year.
Thanks for your informative post, Arfa!
This was super helpful for me as a newbie blogger. Thanks!
Thanks, Eva! I’m glad you found it super helpful.
Hi Arfa,
I’ve been having a hard time building backlinks, but the information in this post is eye opening. Thank you for this.
I really appreciate your work.
Thanks, Michael. Backlinks can be a hard term to digest for new bloggers but it does require additional work. I’m sure you’ve found tips to build backlinks for your own site.
Great post. I would add to #2 – ASK! One of the easiest things to do is to make it as easy as possible to link to or share your post, then simply ask your readers to do so. While you wouldn’t expect a flood of links from this, you may be surprised at how many people (especially if they enjoyed your content) will so just that. Certainly more than if you hadn’t!
Thanks for the post I was wondering how to get more backlinks to my blog. I’m just getting back into doing more posts on my blog so need to ramp the traffic back up. I’m going to work on doing some more quality content as well. Thanks for the tips.
Glad to help, Naomi! Try using these tips to build free backlinks.
Hi Arfa
I’m really glad I’ve stumbled upon your post. You’ve made the topic really easy to read and understand.
I have bookmarked this for future reference, as there are many tips on here that I need to do for my blog. The email list is something I’ve been putting off doing for a while but I’ll read your post on that too.
Thanks for the great tips
Informative and very helpful article for every beginner as well as professional bloggers. Excellent explanation about how to get quality and relevant backlinks for blog efficiently. I will definitely going to implement these tips. I have bookmarked it for future references. Thanks for sharing such an amazing article.
Hey Alexander,
Thanks so much for the appreciation! I’m glad this post on getting quality backlinks is helping many new bloggers. Let me know what specific strategy helped you gain more backlinks to your website.
Hi Arfa! I love how you share to grow backlinks in multiple ways! I recently started focusing on this for my own blog, so I appreciate the helpful information. Leaving comments on others’ blogs and guest blogging are two huge pieces I’m working on, but because of your blog post I now have other ways to grow my backlinks. Thanks so much!
Hey Nicole,
Building Backlinks is an important strategy to strengthen your website’s SEO, and we cannot simply ignore it! I’m super glad that you have finally started getting backlinks for your own blog. And, I’m sure these tips will help you get natural backlinks.
Thanks so much for reading the post, and collecting the takeaways!
Hey Arfa,
This is an awesome list, thanks very much for sharing it. Each of these methods can be a very valuable way of getting backlinks to your blog.
You’ve mentioned that natural backlinking is critical, and I couldn’t agree more. You also said that backlinks should ideally come from relevant and authoritative sites which is 100% true, and I wanted to provide some guidance on how this can be assessed quickly and easily.
There are a few attributes which help make up a ‘premium quality’ backlink:
1) It should be from a high-quality webpage
You can use Moz’s Page Authority (PA) metric to determine the quality of a page, and this is on a scale of 1-100 (the higher, the better).
2) It should be from an overall high-quality website
Moz also offers a way to assess this in the form of their Domain Authority (DA) metric, and it is also on a scale of 1-100 with a higher score being preferable.
3) The link should be as relevant as possible, and this could be determined as follows:
– Website to website – The linking site shares the same niche as your blog.
– Website to webpage – The linking website’s niche is the same as your blog’s webpage which receives the link.
– Webpage to webpage – The linking webpage covers the same topic as your blog’s webpage.
– Link to webpage – The content surrounding the link on the linking webpage is relevant to the content of your blog’s webpage.
It’s important not to compromise on any of these requirements to ensure a backlink is as authoritative and relevant as possible.
Thanks again and keep up the great work!
Jonathan
Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for appreciating, and agreeing with the content.
You’ve also added some informative points here. Backlinking is truly essential, and I couldn’t agree more with you on all the above-mentioned post. As you said, a link should come from a relevant website and if possible, both pages should cover the same topic. When we say high-quality page that also indicates that the site’s authority is high. And, yes Moz is a great tool in identifying the site’s authority and currently, it’s free too.
Thanks so much for adding your valuable insight here.
I’ve started looking into backlinks since I realised I was getting referral traffic from one comment on a blog post. Not major traffic, but it all adds up!
I also never knew about infographics. I love design and I’m sure I could go back and update my posts with a few infographics here and there!
Thanks for the great tips 🙂
Hey Emily,
That’s wonderful if you have noticed that a comment is actually getting some referral traffic. Yeah, that’s going to add a major traffic but it still counts and make your site strong because of your meaningful comment. Yes, infographics can make a great addition! If you love designing, I am sure this will be a fun task and you can even generate backlinks.
I am glad you enjoyed the post.
Hello arfa mam.
This article is my now best source and book of how to build good backlinks and how to get it from other blogs or websites. So so thanks to arfa mam for sharing this amazing article.
But mam i have one question. I am comment on some pinterest pins and my comment gets approved also. So is this means that i get some backlinks from that pin. And when i check in the tool of backlinks checker as given above then its not showing any backlinks. It shows that i am having 0 backlinks. So why this happening.
I am having 5 to 7 comment approved but still not showing any backlinks. So kindly help me in this issue. I am very thankful to you mam.
Hi Dipak!
Thanks for appreciating the content, and I’m really glad that this post is teaching you well on building backlinks. Well, comments do not actually get you a direct backlink but they are still helpful for your website. But, on some sites, they do actually get you a backlink. Other than pinterest, engage and leave thoughtful comments on relevant sites. Also, If you really want to increase your backlinks, then focus on strategies like guest posts, collaborations, testimonials etc as comments are going to improve your site credibility and trust with other bloggers. But, make sure your comments are meaningful, relevant and helpful! Otherwise, there’s no need of leaving irrelevant comments because they make no difference.
Hope this was helpful, Dipak! 🙂
Hi Faizan,
Yeah, they truly are! My personal favorite is guest posting though. Not just it gets you a backlink, but it builds a connection with a new blogger friend and his/her audience which I think is amazing. Somewhat, blog commenting may not be the direct technique of generating backlinks, but it’s more helpful in building a trustworthy relationship with another blogger. This is what I think.
Thanks for sharing your insights here, Faizan.
Among all the methods I personally stick to 3-4 ways to create backlinks, That I think super valuable and result oriented. Such as Guest Posting, Email outreach, interviews, roundup…
yes commenting is also good way but sometimes your comment can get burried among tons of other comments.
What’s your opinion Arfa,
Awesome tips, Arfa! These link building methods are something which should be kept in mind when starting with quality backlink building campaign.
Thanks so much, Dustin! Yeah, these are some straightforward and easy tips to get some backlinks.
Hi Arfa,
It’s like you read my mind. These are the best ways to get quality backlinks and I always advise other bloggers to try them out. Google will never penalize a site, especially if the content is unique and the audience finds it helpful. And if these two are there, that means that backlinks should come soon. One thing I like to point out, though, is that you should always be actively trying to get new links. It’s not enough to write great content and hope someone will link to it. You should always try and get others to put your links on their blogs in a natural way.
Thank you for sharing these tips.
Hi Stefan!
Thanks so much.
You’ve said it so right. One should continue making efforts to generate backlinks but of course, in a more natural way. The key is to actually focus on these methods and build backlinks. People should write authentic and problem-solving content as they do generate backlinks, sooner or later.
Great SEO tips Arfa, thanks for sharing! I especially like LinkedIn and blog commenting. The infographics tip is one I need to try.
Hi Alvern,
Thanks so much! I’m super glad that you’ve found these tips helpful. Yes, infographic one is a really good one!
Hi Arfa,
I discovered your blog recently and I am seriously loving it. I have so many of your tabs open right now, lol. And your tips are just plain wonderful.
I never realized that infographics were a way to get backlinks. I have made them in the past and that particular post received so many backlinks. I just never made the connection. Silly me!
I also like the point about emailing people directly. You’re absolutely right. I get mostly newsletters and I’m sure emailing people directly will result in a positive response in some way.
Thank you so much for these tips!
Hi Angela!
I welcome you to my blog and I’m so glad that you’ve found this a resourceful source.
Yeah, infographics can be an excellent way to generate backlinks and the reason I’m saying is that every day, or other I receive an email from a marketing company and they want their infographic to be posted on the site. You see?
Just make the connection with the old infographics, and see how you can target them for the purpose of link building. If it’s GOOD, you will automatically get backlinks.
Yes, it does work. I have not personally tested many of these techniques but I know these work. Remember that the way you write an email matters a lot! 😉
I am so glad you enjoyed reading these!
Great information- thank you so much for sharing. I will definitely reference thus post in an article I am currently working on (yet another example of how it works)!
Hi Deja!
I would greatly appreciate that. I’m glad you’ve found this post useful.
Hi Arfa,
thanks for the great tips! And the reminder that pacience is needed to get natural backlinks. Will remind myself of that more often…
Absolutely! Backlinks take time, and for that we need to have solid patience.
Hi Arfa,
This is huge I must say. You did a great job here. All your tips are amazing. Roundup posts fascinates me, and it is top on my list right now. When you bring experts together to give their best tips on a subject or topic which you then translate into article for your reads, it drives massive traffic because each of these experts will surely link to it respectively. Not only will they link to it, but they will share the post as well.
Thank you so much for featuring me, I’m humbled and honored.
I’m sharing it across channels.
Yep! Roundup posts are huge and I have noticed that they do really well. However, I have just experimented with one but it’s outstanding.
It was great mentioning you because your comments are a true example of how people should actually make comments, and make connections.
Have a great day, Moss.
With information like this link building shouldn’t be as hard, if you’re a newbie like me please don’t try to force it. Quality content is what’s going to get you those links.
absolutely, paul! Link building should come naturally.
All the techniques rock Arfa but so happy you noted natural link building. You cannot force this process. No desperation here. The best links occur organic-wise, through skills developed, value generously shared and friendships established.
Ryan
So true! You have said it so right. Links should come naturally as it adds genuine value to the content which further helps readers. Exactly, links should not be forcefully added as it does not make any sense.
Thanks Ryan for adding your quality tips here.