A Practical SEO Guide to Backlinks and Link Building
Everyone says 'Content is King' but links have always been a critical part of Google's ranking algorithm and are likely to remain as important in the future. So, dive in and pick up some great backlink analysis and link building techniques.
You’re Richer (in backlinks) Than You Think
Link building is not dead – far from it.
You know what is dead? Spammy links. Dodgy links. Bulk links. Bought links. Links from fake social media profiles and low quality, low authority websites. Any backlink that you didn’t earn. I emphasize “earn” for a reason: Because earned links are the bedrock of good link building and ultimately, strong SEO.
However, this article is not meant to explain what link building is – if you are reading this, you (more likely than not) already know. There already exist plenty of good articles on the topic.
It is also common knowledge that backlinks are important to SEO. But building/earning backlinks is time consuming. It’s hard. It’s frustrating.
However, there are ways to earn backlinks (relatively) quickly and easily. In fact, you are probably sitting on a few “gold nugget” backlinks right now, and don’t even know it. The good news is this article can help you dig them out!
The “Lassie Links” Strategy - How to leverage existing backlinks (that you didn’t even know you had)
Google cares about backlinks. In fact, links are one of their most important search engine ranking factors.
Using what we’ve coined as our “Lassie Links Strategy” (as in, Lassie Come Home) we will take you through a series of tactics which will enable you to find and leverage already existing backlinks to your website.
This strategy focuses on these 6 link tactics:
- Find broken backlinks to your site
- Find unlinked mentions
- Find lost links
- Find your uncredited images
- Find your uncited and unlinked content
- Leverage social media to get links
Let’s start digging!
1. Find broken backlinks to your site – and fix them
First, let’s focus on finding broken backlinks to your website, then fixing them. There are a few reasons why you might have broken (also referred to as dead) backlinks to your website:
- You may have migrated to a new website and/or a new URL;
- You may have deleted or moved a page that has existing backlinks – for example, you may have merged two similar blog posts into one overarching post (and forgotten to do 301 redirects);
The website linking to you may have made a mistake when adding in your URL – for example, they might have included or excluded an extra character or letter in the URL.
Top tools to check broken backlinks
Google Search Console
Google Search Console includes a broken link report option for monitoring websites for content with broken links. This broken link checker identifies any internal 404 errors, or web pages linked to your web pages using incorrect URLs, and pages with external links returning 404 pages.
How it works: When using this broken link detector provided by Search Console, you can see broken links displayed by going to “Coverage” and you will be able to see Errors appear on the right side.
SEO Site Checkup
This incredibly simple, free tool is a favorite as it doesn’t even require a signup, not even for a free trial. You simply type in your URL and hit checkup.
How it works: Simply type your website’s URL into the box, choose ‘Backlinks Test’ from the drop-down menu below the box and hit the orange ‘Checkup’ box to the right. You can do the same process for your competitors’ websites and then capitalize on their broken links – see ‘Broken Link Building’ Strategy.
2. Find unlinked mentions – or lost links – and link them
Finding unlinked mentions to your website or product is a fairly simple, proactive process that can yield good results.
There are times when your brand, company, specific product or website may be mentioned online, but there is no accompanying link. Press releases are a prime example of when this may happen – the press may tell your story, but they may not bother giving you a link. When this happens (and it happens more than you think) you’re going to want to remedy it. All it usually requires is a courteous phone call or email asking the author or editor to add a link to the relevant page or product on your website.
But first you have to find those lost links and bring them in from the cold.
Top tools to find unlinked mentions
Google Alerts
Ever heard of Google? We thought so. They have this incredibly simple tool called Google Alerts which allows you to set up as-it-happens, daily or weekly alerts (however often you want an inbox bombardment) for whatever it is you want to be alerted about!
How it works: Simply type the term (for example, your business name, your product name, your own name) you want to monitor into the query box.
Then, from the ‘Show Options’ dropdown, choose how often, how many and which sources you want to monitor, type in your email address (which will already be populated if you’re logged into your Google account), and hit ‘Create Alert’. Now, whenever another website or online source publishes any sort of content mentioning your tracked term, you’ll get an email notification alerting you to the mention. Check it out, and if they don’t link to your site along with the mention or citation, reach out to them to rectify the oversight.
3. Find lost links – and reclaim them
Also known as link reclamation, the process of finding lost links and restoring them can be simpler than cultivating altogether new platforms and creating new content for backlinks.
What is link reclamation? At its simplest, the process looks like this: once upon a time you had a link on xyz.com. Then you lost that link. XYZ.com, for some reason removed your link – be it on purpose or by accident. Maybe the author updated and refreshed their content and in the process, removed your link. Whatever the reason, all you care about is that you worked hard for that link and want it back.
Top tool to find and reclaim your lost links
MOZ.com offers a ton of great SEO tools – some paid, some free. One in particular I enjoy using is the “Discovered and Lost” link tool. Their index has millions of links in it and they can help you find links that you had at one point but that are no longer there (for a variety of reasons).
How it works: For this particular tactic, you will need a MOZ account.
Navigate your way to their Link Explorer Tool and type in your URL. You will find a host of valuable link data. From here, look for the “Discovered and Lost” item in the right hand menu. This will provide you with links that have been found for your website recently, as well as those you have lost. Those lost links can be a treasure trove of link opportunities, particularly because websites that we’re once linking to should in theory be great link prospects to go after.
4. Find your uncredited images – and get the credit and link you deserve!
With millions of images online, it’s inevitable that many of those images are being used without proper copyright or at the very least, some sort of citation and credit.
There are a few online tools you can use to find your images online, see where and how they are being used. This knowledge gives you the power to then take back control of your images.
Top tools to find your uncredited (and/or unlinked) images
Google Reverse Image Search
Google’s reverse image search is a basic, but extremely effective, free way to find your images online.
How it works: Go to images.google.com, click the camera icon on the right of the search bar, and either paste in the URL for an image you’ve seen online, upload an image from your hard drive, or drag an image from another window. Google will then show you everywhere that image has been used, enabling you to reach out to people in places they’ve used it to request credit and link back to your website.
Pixsy
Pixsy is another great tool for doing reverse image searches. Pixsy searches over 50,000,000 images daily and uses an advanced image scanner as well as AI to find accurate matches of your images online.
How it works: Pixsy allows you to import your images instantly from popular image platforms to sync your images and start monitoring for matches online. It also allows for manual uploads from your computer. Once you’ve found your images, you can either reach out yourself to request appropriate credit and linking, or you can make use of Pixsy’s legal “Resolve Copyright Infringement Claims”.
5. Find your uncited and unlinked content
Can anyone say copyright infringement? Some say there is no longer any original thought. We can see that. We’re all playing in the same field, trying to tell you the same thing. But there are original ways to express a thought. And if people aren’t at least trying to add their own unique voice to the mix, instead choosing to flat-out copy yours, then that’s just lazy. Not to mention illegal.
While we aren’t proposing you go around suing all and sundry for copyright infringement, we are inclined to tell you to find those who are using your content without citation, and telling them to pony up. If sites are using your content, that’s a compliment. However, if they aren’t citing you, or linking back to you, it’s an insult. Here’s how to find instances of your content being used online sans citation, sans linking.
Top tools to find your uncited, unlinked content online
Google Exact Search
Start with Google. Type in an ‘exact match’ search term or phrase into Google’s search bar for some of your specific content and see what comes up. You’d be surprised at how often people will copy complete sentences, paragraphs or sections of your articles.
How it works: To search for an exact match phrase or sentence, enclose the entire piece of content you want to search in quotation marks – for instance, “you’re richer (in backlinks) than you think”. This tells Google to search for those precise words in that exact order. If you come upon any content copycats, simply reach out to them and ask them politely to cite your article, with appropriate backlinks.
Bonus Google Tool: You can also use Google Alerts (again) to set up alerts for content related to specific blog titles which you have written.
Copyscape
Copyscape is a really simple tool which scrapes the web using “a free plagiarism checker for finding copies of your web pages online”.
How it works: Simply type your website URL into the search bar and hit the blue ‘Go’ button. Copyscape will proceed to scrape the web for content copycats and report on which sites are reposting your content. The premium version also allows you to set up “automatic plagiarism alerts” with ‘Copysentry’. Once you’ve found the non-citing, non-linking (insert rude noun for dodgy copycats here), you have every right to reach out and ask for the proper credit.
6. Find your loyal fans – get them to link to you!
Social media can be both awesome and awful. You can find the best and worst of humanity there. Either way, social media is where your customers live… and where they are talking about you. You can leverage social media by monitoring the conversation and joining in whenever and wherever appropriate.
Your existing followers (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.) represent people who have already essentially ‘voted’ for you by liking your page and following your content. So take advantage of that! Don’t just post to those platforms, but share your content and interact with your followers by offering up direct links to some of your website’s most important links – whether it be your most recent article or a news piece – it’s a fantastic way to build links quickly by leveraging your established audience. It’s like a “link blast” and this can reward you with very valuable backlinks.
Top tool to leverage social media and create linking opportunities
Mention.com
How it works: Mention.com monitors the media – both regular and social media – and allows you to set up alerts to “listen closely to the entire web (to) see what’s said by them – and about them – anywhere online.” This also works well for monitoring your customer chatter and what’s being said about you, allowing you to respond to reviews, complaints and compliments quickly and effectively.
In Conclusion
The above link building opportunities are great ways to build links because they represent links that, in some ways, you already have. Now that you’ve found all your “Lassie Links”, it’s time to bring them home!
Other Ultimate Guides
A Practical SEO Guide to eCommerce SEO
If you would like to drive more buyers to your eCommerce site, then you need to learn the most successful techniques for growing relevant traffic to your site using a combination of SEO techniques and tactics. In this actionable guide to eCommerce SEO, we cover some of the unique characteristics of optimising for online stores that differ from non-transactional sites.
A Practical SEO Guide to Backlinks and Link Building
Everyone says 'Content is King' but links have always been a critical part of Google's ranking algorithm and are likely to remain as important in the future. So, dive in and pick up some great backlink analysis and link building techniques.
A Practical SEO Guide to Keyword Research
Keyword research is a foundational and essential part of any SEO strategy. In this extensive guide, the authors take you through the keyword and audience research process, data collection techniques, competitive gap analysis and how to interpret user intent and make decisions around page mapping to keyword groups. Use this guide to develop a systematic approach to keyword research that allows you to set your SEO efforts in the right direction.
A Practical SEO Guide to SEO Reporting
Whether you are part of an enterprise in-house SEO team or SEO agency team it is more likely than not that you will have to ‘report’ on and share your SEO progress and activities with management, colleagues or clients. This guide discusses the type of metrics to report and then different ways of producing high quality insightful SEO reports.
A Practical SEO to Website Migrations
Probably one of the most stressful and time-consuming tasks that we all have to face at one stage in our career is to manage a website migration project. Whether this is due to re-branding, an acquisition or merger, a change of domain name or a change of technology platform, there is an awful lot that can (and often does) go wrong. In this guide, three SEOs with extensive experience of website migrations cover the essential steps in planning and executing the site build before and post-launch.
A Practical SEO Guide to Digital PR
Learn how you can use the latest digital PR techniques to increase the exposure of your brand by gaining online coverage on well known sites, social media platforms and generating high quality links and referral traffic. This practical step-by-step guide gives you the essential information you need to start this process yourself or at the very least brief a digital PR agency.
A Practical SEO Guide to International SEO
In this in-depth gudie to international SEO, our expert SEOs take you through the key differences and scenarios you will encounter when optimising a single mulitlingual site or multiple sites in different countries. It covers practical tips and advice and lessons from the trenches about Local SEO vs International SEO, Market Entry strategies and common pitfalls and how to mitigate (if not avoid) them.
A Practical SEO Guide to Technical SEO
Technical SEO is the foundation on which successful SEO campaigns are built. If you're not a web designer or developer then this guide to technical SEO is for you. You can learn the key technical issues that expert SEOs look to resolve to prevent issues for users and search engines.
A Practical SEO Guide to Content Auditing
Want to know how to conduct an SEO content audit on your website? Our guide, carefully put together by three great SEOs covers everything you need to know to get started. From properly understanding the performance and the potential of your pages, to evaluating user intent to see how well your existing content matches the type of content Google prefers. Authoritas can now even automate the data collection and presentation of the data needed to perform a content audit.
A Practical SEO Guide to User Intent
The whole SEO industry has been debating how best to understand what the searcher's intent is for the past few years. In this guide, we look at answering practical questions around user intent, what it is, how to analyse it and what to do with your findings.
A Practical SEO to On-Page SEO
This guide goes into detail about how to improve your On-Page SEO strategy with a set of actionable topics and tasks for you to consider when optimising your pages for users and search engines.
A Practical SEO Guide to Competitor Auditing
This guide helps you take a systematic look at all the key elements of competitive analysis for SEO. It covers, how to define your market, how to analyse your competitors' performance, competitive gap analysis, SWOT analysis, SERP analysis and how to set goals for your SEO project.
A Practical SEO to Content Strategy
Setting a sound plan for your content marketing efforts is the key to success. In this guide to SEO content strategy, three experienced SEOs share their advice on content strategy for Local SEO, how to create content strategies for eCommerce sites and what your content strategy should look like for your blog.
