Backlink building is one of the hardest parts of SEO.
Many marketers struggle with building contextual backlinks, scaling campaigns, and consistently raising authority.
However, you need them.
They increase authority, traffic, and rankings—all of which can lift conversions.
In fact, the quality of linking sites and pages is one of the top Google ranking factors.
Once you learn how to build more links consistently, your website will grow faster than ever. Traffic will soar, you will get leads, and increase revenue with a proper funnel.
But, how do you bridge the gap?
While guest posting, broken backlink building, and general outreach are popular, there’s another way to build links; a way that doesn’t require you to do any work.
Welcome to natural link building.
It is the strategy of producing high-quality content and organically getting links from other sites.
I’m going to teach you how to write content that attracts the most amount of natural inbound links in today’s article.
What are natural backlinks?
Natural backlinks, sometimes called organic backlinks, is what the name suggests: backlinks that are created without the webmaster building them.
To put it simply, other bloggers and website owners link to your content when they think it’s useful for their audience and adds value.
It’s the safest way to build links. You won’t be affected by Google algorithm changes. You don’t take the risk of receiving a manual penalty.
How to generate natural backlinks
Alright. Now for the fun stuff. I’m going to teach you strategies that will generate your business more natural backlinks.
Write long-form content
Long-form content ranks higher on Google. Plain and simple.
A study by Backlinko analyzing over one million search results discovered that the average #1 result is 1,890 words long.
Producing long-form content means your blog post will get more attention. That includes webmasters who are seeking resources to link to and if you are more easily seen, that will increase the amount of natural links content attracts.
I know, I know.
Writing thousands of words isn’t everyone’s strong point. Reach out to me if you require content writing services that generate traffic and leads.
If you want to write long-form content yourself, start with an outline.
Plan the introduction, conclusion, major points, and sub-points. Collect references, quotes, and data ahead of time. It will look like this:
This will make the writing process seamless.
You won’t get writer’s block or wonder about what to write next because it’s all planned out.
I always recommend striving to achieve what Ann Handley calls the ugly first draft or TUFD for short.
This is exactly what it sounds like … a blog draft that isn’t pretty, finished, or edited. It’s all of your ideas and points on paper (or screen more likely).
Writing as fast as possible lets the creative juices flow. That’s where your best ideas, humour, and inspiration comes from.
Then, edit. Use a tool like Grammarly to help you find all of the spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes.
Read my copyediting checklist to get a full breakdown of everything you should be auditing after writing the first draft.
Include statistics and data
Great content is data-driven. It uses statistics, science, and psychology to back up claims and provide proof.
Not only does this improve the overall quality of a blog post which makes it more linkable, but the statistics you source are link-worthy as well.
Every time you are writing a blog post, perform a Google search for:
- Keyword + “statistics”
- Keyword + “stats”
- Keyword + “data”
This will display roundup articles of data and statistics you can use as references.
Click any of these posts.
Right-click an interesting statistic relevant to something you wrote about, copy it, and go back to your blog post.
Include the data as a hyperlink to give credit.
I also recommend you take this approach visually with graphs and charts. This is an awesome way to create visual relief while adding more substance to content.
Take the same Google search as before but click the “Images” tab. This will display visual data that you can source.
Click an image to enlarge it, save it, and add it to your post. Hyperlink text and the image to the source page for credit.
Make it practical and actionable
One factor that separates average content from great content is utility.
This means whether or not it helps the reader achieve a goal, solve their pain point, and answer important questions.
One surefire way to do this is to provide step-by-step instructions about whatever you are showing readers.
Look at this article I wrote for CoSchedule on how to perform a content audit:
All throughout the blog post, I included screenshots and instructions on how to perform any given task and step.
This helped readers achieve their goal and instantly boosts your content quality. Webmasters will recognize this and be more likely to link to you as a great resource.
Place infographics within the content
Building backlinks with infographics has been a popular strategy among digital marketers for several years.
While traditionally you would create a high-quality infographic and outreach to other bloggers, there’s a natural way to approach this.
Instead, you can use a tool like Canva to create the infographic.
Make an account and search “Infographic” on the dashboard.
Select a template from the following page.
Design the graphic with text, icons, images, and other elements from the left sidebar.
Click “Download” from the top right when you are finished.
Include this infographic within the content. It is best suited at the beginning to give a high-level overview or at the end as a summary.
I also recommend uploading it to platforms like Pinterest. This will drive traffic to your blog post and expand the reach it generates.
The more eyes, the better.
That brings me to my next point.
Social media marketing is mandatory in today’s age.
But it’s not just for branding or having conversations with customers.
It’s important for SEO.
Let me explain…
Google loves “brands.” I.e. businesses that can be found all over the web interacting with users and providing high-quality content.
That includes social media, especially as 73% of marketers say it has been “somewhat effective” or “very effective” for their business.
Social networks enable you to instantly reach hundreds, thousands, or more people instantly.
Those people include bloggers, marketers, and webmasters that will read your content and potentially share it.
Here’s how to promote your content properly to maximize natural backlinks:
Every time you post on social media, it needs to include hashtags to increase reach and a CTA to maximize click-through.
Otherwise, you’ll get crickets.
Most social networks will give you suggestions for hashtags when you type the in pound symbol followed by text.
Add a few hashtags related to the post or use a separate tool like Hashtagify. Enter a hashtag and click “Search.”
This displays the hashtag’s performance metrics including:
- Popularity
- Recent popularity
- Month trend
- Week trend
Related hashtags will give you more inspiration and you can cycle between different chart modes.
You can also view which accounts post those hashtags the most (it’ll be useful for influencer outreach later).
In addition to hashtags, use a customized call to action.
This is a word or phrase that clearly directs users on what to do. Good ones for social media are:
- “Learn more”
- “Learn about”
- “Learn”
- “Read”
- “Read about”
- “Learn more about”
- “Check out”
- “Get the latest”
Move onto the second step once you’ve done these things.
Step 2: Promote the content in relevant groups
Don’t make the common mistake of only posting on your page and thinking you’re done.
You’re not.
It’s now time to be active on groups on platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn.
Groups are communities that are dedicated to sharing content, asking questions, and learning about a particular topic.
I like joining groups on copywriting and digital marketing for example.
This allows me to build relationships, drive traffic, and get my name seen by a contextual audience.
And there’s the thing…
Some of these groups have thousands of members … or more!
Promoting your content in a natural manner to that many people can make it go viral, generate leads, and acquire natural links.
Let’s start with Facebook. Search for a keyword related to your niche and filter by groups.
Request to join as many as you want. Some will let you automatically join and others will approve you manually.
Keep in mind that you’re going to get a lot of notifications if you join dozens. Trust me, I would know. 😂
Become active in every community you join. Ask questions, help other members, and share content sparingly.
Don’t be a robot that only spams content. ❌
That’s a guaranteed way to get booted out and see no results.
Put in the effort and it will come back tenfold.
Then, navigate to LinkedIn. Click the “Work” tab on the right and groups.
Search for groups like you did with Facebook and request to join them.
Once accepted, take the same steps. Connect with members, offer resources, and be active on a regular basis.
Step 3: Do influencer outreach
Here’s one of my favourite things to do on social media: influencer outreach.
This is leveraging someone else’s audience to get your content seen by more people fast.
For example, I once messaged Larry Kim (founder of WordStream) and he happily shared content I wrote!
It’s that simple. You’d be surprised at how many big brands and successful people will promote your content if it meets their standards.
The first step is to search for keywords that would be placed on an influencer’s profile. If I was trying to perform this tactic with the article you’re reading right now, I would look for:
- “Search marketer”
- “Digital marketer”
- “SEO”
- Etc.
Follow them and send a direct message with the following template:
Hey {First name},
Awesome page! I love the content and insights you share.
I recently published an article on {Topic} that I thought you would like.
Do you mind reading it and giving me feedback? Feel free to share it if you think it’s a good resource with your audience too.
Warm regards,
{Name}
Follow up if you don’t receive a response. Influencers are busy people. This will increase conversion rates and how many relationships you build.
Create a consistent publishing schedule
Think about it like this…
The more content you publish, the more potential links you can get.
Makes sense, right?
That’s why I highly recommend you create a consistent publishing schedule and stick to it like glue.
In fact, marketers who prioritize blogging are 13x more likely to receive a positive ROI.
If you aren’t a regular blogger, begin with a reasonable frequency like once per week.
Get the hang of it and bump it to twice per week.
…Then three.
…And four.
You get my point.
Eventually, you will need to outsource content as it will be too time-intensive. Contact me if you need content writing or SEO services.
Conduct experiments and the post results
Everybody loves something new. Fresh. Unique.
Another great way to generate natural links is by conducting a test and sharing the results.
This acquires tons of links because it’s a unique resource that other publications can cite.
Check out this article from BuzzSumo titled “Analyzing 100 Million Headlines: Here’s What We Learned.”
Their intense research set out to discover what headlines:
- Drove the most engagement on Facebook.
- Drove the least engagement on Facebook.
- Performed the best on Twitter.
- And more.
Needless to say, the article attracted huge attention because of its outlandish numbers and incredible findings.
According to BuzzSumo’s content analyzer (Inception, right?), the article received 525 backlinks!
That’s more than some websites have across their entire domain.
You can achieve similar results by first deciding on an experiment.
What’s important in your industry? What do people want to know? What can you do to stand out from other brands?
Start collecting data using tools like Google Analytics, Hotjar, and others.
Set key performance indicators to track performance and compile your findings into actionable insights for readers.
Promote it like you would any other piece of content and watch the links pour in. 🙂
The bottom line on natural backlinks
You don’t have to be constantly on the hunt for backlinks.
In fact, you can do the exact opposite and let links naturally come to you. This can be used as your main source of links or as a supplement to other campaigns.
The first step is to produce content that ranks highly on Google and is worthy of being linked.
Hire a copywriter if you need assistance with this step. This can be achieved by writing long-form content as it’s proven to rank on the first page of Google. It increases its quality and webmaster will be more likely to share it as a resource in the content they publish.
Secondly, source data, statistics, charts, graphs, and similar references. This provides proof for any claims you make and shifts content into an authoritative presence. Bloggers may link to the entire article or individual statistics that you used.
Thirdly, make the content as practical as possible through step-by-step instructions and screenshots. It’s an easy way to stand out from both the eyes of readers and webmasters.
You can also use a platform like Canva to create professional infographics that summarize each blog post you create. When other bloggers are looking for a useful graphic to include in content, they can include yours with attribution.
What are you waiting for? The earlier you start, the better.
