Backlinks are a pinnacle of online business.
If you ever want to generate leads, make sales and impact your ideal customers, you can’t take shortcuts anymore. You need high-quality links to rank in Google and attract the major clicks from the top 10 results on the first page.
A study by Chitika revealed that the first page of Google drives 91.5% of the total search traffic, while page 2 drives 4.8% of the total traffic, which has also been confirmed by Cardinal Digital Marketing in Atlanta from there experience studying over the traffic and click through rates of over 200 clients.
Not all links are created equal. If you’re conversant with competitive analysis, like I am, you’ll agree that sometimes, a content page might be ranking at #1 for a high-volume keyword without having too many links.
On the other hand, another page with a better content quality, design, and user experience is fluctuating at #8 and #10 positions.
Trust me, a lot of ranking factors come into play here but the types of links pointing the each page have a strong impact on whether the rankings will be sustainable or not.
In the rest of this article, I want to show you the 9 types of links to invest your time, money, and other resources on. Why? Well, read on…
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Editorial links
An editorial link it actually the best type of link that pushes a web page that has no reasonable rankings to the front page. All in all, Google wants you to “position” your website to earn editorial links.
You don’t go for these links but you’ll earn them nonetheless, as a result of the time you spent to research and create irresistible content. Links that come to you without any form of request or bribe is termed “editorial.”
You can only get these links when your content resonates with the target audience or goes viral all over the web.
A good example of editorial links is the type that Brian Dean earns to his Skyscraper blog post from Ahrefs. A post that changed the way bloggers and content marketers create and promote content to gain links, dominate search results, and acquire paying customers.
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Contextual links
I like contextual links. These are links that appear within the context (wrapped around relevant content).
Google values such links because users tend to click on them while reading the post. Unlike editorial links (which can be contextual) even though you have no control over it, you can actually determine how and where you want your links to appear.
If you contribute to an industry blog or get interviewed, you could request a better positioning for your backlink. Neil Patel linked to Moz by wrapping a paragraph around the brand name:
A healthy link profile is one that has a large percentage of editorial links. If you focus on getting comment links (which you should be careful about), mix it up with links that are wrapped in relevant text.
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Image caption links
Using visuals in your content is a sure way to entice the audience, engage them, and communicate your message clearly.
There’s a saying that “a picture is worth more than a thousand words”, and it’s true—especially on the web where people’s attention span is 7 seconds.
Google has a search engine for images (www.images.google.com), so don’t discard the juice that an image caption links can send to your page.
Instead of writing a caption that boosts your ego, why not turn it into a link—especially when you write guest posts for another blog.
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Infographic embed links
When it comes to infographics you can get links from authoritative websites without much struggle.
Truth be told, the majority of media sites, such as The Next Web, Mashable, Techcrunch, TheOutline, NYTimes, and several others, may not accept your guest post no matter how good it is, but if you design an interactive and data-driven infographic, you have a better chance of getting it accepted and published.
If you can, use your infographic as an avenue to write an introductory guest post for the blog, or better yet, embed your link on the infographic using this simple Embed Code Generator tool by Siegemedia.
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Above the fold author links
Not only will you be armed with a natural backlink, but you’ll be able to drive targeted clicks and visitors to your website if your link appears above the fold.
“Above the fold” is that section of a web page that is visible even before the user scrolls down the page. Items in this section are more visible because the user is relaxed at this time and ready to learn.
Take a closer look at the Ecommerce page below, where heat map software was used to determine the sections that got the most clicks—as you can see, above-the-fold wins every time.
If more people are clicking on the elements above the fold, it means that your links will get the most click-through rate and Google will reward you—especially if the users are from search engines and not from social media or direct.
For blogs that don’t allow backlinks above the fold, all hope isn’t lost yet. There are several techniques that I use, but the most effective technique deals with referencing a statistic or study on my resource page, then link to it.
Using statistics in your in-house content or guest posts is a proven way to earn a link from above the fold stealthily. Don’t make the mistake of linking out to your services or about page from above the fold—no blogger or webmaster in their right mind will accept it.
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Guest post author bio links
Guest blogging is still popular and effective. If you’ve not paid much attention to it, you’ve got to recognize that one of the best ways to inspire an influencer to follow you, share your content, and reference your resource is through guest blogging.
Get off your blog, study your market to understand what your target audience wants, read popular posts from industry blogs, and then pitch your ideas.
Once your guest post has been accepted, you can easily get natural and high-quality link inside your author bio.
Unfortunately, most prolific guest bloggers don’t know how to write author bio that’s relevant to their guest post topic.
Essentially, your author bio must be relevant to the topic you just discussed.
For example, if you produced compelling content on this topic “social media strategy” then your author bio should indicate that you’re a social media expert who can help businesses develop a strategy. Here’s a good example:
More importantly, link to a resource page on your website that’s equally relevant to the topic.
Don’t link to a “blogging guide” when you’re talking about “influencer marketing.” Though related and dependent, they don’t play the same role at all times.
Conclusion
Bear in mind that the “context” of the link seems to carry more weight than the quantity in today’s SEO. But you can’t choose one and leave the other—you need to develop a link-building strategy that relies on context (i.e., quality) as well as quantity.
At the end of the day, consistency is the ultimate strategy. So, keep at link building for the next 3 – 6 months and watch your rankings soar.
