…so you still tackle 1 key pillar of SEO for your blog—without needing to guest on podcasts or write guest blogs. 🎉
Here's the flow for the article:
What are Backlinks & Why do They Matter?
🔗 Backlinks are any links from some other site → to your website.
These links drive traffic TO your site, tell search engines like Google that you're trustworthy, improve your ranking, & more!
There are 3 main pillars to address when improving SEO for blogs & websites:
Find & Fix Errors
(to improve the user experience)
Create Content
(to tell the robots who to matchmake you with)
Build Backlinks
(to build trust with the robots/search engines and people)
As you can see, these lil links are super important! Backlinks can be built in two ways: other people can link to your site—and—you can give yourself backlinks!
Before we get into the details of how to do that…
Backlink Stats (aka: Why Google Cares SO Much)
Google Really Trusts Backlinks
High-quality content, page experience, and links ranked as the top 3 ranking factors of Google's search results (Search Engine Journal)
Translation: Google deeply values the fact that other sites are linking to your site.
A study published on Backlinko found that the number of domains linking to a page was the factor that had the highest correlation to rankings in Google (Backlinko)
Translation: Google REALLY cares about the fact that other sites are linking to yours!
Websites with strong link authority tend to rank well in voice search (Backlinko)
Translation: The more backlinks to your site, the more credible you look, the more likely you'll be the answer to a question asked of Siri.
Most People Are Missing Backlinks
More than 66% of pages have zero backlinks pointing to them (Ahrefs)
Translation: If you put even the tiniest amount of effort & focus on building your backlinks, it will make a HUGE difference! You'll be way ahead of others.
What Are Proven Ways to Get Backlinks?
An Ahrefs study found that 43.7% of top ranking pages in Google contain reciprocal links (Ahrefs)
Translation: Google really likes to see you linking to a site and them linking back to you. (Example: you having an Instagram link in bio and linking to your Instagram profile from your blog/site.)
Companies who engage in blogging receive 97% more backlinks to their site (HubSpot)
Translation: By blogging, you're increasing the chances that others will link to your site—even if all you do is focus on your blog.
Posts with videos earn more backlinks and see a 157% boost in search traffic (Search Engine People)
Translation: Adding videos to your blogs increases your chances of getting organic backlinks from others. (You can do this by embedding a Loom video, YouTube video, etc.)
Backlink Building Tools
Aside from having an SEO audit, these tools help you see what backlinks you currently have.
Backlinko Backlink Checker (free)
Google Search Console (GSC)
Sign in
Scroll down to "Links"
Find "Top Linking Sites"
Click "More"
Bonus: Find Backlink Opportunities From Other Sites
There's an additional (free) resource that will help you find backlinking opportunities from other sites—IF that's something you're interested in doing.
How to Build Backlinks for Your Site on Your Own
For when you want to give yourself backlinks. 😉 Because no, you don’t have to wait around hoping that other sites will link to you. These are steps you can take to build backlinks on your own!
🔗 Step 1: List out all the pages you could possibly share links to
This includes blog posts, product pages, any services, main website pages, etc.
🔗 Step 2: List out everywhere you currently post online—and places you want to put more effort
Instagram, Pinterest, Threads, LinkedIn, TikTok, etc.
🔗 Step 3: Come up with a game plan
How often will you post? Where do you want to post? Which pages do you want to drive traffic to the most?
Platform-by-Platform Backlink Tips
Let’s get into some more specifics for different platforms…
The best thing you can do here is create a landing page on your site to use as your "Link in Bio." Then you can use that same link on other platforms—LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, etc. (Example)
🔗 Threads
It's all about throwing spaghetti at the wall over here! Add in some business posts with links back to your blog posts, to products, etc. (Example)
Admittedly, this is a channel I've overlooked (🙈). But after hearing about & seeing the success of others, I'm back on the Pinterest train!
You can link to the same page multiple times—but spread it out. Depending on how often you're posting, you can use the same link once a month or once every other week.
🔗 Bonus Idea: Reciprocal Links
This is when (for example) a podcast host links to your site… and then you link back to their site in a blog post.
Helps your SEO, their SEO, and boosts visibility for the both of you!
I’ve done this with a few of my blog posts. I am making a more concerted effort to create blog posts for every podcast I’m interviewed on. (I’ve been a podcast guest 70+ times, so this is a verrrry smart thing for me to put time & energy into!)
Here are some of my current examples:
Duplicate Content for SEO; What’s the Deal? (Mariah wrote a guest blog for me; and I wrote this guest blog on podcast SEO for her)
BTS of My Intuitive Business Soul Scan Reading with Chelsea (she’ll be on my podcast soon, but for now this is me on hers!)
The Power of SEO with Megan Yelaney (she’s been on my podcast & I’ve been on hers!)
Link Building isn’t your first SEO step…
Building backlinks is a super helpful activity for your SEO, but it’s not your first step.
The first thing you want to do when getting started with SEO is to create an effective strategy for your core website pages.
Your core (or main) website pages are ones like your Home page, About page, Service/s pages, etc.
→ This is where you need to begin your SEO improvements because they’re home base, where you want to send traffic ultimately.
If you haven’t done this yet, my SEO Sprint is entirely focused on creating & implementing an SEO strategy for your core web pages.
After that, you can explore link building for SEO. 😉
