Why Backlinking Is Important For Your Blog + My Favourite Strategy
You have a website and/or blog, and you're (hopefully!) creating awesome content for it on a regular basis. But to really get any traction, you need to be seen as an authority in your niche, which means you'll want to rank well in search engine results. So how the heck do you do that? Truthfully, there are many ways, but today I'm going to focus in on the one tactic that works for me time and time again, regardless of how Google's algorithm changes.
If your niche is already over-saturated, it's totally worth the extra effort to get your blog noticed by the right people. Here's a good way to get started...
MY FAVORITE 4-STEP LINK BUILDING STRATEGY:
RESOURCE PAGE LINK BUILDING
SEO is allllllll about link building these days. Of course there are other tactics that work, but your ranking in Google still largely depends on the backlinks to your site. And the quality of those backlinks is paramount. The key here is quality over quantity.
A resource page is a page that exists solely to link to helpful resources on external websites. You can see an example of this on our Tools & Resources page. We use this page to link to digital tools and programs that we feel will help our readers and other professionals in our niche.
People really like curated lists of helpful resources. If a resource makes it onto one of these curated lists on an authority site, it will be seen as an expert voice. You want to be that expert voice.
The link building strategy we're digging into today discusses how to get your content featured in resource pages on authority websites. The more quality backlinks you have directing back to your site, the more authority you'll have in search results (meaning your site will rank higher and higher).
Here's the exact process I use to get quality backlinks from resource pages...
1. CREATE A HELPFUL RESOURCE
First, you need a piece of high-quality content that will add significant value to these resource pages. This piece of content can be in the form of an infographic, video, digital tool (we just added a link to a great one-minute budget spreadsheet to our Resource page), long-form blog post, e-book or guide, etc. Get creative here.
Keep in mind that the design of this content will play a big role in how much engagement it gets (you get it, you like pretty stuff too, right?) so put some real time into packaging your content nicely. The time you invest into the design will pay off big time.
2. FIND RESOURCE PAGES IN YOUR NICHE
There's an easy (albeit time-consuming) way to do this. Try out the following search strings in Google:
"keyword" + inurl:resources
"keyword" + inurl:links
"keyword" + "helpful resources"
"keyword" + "useful links"
You'll see in an instant how many potential resource page links are out there. But not every single one will be suitable, so you'll need to asses each one.
3. ASSESS THE PAGES
When you click on one of the pages in the search results, ask yourself a few questions:
Is the site legit and up-to-date?
Is the site relevant to your niche?
Would a link to your piece of content add value to their page?
Does the site accept links?
Does the site have decent SEO metrics (like Domain Authority and Page Authority)?
4. ASK FOR YOUR LINK!
Now it's time to reach out to the site admin to ask if they would be willing to link to your piece of content. I always do this via email, and my script looks like this:
SUBJECT: Your Resource Page
Hi NAME,
I recently came across your TOPIC resource page and was impressed with the quality content you promote!
I just finished creating SHORT DESCRIPTION OF YOUR PIECE OF CONTENT: URL. I think it might make a helpful addition to your page.
Regardless, thanks for creating such a quality list of resources!
Rinse and repeat as many times as you can before your fingers go numb over your keyboard and you'll be golden. ;)