The Easiest Way to Earn Backlinks and Improve SEO
It’s impossible to have a conversation about SEO without hearing the term “backlinks” thrown around. But what exactly are backlinks? Why are they so important? And how do you get them? These are all valid questions. Luckily, we have the answers - and a secret weapon that will make earning backlinks easy.
Let’s jump in.
What are backlinks?
Backlinks are simply links from one website to another. As a website owner, think of them as links that direct people to your website. For example, this is a backlink that directs people to 1canoe2. And if 1canoe2 were to link to hootdesignco.com anywhere on its site, that would be a backlink for us.
Why are backlinks important?
Backlinks are an instrumental part of the Google algorithm. While the algorithm is constantly changing, the importance of backlinks remains consistent. And because about 90% of global searches are made using Google, it’s a valuable algorithm to play into.
Backlinko illustrates the importance backlinks play in the Google algorithm: “Pages with lots of backlinks rank above pages that don’t have as many backlinks. In fact, the top result in Google has an average of 3.8x more backlinks than positions two through 10.” That’s pretty powerful.
But you may be wondering why Google is so obsessed with backlinks. Essentially, when other sites link to yours, it flags your content as reputable and valuable.
There are a few things to keep in mind about backlinks:
Quality is better than quantity. It’s better to have one quality backlink than 100 spammy links to your site.
Backlinks are most effective when they link from one related site to another.
It’s best to have backlinks from a variety of websites. It’s better to have 10 websites link to you once than one website link to you 10 times.
So how do you get backlinks?
Backlinks are a relatively straightforward concept, but getting them isn’t always easy. We have tried a few different methods, but only one is worth mentioning: HARO.
HARO stands for “help a reporter out.” It is an email list that connects journalists with sources - and anyone can sign up to be a source. Here’s how it works.
Sign up for a free account
Three times a day, you will receive an email with a list of stories that need sources. These are categorized to make skimming easy.
If you have information that matches up with a story, email the reporter with your ideas.
If your pitch is chosen, you will be featured on the site. And that means, you guessed it, a backlink!
Here’s an example of how HARO has worked for us.
We focus on the “Business and Finance” section of HARO. One day, we saw this story come through.
This was right up our alley, so we clicked the hyperlink for more information on what the reporter was looking for. Here’s what we found...
It was a fun story that would be easy for us to respond to. We quickly whipped up a response, which we sent to the email address provided by HARO.
It took us about 15 minutes to write the pitch. A few days later, we got an email that our quote had been chosen! We scored a backlink on an AdWeek website, which is a highly relevant and credible source. That quality backlink took us only 15 minutes to get - and proved to us that HARO is an SEO secret weapon.
We have had countless positive experiences with HARO, and almost any business could benefit from this type of outreach. HARO provides both positive PR and an SEO boost, and it’s not as time consuming as other (less effective) methods.
Have SEO questions? Want more information on HARO? Don’t hesitate to reach out.