Building backlinks should be a major part of any modern search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. Backlink building is the process of acquiring links from other high-quality and authoritative websites in your niche. When this happens, Google takes it as a vote of confidence in your authority, and will give you a boost on the search engine results pages (SERPs) as a result! This means it can draw more traffic to your website and ultimately increase your bottom line.
Having great content on your website is a fantastic way to build great backlinks because people will want to share it with their own readers! In this article, we’re going to outline five different types of content that can generate more backlinks for your website.
Let’s get started.
Free tools other website owners will want to share
Free tools offer a great way to provide value for your ideal customers. And, if you can create a tool that helps solve a problem that your target audience is having, not only will they be more likely to buy from your business, but other companies and publishers will want to share the tool with their own audiences. This can help you build backlinks!
To come up with ideas for free tools, think about what potential problems your customers have that you can help solve. For instance, you could provide them with a calculator that helps them with a financial issue, or a reusable template that makes a process easier for them.
Let’s take a look at a few examples of businesses that have free tools on their websites for inspiration.
FreshBooks, an online accounting software company, has free invoice templates on their website. These templates can be of great help to FreshBooks’ target audience of freelancers and small business owners. If businesses similar to FreshBooks think their audiences could be helped by these templates, they might want to share them on their own websites. This can help to boost FreshBooks’ backlink profile!
Think about what free templates you could offer to your target audience. What processes could you help them simplify? If related businesses come across your content, they might want to share it with their audience. This makes them great backlink magnets.
On the other hand, Trifecta, a nutrition and fitness company, has a water intake calculator on their website. As you can see above, a user just has to enter a few details about their height, weight, and activity level in order to determine how much water they need per day. This calculator offers a great way for Trifecta to attract health-conscious people to their website — these are the types of people that will be interested in their other paid products and services. Similar businesses, like fitness bloggers or magazines, for instance, could be willing to share it on their own website, helping boost Trifecta’s backlink profile!
Think about what calculators you could create for your own customers. Help them solve a problem! Related websites or complementary businesses could then be tempted to share your tool with their own audiences, which will boost your backlink profile and SEO.
Content that answers FAQs related to your field of work
If you can create content that answers common questions, website visitors will be grateful for the help. Plus, bloggers, businesses, and publishers that cover topics related to your area of work may be tempted to share your content with their own readers, helping you to earn links and grow your business.
To identify the questions you should answer in your content, conduct a bit of keyword research. Head to a tool like Answer the Public with a list of words and phrases related to your business. When you input these, you’ll be provided with a series of questions that you can answer in your content. Answering them on your website can help you address customer needs. If blogs or writers that cover topics like yours see that you have helpful content, they’ll want to share it with their own audience, helping you to build backlinks.
Let’s look at an example of a business that answers common questions on their website for inspiration.
My Canada Payday, a financial services company based in Canada, answers customer questions throughout their blog, and their article on post-COVID-19 inflation is particularly helpful.
The article covers what inflation is, how it happens, and how it occurred during the pandemic. It likely addresses questions that financially concerned individuals have about the current economy in Canada. By addressing common queries in their content, My Canada Payday can help their target audience better understand this topic. This can lead to similar blogs and businesses sharing their articles with their own audience, building My Canada Payday’s backlink profile.
If you answer common questions about newsworthy events on your website, you can show your ideal customer that you’re always up to date with industry news. This will also help you attract the attention of publishers and businesses that cover topics like yours. They’ll be encouraged to share your content with their own audiences, building your backlink profile.
How-to guides that address a common pain point
If you create high-quality and actionable how-to guides that address common pain points that your customers have, other websites in your niche will want to share them. This will help you improve your backlink profile, increase your rankings on the SERPs, and improve your bottom line!
To come up with ideas for how-to guides, consider checking in with your customer service team. See if there are any common questions they get — if you can write how-to guides on these topics, not only will you save your employees some time, but it can also give other websites in your niche a reason to share your content with their readers.
Let’s take a look at a few examples of businesses that have effective and valuable how-to guides for inspiration.
For example, Looka, an online logo maker, has a range of how-to guides that are very effective and helpful. Their guide to coming up with catchy and creative business names outlines what makes a good name. They point out the key elements to a good business name, how to come up with one, and plug their own business name generator to further help the user. The article acknowledges that getting stuck in this stage of work can be frustrating — by outlining how to come up with a name, they can help new business owners get started. If websites with similar target audiences to Looka find the tool and article helpful, they’ll be more likely to share it on their website, boosting Looka’s backlink profile.
Consider using how-to guides on your website to plug your products or services, as Looka has. Keep in mind that you don’t have to be overt about this — just tell the reader how to solve their problem and note that your products or services can help. This can help you attract businesses and publishers that cover similar topics on their own websites and who will want to share your guides. This strategy will help you build backlinks.
Techolac has great how-to guides on their blog, as well. Their guide to increasing your eCommerce website’s conversion rate does a few things particularly well. The article discusses what a conversion rate is, why a business should want to raise theirs, and how to improve one. The article is straightforward and actionable, making it a great how-to guide! Website visitors who read this content and find it helpful might be willing to share it with their own audiences, meaning it can build Techolac’s backlink profile.
On your blog, write how-to guides about topics you’re knowledgeable about and make the article simple and easy to understand. If publishers and businesses similar to yours find the article helpful, they’ll be more likely to share it with their own audiences, boosting your backlink profile.
Expert content that goes into detail about a niche topic
You should create content that demonstrates your expertise! If you go into detail about niche topics in your field, sites will want to cite you as a source to back up their own content, helping to get you more backlinks and boost your brand authority.
Think about what topics you’re an expert in. What do people come to your business for over anyone else? Write articles on these subjects that both beginners and experts alike can learn from.
As a bonus, expert content can help you boost your SEO in other ways besides attracting backlinks. This is because it’s great for showcasing your E-A-T, or expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. This term comes from Google’s search quality rater guidelines, and it’s something the company pays a lot of attention to when ranking content. In short, Google only wants to send its users the best and most helpful information possible — this means that, when you show your expertise in your content, you’re likely to rank higher on the SERPs.
Let’s take a look at some examples of expert content for inspiration.
Florin Roebig, a trial attorney firm in Florida, showcases their expertise on their auto accident attorney service page. The article has a lot of detailed content regarding car accidents in Florida. It explains different factors that affect auto accident claims, the types of claims that can be made, and more. It does a great job of showing off their expertise, and businesses that cover topics like the law or automobile accidents can cite it as a source of accurate information, meaning it can help boost Florin Roebig’s backlink profile.
Write content about your business that shows how much you know about your field. Not only will it build trust with your website visitors, but it can help get you backlinks when people cite you as a source of information in their own content.
Trouts Fly Fishing, a fly fishing retailer in Colorado, has expert content on their blog, too. For instance, their article on cold weather fishing is particularly helpful. The article outlines weather patterns to look for in the forecast before planning a fishing trip, the best flies for cold weather, and more. This article does a great job of showing off Trouts Fly Fishing’s expertise. Not only do they sell great products for cold-weather fishing trips, but they also know how to prepare their readers. Similar businesses or publishers that cover topics like outdoor sports might find it helpful and share it on their blog or website for their audience, meaning it can help boost Trouts Fly Fishing’s backlink profile.
On your website, show off your expertise! Convince your readers that you know what you’re talking about when it comes to your field of work. Not only can this help you secure backlinks, but it can also encourage sales.
Buying guides and comparison pieces
Buying guides and comparison pieces help customers become more informed before making a purchase. Buying guides outline everything a reader should consider when shopping, while comparison pieces help the reader decide between specific options available to them.
Keep in mind that you should recommend a solution to a problem without endorsing a specific product or brand — people tend to not like being sold to. You can better help them by providing them with the correct information and letting them come to a decision on their own. Be sure to provide all of the same information for each product and don’t overly tout a certain product.
When other people are writing content related to your business or the products or services you provide, they may be interested in sharing your buying guide or comparison piece with their own audience to help them come closer to making a purchase. This means that this type of content can boost your backlink profile!
Let’s take a look at a few businesses that have great buying guides or comparison pieces on their websites for inspiration.
SocialPilot, a social media analytics program, has a great comparison piece on Twitter tools that does several things well. The article outlines ten different Twitter tools, including their own, as well as the pros, cons, features, and costs of each. This is a great way for SocialPilot to help their website visitors make a decision. The guide is thorough and acknowledges that no single tool can work for everyone, making it a great buying guide! Publishers and other businesses who find this guide helpful might be willing to share it with their audiences if they write about social media or marketing, making it a great backlink magnet.
If you create comparison pieces for your own audience, consider using a similar strategy to SocialPilot. Outline the pros, cons, features, benefits, and costs of a variety of different products or services. Businesses and influencers that find the information helpful can share it on their own websites, helping you potentially build backlinks.
Finally, Best Buy, a tech retailer, has a speaker buying guide that is very helpful for their customers. The guide outlines everything a buyer would want to know about speaker specs before making a purchase. The guide is extensive and covers a lot of topics, including speaker types, complete systems, different specs, and more. Best Buy wraps up the guide by showing off some of the different speakers they sell on their website, meaning readers can quickly make a choice after reading the article. People who write about tech or music might link to this content on their own websites, meaning it can help boost Best Buy’s backlink profile!
If you write buying guides for your customers, be sure that yours are thorough, like Best Buy’s. Cover everything a prospective buyer would need to know before making the decision that’s right for them. These are the types of buying guides that will help you attract backlinks!
Summary
Backlink building is a huge part of improving your rankings on the SERPs and increasing your bottom line! In this article, we outlined different types of content that can help you generate backlinks, including how-to guides, comparison pieces, and question-based content.
Need more help? Take a look at the Techolac business blog. They have articles on AI in business, influencer marketing, and more.
Author bio & headshot:
Adam Steele is COO and co-founder of Loganix, which is an SEO fulfillment partner for digital marketing agencies and professionals. The company provides the SEO services that businesses need to grow and achieve their goals. If you enjoyed this article, you can find more SEO guides and templates on the Loganix blog.