Backlinks in 2024: Top Tactics & Expert Thoughts
Backlinks are arguably one of the most important ranking factors. You cannot skip link building activities if you want your site to climb higher on SERP.
MonsterInsights reports that backlinks stay among the main Google ranking factors. Links from authoritative websites are your priority if you want to boost your traffic.
While some Google members claim that backlinks have received less importance in recent years compared to 2010, many SEOs still doubt that. Specialists tend to call such messages “typical Google disinformation or flat-out lying.” As a result, professionals keep building backlinks to ensure a high site’s rank. (But, of course, it’s vital to remember about other ranking elements.)
We’ve decided to make our own investigation and see what experts and top SEO companies think about backlink state in 2024.
Contents
- Top ways to build backlinks
- Traditional ways to get backlinks
- Upgrading content to acquire backlinks
- Gain links on your expertise
- Unusual link building tactics
- Provide testimonials
- Experts’ thoughts on backlinks in 2024
- Conclusion
Top ways to build backlinks
You will find lots of pieces of advice about how to build links. We’ve looked through some posts across social media platforms to see what’s going on in 2024.
Traditional ways to get backlinks
So, the most current tweet from Semrush shares ten tactics to attract backlinks. HARO, broken link building, testimonials, and some other tactics are on the list. Not something too unusual or novel compared to tactics from 2022 or 2023.
Thus, we’ve noticed tactics like supplier links and business association links. These are the ones you rarely see. You can read more about those approaches in the Semrush article.
We described similar tactics back in 2022. Yet, expect broken link building; we also highly recommend techniques like looking for brand mentions or partnering with influencers.
But above all, our favorite tactic is guest posting. It’s an effective way to just build links but to have full control over the process.
As such, you choose sites where you want to place your content with links based on your needs. You can easily choose the site’s DA, organic rank, industry, DR, and more. This way, you know that the backlinks don’t harm your site; instead, they help it grow in the most effective way.
Moreover, if you use some assistance from a reliable guest posting service, you can securely pick publishers and get timely support.
Upgrading content to acquire backlinks
Some experts give detailed guides on specific ways of backlink acquisition. For instance, Jake Ward, an SEO agency owner, recommends upgrading your traditional content funnel. Most of the content types he has offered - competitor versus, case studies, educational articles, etc. - refer to the best link-generating content.
You can clearly use this approach to your blog and share valuable content to get more backlinks.
Another content-related tip is from the specialist nicknamed The Boring Marketer. He admits that building links is not always an easy task. Yet, if you choose the correct content formats, they can passively earn you links over time.
He also names case studies and adds glossaries, infographics, guides, original research, and more types of articles.
Content length also matters. We’ve mentioned this in one of our research articles. Susanna Gebauer, a content marketing advisor, also suggests creating longer-form articles.
She has found that longer content gets 77,2% more backlinks compared to shorter texts.
Gain links on your expertise
A valued expert, Connor Gillivan (by the way, featured in one of our articles), shows how to earn SEO backlinks on your expertise.
He provides a seven-step strategy any experienced professional can use.
- Begin with identifying your niche industry.
- Find your expert PR angle and align it with your niche's topics.
- Create your expert piece of content.
- Search for journalists who will care (services Connor offers to use are Roxhill and Muckrack).
- Write personalized emails to journalists.
- Follow up on your letters and give answers.
- Track backlinks you’ve received.
Unusual link building tactics
We have also found some unconventional link building techniques. Hridoy Rehman, an SEO strategist, talks about how AI has helped him to gain backlinks.
It’s definitely an interesting case. We have already covered various AI tools for visual creation. Also, we tell that images/videos and infographics can be a reason for getting links. So, we were just happy to practical approval for this.
Hridoy has created a couple of images with AI tools. It took him 20 minutes. And he ended up receiving ten backlinks. Sounds encouraging.
Moving next. Connor Showler, a multiple digital business owner, suggests employing affiliate marketing.
Although you are aware that affiliate marketing helps you monetize your business or site, Connor shows another angle of it. In fact, your affiliate links shared by one of your customers are also backlinks.
This is that simple yet genius! Though this expert mentions loyal clients who are going to place your link on their sources, there might be some odd placements from irrelevant or low-quality domains. So, we recommend you track the backlinks you acquire this way.
Here’s a compilation of untypical ways of getting backlinks from Julian Goldie. This SEO expert shares three methods, and all of them, in one way or another, are connected to AI.
Firstly, he advises you to build a custom GPT. Basically, it requires creating a ChatGPT-based tool. Incorporating a credit link into your site will allow you to get backlinks once someone shares information about your tool.
Secondly, you can produce engaging content on YouTube. When someone embeds your video on their site, AI will transcribe it. So, add a link to your site within your video to get an additional link back to you.
Thirdly, create an AI-generated article with a focus on the link bait content. If your content is valuable enough (includes a study, data, etc.), other sources, most probably, will link back to you.
Though we somewhat doubt the last method, the first two are worth trying if you have enough motivation and knowledge.
Provide testimonials
Marc Schenker, a digital business owner, suggests the next way of backlink acquisition. Are you using some tools or software? Then, reach out to the company representative and suggest providing them with a testimonial on their product. This way, you can end up with a linked mention of your website.
Or you can write an in-depth case study about this tool and also contact the company with a suggestion to link to your helpful content.
Experts’ thoughts on backlinks in 2024
And let’s check how experts treat and refer to backlinks in 2024. That’ll give you an idea of what the professional community thinks on this matter.
Med, an SMB Local SEO advisor, defines backlink building as one of the top current SEO skills.
Shane Duggan, a SaaS company's SEO advisor, is sure that you need to work hard for the backlinks to monetize your SEO effort.
Nick Zviadadze, the MintSEO founder, argues backlinks to be one of the most vital SEO elements. So, ensure you build your links if you want to be successful in 2024.
Coinbound, a crypto marketing agency, also emphasizes link building importance. It encourages its clients and followers to acquire backlinks.
Jonas Sickler, a digital marketing analyst, thinks that it’s highly possible that there is really a very limited number of ranking factors. And backlinks are among them.
Conclusion
As you can see, the vast majority of SEO and marketing specialists still emphasize backlink value.
We share the same exact approach and are sure that link building can help your site strengthen its SERP positions, get more traffic, and receive a constant flow of new customers.
You can try the majority of tactics described in this article. Some of them won’t cost you a penny but will bring backlinks from worthy websites.
Thus, if you want to get full control over the backlinks you receive, we recommend partnering with a guest posting service. You’ll get a wide range of tools and features to acquire the most weighty and helpful links possible.
