In 2022, every business should have a razor-sharp focus on entering Google’s good books.

Why? Because you interact with your target audience via Google.

If Google isn’t happy with your business, you can wave great rankings and sweet traffic goodbye.

Appeasing Google isn’t exactly a walk in the park, but it’s possible.

If you want to earn online credibility and visibility, turn your attention to link building, i.e., the practice of building backlinks.

In this blog, we’re doubling down on all things backlinks.

• What arethe most effective types of backlinks?
• How can you create backlinks?
• Are there any mistakes you should avoid?
• What’s the right way to launch a successful link building campaign?

It’s time to revisit the basics, get into the nitty-gritty of backlinks, and help your business dominate Google SERPs.

Let’s begin!

A Quick Overview of Link Building

If you’re new to link building, watch our short video on this technique:

Link building is the practice of acquiring hyperlinks from other websites.

As a high-DA (domain authority) website (Forbes, Medium, etc.) offers your brand a hyperlink, their web users will flock to your site.

The outcome? A substantial increase in online visibility, traffic, and conversions!

When done right, link building can give you a nice boost on SERPs and touch up your brand identity.

Let’s talk about backlinks real quick. A backlink is essentially a hyperlink that takes web users from Site A (Forbes, Medium, etc.) to Site B (your site).

Here’s a visual representation of what we’re talking about:

Backlink quality and quantity play a big role in determining your SERP position.

As a small business, you want to earn high-DA backlinks from the most reputable and trusted industry giants. But that’s not all. You also want to earn as many backlinks as possible.

If your backlink quality to quantity ratio is high, you’ll dominate SERPs.

This is how ranking positions are determined! There’s a lot more that plays into it (on-page SEO: keywords, title tags, meta description, etc.). However, a powerful backlink profile can easily get you on top. So we know that backlink quality and quantity matter.

How can you use this knowledge to your advantage? By generating the right types of backlinks.

Let’s take a closer look at the most powerful backlinks that can shape your rankings!

10 Types of Backlinks

Before we break each type of backlink down to a tee, here’s a cheat sheet that covers the basics:

1. Guest Blogging Backlinks

Think of backlinks and guest blogging immediately springs to mind. If you run a small business, you should ideally kick things off with guest blogging.

Here’s how this works. For starters, a good guest blogging campaign is contingent on excellent domain authority (DA).

Find industry-relevant companies with a minimum DA score of 60. The higher, the better! Why is this important? High-DA sites stand out in their respective industries.

They attract a ton of traffic, rank high on Google SERPs, and enjoy a stellar reputation. When you write a guest blog for these industry giants, you’ll copy/paste their success to your business.

Write well-researched, value-added, optimized, and engaging content that compels readers to stick around till the very end! Include a backlink link to your site within the content.

Make sure this link is relevant and naturally inserted. It shouldn’t seem forced.

If you’re having trouble finding guest blogging partners, run this Google search: “guest post + [industry/content topic]”. Try different variations until you find high-DA sites that will accept your work.

Email a proposal and wait for the magic to happen!

Recommended Read: How to Find Link Building Opportunities

Need an example?

Code Climate accepts guest posts focused on their core industry: engineering.

Here’s an example of a guest post on their site:

As you keep reading, you’ll notice that the guest (LaunchDarkly) has included two backlinks in the content:

Both of these links take readers to LaunchDarkly’s content.

The best part?

They’re organically inserted, relevant, and contextually placed.

As readers, we’re not questioning why the link is there; it makes complete sense.

Pro tip: Avoid going overboard with guest blogging backlinks. Not only will the host reject your work, but Google will also penalize you. Include 2–3 backlinks in body text, no more.

Recommended Read: 7 Tips to Supercharge Your Guest Posting in 2022 (Video)

2. Editorial Backlinks

An editorial backlink is undeniably the most common type of backlink out there.

What is it? An organic backlink that’s placed naturally within the content without being requested. Editorial backlinks mention the brand directly.

Let’s say you’ve written a power-packed blog that brings something completely new to the table. When an industry giant stumbles upon your blog, they’ll be impressed with the value you’ve added to the industry with fresh research or unique insights.

As they work on their own content for the week, they’ll give your content a shoutout. This is an editorial backlink in a nutshell.

It isn’t requested; it just so happens to land in your lap because of the stellar quality of work that you’ve produced!

There’s no way you can force an editorial backlink. It’ll be provided naturally if and only if you release value-added content, you can proudly stand behind.

So what’s the recipe for success? For starters, rework your content campaign.

If you want to earn editorial backlinks, you must produce original, relevant, evergreen content that covers a new topic or analyzes an existing topic from a new perspective.

You cannot rehash old content; not a chance. Excavate new ground that hasn’t been traversed before. Not only will your audience love it, but industry giants will also sniff the freshness of your content and come around to offer a backlink.

The only way to get this right is through powerful content creation.

As you partner with professional content writers with experience and expertise in your industry, you’ll unlock the door to high-DA editorial backlinks.

Recommended Read: 5 Types of SEO Content That Pull Links Like Crazy

3. Business Profile Backlinks

This is one of the easiest ways to jump on the link-building bandwagon!

The goal is to put your business out there.

Start by creating digital profiles for your business on as many platforms as possible: social media sites, business listing platforms, review sites, industry directories, and so on.

As you do this, you’ll have the option of including a backlink (or perhaps multiple backlinks depending on the platform).

Google uses these backlinks as proof that your brand is established, reputable, and experienced.

You’ll manage to reel in a ton of quality traffic and increase your credibility and trustworthiness along the way.

Target the following listings:

• Google My Business
• Yahoo Localworks
• Bing Places for Business
• Yelp
• Yellow Pages
• Best of the Web
• Clasione
• AboutUs
• com
• Better Business Bureau
• Seek On
• Pick N Buy
• Foursquare
• com
• Vlib
• com

Find more niche directories for your industry, audience, and location. And make you avoid using the same description for multiple directories. This is a spammy practice that can result in penalization.

Instead, create unique descriptions for each listing to ensure freshness and improve your rankings.

The same goes for social profiles. Focus on the most popular platforms and create original content for each profile.

Kick things off with:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Pinterest
• Snapchat
• TikTok

As high-DA businesses come across your business profiles/social media pages, they’ll get to know your brand. If your profiles include quality content, you’ll earn quality backlinks. It’s a simple, straightforward process that works like a charm.

Here’s a great example. ExpertTech USA is a local audio and video installation company.

As you explore their Google My Business profile, you’ll notice that they release quality posts every month:

As an industry giant comes across their posts and sees new content, collaborations, and exciting updates, they’re very likely to check the business out!

You know what direction things are heading in once that happens…a backlink. Leverage as many business profiles as you possibly can while keeping quality intact.

Once you get this balance right, fresh link juice will start pouring in!

Recommended Read: How to Set Up Your Google My Business Profile

4. Webinar Backlinks

Webinars aren’t just popular; they’re wildly popular. As we wave the COVID-19 pandemic goodbye, we can’t help but retain some practices that popularized during that period.

Hosting successful webinars is one of them. A webinar is a web-based seminar.

It’s hosted by a company/organization and broadcast to the public (either a select group of people or anyone who cares to join). Once a webinar concludes, it’s often shared on the company’s website, social media pages, business listings, and so on.

This is where the domino effect begins.

As you launch successful webinars and share them with the world, industry giants will come knocking around.

You can work on many different types of webinars:

Take your time, understand the efficacy and relevance of each type of webinar, and create a powerful campaign accordingly.

Webinars are incredibly convenient, which makes them an excellent link building tool.

Since they’re held online, you’ll save a lot of time and money that would otherwise be wasted in hosting a live event.

Once you get the hang of this, you’re in for a treat!

5. Free-Tool Backlinks

Everybody loves a free tool. If you work in the loan industry, this could be a loan calculator.

If you create energy-saving appliances, this could be an energy consumption calculator. And if you’re a makeup mogul like Kylie Jenner, this could be a virtual makeup try-on tool.

Almost every industry has room for a lot of innovative tools, programs, apps, and software. Take the lead in your industry!

Creating a free tool is a great way to bring more attention to your business. There’s one more thing that’ll get caught in your fishing rod: bluegill…uh, we mean backlinks.

Free tools are your golden ticket to getting noticed by industry leaders.

You don’t have to go all out. Create a simple, free, useful tool that automates a common industry task. Make sure you actively market it. Mention it in guest blogs, announce it through press releases (we’ll get to that in just a bit), create editorial content around it, launch it on social media…you get the gist, right?

Your tool should run smoothly without any errors or glitches. Test it repeatedly to ensure that nothing slips through the cracks.

6. Acknowledgement Backlinks

Industry giants often hand out backlinks in the form of acknowledgements when businesses make donations, sponsor events, host workshops, and so on.

The trick is to do something that helps you get recognized. If you launch a successful webinar, that also qualifies as an acknowledgement-worthy feat.

Keep a close eye on your competitors. What kind of events are they launching? What other notable accomplishments are they achieving?

When you jump on the same bandwagon, you’ll start earning acknowledgement that will quickly materialize in the form of quality backlinks. This is a bit of a hit-and-miss.

Avoid putting all your eggs in this basket. Try building more predictable backlinks first (editorial, guest blogging, business profile backlinks, etc.) and branch out into the acknowledgement backlink territory much later.

Think of this as a supplementary technique. When it’s combined with some of the most robust approaches, the outcome is a lot more impressive.

7. Badge Backlinks

This technique only works for established companies that want to become even more established.

If you recently launched a start-up or run a small business, you may want to skip this one. But if you run a successful business that has earned a sweet DA over the years, you’re perfectly suited for this approach.

Here’s how it works. Companies love receiving awards and badges for their accomplishments, outstanding performance, milestones, and so on.

At Search Berg, we boast our own set of awards. And we’re pretty proud of them!

Now, every business is not in a position to offer these. These are some of the top-rated review platforms.

However, if you have a good reputation in your industry, you can create your own badges and offer them to other companies to build strong partnerships. As these companies display their new emblems on their site, you’ll earn backlinks each time web users click on them.

Use SEO tools to identify businesses that would enjoy a badge/emblem from you. These sites should also have a high DA. So should you.

Nobody will display your badge on their site if you’re not a trustworthy company to begin with. Start by building your reputation and trying your hand at basic link building. Once you start doing pretty good for yourself, you can start mastering the tougher ropes.

Like acknowledgement backlinks, badge backlinks are only suitable for established businesses. Once you start reaching the top, this practice will cement your position.

8. Guest Post Bio Backlinks

Earlier in this blog, we talked about guest blogging backlinks that are inserted in the body text. Guest post bio backlinks are different. You won’t find them in the introduction, body, or conclusion.

Instead, they’re provided right at the beginning or right at the end. Every guest post has an author’s bio. In most cases, this is included towards the end of the blog.

However, it may also be added right at the top. Either way, this is your golden opportunity to earn a backlink.

Here’s an example:

 

Weaved into the author’s bio, this backlink achieves its purpose without any fuss. There’s no embellishment or fluff; the writer gets straight to the point. This is how you do it!

9. Press Release Backlinks

Every business does something noteworthy at some point. Maybe you earned an award. Or you launched an innovative product. Or you celebrated your company’s 50^th anniversary.

Whatever your accomplishment may be, show it off in a press release! You’ll be surprised by how many backlinks you derive from a well-written press release. You need three strong skills here: excellent writing, PR prowess, and a knack for marketing.

When these three strengths are combined, the outcome is a power-packed press release that fetches quality backlinks.

10. Comment Backlinks

The power of valuable commentary cannot be denied. If you possess industry expertise, make full use of it! Today, there are billions of blogs and articles on the internet.

If you want to become a credible name in your industry, start reading and contributing to the top-ranked industry content. Leave valuable, enriching, and insightful comments that spark a conversation. You don’t have to be sycophantic. Instead, be completely honest.

Your commentary may be flattering. Or it may be a critique. As long as you’re adding value to the conversation, you’re on the right track. Of course, include a backlink in your comment.

As web users and other industry experts engage with your comment, you’ll earn potential sales and even more backlinks.

It’s Time to Reel In Quality Backlinks!

Ready to launch a powerful link building campaign? Let’s make it happen!

In this blog, we discussed different types of backlinks and walked you through the best ways to create backlinks. As you start learning the ropes, brush up on your link building skills.

Our latest video walks you through three powerful link building strategies for up-and-coming businesses:

And we’re here to help implement these strategies! Find out more about our link building services.

By putting quality and quantity first, we help you enjoy lofty ranks on Google SERPs. Let’s begin!