Which Types of Content Generate Backlinks?

Crafting custom content that drives leads to your business is what content strategies are built upon. However, the path to lead generation isn’t a straight line. To get users to come to your site organically, you need to rank within a search engine results page. A strong backlink profile is necessary to build the authority of your domain and improve rankings in a search engine. To do this, you’ll want to make sure you are providing digestible, well-researched content that answers a user’s inquiry. Using this method, you’ll quickly turn users into advocates for your brand that will share your pages on social channels, message boards, and on their own sites.

A recent survey of top SEO professionals from Link-Assistant.com shows that data and research-driven content, interviews, and informative pages worked best to generate organic links that boost ranking, and key tips to craft pages that earn backlinks are as follows:

How-Tos: Get organic backlinks by helping users

Whether you’re looking to pair a smartphone to a car or explain a DIY project, how-to-guides are a great way to connect to a user’s pain points and provide relevant, sharable content. An optimized how-to guide is also an excellent way to get into Google’s answer box. Follow these tips to create a successful how-to page:

• Use lists. Take advantage of numbered lists for directions or bulleted lists for suggestions.
• Provide visual aids. Either pictures or animated gifs to show the user exactly what to do.
• Keep your writing to the point. Write complete sentences, but make sure they are concise.
• Allow users to offer feedback or ask questions. Engaged users may offer a suggestion that you didn’t think of, or provide a topic for a new post.

Interviews: Get the facts from an expert

A well-crafted interview from a respected, authoritative source helps you gain backlinks. If you’re able to get a few minutes with an industry influencer, ask a few questions, and post a detailed interview. You’ll pick up additional links from the subject’s social channels and personal site when they share your content.

• Don’t be afraid to ask. The worst a potential interview subject can do is say ‘no’. You have little to lose from an email or phone call.
• Editing is acceptable. It’s okay to clean up your interview subject’s responses as long as you’re up front about the changes. Asking, ‘do you mind if I adjust your answers to improve readability?’ allows your subject the opportunity to decide for him or herself.
• Stay on topic. If you’re speaking to an expert in SEO, you don’t want to discuss favorite recipes…unless the topic focuses on an SEO expert’s home life.

Case Studies: Data to drive backlinks

Showing the results that your strategies or techniques achieve is perhaps the best method of gaining authority in a particular field and developing natural backlinks. Case studies can be a challenge to develop given the time commitment to do the research and document the findings, but they can go along way in providing prospective clients with clear proof. A few tips to keep in mind when developing a case study are as follows:

• Include data. Every time another source cites your data, they link to you.
• Provide context. Add a story to the numbers to give the reader a complete picture.
• Appeal to different aesthetics. Some users prefer charts. Others focus on numbers or words. Provide a balance of numerical data, graphs, and written content to connect with different types of users.

Learn more: Digital Marketing case studies from Aronson Advertising

Don’t have time to develop content that builds your backlink profile? Get in touch with the team at Aronson Advertising in Schaumburg, IL to develop a digital content strategy that builds links, improves ranking, and drives leads to your business by calling (847) 297-1700 or by using our contact form.