How to Get High Quality Backlinks for Free? 

As a website owner, I know that quality backlinks are absolutely critical for good SEO and driving organic traffic. But building backlinks can be tough, especially if you don’t have a big budget. That’s why I’m always on the lookout for proven free backlink building strategies. 

In this article, I’ll share the methods that have worked for me to skyrocket my site’s rankings without spending a dime. These practical tips have helped me land backlinks from authoritative sites by providing real value. Whether you’re a beginner or advanced in SEO, you’ll find some great new ideas to try here.

Create Link-Worthy Content 

The foundation of any good backlink strategy is creating content that is worth linking to. Focus on producing in-depth, insightful content that provides real value for your target audience. Here are some specific types of viral content you can create:

Skyscraper Technique 

The Skyscraper technique involves creating content that is vastly superior and more in-depth than any existing content for a particular keyword. Identify a high-ranking page for your target keyword and aim to create content that is at least 10X better – essentially a “skyscraper” towering over the existing content landscape.

For example, let’s say the top-ranking yoga mat review on the first page of Google is a 2,000-word article on “The 7 Best Yoga Mats for Beginners” by WellnessPros.com.

You would research over 50+ different top yoga mats across various categories like budget, thick, thin, eco-friendly, etc. You would buy and test the yoga mats yourself, taking detailed notes on the grip, padding, size, and pros and cons of each.

Then you would write a 10,000-word “Ultimate Guide to the 50 Best Yoga Mats” where the first half covers core factors for choosing a mat and the second half has in-depth reviews of the 50 mats you tested.

Your much more extensive and valuable content would likely attract many natural backlinks from other yoga sites, magazines, instructors, and pinners on Pinterest.

Ultimate Guides 

Extensive guides that provide a definitive resource on a topic tend to attract a lot of links. Identify high-volume keywords in your industry and create monster guides that cover every aspect in extensive detail.

Let’s say you want to rank for “keyword research”. You find that most of the top results are only 2,000-3,000 words long and focus on basic introductory tactics.

You would create a 10,000-word Ultimate Guide to Keyword Research and structure it in sections like:

• Keyword Research Basics
• Core Concepts Explained
• Beginner Tactics
• Intermediate Tactics
• Advanced Tactics
• Important Data and Metrics
• Top Keyword Research Tools
• Analyzing Keyword Data
• Ongoing Keyword Monitoring

The comprehensive guide covers keyword research comprehensively in one place. It will include each and every related terms and information which will make the content informative and rich! Researchers or readers who find it helpful will surely link that article to their post! 

Data-Driven Studies 

Original studies and surveys that uncover interesting insights resonate extremely well with audiences. Use tools like Google Forms and SurveyMonkey to create simple surveys and analyze the data to find key takeaways to base your content around.

You could create a survey with 15-20 questions to be filled by small business owners across the U.S. asking them about their digital marketing approaches, most effective tactics, biggest challenges, and more related to driving sales.

You get 500 responses and analyze the data to find interesting insights like the top 3 most effective tactics based on revenue driven, the biggest marketing challenges faced, differences across industries and locations, etc.

This data could be turned into various visual charts and infographics. And the key insights would be useful for a wide range of marketing sites to link to and reference.

Visual Content 

Visual content like infographics, charts, and graphs can spread virally through social shares. Identify interesting trends and data points that align with your brand, and present them visually to create share-worthy assets.

Tools like Canva, Piktochart, and Venngage make it easy for anyone to create sleek, professional infographics. Distributing your visuals through platforms like DesignHill can also help land additional backlinks as your content gets republished across blogs and websites.

The key is providing enough value through your content that others naturally want to reference or recommend to their own audiences. Craft content targeted around ranking for high-volume keywords, and the backlinks will start compounding over time.

Use the Fixer Upper Technique 

This method involves finding outdated articles in your niche that have a lot of backlinks and then contacting the website owner to suggest that they link to your more up-to-date article instead. It is also known as building links from outdated sources! 

Here is an in-depth step-by-step process:

Identify Target Keywords

First, use a keyword research tool like Ahrefs to find keywords you want to rank for. Ideally, focus on mid-to-long tail keywords with decent search volume.

For example, let’s say one target keyword is “content writing tips” which gets 5K monthly searches.

Find Low-Quality Ranking Content

Next, look at the top 5-10 search results for your target keyword and identify pages that are relatively weak, dated, or thin on useful information.

For my example keyword, I found a 1500-word article on “15 Content Writing Tips” published in 2015 by X that no longer contains relevant advice. Like changes in writing format, research depth, quality of writing samples, and so on. This would be a good fixer-upper candidate. 

Create Far Superior Content

Now it’s time to create a new piece of content that covers the topic exponentially better than the fixer-upper page you identified.

For my example, I would publish a new 4000-word guide called “The Ultimate Content Writing Playbook” with updated tips like how to write according to Google’s helpful content update, detailed explanations, formatting guidance, tools, templates, studies, stats, and more.

Outreach

Contact the site owner of the page you want to replace, show them the outdated/inadequate content they have ranking, and offer to give them your superior version to publish instead – even offering to transfer links/traffic.

In my example, I would email X, show them our snazzy new content, and explain why it would better serve their readers. Most site owners happily update old posts so it’s an easy pitch.

Earn Backlink

If they accept your content (which they likely will), you not only get the benefit of their already authoritative page now linking to your site but also the search exposure for that keyword as an added bonus.

By repeating this process for other target keywords, you can build a steady stream of high-quality backlinks via the Fixer Upper method.

Utilize Help a Reporter Out (HARO) Platform 

Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is a free platform that connects journalists and reporters with experts who can provide quotes, insights, and commentary for news articles and stories. It can be a great way to earn quality backlinks from reputable publishers.

Well, I personally use this technique and have successfully acquired a couple of high quality backlinks for my clients.

Here’s how it works:

• Sign up for a HARO account as an expert source. Select your areas of expertise so you only get relevant story requests.
• Monitor your HARO email alerts daily and respond rapidly to story pitches relevant to your industry and content.
• When responding, provide insightful commentary, data, or useful perspectives on the story topic. Avoid overt marketing – focus on contributing value.
• If your commentary is used, follow up politely after publication requesting a backlink where appropriate. But don’t overdo this.
• Track your HARO mentions and backlinks over time to quantify the SEO value it provides.
• Only respond to top-tier publishers that would be highly relevant for your audience and provide the most SEO value. Avoid spammy outlets.

The key to success with HARO is aggressively responding to qualified opportunities with genuinely useful commentary that gives reporters what they need. It provides a steady stream of reputable editorial links that can significantly boost your website’s domain authority.

Use Article Roundups Technique

While free high-quality backlinks are always attractive, generating them through article roundups does require some time investment, and effort. However, with the right strategy, roundups can significantly enhance your backlink profile.

Here are some tips for utilizing article roundups effectively:

Finding Roundup Opportunities

• Use keywords like “[your niche] + link roundup,” “[your niche] + roundup,” “best of + [your niche],” and “[your niche] + this week” to find relevant roundups.
• Check directories for lists of blogs/sites that publish roundups in your niche.
• Follow influencers on social media and watch for roundup announcements.

Getting Featured

• Create truly useful, unique content worth linking to and promoting.
• Share your content on social media, forums, and email lists to boost visibility.
• Reach out to roundup creators and make personalized pitches for your top content.
• Offer exclusives like data, quotes, or insights to add extra value.

Maximizing Results

• Respond quickly if featured – thank the creator and engage their audience.
• Promote the roundup yourself to drive more traffic and links.
• Track results over time to see which roundup opportunities provide the best ROI.

While roundups do require some effort, they present a great opportunity to score quality links from a single promotion. Just be selective, create stellar content, and build relationships with roundup creators in your space. Track results to focus your efforts on the best outlets over time.

Do Broken Link Building 

Broken link building involve finding broken links (404 pages) on other websites, creating the missing content yourself, and then requesting the site owner link to your page instead of the original broken URL?

Here is a simple process for broken link building:

First, we will need to find the opportunity to build broken links –

Manual Method

Browse relevant websites in your niche and manually check for broken links by clicking them. This is time-consuming but effective for small-scale efforts.

Backlink checker & monitoring tools

Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Majestic can automate broken link discovery on competitor websites or pages with backlinks to your own. Set up alerts to get notified when broken links appear.

Tools

Utilize browser extensions like Check My Links or Link Checker to automatically scan pages for broken links. Several paid tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Majestic can also perform advanced broken link searches.

Once you have identified the opportunities, now it’s time to target High-Quality Links:

• Prioritize pages with high Domain Authority (DA): Links from pages with high authority pass more SEO value. Tools like MozBar or DA checker extensions can help you assess DA.
• Focus on relevant topics: Ensure your replacement content aligns with the broken link’s topic and context. A mismatch can harm user experience and hurt your chances of getting the link.

Now, for the best-broken links, create and publish the missing content on your own site. Provide even more value than the original broken page. After that, reach the website owner, share the broken page you found, and recommend linking to your new content instead.

The major benefit of this tactic is you earn a backlink from an already highly authoritative, topically relevant page. Over time, you can significantly enhance your site’s domain authority using broken link building. Just be sure to create very high-quality content – better than what was originally there.

Do Link Exchange

While link exchanges can be a way to get free backlinks, I must advise you to proceed with caution. Google explicitly warns against excessive link exchanges as part of their “link schemes” policy, which can result in penalties for your website, potentially harming its search engine ranking and visibility.

However, Google has warned against using excessive link exchanges, it doesn’t mean you can’t do it at all! You can do it at a limit. Somehow if you ignore or try to trick Google then it will bring nothing but disasters to your loveable website! 

Here are some safer ways to approach them:

• Occasional, reciprocal links with relevant, high-quality websites: This creates a natural link exchange and provides value to both parties.
• Three-way link exchanges: Instead of direct swaps, link to a third, high-quality website that then links back to both of you.
• Focus on relationships, not just links: Build genuine relationships with other website owners in your niche, and linking to each other’s content should come naturally as part of that relationship.

Here’s what will happen if you misuse the link exchange opportunity – 

• Unnatural linking patterns: Google’s algorithms can easily detect reciprocal links that appear unnatural, especially if they are done on a large scale.
• Low-quality links: Many websites offering link exchanges might be of low quality or irrelevant to your niche, providing little to no SEO value.
• Negative impact: If other websites participating in the exchange get penalized, it can negatively impact your website as well.

Avoid simply exchanging excessive and home page links. Find relevant deep-page content to link back and forth between. This leads to a more natural user experience and limits potential over-optimization penalties.

Overall, strategic link exchanges can generate high-quality, relevant backlinks. Just be selective with partners and vary anchor text and placement.

Do Guest Posting

Guest posting involves creating and publishing content on other high-authority sites in your industry. When done right, this content will include backlinks pointing back to your website.

Here are some tips for effective guest posting:

• Research and compile a target list of 10-20 websites that reach your ideal audience and accept contributor submissions. Vet these sites carefully for relevance and authority.
• Take time to create genuinely useful, non-promotional content that fits each site’s audience. Avoid spammy guest posts that add no value.
• Build relationships with site owners before pitching. Engage with their content through comments, social shares, mentions, etc.
• Personalize your guest post pitches to showcase why the site is an ideal fit for your contributed content.
• Accept only 1-2 contextual backlinks in the guest post content itself. Don’t demand excessive links.
• Follow up after publication thanking the site owner and asking if they’d be open to backlinks in future posts when relevant.

The key is focusing on building relationships with a small number of highly relevant sites. Provide real value through your guest posts rather than aggressively pushing links. Done right, guest posting can provide a sustainable source of authoritative backlinks over time. Just maintain quality standards and avoid spammy practices.

Wrapping Up

Well, there you have it – my favorite free techniques for getting high-quality backlinks! I hope you discovered some new strategies to try out. Just focus on creating awesome content and reaching out to the right people in your niche. Be patient and persistent with outreach. Over time, you’ll start earning more and more authoritative links without spending any money. Remember to track your progress so you know what strategies provide the best results for your brand. Let me know in the comments if you have any other great free backlink-building tactics I should try!