Pick 1-2 strategies, execute them consistently and focus on quality over quantity. That’s how you build a backlink profile that boosts both Google rankings and AI search visibility.
To get backlinks you need to create content that naturally attracts links and reach out to relevant websites to ask for a link. The most effective methods include strategic guest posts, link inserts, digital PR and creating linkable assets like free tools and original research.
Pages that rank at the top of Google have an average of 3.8x more backlinks than pages ranking in positions 2 to 10.
What’s more?
76.1% of pages cited and referenced in Google AI Overviews also rank in the top 10 organic results. And it’s the same for other AI search tools like Perplexity, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Grok.
It has never been more important to consistently build high-quality backlinks for your website.
I’ve spent years testing every link building strategy out there. These are the top 15 strategies that consistently get results for our clients and they’ll work for you too.
Why Backlinks Still Matter In The AI Era
Backlinks continue to be a primary ranking factor for both Google search rankings and AI search visibility.
They signal:
- Authority
- Trust
- Credibility
- Expertise
Both traditional search engines like Google and AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Grok use backlinks as a primary signal to decide what sites they should rank and source.
Why do Google and AI tools put so much weight on backlinks?
Because it’s one of the only SEO strategies that you can’t fake. You can’t log in to someone else’s website and place a link back to your site. That means you can’t directly control how many links you get.
Simple, right?
For someone to link to you, they have to decide that the content you offer is worth linking to. Google and AI search tools know this.
That means the more backlinks you have from other quality websites, the higher you will rank in Google and the more visibility you will have in AI search tools.
It’s as simple as that.
Two-thirds of SEO professionals say that backlinks will only become more important as AI-powered search grows.
If you’re not building links for your site, you’re risking losing visibility online.
The good news is that there are so many quality link building strategies out there.
You just need to choose the right one for your business.
15 Proven Strategies To Get Backlinks
Below are the exact strategies we use to build links for our clients.
I’ve ordered them by overall effectiveness, based on current data and real-world results. Read through each strategy and choose just one or two to implement.
1. Guest Posting
Guest posting is when you write a high-quality, free piece of content for someone else’s website in exchange for a backlink.
This is one of the most proven and used ways to get backlinks. In fact, 64.9% of link builders rely on guest posting as their primary way to build backlinks.
And for good reason…
When you contribute a guest post to someone’s website, you borrow some of their website authority in the form of link equity.
But more importantly:
You have complete control over the positioning of the link, including the: • Topic • Content quality • Link placement • Anchor text
And more. That means you can build highly effective links that boost rankings and increase your website’s visibility in AI tools.
How To Find Guest Posting Opportunities
Go to Google and search for one of the following:
• [your niche] "written by" "how to" • [your niche] "contributed by" "complete guide" • [your niche] "op-ed" "strategy" • [your niche] "analysis by" "strategy" • [your niche] "expert roundup" "best practices" • [your niche] "guest column" "case study"
These types of searches surface very specific results that meet two standards at once:
- Find sites that publish outside writers – “written by”, “contributed by”, “guest column”
- Filter for quality editorial sites – “how to”, “complete guide”, “case study”
That means every site you see ranking is high-quality AND also more likely to accept your guest posts.
Click on the 4th or 5th pages of Google to find good guest post opportunities. These websites are highly relevant and typically easier to secure guest posts on.
Pro Tip: Avoid websites that actively advertise for guest posts with a “write for us” or “submit an article” page. Google sees these from a mile away and will devalue the links.
Compile a list of 30 target sites using the searches above. Use a tool like hunter.io to get their contact information quickly.
Ideally, look for the email of the person in charge of managing the site. They will be your best bet for a successful guest post.
List all the target sites and their contact emails in a spreadsheet. Now you’re ready for outreach.
How To Pitch Your Guest Post
Website owners receive hundreds of guest post requests each month.
Most of them are junk.
That means your pitch needs to accomplish two things:
- Stand out from the junk
- Give them a reason to accept your request
Use my outreach template to help you out:
Hey [Name], My name is [Your Name] from [Website]. As you've probably guessed, I am reaching out to see if you would be open to a guest post collaboration. Why? Because we deserve it and as you can see from our site… We know what we are talking about 😀 What do I want exactly? I was reading your site and noticed that you don't have a piece of content about [topic]. So, I thought I could write a piece of content to fill the gap. Here are a few ideas I think would perform well: • [Topic Idea 1] • [Topic Idea 2] • [Topic Idea 3] What's in it for you? To go with your new shiny piece of content we can also: • [Benefit You Can Offer] • [Benefit You Can Offer] • [Benefit You Can Offer] What do you think? Thanks, [Your Name]
Important: Make sure you adapt this outreach email to your own style. The template is just to give you an idea of how to construct a guest post email that gets responses.
What can you offer as benefits?
Think of things like-
- Promoting the guest post on social media
- Giving the site a shoutout in your next newsletter
- Including branded graphics
- Sharing the article with your email list
- Leaving a genuine testimonial for their product/service
Remember:
Everyone who pitches guest posts is offering a free article. Think outside the box to see what else you can offer to go with the content. This will help you stand out from the crowd and increase your conversion rates!
Want strategic guest posts without all the work?
LinksThatRank offers proven guest post link building that gets results like this:
Every guest post link we build is manually reviewed by a member of our team, placed on a real site with real traffic and passes our strict 23-point quality control process. Plus, all guest post content is human-written verified and designed to improve the effectiveness of your link.
2. Link Inserts
Link Inserts (also called Niche Edits) involve reaching out to a website owner and asking them to add your backlink into one of their existing articles.
The reason that link inserts are so effective is because you’re getting a link in an already indexed piece of content.
Why is that important?
The existing page and content already have authority. It’s already indexed and trusted by Google, which means you essentially inherit that the moment your link is added.
Compare that to a guest post on a brand new page that can take weeks for Google just to find. That's a big difference.
It’s also why link inserts often have a faster impact on your rankings compared to any other way of building backlinks.
How To Find Link Insert Opportunities
The key to link inserts is finding topics/pages that are a natural fit to your target keyword.
Here’s how you do it…
Start by Googling your target keyword.
Open the first 20-30 results and ask yourself one simple question – Is there a natural fit for my link?
If yes, add it to your outreach list for later.
In some cases you may need to write a new section to add your link naturally. That’s actually a good thing because you’re essentially updating their content for free.
That’s extra ammunition for your pitch.
Sound like too much manual work?
Let me show you how the pros automate link insert research. You’ll need a paid ChatGPT account and access to Agent Mode.
Log in to ChatGPT, toggle on Agent Mode and use the following prompt:
You are an SEO outreach specialist. Find 15 prospects that would be a good fit for my page [Your URL] as a link insert opportunity. Think outside the box to find sites that are very likely to provide a link insert and are highly relevant to my target keywords - [target keyword here]. List just the article name and the URL link.
ChatGPT will open up the Agent Mode desktop and get to work.
In a few minutes, it will come back with a response like this:
Simple, right?
Now you have a highly targeted list of outreach prospects.
How To Pitch Your Link Inserts
Your pitch has one job…
Show the site owner exactly why your link fits and why their readers will benefit from it.
Here's what to include: • A specific reference to their article • Exactly where your link fits • Why their readers benefit • Your link and anchor text suggestion • A single, simple question to close
I’ve even found that offering to write a short paragraph to update their article with your link increases conversion rates – especially when it’s aged content.
The reason this works so well is because you are personalising each outreach email to the website owner. It feels highly relevant and differentiates you from the hundreds of other link request emails they get.
If you want to scale this even further, you can use a tool like Pitchbox to automate most of your outreach.
Link Inserts are one of the fastest ways to move your rankings. And with ChatGPT doing the heavy lifting, there’s no excuse not to start today.
Want to skip the entire outreach process?
Get link inserts that have a faster impact on your rankings.
At LinksThatRank, our link insert services strategically place quality backlinks into aged (12+ months) content that’s already been indexed by Google.
Each link is built to the highest standard and designed to have the fastest impact possible on your rankings. Get link inserts that rank.
3. Digital PR & Journalist Outreach
Digital PR has become increasingly important for AI search.
Why?
Digital PR is about getting your brand mentioned or sourced in major news or industry publications. AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok and Claude love links from these types of sites.
And so does Google.
Think of digital PR just like traditional PR except instead of chasing features in magazines…
You’re chasing powerful backlinks from some of the highest authority sites on the planet.
Create Newsworthy Content
Success in digital PR all comes down to giving a journalist a great story backed up by real world data.
Here’s how to do it:
Use Google Trends or Google News to find topics getting traction right now.
Type in a niche keyword:
Scroll to see what’s trending. You’re looking for a topic that you can replicate with your own story and angle.
In my example, you can see that “Chipotle meal prep hack” is trending massively right now. If this were my niche, I would turn it into a digital PR topic by writing a piece of content like:
“We Tested The Viral Chipotle Meal Prep Hack And Saved $300 A Month On Groceries”
That’s a story journalists can’t ignore.
The best topics are: • Newsworthy • Data-backed • Story-driven • Attention-grabbing • Spark curiosity
But this is the part that most people miss…
Successful digital PR campaigns live and die on the story. That means you need to dig into your own experience, data or opinions to find a story that only you can tell.
For example, let’s say you run a plumbing business.
Great digital PR topics could include:
- The Great Flushable Lie. Why There Is No Such Thing As A “Flushable” Wipe.
- The Most Overpriced Plumbing “Fixes” In The UK
- The Most Googled Plumbing Problems By City Revealed
All these work because they’re widely relatable and spark curiosity. You can’t help but click to learn more.
That’s exactly what you want!
The important part is that you combine your own personal story, data or information with a newsworthy angle.
If you’re struggling to come up with ideas, go to ChatGPT and use this prompt:
I am creating a digital PR campaign for my business in the [topic] space. Give me 10 unique newsworthy ideas that will 100% work for a digital PR link building campaign. They should naturally spark curiosity, be highly relevant right now, be controversial from traditional thinking, story-driven and still fun. For each angle, provide a brief overview and explain why it works.
Here’s the response from ChatGPT:
Cool, right?
Journalists love stories that challenge assumptions, reveal surprising data or confirm what people already suspect but can’t prove. And so do their readers.
Got a good topic? Write the content and publish it on your website.
Add relevant:
- Images
- Tables
- Graphics
- Charts
- Call out boxes
- Bullet points
This will bring the content to life and make it more engaging.
Reach Out To Journalists
Build a list of targeted journalists using:
- X
Find journalists who have covered stories similar to yours in the past. If they’ve covered a similar story before, they’re more likely to do it again.
The perfect digital PR pitch is less than 80 words: • Introduce yourself and your business • Highlight your main finding • Provide a couple of newsworthy angles • Link to your post
That’s it! Journalists are busy and receive hundreds of emails every week from people trying to get them to cover their story.
Your outreach email needs to be straight to the point while still getting their attention. The better you do that, the more links you’ll get.
Digital PR takes time, and you’ll often need to send a couple of follow-up emails to make sure the journalists actually see your email.
The good news is that once you have a great story, it’s all about outreach. You don’t need to create any new content to win high-value backlinks.
Pro Tip: Most journalists don’t respond to your emails, even when they use your story. Make sure you have a way of tracking the links you get with a tool like Ahrefs.
Here’s the truth:
Digital PR is the hardest strategy on the list. Compiling a great digital PR piece is hard and there are no guarantees.
But the links that you get from it give a competitive advantage that is very hard to replicate. One great story can earn more authority in a week than your competitors will get all year!
4. Create Linkable Assets
A linkable asset is a unique piece of content or tool that naturally attracts backlinks because writers, journalists, site owners and bloggers need it as a reference.
This calculator on Mayo Clinic got 918 referring domains linking to it!
This is my secret weapon for getting natural quality backlinks without doing outreach.
Sounds too good to be true?
Think about it like this…
Every time a writer makes a claim, references a statistic or wants to prove a point – they need a source to back up what they’re saying.
A linkable asset is simply about creating the content that becomes a source or reference. That’s the goal.
Simple, right?
Choose Your Linkable Asset
Two types of linkable assets that consistently earn backlinks:
- Statistics Hub Pages – Curated list of relevant statistics on a specific topic.
- Free Tools & Calculators – Simple web-based tools or calculators that solve a specific problem.
The good news is that AI makes creating both of these assets way easier.
Here’s what you need to do…
Choose the type of linkable asset you want to create first. I’ve found that statistics hub pages are the easiest if this is your first time.
Next, do keyword research.
Open Ahrefs, and search for your niche keyword plus the modifier:
For statistics pages: • topic + statistics • topic + trends • topic + stats • topic + data
For interactive tools and calculators: • topic + tool • topic + calculator • task + tool • task + calculator • how to calculate [metric]
Look for keywords that have 100+ monthly searches per month, and you can realistically rank for based on your own domain rating.
The lower the difficulty, the faster you will earn links.
Spend some time doing keyword research and identifying statistics pages or tools you could create.
How To Create Statistics Pages
Here’s where AI speeds everything up…
Use ChatGPT’s Deep Research feature to compile a list of 60-80 statistics and order them under relevant headings.
Here’s the prompt:
"Compile 60-80 statistics about [YOUR TOPIC] from 2023-2025 with source URLs and dates. For each statistic provide: (1) The exact statistic with specific numbers, (2) The source name and publication, (3) The year published/collected, (4) A 1-2 sentence 'Why this matters' commentary explaining significance. Group statistics into logical categories/themes. Focus on frequently cited, surprising, or particularly useful statistics."
It will take about 5-10 minutes, and ChatGPT will come back with a comprehensive list of statistics in minutes:
Now the important part…
Make sure you manually check the source URL for each statistic ChatGPT has provided. It’s not uncommon for it to hallucinate and make things up.
Now write the content, add charts and graphics to bring it to life. If you need more help with this process, check out my complete statistics hub page tutorial.
How To Create A Free Tool
You can build a powerful, interactive web-based tool with AI in minutes.
The best models are:
My personal favourite is Claude because it’s the best model for coding.
Open Claude, start a new chat and select the Opus model.
Before you start any project, it’s important to map out a comprehensive scope, right?
It’s no different for AI. Use this prompt:
"Design a [calculator/grader/tool] for [PURPOSE] that helps users [GOAL]. Provide: (1) Required inputs with field types and validation rules, (2) Formula/logic step by step, (3) Output format and display, (4) 3 example scenarios with inputs and expected outputs, (5) Landing page structure with H1, H2s, FAQs for SEO, (6) Features that would differentiate from existing alternatives. Make it achievable as an MVP."
This will force Claude to create a complete brief of the tool before it starts to build. Then it will automatically build out the tool.
This is how my mortgage calculator turned out:
Pretty cool, right?
That was just one prompt.
The last step is to simply take the HTML code and paste it into your webpage. That’s all there is to it. You now have a full, interactive, powerful web tool on your site.
Want the full step-by-step process? Read the complete interactive tool guide.
Pro Tip: Build 3-7 initial links to the tool or statistics page you’ve created to boost rankings and page authority. That will help the page rank quicker and start earning links naturally.
Need help with the initial links? Get our team at LinksThatRank to build them for you.
5. Broken Link Building
Broken link building is when you identify a broken link on someone else’s site and offer your page as a replacement link. You’re doing them a favour by cleaning up their broken link and getting a juicy backlink in return.
Win-win.
The truth is that every website has broken links.
Pages get deleted, and content gets moved around without proper redirects. Most site owners don’t even realise they have broken links which are impacting their SEO.
An Ahrefs link rot study showed that 66.5% of links to websites have become dead over the past nine years. That's your opportunity.
Find Broken Link Opportunities
List out all of your top SEO competitors. You’re essentially going to steal your competitor’s top links that are currently linking to a dead page.
Created your list?
For this next step, you will need a broken link checker tool like Ahrefs.
Type in a competitor’s website, click on the Best by links report, filter for “404 not found” pages and sort the report by Referring domains from highest to lowest.
What you will see now is a list of broken pages on your competitor’s website that have backlinks pointing at them.
That means those backlinks are pointing at broken pages.
You now have two options:
- Find a relevant page on your site to suggest as an alternative
- Create a new piece of content that you can pitch with
Either way, you now have a legitimate, helpful reason to reach out.
How To Pitch
Use a tool like Hunter.io to find the owner’s email address quickly.
Reach out to them and let them know about the broken link, where it is on the page and suggest your content as a natural replacement.
Keep the email short and helpful. Your goal is to come across as one website owner helping another website owner.
The more relevant your replacement page is to the broken link, the higher your chances of winning it. In my experience, most website owners are happy you reached out.
6. Skyscraper Technique 2.0
The original skyscraper technique was simple.
Find great content in your niche with tons of backlinks. Then create something even better and reach out to everyone linking to the original post.
It still works great.
But Brian Dean levelled up this technique with the Skyscraper 2.0 strategy.
The difference?
Focus on user intent. Google and AI’s number one goal is to keep their users happy by helping them get to their answer as quickly as possible.
The content that ranks the best on Google and gets cited in AI search like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews isn’t always the best…
It’s often just the one that matches the search intent. That’s what makes Skyscraper 2.0 so effective.
How To Implement The Skyscraper 2.0
The Skyscraper technique hangs on identifying content that naturally attracts links quickly.
That’s the easy part.
Spend a few minutes looking for great content on your competitors’ sites or websites in a similar niche that have hundreds of backlinks.
Use Ahrefs or Semrush to verify the number of links and the types of links each piece of content has.
This is important because you are going to replicate this piece of content and make it better.
Now, take the primary target keyword of the content and use this prompt to identify the search intent:
“What is the search intent behind the keyword [your keyword]? What format, depth and angle would best satisfy someone searching for this term?”
ChatGPT will tell you exactly what the search intent of the keyword is:
I also recommend Googling the keyword to look at the top-ranking pages.
You want to understand: • What format are the top-ranking results using? (listicle, guide, case study, comparison) • What level of expertise are they targeting? • What sub-topics are they all covering that you must include? • What are the content gaps that you could cover? • What points have they not covered well?
This information is gold for comprehensively answering the search intent. It’s the difference between content that earns links for years versus content that gets ignored.
Got the search intent?
Create an even better piece of content on the same topic:
- Cover the topic comprehensively
- Answer search intent quickly
- Use short sentences, paragraphs and plenty of examples
- Add visual elements like images, graphics, charts, tables and call-out boxes
- Make it easy to scan with optimised H2 and H3 subheadings
Don’t forget to optimise for AI search and LLMs to increase the visibility and ultimately win more natural backlinks.
The last step is to simply reach out to each website linking to your competitor’s piece of content and pitch yours. Don’t be pushy.
Let the website owner know about the content, explain briefly why it’s more useful to their readers and make it as easy as possible to swap the link.
The approach is a website owner helping another website owner.
If you’ve done a great job with your content, just securing a few links should be enough to push it to the top of Google’s organic search results.
Once it ranks, it becomes a linkable asset that naturally attracts links.
7. Convert Unlinked Brand Mentions
Unlinked brand mentions are when a website mentions your brand online but doesn’t link to your site.
This is one of the most passive ways to get backlinks that every website owner should be taking advantage of.
Think about it…
Every time someone mentions your brand online without a link to you, that’s a free backlink waiting to be claimed.
How To Find Unlinked Mentions
There are two ways to do this:
- Find current unlinked mentions online
- Set up a free Google Alert when your brand is mentioned
I’ll show you how to do both.
Head over to Google and use the following searches:
Search operators for unlinked mentions: • "your brand name" -site:yourwebsite.com • "your brand name" -site:yourwebsite.com -site:twitter.com -site:facebook.com -site:linkedin.com • "your product name" -site:yourwebsite.com • "your brand name" "according to" -site:yourwebsite.com
This will bring up a list of results that mention your brand but haven’t linked to you.
It might take you a while to comb through all of the results and find the unlinked mentions. But it’s worth the effort.
Once you’ve found an unlinked brand mention, reach out to the site owner with a friendly email thanking them for the mention and asking if they’d be open to adding a link.
Most website owners just initially forgot, so they’re happy for the reminder.
Manual searches are a great way to find existing mentions. But what about new brand mentions going forward?
That’s where Google Alerts comes in.
Head over to Google Alerts and create an alert for:
- Your website name
- Your website URL
- Your brand name
- Product names
If you have a personal brand online, it’s worth setting up an alert for your name as well. I have Google Alerts set up for Matthew Woodward, and it has helped me secure a bunch of unlinked mentions I wouldn’t have otherwise known about.
Cool, right?
You’ll now get an email every time your brand is mentioned online. It takes just a few seconds to check if it’s been linked.
Unlinked brand mentions are one of the easiest ways to get more quality backlinks for your website.
8. Publish Original Research & Surveys
Ready for a more advanced technique?
Original research is when you survey your audience, collect unique data and publish your findings.
PEW Research got 1,200 referring domains with this survey:
The difference to statistics hub pages is that you own the data. You create a new data set that nobody else has, which makes you the primary source.
As journalists, writers and bloggers need your data for their content, they link to you.
Find An Interesting Newsworthy Angle
This is where most people get it wrong…
It’s not just about the data. It’s also about the angle and story behind the data.
Ask yourself these questions:
- What assumptions about my industry could I test?
- What trend could I quantify with data?
- What questions does my audience constantly ask?
If you’re finding it hard to come up with a topic, Google your primary industry keyword and look at the People Also Ask section.
You can also look at Google News, Google Trends and even ask ChatGPT.
Design And Run Your Survey
Use ChatGPT to create your survey instantly:
I want to create a mini-study about [ADD YOUR TOPIC] that generates 5-10 citable findings for journalists. Provide: (1) Methodology (2) Specific survey questions or data points to collect, (3) Analysis plan for meaningful findings, (4) Key findings framework with headline-ready statements journalists would cite, (5) Visualisation suggestions for shareability. Make it achievable within a short timeframe.
You’ll get a result like this:
Trim the questions down and add some of your own. At the end, you want just 8-10 questions that will provide unique insights.
Ready to run the survey?
Use a tool like Google Forms, SurveyMonkey or Typeform to host the survey.
Then, post on your social media pages and send an email out to your list. Aim for about 300-500+ responses so that your data is statistically relevant.
Our team has found that adding a simple incentive to those who complete the survey means you get more results.
But what if you don’t have an audience?
Use a survey service like Pollfish to collect the data.
Expect to pay about $0.80 to $1.00 per response.
Use ChatGPT to extract the most newsworthy findings instantly once the survey data is in.
Create An Engaging Results Page
Now for the most important part.
Structure the page correctly:
- Engaging title that captures people’s attention
- Introduction with the biggest statistics and findings
- Key statistics/insights section that is easy for AI models to summarise
- Short methodology of how you collected data
- List each finding for each question down the page
Don’t underestimate the importance of creating a title that gets people’s attention.
Your title will determine how many links your page earns. Get it wrong, and nobody bothers to click. But get it right, and journalists can’t help but reference it.
What does a good title look like?
Compare these two:
❌ Small Businesses Are Using TikTok For Marketing
✅ 67% of Small Businesses Spend More on TikTok Ads Than Google Ads
Which one would you click?
Make sure you also add graphs and charts to bring all the data to life. The more visually appealing your content is, the more it will get shared.
Original research takes longer to execute because of the number of steps involved. But the powerful links you can earn from massive industry and media websites is worth it.
Want the full breakdown? Check out my complete original research tutorial.
Pro Tip: Optimise your results page for a target keyword like [topic] + statistics. This improves the visibility in both the Google search results and AI LLMs, meaning your page will naturally attract links automatically.
9. Resource Page Link Building
Resource pages are a curated list of helpful tools, guides, products and articles that website owners recommend to their audience.
Every niche has them, which means every resource page is an opportunity for backlinks waiting to happen.
The concept is straightforward…
Find relevant resource pages in your niche and ask to be included. It’s that simple.
How To Find Relevant Resource Pages
Head over to Google and search:
Search operators for resource pages: • Inurl:resources + keyword • Inurl:resource + keyword • Keyword + useful resources • Keyword + helpful resources • inurl:useful + keyword • Keyword + useful links
Now comb through the search results and list down every relevant resource page you find in a spreadsheet.
Don’t want to do this manually?
Use the ChatGPT AI Agent to find them for you using this prompt:
Find 15 resource pages that I could realistically get a link from, relevant to my niche - [your industry]. My website is [website]. List the name of the site, resource page URL and why they are a good opportunity for me to reach out to.
It will take just a few minutes for the agent to find relevant resource pages. It doesn’t get much easier than that.
Get Listed On The Resource Pages
Asking to be listed on a resource page is easier said than done.
I recommend a two-pronged approach:
- Send the initial outreach email (that doesn’t ask for anything)
- Then pivot to the pitch, asking to be included
The key with the initial email is to offer a genuine compliment. Focus on the relationship first, then the link later.
I’ve also found that offering a collaboration where you give them something and they list you on their resource page leads to higher success rates.
The more site owners you ask, the more links you’ll get.
10. Competitor Backlink Analysis & Replication
Competitor backlink analysis means reverse engineering your competitor’s best backlinks and replicating them on your own site.
Here’s why it works:
If a site is willing to link to your competitor’s, they’re likely to link to you too. All you need is the right approach.
This is one of my favourite link building strategies.
If you have a small budget or are pressed for time, this is one of the best ways to get more backlinks for your website.
How To Uncover Your Competitor’s Backlinks
Start by creating a list of your top 5 SEO competitors.
The best way to uncover their entire backlink profiles and link building strategy is with Ahrefs.
Choose one competitor, search it on Ahrefs, and click the Backlinks report.
Add these filters: • Dofollow • Linktype: In-content • Minimum DR: 20
Sort by highest DR to lowest.
Ahrefs will show you every dofollow link above DR20 in your competitor’s backlink profile. That’s literally hundreds of link building opportunities in seconds.
Export the list in a CSV file. Now all you have to do is replicate them…
Replicate Your Competitor’s Best Backlinks
Here’s why I love this strategy:
Your competitors have done all the hard work for you.
Go through the list of links and look at-
- What page is the backlink pointing to?
- What is the anchor text?
- Why has the website linked to your page?
The main thing you want to understand is why the site has linked to your page. Once you understand that, you’ll know how to replicate it.
For example, if it’s a guest post, you can simply reach out and pitch your own guest post. If it’s a resource page, you can reach out and get your website listed on the resource page.
Simple, right?
This strategy works because your competitors have already proven that getting a backlink is possible. You just have to do what they did to get a link from the site as well.
The competitor backlink analysis strategy is one of the best white hat link building strategies. You’re essentially winning backlinks by following your competitor’s blueprint.
11. Podcast & Interview Link Building
Appearing as a guest on a podcast helps you earn more backlinks and grow your business brand.
Most podcasters add a link to their guest in their show notes and publish a piece of content online to go with the podcast.
That means with one interview, you could build two great backlinks that increase authority, demonstrate experience and prove expertise. Those are three big signals that Google and AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok, Gemini and Claude all look for.
Find Relevant Podcasts In Minutes With ChatGPT
You could manually find podcasts using Google.
But the free version of ChatGPT does this in seconds. This is the prompt:
Find 25 smaller podcasts in the [your niche] space that regularly feature guest experts. Include the podcast name, website URL and the type of guests they typically invite.
Here is the list that ChatGPT created:
Now the next part is important…
Look through each podcast on the list. You're specifically looking for: • The type of guests they feature • What content they talk about • Whether they post podcast episodes on their site
You only want to go on podcasts that cover the topics you’re an expert on AND regularly publish the episode on their website.
If you don’t have a large personal brand, you might have more success going on smaller podcasts. They’re often looking for guest experts to interview.
Remember:
Your main goal with being featured on podcasts is to earn quality, relevant backlinks. That means you should prioritise podcasts that post podcast episodes on their actual website – not just in the show notes.
How To Land An Interview
Keep your pitch short, straight to the point and lead with value.
Listen to a couple of the podcasts before you reach out so you have something to reference in your email and understand what will bring value to their audience. That’s the most important part.
Here’s my template to use:
Hey [Name], Hope you're well! I was listening to the [add episode] yesterday and I was wondering if you were looking for any podcast guests at the moment? I've recently just [add interesting point] and thought it might be interesting for your audience. I would also love to discuss it more with you. You can learn more about me here [your URL] and if you're interested, we can put something special together for your audience. Thanks, [Your Name]
Simple, right?
I also recommend following up once if you don’t get a response, but not more than that.
The best thing about using podcasts for link building is that you’re building your brand authority at the same time. One big podcast could result in explosive growth for your business while you also get the backlinks you’re after.
12. Infographic Link Building
Everyone loves infographics.
There is nothing more striking than data that is displayed well. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Good infographics take complex data or topics and turn them into a simple, easy-to-digest visual.
But how do they earn backlinks?
When bloggers, writers and journalists create articles, they often want visuals to make their content more engaging. If your infographic explains the topic better than anything else, they’re usually more than happy to give a backlink in exchange for using it.
One great infographic can earn you dozens of backlinks. The best part is you can put this entire strategy on autopilot.
How To Earn Backlinks With Infographics
The first thing you want to do is to find a topic.
Look at what’s already ranking for your target keyword:
- Is there a lack of visuals on ranking pages?
- Are there complex topics or processes that would be easier to understand with an infographic?
- Are there links to plain text articles that an infographic could replace?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, you’ve found a great topic.
There are two types of infographics you can create: • Data and statistics • Difficult concepts to understand
Both can work, but the research you did first should guide you in choosing the right type.
You don’t need to be a great designer to create great infographics. Use a tool like Canva to create a quality infographic in under an hour.
They have tons of free templates you can use. Simply adjust them for your own use case.
The most important thing is that the infographic makes it easy to understand the concept or data you’re conveying.
Got a great infographic?
Reach out to the sites and blogs in your niche that reference the topic or statistics you created the infographic about. Offer it to them for free in exchange for referencing you as the source.
Want to take this up a level?
Offer to personalise the graphic with their site logo and brand colours. I’ve found that this increases my link conversion rates significantly.
This approach should easily earn you quality backlinks.
But I want to show you how you can put it on autopilot…
Find a piece of relevant content on your site that already ranks and gets traffic. Add the infographic to that page using this embed code generator.
This will create a piece of code like this:
Then other site owners can copy this code and add it to their content. It will automatically display your infographic on their page with a backlink to your site.
That’s how you can take your infographics and start naturally earning backlinks without outreach.
13. Testimonial & Social Proof
Testimonial link building might be one of the most underrated ways to get high-quality backlinks.
Companies love genuine-
- Testimonials
- Social proof
- Reviews
…that they can display on their site. The concept is simple – provide a genuine testimonial or review for a relevant product or service you use in exchange for a backlink.
But here’s the kicker…
Most companies display testimonials on their homepage. The homepage is usually one of the most authoritative pages on any website. That means the links you build from this strategy are extremely authoritative.
How To Get Testimonial Backlinks
The first step is to brainstorm:
- Tools
- Services
- Products
- Websites
- Platforms
That you use on a regular basis. The testimonials you provide should be for products and services you genuinely use. Bonus points if they are in the same niche as you.
Got your list?
Before you spend time creating a testimonial, pitch them the idea. That way you build a relationship first and lead with value.
Keep these things in mind when creating your pitch: • Introduce yourself • Tell them how their tool/product/service has helped you • Include specific results • Ask them if you can put together a testimonial • Keep it simple
The key here is that you are establishing the relationship by getting permission first.
I mean…What brand will say no to that, right?
Once they’ve said yes, create a powerful testimonial that includes:
- What you liked most
- Specific results
- Why you recommend it
Now for the important part…
When you send the testimonial back over, keep the link casual and low-pressure.
You’re not demanding anything. You’re just making it easy for them.
Something like this works perfectly:
“Feel free to add my website alongside my name to boost social proof – [your url]”.
That’s it. You’re framing the link as a benefit to them, not a favour to you.
The testimonial link building strategy works because everyone wins. You give a strong recommendation they can use on their site and in return earn some high-authority links.
14. Reddit & Forum Participation
Reddit ranks everywhere on Google right now.
And they’re regularly cited in AI Overviews too.
And now because Google has signed a deal with Reddit to train the Gemini AI model on Reddit user data – you can be sure that Reddit threads will continue to rank high in the SERPs.
Links from Reddit and forums don’t pass the authority like they used to.
But they do two important things:
- Send positive signals to Google about your brand
- Drive users to your site who actually buy
Because Reddit threads rank so well on Google, they get a lot of organic traffic. Getting your website mentioned in the right thread can open up a new channel of traffic for your business.
How To Build Quality Reddit Links
Here’s the deal:
Reddit moderators can smell spam from a mile away. Get it wrong, and your account will be banned instantly.
Here's how to do it right: • Create an account at least 30 days before dropping links • Write 2-3 quality comments on relevant threads each day • After making 15+ comments, create a post on a relevant subreddit (no link yet) • Continue this process until you have at least a 500 karma score
At that point, you’ve proven yourself to be a reliable account and are ready for the next step.
This is the important part…
Redditors are extremely suspicious about anyone who posts links, so you need to be strategic.
Head over to Google, search for your target keywords and look for ranking Reddit threads.
These are the threads you really want a link from.
Look for a natural opportunity to add value while naturally placing your link in a comment like this.
I cannot state this enough: Be a helpful community member first and link builder second.
You don’t need hundreds of links from Reddit to be successful.
Aim to just get 2-3 relevant links placed in Reddit threads that are ranking in Google. You’ll be surprised at how much impact this will have on your website and business.
15. Strategic Link Exchanges
Link exchanges are when you link to a website and they link back to you. This is called reciprocal linking.
Let me be honest:
Link exchanges sit in a grey area. Google’s guidelines have made it clear that if you’re caught participating in a link exchange, you could get in trouble.
But about 11% of SEOs use link exchanges as one of their primary link building strategies. Why? Simply put - they work.
My recommendation is to use them as an add-on to strategies like guest posts and link inserts – not as your main approach.
This is how you do link exchanges safely.
The A-B-C Link Exchange Strategy
The most common link exchange is 2-way – Site A links to Site B and Site B links back to Site A.
Here’s the problem:
Google can easily detect this pattern. Part of Google’s spam algorithm is specifically designed to identify this kind of thing. Do this too often and you’re simply asking for trouble.
The best strategy?
A three-way link exchange.
Site A links to Site B. Site B links to Site C. Site C links back to Site A.
This pattern is much harder to detect because there is no direct link trail back to you from the website you linked to. It’s a much safer way to build relevant links to your site.
But you still need to be careful.
Using three-way link exchanges too much can still lead to Google’s algorithm picking up the pattern.
Use this as a supplementary way to build a couple of links, not as your primary way of getting backlinks.
How To Set Up An A-B-C Link Exchange
The key to link exchanges is building genuine relationships with site owners in your niche.
Create a list of websites that are in your industry or cover similar topics, but AREN’T direct SEO competitors. These sites will provide highly relevant links, but you’re not directly competing against them for traffic.
Reach out to each site owner with the proposed link exchange.
Your first email should be transparent about what you’re offering and what you’d like in return. You’ll find that link exchanges have a much higher success rate because everyone wins.
Just make sure you keep the exchanges balanced. If you have a DR40 site and you’re linking to a DR 70, the exchange isn’t very balanced, and the other site owner has no real incentive to join in.
Link exchanges can be a powerful addition to your overall link building strategy. Just make sure you understand the risks and take all the precautions needed.
Recommended Tool Stack
Most of the ways I’ve shown you how to get backlinks don’t require a lot of tools.
But I want to show you my team’s tool stack and what we use each tool for.
Paid Tools: • Ahrefs - Backlink analysis, competitor research, broken link finding • Semrush - Keyword gap analysis, outreach prospecting, site audit • Pitchbox - Outreach campaigns and relationship management at scale Free Tools: • LinksThatRank Backlink Blacklist - Check any domain against 60,000+ known PBNs, link farms, and spam networks • ChatGPT - Research, finding target websites, crafting personalised outreach emails • Hunter.io - Add any website and find the owner's email address • Google Alerts - Monitor unlinked brand mentions automatically • Google Search Console - Track which sites link to you and monitor growth
Things To Remember About Link Building
Now you know how to get backlinks for your website.
But before you run off and start building quality links, there are some important things to keep in mind. Get this right, and your links will work harder for you.
Quality Beats Quantity Every Time
One link from a relevant, high authority site does more for your SEO than 50 links from low-quality, spammy websites.
Focus ONLY on building high-quality links.
Here's what to look for: • Relevant links to your website • High-authority links that are DR20 to DR80+ • Natural placements that make sense • Real sites with at least 500+ organic monthly visitors • Links placed into human-verified written content • Optimised, natural anchor text
You can’t fool algorithms anymore.
Google search, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Grok are all very good at assessing the quality of backlinks.
That’s why LinksThatRank has such strict quality control when building links for clients.
It’s also why our clients get results like this:
The more quality links you have, the higher your site will rank and the more AI recommendations you’ll get. Simple as that.
Outreach Takes Patience
The average link building email has an 8.5% response rate. That means you'll likely need to send about 12 emails just to get a response.
And that doesn’t even guarantee you’ll earn a link.
The truth is that it takes time to build links. The strategies above will improve your response rates, but there is no shortcut to consistency.
Be prepared to put in the effort, time and resources required to acquire backlinks consistently.
Don’t have time?
Outsource your link building needs to LinksThatRank. We take care of the links while you focus on building your business.
Budget Realistically
Link building isn’t cheap – whether you do it yourself or outsource to a trusted link building service like LinksThatRank.
You need to factor in:
- Your time
- Cost of tools
- Link placement fees
Most website owners who accept links will charge you directly for the placement. Even with the right approach, it’s not uncommon for website owners to ask anywhere from $150 to $300 to place a link on their website.
The average cost of building a quality guest post link manually is $250 to $400 per link when you factor in everything. And the average small business spends $10,000 annually on link building.
Our link building packages start from just $697 per month with no lock-in contracts, bringing your per link costs down and offering a predictable monthly rate.
Whether you choose to build links yourself or outsource, make sure you’ve budgeted ahead of time.
Wrapping It Up
So there you have it.
15 proven ways to get more quality backlinks for your website. Each strategy will help you acquire backlinks that will boost your results in Google and help you generate more citations in AI search models like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini.
But don’t try to do all 15 at once.
Pick 1 to 2 strategies that you like the most and work at them until you see results. That’s how you get the best results and build a backlink profile that works hard for your site.
Link building is all about consistency. The sites that win are the ones that build a handful of quality links each month.
Want proven backlinks but don’t have the time to build them yourself?
Let our LinksThatRank team build them for you. Every backlink we build is built to the highest standards and passes our 23-point quality control process.
That means you only get links that boost your Google search rankings and help you get more mentions in AI answers.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many backlinks do I need to rank?
The number of links you need to rank depends on your niche, current website authority, target keyword and the level of competition. Smaller, low-competition niches might require just 4-7 links per month, while higher-competition niches may need 15-25+ links per month. The best way to know for sure is to calculate how many backlinks you need based on your target keywords.
How long does it take for backlinks to impact rankings?
Backlinks typically take about 3-10 weeks to see initial impact on rankings, with more significant improvements within 3-6+ months of consistent link building. Our own data shows that clients see initial results within 6 weeks of guest post links being placed and often quicker with link inserts.
Are nofollow links worth building?
Yes, nofollow links are still worth building because Google themselves have said that they treat nofollow links as a hint rather than a direct rule. About 80% of SEO professionals believe that nofollow links still impact rankings. But your main priority should always be dofollow backlinks while treating nofollow backlinks as a bonus.
Is buying backlinks safe?
All forms of link building technically sit outside Google’s guidelines. That is why it’s essential to only build high-quality natural backlinks to white-hat standards. When outsourcing link building, make sure that the service you choose has a strict quality control process that moves your rankings forward without putting your site at risk.
What’s the best link building strategy for beginners?
The best link building strategies for beginners are unlinked brand mentions, creating linkable assets (like tools, statistics pages and original research), guest posts and link inserts. These methods build credibility, authority and trust, which is essential for long-term SEO growth.
