When it comes to acquiring high-quality backlinks, I get it -- you’ve been told over and over again that you have to guest post.

And as you know, guest posting takes time. A lot of it.

But, while guest posting is an awesome way of acquiring top notch backlinks, it’s not the only way. Moreover, to stay one step ahead of your rivals, you need to expand your link building efforts so you have a variety of strategies to rely on.

In this post, I'm going to highlight a few effective strategies. Let’s take a look at six ways to acquire high-quality backlinks without guest posting.

1. Create Skyscraper Content

Maybe you’ve already heard about the skyscraper technique. If you haven’t, it’s when you take an existing piece of well-performing content and make it better.

Let me explain that in a bit more depth...

Let’s say I want to create an article about the best SEO tools on the planet. The problem is that this type of article has been done many times before. So, what’s going to make mine so unique that people will link out to it and share it without me having to guest post?

Well, I take a look at BuzzSumo to find related articles that are already performing well in terms of engagement.

Then, I give the best one a read through. My goal is to look for weaknesses and areas it could be improved.

Next, I fill in the gaps and create an article that I aim to make 10X better.

In other words, instead of creating an SEO tools article that contains, say, twenty tools, I create one that contains more than 200 tools.

If an article is better than the other options it’s almost guaranteed to receive links and shares, as long as it's promoted properly.

The reason the skyscraper technique works so well is that you already know a certain type of article performs well. In fact, it's often evergreen content that never goes away. You just need to make sure yours is a lot better than everyone else’s.

2. Create Content Using the Right Formats

Content matters, but format matters just as much.

What do I mean by this?

Long-form and short-form are two content formats, and long-form content gets shared more than short-form.

Also, videos posted to social media get shared 1,200 percent more than text and images combined.

Are you using the right formats?

If not, it’s time to start if you want to acquire more high-quality backlinks without the effort of guest posting.

The type of content formats that generate lots of shares and links are:

• Infographics
• Videos
• ‘How to’ blog posts
• List posts
• Quizzes

It’s also a good idea to use numbers -- cold, hard data and facts that back up your points. In fact, that’s what makes infographics so amazing. They’re images that contain a ton of data in one single, eye-catching post.

3. Acquire Links Via Webinars

Okay for this one, you will need to create a webinar.

But, the main question you might have right now is, "are webinars still relevant in 2019?"

You and Co did some research, and found that webinars are still relevant -- but that you need to come up with the right type. These include educational webinars, panel webinars and product webinars.

As long as you come up with the right content and properly promote your webinar, you’ll get a lot of people watching.

Here are a few ways to use your webinars to generate more links:

• Create a high-quality webinar that’s of massive value to people (this should really go without saying).
• Add your webinar signup and download page to your website and make it easy for people to share.
• Add the description and information about your webinar to your website and make this easy for people to share, as well.
• Link to any useful sources, such as infographics, resources and guides, and again make these easy for people to share.
• At the end of your webinar, thank people for attending and mention your URL.

4. Capture Broken Links

Broken link building is a really old but golden trick that will help you acquire more backlinks without guest posting.

The premise couldn’t be simpler -- find broken links on high Domain Authority websites and then make an offer to the webmaster to replace them with one of your links.

Naturally, you need to target relevant articles and you need to make sure you have quality content for them to link to. Otherwise, no one will replace one link for yours.

Let’s say I’ve written an article about designing an effective sales funnel for e-commerce companies, and I discover that a well-performing guide to creating a marketing strategy for e-commerce businesses originally linked out to another article about building sales funnels, but that the link has expired or displays a 404-error.

I then approach the webmaster, point out the broken link, and offer to replace it with my own.

It’s very likely that the webmaster will accept. For one thing, they’ll really appreciate that I’ve pointed the broken link out to them. Second, why wouldn’t they want to link to a high-quality piece of content?

To make your life easier, you can use a broken link builder to help you out.

5. Create Topic Clusters

Ever heard of topic clustering? It’s a an effective SEO tactic that helps you create better, more linkable content.

The premise is this -- you pick an umbrella topic, such as “how to start blogging” and start by creating a main -- or pillar page -- for this topic. For example, it could be an in-depth guide to the ways of how to make money by blogging.

Then, you create a series of sub-topic pages that all link back to your pillar page. These subtopic pages are shorter and are all related to your main topic.

You use topic clustering to boost your internal linking, while creating more quality content that others can share and link to.

6. Become the Master of Promotion

Are you already promoting your content?

If so, how awesome are you at promoting it?

See, it doesn’t matter how great your content is if you are not good at getting it out there. If you can get better at promoting your content (this will require that you dedicate more time to it), you will see better results.

Do the things that your competition isn't doing and perhaps allocate more of your budget to the promotion side of things. Do what you can to be seen and heard on the right channels and the links will come.

Conclusion

Acquiring high quality backlinks can be a real challenge. While guest posting is one surefire method, there are lots of other ways. Hopefully, you now have a better idea of what options are out there for you to explore. Regardless of what methods you decide to use, don’t forget to monitor your results and make the right changes going forward.

Image: Pexels

Author Bio

Kas Szatylowicz

Kas Szatylowicz is a social media manager and outreach coordinator at Nightwatch, a search visibility tool of the next generation.

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