Where you can find backlinks to your website with Majestic

How can I get backlinks to my website? There is no simple universal answer to this question: like most things in life, it depends. Where you can find backlinks to your website strongly depends on your strategy.

Backlinks and SEO go hand in hand

Backlinks are good for SEO. An excellent backlink will significantly boost website rankings.

What you will learn about where to find backlinks for your website

Before leaving you to this article on where you can find backlinks for your website, we would like to take a moment to thank you and hope you have enjoyed these articles on backlinks and link building for SEO. We have reached the end of this short course on backlink basics, and hope you have enjoyed it and found these articles useful and inspirational. By now, you have understood that link building is a complex and articulated activity. SEO is an art that combines creativity, strategy, data processing, intuition, experimentation, implementation and determination to rank for relevant queries on the search engines.

In this article, we review everything you have learned to get you started on your first link building project and ultimately find backlinks for your website.

There is a lot to do

We can break down the Link Building process into three steps. We are going to show you how to organise your link building activity using the Majestic SEO tools.

  1. The Workflow
    2.

In this article, we examine a typical workflow used in link building for SEO. Every link building campaign feeds off sound, accurate, and up-to-date data. We can derive good information only if our data is reliable. In this set of articles, you have learned where to find the data using Majestic. Now we'll put it all into practice to find backlinks to your website. We'll show you which link building tools for SEO work best and how you can use them to create a list of highly targeted prospects.

  1. Finding the right prospects
    2.

With Majestic as your backlink checker for SEO, finding link building prospects is fast and easy. You can have hundreds of prospects to work on in a matter of hours. But Link building for SEO is far from a mere technical activity. The challenge to find backlinks for your website is in the networking. Review the websites you find with Majestic and identify the most relevant link building opportunities, then create the conditions for a link to happen. We'll also explain the importance of the human factor in the following paragraphs of this article.

  1. Implementing the strategy
    2.

We conclude this article with an example to help you with your link building for SEO and find backlinks for your website.

Start with a list of keywords

Keywords and queries are where you need to start. Here's a tip. Access the data in Google Search Console (which will soon become Google Search Central), and download all your keywords. Sort them and identify your top priority keywords for which you would like to rank. Use them to query the search engines. See which websites are ranking above you for those queries and who is ranking top 10 (on the first page). Create a worksheet in excel for each query and make a list of the URLs that are enjoying top rankings. In our previous article on how to perform a backlink analysis, we illustrated the entire process and made use of pivot tables which are extremely useful to sort and analyse keywords.

Be careful when you choose keywords to analyse the results on search engines. Avoid generic terms. You're likely to find a lot of "big boys" ranking highly. In our experience, it gets complicated to find backlinks for your website on flagship portals or immediate neighbours. In fact, under normal circumstances, it is unlikely they will ever get back to you. Even more so, if you're a tiny website or a brand new portal moving your first steps online. In this case, you don't have a reputation, and nobody knows you, so it's pointless in flying high at such a very early stage. It's simply too difficult. For these reasons, you should focus your attention on specific topics or subjects which are relevant to your business: see how search engines use theme-focused keywords to create long-tailed SERPs. It's here that you will find smaller relevant websites.

Harvest the SERPs

Copy the URLs from the results pages of search engines. Take the most important ones. You should make a note of the top ten or fifteen for each query. Review the URLs carefully and avoid monster websites, such as BBC or similar. Such websites are in the major league, and it's highly unlikely they or their close-by "link neighbours" would have an interest in speaking with you. They have a lot of people soliciting them every day!

Now take the individual lists you created and run them through the Bulk Backlink Checker. This feature in Majestic provides immediate feedback on the importance of the domains and provides topically relevant websites for you to choose from, based on their trust flow.

Review the websites

We have done all the preliminary work. We found a list of websites which are closely related - they look good and are a good fit topic-wise. So what's the next step - should we send them a request to exchange links? Well, no - although the temptation to immediately reach out my be strong, you should resist!!

First of all, we need to review the websites one-by-one. Our objective in this phase is to "scout" these websites - we must explore them to understand what makes them "tick". People make websites, and there are people operating websites. Ultimately you want to connect with the people when there is empathy. You're looking for a real connection between people. You'll want to make sure it's a "real website" with people who work on the content and answer emails.

As we mentioned in a previous article ("How backlinks can help or harm your website"), one of the telltale signs a website is part of a Private Blog Network (PBN) is an empty or missing contact page. Search and find all possible contact information - the more contact details you can find, the higher the chances that the website is authentic. You will have discovered a website managed by people: in other words, you're creating a networking opportunity which will ultimately source an opportunity to find backlinks for your website.

Concentrate your efforts on building a relationship

For now, forget your primary objective (a backlink from that website). In this phase, it's all about engaging with the people. Now you need to stand in their shoes and think like them:

  • What can you do for this website?
  • Reading their articles or product pages, can you identify an opportunity to author quality content?
  • Which format would be a best fit?
  • Is there something you could create that would resonate with their readers or clients?
  • Can you think of an article to author/co-author?
  • How can you help their audience? Perhaps by sharing your experience and/or expertise?

If you're an authority on the subject, you can make a difference.

Start a conversation

At this point, you know all about this website. You are prepared: you know their focus and audience. You have an idea to propose that will interest them. This conversation is not about you, rather what you can do for them.

All these activities amount to a significant amount of time and effort in your link building strategy, yet it's still not time to ask for a backlink. In fact, in many cases, it's best not to ask for a backlink at all! At this point, it isn't easy to foresee what could happen. It's impossible to think of and describe every possible scenario. What you should focus on in your link building journey is engaging with your counterpart. Aim at being helpful and provide meaningful support - they will appreciate useful efforts that will add value to their website. Stay focused on them - it's all about them. We know from experience that people will reciprocate and reward you with the recognition you deserve: a backlink or a citation. A citation is a mention of your name, brand or website. You may tend to frown upon a citation - after all, a citation is not a link - or is it? There is evidence that a detailed citation can boost rankings just like a backlink. So don't underestimate the power of a citation from a quality website.

You might have a great article to complement a blog post, and a backlink to your website could come natural. Other times, your content could work better if integrated into their website. Interacting with your prospect will strongly depend on the circumstances and determine the outcome of your link building project. It's going to be up to you and your judgement. Understand the environment and act consequently.

Find more potential partners and strengthen your backlink profile

Workflow to identify where you can get backlinks

Before moving on and reviewing an example on how to find backlinks for your website, let's take a look at the process we have explained. We have not mentioned the last step to increase your list of potential backlink prospects by finding similar theme-focused websites.

Related sites are available on Site Explorer and provide a list of domains which most often appear near the links to a domain. Majestic provides a list which is processed to maintain topical relevance, avoiding backlinks from big websites - for example Google, Facebook and Twitter to mention the biggest and most famous. In related site lists we may also suppress content hosts such as AWS, to give you a meaningful list of websites. With related sites we analyse backlinks that are nearby because the surrounding content often provides an accurate list of competitors and similar sites. These lists can further expand your analysis to understand the relationship of a website with a keyword.

With this functionality, you will increase your list of prospects. Use the rinse and repeat approach. Take the URLs in your shortlist and use the Majestic Related Sites function to find additional link building opportunities with topical trust flow affinity.

An Example

Before concluding, let's review an example of link building for SEO for a website in the shipping and handling industry.

Where do you start SEO link building?

The blank sheet syndrome can kick in and elevate stress, so here's an example. Consider a client who operates a service in logistics and merchandise shipping: a courier. Let's consider a scenario where they request an SEO link building service for national and international shipping of parcels, documents and pallets of merchandise. Where should you start looking? Well, let's start by investigating those business segments that touch express shipping. Your first step in the right direction to find backlinks for your website could be an analysis to identify business areas of interest related to shipping goods. Topics of interest to a general public are an excellent starting point - for example:

  • Many people search for how to package fragile items. We are all concerned about the integrity of our parcels and get upset if, when we received a parcel, it has been damaged due to careless handling by the courier.
  • Typical delivery times are also a frequently researched topic online.
    • What delivery standards do we expect from couriers?
    • Which courier assures overnight delivery?
    • Who offers same-day delivery? Is it available where I live?
  • Which couriers are the most reliable?
  • Which courier features the cheapest service for my destination?
  • I need to ship a parcel to Mexico - which documents do I need?
  • I am starting an e-commerce business with international clients - which courier should I partner with?
  • Where can I find couriers who offer home or office pickup service?
Topics for SEO Link Building for an express courier

You will learn this and more by researching your topic online and talking to the client workforce. For example, you could speak to drivers who deliver parcels: they could have some interesting stories to tell and inspire content creation which in turn you could use for guest posting. But there are also people answering questions at the help desk or working in administration… as you can see, there are many different categories and a wealth of inspiring situations from which to choose.

With this information at hand and some preliminary research you'll identify new keywords for more research and discover other keywords with a different intent.

Conclusions

In this article, we have described an SEO Link Building procedure to help identify where you can find backlinks for your website. Link building for SEO is challenging. We find this quote very useful in the context of this article because link building is about relations and networking - you need to interact with people and go beyond a cold, sterile Email. It's about connecting with people. Networking is the name of the game and will bring you backlinks.

"Most people never pick up the phone. Most people never call and ask. And that's what separates sometimes the people who do things from those who just dream about them. You gotta act. You gotta be willing to fail. You gotta be willing to crash and burn. With people on the phone or starting a company, if you're afraid you'll fail, you won't get very far." - Steve Jobs

Now you know the underlying principles, and you have the tools of the trade - good luck and happy Link Building!

How to Perform a Backlink Analysis