A step-by-step guide to free backlinks: build links without spending money. Learn the proven tactics that top contractors use to grow their businesses.

Keith Eneix

on Ecommerce •

January 22nd, 2021

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Search engines generate a huge percentage of the traffic on the web. However, these platforms take a massive collection of variables into consideration when calculating the ranking positions whenever a search is performed.

Ensuring that these variables increase your chances of success is crucial, but verifying that only quality sites link back to your content can make or break your efforts. Fortunately, you can implement a variety of techniques to help you collect free backlinks from reliable sources.

Backlinks have been an essential search engine optimization for contractors variable for some time.

Even though the exact algorithms that search engines use to calculate positions aren’t public, we know that Google and other leading search platforms evaluate the sites that link to your pages in order to determine how well your content will rank.

But getting the right websites to link back to your content isn’t always easy, even if you always produce high-quality materials.

In this article, we’ll go over the definition of a backlink and discuss the importance of getting the right pages to link to your site.

Additionally, we’ll go over tips on getting free backlinks and go over the best platforms to aid your link building efforts.

And, if you need help with developing a custom link building strategy, the professional SEO Fannit team is here to help.

What Is a Backlink?

Before diving any deeper, it’s important to define a backlink and explain why these affect your online marketing efforts. In its simplest form, a backlink is created when a page contains a hyperlink that takes users to content located on an external site.

The website that contains the link is called the referring domain, while the site that received the traffic is called the target page or URL. Backlinks can also be called inbound links or incoming links, but these terms refer to the same scenario described above.

When Google and other platforms evaluate a website, they analyze its content, architecture, and backlink profile. The backlink profile refers to the list of links that send traffic to a specific page.

For example, pages that have a lot of inbound links from high-quality sources have quality backlinks. If a site doesn’t have many backlinks or only receives visitors from low-quality sites, then it has a poor backlink profile that needs to be improved.

There are dozens of tools you can use to identify the sites that are linking to your content, some of which are free.

Remember, if you’re considering working with an automated free backlinks platform, make sure that it’s developed by reliable providers.

More helpful reading:

Why Are Backlinks Important?

Digital marketing has become one of the most popular forms of advertising out there.

That said, many business owners and beginner marketers focus solely on content without considering the technical elements that influence search engine rankings.

This is the reason why many companies struggle to generate good results from their SEO marketing strategy.Content is and will always be king, but you also need to focus on improving the technical areas of your site, specifically your backlinks.

Examining and improving your site’s backlinks can have a great impact on your rankings. This means that if you manage to find high-quality backlinks at no cost, you’ll give the rest of your marketing efforts a boost while saving your resources for other parts of your campaign.

Some of the benefits of improving your backlinks include:

Higher SEO Rankings

The single most important benefit of improving your backlinks is that this practice boosts your SEO.

If you focus on link building, which are the steps you take to collect more backlinks and boost your organic rankings, your pages will gradually get higher positions whenever a relevant search is performed.

Link building has a positive impact on SEO because Google assumes that websites link to platforms with similar content, in terms of both topic and quality.

For example, if you have an online store that receives backlinks from Nike and similar brands, Google will reward you with much higher rankings.

However, remember that the opposite is also true.

So, if you are getting a lot of backlinks from low-quality referring domains, your site will have a hard time cracking the first page, even with the right content creation system in place.

More Helpful Reading:

Common SEO Mistakes
How to improve SEO

More Referral Traffic to Your Site

One of the most underrated benefits of having awesome backlinks is that these can significantly increase the amount of referral traffic that goes to your site. Sites with a high domain rating tend to attract a high number of visitors.

Even if a small percentage of these users click on a backlink that takes them to your site, you can easily double or triple the number of users you get on a regular basis.The best part of getting a lot of referral traffic from authoritative sites is that these visitors are often ultra engaged, which makes it easier to convert them into leads.

Remember, users are constantly looking for solutions online. If you manage to get a backlink from a relevant platform, there’s a higher chance you’ll end up with visitors that are actively interested in learning more about your industry and hiring your company.

Boost in Brand Visibility and Authority

Building a better link building profile can give your site better rankings, which literally makes your brand more visible.

Consumers are used to picking companies from the first page of Google because they know the search giant provides results based on relevance and quality. If your site is among the first results, consumers will start noticing you and feel more compelled to explore your site and evaluate your content.

The variables that affect your SEO ranking are all connected in one way or another. Better SEO positions and improved visibility increases the amount of traffic you get from search platforms.

As long as you develop super high-quality, engaging content, a larger number of visitors will also boost the authority metrics of your site.Instead of simply being a company with great SEO, you’ll become one of the thought leaders in your industry.

Which, in turn, makes you a more attractive option for your potential customers.

Allow Users to Discover Your Content

At Fannit, we usually compare great content that has poor visibility with a beautiful billboard out in the desert. Regardless of how good your content is, if you don’t make it easy to find for your target audience it won’t generate the results you’re looking for.

The goods news is that link building makes it easy for your audience to find your content, assuming that the rest of your contractor marketing strategy is sound.

When consumers need to find information or track down a new company, they now perform an online search.

By acquiring quality backlinks, you’ll improve your site rankings and allow users to find you through a simple search.

Plus, assuming that relevant sites are sending backlinks to your website, there’s a strong chance these users will be very interested in your content.

More helpful reading: https://www.fannit.com/seo/what-is-seo/

Explaining the Concept Behind Backlinks

There is no doubt that getting quality backlinks free of charge can have a great impact on any digital marketing campaign.

However, understanding the background and concept behind link building can actually make the process a lot simpler.

To some, the idea behind creating high-quality links comes directly from nature, where the most important points of interest often experience the highest number of interactions.

For instance, a river in a jungle.

If we had the ability to examine a jungle from above and see where the most action occurs, it would be along the banks of the river. The animals that access the river to drink its water and feed off its resources create “links” that connect all living beings in this ecosystem. Therefore, a company’s content, SEO structure, and backlinks should work to transform its website into a river that others flock to.

More helpful reading: https://www.fannit.com/seo/what-does-seo-stand-for/

Defining a High-Quality Backlink

To an inexperienced marketer, getting 1000 free backlinks sounds better than netting only 10 links at no cost.

But, not all backlinks have the same impact.

Good backlinks come from authoritative platforms that have a high domain rating, so these have a positive impact on SEO. However, poor links can actually give your site a bad SEO rank and hamper your search engine visibility.

All websites are different, so the definition of a good backlink will vary depending on your platform. In a nutshell, if the referring domains have a higher authority rating than your website, it’s safe to assume that these are good backlinks.

But, keep in mind that you want your SEO to improve over time, so what constitutes a good backlink now may actually have a negative impact later on.

This is the reason why it’s important to use a backlink checker and evaluate your link building strategy periodically.

Google Preference: Getting Backlinks the Organic Way

Google is the world’s leading search platform and its main goal is to provide the best results every time a user performs a query.

The search giant actually discourages websites from purchasing, exchanging, or otherwise acquiring backlinks through paid methods to avoid manipulation.

While occasional guest blogging has been proven to be effective for many companies, the search engine promotes the idea of acquiring organic backlinks to your website instead.

Organic backlinks are generated when third parties find your content while conducting research and link back to your site without any prior influence.

As a matter of fact, organic backlinks are the best types of links you can get for your site because they bring the most engaged users while also boosting your other SEO metrics.

Just remember, if you want to create backlinks free of charge using this method, you need to focus heavily on content development.

Are Free Backlinks Reliable?

Not only are free backlinks reliable, search platforms absolutely love it when a website has a high number of quality unpaid links.

And even though you may end up with a few unwanted links, developing great content in itself is a great way to work on your backlink profile while also boosting your website SEO.

As we mentioned before, not all links are the same.

If you are racking up a substantial amount of bad links, you can always use backlink tools like Google Search Console to disavow these backlinks and reduce their negative impact.

As a general rule of thumb, you should avoid getting your links from a free backlinks generator because these usually focus on quantity rather than quality.

It’s much better to get one free backlink from a reputable referring domain than to get a dozen links from sites with a poor domain authority rating.

How to Acquire Free Backlinks

Now that we’ve discussed the definition, importance, and concept behind link building, let’s take a look at the steps you need to take to get high-quality backlinks free of charge.

There are many techniques you can implement to increase the number of backlinks to your site for free.

These range from SEO suggestions to contacting other site owners, but it’s important to analyze leading competitors to see where they are getting their backlinks from.

Your business is unique, so you need to develop a tailored approach to help you make the most of your backlinks and overall search engine optimization plan.

In addition to the above, you should also find a reliable backlink checker tool and learn how to use its features properly.

This will help you monitor the performance of your site, and if you implement other SEO and backlink tools, you can actually automate a variety of processes and get notified only when you need to perform an action manually.

Let’s take a look at some of the best ways to get free backlinks to your website.

Develop Quality Content

Although having a link building strategy is essential, developing quality content is the best way to get free backlinks.

Therefore, website owners that develop a consistent content marketing for contractors and SEO plan tend to have better backlink profiles even if they don’t necessarily have a dedicated strategy in place.

The key to delivering quality content is to study your audience, examine leading competitors, and determine what pieces will have the most value.

For example, if you notice that there’s a problem that your audience constantly faces and it’s also one of the themes that leading competitors cover in their content, you should definitely develop your own materials about this topic.

With the above in mind, always work on creating a link building strategy that works in unison with the rest of your content marketing strategy.

Review Your Internal Linking Structure

When companies research how to create backlinks online free of charge, they tend to forget that the internal link structure also affects their overall link building strategy.

Internal links impact the user experience as well as the way search engines parse your website.

As long as you have the right intersite links in place, your audience will be able to navigate your content and easily access other pieces of relevant information.

In an ideal scenario, some of these users will even fill out your contact forms and ask questions about your service.

In addition to the above, search engines use simple pieces of software called crawlers to read your content and click on every single link on every page on your website.

By implementing internal links and using the right anchor text on each one of them, you can improve the way crawlers analyze your site.

While these two may not directly get you more backlinks, they influence SEO and the quality of your content. This can result in higher SEO rankings, better visibility, and best of all, more organic backlinks.

Write Guest Posts for Other Quality Sites

Even though Google technically discourages companies from doing this, writing guest posts for quality sites within your industry is a great way to get backlinks for free.

Google and other search engines monitor excessive backlink exchanges to identify this practice.

The good news is that you can avoid detection by writing only one post for each potential guest.

Similarly, you should avoid seeking guest blogging opportunities just to get backlinks. Writing a guest blog is a great chance to increase exposure and gain traction with a new audience.

But, you have to invest resources into writing a blog that won’t appear on your site. So, you should find a potential guest platform that is also in your industry.

Just avoid working with competitors as the conflict of interest will make it hard to get the right results.

More helpful reading: https://www.fannit.com/seo/how-does-seo-work/

The HARO Trick

If you are looking to get free backlinks for website linking building from reliable news platforms, Help A Reporter Out (HARO) is one of the best places to find these opportunities.

In simple terms, HARO is a tool that reporters use to track down good resources without spending hours conducting research.

After signing up as a resource on HARO, companies receive a few emails per week, which contain summaries of articles that reporters need information for.

What’s in it for website owners? If you have information that reporters can use, you can send them a pitch and include a link to your site. If the reporter decides to use your information, they will often include a backlink to your site as a way of crediting you for your contribution.

Find Broken Links

Another great way to get free backlinks is to find broken links on other websites and suggest your content as a replacement.

This is a win-win situation because you get a backlink and the other website gets to fix a broken link, which improves their user experience.

To use this technique, you’ll need to find websites in your industry and use a broken link checker to find any broken links on their site. Once you find a broken link, you can contact the website owner and suggest your content as a replacement.

Create Infographics

Infographics are a great way to get free backlinks because they are highly shareable.

If you create a high-quality infographic, other websites will be more likely to share it with their audience and link back to your site as the source.

To use this technique, you’ll need to create an infographic that is relevant to your industry and provides value to your target audience. Once you’ve created your infographic, you can share it on social media and reach out to other websites in your industry to see if they would be interested in sharing it with their audience.

Tools to Help You Get Free Backlinks

There are a variety of tools you can use to help you get free backlinks to your site. These tools can help you find broken links, create infographics, and find websites that are relevant to your industry.

Some of the best tools to help you get free backlinks include:

Check My Links

Check My Links is a free Chrome extension that allows you to quickly and easily check for broken links on any website.

This tool is great for finding broken links on other websites and suggesting your content as a replacement.

Canva

Canva is a free graphic design tool that you can use to create high-quality infographics.

This tool is great for creating infographics that are relevant to your industry and provide value to your target audience.

Hunter

Hunter is a free tool that you can use to find email addresses for any website.

This tool is great for finding the contact information for website owners so you can reach out to them and suggest your content as a replacement for a broken link.

Tools to Help You Monitor Your Backlinks

Once you’ve started to acquire free backlinks, you’ll need to keep track of how many backlinks you have and which platforms are sending this type of visitors to your site.

Linkstant was designed to send notifications and keep you updated about every new backlink you get to your site.

More helpful reading: https://www.fannit.com/seo/show-up-first-page-google-search/

Linkody

Linkody is very similar to Linkstant in the sense that it provides backlink monitoring for your site as well as competitor platforms.

Besides analyzing what your competitors are doing, you can also set up notifications that inform you whenever the leading brands get a new backlink. With Linkody, you’ll be able to see:

See the number of backlinks for each competitor
Know exactly when each backlink was added and the referring domain
Domain authority rank by Moz
Anchor texts
IP address and other technical details

BuzzStream

Rather than focusing on the technical side of backlinks, BuzzStream is a platform designed to simplify the actual process of getting new links to your site.

In simple terms, BuzzStream allows you to keep track of all your website link building efforts and reminds you to take the steps that help increase your chances of getting free backlinks.

Checking Backlinks on Your Site

Keeping a close eye on the competition is essential, but you also need to track the performance of your website backlinks to ensure that you’re progressing.

Therefore, you need to have a reliable backlink analysis platform that lets you see where referring links are coming from.

There are dozens if not hundreds of options, so you need to research the different alternatives and find one that fits your requirements as well as your budget.

In our experience, the top backlink analysis tools you can use to monitor your own website include:

SEO SpyGlass

SEO SpyGlass is a comprehensive tool that goes beyond backlinks.

It’s the perfect option for website owners that have budget flexibility and want to make improvements that affect Google rankings as quickly as possible.

In terms of backlinks, the platform allows you to sort your website backlinks by parameters like:

Linked pages
Anchor text
Link attribute
Authority metrics
Penalty risk and much more

Google Search Console

The Google Search Console is a free tool developed by the technology giant to help webmasters keep track of how their sites are performing on search platforms.

This free SEO and backlink tool allows you to see which sites are sending visitors your way.

That said, keep in mind that Google implements a filter in Search Console, so you don’t get to see every single backlink to your site.

This means that you can’t use the platform to catch every single low-quality link that’s pointing to your site.

Seobility

If you are looking for a dual tool that can help you monitor your own backlinks as well as competitor backlink data, Seobility may be the best alternative.

This two-way tool is available at no cost as well, but note that there is a limit to the number of backlinks you can see in the free plan.

AHREFS

AHREFS needs no introduction as it’s one of the best overall marketing intelligence tools out there.

The platform’s website analysis feature reveals a huge amount of information, including all backlinks that point to a website.

In simple terms, AHREFS boasts the same features as any other leading platform, but keep in mind that it’s high price tag means that it’s not suitable for all businesses.

DoFollow vs. NoFollow Links

A few years ago, link building was all about getting free backlinks that have a dofollow attribute, rather than hyperlinks with nofollow tags.

The terms “dofollow” and “nofollow” were tags that companies used to define a link’s attribute.

If a website owner wanted to add a link to his or her content without impacting SEO, this person could include a nofollow tag that told search platforms not to crawl the destination URL.

However, at the end of 2019 Google announced that it had changed its crawling and backlink analysis processes.

According to the search engine, crawlers will now determine on their own when to follow a link based on the destination’s domain rating and other variables.

Therefore, it’s not necessary to include dofollow or nofollow links anymore, but don’t be surprised to find competitors are still attempting to use this technique to influence their linking profiles.

Want to Acquire Backlinks for Your Site? Contact Fannit Today

Are you interested in learning more about getting backlinks to your site? Get in touch with Fannit to learn more about our link building services and our team will be glad to help.

More Helpful Reading: SEO pricing for contractors

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How can a home service contractor effectively acquire free backlinks? A: Home service contractors can acquire free backlinks by creating high-quality, localized content such as blog posts about common home issues or local project showcases. Engaging with local community organizations and offering expert advice to local news outlets can also generate valuable mentions and links. Participating in local directories and industry-specific forums is another effective strategy.

Q: What types of content are most likely to attract free backlinks for a roofing company? A: For a roofing company, content that attracts free backlinks includes detailed guides on roof maintenance, comparisons of roofing materials, and case studies of successful local projects. Infographics illustrating the benefits of regular roof inspections or seasonal preparation tips can also be highly shareable and link-worthy. Collaborating with local real estate agents on content about home value improvements can also be beneficial.

Q: Are there any free backlink strategies that home service contractors should avoid? A: Home service contractors should avoid any black-hat SEO tactics like link farms, paid links, or excessive reciprocal linking, as these can harm their search engine rankings. Also, steer clear of low-quality guest posting on irrelevant sites or submitting to spammy directories. Focus on genuine value creation and natural link acquisition to build a sustainable online presence.

Q: How important is local SEO in obtaining free backlinks for a plumbing business? A: Local SEO is extremely important for a plumbing business seeking free backlinks. Listing your business in local directories like Google Business Profile, Yelp, and industry-specific local listings provides foundational backlinks. Encouraging satisfied customers to leave reviews on these platforms, which often include a link to your site, further strengthens your local backlink profile and improves local search visibility.

Free Backlinks: How To Build Links Without Spending Money