One of the biggest goals of websites nowadays is to gather high-quality backlinks. If you get a backlink from a high-authority site, you are not only helping a particular post rank better on search engines, but that can also generally give other pages on your site a good SEO boost. Getting quality links is one of the key techniques to garner hundreds and thousands of organic search engine visitors month by month. And one of the factors that can increase the chances of getting the most backlinks is how you present your content.
The following are the types of content that generally attract a good quantity and quality of links:
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List Articles
Studies show that list articles are the most shareable content type. The kind of results it brings is consistent, so it’s really worthwhile to produce them. If you try to visit high-authority blogs across various niches and click their “top posts” page, you’ll notice that lots of their top articles are actually list posts. On top of the readers loving them, other blog owners also love linking to posts that are in a list form. So, it’s a really good format to use in order to attract backlinks.
People love list articles for various reasons. First, they’re scannable. People have very low attention span nowadays, and reading an article with full block paragraphs is just daunting for them. Another big reason why list posts are worth a shot is that they invoke curiosity. Most list articles have super catchy headings that people find irresistible. The final reason why list articles are worth producing is that they’re so cheap to make. If you create an infographic, you would have to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars for the full production. A list article, on the other hand, is simple to make and doesn’t need lots of research, design, and other crucial resources.
How to craft a good list post that attracts backlinks:
Before you get down to writing, you need to find the most worthwhile topic first. If your purpose is to attract backlinks, it’s best if your list post is something unique or something super comprehensive. You probably just knew that list articles should be what you should go for, but your competition could’ve already started creating lots of guest posts months or even years ahead.
With the tight competition, around, if you choose to create list articles that are so common, you might find it hard to get noticed. To have someone link to you, create something worthy of linking. For example, choose between the topics “6 Low-Calorie Snacks for a Great Diet” and “The Complete List: 56 Low-Calorie Snacks for a Great Diet”. Which topic would probably be linked by most bloggers? The second option is apparently more impressive and worthwhile.
Also, don’t forget to choose a topic that is already doing well. It’s not just about the length of the list post, but the topic matters a lot too. If you write something about “50 Ways to Use a Fork”, that probably won’t be very enticing. Topic relevance and content density matter equally.
You can also try outstripping your competition by making your post more visually appealing, more detailed, and more accessible (prepare downloadable or printable versions). The best way to know how to start is to type in your target keyword on the search engines and check how you can improve the ones on the top results. You can go the extra mile by checking the comments of the top posts and see what the readers’ thoughts are.
Finally, write your list and format it well. Making it longer is not the only option to bring value to it. If you have better ways to make it more valuable, go for that. As you go on with your content marketing campaign, you’ll eventually get the hang of what works and what doesn’t. Ideally, make
your list articles should have at least 10 items. Don’t miss placing the introduction, laying out the actual list, and then wrapping it all up with a good conclusion. Make the tone as conversational and natural as possible. -
Helpful Guides
When writing a guide, aim to make it the “ultimate guide”. Make it the ultimate go-to place and make sure it’s packed with the complete information that readers need. Readers don’t want to have multiple sources for every aspect they want help with. Thus, creating a complete guide about a relevant topic is worthwhile since you can make your post their long-term reference should they need help again in the future. Other websites will also rely on your information to support their mini-guides and articles, resulting in more backlinks.
The challenging part of creating an all-inclusive guide is that it could take long hours to complete and could cost you thousands of dollars to hire someone to do it for you. Despite the time, effort, and money it could take to prepare them, the ROI it could yield could be really rewarding. On top of traffic, leads, and conversions, the most important value it could add to your business is a good boost in credibility and authority. This could even make other sites remember you as a good resource for other related information, leading to more natural backlinks over the long haul.
How to craft a helpful guide that attracts backlinks:
The following are the steps on how to do it:
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Choose a topic and outline the scope
The topic and the scope will determine how costly the guide creation is. Since you’re aiming for an “ultimate” guide, it should have everything the readers need to know about the topic you have chosen. If you choose a topic that is too broad, like “The Ultimate Guide to Advertising”, it could take you hundreds and thousands of words to complete it.
It’s best to make your guide reasonably narrow, like “The Ultimate Guide to Guest Posting”. It could only take 5,000 to 10,000 words to cover it and is also less risky if you still testing the waters.
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Craft the guide outline
Create the table of contents. Then, create the outline for each section. Once that’s done, cover each section thoroughly with definitive examples and research-backed facts and details. If you or your writer is a practitioner of that field, you can cite your personal experiences that can strengthen your points.
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Hire a designer
To complete the package, your guide should also be easy and appealing to the eyes. The layout should come with personalized images, backgrounds, and fonts.
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Promote your guide
As long as the quality of your guide is remarkable, making people notice it won’t be a challenge. Go to the right community, like Reddit, to get upvotes and traffic. You can even email the blog articles linking to inferior guides and let them know the better alternative. Also, email blog owners sharing the same audience with you. You can’t email to your direct competitors, but you can go for those with related niches that could possibly take interest in your information.
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Infographics
Infographics are no longer as trendy as when they were first introduced, but their value hasn’t faded yet. As long as you create a high-quality infographic, traction is just around the corner.
How to craft infographics that attracts backlinks:
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Choose the right topic
This is always the first step. There are certain topics that are better relayed to the audience in the form of infographics. Topics that feature a step-by-step process are better with infographics.
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Find a designer
You can either hire a freelance designer or an actual agency. Depending on your budget, you can go for either. You can even ask them if they can make you a “gifographic”. They’re like the “gifs” you see around the web. Though they cost more, infographics plus animations can attract more links and social shares
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Promote your infographics
Get your infographics in front of the right people. It’s actually worthwhile to make infographics if your website already has a good traction. However, if you’re still starting out, it’s best to just resort to the usual blog posts first and slowly kick things up a notch once you start getting organic visitors.
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Controversial Content
The use of controversial topics can be risky to some extent, but when done the right way, it can be a great way to garner your much-desired backlinks. Look at the trending news in your industry and start from there. Most sites pick a controversial topic and choose a side to write about. What makes this risky is that you could end up getting more negative comments than positive. If it’s the former, your brand image can significantly suffer. As much as possible, when dealing with a controversial topic, avoid libelous statements and try to avoid too much bias.
How to Craft a Controversial post that attracts backlinks:
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Decide if the controversial topic is worth the shot
If the topic is relevant to your niche and is really worth tackling, you can give it a go. However, if it doesn’t have anything to do with the context of your blog or site, better leave it be.
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Write with caution
Since the topic is something most people find debatable, be careful with the wordings and language you use when writing. Don’t gear too much on one side if you don’t want more bashes than praise.
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Promote well
Controversial topics are usually easily spread on social media. So, your social media channels must be active to get this message through your audience. If you are the only person covering a particular controversial scoop, other news portals and websites could be linking to you to support their similar or related posts.
These are the most common types of content that you can try making to generate backlinks. The results might not come in a snap, but as long as you constantly give them a try and give it your best shot, you are well on your way to getting high-quality backlinks from the most credible sites. Again, do not focus on the quantity of links you get. A backlink from one or two high-quality sites is way more significant than hundreds of backlinks from less credible pages. Focusing on quality and value is still the best approach no matter what type of content you try to produce.
