After you have your money maker phrase at your disposal and you have implemented the on-page ranking factors that matter the most – it’s time to rank on Google.
Buckle up because this is the part that will matter a lot when you have a great foundation in place. Here is the final step in finding out how to rank on Google.
According to backlinko.com and an analyses of 1 million search results, the number one ranking factor that helps websites to rank on Google is, drum roll please, the URLs leading to one’s site from other webpages (clarification of concept: the URLs that are redirecting a person from one website to your webpage are called backlinks).
To help you to create a backlink, WordPress saves the day once again. You need to highlight the anchor text (1) and link it with a website (2).
It’s a good idea to follow this rule of thumb. For each of your long-tail keywords you should get 5-10 backlinks. Eventually you will need to keep track of all your backlinks and their anchor text. When it’s time to do that, Linkody.com is a must. It automates this process and in the long term will save a lot your time.
A few years ago, getting a backlink from your mum’s cooking website was as important as getting one from Forbes. Nowadays it doesn’t work like that anymore. You should build quality backlinks as that is as important as the quantity.
The following section goes through 3 killer link building strategies that will make your web site popular and give you the necessary skill set to drive traffic to any page out there.
1. Stealing backlinks from your competitors
Finding websites from which to get backlinks takes time and in the end you can never be sure if they will be willing to place your URL on their website.
That was the case, up until now. When your competitors have both; found these web pages and have managed to place their backlinks on these sites, it is a crime not to benefit from their efforts.
They will have spent months and sometimes years to catch all their backlinks and now you can have this information at your fingertips in a matter of minutes.
For this strategy to work you need to sign up at Linkody. This backlink checker once again comes in handy and within a couple of minutes you will be able to see all your competitor’s backlinks.
It’s easy to signup but just in case you need help, make sure not to skip the following steps (click on the image to enlarge):
- Step 2 & Step 3 in this case is a must. All you have to do is insert your websites link and your competitors’ URLs.
- Step 1 & Step 4 is good to have but not essential to rock this tool.
After you sign-in, wait a couple of minutes for all the backlinks to load and then refresh the page. You will be able to see all your backlinks and metrics but what matters the most is that you will be able to see all your competitor’s backlinks and metrics (2).
For the sake of an example we will search for all the competitor’s backlinks placed in blog posts (3). You need to first hit search (4) and then export the CSV file (5). Companies that have been in the business for a while will have a few hundred backlinks. With just one export you will have all the necessary information to accelerate your link building efforts.
Tip of the day! Segmentation of the websites you contact helps to standardise the email you send out. When you search for:
- “list”, “links” and “resources” you will be able to find resource websites (pages that store links; for example: “top 20 website designs”, “40 best SEO agencies”, etc.);
- for “tips” and “testimonials” you will be able to find “how to guides” and “testimonials”.
When you open your excel file you will be able to see:
- all the websites that are hosting your competitor’s backlinks;
- the quality of these websites;
- topics that your competitor is blogging about (or mentioned in);
- and 30 other metrics.
Want to know how to rank on Google the fastest way possible? You might want to contact only high quality websites. One of the best quality indicators nowadays is Domain Authority (DA) thus start by sorting the backlinks in growing order (2) and then deleting everything below the DA 20.
Now you have all your quality websites sorted and you know exactly in which post and under which headline your competitor was mentioned. Start by crafting a killer pitch so it’s hard to say “No” (here are some tips). Make sure to use the information you have even if you make a generic pitch. Insert a couple of personalised lines where you reference your competitors name and add the link to the post. Then find their contact information and start the emailing spree.
2. Create expert roundups
An expert roundup is basically a questionnaire sent out to specialists in their field. Afterwards you summarise the findings and come up with a valuable conclusion.
This strategy is good for a couple of reasons. It helps build your network and you get a backlink if your experts share the post. Your post will also get in front of the eyes of their followers.
You must design a roundup that people will love to read:
- Check out quora.com to see what are the frequently asked questions;
- Visit Linkedin “how to” groups;
- Ask your visitors what they struggle with.
This is the best way to come up with your research objective. Put together a questionnaire to investigate this topic in more depth and find people who are specialists in this field.
The best place to look for experts is on LinkedIn. This is the social network that gives you quantitative results about seeing the strengths of others.
When you have added the list of experts to your LinkedIn network, you can use this chrome extension which shows you a person’s email address. From this point forward it’s simple – craft a great pitch and email your expert. When the answers start rolling in, then it’s your moment to write. Afterwards you should share the post and see your traffic grow.
If you would like to learn more about this link building strategy read this article.
3. Create a “write for us” section
As your site gets more popular, more people will want to write for you. This strategy basically says that if “you want to increase your writing authority, come write for us”. It’s really that simple and bloggers love to write for others. As we established, this is how you get backlinks.
If you need inspiration about the content to put in this section, you should google “write for us”. This way you will be able to find 356 million examples.
When the section is ready, go ahead and share it. Share it. Share the life out of it. Post it, like it, put it in front of as many people as you can because when you will be busy keyword researching, optimising your on-page SEO content and link building, you will need others to blog for you. This is the best way to make that happen.
These are the best websites where you can find guest bloggers – Twitter, Guestr.com, guestcrew.com, myblogguest.com and bloggerlinkup.com. These will help you on your journey of finding out how to rank on google.
Note: Make the guest blogging guidelines as detailed as possible to avoid half baked post submits. In the long term it will save a lot of your time as you will need to edit the posts before they go live. It is up to you to reduce this time by making informative guest blogging guidelines.
When the blog post is ready make sure to invite your guest blogger to share it on every available social media network, that’s easy traffic to your site!
Summing up how to rank on Google
Remember that even if this is a step by step guide on how to rank on Google, it does not end once it’s done (the SEO journey never ends). When you have made your list of keywords, optimised on page SEO and collected 5-10 backlinks for each of your money making keywords, it’s time to start all over again. However this time it will be with a lot more data to learn from.
Now you know all there is to know about how to rank on Google. The rest you will learn along the way. Go make mistakes and have fun!
If this post turned out to be somewhat helpful, make sure to share it. As we established, that drives traffic and scoring some karma points now might be useful later on. Feel free to get in touch with me on LinkedIn and share your thoughts!