For SEO professionals and marketers, when users mention how to get organic links, you should understand what should (or might) work, and what doesn’t.
Trying to optimize the system with anti-spam tactics such as paid links will never work for long. Google will always catch the bad guys, especially in the era of Google Penguin 4.0.
Building some legit linking strategies will help boost your brand’s backlink profile while also improving the search experience and contributing to a healthy backlink ecosystem.
Here are 10 content ideas that will naturally attract high-value links. They can be used in various industries in various ways. Of course, every brand is unique, and the tactics of different industries are also different.
I suggest you use the ideas below as a starting point to get links naturally, and develop recommended content types to help your brand and your team understand how to best leverage the valuable content you create.
1. Resource Checklist
While this seems to be a low end level type of idea that has been in forever (it is), there may be some in-house marketers and analyst level SEOs who still don’t understand the full value of quality resource listings are actually made up of simple and simple composed of research.
Give your audience a valuable list of some of the best resources to link to naturally.
For things like SEO, a list of the best free tools for competitive analysis, the top 100 digital marketers and how to track them, or the best tools for identifying content gaps for your brand.
For something completely different, like building tiny houses, you can provide a list of the best companies to buy tiny home building plans from the best small city enthusiasts in America, or the best places to build your little one house.
Such a list will usually get your site a lot of engagement, including shares on social networks, shares in the comments section, and even other publications that you find valuable while you're writing.
You can see the potential functionality of these resource lists from examples like this.
2. Media containing shareable information
Visual stimuli help to enhance any information. That’s why email marketing campaigns that use images have a 42% higher click-through rate than campaigns that don’t.
Tweets with attention-grabbing images get more clicks, 89% more favorites, and 150% more retweets than tweets without. This is why Facebook posts 2.3 times more images than posts without images.
Infographics are multiple versions of a standard image that contain quick-hitting facts and statistics that can spark controversy or opinion, while also providing visually appealing, easily digestible and easy-to-record statistics, and a fun way that's only present content, but also a fun way to interact and share it.
Lean on a good graphic designer to help build these creative images, or use one of the free graphic building tools you can find here.
3. Offer Free Tools
Depending on your capabilities, bandwidth, and resources—and of course, your industry—creating and offering free tools can be a golden ticket to increasing traffic and quality backlinks, among other positive signs.
Some of the best free tools out there right now telemarketing list include Quicken's free budget calculator, the HomeByMe tool for designing tiny homes, Trello, a product management and organization tool, and the IKEA suite of home planning tools.
Basically there is a free tool that takes their day-to-day responsibility in every problem you might encounter. If there isn't one you can think of, you better start. If there is already one designed to simplify the task, but it misses the mark like this, don't be afraid to create your own and offer it on behalf of your brand.
Just don't forget to provide the user with instructions and FAQs and have someone available to answer questions as they aren't a bad idea either.
4. Generate a white paper
If you're doing the right thing, then thoroughly research the documentation covering the more complex ideas in your industry that are always seen as valuable. They take a while to complete, rely heavily on quality sources, and are often written by several contributors. However, they can also be considered industry-leading insights if the issues involved have not been truly scrutinized.
Another opportunity to really let your expertise shine, while also providing real insight into complex issues that users really want to know more about. Because white papers are long in nature and contain information, they tend to rank the various terms related to the issues involved.
The overall content is strong and usually ranks better in searches because it is considered an authority for search engines and users. Research shows that Google results average about 2,000 words, with the 1st result averaging about 2,500 words. The number 10 position also averages just over 2,000 words.
Simply put, a white paper is one of the most authoritative pieces you and your brand can publish. The goal of y