Allow Me to Blow Your Backlink Building Mind (NICHE EDITS)

byParthaB

4.2K followers

Updated 2 years ago

RATING: It's NOT For Newbies (Read My Other 100+ Blog Posts First!)

Okay, I've seen a lot of talk about backlinks on the platform in recent weeks.

Plus, it is something that Kyle asked me to consider doing “ Premium Plus Expert Classes” over a year ago (I’m certainly NO expert), although I did decline (bet you don’t get turned that often, do you Kyle? Hahahaha!!! Sorry brother!)

And I know this is something that I have said I would discuss in a blog post, but I have held off from doing so.

I think the main reason for this is that there is so much more to backlink building that first meets the eye.

But, this is the same as everything you do to “market” your website.

There are NO easy and simple steps to anything you do.

Everything is a skill, and a skill that needs to be learned, and backlinks are definitely no different.

Furthermore, and I mean this in the nicest way possible, an “untrained” person trying to obtain backlinks is much the same as giving a 3-year old a samurai sword and telling her to go and play with it - the likelihood is, it’s NOT going to end well.

However, I’ll provide an outline for you, as well as showing you how you can obtain some legitimate backlinks.

BUT

As there is so much to this, I am just going to concentrate on ONE type of backlink today, namely NICHE EDITS.

I will cover Guest Posts, Skyscraper Content, Blog Commenting, Infographic Linking, PDF Linking, Web/Blog Directories, Article Directories, Web 2.0 (and 3.0) properties, etc. in future “Backlink Blog Post Tutorials”

Do You Need Backlinks?

As always, there is NO clear-cut answer.

HOWEVER

One thing is for sure, if you are targeting “longtail keywords” correctly then there is absolutely no need for backlinks.

This is actually the whole point in targeting longtail keywords, i.e. they DON’T need an “extra push”, you SHOULD be ranking for them anyway.

Okay, firstly a longtail keyword is a different thing to different people.

You’ll hear that a “longtail keyword” is a phrase that is at least 3-4 words.

I disagree, and think this is a very “robotic” way to look at this.

Now, while this type of thinking may have sufficed a decade ago, it certainly doesn’t now.

Remember, Google is trying to move away from “robotic” content and “robotic” SEO, they want you to be more HUMAN.

The ideal is, humans writing for humans.

So, in MY mind a longtail keyword simply means a SPECIFIC phrase that has low competition.

That’s it.

The more SPECIFIC your phrase the better.

This is why I don’t feel something like:

Best Belly Fat Burning Tips

Is a longtail keyword.

For me, it’s NOT specific enough, and for someone who knows this niche very well, it definitely ISN’T a low competition search term.

So, as an example, a more appropriate longtail keyword would be:

Can I Burn Belly Fat Without Having to Diet?

Can you see just how much more SPECIFIC this is?

Again, I know that this won’t have low competition, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Don’t forget, for me, “low competition” means “weak sites” are ranking on page one of Google (forums, Q&A sites, Quora, Reddit, Social Media sites, and websites with a Domain Authority less than 20).

Now, the reason you are told that you don’t need backlinks is that if you have done your keyword research correctly then you SHOULD automatically rank on page one of Google.

The main reason many SEOs go after backlinks is because they target MORE COMPETITIVE search terms.

The hope is that a more competitive search term will bring you more traffic IF YOU CAN RANK AT THE TOP OF GOOGLE.

However, “more competition” obviously means “harder to rank”.

Therefore, a webmaster may look to obtain backlinks in order to “push” their website further up the rankings for that competitive search term.

So, my initial advice, if you’re writing articles, but you’re NOT ranking, don’t start thinking about backlinks, but rather, sort your keyword research out.

If you’re NOT ranking you are NOT choosing longtail keywords (in my mind “longtail” should also mean “easy to rank”).

Yes, there is the time element to ranking, but trust me, if you found a keyword with 10 “weak sites” ranking on page one of Google you could probably rank an article on a 3-day old website.

This in itself tells you just how important keyword research is.

So, for now, DON’T chase backlinks, DO chase great keywords.

And remember what I said, EVERYTHING is a learned skill, and this includes keyword research.

Y’all think the hardest part of this is writing the article.

NOPE!!

It’s LEARNING how to do effective keyword research.

In effect, writing an article with poor keyword research is like giving someone a toothbrush to hammer in some nails.

You can write, and write, and write, but if your choice of keywords is poor you’re not going to get anywhere.

Link Building Glossary

Okay, let’s learn what some of the terms that you’ll often hear actually mean.

Firstly, what is a backlink?

Essentially, look upon a backlink as a “vote of confidence”.

If you have EXTERNAL links in your articles, the web page that you are linking to, you are in effect giving it a “thumbs up” (a backlink).

However, if you’re linking to another website article LEGITIMATELY (not like a robot because someone told you it was good to have an external link), you are providing your readers with ADDITIONAL VALUE - “Here reader, here’s some more information about this this topic”.

In order for YOU to obtain a backlink you would hope other webmasters link in exactly the same way from their content to your content.

Now, you’ve probably heard that there are two types of backlinks, namely DO FOLLOW and NO FOLLOW.

Okay, for those of you who have been following me for a while you’ll hopefully know about DA (or Domain Authority).

This is simply a metric that was created by some of the biggest online marketing software companies, it is NOT a Google Metric.

However, it does seem to be fairly accurate.

Did you also know that each page/post on a website can also have its PA (Page Authority)?

If you have the MozBar downloaded to your browser you can actually see the PR metric (page ranking).

The “ranking scale” of domains and individual web pages goes from 0-100, the higher the number, the more authority.

This also proves that QUALITY of backlinks is generally better than QUANTITY.

Here’s an analogy:

100 schoolkids tell you, “Partha is a great footballer”.

You kinda sit up and take notice because so many people are saying the same thing.

HOWEVER

Let’s imagine that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo both said, “Partha is a great footballer”.

You are likely to take much more notice now, as two of the greatest footballers who have ever lived are now saying this.

Basically, the comments from Leo and Cristiano carry more weight because they are more RELEVANT and they are AUTHORITY FIGURES.

The same goes for backlinks, the more RELEVANT and the more AUTHORITATIVE your backlinks, the BETTER.

Now, back to Do Follow and No Follow.

Do Follow backlinks are viewed as the creme de la creme, as essentially the web page linking to you is literally saying to Google, “Take some of my PAGE AUTHORITY and pass it onto the web page I’m linking to”.

So, if a DA90 website is linking to you, they are in effect passing on some of that “link juice” to your article.

And this is how that article can potentially get a “push” up the rankings.

As an example, all Wordpress links from WITHIN THE CONTENT are DO FOLLOW links.

So, if someone else has written an article on their website, and they link to one of your articles from within their content, this is a DO FOLLOW link.

A NO FOLLOW link is simply telling the search engines, “I am linking to this website article, but I do not wish to pass on any of my “link juice”.

A few examples of NO FOLLOW links include links from Blog Comments (when you leave your name, email address, and website name, your NAME is “hyperlinked” with your domain name, i.e. if someone clicks on your name on an approved comment they will will automatically be taken to your website).

Also, links from social media platforms, forums, Q&A sites, etc.

Now, this doesn’t mean you should completely avoid these types of backlinks.

You want to have a good mix of backlinks pointing to your website.

Basically, if you only ever have one type of backlink pointing to your website it is obvious to Google that you potentially manipulated this.

REMEMBER - Stop trying to manipulate Google, Stop being robotic.

It’s 2023, be a HUMAN, and do things on your website for the BENEFIT OF YOUR AUDIENCE and NOT because you are trying to manipulate an algorithm (that you don’t fully understand anyway).

You’ve also no doubt noticed that when you place a NO FOLLOW link on one of your posts you have an option:

NO FOLLOW SPONSORED - This means that you have the potential for financial gain from this link, e.g. affiliate link.

NO FOLLOW UGC - You are linking to content that was created by users on a platform, e.g. Quora, and therefore you’re unable to verify “expertise”.

And remember, a NO FOLLOW link means you are NOT passing on any “link juice”.

That being said, if a NO FOLLOW backlink comes from a RELEVANT and CREDIBLE source, it is still a “vote of confidence”, it just won’t have the same effect as a DO FOLLOW backlink.

However, irrespective of the type of link, if RELEVANT sites in your niche are linking to you, it can’t be bad.

Niche Edits

Okay, one of the best backlinks in my mind are NICHE EDITS.

Simply put, this is where another website owner edits an ALREADY PUBLISHED article on their website to include a link to your website.

Now, everyone thinks that Guest Blogging is one the best ways to obtain legitimate backlinks, and while they can be great, Niche Edits are much EASIER and require LESS WORK.

Plus, a niche edit is already likely to have some “authority”.

If you think about it, when you write a Guest Blog Post on someone else’s blog it’s a completely new article.

Therefore, you have to wait for the article to be indexed, and then potentially wait longer for it to be ranked.

Obviously, if you’re targeting high DA and authoritative websites, then indexing and ranking may happen extremely quickly.

BUT

It is still a NEW article, which means that it has NO page authority.

With a Niche Edit, the article that you would like your backlink to come from could have been online for 1,2,3,5, or even more years.

In that time it is likely that the article would have “gained some authority”.

So, this is definitely better in terms of authoritative backlinks.

However, as you should know, you don’t get something for nothing in this life.

Realistically, if ever you email someone about “getting a backlink”, don’t focus on yourself, focus on THEM.

It’s the classic WIIFM (What’s in it for me?)

Okay, one of the best ways to obtain Niche Edits is to check websites in your niche for broken links.

Basically, they have written an article, provided an external link to another website for more relevant information on that topic, BUT, now the article they are linking to is no longer on the internet.

There could be any number of reasons for this, e.g. the article has been deleted, the website has been deleted, the website has been moved to a new domain without proper redirects, etc.

Anyway, if you find broken links on relevant websites in your niche, this can be a goldmine for you in terms of backlinks.

Broken Link Checker

Okay, we’re going to use ahrefs broken link checker tool (completely free).

Plus, I’m going to take one of my biggest competitors in the health and fitness niche.

The website in question is powerliftingtechnique.com and they have gone from strength-to-strength over the past few years.

In fact, for much of 2022, we were in direct competition with each other for literally 1000s of keywords.

We were both typically ranking in the top 3 Google search results for many of the same keywords.

However, Avi’s website has been online for much longer than mine, and Avi also happens to be a former Coach for the Canadian Olympic WeightLifting Team (completely satisfies Google’s E.E.A.T).

Now, we’re going to take Avi’s url and hop onto ahrefs broken link checker.

So, as you can see, ahrefs states that Avi has 20 broken links on his website.

In effect, I have 20 chances of obtaining a Niche Edit from Avi.

He also has 9 broken links TO his site - this is actually quite important, basically Abi has 9 backlinks from other websites that are no longer valid.

Again this could be because he has deleted the article they are linking to, changed the url, etc.

Next, on the left-hand side, this lists the 20 articles (or links really) that are no longer valid.

And on the right-hand side, this lists the exact anchor text that is used to link to the other website.

QUICK NOTE: One of the main reasons that you SHOULDN’T pay for links is due to anchor text.

Admittedly, there are various other reasons for not paying, e.g. you need to reverse engineer someone’s website to see how they have obtained their Domain Authority, you don’t know if the website is a “link farm”, they link to anything and everything, you don’t know how “good” their backlinks are, etc.

All these things can be checked, but again, this is not something I’m going to teach you today.

Anyway, paying for backlinks and anchor text - anchor text is simply the highlighted part of text, usually blue in WordPress, that can be clicked on.

Now, when you pay for backlink services, you will be asked, “What Anchor Text Would You Like?”

Everyone immediately provides their EXACT keyword.

So, if your keyword is “Make Money Online Tips”, you would ask the person providing the backlink to ensure that the clickable part of the link says, “Make Money Online Tips”.

You then go and obtain 100 backlinks and do exactly the same.

Do you not think Google is going to notice this?

100 new links to your website ALL with EXACT KEYWORD MATCH ANCHOR TEXT.

Clearly this has been manipulated, BOOOM!!!! Potential penalties, loss of rankings, loss of traffic, loss of earnings.

This is also why I say backlinking, and even paying for backlinks, is a LEARNED SKILL (remember the 3-year old and the samurai sword?)

So, if ever you are trying to “manipulate” backlinks, don’t always use the exact anchor text.

If you want to learn more about anchor text (which you SHOULD, as I’m guessing that many people who got hit by the recent Google Spam Updates potentially had “unnatural” anchor text), simply Google:

5 Different Types of Anchor Text <--- Type this into the Google or YouTube search bar, read or watch, learn and understand (VERY IMPORTANT)

Anyway, back to Avi’s broken links.

So, I can see that the first broken link is from an article Avi has written about

Best Squat Shoes For Powerlifting

And the article he is linking to in on the website barbell-strength .com and has the anchor text - tripod effect.

To be honest, I have no idea what this person who owns the barbell-strength website is doing, as the link now actually goes to an article about “Dead Man Walking” - WTF!!!!

Anyway, what I can do now is READ Avi’s article, take some notes.

Learn what the “Tripod Effect” is and then write an article about this.

If I already had an article on my website about the “tripod effect” this would have been even easier, but unfortunately I don’t.

Now, I could find a longtail keyword around “tripod effect”, and I could even target a slightly more competitive term about the “tripod effect”.

My aim is to potentially get a DA41 (Avi’s website authority) backlink to my “new” article, which could “push it further up the rankings”.

That being said, this is where some common sense and knowing your niche comes in handy.

My Exercise-based website has approximately 600 articles and not once have I ever mentioned the “tripod effect”.

So, in reality, this is not a backlink that I would chase after, as it’s not relevant to MY website and MY audience.

But, I obviously have another 19 broken links on Avi’s site to work my way through.

My real aim should be to find a broken link on Avi’s site about a topic or “keyword” that I have already written about.

But, as I say, checking your competitors' broken links can also give you more content ideas.

Anyway, once I find something that is relevant to my website, or a topic that I wish to write a new article about, I can contact Avi.

I look for his “Contact Me” information (usually as a menu item at the top of the page or in the links at the bottom of the page) and then send him an email.

However, I must remember WIIFA (What’s in it for Avi?).

We as humans don't like being told that we’re wrong or have made a mistake, so some “genuine buttering up” (is there such a thing?) needs to be going on.

So, just off the top of my head (don’t judge me on this, LOL, I’ve just made this up on the spot in under 2 minutes)

Hey Avi,

Partha here, founder and owner of mybodyweightexercises .com

I’ve been an avid follower of your site for a few years now and simply love the content you put out.

Funnily enough, I was wanting to learn a bit more about Squat Shoes, so I thought, “I know I’ll pop over to Avi’s site, he’s bound to have some great information”.

And low-and-behold, you did.

Once again, another fantastic article, and I especially loved your explanation about shin angle for the front squats vs. the back squat.

This is something I’ve often thought about myself, especially in terms of ankle mobility.

Anyway, I’ll get to the point, I noticed that you had a link going on barbell-strength about the Tripod Effect.

I’m not sure if you’re aware, but this shows as a broken link, and they’ve actually replaced the original article with something about “Dead Man Walking”.

How strange and completely out of context, I’m sure you’ll agree.

I guess you know what’s coming, LOL, but if you don’t ask, you don’t get, right?

I’ve actually previously written about the Tripod Effect myself, and you can check out my article here - mybodyweightexercises .com/tripod-effect

If you feel this covers all the points that you want it to, perhaps you could see your way to linking to my article instead.

At least this way you no longer have a broken link on this article, and your readers will be lead to a site with relevant information (unless of course you want me to write about “Dead Man Walking”.

Anyway, I won’t butter you up too much, but I’m certainly a big fan.

And if you think my article is a good fit to be linked to, then by all means please do so.

Keep up the great work and I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind Regards

Partha

That’s it.

However, from this email Avi can tell that I’ve actually read his content, as I’ve made reference to it.

This in itself could be viewed as taking a genuine interest, as opposed to simply trying to obtain a backlink.

Plus, I’ve done Avi a favour, as he can remove the broken link from his article and now link to something relevant that his reader's will hopefully enjoy.

And this will take Avi literally one minute to do - Open WordPress, locate article, edit article, remove old link, replace with new link, publish, JOB DONE.

Don’t forget, the article is likely already indexed and ranking, and now it is linking to ME.

I have just obtained a fairly good authority backlink.

Final Thoughts

As always, I know there’s a LOT to go through here, so take your time.

But, I’m hoping that you’ll also see that “obtaining backlinks” is definitely a learned skill.

Essentially, this is the EASIEST way to obtain genuine backlinks, and as you can see, it’s not completely straight forward.

There are also paid services which provide Niche Edits, but once again, I’ll tell you to avoid these until you understand the concept of backlinks better.

Remember what I said about Google knowing you’ve paid for links potentially from your use of anchor text.

For now, you can certainly find 25-50 high DA websites in your niche (anything above DA30 is fine, but obviously the higher the DA, the more authority).

Put each website through ahrefs backlink checker.

Find broken links

Check to see if you have already published an article on this topic.

Contact the website owner to let them know they’re great, their article is great, but there is a broken link, although you have the solution.

If you haven’t published an article on this topic, firstly do your own due diligence.

Is this a topic YOUR audience would be interested in?

Is this a topic that appears to be popular?

Could you even expand on this topic and write more relevant articles? (Topic Cluster)

If yes, write the article.

Even if you contact a webmaster to tell them about a broken link and they decline your offer, at least you have fresh content on your website, so not all is lost.

And this is Niche Edit Backlinks and the easiest way to obtain them.

Thank You For Reading

Partha