Many years ago, I heard a famous Internet marketer say the way to get more traffic to your blog is to put up roadblocks that lead to backlinks to your website.
Backlinks play a crucial role in improving your website’s search engine optimisation and overall authority. They’re like votes from other sites telling search engines your content is reliable and valuable. The more quality backlinks you have, the stronger your site’s profile in the eyes of search engines.
There are different types of backlinks, namely dofollow and nofollow. Dofollow links pass on link equity, essentially giving your site a little boost or thumbs-up from another site. Nofollow links, on the other hand, don’t pass on link equity but still contribute to your site’s traffic and reputation.
Link equity itself is a big deal, impacting your search rankings. It refers to the influence a link has in improving your site’s visibility in search engine results. Not every link carries the same weight, so understanding how this works helps in prioritising which links to pursue.
Analysing how your competitors are utilising backlinks offers insight into successful strategies you might consider. Tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush can help identify where their links come from and what content is attracting them. Learning from others gives you a head start in the competitive world of SEO.
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Strategies for Earning High-Quality Backlinks
Creating content that screams ‘share me’ is a fantastic way to earn those valuable backlinks. Think comprehensive guides, interesting infographics, or original research that people feel compelled to link to because it’s genuinely useful or entertaining.
Guest blogging isn’t just about sending out content willy-nilly. Pick reputable blogs in your niche and offer something fresh and informative. This not only earns you a backlink but also exposes your site to a broader audience.
Broken link building might sound tedious, but it’s actually a nifty trick. By finding broken links on other websites and offering your content as a replacement, everyone wins. The site owner fixes an issue, and you gain a backlink.
Social media might not contribute to link equity directly, but it sure amplifies your content’s reach. Sharing your work on these platforms increases the chances that your content will be noticed and linked to by others, indirectly boosting your backlink tally.
Buy Traffic With Google
I’ll bet you never thought of paid traffic as a roadblock, but it is. Google is still the number one name in the game of paid traffic, especially for blogs.
You can buy traffic in strategic places and get blog traffic almost immediately if you can afford it. This is why Google Adwords works so well.
Building a Trustworthy Backlink Profile
Getting backlinks is only half the game. The other half? Ensuring those links come from credible sources. You want to target websites that have a strong reputation—they’re like the well-connected friends in the online world who can vouch for you.
Steering clear of shady backlink practices is crucial. Tactics like buying links or participating in link farms might seem like a shortcut, but they can hurt your site’s reputation when search engines catch on. It’s better to play fair and reap long-term benefits.
Keeping tabs on your backlink profile is key. Tools like Google Search Console offer insights into who’s linking to you, helping you manage and refine your strategy to maintain a healthy link profile.
Following Google’s guidelines for backlinks is the way to go. When you align your strategies with these best practices, you not only build trust with search engines but also ensure sustainable growth for your website’s SEO.
Making Money With Google AdSense
The other place you see these ads is on the blogs and websites of Google AdSense affiliates.
These are also Google Ads.
The difference here is that Google bills the advertiser when their ad is clicked on, and they turn around and give 68% of the click price back to the publishing affiliate.
In both scenarios, these ads have a URL in them that gets clicked on. These are also roadblocks in their own way.
Why Backlinks are Important
If you do not want to pay for clicks, you need to get your blog URL out on the World Wide Web, where people are constantly running into it. That is a backlink for you and a roadblock for them.
The more of these you have online, the more your traffic will increase because more people will be clicking on your link because of increased exposure.
Are they really free?
Not so long ago, the number one way to increase backlinks was to do article marketing by placing articles in online directories. At the end of the article, you could have a bio box where you put a link back to your website.
These directories were free to be in. All you had to do was write the article and publish it.
Today, blogs are a similar concept. You can write a guest post and find a blogger to publish it for you in exchange for a short bio box with your blog URL at the end of it.
If you value your time in terms of dollars, this is not really free, but it is still a great way to get backlinks. All you do is trade your time for the link, which is a roadblock the reader bumps into.
Organic Searches Are Free Roadblocks
The Holy Grail, so to speak, of free roadblocks, is a ranking in the organic results on Google for keywords people are typing in.
This should be your long-term goal. Start by using SEO to rank for long-tail keyword phrases. Set a goal to develop your blog into an authority blog in your niche.
This takes time and doing things in the right way. Brian Dean did a post on his blog titled “Google’s 200 Ranking Factors: The Complete List“. He even breaks it down in a free PDF you can download that shows the Top 10 Google ranking factors.
Work on this list, and your blog traffic will increase because you will have a lot of roadblocks out there that people can’t help but run into. At that point, Google will be ranking you for all kinds of keywords!
Final Thoughts
Once I wrapped my mind around the concept of backlinks as roadblocks, I could not get enough of them. Although Google places a value on a backlink in terms of its quality, there really is no such thing as a bad backlink.
Here is one more thing to keep in mind as I wrap this article up. These backlinks or roadblocks stay up for years into the future. You never know when someone is going to run into one of them and end up on your blog.
I am always amazed when I look at my blog traffic stats to see where my traffic is coming from. People do not always end up on my homepage.
Most times, it is an old post someone has found somewhere and clicked on the link. This is a great source of long-term traffic that you put the work in one time and continue to reap the benefits for a long time after the backlink was created.
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