Ask any seasoned SEO what 3 things they want professionally and links will surely top the list.
After all, they are the lifeblood of SEO.
Sure, you could rank for some keywords just on the content alone. But if you try to target even semi-popular phrases, you will need links to overcome the competition.
But here’s the catch:
Blog posts and ordinary content no longer attract any links.
There’s just too much content published daily for an average page to attract any mentions.
And thus, to be worthy of linking to, your content has to be truly beyond exceptional. In this post I’ll show you 6 hacks that could help you achieve that.
Ready? Let’s roll it then…
Hack #1: Expand Your Content
This one seems like a no-brainer right?
The longer your content, the more likely it is to awe readers. And entice them to share and link to it.
But expanding it is not just about the length.
You see:
I have read 500 word posts that got me thinking so hard, steam started coming off my ears. And 3000 words long guides, filled with too many facts but with no substance whatsoever.
And so, expanding your content doesn’t necessarily means making it super long.
It means adding all additional information that will make the post the absolute must-read on the topic.
Perhaps there are new aspects of the topic you haven’t known of originally. New research that could offer a better insight. Or even up to date examples that could help highlight key aspects of the problem.
All these could enrich your original content and make it more linkworthy.
HINT: There is another benefit of expanding your content to cover additional information. By doing so you’ll naturally increase its keyword potential. Even the variety of words you’d add would improve its SEO potential.
Hack #2: Include More Graphics
You know, it’s almost impossible to deny:
Visuals rock the web.
For instance, take a look at this Kissmetrics’ list of content types that get shared the most on Facebook. Even though non of them focus on graphics, all are visual based or contain images.
And, this comes as no surprise.
Just consider these few facts:
- 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual.
- our brains process visual information 60000 times faster than text.
- And visuals make up for the majority of our communications.
Readers find visuals more attention grabbing, easier to process and quicker to recall.
So if you want to make your content more link worthy, expand it with visuals.
Add images to illustrate your key points.
Include slideshows and other presentation data to cram even more information in.
Also, introduce visual only content types into your strategy.
At SERPs for instance, we ran a series of cartoons poking fun at the lack of understand of SEO among top executives.
All of those cartoons generated a lot of publicity and buzz around us. And some even got us nice mentions.
Hack #3: Create Large Stats and Data Resources
I admit it:
As a writer, I constantly look for relevant research and data to include in my copy.
Heck, even in this post I linked to a couple of resources.
And thus, building a resource from which people like me could extract all the data we need is bound to attract links and mentions.
Just provide an up to date research and stats and you can count on many writers and bloggers using and referencing it.
But here’s the trick:
To make sure that writers and bloggers find your resource pages, makes sure that they’ll rank for relevant keywords and search phrases like:
[topic] + research”, “[topic] + stats” or “[topic] + statistics”
Hack #4: Offer Proprietary Research
Do you know what’s even better than building resource pages?
Being featured on them.
Many writers, myself included, if we have that option prefer to link directly to the source.
Also, many websites will build their own resource pages based on data they find online.
And thus, by providing proprietary research you could quick generate tons of links from high PR resource pages.
This is what SoTrender does for instance with their monthly Facebook trends report, for instance.
Hack #5: Poke Fun in Your Content a Little
I admit, this strategy isn’t for everyone.
Fun goes well only with some industries.
But if you could, try to poke fun, even at yourself and, for instance, create ridiculous product pages.
Just like the ThinkGeek’s Canned Unicorn Meat J
Note that they also sell Canned Dragon Meat too 
As of the time of writing, the Unicorn meat page attracted 1552 links.
And I’m sure it’s counting.
Hack #6: Build a Killer 404 Page
I admit:
This is an old trick in the book.
But since it works…
404 pages are often neglected as… technically no one’s supposed to see them unless there’s something wrong. A bad URL redirect, old page still ranking or the user confusing URLs.
But here’s the trick: a clever 404 page can generate tons of links and publicity.
Just take my friend’s Joel Klettke’s 404 page:
It’s witty and clever (make sure you click the button at the bottom, super fun!)
And it generated him over 90 quality links, including ones from top design and marketing blogs.
Nice huh?
Last updated by at September 17, 2015.