These are natural recommendations from other domains that vouch for the quality and relevance of your content.
So how can you get these valuable connections?
This guide will examine some effective strategies for gaining these links and maximizing their impact on your website's success.
What Are Earned Links?
Earned links, also known as natural or editorial links, are hyperlinks that point to your website from another domain without any action on your part.
They are the result of creating high-quality, engaging content that others find worthy of referencing.
The hallmark of an earned link is its organic nature – it’s not the result of promotional efforts or incentives like giveaways or barter requests. Rather, it’s a testament to content that stands out in your niche argentina phone number resource attracts attention, and is unsolicited endorsement.
Why Are Earned Links Important for SEO?
Now you might be asking yourself, “Why should I go after these types of backlinks ?”
The simple answer is that they directly correlate to improved search engine rankings.
Google places great value on editorial consideration of content by other websites. Natural mentions show that your content is not only relevant, but also meaningful and useful to your audience.
Since the primary goal of search engines is to provide users with the best possible results, having a strong editorial link portfolio is a strong indicator of your website's credibility and can contribute significantly to its SEO.
They’re also harder to manipulate, and they show search engines that they have a real vote of confidence in your content. This can lead to a more stable, long-term online strategy that doesn’t depend on constantly adapting to algorithm changes to penalize manipulative link building practices.
Earned Link Examples
What is the definition of a great connection?
According to John Mueller, Search Relationships team leader at Google :
A good link... so a traditional good link is someone who comes across your website and thinks it's a great website and recommends it to other people with a link.
In other words, a great link is freely given and earned through the quality and value of your content.
It could come from a blog post or article recommending your website as a trustworthy source, an influencer in your industry sharing and endorsing your content, or even a happy customer including your website in their review.
Now, to fully grasp the concept, it will be useful to examine some examples of how they work and the forms they can take.
Advice from Blogs and Forums
A high-profile blogger comes across your tutorial that provides exceptional value to their readers.
He decides to include a link to your content in one of his articles as a suggestion for further reading. This move not only increases targeted traffic but also improves your site’s backlink profile.
For example, a Moz writer mentioned my article on featured snippets and decided to mention it in his article on “ Timeline of Bing and Bard Features ”:
Earned link example
Mentioned in Industry-Leading Publications
Imagine a leading publication in your industry writes an article about new trends and cites a study you published on your site.
This hyperlink becomes an earned link that shows search engines and readers the importance of your findings.
Citations in Academic or Research Articles
In the academic world, your data analysis becomes a key reference in a seminal research paper in your field, leading to a citation that is validated by the community as valuable and trustworthy.
These are just a few of the myriad ways editorial connections can emerge that highlight their diversity and importance across a variety of online platforms and industries.
Earn Links Naturally in 4 Steps
In its Search Basics , Google recommends that site owners focus on creating unique and relevant content that is useful to users. This is the basic principle behind earning links naturally: providing valuable resources or information that others will want to share.
Best practices to improve your SEO
With that in mind, here are four steps you can take to start getting your site mentioned naturally.
Step 1: Create In-Depth, Relevant Content
The foundation of an effective online strategy is content creation.
You need to produce materials that are not only relevant to your niche, but also provide comprehensive information that will make your content stand out from the competition.
In-depth articles, data-driven research, infographics, presentations , visuals, and original studies have a higher chance of getting links because they are considered comprehensive and authoritative.
Fill your content with unique perspectives, new data, or innovative approaches that compel readers to engage and share.
For example, instead of writing a general product review, try creating a detailed comparison guide between multiple products in your niche, like ModestMoney did in their Rocket Money vs Simplifi article.
Comparison guide
Step 2: Implement Strong SEO Practices
Although the primary goal is to produce content for real people, SEO practices should also be taken into consideration.
Implement on-page SEO techniques , including proper keyword usage, meta tags, and internal linking to ensure search engines can effectively understand and index your content .
This also helps potential linking sites or bloggers determine the relevance of your content when researching articles or blog posts, making it easier for them to find and link to your materials.
In my opinion, keyword research is the most critical aspect. If you can find keywords with low competition and good volume, you have a better chance of ranking higher (and being mentioned, naturally) in search engine results pages.
Use tools like Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner, or SEMrush to research and identify terms related to your content. You can also use these tools to steal competitor keywords.
Keyword intent in keyword research
Step 3: Add Structured Data Markup
Structured data markup is a language-independent way to provide search engines with additional information about your content. This metadata helps them better understand the context and meaning of your content, making it more likely to appear in relevant searches.
It can also improve the way your content appears online by providing more detailed and visually appealing snippets . It can also be used to increase the visibility of your content on other platforms, such as social media and voice assistants.
You can implement structured data markup using JSON-LD or Microdata formats. Google provides a Structured Data Markup Helper tool to help you easily generate the necessary code for your content .
Structured Data Markup Helper
Step 4: Strengthen Relationships with Your Audience and Colleagues
Every link placed editorially without your intervention is a sign of trust in your content. You can help build that trust by actively engaging with your audience and the broader community.
Respond to comments on your blog, participate in discussions in relevant forums, and reach out to colleagues with whom you can collaborate or share your content.
Building these relationships can lead to more natural attribution and possibly formal collaborations involving content sharing and cross-linking strategies.
