How to Build Backlinks Without Paying for Them

Summary

In this informative video, Neil Patel emphasizes the importance of acquiring backlinks for Google ranking without resorting to paid methods, which violate Google's policy and risk site bans. He introduces his free tool, Backlinks, to identify competitors' popular pages and suggests creating superior content by expanding on their topics. Patel advises crafting detailed, in-depth articles with multimedia elements and then personally emailing those who link to competitors, explaining why the new content is more valuable. This manual yet effective approach can help outpace competition and increase traffic.

Takeaways

• 🚫 Avoid Paying for Backlinks: Paying for backlinks is against Google's policy and can lead to your site being banned.
• 🔍 Use Free Tools for Link Building: Utilize free tools like Neil Patel's 'Backlinks' to find out who is linking to your competitors.
• 🔑 Identify Popular Competitor Pages: Look for the most popular pages among your competitors that have backlinks.
• 🔎 Analyze Competitor's Backlink Count: Use the Backlink report to see the number of backlinks for specific competitor URLs.
• 📈 Find Top Competitor Pages: Use the 'top pages' feature to identify the most successful content written by your competitors.
• 📝 Create Superior Content: Write a more comprehensive version of an article similar to what your competitors have, making it significantly longer and more detailed.
• 🎨 Enhance Content with Multimedia: Include images, GIFs, videos, and custom graphics to make your content more engaging and informative.
• 💌 Reach Out with Personalized Emails: Contact those who link to your competitors with a personalized email explaining why your article is better.
• 🔑 Provide Value in Your Outreach: Offer additional value in your emails, such as tips or insights, before suggesting they might want to link to your content.
• 🏆 Outpace Competition with Effort: Be willing to put in the manual labor to build quality backlinks, which can help you rank higher and capture more traffic.
• 🛑 Avoid Shortcuts and Gray Hat Tactics: Focus on long-term, sustainable strategies for link building rather than resorting to quick fixes or unethical practices.

Q & A

Why should one not pay for backlinks according to the video?

Paying for backlinks is against Google's policy and can result in your site being banned, making it a risky short-term strategy that is generally discouraged.

Who is the presenter in the video and what is he offering to teach?

The presenter is Neil Patel, and he is offering to teach viewers how to build backlinks without having to pay for them.

What is the first step Neil Patel suggests for building backlinks?

The first step is to use a free link building tool called Backlinks, which he created, and search for the competitor's URL to find who links to them and identify their most popular pages.

How does the Backlinks tool help in finding potential backlink opportunities?

The Backlinks tool shows all the people that link to your competitors and helps identify the most popular pages that have the highest backlink count.

What is the second step Neil Patel recommends for creating backlinks?

The second step is to write a better version of an article that your competitors have written, which is related to your industry, making it more in-depth and comprehensive.

How detailed should the new article be compared to the competitor's article?

The new article should be significantly more detailed, for example, if the competitor's article is 1,000 words, Neil Patel suggests making yours 5,000 words.

What kind of content does Neil Patel suggest including in the article to make it better?

He suggests including in-depth information, such as detailed steps, considerations, and possibly multimedia elements like GIFs, images, and videos to enhance the content quality.

What is the final step in Neil Patel's backlink building strategy?

The final step is to email everyone who is linking to your competition, explaining why your article is better and politely asking them to consider linking to your content as well.

What is the importance of customizing emails when reaching out for backlinks?

Customizing emails makes the outreach more personal and effective, as it shows that you have taken the time to understand the recipient's content and how your article can add value to their audience.

What is the long-term benefit of building backlinks manually as suggested by Neil Patel?

Building backlinks manually helps avoid shady tactics and ensures that the links are earned naturally, leading to a more sustainable and higher ranking on search engines over time.

How does Neil Patel's agency, Neil Patel Digital, assist with link building?

Neil Patel Digital is an ad agency that can provide help with link building, presumably offering professional services to assist with the strategies outlined in the video.