5 Types of Content You Should Create to Earn Backlinks

Link building is a strategy that involves earning backlinks from other sites, pointing back to your website. What are backlinks? They're simply hyperlinks that lead to your website from other sites.

Backlinks are important because when other high-quality websites link to yours, search engines see this as a vote of confidence and will often give your rankings a boost. But how can you get high-quality backlinks? One of the ways you can supercharge your link-building efforts is by publishing informative, engaging content that other sites will want to share with their readers.

Here, I’m going to walk you through five types of content you should consider incorporating into your link-building strategy for the best results.

1. Original Research

Pieces of original research such as surveys, experiments, and studies are poised to earn backlinks because they’re great for backing up points someone might be trying to make in an article or blog post.

To come up with an idea for original research, consider what kind of information your customers and others in your industry would find helpful.

For example, LendEDU, a site that provides information about financial lending, conducted original research by asking 1,200 employed individuals, “What would you do for a 10% raise?” It turns out that 35% of respondents would give up their right to vote, and 54% would give up social media for five years. The results are fascinating and give a lot of insight into how far people are willing to go for more money.

The survey was relatively simple, but it produced a lot of information that could be cited in a wide range of articles. Could you conduct a similar study that’s relevant to your niche and publish the findings on your site for others to link to?

2. Infographics

Infographics are visual representations of statistics or processes, and they’re highly shareable. This is because they look good and communicate a lot of information in an easily digestible way.

You don’t have to be a graphic designer to create your own infographics, either. There are platforms that offer high-quality templates that will give you professional results without the hard work. For instance, Venngage (a client of Loganix) and Canva offer infographic makers that allow you to simply choose a design, input your facts and figures, and download a ready-to-publish visual.

Looking for some inspiration? Influence & Co.'s infographic on reaching customers through content marketing is colorful and engaging, and it does a great job of getting all of the necessary information across in a way that’s easy to understand.

How could you enhance your own content with shareable, linkable infographics?

3. Free Tools or Templates

Publications and influencers love to share free tools their audiences will find valuable. So consider whether you could create some that address your ideal customer’s pain points. These could include templates, spreadsheets, calculators, and more.

For example, FreshBooks (a Loganix client) provides free online invoice templates. The online accounting software provider serves freelancers and small business owners, so these free tools are relevant to its niche. But they also give other business, finance websites, and accounting websites a reason to provide FreshBooks with a backlink, which is ideal for its SEO.

Are there any free tools you could create and publish on your website for other platforms to link to? Just remember that they should be relevant to your field of work and valuable for your ideal customers.

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Ready to create exceptional gated content resources that provide real value to your audience?

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4. Informative Videos

Informative, nonpromotional videos can be great link magnets. Not all businesses have the means to create high-quality videos, yet they’re becoming more popular by the day. This means that some websites might be willing to link to your videos if they’re relevant to their readers’ interests.

Neil Patel creates highly linkable videos. Take a look at his videos about writing well-ranked blog posts and growing your Facebook branding, for instance. Videos like this are incredibly useful for professionals and fellow marketers, which means they're positioned to gain backlinks from sites like business blogs, marketing publications, and more.

Could you create high-quality, educational, nonpromotional videos about topics you’re an expert in?

5. Interactive Content

Interactive content is great for building backlinks, making your website more engaging, and providing value for visitors. Plus, if the content is genuinely useful, other sites will want to share it. This type of content could include quizzes, calculators, polls, and more.

For instance, the Looka Logo Maker incorporates a quiz that allows prospective customers to answer a few simple questions and outline some of their preferences before they’re presented with a design for their website. Because it's personalized, helpful, and easy to use, the logo maker is poised to earn backlinks from graphic design, business, and creative websites.

Another example is EyeBuyDirect’s virtual glasses try-on feature. It allows you to choose a pair of glasses and then use your smartphone camera to see how they’ll look on your face. Fashion blogs, magazines, and more tend to link to interactive content like this because it offers something unique and is engaging and genuinely helpful.

What kinds of unique content could you create to make your site more engaging and convince others that they should link back to you?

To get the most value out of your content, you need to come up with ideas for securing more backlinks to boost your SEO. The types of content I’ve outlined here are particularly shareable and can help you to grow your profile. No matter your industry, interactive content, infographics, original research, and free tools can help you get ahead. So start brainstorming and creating!

To learn about more ways you can use content marketing to improve your SEO, download your free guide below.