If you are not familiar with the term “backlinks,” you’re about to be. 😉

I have come to believe that backlinks (among other traditional SEO best-practices) are among the most powerful ways you can get new listeners. This episode is aimed at teaching you the WHAT, WHY, AND HOW of that statement.

Interested? I thought you might be.

Here’s a rough outline of this HIGH QUALITY BACKLINKS episode…

  • [2:18] What IS a backlink and why are they important? (An example)
  • [5:08] How your guests are a powerful win-win source for backlinks
  • [8:27] The obvious ways podcasters can create backlinks (websites for resources)
  • [10:05] Email to people who write about your topic(s)
  • [13:03] It takes 3 things you don’t see in ample supply these days: time, know-how, consistency

what are high quality backlinks

Backlinks – what are they?

Every time you surf the internet you see backlinks. You probably just don’t know that’s what they are called.

A backlink is any link from a website YOU DO NOT OWN that points back to your website. Let that sink it for a minute. A link, somewhere else on the internet, pointing to your site.

That means when I place a link right here to Josh’s incredible podcast recording tool, Zencastr, I just gave him a backlink.

You need to get those for yourself, pointing to your website, your podcast episodes, your about page, anything on your site that’s worth pointing to.

But backlinks are on someone else’s site! How can I control what THEY do?

I get it, other people have to agree to link to your website. But here’s what you need to realize:

Very few people will link to your podcast website if you don’t ask them.

And there are ways you can ask for those backlinks that are not smarmy, spammy, awkward, or otherwise untoward.

I promise. It can be done without sounding like a “Hey, gimme, gimme, gimme!” thing.

On this episode I give you a number of ways to do it – including the kind of verbiage you can use to reach out to other people and persuade them to link to your site.

In this episode I mention a guy named Neil Patel (there’s a backlink for Neil) who is an SEO expert and who shares all kinds of generous stuff about how to rank in Google. The article he wrote about gaining backlinks (linked below in the resources) is packed with things you can do to get backlinks regularly.

In fact, I think I’m going to reach out to Neil to see if he might be willing to link to THIS page. There you go!

It's to your benefit to get high quality backlinks

What makes a high quality backlink?

If you search the internet you’ll probably find some bozo on Fiverr (yeah, that’s a backlink… though they don’t deserve it) who will take your money in exchange for getting you lots of backlinks.

Be careful. No, BE VERY CAREFUL!

The “high quality” part of this whole backlink thing is vitally important. That’s because Google and the other search engines are getting smarter all the time.

The algorithms can tell if the sites linking to you are…

  • Relevant to your industry/niche/topic OR NOT
  • Reputable sites to begin with
  • Linking to you in a “natural” way because of an established relationship with you
  • And more…

So trying to game the system by paying for backlinks will likely bite you in your behind sooner rather than later.

You want to make sure you’re steering clear of those kinds of shenanigans. You do that by sticking with high quality backlinks.

That means you’re working to get backlinks that are…

  1. From sites with a good reputation
  2. Sites that actually get a decent amount of traffic
  3. Sites that provide content that is truly valuable (not just words on a page)
  4. And sites that have something to do with what you have something to do with. I think.

This episode is an audio version of all the things having to do with getting high quality backlinks.

Podcast guests are a natural source of high quality backlinks

Podcasters have some very natural ways to get high quality backlinks

Does your podcast feature guest interviews?

Wait for it….

BOOM! Those people are your number one target when it comes to you reaching out to people who might be willing to link to your site.

They are likely reputable in their field.

They likely have a fairly substantial web presence.

And you KNOW they want to expand that web presence because they were on your podcast!

It’s a natural fit to ask them to link to the exact show notes page where they are featured in all their glory (you DO create show notes pages for your episodes, don’t you?).

Reach out to the people behind the resources you mention - they can provide backlinks too

You also mention resources that will be helpful to your listeners, right?

Those resources are things companies are spending big money to promote.

You can offer them a way to do so for the cost of a tiny bit of text and a link on their website.

Yep, a backlink.

I know it sounds a bit intimidating, but anything is scary the first time.

Don’t give in to the fear! The future of your podcast depends on more people being able to find it – and backlinks help make that a reality.

You can do this. I really believe that. I wouldn’t have recorded this episode if I didn’t.

So – you’re going to hear how I suggest you go about reaching out to those companies – including examples of verbiage you can use in your emails to ask for the backlink.

You need to position it as a win-win situation – because it is. On this episode I give you some of the tools you’ll need to do it.

If you can write a kind email, you can get high quality backlinks

Then there are those other people out there in internetland who talk about the same things you talk about…

I’m not talking about your competition. I’m talking about the people who operate in areas that are aligned with what you talk about.

Here’s my example from the episode…

Suppose you do an episode on your podcast about the joys of underwater basket-weaving for pregnant women. Google it, I dare you!

Who are the people who may talk about such things? People who talk about…

  • Women
  • Pregnancy
  • Basket weaving
  • Water sports or activities

You get the point… right?

It only takes a Google search to find out who the big names are in any of those areas. And it only takes a couple of clicks to find contact info on their websites.

You can reach out to them, explaining that you recently published a podcast episode about one of the subjects they cover. Would they mind checking it out – and possibly linking to it?

“But that’s not me. I’m not the kind of person to ask someone I don’t know for a favor.”

Oh, really.

Then what kind of person ARE you?

Oh yeah, you’re the kind of person who doesn’t do the work to make their podcast what it could be.

Come on – think this through!

Isn’t it worth conquering your fears about reaching out (email is a lot easier than in person, trust me) so you can bring greater benefit to more listeners?

So… off my soapbox now. Just listen. It’ll probably take you less time to hear what I have to say than it did for you to read this post about it.

Just sayin’.

Are you willing to put in the time to get high quality backlinks?

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Ep 75 infographic - high quality backlinks

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