What are Backlinks and are They Still Relevant for SEO?

SEO outreach can significantly increase your website’s your website’s position in search results. But how can you apply this practice to your marketing strategy, and why should you do so?

Since off-page SEO is still quite popular, backlinks are becoming very valuable. A website with high-quality backlinks will rank higher on Google, staying ahead of competitors. However, it can be challenging to get the necessary number of backlinks to improve off-page SEO. This is where search engine optimization outreach comes into play.

In this article, we are going to take a closer look at SEO outreach, talk about its pros and cons, the specifics of dealing with this link type, and share our experience in this field.

How Do Links Affect SEO?

Why is link-building important for SEO? Imagine you have just finished creating your piece of content and published it. Now, you want as many people as possible to see it. Backlinks are an especially important ranking factor, and getting good ones is an effective way to let Google know that your website is a high-quality resource worthy of being cited. This way, websites with high-quality backlinks tend to rank higher.

Improving link building takes some practice, but once you get the hang of it, it can help you get ahead of your competitors in search results. There are over 60 link-building methods that you can test to determine what best suits your case. The various approaches to acquiring links are a complex topic, so we’ll discuss them in more detail in a separate article.

Check out our Link Building Case Study if you want to analyze how our outreach works in more detail.

Google and other major search engines consider backlinks to be a “trust indicator” for a website. Every mention means that your content is valuable, reliable, and helpful.

In our strategies, we often use links to improve and accelerate results. We get links guaranteed to help websites get high rankings on Google faster. What is the benefit? This is a time-consuming process we take away from the client, and it will be difficult for competitors in the market to replicate.

What Is Outreach?

Outreach involves creating valuable links from third-party websites (donors) that lead to the client’s website. This is an integral part of online advertising, and can hinder the success of an entire SEO strategy if managed poorly. Backlinks help to increase organic and referral traffic by introducing the company to a new audience. However, getting high-quality backlinks can be very difficult, especially when compared to much-cheaper lower-quality options. However, Google and other search engines recognize this and penalize websites that use spammy links and similar shady tactics. As a result, high-quality backlinks are extremely precious. We use only high-quality links from trusted resources and select them according to specific criteria.

There are secondary benefits associated with outreach: increased brand awareness and credibility. When your link-building team convinces authoritative publishers to spread the word about your business or include your links in their content, all of their readers become your potential clients. Since the publisher has built a relationship with its audience, they are likely to trust its recommendations, lending you some additional credibility.

Pros and Cons

Like each of the link-building methods, outreach has its pros and cons. Let’s look at them in more detail.

Pros:

• Safe promotion method: Outreach is a relatively safe method if used correctly. This is crucial because unacceptable link-building methods quickly lead to penalties in the modern SEO environment.
• Effectiveness: Outreach backlinks are often more effective compared to other link-building strategies. 
• Improved performance: Outreach backlinks can significantly improve the website’s authority, rankings, and positions in search results.
• Page promote to the top: Using outreach can help your pages get to the top of search results, which is a key task for increasing website visibility.
• Fast SEO optimization: Outreach can accelerate SEO optimization, providing faster ranking growth and improved search engine positions.

Cons:

• Time: The link-building process is not easy. It requires the most important resource — time. Searching for websites, negotiating agreements, creating an anchor plan, writing content, and publishing are time-consuming processes that need to be done before you get results. Bear in mind that a published article may not be indexed for some time, which also slows the process down.

All in all, you need to be patient, especially if your website is new and still needs to “win” Google’s trust.

• Price: A high-quality and high-performing donor will demand a corresponding price. Furthermore, to beat your competitors you’ll need a significant number of links per month.

As you can see, the pros clearly outnumber and outweigh the cons, but you should still be mindful of the potential disadvantages and modify your strategy if need be.

Can You Get Traffic and Rankings Without Backlinks?

Backlinks historically play a significant role in SEO, with search engines using them to assess a website’s authority and relevance. However, the market is constantly evolving, and recent developments have challenged the notion that backlinks are the sole determinant of a website’s success.

But that was the theoretical part. When it comes to practice, our answer is, “Yes, you can rank without using backlinks, but it will likely be a more challenging and time-consuming process”. That being said, there are several ways to do so if you are willing to put in the effort.

Here are some techniques we use:

1. Use Keyword Research

One of the best ways to rank without backlinks is through keyword research. By finding keywords that are relevant to your niche and target audience, you can improve your website’s search engine rankings without resorting to spammy techniques or unethical link-building practices.

For example, we use advanced semantic collection strategies for the US, Canada, Australia, and Europe. Finding and using low-competition keywords with high and medium query frequency allows us to get more traffic than our competitors.

Content based on the proper semantics is better at attracting the interest to potential clients and, therefore, converts better into targeted actions.

How do we do this?

• We only use reliable tools like Ahrefs;
• We use our methodology and analyze competitors;
• We cluster queries qualitatively.

2. Create High-Quality Content

Another way to perform well without backlinks is to create high-quality, informative, and helpful content. This will not only increase your search engine rankings but will also encourage people to click on your links and visit your website.

We have clear criteria for the quality of texts and employ a team of professional copywriters.

Mini examples with our recommendation for the article:

What does this approach mean for you?

• You get high-quality content and minimize ineffective actions;
• High-quality content is better at converting visitors into clients.

3. Apply Other Marketing Strategies

Suppose you want to increase your rankings without using backlinks or the two methods we’ve mentioned. In that case, you need to implement other marketing strategies, such as social media promotion, paid advertising, and lead generation techniques. Each of these approaches has its advantages and disadvantages, so be sure to choose the one that best suits your business goals.

To summarize: yes, you can rank without using backlinks, but it is more challenging and takes longer than using conventional methods. If you want quick results, you can’t do without outreach links.

Conclusion

Outreach is an effective and safe method of website promotion if used correctly. This approach not only improves website performance but also contributes to its development speed and credibility. However, it is crucial to understand that outreach can be time-consuming, costly, and require careful donor selection.

Getting high-quality backlinks is essential for SEO as it increases search engine trust and accelerates rankings. When choosing donors for outreach, you should always consider their credibility and relevance to your business.

Please note that the use of outreach links is only one of the SEO strategies. There are other methods, such as keyword research, writing great content, and many more, as we’ve mentioned in the article above.

In general, outreach is a powerful tool for building a brand, improving SEO, and accelerating website growth. Still, you should carefully consider all the pros and cons of this method to achieve the best results.