“Part-Two of our Series ~ How To Gain Traffic To Our Sites, Back links and More By Mike Dane of TruConversion”

Hello and Welcome Friends, Authors, and Visitors,

.
My friend Mike Dane from TruConversion is back to share Part Two of this week’s guest article about how we gain more traffic to our websites and blogs and learning how to use back links properly. Part One was pretty interesting and I myself used a few of the samples Mike had shared with us already. So let’s see what more we can from Part Two where we ended our article about Characteristics Of Quality Backlinks . . .

(Mike Dane, PR Manager for TruConversion.com)
.

Now, that you know the basics, how do you create high-quality backlinks?

How To Create High-Quality Backlinks:

One: Give Testimonials

Yeah! Today we flip the coin. Instead of advising you how to include testimonials in your site, we will tell you why leaving testimonials in other websites is great for your blog

So, here goes:

Imagine finding a relevant product from a relevant site and leaving a testimonial there with a link back to your blog. How many people will you have referred back to your blog especially when you give a testimony on how well a particular product or service has worked for you?
Here is why testimonials are your good hunting ground for traffic:

A consumer review survey has showed that 88% of people have read reviews to determine the quality of a business, 39% read reviews on a daily basis and only 12% of people actually don’t read reviews.

.
Source: Searchengineland

As seen from the image above, the trend on how many people read online reviews is an upward one. This means that this is a potential place of building high quality backlinks.

Hypothetically speaking, if you write reviews in these businesses especially the go to one, in my view, then you widen your net on leading as much traffic back to your blog.

While you do this, remember the Google trustrank philosophy and try to choose high quality websites to plant your testimonials.

Here is an example of how a testimonial links back to your site:

Two: Look For Opportunities In ‘Best Of ‘ Blog Posts

Yeah! Today we flip the coin. Instead of advising you how to include testimonials in your site, we will tell you why leaving testimonials in other websites is great for your blog.

Truth be told, the internet has too much information and the best way to go around your search is looking for best of something. Believe me, I do this too.

Take for example;

If you wanted to know the best website analytics tools in the market at a particular moment, a blog post with a list of at least 10 such tools would really narrow down your search ( seriously, look no further, Truconversion offers the best analytics in the market).

Visit Source: E-commerce platforms (for infographic)

Why is this the gold mine?

I will give you two reasons.

If your blog is featured in such a list in your niche area, then you are sure of getting traffic from these sources. After all, these people came there to EASILY find you! This means the more people the list attracts, the higher your chances of attracting more traffic.

If you are not featured, you can pen down a request to the blogger and have yourself featured. (Be careful with your approach on this though. You might throw some people off especially when you sound like you are using them) You have a list of high ranking, popular bloggers in your niche that you can review and in turn create backlinks through them. This means that you need not feature in the list but use the list to know who to review.

Three: Link Reclamation:

You know, sometimes your backlinks get lost in one of the simplest ways possible. Someone mentions your blog and fails to link back to it.

This is not those situations where you sit back and whine. There is something that you can do.

Let’s look at what Brian Dean from backlinko did:

He discovered that a particular blog post had mentioned his blog but did not link back to him. Here is what he saw:

.
Source: Backlinko

You can see that backlink was mentioned but the text is not hyperlinked.

When Brian saw this:

He took time and wrote an email to the blog owner, with a friendly reminder to include the link. This is what we call link reclamation.

The fact that someone took time to mention your blog in theirs means that they think you got value. So, talking to them shouldn’t me hard.

But how will you know that you have not been linked?

Great question!
Brian Dean did not have the internet at the back of his head but he knew how to use it to find out who didn’t link back to his blog, after mentioning it.
This is the process, according to him.

Find Unlinked Mentions

Tools such as BuzzSumo and Mention.net help you to find mentions of your brand all over the internet. The beauty of it is that you will get a notification whenever someone writes about you online.
Here is a search Brian did in one of these tools:

.

.

Source: Backlinko

See whether the blogger who mentioned you linked back

This is simple, simply click on the links you will be shown with your mentions, and manually find out if the blogger linked back to you.

If they did, you are good to go. If they didn’t, then proceed to the next step.

Reach out
Now that you are sure that you have not been linked, politely contact the blogger and let them know. To make it easier for them, mail them the article link.

Four: Guest Blog
Of course, this would not miss the list!

Sometimes, the best way to build traffic for your blog is to publish in another blog.

Don’t get me wrong here. Someone would argue that the guest post will lead to the hosting blog but not yours.

Sure enough.

But look at the benefits.

If you do a great job, the traffic in the host website would want to read more from you. Better still, this is your chance to personally use another blog, most likely a more popular blog, to refer traffic to your blog.

Your author profile could also serve as your pitch to traffic in the host blog, giving the reasons why they should visit your blog. To crown it all, the killer post is usually proof of your work. So you better work it!

One more benefit:

You easily sell yourself as an expert. You know why? The fact that a different blog let you publish on its platform gives the illusion that you are an expert. (This is very easy marketing if you ask me).

Now that you understand how crucial this is, let me teach you how to be an excellent guest blogger.

I will start with one major guest blogging don’t.

Since this is your gateway to generating backlinks, you might get excited and decide to write on every blog that offers guest blogging opportunities.

Listen,

Not every blog is a great guest blogging opportunity. Guest blogging is actually sometimes an arrangement that I would like to call ‘scratch my back, I scratch yours.

So, compare the value you are getting against the value you are offering.

How To Craft A Guest Post:

Provide a positive experience for your audience: This is basically about the UX-the post’s readability. Can someone skim through and immediately pick out the important points? Do you have visualHYPERLINK “http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/boost-engagement-visual-content”s to engage readers?

Here is why you need to include visuals. Your audience remembers only 20% of what they read and 80% of what they see.

For this reason, you can’t afford to ignore visuals when doing your guest post.

Offer solutions to your audience: In terms of quality, a post that offers a solution to a problem, showing tangible and proven techniques, is the best. The fact that guest posting displays you as a pro doesn’t mean that you should relax.

Prove your worth by giving valuable information.

Let the content trigger response: Great content is bound to make your readers want to contribute and add to the conversation.

In the event that there are any responses in the comments section, be sure to respond. It is rude to be a digital mute.

Leave a mark: Be sure to link back to your blog in the most appropriate way possible as discussed between you and the blog owner. (You are a guest here so you must play by the house rules).

Five: Use Q&A Platforms To Your Advantage:

People always have questions that they need answered in different areas in life. Now, as much as answering them will generate high quality backlinks for you, you need to be careful about the Q and A forums you indulge in.

The kind of forum in my view, will determine the quality of audience you will have and the quality of backlink.

Now, among these many platforms which include Quora and Yahoo, I choose to discuss LinkedIn.

This is why:

LinkedIn is the best social network for lead generation, compared to the rest. It has the highest visit-to-lead conversion rate of 2.74% compared to 0.69% and 0.77% on twitter and Facebook respectively.

.

.

Source: Hubspot

Well, I know this is a social media network and not necessarily a Q&A platform but I will show you how it actually is:

I like the fact that it is a social media platform, meaning that it is one of the greatest places to generate leads and traffic. So, if you want people to read your blog, why not post a link here?

But, how?

Well, in the past, you actually did not have a voice on LinkedIn. By this I mean that you did not have the opportunity to publish and speak out your mind.

And now.

LinkedIn has opened up its publishing platform that will allow its members to create content.

Here is how you use this particular feature.

Write a short status that will trigger someone to want to read further, then boom, you provide a link leading to your blog. It has been shown that providing a link in your update increases engagement by 84%.

Let’s look at one great LinkedIn post example that would teach you how to drive insane traffic to your blog:

.

.

Source: LinkedIn

From the image above, you can deduce the features of a great post when generating backlinks. Do you see the power of visuals and providing a link just after writing a short update that’s a teaser?

And Oh, I forgot to mention something juicy:

LinkedIn has over 259 million users, a figure that increases by 40% each year.

Isn’t this great fishing ground for traffic?

Problem is:

Everyone is focused here, therefore targeted to a particular niche. This means that your potential traffic is less than the attractive 259 million people.

Great news: There is a way out!

It’s simple! Find other avenues other than the publishing platforms to build backlinks. We will discuss two of these.

#1: Actively Participate In LinkedIn Answers

In order to be visible and stand out among the 259 million members, you need to be an active participant.

So, what is LinkedIn Answers?

This is a QHYPERLINK “http://www.linkedin.com/answers/”&HYPERLINK “http://www.linkedin.com/answers/”A platform within LinkedIn where people ask questions, expecting useful answers. The beauty of this is you are sure that these people are professionals seeking valuable answers and would do anything to solve their business problems.

In this case you need to provide the best answers possible as long as you are sure you clearly understand the problem.

Here is quick advice:

This is not about self-promotion.

Yes we understand that is the motive behind backlinks in a bid to generate links but because this is a high quality forum, you need to be more careful.

The best way to generate incredible traffic is to establish yourself as a thought leader in that field, while you do this, you also post links back to your blog.

Be sure to add a disclaimer and clearly state that you are out to offer the best advice you have. This way, you will build more trust by not coming off as someone desperate for blog traffic.

The result? Amazing! People will begin to perceive you as an expert and even refer traffic to you.

#2: Participate In LinkedIn Groups:

LinkedIn groups are usually targeted at professionals in a particular field.

For example, if you are a website developer interested in user experience, you can join a specific LinkedIn group on the same, where all you talk about are UX tips and tricks.

This is your most opportune moment to share your best knowledge and invite people to read your blog. (These are professionals so the blog better be good).

Here is how you do this:

You need to join the group and encourage your marketing team (if you have one) to join the group. Do this, you need to comment whenever relevant questions are asked and if necessary, post a link back to your blog where someone can find additional information.

With time, as long as you are a consistent participant, you will increase awareness for your blog and in turn attract high quality traffic, which is targeted and focused.

In my view, this is the kind of blog traffic that will give you the lowest bounce rates.

Let me tell you why I think so:

They did not just stumble upon your blog. You established your blog as the go to place when they need to have problems solved and great knowledge impacted. This means when they come knocking, they know exactly what they are looking for and are sure they can find it in your blog.

So, how do you choose groups in LinkedIn?

It is a general rule that you can only participate in 50 groups or less. LinkedIn thinks that is it not practical for one to actively participate in more than 50 groups.

More so, some people, who need traffic, just end up spamming these groups with backlinks to their sites, eroding the essence of the group.

For this reason, you need to be very careful when picking your groups since you cannot participate in all of them.

Use the key group insights to determine if the group has your target audience.

The image below shows you what you should see when you do this:

Source: LinkedIn

After getting your ideal group, let me show you how to stand out:

Establish yourself as a thought leader

We had discussed the importance of establishing yourself as a thought leader earlier in this post. So we will not delve much into it.

Just a quick reminder:

Don’t portray yourself as someone who is looking to generate quick high quality backlinks and increase traffic. Just do what you do best- giving valuable information.

If you make the mistake of displaying yourself as someone who is desperately building links, then you risk being misjudged.

And even when the information you have in your blog is exactly what these people need, their negative perception will cause them to view your blog with bias. In worse cases, shun it.

In THREE simple words:

Build your credibility, be genuine and be honest. The rest will flow as desired.

Give In-depth answers to questions

To be a thought-leader, you need to be better than the rest. There has to be a defining feature. One of them is how you answer questions.

Refrain from giving obvious answers that every Tom, Dick and Harry in your field would.

Instead:

Give your insight, have an aha moment.

It is the extra information that counts. While you do this, remember that it is not always that you will give links to your blog. Sometimes it is better off to make people want more of the honey then when the interest builds to a certain level, you lead them to the honey pot.

Last tip:

Follow the conversation and be opportunistic. Give your info at the right moment.

Sometimes, just sit back and watch the conversation unfold then unleash your knowledge.

Create a poll

This is a smart way of getting content for your next post which you can draft after the poll and then use this same audience as your way of building backlinks.

When creating a poll, you need to be careful though because some groups do not allow. So you need to check the moderator settings.

Here is how you do it:

Create polls to find out the biggest industry problems and have people discuss them in the survey.

At this point, you need to be focused on the poll not your intentions with it. One wrong miscalculated move and someone somewhere will assume that this is more about traffic than solving industry problems.

Here is what you do with the information:

After analysis, be sure you are creating new knowledge and now, this will help you create backlinks. Do you know how?

Whenever people quote your statistics, they will have to refer back to the blog post that discussed the poll.(please read on link reclamation to know how to find out when people don’t link back to you).

This will obviously be your first blog post generated by the poll. You can get a second post too.

From the poll, you can tell high priority and low priority problems. Your second post will now revolve around these problems, while you offer solutions. Better yet, depending on your judgment, all these problems can individually lead to different blog posts.

Then,

3 thoughts on ““Part-Two of our Series ~ How To Gain Traffic To Our Sites, Back links and More By Mike Dane of TruConversion””

Opinionated Man says:

February 28, 2016 at 8:32 am

Glad to see you back! Right?

LikeLiked by 1 person
- Catherine Townsend-Lyon, Author says:
  
  February 28, 2016 at 2:54 pm
  
  YES, yes!!!! LOL. All it was is having to clear my Browser History and Cookies … When you don’t periodically your blog may send spam??? Never heard such a thing? But ALL is good in my Blog Hood!! 🙂
  
  Cat
  
  LikeLiked by 1 person
  - Opinionated Man says:
    
    February 28, 2016 at 2:54 pm
    
    Glad to hear it CAT! 🙂
    
    LikeLiked by 1 person