While backlinks are an integral part of SEO, it is crucial to look for backlink opportunities that give you a competitive edge over your competitors. You can’t get ahead of the competition if you are using the same old link-building tactics as everybody else. It is imperative to do something different that sets you apart from the crowd and gives you a plethora of link-building opportunities at the same time. No doubt, guest blogging for link building is one of the ways to do this, however, you can even go one step further to make things more interesting. One of the most effective scaling link-building tactics is content marketing. We explore how you can use interactive content in your marketing strategy to help you get backlinks.
Content marketing for backlinks is quite simple; all you need is to create a unique & valuable content piece that your competitors cannot replicate.
The focus should be to create something great and reach out to the right people who would want to link to the content piece.
When you are able to create a linkable asset, be it a blog or even an interactive visual like eye-catching infographics, people, including influencers and top publishers, in your niche would willingly link to your content. And, since your competitors haven’t created anything similar, you’ll also have a competitive advantage over them, making it easier to get ahead of the curve and acquire the desired online visibility. In fact, using various types of interactive content can greatly improve your backlink profile. If you want to learn more about optimizing your content for backlinks and gaining that competitive edge, I recommend checking out the insightful resources available at socialwick.com. They provide valuable tips and strategies to enhance your online presence.
Design Specific Tools
Believe it or not, but designing tools is one of the most effective interactive content methods to attract quality backlinks. People, for several years, have acquired thousands of quality backlinks by designing tools that help their target audience.
However, your idea should be unique. If there are already dozens of similar tools in the industry, you are less likely to get the desired recognition and backlinks for your tool. For instance, if you are in the SEO industry, you can think of designing a Keyword Research Tool that helps people find the right keywords.
Now, since there are already several keyword research tools in the industry, you will struggle to attract customers to your tool. Well, not exactly! If you can add something valuable to your tool that none of the other tools provide, people will start using your keyword research tool to find relevant keywords for their website.
Neil Patel has already done this with Uber Suggest, one of the top keyword research tools in the market. In addition to displaying regular keyword metrics such as search volume, difficulty, CPC, UberSuggest also helps give you dedicated volume for mobile and desktop.
Since none of the other keyword research tools provide mobile & desktop search volume, UberSuggest ended up becoming one of the top keyword research tools in the market. The tool became so popular that it ended up acquiring 139k backlinks from 14k unique referring domains.
So, if you want to acquire backlinks by designing tools, here’s what you should remember.
Make Sure that Your Idea Is Unique
If you are designing something similar to an existing tool, make sure that it provides additional value to the audience
The tool should be easy to use so that people can easily access it and get on with their day. Even though it may take several months to create a valuable tool, you should not restrict yourself from using this format for link building. If you have an idea, focus on how you can improve it so that it provides value to the target audience. And, that’s it! You’ll have enough link-building opportunities.
As far as outreaching is concerned, make sure to reach out to article sources that talk about similar tools. For instance, in the case of a keyword research tool, you would want to talk about the top keyword research tools in the market.
Interactive Games
Believe it or not, but games and quizzes are always an amazing way to attract high-quality backlinks. Launch games that engage people and you’ll have a streamline of backlinks when people share it on their social media profiles and other platforms. This type of interactive content will keep your target market engaged.
You can also pick a specific topic, that people like to talk about a lot, and conduct an engaging quiz on the same. Using games and quizzes is one of the most effective ways to drive engagement from your target audience.
However, there’s only one drawback of games and quizzes, it takes time to create and launch an interactive game.
First of all, you need an amazing idea. Keep in mind that you can’t win the game by simply having a unique idea, it is also essential to make sure that your game/quiz has the potential to engage the visitors.
That’s the reason why games are often considered a better content opportunity for B2C businesses. Since these businesses communicate with regular customers, it is easier to divert their minds and engage them by designing an interactive game/quiz.
So, how do you start while designing a game? Well, the thumb rule says, you should start with brainstorming an idea. The idea should be completely out of the box so that your content can achieve the eventual goal, i.e., engaging the audience.
You can also involve your team in the process to make your ideas more captivating. Once you have the right idea, the next step is to hire a team that can develop the game for you. If you have an in-house team of developers, that’s even better as you could monitor the entire process on your own.
When it comes to outreaching, you can always find publishers and ask them to write about your newly launched game. However, make sure that the headline is captivating so that it can engage the reader.
For instance, “Here’s a game that 3 out of 5 people fail to complete.” is far better than “Here’s a new game you can try”. The latter is most likely to be ignored by the majority of visitors as it is used by many online publishers. So, in addition to finding the right idea for your game, make sure to write a captivating and optimized title.
Interactive Maps
Using maps is one of the most effective ways to represent data by country. However, if you have ever paid attention, maps aren’t the most attractive type of content out there. In fact, most of the time people have to double-click (zoom-in slightly) to find the information they’re looking for.
That’s why maps often fail to attract people. However, that can be changed easily. All you have to do is make a regular static map an interactive asset. To do so, you can add a dedicated zoom-in feature that makes things easier. You can also display additional information when a reader hovers his mouse over a particular region.
The reason why maps work so nonchalantly is that people always want to compare themselves to others. When you publish maps that compare the analytics of different countries, you eventually provide users with quick information that is helpful and easy to access. As a result, more and more people would willingly link to these maps and you’ll have dozens of backlinks in no time.
Data-Driven Content
As far as link building is concerned, data-driven content works like a charm. Now, we’re not talking about regular listicles (Top 10 Things You Need for XYZ….). By data-driven content, we mean content that is well-researched and the data can be used to craft the perfect story that people can’t stop reading.
Of course, writing such an article will require in-depth research and it may take several days to complete your story. However, in the end, you’ll have many people knocking at your door to link to the content.
When it comes to data-driven content, however, it is essential that your content drives the reader towards a specific conclusion. It is not a good strategy to publish random data that doesn’t link to each other whatsoever. Try to craft a story that provides value to the reader and moves towards a precise conclusion. In between, you can place the data that seems most suitable.
Publishing data-driven content is an effective way to acquire quality backlinks as people always look forward to linking to accurate and well-researched data.
Infographics & Reports
Infographics have been in the picture for several years. While some SEOs say infographics are dead, that’s not completely true. If you can manage to create interactive infographics, it’ll become way easier to engage the readers.
Interactive infographics allow you to present information in a completely unique way. As a result, it would become easier to provide valuable content to your audience and people would want to link to your article.
Final Words
As far as interactive content is concerned, you have too many options to choose from. However, whichever option you decide to go with, it is imperative to ensure that your content has the potential to engage a reader. It doesn’t matter if you publish a regular study or an infographic, the focus should be to make it interactive.
