I’m a fan of Brian Dean, a guru in SEO. So, when he says that “Loganix is smart, packs a punch and is built by leaders in the space” I’m in awe. So, here we are folks, talking to Aaron from Loganix on the link-worthy types of content that you can create. This is a new article from our “Learn from” series.
When it comes to SEO, link-building plays a very important role. Securing high-quality backlinks from authoritative sites signals to search engines that your website content is relevant and useful to people in your audience. And this will lead to search engines ranking your content higher on their results pages.
Having certain high-quality assets on your website can make it much easier for you to build links, either manually or organically. And, in this article, I am going to take you through 5 types you can publish on your site to give you the best chance of earning more backlinks.
Content-type 1: Findings from original research
Publishing original research on your website can be a great way to earn backlinks, as people will use your results to back up their own points or inform their own content.
There are several ways you can carry out your own research. For example, you could conduct a study to help you collect relevant data, or you could even plan and execute your own experiment to test out a hypothesis you have. Once you’ve carried out your study, just make sure you publish the findings so people can examine, share, and link to them.
To give you some inspiration, let’s take a look at a company that’s done a great job of publishing original research that’s very link-worthy.
Copyhackers provide digital marketing services and resources. And, on their website, you will find a case study about an experiment they conducted to work out how they could best optimize a pricing page for one of their clients, Mad Mimi.
In the article, they’ve highlighted things like what the previous pricing page looked like and what was wrong with it, the changes they planned to make, and the results they got from some A/B testing. This is a great example of a case study that sets out helpful results other websites might want to discuss and link back to.
If you would like to use a similar tactic for your website, consider what you could study to provide helpful information for publications and businesses in your niche. Or is there a specific problem you could solve for a client, and then publish your process and the results? It’s all about creating a resource others in your field will want to cite and link to in their own content.
Content-type 2: Buying guides or comparison pieces
Buying guides or comparison pieces are primarily designed to help people make informed buying decisions, but they can also attract a lot of links. This is because, if a writer wants to recommend a particular solution to a problem but doesn’t necessarily want to endorse a specific company, they can link to a round-up and let their readers come to their own decision about what to spend their money on.
If you’re not sure where to start when it comes to creating buying guides or comparison pieces, here are some great examples to provide you with plenty of inspiration.
First, let’s take a look at an example from SocialPilot, which is a social media marketing and management tool provider. They’ve created a post that rounds up the best Facebook ad tools. While the piece mentions their own product as well, it also outlines the pros and cons of some of the other programs on the market.
They understand that many marketers or business owners in their target audience will be looking for effective tools to help them manage their social media marketing. And they’ve tried to make the decision process much easier for them by putting together this guide.
But this is also the type of content that can attract a lot of links from people recommending Facebook ad tools. So, if you would like to reap the same benefits, consider putting together a product round-up that includes some of the items you stock. Mentioning your competitors in your own content might seem counterintuitive, but it can actually help to show you’re unbiased, make it clear you only care about your customers’ needs, and secure you more links.
Another great example comes in the form of a round-up from Best Nursing Programs. This is an online resource that aims to help aspiring healthcare professionals choose their next step in life. On their blog, they have a post that talks about the best-chartered nursing assistant programs in the United States.
Their post compares 40 schools that offer online and in-person programs, outlining the admission requirements for each school, the program lengths, and the tuition fees. Not only will this resource prove very useful for prospective students, but it’s also very link-worthy as it contains such a wealth of information. It could be shared by a lot of sites in the educational, healthcare, or career progression niche.
In the electronics world, there are lots of buying guides. Let’s say you want to buy a mirrorless camera. You might want to compare the offers from Nikon, Sony, and more. Here’s a buying guide example from PrinterWire that compares lightboxes for product photography.
Finally, check out the bohemian rug buying guide from Overstock. The company sells furniture for offices and homes, so this content is going to be very relevant for their target audience. It provides a great deal of information, from what someone should consider when buying a rug, to the different boho styles they’ll find on the site.
Not only can it help the company’s customers to make the best possible purchase, but this could also attract a lot of backlinks for the site. Interior design, lifestyle, and fashion blogs could all be interested in sharing this resource when talking about how to decorate a home with a boho style, so it’s a great tool for link-building and boosting the company’s SEO.
Content-type 3: Well-designed infographics
Infographics provide a visual representation of data and information. They can be used to present statistics, processes, or timelines in a visually appealing and easily digestible way.
If you create strong infographics using information that is relevant to your field of work, others in your industry will want to share them and include them in their own content. This will then lead to you being credited with a backlink.
To create strong infographics, keep them simple and make great use of whitespace — you don’t want them to look too cluttered. You should also use bold and catchy colors to catch people’s eyes and keep their attention. You could even make your infographics interactive to ensure they’re as engaging and link-worthy as possible.
If you don’t know where to start with creating these graphics, Venngage has a great guide to making a high-quality infographic in 5 steps, which will walk you through the process. And it even has an infographic.
Once you’ve created your infographic, make sure you reach out to websites in your niche to let them know you’re happy for them to use it. Just be sure to ask for a credit and backlink to make it worthwhile.
Content-type 4: Content that answers questions relevant to your industry
If you can create content that answers common industry questions, this can help you to earn plenty of backlinks, as people will use it to back up points they make in their own articles.
To discover which questions you should be answering with your content, you’ll want to conduct keyword research using tools like Ahrefs and Ubersuggest. Once you type a relevant word into any of these tools, you’ll be provided with a list of phrases that are commonly typed into search engines. You can then use these to come up with content topics and identify questions that need to be answered.
For more inspiration, you could also ask your customer service team whether there are any common queries they would like you to answer on your website, or browse industry forums to see if there’s any information people are frequently searching for.
Let’s take a look at some examples of businesses that are already doing a great job of creating content to answer common questions. These should provide you with lots of inspiration for when it comes to producing yours.
FreshBooks is an accounting software provider that aims to help small businesses and freelancers balance their books. And, on their blog they have a post that discusses whether you should hire an accountant for your small business. 
A lot of small business owners will ask themselves this question at one time or another, and might even type it into a search engine. So, this is an incredibly relevant topic for FreshBooks to cover with their content.
Because it’s such a universal query, it’s also a piece of content that’s sure to attract a lot of backlinks. Business, finance, and freelancing websites could all link to this as a helpful resource to provide further reading and advice for their visitors.
We can also take a look at an example from RMIT Online, a university that provides online courses in a range of fields including marketing and data science.
They’ve created a piece of content that aims to answer the question of whether we’re facing an oversupply of data scientists. Because some of their prospective students will be thinking about pursuing careers in this area, it’s obviously a very helpful resource for their target audience, but it could also serve as a strong backlink magnet.
This piece of content could be linked to by a wide range of websites, including educational, science, and careers publications. It’s a genuinely helpful guide that provides lots of in-depth information, which is what makes it so shareable and link-worthy.
Finally, we have an example from My Canada Payday, which is a financial lending company. On their website, they’ve published a post that explains how Canadians can invest for the long term.
Because the company is in the financial services industry, it’s likely a lot of their target customers will have questions about how to make their money go further. The guide contains information about high-risk and low-risk investments, trending markets and industries, and how people can diversify their investment portfolios. It’s incredibly relevant to what the business does and is sure to be helpful for the people they serve.
This is also a resource website in the financial, investment, and business spaces will want to link to as further reading. It explains everything in a clear and concise way, and provides a lot of expert advice publications will want to share with their visitors.
Content-type 5: Round-ups of advice from experts
Expert round-ups are essentially lists of advice that have been collected from professionals in your field. They’re great for building links, as they give a lot of advice at once, and the fact the opinions come from a lot of experts will give the piece a sense of authority.
To create an expert round-up, you’ll first need to choose a strong topic. This should be a subject you know your target audience already wants to know about, and it should stir up different opinions to make your round-up as interesting as possible.
Once you have a topic, you can then begin to reach out to your contributors. Since this is an expert round-up, you can’t just contact anybody. You should focus on getting in touch with people who have some authority in your field so their advice will be credible.
You can connect with experts by sending personalized emails that contain your question and politely asking if they would like to contribute to your round-up. It could also be worth following and interacting with them on social media first to build a connection. This is likely to increase the chances of your receiving a positive reply.
After your expert round-up has been created and published, you can promote it on social media, and ask the people featured to do the same. You can also let them know you’re happy for them to post a snippet on their own website with a link back to the original piece on your site. This is a relatively fail-safe way to secure plenty of backlinks for your site.
Here’s an example from Campaigner, who used to make roundups of their favorite marketing articles.
Summary
Building backlinks can take a lot of work, but it’ll be worth it once your website starts to climb the search engine results pages. By publishing findings from original research, creating buying guides, answering your customers’ questions, and more, you can publish content that’s going to attract links organically.
Aaron Haynes
Aaron Haynes is CEO and co-founder of Loganix. The company is an SEO fulfillment partner for digital marketing agencies and professionals, which provides the services businesses need to improve their online visibility and grow. If you liked this article, check out the Loganix blog, where you’ll find more SEO guides full of expert advice.
