One of the joys of this social media age we’re in is that defining fame has never been easier. For example, I could easily say that Chris Hemsworth is the most famous Australian there is. Yes, even so more than the Kidmans, Blanchetts, and Minogues of the world. Blasphemy you say? Perhaps, but I’m not just saying that randomly. Using one single metric, which is Instagram followers, Chris Hemsworth’s fame easily outnumbers other prominent Australians on Instagram.

It might seem rather crude to define fame simply by numbers but given the objective nature of numbers, they remain the most reliable way of gauging fame, which brings us to the topic of backlinks. Now, ranking on Google is actually pretty similar to the idea of fame itself. And in lieu of followers, Google uses the number of backlinks to gauge the ‘fame’ of a certain webpage, which is the key focus for marketers and SEO services.

How search engine measures backlinks

Practically speaking, backlinks work similar to the way citations and references work in a scientific journal. The more references a journal has, the greater the standing of said journal within the scientific realm. Obviously, since backlinks on the internet can be relatively easy to manipulate, search engines also take into account the quality of the backlink itself into consideration.

For example, if your website is referenced in a Sydney Morning Herald page, that backlink would automatically be more valuable than if your page is referenced in a random blog somewhere. The balance between quality and quantity is important here as if your backlinks consists solely of spams, there’s a chance that Google might penalize your website as punishment. Even in 2018, backlinks are still pretty important and to help get you up to speed, here are some tips you could use to start your link building campaign.

Try to dip your toes into the world of guest posting

If you have any confidence at all on your writing, try writing for some of the world’s most notable publications. You could go with a general publication such as The Huffington Post for example, or something more specific such the small business and startup-minded Inc magazine. The two examples I’ve listed here have a very stringent quality control so if you’re just starting out, finding a local publication might be a better idea.

Since the article you’ve written, assuming you’ve passed the requirement, will be published in a notable publication, the quality of the backlink will be much better than if you’re posting on a simple blog. Typically, websites like these have an author byline, where you could simply add links to your websites in the byline instead of sneaking them inside the actual article. This is going to be a bit of hard work but for the creative-minded, think of this as a fun, career-building way of marketing your website.

Call in favors from your business partners

It is quite likely in your professional career that you have worked or will be working with another entity, whether they be an individual or another company, at least once. In fact, for client-based companies, you should already have a list of clients that you could take advantage of. Try to reach out to them and see if you could get them to mention or link your website from their own.

For example, say you’re a creative design firm that in the past, has been asked to help design the packaging of a company’s product. You can leverage this fact by perhaps asking them to include the name and a link to your company when they’re promoting the new packaging you’ve helped designed. To make things easy, it is perhaps worth considering to hash over this issue before you start your work for them in the first place.

Utilize the power of social media

Whenever you have something to say, such as a new product, an ongoing promotion or even simply a new blog post, make sure to announce them over on social media. Better yet, directly tag some people or publications that you feel is relevant to the subject of the news, if there are any. Similar to the one about guest posting, you need to have something worth promoting first or else no one is going to bother sharing what you just posted on social media.

Ask for reviews

Similar to point number two but with a more critical bent. Asking for customer reviews can be somewhat tricky since bad reviews are always a possibility. What I would usually tell people is that instead of treating bad reviews with hostility, try to take them as constructive criticism and use them as ways to further improve your business. Additionally, when you’ve been hit with a negative review, always try to reach out and apologize to them immediately to show that you do care about your customers’ opinions, which could actually improve your credibility.

Create great contents

Let’s circle back to the Instagram metric I touched at the beginning of this post. Do you know why Chris Hemsworth, someone who’s only been in the public eye for merely a decade can have more followers than Oscar-winning actresses and the highest-selling Australian musician of all time? Because he’s as funny and charming in his Instagram account as he is playing a certain God of Thunder.

Link building and the entire field of marketing can only be successful if you have something brilliant to market in the first place. Marketing can push Apple ahead of Samsung but great products is what separates being BlackBerry and Samsung. Marketing can help great contents reach their audience but it won’t magically turn bad contents into good contents. Before you focus on building links to your website, make sure that your website is worthy of those links beforehand.