Backlinks are an integral part of achieving growth online as a company, however there still remains much mystery with regard to successfully obtaining quality backlinks.
What are quality backlinks?
When another company or blog refers to your company by linking to it, this is referred to as a backlink. Quality backlinks come from pages with large audiences and dedicated readers, as this will encourage more new visitors to the link.
Guest posting is a great way to get quality backlinks, however many companies find this to be time-consuming, and not all brands wish to have their content posted somewhere outside of their own domain.
Fortunately, there are many other ways companies can get quality backlinks without the need to give away content. One method of doing so is through the Moving Man Method.
The Moving Man Method largely revolves around finding websites that are no longer working. Either the company moved to another domain, or has shut down; either way, the point is to find websites that are no longer being occupied by a functioning company.
Once a list of these websites has been made, it’s time to start scouring the web for backlinks to these sites. It’s very likely that a number of pages have mentioned the website in an article or two, and they will appreciate knowing that these links no longer work. After all, sites with backlinks to non-existent pages are negatively affected by it as well, making it important to them that they change the information when necessary.
After you’ve found backlinks to the non-functioning webpages, contact the blog owners to let them know that the link no longer works. This alone is a great way to get a mention, as many bloggers will give a shout out to those who notice non-functioning links, however the method can be stepped up by offering your own relevant content as a substitute for the missing content.
For example, if you have recently published an article about SEO marketing, and you notice that a popularly backlinked SEO article is no longer on the web, reach out to backlinkers offering up your own content instead. In many cases, they will substitute the previous link for your own, giving you a quality backlinks.
The best way to find non-functioning links is by searching for them using Google. Phrases such as “tech and mobile rebrands” will bring up hundreds of articles about companies that have re-branded themselves, which often leads to finding expired links.
Backlinking is a long and continual process, however the Moving Man Method can be a highly effective way of establishing a large database of backlinks with little time spent. As with any marketing practice, it gives what is put into it, and dedicated marketers can profit greatly from this method if done effectively.
