SEO
11 Internet Marketing Strategies That Work
Internet marketing can seem quite daunting and complicated. There are so many possibilities. But which strategies should you start with?
To help answer that, we’ve dissected internet marketing into its most basic strategies. We’ve also simplified them so you can get started right away.
In this article, we’ll cover 11 internet marketing strategies that work:
- Search engine optimization
- Content marketing
- PPC marketing
- Email marketing
- Affiliate marketing
- Influencer marketing
- Video marketing
- Social media marketing
- Podcasting
- Conversion rate optimization
- Reputation management
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing a website or webpage to increase the quantity and quality of its traffic from a search engine’s organic results. When your pages rank high on the search engines and maintain their positions, you can get almost free, passive traffic to your website consistently.

The amount of monthly organic traffic coming to Ahrefs.
How to do it
If you want to rank high on search engines, you have to target topics that your audience is searching for. Finding what these topics are is a process known as keyword research, and the easiest way to begin is to use a keyword research tool like Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer.
Here’s how:
- Go to Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer
- Enter one or a few terms relevant to your website or niche (e.g., if you sell coffee equipment, then you may want to enter keywords like coffee, french press, cappuccino, etc)
- Go to the Matching terms report


From here, you’ll want to look through the list and pick out relevant topics you wish to target. Generally speaking, the “ideal” keywords are those with high Traffic Potential (TP) and low Keyword Difficulty (KD).
You can use the filters to quickly narrow down such topics.


Then you’ll want to create a page that deserves to rank for that keyword. There are a few aspects to this process. But the most important part is to figure out why searchers are looking for that topic. This is known as search intent.
You can do this by looking at what’s currently ranking on the search engine results pages (SERPs) for your topic. For example, if we’re targeting the topic “best frying pans,” we’ll see that most of the top-ranking pages are blog posts about the best non-stick frying pans.


If we want to rank for this keyword, we’ll likely have to follow suit.
Once you’ve created and published that page, you’ll have to build links because they’re an important Google ranking factor. There are many ways to get backlinks, so I recommend reading our guide to link building.
Finally, you’ll want to make sure you get the technical aspects of your website right. (After all, if Google can’t find and index your pages, it can’t rank them on the SERPs.) The easiest way is to run an audit of your website with Ahrefs’ Site Audit. You can do this for free using Ahrefs Webmaster Tools.
Recommended reading: SEO: The Complete Guide for Beginners
Content marketing is the process of creating and distributing content to attract and retain customers.
How to do it
To get started, fill in the content strategy canvas. Your goal is to answer five simple questions:
- Who are you creating content for?
- Why are you creating content?
- What type of content will you create?
- Where will you publish the content?
- How will you create the content?


Completing the content strategy canvas should set you on the right path to creating content that will improve your business. However, don’t forget to promote your content too.
Promoting content means not waiting for your target audience to discover your content. Instead, it’s about actively putting the content in front of them. Follow the checklist in this post or this video to get more eyeballs on your content:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoVYweKH4ck&ab_channel=Ahrefs
Recommended reading: Content Marketing: A Comprehensive Guide
Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing is a form of online advertising where advertisers pay a fee each time someone clicks their ad.
Search engine ads are the most common ad format in PPC marketing. Other formats include display ads on websites and social media ads, such as those you see on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
How to do it
You’ll first need to choose a platform you want to advertise on. You should only pay for ads on platforms where your audience exists. For example, if you’re selling enterprise software to C-level executives, you may not want to advertise on TikTok. (Of course, if you have data showing these execs in your industry are on TikTok often, then it makes sense to advertise there.)
After that, you should get familiar with the platform. Explore the ad platform by clicking around or take a course. These platforms typically offer educational resources to help you learn how to run ads (here’s one from Google).
Ads can succeed or fail based on your targeting, so make sure you have data to back up your targeting choices. For example, if you’re running search ads, you’ll need to do keyword research. You’ll need to know what people search for and then how much you’ll be paying for clicks on average.


You should also make sure you’ve set up your tracking properly.
Budget-wise, decide on a daily budget that won’t make a big dent in your overall marketing budget and start with that. Monitor and optimize your campaigns regularly. Once you start getting solid results, you can increase your budget.
Finally, creatives and copy matter too in PPC marketing. Make sure you’re constantly experimenting with different images, videos, headlines, body copies, and more to see what resonates with your audience!
Recommended reading: PPC Marketing: Beginner’s Guide to Pay-Per-Click Ads
Email marketing is any kind of marketing messaging done through the channel of email.
How to do it
Email marketing doesn’t just involve sending emails. It also includes:
- Building an email list.
- Designing, writing, and sending emails to the subscribers on your list.
- Segmenting the list.
- Deciding when to send the email.
- Monitoring the results.
- Curating the email list.
To begin, you’ll need a list of email addresses to send messages to. The easiest way to build this list is to offer an incentive to website visitors in return for subscribing. For example, e-commerce stores tend to offer discount coupons, such as what Frank Body does:


You’ll also need to decide what kind of emails you want to send to your subscribers. At the basic level, you should have a welcome email with the incentive you promised earlier. In Frank Body’s case, its first email features the 10% discount code.
But what should you send from that point onward? Unfortunately, there’s no clear-cut “right” answer. It’ll take a mix of intuition and experimentation to figure out what’s best.
For example, here’s an illustration of a potential email marketing workflow.
Even this sample workflow is pretty complex. There are many elements to get right. For us at Ahrefs, we keep things simple—we promise a weekly newsletter, and that’s all we send:


Recommended reading: The Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing
Affiliate marketing is where other people promote your products in return for a commission. For example, if your product costs $100, you can pay an affiliate $10 for each sale they generate for you.
How to do it
You’ll first need to create an affiliate program that people can sign up for. This gives them a unique link they can use to promote your product and track the sales they generate.
Then you’ll need to look for people who may want to promote your product.
The easiest way is to look for people who are already promoting competing products.
Here’s how:
- Go to Ahrefs’ Site Explorer
- Enter the domain of a competing product
- Go to the Backlinks report
- Look for an affiliate footprint in the URL
For example, many of the backlinks to bluehost.com go to URLs with /track/
in them:


These are most likely affiliate links, so we can find all the websites promoting this product by filtering for backlinks with this footprint (/track/) in the target URL and toggling “One link per domain”:
Recommended reading: How to Create a Successful Affiliate Program for Your Business
Influencers are people who have an active, sizable audience (usually on social media) and the ability to influence their audience to do something.
Influencer marketing is the practice of working with influencers to promote your brand’s messages, products, or services.
How to do it
The easiest way to find influencers is to use existing third-party tools. And there are different tools for the different social media platforms. Here’s a list to look through:
- Followerwonk (Twitter)
- Influenx (YouTube)
- Heepsy (Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitch)
- inBeat (TikTok, Instagram)
- Intellifluence (Reddit, SoundCloud, podcasts, Amazon reviews, iOS and Android reviews, Twitch, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok)
- Grin (Twitch, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok)
- Influence.co (Facebook, Pinterest, Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, blogs)
- HypeAuditor (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, Twitch)
When you’ve gathered a list of influencers, don’t reach out just yet. Since social platforms can be gameable, some of these influencers may have tons of fake followers. A certain percentage of fake followers is inevitable, but you don’t want them to be a significant percentage of those influencers’ following.
A quick way to check is to use a tool like SparkToro’s Fake Followers Audit (Twitter only) or HypeAuditor’s Instagram Audit.
Beyond the quantity of following, you’ll want to make sure the quality of engagement exists too. If an influencer has a lot of followers but barely gets any comments on their posts, it’s a potential red flag.
The absolute number of likes, comments, retweets, etc., doesn’t matter either. Quality does. Look out for genuine comments or conversations. If an influencer posts something and the comments look like these…
… then that’s a potential red flag.
Once you’ve narrowed down the list to those influencers with the amount of reach and resonance you want and made sure that the influencers’ image and reputation represent your brand well, reach out and ask to collaborate.
Recommended reading: Influencer Marketing: Definition, Examples, and Tactics
Video marketing is using videos to promote and educate your target audience. It’s also used to increase brand awareness and social engagement, allowing you to reach new and bigger audiences.
How to do it
To begin, you need to know what kind of videos you want to create. There are three main objectives for video marketing: brand awareness, education, or entertainment.
If your goal is to create videos for brand awareness or entertainment, then the good and bad news is there is no template. It all boils down to your creativity.
If your goal is to create educational content, then you can do keyword research to see what kind of topics or questions people are searching for on YouTube.
Here’s how:
- Go to Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer
- Switch the tab to YouTube
- Enter a relevant keyword or keywords
- Go to the Matching terms report
- Switch the tab to Questions
Once you’ve picked out the topics you want to target, create a video that’ll rank for them on YouTube. Watch this video to learn how:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY3y0V9UDwM&ab_channel=Ahrefs
Recommended reading: The Simple (But Complete) Guide to Video Marketing
Social media marketing is the use of social media like Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn to market a company’s products or services.
How to do it
To begin, you’ll want to have a presence on major social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Even if you’re not going to be active on those platforms, having a page or brand account offers legitimacy and also protects your brand account from potential squatters.
Social media is all about content. To build a following and gain engagement, you’ll need to post frequently. Understandably, being active on so many different social media platforms can be difficult if you are resource-stretched.
On a basic level, you should be active on the standard social networks: Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
So if you’re already creating content, you can always share those articles, videos, or podcasts on your social media pages. For example, all we do on our Facebook page is share our newly published content:
Furthermore, you can always repurpose content on social media. In fact, that’s what we do all the time.
For example, this tweet is an image from our article on doing a content audit:
Conducting a content audit in 2022? Use this flowchart to guide you 💥 pic.twitter.com/S2h45DiH1z
— Ahrefs (@ahrefs) April 19, 2022
If there’s a platform you want to invest further in, consider creating custom content for it. Watch how other brands and influencers craft their content, and you’ll get an idea of what works and what doesn’t.
Experimentation is the name of the game. Following tried-and-tested formats is a good idea, but don’t be afraid to try new things.
That was how Wendy’s did it, with a completely different tone, format, and identity compared to other brands at that time. (If you see brand accounts being funny or sarcastic today, you can credit it to Wendy’s.)
Podcasting is a type of content marketing that focuses on producing audible content. It is great for brand-building and growing an audience.
How to do it
There are two major strategies when it comes to podcasting:
- Start your own podcast
- Appear on someone else’s podcast
Starting a podcast is an entire topic on its own, so I’ll leave links to resources that you can consume:
At Ahrefs, we do have experience appearing on podcasts. In fact, our chief marketing officer, Tim Soulo, once set a goal to appear on 20 podcasts in a year and succeeded.
To appear on podcasts, you need a list of podcasts to be a guest on. Besides Googling for the top industry podcasts, one way to find them is to look for someone in your niche who’s already appearing on them.
Here’s how:
- Find someone notable in your niche who has been appearing on podcasts
- Enter their domain into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer
- Set the mode to Exact URL
- Go to the Backlinks report


Sift through the results for relevant podcasts in your niche. When you have a list, pitch to the shows.
Pitching is pretty straightforward. You either follow a show’s application process…


… or reach out by email and pitch yourself as a guest. First, find the email address. Then in your pitch, try to cover the three Ws:
- Who? Explain who you are, who you work for, etc
- Why? Explain why you’ll be a good podcast guest, i.e., sell yourself
- What? Explain what you want to talk about
Recommended reading: How to Use Podcasts for Link Building
A conversion is when a website visitor takes an action you want them to take on your website. So conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the process of optimizing your website or its pages to improve or encourage more of the actions you want visitors to take.
How to do it
Like SEO, CRO is not one and done. You can always optimize more. So rather than being one-off hacks you apply to your website, CRO is a systematic process informed by data.
As CRO expert Brian Massey puts it, CRO is “about meaningful tests backed by thorough conversion research and executed using a disciplined, step-by-step process.”
It involves understanding user psychology, user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design, copywriting, persuasion, running A/B tests, statistics, understanding and analyzing data, and more.
Here’s a simplified example of what CRO may look like. Let’s say we want to improve the conversion rate of the Ahrefs Webmaster Tools page. That is, we want more people who visit the page to sign up for AWT.


To do that, we may want to systematically A/B test things like:
- The page design.
- The headline.
- The sub-headline.
- The call-to-action (CTA) button.
- Social proof (e.g., testimonials, case studies, etc.).
And more.
A note to bear in mind, though: For your A/B tests to be statistically significant (i.e., prove you can attribute any increase or decline to the change you made and that the change is not by chance), you’ll need a significant amount of traffic coming to your website.
So while CRO is important, it’s not something you do right from the get-go. Focus on using the other internet marketing strategies to drive more traffic to your website first before you even consider running split tests.
Recommended reading: Conversion Rate Optimization Guide by CXL
Online reputation management (ORM) is the practice of using digital marketing tactics and channels to help shape the public perception of a brand, an organization, or an individual online.
How to do it
Reputation management includes many different activities. For example, it may involve using social media to jump in on conversations and tackle negative or unhappy comments about your company.
Sorry for the inconvenience caused, Alan! And thanks for your patience. 🙏
— Ahrefs (@ahrefs) April 20, 2022
By acknowledging the source of unhappiness and listening to the customer, we were able to deflect anger and improve our relationship with him.
But it’s not just about social media. You can do reputation management in search engines too. For example, you may find articles ranking high on Google that speak negatively about your brand or perpetuate a misconception.
If it’s something you can correct, you should try to nip it in the bud.
Here’s how to find such articles:
- Go to Ahrefs’ Content Explorer
- Search for your brand name and exclude your own site [
-site:yourdomain.com
] - Set a Page traffic filter to something high (e.g., 1,000+ visits per month)


For example, we found a post by HubSpot about the best digital marketing tools. Even though it is a huge compliment about our toolset (thanks, HubSpot!), it mentions something inaccurate about our data:


Instead of “150 million keywords” in the U.S, we actually have 4.4 billion keywords. And instead of 150 countries, we have more than 200.


Plus, the screenshot of our UI it featured is outdated.
We’re proud of our data, and the ones mentioned by HubSpot are way off from our current state. And it may set up wrong or different expectations from users who discover us via this article.
In this case, we can reach out and ask HubSpot or the author to update these metrics.
Recommended reading: A 5-Step Online Reputation Management Guide (That ANYONE Can Follow)
Final thoughts
This list of internet marketing strategies is by no means exhaustive. But it should have educated you on some of the more popular and timeless ones.
When executed correctly, the strategies work and will continue to work.
Did I miss out on any important internet marketing strategies? Let me know on Twitter.
SEO
4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples]
Many popular link building tactics produce low-quality links that don’t improve SEO performance.
Even if these techniques make an impact, it’s often for a short time, and Google can easily devalue them down the line.
Here are four tactics for building high-quality links that help you stay ahead of your competition, expose your brand to new audiences, and are less likely to be devalued in future algorithm updates.
Digital PR is the process of creating content that appeals to journalists and promoting it to them.
If they like the content, they’ll write a feature about it or include it in a piece they’re writing. This can land you many high-quality backlinks from big sites and news publications for free.
Examples
In the months following ChatGPT’s release, Fery Kaszoni and his team at Search Intelligence compiled statistics about Open AI’s popularity since launching ChatGPT and compared it to other popular platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
The result? 60+ free link placements, including mentions on Yahoo News (DR 92), The Wrap (DR 84), and Time magazine (DR 92).
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] A few examples of backlinks earned by a piece of content about Open AI’s popularity since launching ChatGPT](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
In another campaign, Fery and his team calculated how much money beloved video characters would earn in real life. This campaign earned 20+ free links including a DR89 link from British newspaper, The Daily Express.
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Example of a high-DR like from Daily Express](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204971_586_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Example of a high-DR like from Daily Express](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204971_586_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
How to do it
Successful Digital PR requires some creativity, but this is the process in a nutshell:
- Find a trending topic
- Create relevant newsworthy content around that topic
- Tell journalists about it
For example, AI has been a major topic of conversation in all industries since it launched. Any new data or insights about it would go well in news cycles while it remains a topic of interest.
Once you have a topic, you need to come up with interesting content ideas that are relevant to your business.
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] The best topics for digital PR](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204971_87_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] The best topics for digital PR](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204971_87_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
This is the hard part. It’s really a case of brainstorming ideas until you land on something you think could be interesting.
For example, here are a few random content ideas for a company that sells furniture online:
- Have AI refurnish rooms from popular TV shows in new styles.
- Have AI design a new item of furniture, create it, and sell it.
- Ask 100 interior designers if they’re worried about AI taking their jobs, share the data.
After you find your winning idea, create the content, give it an attention-grabbing headline, and write a press release about the most interesting insights.
Then, promote your content to journalists. You can try services like Roxhill or Muck Rack to find journalists who might be interested in your content.
You can also use a tool like Ahrefs’ Content Explorer to find sites that have recently published content about your topic and reach out to them.
Here’s how to do that:
- Enter your topic into Content Explorer
- Filter for pages published in the last 90 days
- Filter for pages on DR70+ websites (big sites that you probably want links from)
For example, if we do this for the topic of “chatgpt,” we see thousands of well-known websites that have recently published about ChatGPT including Business Insider, Tech Republic, and Wired.
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Finding websites that recently published about a topic with Content Explorer](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204971_900_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Finding websites that recently published about a topic with Content Explorer](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204971_900_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
Data journalism is a way of enhancing or creating newsworthy content by analyzing unique data sets. It can fall under digital PR, though it typically requires more detailed research.
This technique works because reporters love a good statistic they can either quote or write an opinion piece about. Be the source of such data, and you can earn many high-quality links anytime your data becomes relevant to trending news topics.
Examples
Data journalism can be quite simple. For example, in another case study from Search Intelligence, Fery’s team used Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer as a data source for a cybersecurity PR campaign.
The study reveals the top UK banks where customers seek help with fraud, allowing journalists to report on which banks are more secure than others.
The data fuelling these insights is keyword search volume. That’s it.
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Ahrefs' data that fuelled a cybersecurity PR campaign](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204972_121_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Ahrefs' data that fuelled a cybersecurity PR campaign](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204972_121_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
This method doesn’t take very long, doesn’t need a data scientist and can very easily be replicated in other industries where search popularity can unearth interesting insights.
In another example (and perhaps one of our all time favorites), marketing firm Yard created a data study comparing the CO2 emissions of various celebrities and ranking the worst offenders.
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Data study on the C02 emissions of celebrities](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204972_951_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Data study on the C02 emissions of celebrities](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204972_951_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
If you follow celebrity news, there’s no way you missed reports of Taylor Swift’s private jet emissions being among the highest compared to other celebrities.
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Just a few of the thousands of posts about Taylor Swift's jet emissions following a successful data journalism campaign](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204972_692_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Just a few of the thousands of posts about Taylor Swift's jet emissions following a successful data journalism campaign](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204972_692_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
Every single one of these news stories originated from the data study.
When the study was first released, it went viral and earned links from almost 2,000 referring domains within the first month.
But that’s not all.
This topic trended in news cycles again when rumours spread that Taylor Swift attended a Jets game to bury the original negative publicity about her private jet usage, earning Yard a well-deserved second round of links.
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Google Trends data for "taylor swift jet"](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204972_809_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Google Trends data for "taylor swift jet"](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204972_809_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
Today, this post has 1,861 links from 1,155 referring domains, 77% of them are dofollow, and 38.4% are higher than DR 60.
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] DR distribution of backlinks to the celebrity C02 emissions content piece](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204972_950_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] DR distribution of backlinks to the celebrity C02 emissions content piece](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204972_950_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
Talk about drool-worthy results! That’s high-quality link building done right.
How to do it
Successful data journalism is similar to digital PR but relies on the intriguing, data-backed insights you can unearth.
In a nutshell, the process looks like this:
- Find a data-driven content angle that gets links and media attention
- Gather data to provide new or updated insights on the topic
- Tell journalists about your findings
Start by considering “your money or your life” content angles that everyday folk care about. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking too narrow or pitching ideas only a small demographic may understand.
For instance, cybersecurity is not a sexy topic journalists or their readers will likely care about. There’s also not a high degree of literacy about the topic among the general population.
But everyone cares about whether their bank is secure and how safe their money is.
This concept needs no explanation and that’s exactly why data that helps answer the question “how safe is your bank?” worked exceptionally well as a link building tactic in the example above.
You can also use Content Explorer to gather more ideas like:
- Evergreen yet stale topics that you can update with more recent data
- Data you can visualize better or repurpose into a different content format
- Trending angles in other industries you can apply to your industry
For example, on the topic of ChatGPT, we found Rand Fishkin’s post claiming usage has declined 29% between May and August 2023 and that 30% of its usage is by programmers.
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Finding content ideas in Content Explorer](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204972_373_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Finding content ideas in Content Explorer](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204972_373_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
You don’t need original ideas to succeed. If you’ve got the data to back it up, you can easily take the angles of a “useage patterns” or “most popular audience segments” and apply them to popular tools in your industry.
Some decent data sources you can start with include:
- Search data: Like Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer for uncovering interesting search patterns.
- Historical data: Like Google Trends for highlighting growth or decline patterns over time.
- Scientific research: Like on Google Scholar or in specific research journals.
- Public niche data: For instance, Yard’s study used the CelebrityJets Twitter page.
- Proprietary data: From within your (or your client’s) organization.
When you find an interesting insight or pattern worth sharing, write a press release about it and share it with journalists who frequently report on the topic.
Statistics pages are curated lists of facts and figures in a particular industry. These pages attract evergreen links for as long as the statistics remain relevant.
It’s one of our favorite link building tactics. Here’s how we’ve used it quite successfully over the years.
Example
We first launched a detailed list of SEO statistics in 2020 and it has been naturally earning high-quality links ever since.
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Backlinks over time to our SEO statistics page](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204973_615_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Backlinks over time to our SEO statistics page](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204973_615_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
Currently, the page has:
- 5,787 backlinks
- 2,282 referring domains
- 82% “dofollow” links
- 37.7% from DR 60+ websites
While we used some outreach techniques in the early days, most of the success has come from the page’s ability to maintain top position rankings for competitive keywords.
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Rankings for our SEO statistics page](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204973_872_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Rankings for our SEO statistics page](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204973_872_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
Do it right, and this tactic remains wildly effective for earning links naturally for many years.
How to do it
Start by entering a few broad topics related to your website into Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer. For example, we might enter the following for Ahrefs:
- SEO
- Content marketing
- Link building
Then navigate to the Matching Terms report and apply the inclusion filter for things like stats, statistics, facts, or figures. Make sure your filter is set to include any of these phrases.
Then it’s just a matter of checking out the results to find a relevant topic you want to write about.
We went for “SEO statistics”:
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Finding statistics keywords in Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204973_824_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Finding statistics keywords in Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204973_824_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
Once you pick your topic, it’s a just matter of curating linkworthy stats and publishing them on a page.
While you can earn some seed links with early outreach efforts, long term success comes down to keeping your content updated with the latest data. That’s the best way to compound performance year on year, earning many high-quality links with no ongoing outreach needed.
Relationship-based link building prioritizes long-term relationships with journalists, writers, and editors.
It is an effective addition to digital PR campaigns as you can shortcut the time it takes to find the right people to distribute your content.
Better yet, you can be a journalist’s first point of call when they write a story on topics you or your clients are experts in.
Example
Imagine having journalists contact you asking to feature your clients in upcoming stories. That’s exactly what growth marketing firm, EngineRoom, has achieved.
A journalist from Mamamia (DR 78) made a call out on Sourcebottle, the Australian equivalent of HARO, seeking expert advice on immigration law. EngineRoom’s link building expert, Don Milne, responded and won the story along with a high-quality link.
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Example of a backlink built with relationship-based link building](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204973_405_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Example of a backlink built with relationship-based link building](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204973_405_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
Then, the real magic started.
Instead of ending things there, Don also shared a client list with the journalist in case they ever wanted to collaborate on future stories again.
Sure enough, a few weeks later, the journalist reached out, asking to connect with another client in the drug rehab space to develop a story on heroin addiction. The client is featured in about 30% of the completed article with detailed quotes from the founder and (of course) a link back to their website.
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Example of a backlink built with relationship-based link building](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204973_499_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
![4 Tactics for High-Quality Backlinks That Move the Needle [+ Examples] Example of a backlink built with relationship-based link building](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/1701204973_499_4-Tactics-for-High-Quality-Backlinks-That-Move-the-Needle.png)
No pitching. No outreach. Just a genuine partnership and collaboration now earning multiple high-quality links for their clients.
How to do it
This technique is all about the follow-up after you collaborate on your first story with a journalist.
If getting the first foot in the door is where you’re stuck, you can check out our detailed guide on relationship-based link building by Irina Maltseva, the former Head of Marketing at Hunter.
Once you get that first story, make sure you keep the relationship going.
If you have a list of websites or clients you represent, create a professional document with a mini bio about each client. Make sure it’s also easily searchable for writers in a hurry and makes your contact details clear and easy to access.
Then, share it with journalists, writers, and editors you collaborate with so they can refer to it in the future if they need an expert on a specific topic for their content.
Final thoughts
Earning high-quality backlinks can be much easier than many people realize and cheaper too! All the examples shared in this post earned free link placements on high-authority websites and with minimal outreach.
These techniques have more staying power. They are also far less likely to be seen as “link manipulation” or devalued in future Google updates.
And, if you get your content angle just right, they also have the potential to be earning links many months, if not years, down the track!
Got questions? Ping me on LinkedIn.
SEO
Google To Curb Microtargeting In Consumer Finance Ads

Google is updating its policy limiting personalized advertising to include more restrictions on ads related to consumer financial products and services.
Google’s personalized ads policy prohibits targeting users based on sensitive categories like race, religion, or sexual orientation.
Over the years, Google has continued updating the policy to introduce new limitations. The latest update to restrict consumer finance ads is part of Google’s ongoing efforts to refine its ad targeting practices.
What’s Changing?
Google will update its personalized ads policy in February 2024 to prevent advertisers from targeting audiences for credit and banking ads based on sensitive factors like gender, age, parental status, marital status, or zip code.
Google’s current policy prohibiting “Credit in personalized ads” will be renamed “Consumer finance in personalized ads” under the changes.
Google’s new policy will state:
“In the United States and Canada, the following sensitive interest categories cannot be targeted to audiences based on gender, age, parental status, marital status, or ZIP code.
Offers relating to credit or products or services related to credit lending, banking products and services, or certain financial planning and management services.”
Google provided examples, including “credit cards and loans including home loans, car loans, appliance loans, short-term loans,” as well as “banking and checking accounts” and “debt management products.”
When Does The New Policy Take Effect?
The updated limitations on personalized advertising will take effect on February 28, 2024, with full enforcement expected within six weeks.
Google said advertisers in violation will receive a warning at least seven days before any account suspension.
According to Google, the policy change aims to protect users’ privacy better and prevent discrimination in financial services advertising.
However, the company will still allow generalized ads for credit and banking products that do not use sensitive personal data for targeting.
What Do Advertisers Need To Do?
Google will begin enforcing the updated restrictions in late February 2024 but advises advertisers to review their campaigns for compliance issues sooner.
Advertisers should carefully check their ad targeting settings, remove improper personalization based on sensitive categories, and adhere to the revised policy requirements.
Failure to follow the rules could lead to account suspension after an initial warning. Google will work with advertisers to ensure a smooth transition during the ramp-up period over the next six months.
Featured Image: SurfsUp/Shutterstock
SEO
Google Discusses Fixing 404 Errors From Inbound Links

Google’s John Mueller responded to a thread in Reddit about finding and fixing inbound broken links, offering a nuanced insight that some broken links are worth finding and fixing and others are not.
Reddit Question About Inbound Broken Links
Someone asked on Reddit if there’s a way to find broken links for free.
This is the question:
“Is it possible to locate broken links in a similar manner to identifying expired domain names?”
The person asking the question clarified if this was a question about an inbound broken link from an external site.
John Mueller Explains How To Find 404 Errors To Fix
John Mueller responded:
“If you want to see which links to your website are broken & “relevant”, you can look at the analytics of your 404 page and check the referrers there, filtering out your domain.
This brings up those which actually get traffic, which is probably a good proxy.
If you have access to your server logs, you could get it in a bit more detail + see which ones search engine bots crawl.
It’s a bit of technical work, but no external tools needed, and likely a better estimation of what’s useful to fix/redirect.”
In his response, John Mueller answers the question on how to find 404 responses caused by broken inbound links and identify what’s “useful to fix” or to “redirect.”
Mueller Advises On When Not To “Fix” 404 Pages
John Mueller next offered advice on when it doesn’t make sense to not fix a 404 page.
Mueller explained:
“Keep in mind that you don’t have to fix 404 pages, having things go away is normal & fine.
The SEO ‘value’ of bringing a 404 back is probably less than the work you put into it.”
Some 404s Should Be Fixed And Some Don’t Need Fixing
John Mueller said that there are situations where a 404 error generated from an inbound link is easy to fix and suggested ways to find those errors and fix them.
Mueller also said that there are some cases where it’s basically a waste of time.
What wasn’t mentioned was what the difference was between the two and this may have caused some confusion.
Inbound Broken Links To Existing Webpages
There are times when another sites links into your site but uses the wrong URL. Traffic from the broken link on the outside site will generate a 404 response code on your site.
These kinds of links are easy to find and useful to fix.
There are other situations when an outside site will link to the correct webpage but the webpage URL changed and the 301 redirect is missing.
Those kinds of inbound broken links are also easy to find and useful to fix. If in doubt, read our guide on when to redirect URLs.
In both of those cases the inbound broken links to the existing webpages will generate a 404 response and this will show up in server logs, Google Search Console and in plugins like the Redirection WordPress plugin.
If the site is on WordPress and it’s using the Redirection plugin, identifying the problem is easy because the Redirection plugin offers a report of all 404 responses with all the necessary information for diagnosing and fixing the problem.
In the case where the Redirection plugin isn’t used one can also hand code an .htaccess rule for handling the redirect.
Lastly, one can contact the other website that’s generating the broken link and ask them to fix it. There’s always a small chance that the other site might decide to remove the link altogether. So it might be easier and faster to just fix it on your side.
Whichever approach is taken to fix the external inbound broken link, finding and fixing these issues is relatively simple.
Inbound Broken Links To Removed Pages
There are other situations where an old webpage was removed for a legitimate reason, like an event passed or a service is no longer offered.
In that case it makes sense to just show a 404 response code because that’s one of the reasons why a 404 response should be shown. It’s not a bad thing to show a 404 response.
Some people might want to get some value from the inbound link and create a new webpage to stand in for the missing page.
But that might not be useful because the link is for something that is irrelevant and of no use because the reason for the page no longer exists.
Even if you create a new reason, it’s possible that some of that link equity might flow to the page but it’s useless because the topic of that inbound link is totally irrelevant to anyting but the expired reason.
Redirecting the missing page to the home page is a strategy that some people use to benefit from the link to a page that no longer exists. But Google treats those links as Soft 404s, which then passes no benefit.
These are the cases that John Mueller was probably referring to when he said:
“…you don’t have to fix 404 pages, having things go away is normal & fine.
The SEO ‘value’ of bringing a 404 back is probably less than the work you put into it.”
Mueller is right, there are some pages that should be gone and totally removed from a website and the proper server response for those pages should be a 404 error response.
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