Did you ever see Star Trek: Next Generation?
There was an alien civilisation called The Borg that thrived by absorbing other species and turning them into one hive mind.
In a less sinister way, I want you to start thinking a bit more Borg about how you grow your business…
Remember the other week when I told you about backlinking?
This is where you get highly ranked, quality sites (the ones that Google love) to link to your site.
Well, this is a kind of Borg marketing approach because you absorb their credibility, using all their work and imagination to feed your own success.
As you harvest backlinks, Google’s respect transfers to you. The more backlinks you get, the more powerful you become.
Over time, absorbing the credibility of other sites through backlinks means more visibility on search engines… more authority… more traffic to your site… more enquiries… more customers.
What’s not to love?
The trouble is, a lot of people get backlinking wrong.
They go FULL Borg…
And everyone knows you should never go full Borg.
They think, “I’ll just send tonnes of emails spamming other websites into putting a link to mine.”
Alas, this aggressive approach won’t work. Hassling website owners to pimp your site for no benefit will get your emails deleted faster than you can say Captain Picard.
You will come across as a scamster – or at the very least, desperate.
You need to be smarter than that.
You need to become the friendly Borg.
By that I mean you need to assimilate other sites in way that makes them feel thankful and willing to become part of your network.
It will take a bit more work, but it’s worth it, and as a result your website will begin to fill with some great content.
9 Borg-friendly ways to get backlinks to boost your website’s ranking
1. Review a product, website or service. Write a post (or make a video or audio post) praising something created on a site that has more authority than yours. Get in touch with them via email or social media and tell them about your review. “Hello [name], I thought you might be interested in this piece I’ve written about your excellent website/product/service.” It is highly likely that they will:
A) Share this on social media, potentially getting you backlinks from being widely shared and put on people’s Tumblr, Pinterest, Scoop.it and other sites.
B) Mention you in a blog post of their own, linking to the review
C) Be aware of you enough to read your site and, potentially, put you on their list of recommended websites and resources.
2. Have you used any products or services from good authority sites in the past year? Do they have a testimonial or feedback page on their website? If so write a testimonial, with your name and website address beneath it, and send it to them. With any luck they’ll put that on their testimonial page, including your website address.
3. Do you have a product? Then send a free sample to top bloggers. If you have written a book, or you have a product already, send an electronic copy for free to top bloggers.
“Dear NAME,
I’ve been an ardent reader/fan of your blog for a few months and I thought you might like a free copy of my PRODUCT/ BOOK. I’d love to know what you think if it.
Normally it costs £XX but I’d like you to have it. I hope in return you could review it or mention it in your brilliant blog.
If you have any questions or would like anything else, please let me know.
My email address is ____ Many thanks!
Your name.
Website
Contact details”
4. Find out who’s been talking about you. Use www.buzzsumo.com to find out who’s been mentioning your name, brand, products or website. Get in touch, thank them for the mention and ask if they’d consider also linking back to the site. Of course, you’ll be happy to do the same for them.
5. Create your own backlinking authority site. Create a scoop.it site or Tumblr and begin to fill it with a wide variety of content from different sources. Google will recognise this as an authority and when you begin posting your own blog posts on it, these count as backlinks. So you can create a second free website that becomes an authority for you to link back to yourself.
6. Create a Google+ page for your business. https://accounts.google.com It offers you the opportunity to create both a personal profile page and also a business page. Obviously, being Google, it’s going to get preferential treatment, which is why it’s worth posting on there, as well as sharing other information (you can simply post content that you find on share on Twitter or Facebook, so it’s no extra effort). In your ‘about’ area, make sure you backlink to your own website.
7. Create your own audio or YouTube video. Create interviews or mini radio shows with you passing on tips and advice, then post them on websites like www.soundcloud.com and www.mixcloud.com. Again, each one should link back to your website or specific blog posts. You can do the same with www.youtube.com.
8. Interview an expert or influencer. Get in touch with a top blogger or business, explain that you’re a huge admirer of their work or products, and ask if you can interview them. You can either record a conversation, meet them and set up a video, or simply email them a series of questions. Post this on your site then send them the link. Hopefully they’ll mention you in their next post and share the interview with all their followers.
9. Guest post strategy. Contact an influential website and offer to create a post for them. Explain that you’d be happy to host one of theirs in return if they wish. Make sure you come up with an idea first, and that it’s completely free without any commercial payoff. If they accept, ensure your article is credited with your name, a little biography and backlink to your website. You can also contact influencers and authority sites and invite them to create a post for your website.
Try at least 3 of these strategies in the next week or two and see what happens!