Content marketing is easily one of the most powerful digital marketing practices right now. Through all the changes and disruptions that have happened in digital marketing, what is the one need that has remained constant? Content.
Tip: A SaaS brand in India generated 120 high-authority backlinks in six months by publishing educational content pieces weekly. The company observed a 40% rise in organic leads without running separate link-building campaigns.
Yes, SEOs cannot say no to quality content. It is the one thing in the digital marketing space which has remained popular. If a given piece of content can be framed in a way to attract the target audience, it will get good search rankings provided other SEO factors are also factored in.
Tip: Backlinko’s research showed that long-form content earns 77.2% more links than short posts, because it covers topics deeper and becomes a useful reference resource.
This is why content marketing has become a popular field of learning. Those entering the field have found an obligated duty to learn how content has to be framed in order to move closer to reaching key marketing objectives. Think of any respected digital marketing institute in the market and you’d find a module on content marketing.
Tip: At DelhiCourses, student-led content projects have resulted in guest post collaborations with niche blogs, helping students build personal websites with a domain authority (DA) of 20+ within 4 months.
There are many benefits to practicing content marketing. One can pinpoint to the direct effort content has on a marketing campaign in general.
Tip: An Indian FinTech startup used content marketing to explain loan concepts in simple language. Their blog became a top-5 organic traffic channel, reducing paid marketing spend by 35%.
One of the otherwise less-discussed benefits of content marketing includes link building.
Tip: Content-led link building is often cheaper and more sustainable than outreach campaigns. A US D2C brand ran zero email outreach, yet got 300+ backlinks because their content solved real user problems.
In order to build a solid backlink portfolio, SEOs have to use link building. As a technique, link building can simply be defined as a way to get more backlinks. While there are many different ways to build backlinks, content marketing offers a path to build relevant and quality backlinks.
Tip: Google now rewards contextual backlinks. Content-led backlinks are often 3-5x more powerful than generic directory links.
In this article, we discuss how content marketing can be used to build a solid backlink portfolio.
Tip: Articles backed by research and step-based educational content perform best for earning backlinks naturally.
Content Based on Original Research and Data
Let’s say a new round of statistics is released by the World Bank regarding the usage of internet in India. The data is publicly available.
Tip: Gov data, industry reports, and surveys are easy sources for original content. HubSpot built thousands of backlinks by publishing free marketing statistics annually.
Based on this data, you write a well-researched piece of content citing the data and providing factual and well-laid-out points.
Tip: A Delhi-based e-commerce blog created “India Online Shopping Stats 2023” using publicly available data. It received 58 organic backlinks in 3 months without outreach.
Since your work is original and based on factual data, your work will have a much greater chance of being admired and appreciated by peers. More importantly, it could be used by your peers as a piece of content worth citing on their own website.
Tip: Data-based content often becomes a resource page. Brands, journalists, bloggers, and influencers use it to support their narratives.
This way, you can build an entirely new stream of backlinks solely on the back of one well-written piece.
Tip: One article from Backlinko generated 4700+ backlinks, proving that a single pillar asset can drive link-building for years.
Data-driven content tends to succeed as it is verifiable. It cannot be dismissed as opinion or fluff.
Tip: Gartner, Statista, and Kantar built billion-dollar businesses by selling data. Bloggers use the same strategy—for free—to earn backlinks.
List/Step-By-Step Posts
People like reading content which explains a concept in an orderly manner. This is why list-based content is very popular. Think of all the top 10 lists you find on practically everything. Why do SEOs take the time to write such content?
Tip: BuzzFeed built its empire on listicles. They receive millions of backlinks because digestible content gets shared more.
The CTR rate on list-based content is much higher as opposed to simple block content. The same is true for step-based content. If you want to learn about digital marketing and have the choice between two blog posts – “A Step-by-Step Guide to Digital Marketing” and “Learn All About Digital Marketing”, which post will you prefer? Nine out of ten people would prefer the former because step-wise reading and learning are simply much more effective.
Tip: Search engines often feature step-based posts in Featured Snippets, leading to higher click-through rates and organic traffic spikes.
Popular content is more effective in getting backlinks organically. The type of content you create can seriously affect your chances of getting more backlinks.
Tip: HBR, Neil Patel, and Ahrefs consistently publish actionable step-based content and enjoy thousands of natural backlinks monthly.
In Conclusion
In conclusion, this article covers how content marketing can be used to get more backlinks.
Tip: Building backlinks becomes easier when content is useful, trustworthy, and structured for sharing, instead of written purely for keywords.
About the Author
About the Author – Gaurav Heera is a digital marketing trainer currently working at DelhiCourses, an institute known for its digital marketing course in Delhi.
Tip: Gaurav has helped students build blogs that crossed 10,000 organic monthly visits within 6 months using content-driven backlink strategies.