SEO For Beginners (Keeping it Mom-and-Pop)
Part 1: Backlinking
Hi everyone!
So, you’ve got a special project that you want people to see, but you’ve never been good at self-promotion. You’ve gamefully gone out looking at guides anyway, and at some point you saw the term “backlinking” and researched that.
Just in case you haven’t researched it: a backlink is a link that leads you back to a web page. Search engines like Google find, count, and assess backlinks whenever somebody does a relevant search. The more backlinks it has, and the better quality they are (see the Editorial Link blog post linked below for more in-depth information on what "good quality" means), the higher it will rank that page in the search results.
Also, other search engines are available but I'll just say "Google" each time for simplicity.
Anyway, as it turns out, backlinking is quite the cottage industry. It can be done on a white-hat (read: above-board, legitimate) basis, or a black-hat one (read: all cloak-and-dagger, like). White-hat backlinking is more honest and Google will like you for it and rate your stuff higher, but it’s slower and harder work than black-hat backlinking, which is done with bots or by hiring teams of people who will absolutely get lots of links out there… but Google’s pretty good at spotting them and even better at penalising you for doing it, so you might end up showing up nowhere at all on Google.
But whether or not you want to take that risk, the whole task of backlinking looks pretty intense to a newcomer. Backlinko says in one of their blog entries they’ve got 2.4 million of the things for their main site. So how on earth are you, or I, or anyone else with an indie project, supposed to compete with that?
The answer is: we don’t have to. We really can just do this on a smaller scale, and it can be effective – or at least, effective enough if you don’t aim to compete with the likes of Disney. If you want to be the next Disney, you might want to talk to Backlinko instead.
Also, other backlinking agencies are available.
I’ve written this article to be as mom-and-pop-shop in scope as possible. By the end of it you’ll have around 30 good-quality links (which the specialists at Editorial.Link say is enough), and that’ll get you started with getting noticed. To give you some context about how much traffic this might get you, you can see my web site's stats in the screenshot to the right.
Ready? Let’s go!
First Things First
The first thing you need is to have one place online where you can be found, and where all your important information is - what you do, how people can contact or find you, etc. It can be an account on an existing web site such as Artstation or LinkedIn, a social media account (X or Facebook, perhaps), or your very own web site. Anything is fine, so long as you have somewhere to point people to!
Note: a web location like this is called a URL. That’s what I’ll call it from here on in.
Example My URL: https://www.thecharacterconsultancy.co.uk Backlink count: 0
Now that we’ve got a URL, let’s get started backlinking it!
Level 1 - Create a Social Media Option
Some of your audience will want to find you on social media. Let's make a social media option for them to find you.
Which social media platform do you prefer? There are so many to choose from: Facebook, X, Instagram, Tiktok, LinkedIn… pick one that you like/find the most tolerable, and create an account. Make sure you post your URL to your social media profile page. This will be your first backlink!
Example My social media: bsky.app/profile/charconsult.bsky.social Backlink count: 1
Now we need to make some other accounts, to link your URL and social media account to.
Level 2 - Backlinking Cards
There are web sites out there that offer a sort of reference point service: you can add as many URLs as you like, and they just exist as an easy reference plate. Here are two. Use them both.
Backlink count: 1+2 = 3Tip: Consider making a list of all the accounts you make, including your Linktree and Carrd. You might want to refer back to them later, if you follow this whole series.
Level 3 - Post-and-Forget
There are heaps of web sites you can create accounts on, add your URL to, and then forget about them forever (unless you want to come back one day and do anything with the account. You might do, but we’ll talk about that in another blog post). Let's get started on those!
The direction you want to take here depends on what sort of project you’ve got. If you’re in the arts and entertainment sector like me, then perhaps you want to use art sites or specialist web sites like Deviantart, Artstation, SoFurry, and Etsy. If you’re taking a more businesslike/professional approach and/or want to be noticed locally in your town or city, perhaps LinkedIn or your local online professional listing directories will suit you better.
Bonus tip: The Carrd web site has a ‘buttons’ option that lets you use the logo of each web site with a link to your post-and-forget. You pick them from a huge list. That list will give you more web site suggestions than I ever could. I certainly haven’t heard of them all before. Why not skim through for post-and-forget ideas?
Let’s assume you add your URL to 7 of these, for the sake of our ongoing count. Backlink count: 3+7 = 10
Level 4 - Start Answering Questions
Regardless of what your project is about, chances are, you've got knowledge to share. So sign up to each of the below (putting your URL and social media option on your profile page, of course!) and answer some questions!
- Quora
- Stack Exchange
- Reddit (although be careful here - Redditors are great at telling when you're trying to sell them something, and they don’t like being sold to. I recommend you make an account name that sounds casual, not your company name (assuming you have one), and use a casual photo or their avatar option for your profile picture).
Backlink count: 10+3 = 13
Level 5 - Start Broadcasting Your Thoughts Spontaneously
Now that you have an idea of what sorts of things people know about in your field of expertise and what they don't, it's time for you to write something spontaneous. You've probably got more than just knowledge - I'll bet you have opinions, too (e.g., if you're an artist, you probably have opinions about NFTs or AI-generated images, for a start). Find some web sites like the ones listed below, sign up there, link to your URL and social media option on your profile page, and then write some articles with your thoughts and specialist knowledge! It doesn't have to be anything long and overly complicated - remember you're talking to people who aren't as well informed as you. Short and simple is completely fine.
Backlink count: 13+2=15
Check it out, we've already got 15 backlinks! Now, want to get daring? Try these:
Level 6 - Networking!
My best guess is, you’re not the only person who does what you do. Are you an editor? There are writers, illustrators, or book-binders you could connect with. Reach out to some of those people online, anyone relevant, and get them to mention you on their web site or social media! You'll need to give them something to incentivise them.
Here are three examples: I'm a worldbuilder so I help writers generate their manuscripts, but I don't offer an editing service. Stand Corrected, on the other hand, does, so I approached her and we each ended up writing a blog post about eachother. I could do this with a heap of other editors and other writing-adjacent disciplines (publishers, illustrators, etc.) She mentioned me twice on her web site, giving me 2 links!
Find relevant podcasts and offer to be interviewed on them. They'll spread the word afterwards, which should include mentioning your URL. I did this with Ryan Nieto's Mindscape Museum podcast and got 4 links from Spotify, Listen Notes, Audacity, and Instagram!
Offer local charities an hour of your time to run a workshop. I did this for Bristol Womens' Voice, and there are now 6 links to me on Google from them, from their own web site to their Instagram and Facebook. Result!
Remember that networking can mean talking to other businesses, and to customers of past and present. Are your previous customers happy to mention you anywhere on their social media? That counts too!
Backlink count: 15+2+4+6=27
Level 7 - Extra Places to Backlink
Now it’s time to get offbeat. You linked to your URL on your social media page ages ago, but did you link the other way around? This might be a good time to add a link to your social media page to your URL. After all, you want that to be found too.
Sign the occasional, relevant open letter, and include your URL if they offer a field for you to do that.
Comment on relevant blog posts, if they have comment sections.
Can you get written into any footnotes? Wikipedia links to academic sources. If you can, write a relevant article, put it on your web site, and get it linked there. There are other wikis as well; if you're in the arts and entertainment industry, a mention on TVTropes would add to your backlinking game nicely.
Has anyone mentioned you online by name or by company but not made a link of it? Reach out to them and ask them to do so! Backlink count: 27+3 = 30
And there we are: 30 backlinks!
Further Suggestions
The world of backlinking can be quite... aggressive. Or cold, or all-business, depending on how you want to describe it. This guide was designed to offer you a small-scale start, and you can keep your SEO campaign small if you prefer. If you want more tips that aren't "hire your own dedicated backlinking agency" then there's this one on Blogspot.
Happy linking!
Next time we'll be looking at how to do keywords on a manageable scale. See you there!
Credits
Title image by enginakyurt and used with their kind permission.
