Build Links Passively With Image Credits (Step-by-Step Method)
Build Links Passively With Image Credits (Step-by-Step Method)
How to collect backlinks from high-authority sites using your images
*Announcement*
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Don’t believe the propaganda. Links will always be the #1 most important ranking factor since external SEO is way harder to game compared to on-page SEO. There’s no way around it: you’re going to have to put in work if you want to build links.
It’s important to use a variety of different linkbuilding strategies if you want to keep up with the competition. Some of them, like the artificial intelligence linkbuilding tactic and the Mechanical Turk method, require lots of time and effort.
Today I’m going to teach you a technique that will help you acquire links from high-authority sites with close to zero extra work.
Image credit linkbuilding strategy
Create a Flickr account - This is where you’ll upload all of your images. For some reason, Flickr is a service that a lot of journalists use when looking for featured images.
Upload all photos and properly tag them - Tag all of your photos using keywords that you think people will use when writing about your niche.
Request a link in the image description - In the image description, state that the image is free to use as long as they give your site credit with a dofollow backlink.
Here is a template you can use for your image descriptions:
“Image free to use with credit to [site name] and a dofollow link to [sitename.com/article]”
If you follow the three steps above, then you’ll eventually start collecting passive backlinks as people use your images and follow your attribution guidelines.
This is a quick and easy way to get backlinks with branded anchor text from high authority websites. You can request that they link to any page on your site, so this is also a great way to get deep links to your money pages (best-of and product reviews).
Keeping track of your images
Once you have a large amount of images, you’ll need to run reverse image searches to catch sites that are using your images without posting a link.
I highly recommend using a tool like Tineye to continuously monitor your photos for you. All you need to do is upload them and Tineye will let you know if they get a hit.
You can also upload them individually directly to Google to run reverse image searches, but this is more time-consuming.
How to follow up if they don’t post a link
Many people who use your images will automatically follow your attribution guidelines. It’s great when people do this since it can become the linkbuilding version of passive income.
Other times people are lazy/don’t care and will just steal your images. In this case, you’ll need to do outreach and make sure that they add a link.
If possible, you want to directly email the person who wrote the article if they have their contact info posted. If not, then you’ll have to email whichever address seems the most relevant. Contacting them using a ‘Media inquiries’ email address or something similar usually works.
You can use the following as a template:
“You are using an original image from our Flickr account (link) on the following page: www.sitename.com/page. It is the image that depicts [image description].
“According to the attribution requirements posted on Flickr, you are required to include a dofollow link to the following page: yoursite.com/page.
“Please update the article with the correct attribution as soon as possible”.
The goal with this email is to make it have an “official” vibe, like someone from your company’s legal department sent it out. This will make reporters think that they “have to” comply with your request.
Does it work 100% of the time? Of course not, nothing does. But it works often enough to be worth putting effort into.
Conclusion
Links are one of the most important Google ranking factors. You need to use a variety of different