What Are Editorial Links? (Plus Editorial Backlink Tips)

In this article, we’ll answer the question, “what are editorial links?”

In addition to the definition of editorial links, you’ll also find examples of editorial backlinks, the top benefits they can have for your business, and editorial link building tips you can use to improve your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.

By the end of this guide, you’ll understand everything there is about editorial backlinks and how they can work to improve your site’s rankings and traffic in search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

What Are Editorial Links?

Editorial links are links that result from a website having good content and marketing techniques. An editorial link is not paid for, asked for, or traded for, but is received naturally by publishing high quality content that other site owners want to link to for the benefit of users.

Examples of Editorial Links

• A link in an online news publication that references your site.
• A link on an Internet magazine that refers to brand with a URL link.
• A published research paper that cites your website as a resource.
• An expert roundup post that features your business with a backlink.
• A link in a published interview with a URL to your site.

The most common examples of editorial links in SEO are when a website gets a backlink in a major publication like Forbes, Entrepreneur, U.S. News and World Report, Wired Magazine, etc.

A site that gets an editorial link is typically one that provides high quality information on a specific topic that a journalist deems as a trustworthy resource to reference in their published article.

Benefits of Editorial Backlinks

More Authority for Your Website

Editorial backlinks help increase the authority for your website because the online publications that link to your site typically have high domain authority themselves. With each editorial link you acquire, the more SEO PageRank value your site receives which can affect Google’s link ranking algorithm.

Higher SEO Rankings

Another top benefit of editorial links is higher SEO keywords rankings in the search engines. Editorial backlinks have a lot of SEO value because they come from authoritative sites that are trusted by Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Therefore, editorial links can help to build a stronger backlink profile for your site and improve the link diversity, both of which impact the effectiveness of your off-page SEO metrics.

Increased Web Traffic

With improved visibility in the search engines for your target keywords also comes increased website traffic. This means that editorial links can help your website reach a much larger audience that will click on your URLs in the search engine results pages (SERPs) to learn more about your products and services. 

More Brand Awareness

As you get more editorial backlinks, brand awareness will also increase. Each time your company is mentioned and linked to from an online publication, it promotes the expertise of your business. This can lead to more people clicking on that editorial link to go to your website to learn more about your products and services as well as reach out to you directly by doing a branded search for your entity in Google.

Better Market Positioning

If your company’s URLs keep showing up in the top 10 positions on Google, Yahoo, and Bing for keywords related to your niche, then you’ll have better market positioning than your competitors.

Market Positioning is important because it influences consumer perception of your brand relative to competitors. In other words, the more you can capture the eyes and minds of potential customers in the search engines, the easier it will be to gain website traffic, customer leads, and sales.

Editorial Link Building Tips

Publish Facts and Statistics Posts

Journalists for large publications are always looking for good facts and statistics they can cite in their articles. Therefore, you should make it part of your content strategy to publish posts that target keyword phrases that include “facts” and “statistics”. You can also create an infographic for these types of posts to serve as an alternative media source for journalists to use.

Create Case Studies

Case studies are another good method to get editorial backlinks. When you publish content that evaluates and analyzes complex data that can help others gain insight on a particular topic, then it can be referenced by a large number of writers who publish content on large publication sites with an editorial link.

Produce Linkable Evergreen Content

Evergreen content typically attracts more editorial backlinks than time-sensitive content that reports on current news or trends. Plus, evergreen content stays in high demand long after it has been published to give you a steady flow of traffic from the search engines.

Open Yourself to Interviews

Opening yourself up to be interviewed and making people aware that you’re available to speak on certain topics is a good editorial link building strategy. Interviews are also some of the most shared content on the Internet which can lead to even more organic backlinks for your website.

Pitch Expert Roundup Creators

To find these opportunities, do a search on Google using these advanced search operators:

• [your keyword] + “expert roundup”
• [your niche] + “expert roundup”

After you find several good roundups, reach out to the site owners and ask them if you can contribute to the post as well. Many website publishers are more than happy to add additional experts to their roundup posts, especially if you promise to share it and/or link back to it from your own website.

Use HARO for Editorial Links

HARO stands for Help a Reporter Out, and it’s is a free service that connects journalists and writers with people who have expertise in a variety of subjects to include as sources in their published content. HARO is a top resource for editorial link building because there are many large publications with high domain authority that uses this service to find experts to quote.

Editorial Links Summary

I hope you enjoyed this guide answering the question about what are editorial links in SEO.

As you discovered, editorial backlinks are a type of link your website gets which are not paid for, asked for, or traded for. For the most part, these links are acquired organically; however, there are several editorial link building strategies you can use to improve your chances of getting editorial backlinks for your website at scale.