Without a pinch of doubt, collecting backlinks from social media is a smart move.

If you’ve heard or read that it is impossible to get backlinks from social media or that social media backlinks aren’t worth your time, please kindly disregard such messages.

It is possible and important to get backlinks from social media.

In fact, social media is one of the most controllable sources of backlinks out there. I say controllable because you have complete control over who follows you and how many followers you have on social media.

For example, if you want 1k backlinks to your site, getting them is as simple as building your social profile to reach thousands of followers/fans. The wider your social presence, the greater your number of backlink possibilities.

If backlinks are acquirable from social media, why then do people not leverage this wonderful opportunity?

Because many don’t like the idea of growing social media handles.

And to be fair, they’re not entirely wrong.

Building a social presence is one tough job. You can grind for months and still end up with a meager number of followers or engagements.

A reasonable shortcut is the purchase of social media engagements. For example, someone might buy Instagram followers, Facebook fans, or Twitter retweeters. But even that is not without its risks. Many a time, you might end up collecting fake and inactive followers that wouldn’t interact with your page, let alone proceed to become backlinks.

Why are backlinks from social media important?

Like likes, shares, comments, and other engagement metrics, social media backlinks are part of Google’s social signals. But unlike other signals which are reported as lacking a significant impact on SERP rankings, social media backlinks have an entirely different use case.

Which is: Being another source of web traffic.

If you have a brand or an individual website, you know how important it is to attract visitors to this site. But many a time, this can be a challenge. Like most people, you most likely rely on SEO and other popular site promotion strategies to generate traffic.

So, why not add social media backlinking? For what it’s worth, this unique strategy can only do your site or blog lots of good. Nothing less.

As we mentioned earlier, if you have 1k followers or fans on social media and you’re able to direct them to your website, that’s an extra layer of traffic to add to your web metrics.

How to get social media backlinks: Where to look

As mentioned earlier, it is possible to acquire backlinks from social channels. You can get them from Instagram, Facebook, Quora, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and so on.

The only challenge is knowing how and where to position your site links on various social channels for backlink opportunities.

Soon, we will show you how to go about that. But first, let’s talk about how you can track backlinks coming from different social media platforms.

How to Track Social Media Backlinks

If you’re bringing in backlinks to your site from different social media platforms, keeping track of where each link is coming from makes sense. For example, links coming from Twitter, links from Pinterest, and links from Instagram. That way, you can understand which platform is bringing the most traffic and which is bringing the least. Also, these analytics allow you to better understand your website visitor’s behavior.

Without much ado, you can track social media backlinks using Google Analytics. Google Analytics can easily tell you the site from which you received a click.

You can find this information under the ‘acquisitions’ tab in your Google Analytics. Acquisitions is located under the ‘campaigns’ tab, and that is located under all campaigns on the Google Analytics site.

Alternatively, you can track links coming from your social handles using the UTM parameters.

Now to the real deal, which is getting backlinks from social media.

How to get social media backlinks: Different social media channels

1. How to get social media backlinks: Facebook Link Building

You can bring traffic to your website, web store, blog, or other online communities via Facebook. You simply have to take the following step:

Your ‘About Tab’

Every profile on Facebook has a section called an ‘About Tab.’ Here’s where you tell your fans and followers who you are and what you do.

You can simply place your website link strategically in this section along with other text you use in describing yourself. In this section, you will find a tab named ‘Contact and Basic Info.’ Plug your site link here.

Please note that it is important to change the privacy setting of your About to ‘public’ to allow page visitors to see it regardless of whether they are connected to you or not.

Your ‘Page Posts’

Web links can also be incorporated into page posts. Rather than leaving your public posts bare and linkless, it makes sense to plug a link to your site into the post. That way, viewers can visit your domain.com directly from inside your video, photo, or text posts.

Your ‘Group Description’

Do you have a group community on Facebook that you have complete control over? If so, good for you. Feel free to add your site link in the group description tab. That way, anybody checking out the group can be led straight to your domain.

Your ‘Page Buttons’

Another smart place to fit your link on Facebook is within your page button. Usually, you can find a page button directly under your page’s cover photo.

To make your site link noticeable and accessible in this area, you can add it in the form of a call-to-action. That way, visitors know what the button is for and where it takes them if they click.

To add your link as page button, hit the area below your cover image to reveal a drop-down menu that allows you to edit your page button and add your link.

Your ‘Group’s pinned posts’

Pin a post containing your site link to the top of your group page. This allows every Tom, Dic, and Harry visiting the group to see your site link first before anything else.

Your ‘Cover photo’

A lot of people don’t think of cover images as a crucial aspect of their profile. But that’s just them being ignorant. You can leverage your cover photo for backlinking opportunities.

Here, you simply add your link with the photo. That way, any visitor who clicks – whether accidentally or intentionally – on the image will be taken straight to your website.

2. How to get social media backlinks: Instagram Link Building

Your ‘Bio description’

You can add a link to your web domain directly on your Instagram bio. It is simple and straightforward. You should see a field for link addition when writing out your bio.

Your ‘Post captions’

While viewers may not be able to click links directly in your captions, you can use a link-shortening service like Bit.ly to make your link rememberable and copyable for users.

Your ‘Story’

If you have up to 10k followers or are a verified account, you might be able to upload stories on IG with links attached. This is a good backlinking strategy for cases where you need site visitors for time-limited offers, flash sales, promos, etc.

Your ‘IG ad’

You can pay IG a few dollars (as low as $0.5 = 50 cents) to promote your posts and stories via Instagram ads. In these ads, you’re free to add a link to your site in the caption.

Your ‘IGTV description’

When you create an IGTV video, you’re allowed to add a link to your site in the video description. This is a useful strategy for cases where you create promotional or user-generated content.

3. How to get social media backlinks: LinkedIn Link Building

Your ‘Profile’s contact info’

While describing your contact info on LinkedIn, you have an opportunity to include up to three links in this description. Please make sure you include a link to your site.

Your ‘Project and Publication section’

There’s a section called project and publications on your LinkedIn profile. Make sure you add a link to your site here.

Your ‘Company’s basic information’

The basic info section is a section that allows you to talk about your business or a product/service. There’s also an opportunity for adding clickable links here. Use it.

Your ‘Group Announcement’

When dishing out announcements to group members, don’t forget to add a link to your website.

4. How to get social media backlinks: Twitter Link Building

Your ‘Profile’

Like Instagram, Twitter allows you to add a clickable link to your website directly on your profile page.

Your ‘Bio’

When describing yourself in 160 words on Twitter, make sure you mention your site link. Another advantage of a bio link is that it stands a chance of showing up in the search results.

Your ‘Tweets’

Unlike Instagram, there’s a chance to add links to your posts (tweets) on Twitter (photos & videos). Imagine if your tweets – with your link – get retweeted. Hmmm, that’s a lot of traffic.

5. How to get social media backlinks: YouTube Link Building

Your ‘About Page’

You can add a link to your site just below your header image. Keep it close to the subscribe button so that it garners attention quickly.

Your ‘Video description’

YouTube videos have descriptions that viewers can click on. Add your link at the very beginning of this description.

6. How to get social media backlinks: Pinterest Link Building

For Pinterest, there are two avenues for link building. One is via the page’s profile, and the other is via the rich pins. The rich pin is just like your regular Facebook post.

7. How to get social media backlinks: Quora Link Building

Quora is another effective channel for link building. You get to position your site link in your profile, as well as within the answers you provide to people’s questions.

Usually, people look for questions strategically on Quora – particularly questions that relate to their site niche.

Conclusion

Link building via social media is worth the effort because of the boundless opportunities therein. We’ve mentioned some important channels so far. But other channels worthy of mentioning include Whatsapp – links can go along with your Whatsapp status, or you can send in contact’s DMs – Twitch & Periscope.