8 Types of Content That Naturally Attracts Backlinks And Social Shares

Content marketing is not about writing a blog post and then publishing it. In fact, if you want to succeed with content marketing today you need to create content that establishes you as an authority in your space.

But, how do you create content that grabs readers attention and earns high quality backlinks in your industry?

These 8 types of content will help you do just that. These are proven content types you can use to build authority in your niche, even if you are just starting out.

Before I share these content frameworks with you, there is one thing you need to keep in mind, these contents are only examples of contents that have proven to perform well when done right so don’t be afraid to try a new approach with content ideas and topics in your space.

Also, you don’t need to try all the examples listed, just pick one that seems like a good fit for your audience and implement it. Now that we have all that out of the way, let’s dive in.

#1 The Trademark Technique

There are many examples of the trademark technique online, however before we dive into the examples lets talk about what it is and how it works.

The Trademark Technique is an approach that bloggers used to achieve specific results and then gives it a specific name, in that sense, it’s their trademark technique.

The best example of this is the Skyscraper technique which is a trademark technique of Brian Dean.

As you can see from the image above this article has over 5,000 social shares.

Also, almost every marketing blogs online that publishes SEO Articles has mentioned the skyscraper technique.

And it has over 5,000 backlinks to date.

The reason it is considered a trademark technique is that whenever someone is writing about Link building they always mention Brian Dean’s skyscraper technique.

Ramit Sethi has also created his own trademark technique called the “The Briefcase Technique”

If you can create a solution to a common problem in your space and use it to get results then give it a branded name. You now have a trademark technique that bloggers will regularly link to and talk about.

Tips on creating your trademark technique.

1. Find a problem in your space that your audience cares about.
2. Identify the obstacles that keep your audience from solving the problem you identified.
3. Create a solution that helps readers overcome the obstacle that keeps them from solving that problem.
4. Finally, give your technique a name. The name often plays a big part so try to come up with a name that is easy to remember. Using words like Technique, Method or Formula can help establish your trademark technique.

#2 Infographics.

Infographics are great for getting shares and attract links but only when done right. One of the reason infographics tend to perform so well is because it tells a story with facts and data. A study reveals that 65% of the people are visual learners, so creating visual elements will ensure your content gets seen by many more people.

So if you want to build links with an infographic it needs to be visually appealing and tells a story. Another way to create infographics that get shares links is to take a complex topic and explain it perfectly in an infographic with visual data

Take a look at this infographic on “13 Scientific Reasons Why Your Brain Craves Infographics”

Its breaks down a very complex topic with data and statistics and at the same time tells a story.  This infographic has over 16,000 social shares and 4,000+ backlinks.

If you are in a so-called boring niche, infographics can help you stand out.

Tips On Creating Compelling Infographics.

1. Use Infographic to tell a story, but not just any story: a story that your audience will want to read and share
2. Use 2-3 Main Colors: Limit your infographic to no more than 3 main colors. Of course, you can use more than 3 colors. But you want to pick 2-3 colors to dominate the color palette.
3. Find an angle within your topic: This angle is what makes YOUR infographic different than the 1001 other infographics already out there on that topic. What’s an angle? An angle is simply a subtopic of your topic.
4. Study other infographics in your niche. Browse through other infographics to get ideas so you can apply them to your designs

#3 Evergreen How-To Guides

An evergreen guide is a detailed guide on a specific topic that explains everything there is to know about a specific topic. Evergreen content is always relevant to readers interest despite the time it was published.

These guides also help drive traffic to your website and rank in search engine for hundreds if not thousands of different keywords.

Bloggers like Neil Patel and Pat Flynn often publishes tons of evergreen content on their websites.

Here is an example of an evergreen guide: WordPress SEO: The Only Guide You Need

People are always searching for how to optimize WordPress for SEO. And as you might guess, this article has over 1,000 social shares and 600+ backlinks.

Tips On Creating Evergreen Guides.

1. Choose a Broad topic. Specifically, you want to choose a topic that can be broken down into subtopics which is not too broad or too narrow. For example, Conversion Rate Optimization.
2. Use buzzumo to search for evergreen topics that have already proven to perform well in your space.
3. Include Actionable Strategies and tips, put in far more effort than a typical blog post.

#4 The Expanded List Post.

List posts are some of the most popular contents published online. Most list articles contain a list of tips and tricks readers can use to achieve a specific result. However, most of these lists are brief and don’t go in-depth about each list item

But the expanded list post is different. Instead of a list of quick tips to achieve specific results the expanded list post is detailed with steps on how to implement each tip in the article.

Here is an example of an expanded list post: 17 Insanely Actionable SEO Tips For 2019

Each tip has specific steps the reader should take to implement it.

And that’s one of the reasons this article has 600+ backlinks and over 10,000 social shares.

Tips On Creating An Expanded List Post.

1. Find a topic that your audience is interested in. For example, if you are in the SEO space, a good topic would be On-Page SEO.
2. List out a few actionable tips that you would give someone that needs help with the topic you choose.
3. Give your tips benefit-rich titles, and outline the steps your readers need to take to implement each tip on your list.

#5 Industry Study / Research

Bloggers often link to data that backs up their arguments and that’s where the industry study plays a big role.

A perfect example of this is the original research that was conducted by Okdork and Buzzsumo on why content goes viral where they analyze 100 million articles.

To date, this article has over 5,000 social media shares over 3,000 backlinks.

Industry studies and surveys will continue to outperform regular blog post because bloggers are always looking for data and statistics.

#6 Comparison.

Comparing products can help buyers make the right decision but these types of articles often get earn links and shares to/from other bloggers.

One of my favorite examples is a recent comparison between Google Home and Amazon Echo done by TechRadar which has received 1,000+ backlinks.

An easy way to do this is to do a comparison of two popular products or services in your space preferably two competing product similar to the example above. Another comparison article that has done well is this light bulb comparison article that compared LED VS CFL Brightness.

#7 The Journey / Case Study

The journey is exactly as it sounds, it’s where you start a public journey towards a goal and share it with your audience.

These articles can be in the form of a challenge or a case study. The journey is all about showing your audience “behind the scenes” of what steps you are taking to reach a specific goal.

A great example is The $100000 Challenge article on the Quick Sprout blog.

This article has over 700 social shares and over 100+ backlinks.

Tips for the Journey Case Study post.

1. Start a journey on something your audience would love to do themselves so that when they read your article on your journey it shows them they can do it too.
2. Share both your failure and achievement from the journey.

And that brings us to the final content type.

#8 Expert Roundup

With so much content online these days it’s getting more difficult to stand out.

But if you can interview experts who are at the top of their industry, it is easy for you to get attention and stand out.

Here is an example of an expert roundup.

How to Speed Up Your Website with Tips from 42 Pros

It might take a few emails before you can get experts to participate in your roundup, but the pay off is greater than the work you will invest upfront.

Conclusion

By now you should have a better understanding between regular content and content strategies that naturally earn google ranking, backlinks, and social shares. With that, you now have a framework that you can start using to create content and create more credibility guest blogging and authority for you in any niche online.

With such a large number of content online today, only content that keeps your readers interested will get shared guest posts and linked to. That is why you need to base your pieces of content on a topic, framework or structure that’s already performed well.

Leave a comment below and let me know which of these content types you’re going to try first.

Author bio: Floyd Johnson is a freelance copywriter and content marketer, he is also the founder of Conversions Lab where he helps bloggers and content digital marketers grow their email list with actionable email marketing strategies and tips.