Tip: Get quality backlinks by making creative commons imagery

Backlinks are still an important part of any SEO strategy. If you've got creative flair to spare, get high-quality backlinks by making some creative commons images.

Blogs and other publications will link to your site if you make quality images available to them for free. Expert link-builder, Stacey MacNaught, says it's her favorite strategy, and she's received tons of high-quality backlinks from it over the last ten years. She says 96% of sites will link back according to the attribution request (and tools like Copy Track and Pic Match can help with the rest). To give it a shot, head to Google, search for images that you think might be in demand in your niche, and filter by creative commons licenses. This will show you how many free options there are for your image idea. The less competition, the better. If you find a good option, go to sites like Alamy, Shutterstock, etc., find similar images, and do a reverse image search to see whether people are using the image. If so, you know that people want these images enough to pay. So make your own free images and license them via Creative Commons. From there, Stacey says uploading to Flickr is the best option to host the images. You'll need a lot of images (she recommends starting with 50), so aim for easy options and use props instead of people.