10x Ways To Build Powerful Gov Backlinks That Increase Search Traffic

Want to learn how to build gov backlinks?

Gov backlinks have the power to dramatically increase your search rankings. Every search engine loves them – especially Google. They are considered the holy grail of links.

But I’ll be straight with you:

Gov backlinks are the hardest types of links to build. Not everyone can do it. Building these types of links takes a lot of:

Are you up for the challenge? Because the result is worth it.

I am pulling back the curtain to show you my 10 best tried and tested methods for acquiring powerful gov backlinks.

Let’s get started!

What Are Gov Backlinks?

Gov backlinks are simply free backlinks that come from sites with .gov top-level domains.

So why not just get a .gov domain yourself?

Because you can’t. Gov domains are only for government websites. To get a government domain, you need to be a government department or agency.

Some examples of departments and agencies with gov domains include:

All of these use .gov top-level domains to host their websites and online presence. As you can see they don’t just hand out gov domains to anyone.

It’s what makes getting gov backlinks that much more difficult to get.

What Makes Gov Backlinks So Powerful?

There are a number of reasons gov backlinks are in such high demand.

In fact – if you contact most link building services they won’t even offer it as a service.

Note: Gov backlinks are even MORE valuable than edu backlinks (which are also highly sought after).

Here’s why gov backlinks are the most powerful link you can get.

They Generate Trust

If you can’t trust the government, who can you trust? (said no one ever).

But seriously…

Search engines view a gov backlink as an endorsement from:

Not only that but government websites usually score very high with trust signals from Google. Make sense, right?

Getting a link from a gov website is like being endorsed by the government and therefore receiving all of the trust associated with them.

Google is all about showing trustworthy content to its users. As a result, you are often rewarded with better search rankings and much higher visibility.

They Are Rare

If everyone was able to get a government link – they would be worth far less.

As I mentioned before you can’t even pay a reputable link building agency enough money to guarantee a .gov link placement.

You need to have a reason for the government site to link to you in the first place. This is what not only makes them rare but makes them even valuable.

If you can get one, your website will automatically be elevated.

They Have Natural Authority

Most government websites don’t run large scale SEO campaigns to rank in the top spots.

They are naturally recognised as the highest authority online and therefore rank easily.

Government websites have a few important factors that give them this high authority:

Think about it:

If you read two websites saying the opposite thing and one was a government site and the other was from John Doe’s blog, whose would you trust?

Google thinks exactly the same way.

They Are Hard To Obtain

Getting links from your average site is usually a matter of reaching out to them and offering some sort of value in exchange.

Getting government backlinks is much more complex.

You will need to:

This is much harder than you might think. You aren’t going to ring the director of the FBI and ask for a link, right?

Links from local or state government sites are often easier to obtain than links from federal sites.

The key is to have the right strategy and be committed enough to work until you get what you want.

PRO TIP: Before starting any link building campaign, it’s best to determine how many backlinks you need to rank.

10x Ways To Get A Gov Backlink

Don’t let the difficulty of getting gov backlinks put you off.

Because they are so hard to get when you do manage to get one – you receive all the authority benefits of that link plus…

It’s very difficult for your competitors to obtain the same link.

This will give you a significant competitive advantage in the SERPs that can’t easily be taken away.

Use these 10 strategies to win yourself some powerful gov backlinks and let the real rankings begin.

1. Comment On Government Blogs

The easiest way to get a gov backlink is blog commenting on the right government blogs.

Blog commenting is one of my favourite white hat link building strategies.

Most government sites don’t allow commenting because of spammers and if they do, it will most likely be a “no-follow” link.

But some government sites still have “do-follow” links that come from blog comments.

You just need to dig really deep and find the right ones.

Head over to Google and start by typing in the following:

This should bring up some nice results with potential link commenting opportunities.

It’s important to note:

When you comment, make sure that it is something relevant that fits in naturally to the conversation.

Bad comments that look like spam never get published or worse get deleted.

Try to get involved in the conversation and contribute to the discussion before strategically dropping your website.

2. Write About A Government Agency

Content is still a great way to attract gov backlinks.

You just need to be more strategic about it. Write a high-quality piece of content about:

Mention your local government or a relevant government agency in the content.

Your goal is to mention the government department or agency positively so that they would be happy to share your content.

For instance, if you run a marketing agency you could mention the positive initiatives your local government is running to help grow small businesses.

Next, you want to market the content to the right government department and let them know you have mentioned them. To do so, you need to:

1. Find the contact details of the right person.
2. Do some outreach.

Local governments are always looking for content that highlights what they are doing as positive. This increases the chance you will get a quality link.

PRO TIP: Try to get quotes from other people in your article. Governments are more likely to share and link to content where multiple people have shared their opinion.

3. Write About A Social Issue That Concerns A Government Agency (Or A Politician)

Social issues have a lot of emotion behind them.

These kinds of issues get lots of attention and engagement online.

Writing a piece of content about a trending social issue and talking about your business’ commitment to improving that social issue is a great way to get gov backlinks.

For example, you could write about your business’ commitment to an issue like sustainability.

Within the content:

Now you just need to do some outreach and let the right department know about your written piece.

Make sure you highlight how impressed you are with their work and explain it has prompted you to write the article in the first place.

You will find that the government department will respond very positively to this.

4. Write About A Politician

The same strategy for writing about a government agency can be applied to writing about a politician.

This is the best way to get their attention.

To get a link it will need to be swaying positively towards the politician in question. Keep that in mind when you are choosing a relevant topic.

5. Interview A Government Agency Official

This method works particularly well if you already have a good-sized following on social media or on your email list.

Lots of government officials welcome interviews from sources that have an audience.

It makes sense, right?

Elected officials want to keep a positive profile in the community and are always looking for different ways to get more positive exposure.

If you choose the right topic they will most likely agree to an interview. In other word, you need to choose a topic that is…

Once the interview is done, do a nice job creating the interview content and mention the official positively.

Send the content to the official after publishing and let them know that you are happy for them to share on social media and link to it from their site.

This can be a great way to earn a nice gov backlink.

6. Try To Partner With A Government Agency

This strategy is challenging, but the payoff is bigger than just a government link.

Depending on your business and the niche you serve, you can partner with a government agency to do some work for (or with) them.

This has multiple positive impacts:

Once you win the contract, create a press release announcing the partnership.

Highlight the positive aspects of the project and the work that the government agency is putting into it.

Send it off to the department you have partnered with. Take it a step further and advertise it in your local area on social media.

You can win a link or even a few links with this method.

7. Get Listed On A Resource Page

Do you run a local business?

Lots of local government websites have resource pages. Getting listed on these resource pages offers an opportunity for you to get a gov backlink.

Here’s the problem:

Resource page link building on relevant government sites that you could be part of can be hard to find.

Thankfully, I have some ways to find them quickly. Start by searching in Google:

If you still can’t find something, reach out to your local government to see if they have (or know of) a local government resource page.

This might help you come up with a few pages you wouldn’t find.

When you find one, you usually just need to request to be listed on the page and prove that you are a local business. They will do the rest.

If you are in the right area – this could be the easiest gov backlink ever earned.

8. Find Broken Links In Gov Resource Pages

There are tons of old pages on government websites. Especially on regional and local municipality sites.

These sites are often not managed the best which means lots of old content is not kept up-to-date.

Out-of-date content = broken links.

Your goal is to find government sites related to your industry. Once you have one, find either a resource or community page with recommended links.

Now, check the page to see if any broken links could be replaced with a page from your website.

In some cases, you will need to create new content to fit the link.

Once you found a broken link and a page from your site to replace it with – reach out to the website manager. Let them know about the broken link and suggest yours as a replacement.

Broken link building can be a great way to build government backlinks.

9. Flatter A Gov Website

Who doesn’t love a bit of flattery…

Especially when you are in government. This method works surprisingly well and is not particularly hard to execute.

It just takes time.

You want to focus on a specific government department that deals with issues that you are familiar with.

For example, this could be your local business government department that deals with everything related to business.

Research and highlight specific pain points that the department is dealing with right now. You can often find these in the news section of their website or on local news websites themselves.

Now you just need to:

Just make sure you genuinely feel the same way with what you are writing.

The next part is where the hard work comes in.

Find people who work within that government department and get in contact with them. Tell them that you love what they are doing and were even inspired to write a post about it.

You will need to contact a number of people within the government department to increase your chances of getting a link.

Of course, let everyone you contact know that you are happy for them to share the post on social media and link to it from the gov site.

10. Guest Post

Last but not least…

The seasoned guest post method is always at your disposal. If none of the other methods tickle your fancy – you can always secure a guest post link.

Fair warning: guest posts on government sites are a lot harder to get than other sites.

Find gov guest posts by searching for opportunities in Google:

Government websites are pickier about the topics allowed on their blogs and who they let write them. But if you have an amazing idea for content then most definitely go ahead and do it!

Find opportunities by using quality guest posting software or manually search for government blogs on Google.

Growth Hack: Sign up for my free link building training.

Some Words Of Warning

Now I am sure that you are eager to start building some gov backlinks to your own site.

But just before you do I have some words of warning to consider.

Make Sure To Find A Gov Domain That’s Worth It

Most gov backlinks are going to be worth it.

They come from authority government agencies and departments that will naturally boost your website’s rankings.

But there are actually more .gov extensions online than there are government agencies and departments. What that means is that not all .gov sites are government-run organisations.

If you go onto a popular marketplace live Fiverr right now you could buy a bunch of gov backlinks for $5.

Clearly, these aren’t going to be legit high authority sites.

Just make sure that when you do find a site that you want to build a link from that it’s a real government organisation site.

Use this link building blacklist tool to be double sure!

Don’t Try To Build ONLY Gov Backlinks

Please don’t fall into this trap.

Gov backlinks are undoubtedly valuable and when built correctly – greatly improve your SEO. But if you go out and just focus on building tons of gov backlinks it can have the opposite effect.

Think about it:

If Google looks at your entire backlink profile and 90% are from government sites, that would be considered highly unusual.

They may very well penalise you and class your site as spam.

Have A Diverse Backlink Profile

Getting a gov backlink is hard work and takes time.

You need to think of link building as an opportunity cost. How many .com backlinks can you build in the time it takes to build just one .gov link?

Spend time on both. If you don’t have many links, focus on normal link building practices first. You can come back and build a couple of gov backlinks later.

If you have a diverse backlink profile in place already – when you do end up building a gov backlink it will be much more valuable to your website.

Wrapping It Up

There you have it.

My 10 best strategies for building high authority gov backlinks.

While all of these strategies can help you build great gov backlinks…

Don’t try them all at once.

Pick just 1 or 2 of the strategies that you like the most and focus on being successful with them. If you try too many strategies at one time, you will end up accomplishing nothing.

Looking for ways to build links? Check out my 15x link building strategies guide.

Need help building high authority links?

LinksThatRank is my recommended link building agency. The links they build move your SEO rankings up.