Better To Have Than Not Backlinks are like lifelines for your website. They bring help in the form of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) by aligning your site with other high traffic sites. They're basically an endorsement of your website by the referring website. While certain types of backlinks are clearly better than others, as the title suggests, it's better to have any type of backlinks than none at all.
These Are Good When you're starting out, we would encourage you to take any and all backlinks provided they aren't spam or something else unsavory. The more you get, the better search engines like Google or Yahoo like you. For this reason, you should take even the less valuable backlinks. We'll just call these "Good" because, remember, they're all good.
For SEO, we would define a good backlink as one found in a sidebar or footer of pretty much any website regardless of the relevance or traffic of the website. This isn't necessarily in a prime area, doesn't have relevant surrounding content and isn't on a high Page Rank (PR) site. It's a backlink, though, and it will leave its trail throughout the search engine analytics jungle.
These Are Better Moving up a notch, we would classify a "Better" backlink as one found in an article or blog post or embedded in a good page of content that is relevant to what you do. This is a better link because it is more likely to be clicked through back to your site by someone who is looking for you or someone like you. The relevance and context of your link to the page can also make search engines happier.
Backlinks like these would be better. What would help even further is if there is some good anchor text that fits the context of both the page where you have a backlink and the product or service you provide through your website. The anchor text should actually be a lead in that prepares anyone about to click your link by telling them where it will take them. The crawlers at Google are starting to drool a little on this one.
Backlink Nirvana Since I want to stop typing before you get tired of reading, let's skip a couple intermediate steps here and go straight to the Promised Land. In the best of all worlds, what type of backlinks do you covet over all others? We're talking about the Holy Grail. It would look something like this.
You get yourself a backlink on a super high-powered, high traffic website. It's on their highest PR page (PR 10, baby!). It's included in the content of a relevant informational article or blog. It has glowing and relevant anchor text, and..... wait for it. It's an authority website in your field. You have now achieved the state of Nirvana and can lie back and reap the rewards of your genius. Or you can go get a few more and maybe grow your business. Your call.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Importance of Backlinks SEO to Any Online Marketing Domain
When there is not enough free traffic, websites will have difficulty in establishing itself as an authority and in attaining a page rank that will result to a better placement on Google. Another challenge that website owners will most likely face is that the keywords being used do not make the website show up when search terms are entered in the search box. These are just a few of the problems that webmasters face day in and day out.
In looking for solutions to the above-mentioned website dilemmas, you will surely come across common terms such as free traffic and backlinks SEO. And for you to understand better, it would help to get the clearest definitions of these terms. Free traffic includes those website visitors that come looking for your website because you offer something that they need and they have a greater likelihood of buying your products and services. Backlinks SEO, on the other hand, is the major determining factor for your website's rank in search engines. When your website's URL is posted to other relevant sites on the internet, your website will have a much greater chance of becoming a success in no time.
With a backlinks SEO program, webmasters will find it easier to determine the right keywords to use in the web pages and you will also be guided in the link building process. Our video will show how to make your backlinks work to your advantage because you don't just post your links to websites randomly.
Google is extremely smart and you have to be careful in your link building campaign. Always remember, the quality of your links is just as important as quantity. That is the core reason we have performed a review for such information to help visitors access backlinks for pennies on the dollar. Watch this Free video that shows you how to build a powerful link from a Google Page Rank #7 Network. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVJP1N463ME.
In looking for solutions to the above-mentioned website dilemmas, you will surely come across common terms such as free traffic and backlinks SEO. And for you to understand better, it would help to get the clearest definitions of these terms. Free traffic includes those website visitors that come looking for your website because you offer something that they need and they have a greater likelihood of buying your products and services. Backlinks SEO, on the other hand, is the major determining factor for your website's rank in search engines. When your website's URL is posted to other relevant sites on the internet, your website will have a much greater chance of becoming a success in no time.
With a backlinks SEO program, webmasters will find it easier to determine the right keywords to use in the web pages and you will also be guided in the link building process. Our video will show how to make your backlinks work to your advantage because you don't just post your links to websites randomly.
Google is extremely smart and you have to be careful in your link building campaign. Always remember, the quality of your links is just as important as quantity. That is the core reason we have performed a review for such information to help visitors access backlinks for pennies on the dollar. Watch this Free video that shows you how to build a powerful link from a Google Page Rank #7 Network. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVJP1N463ME.
Review - Which is the Best Free Backlinking System?
If you are puzzled as to why you cannot gain page rank in Google and other major search engines, there may be a key SEO tactic you are missing. That SEO tactic is one way link building. But, the way it has been taught makes it out to be a tactic reserved for search engine optimization experts. Here is the right way to build hundreds of Google backlinks and Yahoo backlinks with a simple system.
There is a new system that claims to be the answer to this problem, especially for article marketers, one that guarantees hundreds of Google backlinks simply by writing and submitting articles in a new way. They claim it is the future of article marketing. In fact, the creators claim it has no disadvantages! This review looks at the system to see if it is plausible.
The Advantages of Article Marketing
The advantages of using article marketing to facilitate one way link building have long since been proven.
As article marketers, we know that Google, Yahoo, and other search engines need fresh quality content. Search engines reward the writers of new, useful, and informative content with better search engine rankings.
Embedded within that high ranked content are links leading back to the website or blog of the creator of that content. Each backlink to that highly ranked content is actually a vote for the creator of that content and gives the creator's website or blog higher visibility.
Quality content with hundreds of one way backlinks will land you on the first page of most search engines. The result is a flood of targeted traffic leading back to you. This is how article marketing has worked.
In the past, "link love" from search engines towards backlinks from articles was the most successful free traffic generator. For many years, article marketers profited nicely even though the content they created only had to be of marginal quality. Quality content was not necessary because there was not much competition for keywords and search engine position. The truth is, backlinking was pretty much a method known only by SEO experts and some wise marketers. They dominated the search engine rankings for years for their desired keywords.
The Negative Side of Article Marketing
Today, article marketing is a lot more complex. Keyword research tools are readily available and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of tutorials teaching how to write quality content that is keyword rich. And, as if article marketing was not fiercely competitive already, content thieves have entered the scene and have added another twist that makes article marketing tougher that ever.
Some of these thieves will republish your article but they may delete your backlinks from your Author Box, claim authorship, or insert their own backlinks to steal your hard work and traffic.
This is the major downside of trying to get backlinks with articles the traditional way.
Once you have submitted your article to any of the article directories, you lose control over your article when it is published. You cannot blame article directory administrators. They are glad to have your quality content so they leave your writing intact should they decide to publish it.
One of the major ways your content can be stolen is by "scraping." Article thieves are using software that automatically crawls through article directories to "scrape" the articles, by category, for republishing elsewhere. These software bots provide the thief with your finished article. Then, all they do is change the article Title slightly and the insert their own backlinks in your Author Box.
In addition to stealing entire articles from article directories and automatically altering backlinks in your Author Box, they use other kinds of software to skim just a snippet of your article. Many times they skim just the first few lines or a complete paragraph of your article.
The "Free Traffic System" Could Be The Answer
The creators of Free Traffic System have a large number of member blogs in a wide variety of niches. They guarantee that their member blogs, where your writing is published, will retain your backlinks. You would think that such a guarantee cannot honestly be backed up. Well, as it turns out, Free Traffic System has found a way to virtually eliminate the problem of plagiarism.
Administrators of Free Traffic System monitor their member blogs. Those blog owners who remove your backlinks will be deleted from the Free Traffic System and lose access to future quality content. Surprisingly, this has yet to happen.
If you want to try a new way to boost your page rank through quality backlinks, check out Free Traffic System.
There is a new system that claims to be the answer to this problem, especially for article marketers, one that guarantees hundreds of Google backlinks simply by writing and submitting articles in a new way. They claim it is the future of article marketing. In fact, the creators claim it has no disadvantages! This review looks at the system to see if it is plausible.
The Advantages of Article Marketing
The advantages of using article marketing to facilitate one way link building have long since been proven.
As article marketers, we know that Google, Yahoo, and other search engines need fresh quality content. Search engines reward the writers of new, useful, and informative content with better search engine rankings.
Embedded within that high ranked content are links leading back to the website or blog of the creator of that content. Each backlink to that highly ranked content is actually a vote for the creator of that content and gives the creator's website or blog higher visibility.
Quality content with hundreds of one way backlinks will land you on the first page of most search engines. The result is a flood of targeted traffic leading back to you. This is how article marketing has worked.
In the past, "link love" from search engines towards backlinks from articles was the most successful free traffic generator. For many years, article marketers profited nicely even though the content they created only had to be of marginal quality. Quality content was not necessary because there was not much competition for keywords and search engine position. The truth is, backlinking was pretty much a method known only by SEO experts and some wise marketers. They dominated the search engine rankings for years for their desired keywords.
The Negative Side of Article Marketing
Today, article marketing is a lot more complex. Keyword research tools are readily available and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of tutorials teaching how to write quality content that is keyword rich. And, as if article marketing was not fiercely competitive already, content thieves have entered the scene and have added another twist that makes article marketing tougher that ever.
Some of these thieves will republish your article but they may delete your backlinks from your Author Box, claim authorship, or insert their own backlinks to steal your hard work and traffic.
This is the major downside of trying to get backlinks with articles the traditional way.
Once you have submitted your article to any of the article directories, you lose control over your article when it is published. You cannot blame article directory administrators. They are glad to have your quality content so they leave your writing intact should they decide to publish it.
One of the major ways your content can be stolen is by "scraping." Article thieves are using software that automatically crawls through article directories to "scrape" the articles, by category, for republishing elsewhere. These software bots provide the thief with your finished article. Then, all they do is change the article Title slightly and the insert their own backlinks in your Author Box.
In addition to stealing entire articles from article directories and automatically altering backlinks in your Author Box, they use other kinds of software to skim just a snippet of your article. Many times they skim just the first few lines or a complete paragraph of your article.
The "Free Traffic System" Could Be The Answer
The creators of Free Traffic System have a large number of member blogs in a wide variety of niches. They guarantee that their member blogs, where your writing is published, will retain your backlinks. You would think that such a guarantee cannot honestly be backed up. Well, as it turns out, Free Traffic System has found a way to virtually eliminate the problem of plagiarism.
Administrators of Free Traffic System monitor their member blogs. Those blog owners who remove your backlinks will be deleted from the Free Traffic System and lose access to future quality content. Surprisingly, this has yet to happen.
If you want to try a new way to boost your page rank through quality backlinks, check out Free Traffic System.
Off Page SEO - Mix Up the Anchor Text
I've seen many examples now, of off page SEO gone wrong, by over concentrating on the same anchor text in backlinks.
For the uninitiated, the anchor text is the link text, so if your keyword is "Search engine optimization" then instead of having "click here" as the link text, you would have "Search engine optimization" as the link text, which is known as anchor text.
The problem though, comes from over concentrating on the same anchor text. As I say in a lot of my articles, search engines look for natural use of keywords, in content, in tags & also in backlinks. Naturally, a quality website will not just be about one keyword, naturally good websites have a number of important keywords & phrases which relate to the main keywords, and search engines will expect to see more than one version of your anchor text, otherwise it will look unnatural to them, and may trip spam filters - which will result in less link popularity, rather than the increase you were hoping for.
I often get asked about how many backlinks it's safe to get in a short period of time - the answer is that it's not really about the number, but the variation of anchor text. If you get a large number of backlinks in a 30 day period that all have the exact same anchor text, for example "search engine optimization" or whatever your main keyword phrase may be, then yes you may well trip spam filters, however if you get a number of backlinks but for a small number of varied keyword phrases, for example "SEO consultant, "Search Engine Marketing" "SEO Services" and so on, rather than just using the same keyword phrase in all backlinks, you're a lot less likely to trip any spam filters.
For the uninitiated, the anchor text is the link text, so if your keyword is "Search engine optimization" then instead of having "click here" as the link text, you would have "Search engine optimization" as the link text, which is known as anchor text.
The problem though, comes from over concentrating on the same anchor text. As I say in a lot of my articles, search engines look for natural use of keywords, in content, in tags & also in backlinks. Naturally, a quality website will not just be about one keyword, naturally good websites have a number of important keywords & phrases which relate to the main keywords, and search engines will expect to see more than one version of your anchor text, otherwise it will look unnatural to them, and may trip spam filters - which will result in less link popularity, rather than the increase you were hoping for.
I often get asked about how many backlinks it's safe to get in a short period of time - the answer is that it's not really about the number, but the variation of anchor text. If you get a large number of backlinks in a 30 day period that all have the exact same anchor text, for example "search engine optimization" or whatever your main keyword phrase may be, then yes you may well trip spam filters, however if you get a number of backlinks but for a small number of varied keyword phrases, for example "SEO consultant, "Search Engine Marketing" "SEO Services" and so on, rather than just using the same keyword phrase in all backlinks, you're a lot less likely to trip any spam filters.
The Secrets to Building Backlinks
In building backlinks you need to determine where you can get them from. A number of tools exist with many being freely available from different websites that will all help you find the best backlink sources. Just remember these are merely tools and no matter what they may promise, nothing comes free of personal effort and planning. Anyone that says it doesn't is kidding you and will probably cause you more problems down the track.
The most obvious and easiest to use is Yahoo's Site Explorer (just go to Yahoo search engine and search on SITE EXPLORER). This tool will enable you to specify the URL of the website and will come back and tell you all the links back to that site, By selecting different options you can then narrow your results down to only those sites external to your domain. The best part of this is that you can view your competitor's backlink strategy. What we really are after at the end of the day is after, to beat your competitors so this is always a great place to start. SEO experts have always been doing this and when setting u a new campaign it is the first point of call in developing any SEM campaign for a client.
Whilst SITE EXPLORER is a useful tool most of us want something with a bit more detail to assist us in determining the best quality websites form whom we seek backlinks. A personal favourite of mine is to be found at SEOPRO (just check out their free SEO tools). This tool not only list the backlinks but can select to see the Google PR score of the domain as well as the page, the types of backlink and the anchor text used in the link. This last piece of information is useful as it gives yu further insight into your competitors keyword strategy if they have deployed their backlinks correctly. Also of interest and of great use is a summary of the top 10 anchor text phrases used across the backlinks and how often each phrase was used. Awesome material to assist you in building your backlinks.
You should now sit down a draft a list of 2 to 4 key phrases that you wish to use that are made up of your keywords to be used as anchor text in any backlinks you request. These phrases should be aligned to the search phrases your website has already been optimised around (assuming that your site has been optimised that is).
After that, write a short sentence that describes the thing that you page is about that you wish people to be directed to. When you request a backlink from another site you should supply them with not only the URL you are directing them to but also the anchor text and the description to be attached making up the backlink entry on their page. From here on in it is a simple matter of following due process and being organised as you will need to keep track of the links you have sought, whether they have been invoked and the reciprocal entries you may have to make within your own web pages.
A word of warning. Stay away from 'link farms'. People who offer automated link building or promises of 100's of links to your site are only going to deliver trouble. If the backlinks are not created as a manual exercise then you seriously run the risk of being blacklisted through links with black sites. It should also be noticed that the requests or links you receive will invariably be from sites that have no relevance to your own site. You do not want this.
The most obvious and easiest to use is Yahoo's Site Explorer (just go to Yahoo search engine and search on SITE EXPLORER). This tool will enable you to specify the URL of the website and will come back and tell you all the links back to that site, By selecting different options you can then narrow your results down to only those sites external to your domain. The best part of this is that you can view your competitor's backlink strategy. What we really are after at the end of the day is after, to beat your competitors so this is always a great place to start. SEO experts have always been doing this and when setting u a new campaign it is the first point of call in developing any SEM campaign for a client.
Whilst SITE EXPLORER is a useful tool most of us want something with a bit more detail to assist us in determining the best quality websites form whom we seek backlinks. A personal favourite of mine is to be found at SEOPRO (just check out their free SEO tools). This tool not only list the backlinks but can select to see the Google PR score of the domain as well as the page, the types of backlink and the anchor text used in the link. This last piece of information is useful as it gives yu further insight into your competitors keyword strategy if they have deployed their backlinks correctly. Also of interest and of great use is a summary of the top 10 anchor text phrases used across the backlinks and how often each phrase was used. Awesome material to assist you in building your backlinks.
You should now sit down a draft a list of 2 to 4 key phrases that you wish to use that are made up of your keywords to be used as anchor text in any backlinks you request. These phrases should be aligned to the search phrases your website has already been optimised around (assuming that your site has been optimised that is).
After that, write a short sentence that describes the thing that you page is about that you wish people to be directed to. When you request a backlink from another site you should supply them with not only the URL you are directing them to but also the anchor text and the description to be attached making up the backlink entry on their page. From here on in it is a simple matter of following due process and being organised as you will need to keep track of the links you have sought, whether they have been invoked and the reciprocal entries you may have to make within your own web pages.
A word of warning. Stay away from 'link farms'. People who offer automated link building or promises of 100's of links to your site are only going to deliver trouble. If the backlinks are not created as a manual exercise then you seriously run the risk of being blacklisted through links with black sites. It should also be noticed that the requests or links you receive will invariably be from sites that have no relevance to your own site. You do not want this.
How Important Are Backlinks?
As we've learned, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves an abundance of aspects. However, when it really comes down to it, most webmasters will tell you that links, or backlinks, are the most important part of SEO. Even if you do nothing else, if you have thousands, or millions, of backlinks you're going to rank in the search engines. This week we're going to take a look at how link building, the process of finding well-rated, relevant (preferably), websites that will add your link to their site. These can involve different methods including, but not limited to:
forums
blogs
social bookmarks (i.e. digg or del.icio.us)
submitting your articles to article directories
That's just to name a few, backlink obtaining methods are discussed more in-depth in another lesson.
An optimally effective SEO strategy MUST include a good back link building method. If you don't have time for back links but you have a little cash to play with, you could always pay for an expert to do it for you. A quick Google search on "buy backlinks" will give you plenty of results to look over.
As we've talked about previously, there are good ways to get backlinks and there are bad ways to get backlinks. Let's take a look.
Good ways to get backlinks:
One of the first things you should do: add your site to web directories and search engines.
Use the profile page of your blog, article directory, or forum membership to promote your link, especially if it has a high PR (PageRank).
Write articles and submit them to multiple, high-ranking article directories, placing a link with anchor text in your Resource box.
Make useful, informative posts or comments on relevant blogs and forums with your site link in your signature.
Bad ways to get backlinks:
Link farms. Can be summed up to any site that wants you to pay for a link placement on their site, with the exception of the Yahoo! Directory.
Trading links with sites that your visitors would not find beneficial. This usually tells you that it's not relevant enough to link to so you shouldn't waste your time.
Now let's take a brief look at a few more ways to get links. Believe it or not, this is much easier than it sounds. What you want to do is go to Google and search for "submit link -keyword-". So if you were selling oranges you'd search for "submit link oranges". This would most likely get you to some directories for "oranges". If you wanted a forum you'd just replace "submit link" with "forum" or "forums" sometimes used interchangeably.
So what have we learned? In short, backlinks are important in SEO. Why? 1) They build on link popularity, telling Google your site is more important. 2) They point Google in the direction of your site every time it crawls the page(s) your link(s) is(/are) on. 3) They increase your Page Rank (PR), increasing your search engine rankings!
forums
blogs
social bookmarks (i.e. digg or del.icio.us)
submitting your articles to article directories
That's just to name a few, backlink obtaining methods are discussed more in-depth in another lesson.
An optimally effective SEO strategy MUST include a good back link building method. If you don't have time for back links but you have a little cash to play with, you could always pay for an expert to do it for you. A quick Google search on "buy backlinks" will give you plenty of results to look over.
As we've talked about previously, there are good ways to get backlinks and there are bad ways to get backlinks. Let's take a look.
Good ways to get backlinks:
One of the first things you should do: add your site to web directories and search engines.
Use the profile page of your blog, article directory, or forum membership to promote your link, especially if it has a high PR (PageRank).
Write articles and submit them to multiple, high-ranking article directories, placing a link with anchor text in your Resource box.
Make useful, informative posts or comments on relevant blogs and forums with your site link in your signature.
Bad ways to get backlinks:
Link farms. Can be summed up to any site that wants you to pay for a link placement on their site, with the exception of the Yahoo! Directory.
Trading links with sites that your visitors would not find beneficial. This usually tells you that it's not relevant enough to link to so you shouldn't waste your time.
Now let's take a brief look at a few more ways to get links. Believe it or not, this is much easier than it sounds. What you want to do is go to Google and search for "submit link -keyword-". So if you were selling oranges you'd search for "submit link oranges". This would most likely get you to some directories for "oranges". If you wanted a forum you'd just replace "submit link" with "forum" or "forums" sometimes used interchangeably.
So what have we learned? In short, backlinks are important in SEO. Why? 1) They build on link popularity, telling Google your site is more important. 2) They point Google in the direction of your site every time it crawls the page(s) your link(s) is(/are) on. 3) They increase your Page Rank (PR), increasing your search engine rankings!
What Are Backlinks and Why Do They Matter?
What is a backlink and why do I need it for my site?
I was recently working with a client and had given them an analysis of their website. As I was explaining to them what all the information meant my client suddenly said "What the hell is a backlink?" I had always assumed that everyone knew what a backlink was, I mean the concept seemed simple enough to me how could people not know what they are. Immediately I went about defining what a backlink was. At the end of our conversation my client felt far more informed but what troubled me was since I had never given this question much thought my explanation to my client was rather rudimentary. Backlinks are not a complicated matter but they should mean a little more than simply a link to your site. The purpose of this article is to explain what a backlink is, why it is important in terms of your sites search engine ranking, and how you can gain backlinks without stepping on the toes of Search Engines in the process.
First and foremost, what are backlinks?
Backlinks are simply links to your website from other sources. They are also known as inbound links in some circles. They can be in the form of a listing directory i.e. Yahoo Directory or Dex, a blog post or part of a signature when posting on a forum, or they can also be a direct link from one of your affiliates. What I am trying to get across is that backlinks come in many different forms. Backlinks are one of the most important facets of SEO since most search engines will give more credit or authority to sites that have a high number of quality backlinks. This in turns means that websites with more backlinks are often considered more relevant than others on a results page for a specific query. While they are nearly always helpful to your website and its search engine presence some backlinks are far more valuable than others.
When search engines go about calculating a sites ranking for a specific keyword they consider, among other things, the number of quality backlinks (or inbound links of you prefer) to that site. We should not obsess about having as many backlinks as possible rather we should focus our attention on generating quality inbound links to our sites, as it is the quality of the link that matters and not so much the quantity though quantity can help.
Search engines consider the content of the site to determine the quality of the link. They are looking for inbound links that come from sites with similar content. What that means is if your site sells pet supplies, a link from a pharmacy in Canada is not the type of backlink you want. You should focus on sites that are in a similar niche as you. I tell my clients that I focus on companies that are closely similar but not directly competitive either due to the products/services offered, geographic location, cost, etc. While it may seem difficult at first to find sites that are in a similar bracket but not directly competitive it is well worth the effort. Focus on finding quality sites that you want to link to or have link to you and offer them some incentive for creating this partnership. I am not suggesting a link exchange but there are other methods that will cause other sites to link to you, you simply need to find out what those are.
One important issue to note is that Search Engines have become very particular as of late to the types of inbound links web sites have. Years past it used to be that if you wanted to rank number one for a keyword you found a site that simply was a page full of links, known as a link farm, paid them to place a couple thousand links for you and within a short time you were ranking very well for that specific key word. However, times have changed. Search engines want all websites to play fairly, so to speak, and have therefore implemented rigorous standards when it comes to websites, backlinks and SEO techniques. It has become very difficult to influence search engines with external back links from other websites. The reason for this is that a search engine's criteria for quality inbound links has gotten even tougher. Things such as time the website has been online, to the rate at which your site is generating backlinks i.e. did you have 2 yesterday and 1000 today, etc. all factor in. This stringent criteria, while certainly a nuisance for us, is also one of the reasons that backlinks factor so highly in a search engines algorithm.
Another reason for wanting quality backlinks is to entice visitors. Again using my example of a pet supply company having a link on a website that caters to selling prescriptions from Canada will not generate that site much traffic. It may be noticed by a search engine but again won't be that helpful. The idea behind Search Engine Optimization is partly to optimize your website for search engines but also make it more visible to the end user. So technically you could 10,000+ backlinks from low quality sources but you would rank poorly. What would be a far better idea would be to have 50 quality links from sources that are directly related to your websites purpose will make a far bigger impact than scenario I described prior.
This leads me onto somewhat of a tangent, that is the subject of reciprocal linking. I touched on it for a second earlier in the article but feel that I need to extrapolate on it more. Reciprocal linking seems to be advertised everywhere and while it is an okay technique for getting your website crawled, it is not at all helpful when it comes to SEO work. Google has added reciprocal links to its search engines filter. Many webmasters had setup link exchanges in the past to boost their sites rankings due to having a very high number of inbound links. A link exchange is where one websites links to another on the condition that that website will link back to them. Many of the links that Google filtered were irrelevant; however the outbound links were still counted, therefore reducing the relevancy score of many websites. This in turn caused many websites to be nearly impossible to find on Google.
Be careful with reciprocal links. Since many of them are created by websites that offer a link exchange service one needs to be very careful, and preferably not use such services, when doing this kind of link exchange. Google is currently working a system that will determine not only the popularity of a site but how trustworthy a site is that your site is linking to. What that means is that if you happen to link to site that uses nefarious means to improve its search engine ranking you will be guilty by association and penalized by Google. This could result in being taken off of Google for a period of time.
Another technique to be on the lookout for is known as a "link-wheel". Sometimes a webmaster will have multiple websites. These can also sometimes be on the same web server and thus have the same IP. A common trick, and an attempt to fool search engines into thinking this is not reciprocal linking, is to have each site link to the other in a circular pattern. For example if there are four websites Website A, B, C, and D the link wheel would look like this. Site A would link to B, B would link to C, C would link to D, and D would link to A. Thus creating a circular linking system and generating one link for each website. However this technique can often fail if some or all of the websites are on the same or in a similar IP range. Search Engines have become smarter at noticing these techniques. The best advice I can give you with backlinks is to generate them through having quality content and with sites that have a similar mission or purpose as your own.
Now that I have gone over all the ways you should not build backlinks, and what you need to do to annoy search engines and get penalized, now it is time to give you the inside scoop on how to generate quality backlinks. Content. If you website has quality content on a regular basis people will want to link to you. You can help yourself out in the mean while by submitting your site to places like digg, del.icio.us and other social bookmarking sites. However the idea is to eventually generate a big enough following that you will not need to use those methods. Things such as blogging and participating in web forums are very helpful in this regard but that is a topic for another article. For now focus on quality content and the backlinks should come. Use social bookmarking sites to get the word out in the beginning and your links should start generating themselves in no time.
I was recently working with a client and had given them an analysis of their website. As I was explaining to them what all the information meant my client suddenly said "What the hell is a backlink?" I had always assumed that everyone knew what a backlink was, I mean the concept seemed simple enough to me how could people not know what they are. Immediately I went about defining what a backlink was. At the end of our conversation my client felt far more informed but what troubled me was since I had never given this question much thought my explanation to my client was rather rudimentary. Backlinks are not a complicated matter but they should mean a little more than simply a link to your site. The purpose of this article is to explain what a backlink is, why it is important in terms of your sites search engine ranking, and how you can gain backlinks without stepping on the toes of Search Engines in the process.
First and foremost, what are backlinks?
Backlinks are simply links to your website from other sources. They are also known as inbound links in some circles. They can be in the form of a listing directory i.e. Yahoo Directory or Dex, a blog post or part of a signature when posting on a forum, or they can also be a direct link from one of your affiliates. What I am trying to get across is that backlinks come in many different forms. Backlinks are one of the most important facets of SEO since most search engines will give more credit or authority to sites that have a high number of quality backlinks. This in turns means that websites with more backlinks are often considered more relevant than others on a results page for a specific query. While they are nearly always helpful to your website and its search engine presence some backlinks are far more valuable than others.
When search engines go about calculating a sites ranking for a specific keyword they consider, among other things, the number of quality backlinks (or inbound links of you prefer) to that site. We should not obsess about having as many backlinks as possible rather we should focus our attention on generating quality inbound links to our sites, as it is the quality of the link that matters and not so much the quantity though quantity can help.
Search engines consider the content of the site to determine the quality of the link. They are looking for inbound links that come from sites with similar content. What that means is if your site sells pet supplies, a link from a pharmacy in Canada is not the type of backlink you want. You should focus on sites that are in a similar niche as you. I tell my clients that I focus on companies that are closely similar but not directly competitive either due to the products/services offered, geographic location, cost, etc. While it may seem difficult at first to find sites that are in a similar bracket but not directly competitive it is well worth the effort. Focus on finding quality sites that you want to link to or have link to you and offer them some incentive for creating this partnership. I am not suggesting a link exchange but there are other methods that will cause other sites to link to you, you simply need to find out what those are.
One important issue to note is that Search Engines have become very particular as of late to the types of inbound links web sites have. Years past it used to be that if you wanted to rank number one for a keyword you found a site that simply was a page full of links, known as a link farm, paid them to place a couple thousand links for you and within a short time you were ranking very well for that specific key word. However, times have changed. Search engines want all websites to play fairly, so to speak, and have therefore implemented rigorous standards when it comes to websites, backlinks and SEO techniques. It has become very difficult to influence search engines with external back links from other websites. The reason for this is that a search engine's criteria for quality inbound links has gotten even tougher. Things such as time the website has been online, to the rate at which your site is generating backlinks i.e. did you have 2 yesterday and 1000 today, etc. all factor in. This stringent criteria, while certainly a nuisance for us, is also one of the reasons that backlinks factor so highly in a search engines algorithm.
Another reason for wanting quality backlinks is to entice visitors. Again using my example of a pet supply company having a link on a website that caters to selling prescriptions from Canada will not generate that site much traffic. It may be noticed by a search engine but again won't be that helpful. The idea behind Search Engine Optimization is partly to optimize your website for search engines but also make it more visible to the end user. So technically you could 10,000+ backlinks from low quality sources but you would rank poorly. What would be a far better idea would be to have 50 quality links from sources that are directly related to your websites purpose will make a far bigger impact than scenario I described prior.
This leads me onto somewhat of a tangent, that is the subject of reciprocal linking. I touched on it for a second earlier in the article but feel that I need to extrapolate on it more. Reciprocal linking seems to be advertised everywhere and while it is an okay technique for getting your website crawled, it is not at all helpful when it comes to SEO work. Google has added reciprocal links to its search engines filter. Many webmasters had setup link exchanges in the past to boost their sites rankings due to having a very high number of inbound links. A link exchange is where one websites links to another on the condition that that website will link back to them. Many of the links that Google filtered were irrelevant; however the outbound links were still counted, therefore reducing the relevancy score of many websites. This in turn caused many websites to be nearly impossible to find on Google.
Be careful with reciprocal links. Since many of them are created by websites that offer a link exchange service one needs to be very careful, and preferably not use such services, when doing this kind of link exchange. Google is currently working a system that will determine not only the popularity of a site but how trustworthy a site is that your site is linking to. What that means is that if you happen to link to site that uses nefarious means to improve its search engine ranking you will be guilty by association and penalized by Google. This could result in being taken off of Google for a period of time.
Another technique to be on the lookout for is known as a "link-wheel". Sometimes a webmaster will have multiple websites. These can also sometimes be on the same web server and thus have the same IP. A common trick, and an attempt to fool search engines into thinking this is not reciprocal linking, is to have each site link to the other in a circular pattern. For example if there are four websites Website A, B, C, and D the link wheel would look like this. Site A would link to B, B would link to C, C would link to D, and D would link to A. Thus creating a circular linking system and generating one link for each website. However this technique can often fail if some or all of the websites are on the same or in a similar IP range. Search Engines have become smarter at noticing these techniques. The best advice I can give you with backlinks is to generate them through having quality content and with sites that have a similar mission or purpose as your own.
Now that I have gone over all the ways you should not build backlinks, and what you need to do to annoy search engines and get penalized, now it is time to give you the inside scoop on how to generate quality backlinks. Content. If you website has quality content on a regular basis people will want to link to you. You can help yourself out in the mean while by submitting your site to places like digg, del.icio.us and other social bookmarking sites. However the idea is to eventually generate a big enough following that you will not need to use those methods. Things such as blogging and participating in web forums are very helpful in this regard but that is a topic for another article. For now focus on quality content and the backlinks should come. Use social bookmarking sites to get the word out in the beginning and your links should start generating themselves in no time.
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