Building backlinks, this is a phrase you are going to hear over and over again if you are trying to build an online presence. Today more and more people are interested in creating an online stream of income, which requires a website or blog and traffic. Both of these things mean you are going to have to rank well in the search engines. The only way to get around this simple fact is to have money at your disposal to fund a massive ad campaign and if you have that, you probably are not immediately interested in building backlinks! Here are a few basic tips for how to get backlinks for your website and increase traffic.
Why is Knowing How to Get Backlinks Important?
Links from one website to another are important in the online world for two reasons. Number one of course is the fact that if a link to your site is on an authority site, people can and will click through for a visit. The number one reason most marketers are interested in how to get backlinks is for search engine optimization or SEO. You see, when Google, Yahoo or Bing sees that your site has several links from relevant sites they will push your address up the ladder so to speak. Search engines are constantly trying to improve the type of search results they provide to internet users and a link from one website to another is considered a vote of confidence in the content, the more quality “votes” you get the better the search engine will rank you.
Website
Before you begin, building backlinks to your site you want to make sure your site is ready for people. Do not just haphazardly throw up bizarre content, AdSense ads, affiliate programs and an article or two and expect to begin marketing it. There are tons of these kinds of sites flooding the internet already and the search engines are on to them, you can bet they will not be around long! First create a site that people will actually enjoy visiting and can take something away from, if your site does not fill a need all the marketing and knowing how to get backlinks in the world is not going to be profitable. Humans first and search engine optimization last.
Blogging
The simplest method for building backlinks to your site is by starting your own blog. This can be a less formal place where you can talk to current customers about your business and insert handy links to your website. Your goal for a blog should be consistent relevant content. A blog should be updated on a regular basis with helpful content to the readers. The plus for your business is that every blog post can contain links back to your website. A bonus feature of this type of link building is that good content will often be copied, links and all, and used by other bloggers! Which means more links for you!
Press Releases
Press releases have been in the top ten when it comes to how to get backlinks for quite some time, and they are still a really good strategy. In some cases, it will cost you upfront to submit your press release but when you have something important to say about your business it is worth the cost. Not only does your business get much needed exposure and links you could find your business featured on a prominent news website if the release is worthy! Imagine the name of your business with a link cropping up on CNN or a similar website.
Domain Purchases
It is not often mentioned but purchasing domains that are about to expire is another slick tactic for building backlinks. Search out relevant domains that already have a good number of sites linking to them and purchase the domain for yourself. Once you have ownership simply host the site, continue to publish great content on the site and place a link to your main site.
Niche Related Comments
Have you come across a really good article or blog post about your chosen niche? Leave a guest comment with a link back to your own site. This is helpful in many ways, not only will other posters see your link and possibly click through to your site, but the search engine also sees it surrounded by relevant text. This gives your backlink much more weight than it would normally carry. Remember, do not spam and avoid sites that auto post, you want to land on moderated pages for the best results.
Building Backlinks With Social Media
Have you heard of Digg or Stumble? Chances are if you have been trying to learn how to get backlinks you are familiar with these social media sites and many more like them. These are places where people can “like” a particular article or post and share their opinion with the world. The more Diggs or Stumbles your content receives the higher it ranks on these sites, which means tons of link popularity and traffic for your site. You can promote yourself through these sites, but do so sparingly and promote other good content as well. When your content is good it will receive traffic from these social sites.
How to get backlinks is a complicated question, but one that if you take it in bite size pieces is answerable. The key to building backlinks is to take your time and exercise patience. While you may want 1,000 links pointing to your website in a days’ time, it will surely get you banned from the search engines if you do! You can speed the process a little bit through the use of automated directory submissions, and article submissions but do not try to run before you have learned to walk.
Great article. I like how you gave an overview of each style without getting too technical. Social media is also on the rise and avoiding it is simply not wise.
Thanks for sharing!