I know you have heard about the importance of backlinks and how they can help you get more traffic, higher search engine placement and better Page Rank, but are you lost when it comes to actually securing these links?
Read on for 5 ways to get backlinks.
1.Link Swaps. Good old traditional link swaps involve emailing website owners to ask if they will place a link on their site to your webpage. There are a few things to keep in mind when swapping links:
- Links should be placed on pages that are relevant and complementary to your own website, e.g. don’t look for links from plumbers sites if you are a wedding planner! Irrelevant links can do more harm than good.
- Avoid links on pages that don’t contain anything except a list of links.
- Always try to secure links from quality sites that have a level of traffic and amount of content similar to, or better than, your own.
2. Guest Posts. I love guest posts. They offer so many benefits to your business, with links back to your webpage being just one of them. Look for sites that are similar to yours, for example if you are a jeweller you might look for blogs dealing with fashion, gifts or accessories and offer to write a post for them in exchange for a simple link that credits you as the author.
3. Social Bookmarking. Social bookmarking is the easiest way to create and diversify your backlink portfolio. Services such as OnlyWire let you submit your articles to bookmarking sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Tumblr and more with one click. However, you should spend some time each month adding links to additional relevant content from other sites to your social bookmarking profiles so that they aren’t 100% self promotional.
4. Blog Commenting. Some gurus will point out here that many blogs don’t offer “do follow” links within blog comments, however, I always encourage clients to take off the Google Goggles and look past the SEO to see that adding a valuable comment on a discussion around a topic that your customers are interested in is a great way to raise awareness for your website. It’s a win-win. Some of the time you might gain a link that Google values, sometimes the link might be followed by people who are interested in learning more about the person/company who contributed to the conversation. Seek out blogs that have high quality posts about your niche, and that rank highly for your keywords and get commenting. Try Google’s blog search or Pressking’s free service to find conversations around your keywords.
5. Social Media. Better pay attention to this one! Search Engines are placing more and more emphasis on backlinks from social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Be sure to link to your site in updates that contain your keywords.
“Whatever failures I have known, whatever errors I have committed, whatever follies I have witnessed in public and private life, have been the consequences of action without thought. ?- Bernard Baruch
It is important to note that doing anything automatically and without thought online is unlikely to yield results. Action without thought rarely leads to positive outcomes. Some of these methods are easy, while some are more time consuming, but if you even do just one of these on a regular basis you will be taking a starter step towards building your presence online.
