Did you know that Search Engines such as Bing, Google, Yahoo, Aol etc
use criteria to show pages? Yes, relevance is on the top of the list
followed by Page ‘authority’. Authority refers to the quality of the
content and the reputation/reliability of the publisher. The Search
Algorithm uses the number of backlinks and the Backlinks Building
Techniques used.
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| Image Courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net |
At times, typing the exact title of your post on a
search engine like Google doesn’t mean the page will show on the first
page. In fact, you will be surprised that most of the first-page results
only match a keyword or two from the phrase you keyed in. This means
the topic you wrote on is already covered by more reputable websites.
Search engines will therefore show the pages based on authority.
An example:
I
wrote an article on ‘first aid for the head injuries’. My backgrounds
as medic means I’m conversant with most first aid techniques including
the ones for head injuries. I didn’t have to do a lot of research when
writing the post. However, my post didn’t make it to the first page
when I typed the keyword phrase ‘First Aid For Head Injuries’. I had to
type in the exact blog post title (Premium Tips On How To Perform First
Aid For Head Injuries) into Google and Bing to see my post on the first
page. (see the screenshots).
Bing Screenshot
Google Screenshot
This
is what happened; my post may have the exact information but it is not
an authority when it comes to health. Search engines trust older sites
Wikipedia, About.com, Webmed, Mayo clinic and government health sites
than my 8-month old blog. My page lacked the key ingredient the Search
engines are looking for i.e. backlinks. Backlinks are online
endorsements and the more you have them (from reputable sites) the
better
What is a backlink?
You may be wondering what a backlink is and
why it is important that you learn effective Backlinks Building
Techniques. These are links on other websites that points back to your
website. Let’s say you referred readers to another site by way of
hyperlink then the hyperlink is what we call a backlink.
Backlinks,
also known as incoming links, inbound links, inlinks, and inward links,
are incoming links to a website or web page. In basic link terminology,
a backlink is any link received by a web node (web page, directory,
website, or top level domain) from another web node – Wikipedia
Types of backlink
There a two types of backlinks i.e. the one
that passes link juice and the one that doesn’t not. The two links are a
called Dofollow and Nofollow respectively.
Dofollow Links
Basically,
Dofollow links allow the search engine bots to visit the linked site
thus passing the link juice and affect the ranking of the linked site.
Example:
href=’http://www.google.com/”>Google
Nofollow Links
These
are backlinks, on the other hand include an attribute that instructs
search engine bots not to visit the linked site. This means only human
can visit the link and not the search bot. It also means, Nofollow links
don’t pass any link juice and don’t help the linked site in any
ranking. Example:
href=”http://www.bing.com/” rel=”nofollow”>Bing
Google
Page Rank, Alexa Ranking and Moz Domain Authority Rank all use the
number of quality backlinks as a ranking factor. That means, we cannot
miss the chance to do backlinking the right way. Let’s now delve into
the 10 Backlinks Building Techniques that won’t attract any penalty from
major search engines:
1. Web Directory Submission
Submitting your site to a web
directory is one of the Backlinks Building Techniques that has remained
effective in the face of almost constant updates from major search
engines such as Google. Well, you must know that the web has thousands
of directories but not all are relevant to your site. Again, there are
different types of directories meaning you must choose well.
First,
there are free directories i.e. you pay nothing to get listed. Then
there is the reciprocal linking i.e. you have to place the directory’s
links (mostly in form of a widget or banner) on your site to get listed.
There are premium web directories i.e. you pay monthly/yearly fee to be
listed. Yet still there are hybrid directories where you can be listed
freely, choose to add a reciprocal link on your site or simply paying to
be listed.
All the above categories can either be
niche based or general in their scope. Yes, a directory may only accept
submissions in ‘Travel’ which means your site on ‘Blogging’ is not
accepted. In some cases, a directory may only be accepting sites from
particular regions e.g. California Blog Directory or India Bloggers. It
is therefore pointless to add your site to such directories if you are
not from the stated regions.
You should read a
directory’s rules before adding your site. If you are dealing with a
general directory then try and find the most relevant category to add
your blog to. Web directories use categories to make them easy to
navigate.
Details to add in a directory
A
quality web directory has human editors to go through each and every
submission before it is approved. So, you must add all the information
required and correctly do so. Here is an example of what most
directories need:
- Blog Title: Example Blog
- Blog Url: http://www.example.com
- Email: admin@example.com ( always use your domain email to avoid looking spammy)
- Description: Say what your site is all about in as few words as
possible. Be natural i.e. don’t copy Meta description of your site. - Keyword: Blogging, SEO, Blogger, WordPress etc. Just make sure the keywords are relevant to the content of your blog
- Category: Internet, health, travel. Chose the one that captures the contents of your blog
- Submission Type: Choose free, reciprocal or paid listing as you like
Always start by submitting your site to a regional directory. If
you have a niche blog then look for niche directories and submit your
link. You can then move to general directories. The main aim of this
Backlinks Building Technique is to alert the online community of your
presence.
Resources:
2. Adding to Bookmarking Sites
interesting read online and wanted to save it for future reference?
Well, keeping that link for reference at a later time is known as
bookmarking. There are site that allow you to save links and make them
available for others also. Bookmarking sites that allow other users to
see your saved links are called Social Bookmarking Websites.
Social
bookmarking websites are centralized online services which allow users
to store and share Internet bookmarks. In a social bookmarking system,
users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share. –
Wikipedia
Why is a Social Bookmarking an effective
Backlinks Building Technique? For starters, it saves your links either
as Dofollow or Nofollow. Either way there will be a link referring back
to your site for search bots and humans.
Some social
bookmarking sites allow voting of links and even commenting. The more
engagements a site gets on high-quality bookmarking sites like
Stumbleupon, Reddit, Digg and Delicious the higher it is ranked by the
search engines which can only mean more traffic.
How to Bookmark
While
different sites have a different bookmarking processes, most of them if
not all require registration. You need to create a profile either by
filling in a form or signing up through Facebook, Twitter or Google.
Once you register:
- Sign into the bookmarking site
- Search for ‘submit link’ or any tab similar to it
- Provide the target URL plus any other required details (e.g. Tittle,
Tags/Keywords, Description of what the link is all about etc.) - Choose the right category (if need be)
- Submit the link.
You may want to install the bookmarklet or plugin from that site
to simplify your bookmarking exercise. Again, bookmark as many pages
from your blog as possible on as many sites as possible. There is a
cache though; you must be active and interact with others or else your
profile will be deleted due to inactivity. This means you will lose all
your backlinks from these sites, which will make bookmarking a rather
self-defeating Backlinks Building Technique.
Resource:
3. Blog Commenting
sometime back when searching for effective ‘Backlinks Building
Techniques’. At first, it looked very simple since I just had to drop a
comment on a high page rank blog and leave links. So, I scoured the net
for .edu and .gov blogs and started commenting to get the precious
dofollow backlinks. To be honest, I didn’t even read what the blog was
about but simply rushed through a few comments and came up with
something of my ‘own’ to write.I didn’t care about the
intention of the blogger. I mean, the writer of the post didn’t expect
spammy and irrelevant comments from people who only cared about
backlinks. It is painful to write a unique blog and then get spammy
comments like ‘what a wonderful post! ’great post, keep it up’ ‘I didn’t
know about rocket science but now I do’ yada yada.
Sadly
and regrettably that’s exactly what I did. It backfired in my face and
my precious backlinks started to disappear. I later learnt that my
comments were found worthless at best and deleted by moderators.
So,
how should you go about blog commenting as a Backlinks Building
Technique? Well, it is simple and still very effective. Here is how to
do it right:
- Read the entire post
- Research the topic i.e. if your knowledge about the topic is limited
- Put yourself in the authors shoe and ask what type of comments and links you would publish
- Make sure you comment (s) add value to post. You may give a another
angle to a point the blogger mentioned or provide an update to an
outdated information on the blog - Don’t leave more than 2 comments on the same blog on the same day. You will appear spammy.
How to create link:
Not all blogs give
backlinks so you must search for dofollow high page rank blogs or else
your blog commenting will not achieve its goal as one of the effective
Backlinks Building Techniques. This doesn’t mean that all your blog
comments should aim at getting backlinks; you will be too selfish a
blogger.
At times, I comment on blogs without expecting any favor in return but end up getting valuable traffic and comments in return.
Onto
creating a link, there are different blog comment forms depending on
the comment system a blog uses. Most blogs use Disqus, Others use Google
Comment System yet others use Facebook comment systems.
WordPress
Comment System, Commentluv and its Intensedebate version for blogger
platform are the best place to comment on. Commentluv enabled blogs will
live a link to your latest post below every comment you make. It is
super-fast way to create backlinks
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| Screenshot of a Commentluv Enabled Blog Comment Box |
Resources:
Once you have read the post and done the necessary research on a
topic, it is time to place your comment. Start by adding your name,
then email (use an active email address because some blogs may want an
email confirmation) and a website.
What about the
platforms that have no provision for websites and addresses? Can you
still use blog commenting as a Backlinks Building Technique? Well,
manually add your link in the comment as an anchor text. Always make
sure that the link you are referring readers to is related to the post
you are commenting on.
Additional Tips
How to find relevant blogs
- Search Google, Bing, Yahoo or Yandex for “dofollow blog” e.g. dofollow technology blog.
- Search for related topics and comment on the blog
- Use Blog Commenting Software to locate dofollow blogs.
- Try Google Search Operator to locate blogs with special comment
plugins like Commentluv. For example you can type
‘Technologyintext:Commentluv’on Google - Use Drop My LinkUse Drop My Link to find .edu and .gov blogs.
- Use Fast Blog Finder Software to find dofollow blogs.
Resources
Remember; do unto others as you would have them do to you. So,
leave value-adding comments on other blogs and you will get the same on
your blog. By the way, don’t forget to moderate comments on your blog
especially those from first-time commentators because there hundreds of
blogger out there aware that comment is among the effective Backlinks
Building Techniques.
4. Forum Signature Linking
definition of an Internet forum is an online discussion site. People
with same interests meet online to exchange views on a topic. From
insects to space aeronautics, there is just a forum for any topic you
can imagine.
organized in categories, subcategories, sub-forums and threads. A thread
is where you can start a discussion. A thread is also known as a ‘post’
and can be edited or deleted by the member who posted it or moderator.
Responses and replies are what constitute conversation in forums.
procedure is that someone starts a thread under a particular category
and fellow forum members join the conversation by posting replies. This
can go up to hundreds of comments in busy forums.
some forums can allow you to post anonymously (without registration),
others only give the power to start a thread or post a reply to
registered members. So, how do you turn your forum posting to Backlinks
Building Technique? Well, place it in Your Forum Signature.
most all forums allow members to create a signature i.e. a line that
appears below every thread and posts a member makes on the forum. It is
the forum’s way of giving each user a chance to share their resources.
It is in the signature that you place a link to your website or a to
relevant page on your blog. Most forums allow dofollow links at the
Signature. So, ensure your anchor text is optimized to generate more
clicks.
General Forum Etiquettes
- Be active. Remember it is a forum so it makes no sense to join,
start a thread and disappear into thin air. Always act on responses your
thread generates as well as contributing on threads started by others
too. - Never add manual links on your posts unless it is a reference to
your question. In fact never promote your blog in the posts and
comments. It won’t take long before the moderators realize you are
spamming the system and ban you - Only post meaningful and relevant threads. It pays to read existing
posts under the category you intend to post on so that your contribution
doesn’t look weird. - Never ask questions that your signature anchor text purport to
address. For instance, don’t ask what the best Backlinks Building
Techniques are when your signature says you are a ‘veteran SEO expert’.
If that doesn’t seem illogical to you it will to other forum members! - Don’t post more than 3 threads on a forum in away. Your efforts will
look spammy. One relevant and detailed reply or thought provoking
thread is enough for a day, if you asked me. That way you look natural
and will earn the moderators’ trust to enable you post more threads in
the future..
Finding the right forums
- Use special search engines such as Omgili, BoardReader etc
- Google Search Operator to get the right forum for your niche. For
example, you can type ‘SEO intext:vbulletin’ to find SEO forums - Just scour Bing, Yandex, Aol, Google and Yahoo for SEO forums
5. Submitting Articles To Directories
articles to highly ranked article directories is one of the best
Backlinks Building Techniques out there. While there are concerns about
the weight of the backlinks you get from these directories, it is worth
trying.
submission directories that even allow you to earn some passive income
from advertisement. Sites like Hubpages and Squidoo accept unique posts
but also pay you some amount for your efforts.
How to submit an article
- Register in a directory
- Write or pay someone to write a unique article on a topic you
understand too well and one that is covered extensively on your
site/blog. Serious article directories don’t accept rewrites or articles
that are already published elsewhere - Ensure the article is of recommended word length (usually from 400 up to 1200 depending on the directory)
- Optimize the article for keywords to improve its ranking on search results
- Coin a catchy title (Maximum of 70 characters or at most 8 words and written in Tittle Case)
- Come up with an enticing description of your article ( in 1 or 2 short paragraphs)
- Write a simple Author Bio and include a link to your site using an optimized anchor text
- Submit the article under the right category and provide any other detail they may require.
article may be published immediately or take time to do so. This
Backlinks Building Technique may also require premium membership to be
effective on some directories. Otherwise, it is free and simple in most
article directories.
6. Using Competitor Back-Link Analysis
simply find out where the competing websites get their backlinks. This
is known as Competitor Backlink Analysis. Using special online tools
(see the list below) you can identify where similar blogs or sites are
linked. You can then build links from those sources too.
- Ahref
- Open Site Explorer
- Bleckko
- Majestic SEO
- SEO Spy Glass
with limited results and functionality. So, this Backlinks Building
Technique means you have to part with some cash to be effective. The
good thing is, it is worth every penny
7. Creating Profile Backlinks
allows you to create a profile, right? Instead of filling these profiles
with some fake information, why don’t you use then as one of the
Backlinks Building Techniques? I mean, you can add a link to your
site/blog and thus get high ranking backlink even if it is just a
nofollow link. Optimize your bio to make profile views click on your
link for more.
8. Writing Press Release
many may think. It is still an effective Backlinks Building Technique if
done right. The main thing is to write your press release in a way that
it will rank better for your keyword.
Why a press release?
also generates backlinks. The method is good for website owners and may
not be a very effective Backlinks Building Technique for blogs. Here
are the reasons you need a press release:
- It will get you backlinks from news sites which improve your ranking for a given keyword
- Your site will be more visible on search engines
- Better Ranking for your site in Google News and Yahoo News etc
How To Write A Good Press Release
normal article, it requires professionalism and communication skills to
draft. In fact, public relations skills are needed when writing a press
release. Here are what constitutes a great press release:
- A title optimized for the main keyword – Avoid unnecessary words on the title to give the keyword weight
- Keyword in the first sentence of the first paragraph (also known as the summary)
- A body with 200+ words, written in easy to understand language with
the main keyword appearing once for every 100 words. Don’t forget to
fully optimize the multimedia and images in the body - Linked to a relevant page on your site/blog
- Has the main keyword as an anchor text
9. Member Association Links
association or blogging community? If you are then chances are they are
listing your site and thus giving a backlink. Check and contact the site
managers if you are listed on the group or association’s site.
10. Hire a SEO Company
apply all the Backlinks Building Techniques. So, you can hire a
reputable SEO firm to do the job for you. When hiring, ensure you hire
the right people for the job and not just any SEO company.
is my hope that this tutorial has been helpful in your Backlinks
Building Endeavors and that the Backlinks Building Techniques described
above will give results. The basic ingredients, at least according to
me, are patience and consistency. That’s how you succeed online
appreciate your contribution to this tutorial by way of comments or
contacting me through the contact form. Feel free to add other Backlinks
Building Techniques I may have not included or more insight on any of
the techniques discussed.
Thanks for sharing this article.tere is more information thanks for sharing. GreenGeeks Coupon
You shared very good link building techniques. I think website submission in good quality web directories is a good technique because these directories also provide targeted traffic to your websites along with increase in DA. I know some good quality directories personally, those are doing well. I submit my websites in these directories and i got good traffic from these directories. These directories are human reviewed and don't approve all listings except quality one. Here is the list below…
Leading Link Directory
SEF Directory
Ogola, Thank you for such informative article and sharing knowledge about digital marketing. I am fresh to this field and was searching for its effectiveness.
Hello Dear Ogola,
Nice to hear from you. The new bloggers have to face many hardships until they get their domain authority established. Useful resources these for link building.
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