How To Get More Backlinks

Date: December 8, 2007 | Author: Edward Clarke | Category: Search Engines

How to get more backlinks is a common question I get asked as it’s no mystery that the more links you have pointing to your website the more rank is given, hence more traffic and ultimately business. So, links are important and if you’ve just started your link building campaign then you’ll know how tiresome and tedious the job is. As you trawl the web looking for linking opportunities you’ll often find that most want something in return, usually a reciprocal link, some want payment. Clearly then, we need a strategy for gaining links that are productive, low on cost (preferably free from money and reciprocation) and easy to find.

Competition Harvesting

backlinks1.jpgThis method takes a peek at your competitors inbound links and identifies where they get theirs from. Follow the steps below to identify some key competitors which you can analyse.

  1. Load up Google and then search for a term you wish to be seen for. In this example, we’ll look for ‘book keeping services surrey’.
  2. Ignore the sponsored adverts on the top and down the right hand side and look at the main results. A typical competitor looks like www.robinett.co.uk. This is a competitor we need to analyse.
  3. We now need to load up a Yahoo facility called Site Explorer. We can do this by visiting http://search.yahoo.com.
  4. Next we need to use the ‘link’ operator by searching Yahoo, like so ‘link:www.robinett.co.uk’ (example link)
  5. Looking at the results we can see that there are many links from various resources. The idea is to look into these resources and identify opportunities for you to gather a link for yourself.

backlinks2.jpgBecause we can found this website by searching for a competitive phrase, we know these links are valuable to them so spend some time gaining links for yourself.

Once you’ve exhausted the links you’ve discovered for one competitor then go back to the Google results and select another competitor and analyse their inbound links. You can do this for the first few pages of Google results for a given phrase.

The logical next step is to then amend the key phrase you’ve search for and begin to harvest the inbound links these new competitors are displaying. If you need ideas for new key phrases then read how to keyword research.

And so it goes on…

As a strategy for gaining links, it’s quick and effective.

Business Directories

This is a fairly easy way to gather links. There are a vast amount of business directories out there offering links to websites. We provide a facility to list your website for free over at the free business directory listing section of the website marketing forum. Just typing ‘free business directory’ into a search engine will give you plenty of opportunities to get your website listed.

However, there are a couple of must-do’s. The first is a human edited directory called the Open Directory Project which can be seen by visiting www.dmoz.org. You navigate to the appropriate category then use the ’submit URL’ link at the top to submit your website. There is a catch though. The Open Directory Project have quite strict terms and conditions and the rate of submission is often the same as the rate of processing so it can take an awful long time to get listed. Once recommendation though is to submit to the regional categories as these tend to be more active. At least it’s free.

The next business directory which is a must-do is Google Local Business (http://www.google.com/local/add). Have you ever looked up for a business in Google and seen a map in the top of the results set? This is Google Local Business and it’s free as well. Head over to the website, complete the form and then verify yourself either by phone or mail. Once verified you too will be mapped and listed in Google.

If you run a business directory or can make some recommendations then head over to the website marketing forum and add the directories there.

Link Bait

You’re looking for people to visit your website so it’s usually a good idea to give them a reason to visit in the first place. Creating link bait is easier than it sounds. All you need to do is create a resource for people such as a list of useful websites about a certain subject and straight away you’ve got a reason for people to visit and a reason for people to link to you. Websites link to other websites if there’s a reason to and something useful is at the destination so why not create something useful for visitors.

An example of this would be if you sell wines, then why not create a list of all the recipes that would go with the certain types of wine? This is useful to a lot of people and the more time you invest creating a really useful resource the more valuable it becomes and the more links you’ll acquire. It will take time but search engines will see this and identify it as natural linking which is a good thing.

Here’s a useful CSS resource, great for web designers and a reason to visit and link.

Testimonials

Writing a testimonial is another tactic for getting a quality link back to the website. The key is the relationship between the goods or services you’re writing about the your website. Flattering the ego of a company, appealing to their marketing plan and also being concise will almost certainly give you the best potential opportunity to be listed in a prominent place on a website.

Creating Articles / Blogging

backlinks3.jpgExactly what we’re doing here. Articles are great resources that also give a reason to visit and a reason to link. The key to writing articles to keep the focus on the audience and actually answer a question that’s being asked. Blogging articles can be time consuming but search engines love unique information and when it’s prolific, there’s a reason to keep coming back. The idea is to create resources that generate links. It’s these links that increase rank of your goods and services.

When establishing a blog, the first step is to write a few articles and publish them on other websites such as ezinearticles.com as it’s free, gets you more exposure and generates a link back to your website.

Once you get into the swing of writing content then it’s a good idea to establish a blog on your website. This can be a technical process so you may need to ask your website designer to integrate one but once it’s up you can write to your hearts content.

Make sure that every article is on topic, educates the market on your goods and services and leads them to the key client pages on your website.

Give Something Useful Away

I know you’re not a charity but giving something away, preferably knowledge based such as an eBook is a great way to give people a reason to visit and link. If you do, ensure it answers questions being asked, educates people on your goods and services and leads them to your website.

Authority

Search engines look for authority on a subject. The more authority on a subject the more rank will be assigned. By nature, Governmental services have an authority and if you can establish a relationship with a Governmental service the identify whether a linking opportunity is possible. Things like tourist boards, local business support services such as Business Link, schools, Government funded organisations, networking groups etc. Most local Government or Council services have a network of news and information. If you can contribute and add value to this news and information then you can possibly earn a very important backlink to your website.

Finally

Getting links to your website is a tough job. You can certainly pay others to do this for you but you’ll need to way up the cost of doing this against the time spent doing this yourself. A common question is ‘how many links do I need?’ and the answer to that is ‘more than your competitors’.

Happy linking and don’t forget to add your business to our free business directory listing forum.

Thanks for reading.