What are Backlinks?
Backlinks are links on other websites pointing at your website. Without adequate links pointing at your website it will likely never achieve higher keyword ranking.
How to Find Good Backlinks
Website ranking involves more than just putting your website online. The old addage, "Build it and they will come" is no longer true. You need to not only have quality content on your website but also focus on getting good backlinks but also relevant backlinks. The kind of links you gather and where the link is placed on the other site will also determine the amount of traffic you get and your ranking in the search engines.
Google and Yahoo rank websites according to how many quality backlinks they find pointing at your website. Quality is determined by how relevant the other site is to your site and where the link is placed on their page (within the content is best) and how many other links are on the page (less is better). A large number of links pointing at your site does not guarantee success. You need quality backlinks in order to rise to the first page of results and the more you can find the better.
Google started devaluing traded links in Fall of 2007 and started penalizing directories that used dishonest means to raise their own PR so they could sell links. Google penalized those directories by dropping their PR (Page Rank) to Zero and Keyword Rank so far that they didn't even rank for their own business name. This also affected the rank of sites that bought links from those directories because their link count dropped.
If you have been buying links from directories and your PR or keyword rank is dropping it may be because of Google penalizing those directories. This causes those sites to put rel="nofollow" on the links to protect themselves, thus you are no longer credited for those links you bought which reduces your PR and thus your Keyword Rank.
Google also penalizes sites for getting involved in Triangular Linking Schemes, i.e., "I'll link to your site from my site if you link to my other site" (they do this so it doesn't look like a link trade but Google knows how to spot these also).
Therefore the best way to encourage people to link to your content is to provide information that is useful to your visitors.
What are Quality Backlinks?
* Few links on a page
* A link within the body content
* Link from a relevant site
Google recently changed it's algorighym so that if there is an excess of traded links, purchased links, or if you get involved in triangular linking schemes, or buy hundreds or thousands of links all at once, then it will draw a red flag for Google and then Google may apply a filter to your site to prevent it from ranking well.
An occasional, relevant link trade is ok and having to buy a link in Yahoo directory or another directory that is human reviewed where you have to pay for the review (and not the submission) is OK, but anything in exess can cause you problems with your ranking in Google because they can tell when link gathering is not normal.
Google is having to do this due to too many finding some new trick that helps their keyword rank (like hidden text) and then everyone else follows suit and then Google has to clamp down on that practice — until next time someone comes up with a "bright idea".
So anything you do to try and manipulate your rank in Google can draw a red flag and your site could be banned, penalized or have your keyword rank filtered out, i.e., you won't be able to rank for anything no matter what you do.
Best Linking Practice
The best, and easiest, method to gather links is to provide something on your website that people will want to link to, i.e., if you build bridges offer free bridge building plans, if you sell dessert products offer free recipies of products you don't offer, if you provide a service write up a FAQ about your service, etc. You can also provide a service or product for free if they will provide a backlink to your site . On LWD, I provide a lot of HTML tips, Css Tips, graphics tutorials and articles on keyword ranking and other topics which bring in a lot of my traffic and backlinks without my even asking.
Finding Backlinks For Your Website
Find friends, businesses, individuals, or organizations who are willing to link to your website as soon as it's online, then you won't need to submit to search engines because the search engines can find your link on a site they have indexed already. Some of them may require a link trade but try to get mostly one-way links.
Find Good Backlinks
Google uses age of the site, backlinks as well as PR to rank sites (along with many other factors) so, unless you want to PayPerClick for the life of the site, you need to get gather a lot of links and write a lot of content to get rank as high as possible.
Look for websites relevant to what your site offers but have a different focus, i.e., submit to a gardening site if you sell garden tools.
Another way to find good backlinks is to search for your major keyword in your favorite search engine and take note of which of your competitors is ranking highest. Then search for their domain name and look for sites that have accepted their link then try and submit your website there also.
Other Methods of Getting Good Backlinks
* Find Directories in Your Own Niche Submit to directories in your own niche, i.e., if you sell or offer information about vitamins then look for directories focused on health products.
* Free Submission Directories If you aim for free submissions from directories you may need to request about 10 times as many backlinks as you actually need as very few free links are accepted by directories claiming to accept free submissions. They do this so they won't be penalized for only offering paid links. When submitting, change your anchor text (title of your site) frequently so there is a wide variety of keywords to rank for, however you will probably have to pay for anything other than your official site name.
Also see:
Directories that Pass PR
and
Directories to Avoid
* Write Articles Write quality articles related to the focus of your website and submit to other sites. Provide a link within the article to your site related to the focus in the article -- not necessarily your home page. Do NOT post the same article on your own website or you may be penalized for duplicate content.
* Submit Press Releases Only submit press releases when you have a valid reason for one--any new development on your site or an original focus with your products that the customers on the press release will be interested in.
* Blogging Set up a blog on a separate site related to the topic of your site and provide information of value to your visitors (that you don't provide on your own site) with a link to your website within the post where appropriate. Don't link from your website to your blog or it will be discounted.
* Participate in Forums Find forums related to your website's focus and post often so you will get noticed and build up trust so people will click on the link in your profile or signature and possibly link to your site from their own site or in other forums showing where they found valuable information. Most forums now put a rel="nofollow" on all outgoing links so this may not benefit you other than getting some traffic.
How Many Backlinks is Enough?
That depends on your major keywords. Are they popular? If so, you will have a struggle to beat your competition and may have to resort to PayPerClick along with backlinks.
If very few websites advertise what you offer then you may not need very many backlinks to rank high in the search engines but your traffic may still be minimal because of your site being so specialized. In that case diversify and add more information.
Getting Backlinks is an On-going Process
Your backlinks need to be replenished each year because some sites along with their backlinks go offline. Your competitors are probably eagerly seeking more backlinks to outrank you so unless you actively seek more backlinks each year your rank may drop.
Also see
Backlinks to Avoid
and
Keyword Ranking Strategy
Pay Per Click is only temporary
Getting good quality backlinks is a lengthy process and can take several months--unless you want to utilize PayPerClick (Google's AdWords) and then it can achieve almost immediate results but those results will end as soon as you quit paying so it's a good idea to gather links at the same time.
If you would like your web site analyzed for keyword ranking please check out the Website Evaluations page. If you are looking for a web designer see the How to Find a Web Designer page first.
