How to Get Backlinks to Your Website (And Increase Your Google Rankings)

Whilst SEO is a topic as vast as Asia, it is commonly agreed that backlinks play a major role in how well your website ranks in the search engines. The more links you have pointing to your website, from other websites on the internet, the better you will rank in Google and the other search engines. But what are the best kinds of backlinks and how do you actually get these beloved links?

In the early days of search engine optimization (SEO), getting links was a “free for all” scenario – you could get links from pretty much any site, any way possible, and you were sure to enjoy some sort of SEO success. This lead to the creation of “gateway” pages and all sorts of other dirty tactics that optimizers used to underhandedly get their websites to the top of the search engine rankings. Of course, as time went by, the search engines caught on to these tactics and, as a result, refined their requirements regarding backlinks. It is now widely agreed that the most effective backlinks need to:

• Come from websites that have some authority (i.e., have been around for a while, have decent traffic and are not clear cut spam sites), and
• Come from websites that are relevant to your niche (i.e., don’t get a link from a plumbing site to a gaming website, as this would be seen as irrelevant)

Of course, some will still argue that “a link’s a link” and essentially raise the “quality vs. quantity” debate, but for the purposes of SEO, I would recommend working smart rather than hard.

So, now that the rules are laid out, how do you get such links? Well, it’s actually fairly easy, provided that you have a bit of time and are prepared to commit to an ongoing link building process.  Here are some easy link building tactics that you can implement today:

Get Active in Your Community

I’m not talking about joining the local country club here (although that would be fun…), but rather about joining forums that are relevant to your niche. You want to find a forum (or forums) that is active and well ranked, and place your link in your “signature” section. This way, whenever you contribute to the forum (i.e. say something), you’ll be building backlinks. It’s important that you contribute to these forums with your knowledge and not just abuse them for links. You’ll get banned quicker than you can say “backlink” if you do this. “Contribute” is the keyword here.

Suss Out Your Competition

Write down the website addresses of the top five results for your desired keyword. Then, using Google, type in “link:website” (replace website with the actual website address). This will show you where each site is getting their links from (well, most of them in any case) and hopefully spark some ideas for your site.

Get Writing…

Article syndication is one of the most popular methods used to build links. You simply write a short article (400 – 600 words) and publish it on as many article directories as possible. Each directory will allow you to place your link in the “resource box”, thus growing your number of backlinks. You might be wondering “But what do I write about?”. The answer is simple – write about your area of expertise. So if you’re a handyman, write about some basic DIY tasks that people can carry out. Write how-to’s, 101’s and the like – Just give it some thought, it’s well worth it… If you don’t have the time to put pen to paper, outsource the task to a professional writer. This will ensure a constant growth of backlinks to your website.

Submit To Directories

Wherever there is an industry, you’ll find directories, especially on the internet. Do a search for your keyword and the word “directory”. Register on as many of them as possible – it’s a free link every time, and you might even gain the benefit of organic traffic (i.e. real people) finding you on these directories (that’s what they’re there for, after all).

Get Blogging

My final tip is to get blogging, or at least commenting on other people’s blogs. Look for blogs that are relevant to your keywords or topic and post constructive comments on them. Each comment will earn you a free link, plus potential direct traffic if the blog is popular and well followed. A word of warning though – make sure that the blogs don’t use “nofollow” tags, as this will render your link null and void in the eyes of the search engines.

Of course, there are an endless number of link building tips and tactics out there, but these are just some of the simpler and more actionable tactics that I can recommend. The key to link building is consistency – it’s no use building a hundred links this month and none next month – rather commit to a consistent approach.

Provided that you have chosen the correct keywords, building your backlinks over time will ensure that you enjoy good rankings in Google and company. Get started today and you’ll be enjoying the benefits of free traffic sooner than you think.

PS – If you’re still new to SEO, download this free SEO course and learn the SEO basics. The SEO course will give you a good base from which you can build up your knowledge.