It’s all about backlinks

If you’re looking to get traffic via Google Search Engine Results Pages (aka SERP’s) you need to start building backlinks. If you didn’t know, Google counts links pointing to you as a kind of “vote” for your site. The more link pointing to you, the higher you rank. Now I don’t want you to think that this is the end all be all of SERP ranking, but it does account for a very large portion of the determining factors.

Your backlinks also help to determine your Google PageRank. Having a high PR is valuable to you in that it inherently makes your blog more valuable for potential advertisers and is also a determining factor in your SERP’s. After less than 75 days online I received a Google PR of 4. I must be doing something right.

As I stated in my last progress report my inbound links are steadily going up. Today I did a search on yahoo site explorer and was spyched to see I have 13,002 inbound links when I search www.tysblog.com and 15,489 when I search tysblog.com (no “www”). This gives me a total of 28,491links pointing back to me on Yahoo. It really jumped a lot in the last few days. I’m not sure why it increased so much in just a few days, but am guessing that those extra links were just recently indexed. Who knows… yahoo’s results fluctuate quite a bit from day-to-day too. Either way, not too shabby for a blog only 82 days old.

One thing I do know is that I’ve been actively working on securing backlinks. It’s not just an accident that I have these backlinks, I worked hard to get ‘em and did several things to do so.

But first…

The first thing you’ll need to know is that your looking for sites with high PR to link back to you. I’ve heard its comparable to have one site with a PR 4 or 5 linking to you as having 100 with no PR. The exact ratio is a mystery as Google guards their algorithms closely. Now, I’m not saying you don’t want links from poorly ranked sites, but if you have the choice between 10 links on sites with PR 0 vs. one link on a site with a PR 3 - take the PR 3!

To help you see what a particular page on any given site’s PR is I recommend you download the Search Status plugin for Firefox. It’s a handy little tool that will display PR and Alexa data as well as letting you easily check backlinks on individual pages or entire domains. It’s a useful tool.

You’ll want to try and get backlinks on blogs/sites that are relevant to yours. They should contain similar or the same keywords you’re trying to rank well on. The more relevant the links pointing to you are the better. Also, if you can control the anchor text (the actual link text) try and use anchor text that contains the keyword(s) you’re trying to rank well on. So if you’re looking to rank well on the term “get backlinks“, the words “get backlinks” should link to relevant page in your blog/site. As I just did in the last sentence you can also link internally. This will help too, and you can control the anchor text all you want. Google likes blogs/sites that deep link internally.

Here we go…

Forums. Finding relevant forums and leaving thread replies is one way to start building backlinks. If you leave a really useful comment you can also generate a little traffic. Make sure when you set up your account on the forum of choice to create a signature with your URL. This way any comments you leave will automatically post your URL. Don’t leave crappy replies, make ‘em relevant. I’ve even spent time researching how to solve a problem for someone just so I could leave the best comment in the thread. This will ensure your comments aren’t perceived as SPAM and that they don’t get deleted by the forum mods.

MyBlogLog.com. MBL is a great resource for not only generating some backlinks but is also good for a little traffic and garnering regular readers. When a MBL user bookmarks one of your pages it creates a backlink! The best thing, these backlinks are SEO friendly (there’s no “nofollow” tag added)! My advice; Be active, join groups, add lots of friends, and use the “my community” widget on your blog (you can see mine in the right toolbar). using the widget will encourage people to join your community when they happen by your blog if they’re a member of MBL. I’ve had about 200 people bookmark posts I’ve done and that’s an extra 200 backlinks!

One way I’ve built up quite a few backlinks is through my Drop Your Entrecard 300 times in 15 minutes program. The reason this has been successful is because I found a way that I can help other bloggers to receive more “drops” on their Entrecard and in doing so created a page on my blog that many other bloggers want to help promote. The more drop they receive, the more credits they earn to advertise. Every blogger I add to the list has a reason to help promote my blog (at least that page) because they will also benefit. The more people that use my system, the more the people on the list benefit. Try to come up with something you can offer other bloggers that they’ll want to help you promote. I know it may not be easy to come up with something but if you think about it you could come up with something really great. Just keep it in the back of your mind.

SiteHoppin’ is a great way to build some backlinks and get some great traffic while you’re at it. Set up a profile page and then make sure you submit every post you do. Each time you submit a post or page you create a backlink for it. This one’s easy and you will also see some decent traffic too. You can also buy Beer Stock for as little as $0.75 each and every stock you have can be a page that links to you. It’s also a great way to get traffic. I own several Beer Stocks and get hits from each one every day. I love SiteHoppin’.

And the best way to create backlinks: Other bloggers! You can leave relevant comments on blog posts you like and will receive backlinks for each. You should “make friends” with the other bloggers and do link exchanges. You can also just ask to be added to their blogroll if your blog compliments theirs (it shouldn’t be in competition, or they’ll like decline). Once you’ve become friends with other bloggers you may have chances to sponsor their contests. This is a GREAT way to build backlinks as most contests require entrants to blog about the contest and it’s sponsors as a mean on entry. Sponsoring one contest can result in hundreds of backlinks.

Finally, I wrote a post about specifically finding blogs with high PR that are relevant to yours that are SEO friendly (no “nofollow” attribute). If you know the right search terms to use, it’s really easy. I’ve used this method a lot. Click Here to read that post on how to get backlinks with a high pagerank- it’s a good one too!

UPDATE:  I just came across a great post on DotComMogul.com with a very useful list of blogs that are dofollow and all have a high PR.  This is SUPER useful!  I highly suggest you check it out too!

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