Backlinks
Inbound links, or Backlinks, are
links on other people's sites that lead back to your
site. They have proven value with search engines, as
long as they are placed on a high quality site.
“Quality” is defined as being a site with a good
search engine reputation, and good, solid content.
You have four basic options for
linking:
Reciprocal Links – Link
Trades that you negotiate.
Directory Links – Links that
you request in quality niche directories.
Article Site Submissions –
Links in articles that you submit for
distribution through article sites.
Paid Links – Links on other
sites that you pay to get (or barter for).
Each has its advantage and
disadvantage, and each has its place in a long term
linking strategy.
The first thing to understand
about linking is that the traffic you get from the
link itself is not the most important traffic. On
some sites it can be, but on most, it is not. You
may not get more than two or three hits a month off
of some links that you get on other sites (they may
be higher quality visitors, but there won't usually
be that many). But the search engines may send you
an extra 50 or 100 visitors a month because of those
links. And that makes it well worth placing them.
The other aspect of placing the
kind of links we are talking about here, is that
they are relatively permanent. Oh, there will be
some flex in them over time, but generally, once
placed, they go on getting you that same traffic
each month. If the site you placed the link on
grows, then the amount of traffic from that site
will grow also. This means that if you place just
two links per month, it builds power exponentially
each month.
Reciprocal links have a little
less power than one way links (links that are not
traded), but they still have the ability to get your
site more traffic. There are four aspects to
reciprocal linking:
Site Quality – You want to make
sure that the sites are good quality, and don't
trade links with sites that have been banned.
Because you are indulging in a trade, their site
being listed on your site will affect the quality of
your site as well. So be sure that you only link to
good quality sites.
Pagerank – Higher pagerank helps
you more. This is not a reason NOT to link to new
sites, it is a reason to seek links with sites that
are a step above yours if you can. Now, the thing
about that is, it is harder to get links on higher
ranked sites! And some of those lower ranked sites
will eventually be higher ranked, so in the long
term, getting in on it early may be a real benefit.
Relevancy – Topics that are
relevant to your topic will be better trades. Search
engines place more importance in links that are for
similar topics. But sometimes a relevant link won't
appear that way to the search engines, and sometimes
one you think is not highly relevant will be to
them, because of the keywords that are used. So get
them when they seem a reasonable trade, and don't
obsess over this detail too much.
Placement – The area of the site
where your links are placed can make a difference.
Links on Link pages are not worthless, but links on
content pages are given more weight according to
some sources. It makes sense that they would be,
because content pages are prime web real estate, and
you only typically put things on them that pertain
to the page information.
Directory Links can also be a bit
of a hassle to get. The trick is differentiating
good quality directories from Free Classified sites
and other sites that won't help you any. The
distinguishing factor is often that a good directory
will have a real person reviewing the sites that
come in. This means that in order to get in, your
site has to be good quality, or they won't list you!
But that is also why they are good links to get,
because many niche directories have very good
pagerank.
Unfortunately, a growing number of
directories now put in dynamic links that do not
index through the search engines, which means that
you do not get as much benefit from the listing.
There are ways to check this, but it is fairly
technical. JavaScript links typically do not index,
and some PHP links do not (others do). There are
also a few sources online that keep listings of the
directories that do and do not provide “static”
links (the better ones). The problem here though is
that there are SO many directories out there, that
nobody can keep track of them all.
I recommend that you get links in
directories. Even if you do not get the full benefit
from them, they can still provide you with traffic
directly, and if just half of them get you search
engine ranking benefits, then you are still far
ahead of your competition.
Article Marketing is one of my
favourite things, but that is probably because I
like writing. It can be much harder for someone who
does not write well to take advantage of this
powerful form of marketing – because it is much more
than just a means of getting links! It is also a way
to begin to build customer relationships with people
you have never even met, and never would be able to
reach if you just placed articles on your own site.
Article Marketing is viral – that
means you send it out there, and it then spreads
itself far beyond what you could anticipate. That
is, it will IF you write good articles that other
people want to use! If you write glorified ads or
garbage, then nobody will use it, and it will not
even be accepted by the article directories.
Do not use PLR articles for this
unless you have completely rewritten them BY HAND. I
cannot stress this enough. There are no shortcuts to
quality writing! There are plenty of ways to get
banned from article directories though, and this is
the fastest way to do it!
If you cannot produce a persuasive
article, then it may be well worth your time to hire
someone to do it for you. This can be one of the
most powerful forms of link marketing, and it is
also one of the least expensive, even if you DO hire
some of it out.
Do NOT hire out an article or
series of articles from a total stranger, at $5 a
pop! You will not get distinctive, usable, or
original articles! Expect to pay $30 to $50 for a
well researched, appealing, and effective article.
Even at that price, for the mileage you can get out
of it, it is WELL worth it (go to http://www.articlemarketingmagic.com
for more info on article marketing and related
benefits).
Paid Links are considered to be
frowned upon by search engines. But personally, I
feel that they are like reciprocal links, in that if
you show up with a whole bunch of them at once, then
you are manipulating the search engines. If you pay
for them one at a time, and select them carefully,
on sites that are selective about whom they allow to
advertise, then they aren't a lot different than
reciprocal links. But that is just my opinion, you
must choose for yourself whether you want to go
there or not, and accept the risk if you do.
What is certain is that Search
Engines do NOT like it when you go out and buy a ton
of links at once. That IS considered manipulative.
Some people say that search engines will not
penalize you, merely discount the links if you do
that, because someone else could do that to you if
they banned you for it. But other SEO experts say
that it is a practice to avoid, and that it can
actually harm your pagerank. I don't know which is
the case, but if, at its best, it will do nothing
(not even anything good), and at its worst it can
harm you, then why waste your money?
Paid links also have the same
issue as Directory listings, in that many paid ads
are simply ineffective with search engines. So
before you pay, make sure you know what it is that
you are paying for!
Things to avoid in getting
backlinks:
Do not create seven other
sites and link your site in to them in the hopes
of fooling the search engines into thinking your
site is big. It won't work, because the age of
the site also matters. Linking it into an existing
sites helps, but that won't propel it to instant
fame either.
Do not buy "instant links",
where someone promises to put your links on X
number of sites overnight, those types of
services do not work and will get you banned
from the search engines.
Don't bother with traffic
exchanges, they don't help your pagerank, and
they do not give you traffic that improves your
income - who cares if you get tons of traffic if
it does not help you sell anything?
Watch out for popups... if
your site has to have popups to get traffic, or
your site appears on popups, you'll annoy your
guests. Some link programs rely on pop-up trades
– don't do it!
When I talk about inbound
links, traffic generation programs are NOT what
I mean. I mean permanent links on other people's
reputable sites.
Stay away from Free
Classifieds, or Free For All link sites, they
get you lots of spam and no marketing advantage,
but they CAN hurt your site.
Each good quality inbound link is
a drop in a bucket. You need to aggressively pursue
legitimate links, and not get sidetracked by hype,
because enough drops will get you to overflowing
faster than if you are trying to take a shortcut
that cannot get you there at all.
A bit about Viral Linking
Viral links are distinguished from
other links in that they spread themselves. They do
this because somehow, they provide a reward or
benefit to someone if they pass them on. Viral links
can occur in a number of ways, including Affiliate
Programs (commission reward system), Article
Marketing (good content gets passed on with links),
Humorous Emails (reward is a laugh, sig line gets
passed on), Reprintable Jokes with author credits
attached, free download links (this can have a
backlash), and other forms.
Notice, we have NOT included links
in eBooks, links in software, or other forms of
viral links that do not offer a Search Engine
Optimization benefit. Those are all valid marketing
strategies, but the links in them do not give a
Search Engine benefit. They can be used as an
enticement to encourage people to link to you IF you
invite people to link to the download page. Be
warned though, some people will simply link straight
to the download, and bypass your site entirely, and
make the download appear to be theirs instead of
yours.
Back to viral linking... Like
catching the flu, a good viral linking tactic will
spread easily. This means it not only has to have an
enticement to pass it on, it has to be one that
people actually want to pass on. Give them something
good, and they will share it naturally.
Probably the best known form of
viral linking currently is Article Marketing. And it
follows a classic pattern for viral linking.
It logically incorporates
your message and URL.
It can be done fairly easily,
without complex software or memberships.
It provides something of
genuine value that people are seeking.
It multiplies far beyond your
own sphere of influence.
It assists with marketing
objectives as well as linking objectives.
It provides good search
engine pagerank benefits if done right.
It is easy for other people
to pass on.
An entire distribution
channel is already established, which you just
need to plug into.
One reason it is so powerful is
that it accomplishes marketing goals of increasing
trust with prospective customers, and with helping
to establish a good reputation for the business. It
becomes a form of vicarious relationship marketing,
which helps the prospective customer feel they can
trust you ahead of time.
It also only works if it is done
right. Your signature line has to reflect your
marketing goals, and it should provide an
encouragement to visit your site. And there are a
range of other factors also, but the most important
one is quality writing.
I read an article recently which
was actually picked up for publication by another
site. I was appalled at the sloppy writing, and
wondered whether the person who placed the article
on the site had even read it! Each paragraph was
constructed of a single rambling run-on sentence,
and there were frequent spelling and grammar errors.
The content itself was mostly vague inferences
instead of actually conveying any useful
information. Things like: “When you do this task
things will probably get harder when you get inside
and start doing it, so be careful when you choose
the object to do the project on.” He followed that
with stern instructions to look over the object very
carefully, with plenty of details about which parts
to look at, but no information about what to look
FOR. Lots of illusion of information there, but
nothing of real use. The overall impression was that
of a bad writer trying to think of something to say.
Some of my kids have turned in better essays in
Junior High than that. My 17 year old son read the
article and said, “So when is he going to actually
say something useful?”
An article must be well written,
and it should contain at least ONE tidbit or
guideline that could cause someone to say, “Ah-ha!
So THAT's the key to that part!”, yet not tell it
ALL, so that they will feel that there is more that
you can illuminate for them.
The quality of other viral linking
items must be good. No matter what it is, it must
possess a little bit of a “wow” or “ah-ha” factor
for people to feel that it truly is something they
want, and not just another worthless freebie in the
suffocating flood of valueless freebies floating
around the net.
Do NOT create a viral email that
is a hoax, and do NOT create one and then put some
stupid thing like “pass this on to 10 people within
5 minutes and you'll have good luck!” Such tactics
are dishonest, totally stupid, and will destroy your
business credibility. Your customers expect you to
be out of Junior High School, so don't do things
that make it appear that you got stuck at age 13.
The great thing about viral
linking is that you set it up once, and then it goes
on doing its job, sometimes for months, sometimes
longer, depending on how dated the material is. You
can use viral linking for a range of things, but be
sure that you set it up in such a way that it
encourages people to actually place a link that
benefits you.
You have four basic options for linking:
Reciprocal Links – Link Trades that you negotiate.Directory Links – Links that you request in quality niche directories.
Article Site Submissions – Links in articles that you submit for distribution through article sites.
Paid Links – Links on other sites that you pay to get (or barter for).
Each has its advantage and disadvantage, and each has its place in a long term linking strategy.
The first thing to understand about linking is that the traffic you get from the link itself is not the most important traffic. On some sites it can be, but on most, it is not. You may not get more than two or three hits a month off of some links that you get on other sites (they may be higher quality visitors, but there won't usually be that many). But the search engines may send you an extra 50 or 100 visitors a month because of those links. And that makes it well worth placing them.
The other aspect of placing the kind of links we are talking about here, is that they are relatively permanent. Oh, there will be some flex in them over time, but generally, once placed, they go on getting you that same traffic each month. If the site you placed the link on grows, then the amount of traffic from that site will grow also. This means that if you place just two links per month, it builds power exponentially each month.
Reciprocal links have a little less power than one way links (links that are not traded), but they still have the ability to get your site more traffic. There are four aspects to reciprocal linking:
Site Quality – You want to make sure that the sites are good quality, and don't trade links with sites that have been banned. Because you are indulging in a trade, their site being listed on your site will affect the quality of your site as well. So be sure that you only link to good quality sites.
Pagerank – Higher pagerank helps you more. This is not a reason NOT to link to new sites, it is a reason to seek links with sites that are a step above yours if you can. Now, the thing about that is, it is harder to get links on higher ranked sites! And some of those lower ranked sites will eventually be higher ranked, so in the long term, getting in on it early may be a real benefit.
Relevancy – Topics that are relevant to your topic will be better trades. Search engines place more importance in links that are for similar topics. But sometimes a relevant link won't appear that way to the search engines, and sometimes one you think is not highly relevant will be to them, because of the keywords that are used. So get them when they seem a reasonable trade, and don't obsess over this detail too much.
Placement – The area of the site where your links are placed can make a difference. Links on Link pages are not worthless, but links on content pages are given more weight according to some sources. It makes sense that they would be, because content pages are prime web real estate, and you only typically put things on them that pertain to the page information.
Directory Links can also be a bit of a hassle to get. The trick is differentiating good quality directories from Free Classified sites and other sites that won't help you any. The distinguishing factor is often that a good directory will have a real person reviewing the sites that come in. This means that in order to get in, your site has to be good quality, or they won't list you! But that is also why they are good links to get, because many niche directories have very good pagerank.
Unfortunately, a growing number of directories now put in dynamic links that do not index through the search engines, which means that you do not get as much benefit from the listing. There are ways to check this, but it is fairly technical. JavaScript links typically do not index, and some PHP links do not (others do). There are also a few sources online that keep listings of the directories that do and do not provide “static” links (the better ones). The problem here though is that there are SO many directories out there, that nobody can keep track of them all.
I recommend that you get links in directories. Even if you do not get the full benefit from them, they can still provide you with traffic directly, and if just half of them get you search engine ranking benefits, then you are still far ahead of your competition.
Article Marketing is one of my favourite things, but that is probably because I like writing. It can be much harder for someone who does not write well to take advantage of this powerful form of marketing – because it is much more than just a means of getting links! It is also a way to begin to build customer relationships with people you have never even met, and never would be able to reach if you just placed articles on your own site.
Article Marketing is viral – that means you send it out there, and it then spreads itself far beyond what you could anticipate. That is, it will IF you write good articles that other people want to use! If you write glorified ads or garbage, then nobody will use it, and it will not even be accepted by the article directories.
Do not use PLR articles for this unless you have completely rewritten them BY HAND. I cannot stress this enough. There are no shortcuts to quality writing! There are plenty of ways to get banned from article directories though, and this is the fastest way to do it!
If you cannot produce a persuasive article, then it may be well worth your time to hire someone to do it for you. This can be one of the most powerful forms of link marketing, and it is also one of the least expensive, even if you DO hire some of it out.
Do NOT hire out an article or series of articles from a total stranger, at $5 a pop! You will not get distinctive, usable, or original articles! Expect to pay $30 to $50 for a well researched, appealing, and effective article. Even at that price, for the mileage you can get out of it, it is WELL worth it (go to http://www.articlemarketingmagic.com for more info on article marketing and related benefits).
Paid Links are considered to be frowned upon by search engines. But personally, I feel that they are like reciprocal links, in that if you show up with a whole bunch of them at once, then you are manipulating the search engines. If you pay for them one at a time, and select them carefully, on sites that are selective about whom they allow to advertise, then they aren't a lot different than reciprocal links. But that is just my opinion, you must choose for yourself whether you want to go there or not, and accept the risk if you do.
What is certain is that Search Engines do NOT like it when you go out and buy a ton of links at once. That IS considered manipulative. Some people say that search engines will not penalize you, merely discount the links if you do that, because someone else could do that to you if they banned you for it. But other SEO experts say that it is a practice to avoid, and that it can actually harm your pagerank. I don't know which is the case, but if, at its best, it will do nothing (not even anything good), and at its worst it can harm you, then why waste your money?
Paid links also have the same issue as Directory listings, in that many paid ads are simply ineffective with search engines. So before you pay, make sure you know what it is that you are paying for!
Things to avoid in getting backlinks:
Do not create seven other sites and link your site in to them in the hopes of fooling the search engines into thinking your site is big. It won't work, because the age of the site also matters. Linking it into an existing sites helps, but that won't propel it to instant fame either.Do not buy "instant links", where someone promises to put your links on X number of sites overnight, those types of services do not work and will get you banned from the search engines.
Don't bother with traffic exchanges, they don't help your pagerank, and they do not give you traffic that improves your income - who cares if you get tons of traffic if it does not help you sell anything?
Watch out for popups... if your site has to have popups to get traffic, or your site appears on popups, you'll annoy your guests. Some link programs rely on pop-up trades – don't do it!
When I talk about inbound links, traffic generation programs are NOT what I mean. I mean permanent links on other people's reputable sites.
Stay away from Free Classifieds, or Free For All link sites, they get you lots of spam and no marketing advantage, but they CAN hurt your site.
Each good quality inbound link is a drop in a bucket. You need to aggressively pursue legitimate links, and not get sidetracked by hype, because enough drops will get you to overflowing faster than if you are trying to take a shortcut that cannot get you there at all.
A bit about Viral Linking
Viral links are distinguished from other links in that they spread themselves. They do this because somehow, they provide a reward or benefit to someone if they pass them on. Viral links can occur in a number of ways, including Affiliate Programs (commission reward system), Article Marketing (good content gets passed on with links), Humorous Emails (reward is a laugh, sig line gets passed on), Reprintable Jokes with author credits attached, free download links (this can have a backlash), and other forms.
Notice, we have NOT included links in eBooks, links in software, or other forms of viral links that do not offer a Search Engine Optimization benefit. Those are all valid marketing strategies, but the links in them do not give a Search Engine benefit. They can be used as an enticement to encourage people to link to you IF you invite people to link to the download page. Be warned though, some people will simply link straight to the download, and bypass your site entirely, and make the download appear to be theirs instead of yours.
Back to viral linking... Like catching the flu, a good viral linking tactic will spread easily. This means it not only has to have an enticement to pass it on, it has to be one that people actually want to pass on. Give them something good, and they will share it naturally.
Probably the best known form of viral linking currently is Article Marketing. And it follows a classic pattern for viral linking.
It logically incorporates your message and URL.
It can be done fairly easily, without complex software or memberships.
It provides something of genuine value that people are seeking.
It multiplies far beyond your own sphere of influence.
It assists with marketing objectives as well as linking objectives.
It provides good search engine pagerank benefits if done right.
It is easy for other people to pass on.
An entire distribution channel is already established, which you just need to plug into.
One reason it is so powerful is
that it accomplishes marketing goals of increasing
trust with prospective customers, and with helping
to establish a good reputation for the business. It
becomes a form of vicarious relationship marketing,
which helps the prospective customer feel they can
trust you ahead of time.
It also only works if it is done right. Your signature line has to reflect your marketing goals, and it should provide an encouragement to visit your site. And there are a range of other factors also, but the most important one is quality writing.
I read an article recently which was actually picked up for publication by another site. I was appalled at the sloppy writing, and wondered whether the person who placed the article on the site had even read it! Each paragraph was constructed of a single rambling run-on sentence, and there were frequent spelling and grammar errors. The content itself was mostly vague inferences instead of actually conveying any useful information. Things like: “When you do this task things will probably get harder when you get inside and start doing it, so be careful when you choose the object to do the project on.” He followed that with stern instructions to look over the object very carefully, with plenty of details about which parts to look at, but no information about what to look FOR. Lots of illusion of information there, but nothing of real use. The overall impression was that of a bad writer trying to think of something to say. Some of my kids have turned in better essays in Junior High than that. My 17 year old son read the article and said, “So when is he going to actually say something useful?”
An article must be well written, and it should contain at least ONE tidbit or guideline that could cause someone to say, “Ah-ha! So THAT's the key to that part!”, yet not tell it ALL, so that they will feel that there is more that you can illuminate for them.
The quality of other viral linking items must be good. No matter what it is, it must possess a little bit of a “wow” or “ah-ha” factor for people to feel that it truly is something they want, and not just another worthless freebie in the suffocating flood of valueless freebies floating around the net.
Do NOT create a viral email that is a hoax, and do NOT create one and then put some stupid thing like “pass this on to 10 people within 5 minutes and you'll have good luck!” Such tactics are dishonest, totally stupid, and will destroy your business credibility. Your customers expect you to be out of Junior High School, so don't do things that make it appear that you got stuck at age 13.
The great thing about viral linking is that you set it up once, and then it goes on doing its job, sometimes for months, sometimes longer, depending on how dated the material is. You can use viral linking for a range of things, but be sure that you set it up in such a way that it encourages people to actually place a link that benefits you.
