Most Webmasters understand the importance of backlinks for a website’s search engine rankings. Unlike on-page search engine optimization (SEO) where you have direct control to implement changes, building backlinks to your site requires the involvement of others outside your organization.
Why Backlinks are Important to Search Engines
The principle behind building backlinks to your site, also known as link popularity, and why they are of such importance to search engines is pretty straight forward. If a web page provides value or is of interest to others, people will naturally link to it. Because of this, search engines have incorporated link popularity into their algorithms, or decision making, when evaluating a web site’s relevancy. Think of links to your site as votes by others. While link popularity is just one of many factors search engines evaluate, generally speaking, the more votes/links your site has, the higher its search engine ranking.
How to Build Backlinks Naturally
The easiest way to get backlinks without spending much time or money is to create sites with high quality content. This can be easier said than done. If your site is not profitable, it can be difficult to sustain the survivability of the site, let alone to keep on adding new content to the website itself.
There are plenty of creative ways to build backlinks to your site.
Directories
Quality directories can be a powerful and effective source of links. DMOZ and the Yahoo directory are two important “authority sites” that carry a lot of weight in the eyes of the search engines. Getting listed in these directories can go a long way in your efforts to improve your search engine rankings. There are numerous other ways to get backlinks to your site with a little effort.
Forums
Forums are great for getting backlinks to your site as they are free to use and allow you to customize your signature with links to your website(s). You can even choose the link text you want to use. This is something you don’t always have control over with a directory listing. Research forums in your niche and become an active member. With each post / comment you make, you will be naturally building backlinks to your site.
Blogs
Similar to forums, posting comments on relevant blogs is another great way to get backlinks to your site. The problem with blog comment posting is, many blogs tend to implement the “no-follow” tag that prevents passing any link value to your site. In your research, you want to look for blogs that have disabled this built-in “no-follow” tag. A simple glance at the source code will let you know if the tags are disabled.
Article Directories
Submitting article to online article directories is another fantastic way to get backlinks to your site. This method however does require more effort in that you either have to write or outsource the creation of the articles. While there is more effort involved in article marketing, the rewards are potentially greater as well. When other Webmasters find your articles and post them on their site, you not only build your link popularity, but also can improve your perceived credibility within your market. You can become an “expert” in the eyes of potential visitors.
What are some effective methods you have used to build backlinks to your sites?
