You probably already know how important backlink building is when it comes to getting good search engine rankings. However, with search engine optimization being a fairly new industry and one which is evolving as the search engines develop the best methods for determining the value of sites, there’s a lot of conflicting and confusing information about how to build backlinks. This can make it VERY difficult to educate yourself on which methods are the most effective and which will therefore be the best use of your time. In this article, we’ll be looking at five uncommonly known tips for increasing the value of your backlinks.
#1: Diversification of Links
Just as it’s important to diversify with your financial investments, it’s essential that you build incoming links from a variety of sites. The search engines are able to track when you’re building the majority of your backlinks from one site, and most SEO experts agree that the value of your links diminish according to the amount that you have coming from one IP address. Therefore, as you’re building backlinks, focus on having a variety of sites from which you link rather than building large numbers of links from just a few sites.
While this can be time-consuming, there are a number of tools that allow you to submit your site to multiple directories, multiple RSS aggregators and which help you to create and submit articles to multiple article submission sites. A few of these tools are:
1) Unique Article Wizard
2) SEO Link Vine
3) Directory Submitter
Just remember that as you’re using automated submission tools that you need to pace your link building so that you don’t get labeled as a spam site. For best results, keep your link building to 20 to 50 links a day.
#2: Well Optimized Link Codes and Anchor Text
The more relevant your anchor text is to the theme of your site, the higher value your links will be and the easier it will be for you to link for those specific keywords. For example, when building backlinks, it’s best to include your keywords within the anchor text whenever possible. So if the primary keyword for your website was “SEO Link Building Strategies,” Your anchor text and the link would look something like the last four words in the example below:
“This article was written as an example of good SEO Link Building Strategies.”
It’s also important to be consistent in the coding of your URL within your link. For example, choose your “preferred URL” and use that consistently in your link codes. So if your preferred URL were:
…you would need to use this consistently within the HTML code in your backlinks. This is important because if the following examples are actually regarded as being three different URLs:
#3: Being Proactive About Getting Your Links Indexed
Unless you’re building all of your backlinks from highly trafficked sites that are consistently adding new content and therefore being frequently crawled by the search engine spiders, you’re best off doing something to ensure that your links are indexed. The sooner your links are indexed, the sooner you get credited for them. The most common methods for getting your backlinks indexed quickly are:
- Submitting the Link to RSS Directories
- Submitting the Link to Social Bookmarking Sites
- Using Automated Tools Like: “Backlink Energizer,” which combine both of the above methods to get your backlinks indexed quickly
As you’re using the above methods for getting your backlinks indexed, you can use the SEO analysis tool on our home page to keep track of when your backlinks are being indexed. Just put your site’s URL into the field on our home page, hit the “Get Checkup” button, and see the number of backlinks within your analysis results. You can also click on the number of backlinks your site has and you’ll be taken to a page that will list every incoming link to your site.
#4: Track Your Rankings and in the SERP
As you’re building backlinks to your site, conduct weekly checks to see where your site is ranking in the search results for your primary keywords. For example, if your primary keyword was “online life coaching,” you would type “online life coaching” (without quotations) into the search engines and make a note of the page your site shows up on AND your site’s position on that page. Tracking your results like this will help you become more conscious of which backlinking methods are causing the most significant increase in your search engine results placement.
#5: Have a Link Bait Creation Strategy
Linkbait is anything that you create that will compel other site owners to create links back to your site. While it can take some work and creative energy to create linkbait, this is the most organic link building strategy and one which Matt Cutts of Google suggests as being a great way to build credible backlinks. Some popular strategies for creating link bait are:
1. Free website templates or graphics
2. Video tutorials or instructional articles/posts
3. Free plugins for people’s sites that contain a link to your site
4. Create press releases and articles which talk about popular topics
As a part of your link building strategy, make it a goal to have one piece of linkbait created per month. This might not seem like a lot, but it will add up to a lot of organic links over a period of time. These will also be links that are created by other website owners, without you having to commit any additional time.
Conclusion
In addition to using the above backlink building strategies, it’s important to educate yourself about the principles of SEO which will ensure your success. You can get started by signing up to receive your FREE seven-day mini-course which walks you step by step through the process of laying a strong foundation for SEO success. To get instant access to this mini-course and watch your site climb the search results, hurry and fill in the form below.
Additional Reading On Off-Page SEO and Link Building
