What is the best way to get backlinks?

[notaprettysite]

I have one website so far, and I have been promoting it solely through article marketing, which has gotten me to a pagerank 2 over the last couple of months. But I'm trying to branch out and find ways to rise in the search engine rankings, and I keep reading that backlinks are what google looks for.

I would like to figure out legitimate white-hat ways to get backlinks. My website is about getting into a particular type of school - it's very narrow and targeted and I don't know who would want to backlink to me.

How would I find a similar site that wants to link to me? Does having just one backlink help? (As in, if I had a blog, on a different computer with a different internet provider, and created a link to my website, would that make any difference?)

I assume these days, with google being so strict about buying and selling links, that there are a lot of behind the scenes link-exchange deals going on.

Do most people get their backlinks from other blogs? From websites? What kind of websites?

 

[marketingmama]

The Web 2.0 revolution has made it so easy to get gobs of backlinks to your site. First of all, kudos on getting the pagerank so quickly. Article marketing is a great way to get quality backlinks so you're already off to a great start.

Here are some other methods that you can use to get backlinks to your site:

• Social bookmarking
• Social networking
• Videos (add your url to your video description)
• Forums (add your url to your signature)
• Blog posts (link to relevant content within your blog posts, each and every post)
• Wikis
• Squidoo
• Hub pages

These are just a few of the methods that I personally use to get quality backlinks to your site. One of the keys is to use "deep linking." In other words, you'll want to use your blog posts and articles and whatever else to link back to individual relevant pages. This means that not only your home page is getting links but your other pages too.

The reason for this is because each page of your site gets individual pagerank and not everyone will be coming in on your home page. If you have great content on your pages, you want those pages to get in front of as many eyeballs as possible, right?

I hope this helps,

Sheree

 

[notaprettysite]

Thank you!

Thanks, Marketing Mama! I appreciate your taking the time to pos that.

I get a good response from my ezinearticles, and so-so response from Associated Content - when I say "good", I mean I now seem to average 50-60 visitors a day.

I have tried social bookmark sites - they just don't seem to work for my type of site. My site talks about how to get into a particular type of school, how to get loans and grants, etc. The few visitors I got from Propellor, Stumbleupon, Reddit, and Digg left immediately and didn't go to any other pages. Basically it was like a free marketing test for me - which told me that this particular site doesn't work for that type of user.

I suspect if I had a different type of site, say a celebrity gossip site, or a parenting site, or a travel site, or a style and beauty site, and I made some semi-controversial posts and submitted them to social bookmarking sites, I would do better. There's just a broader range of interest in those topics - and it's hard for me to come up with anything provocative and intriguing about getting into a particular type of school. I have good, original information on my site - but it's only of value to people who want to go to that kind of school or find loans and grants.

I will probaby experiment with a different type of site next to see if I can promote it better.

 

[carlos9]

Be sure wherever you place links, they have DoFollow or else you site will not get credited for backlink by Google unless traffic.

 

[notaprettysite]

How would I be able to tell if they had dofollow?

 

[marketraise001]

I have always gone in for free link building.I have never subscribed or purchased any links from directories.What I usually did was attaching the URL of my website in my signature when I posted in forums and article directories.When I went in for a free submission process while submitting my website to major directories it said that it would take indefinite amount of time to make my website appear in their homepage.But to my luck when Google updated the PR and Backlink stats last October and this January my PR and backlinks both shot up and when I checked the results to my surprise the backlinks were mainly signatures from article directories and forums.

 

[notaprettysite]

Thanks, Market raise!

Wow, that is intriguing. I thought that Google had done away with allowing signatures from forums. All the pagerank that I've gotten has been from Ezinearticles so far, but in the future I may give forums a try. (The one site I have right now tells people how to get into a particular type of school, so I think it's too narrow a focus to really be worth posting on forums.)

 

[MrCat]

Here are some other ways to build backlinks for your site:

Directory Submissions - targeted links at high PR directories
Blog and Forum Postings - to high PR and frequently crawled sites
Social Bookmarking - a good resource = Top 30 Social Bookmarking Sites | eBusiness Data | eBizMBA
Classified Ads - for traffic purposes
Article Marketing - submit to high PR directories, could also serve as link baits
Link Exchange - with relevant and authority sites, just don't overdo it
Link Baits - for organic linking
Etc. etc.

Remember that the more quality backlinks you build - the more they would help your site as well in PR building and SERP rankings

 

[notaprettysite]

Thanks, Mixcat!

That is some great information.

 

[marketingmama]

Yes, you should definitely have a blog. Post articles in your blog as well and link back to your site from your blog posts. Do you deep linking though. Meaning, when you post something relevant to your website, link back to the appropriate page, not just your home page.

Sheree

 

[MrCat]

That is some great information.

You're welcome Do keep us posted on any development.

 

[Rob_TID]

Here's what the best in the business have to say:

11 Experts on Link Development Speak Out - Sugarrae

 

[Linda Buquet]

Good one Rob! Thanks, I love Rae's blog and that looks like
a ton of good info!

 

[PromoPro]

Good resource Rob thanks... I just read through it and though I suppose I could add my own spin on it, the basics are already there and said in multiple ways. Of course there are few "techniques" that nobody "in the know" are divulging and for very good reasons... they are very powerful, almost unkown by the masses, and therefore extremely valuable.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Welcome PromoPro! We're happy to have you and your
SEO expertise here at 5 Star.

 

[PromoPro]

Hi Linda - thanks for the Welcome !

 

[Darwin]

I am admittedly, SEO challenge. Often when trying to learn it is like trying to read a novel written in a foreign language. But lately I have found some good resources.

One was discussing social sites and how to properly use them. He recommended you get involved. Don't just join and expect results. Join groups and discussions, make quality contributions but don't promote. I believe this article is on searchengineland.

Another awesome resource for information and tools is SEObook. It seems to me there is more on this site at no cost than for many paid SEO services. It is worth a visit at the very least.

Hope this helps those needing SEO assistance the same as me.

 

[Steve Morris]

Slightly off topic but still in the general vicinity, with regard to article marketing is it worth paying for an article to be distributed to lots other sites as a way of increasing backlinks, or is it better to stay with just a few good article directories?

 

[notaprettysite]

Article marketing

From my limited personal experience - I had great success with ezinearticles.com and associatedcontent.com, both free. (In fact, technically Associatedcontet.com pays you, but it's generally going to be very little.)

I tried isnare - my three articles for them got me, so far, a total of 12 visitors. Now, they're cheap - it works out to $2 an article for them to send your articles out for you - but writing articles takes time, so I didn't find them to be worth it.

That said, it might be worth it for you to experiment with a few paid article directories, but I would start small and see how it goes; I wouldn't throw a bunch of money at it up front.

 

[Darwin]

Slightly off topic but still in the general vicinity, with regard to article marketing is it worth paying for an article to be distributed to lots other sites as a way of increasing backlinks, or is it better to stay with just a few good article directories?

Steve, the best thing you could do is to test it. There are a couple of article article marketing sites I am aware of. Articlemarketer which you can join for less than $50 for 3 months. They offer unlimited submission. Sometimes your articles end up in non-related article directories and will be the same version for all submissions.

SubmitYourArticle I think is $37 per month. They allow you to submit only 8 articles per month. They have a program that allows you to create 4 versions of each article including different versions of your resource box.

I would just try one and test the results. That would be the best way for you to get a good answer.

Hope this helps.