help with backlinks

Often called off page links, backlinks are the sledgehammer of search engine positioning and traffic generation. Backlinks have three key elements, the web page from which the backlinks are derived, the anchor text of the backlinks and what’s on the page to which the backlinks directs the visitor to.

The quantity of backlinks

The volume of backlinks to a page is one of the elements the search engines consider when deciding how to position the page in the results displayed to the searcher.

The origin of the backlinks

The source of a backlink can pass authority and indeed searchers to the page to which it points. So it follows that pages with backlinks from ‘trusted pages will receive better consideration from the search engines. Pages from sources such as educational (.edu) or government (.gov) sites naturally posess more trust and authority.

Google Page Rank

Google has the notion of ‘page rank’, this is the value indicator it awards to a page it considers to have a history of accumulating authority from backlinks..

The ‘anchor text’

Just like a label, the backlink anchor text influences the search engines valuation of the backlink. If the content of the page is about ‘parenting’ and the backlink on the page is labeled or given the ‘anchor’ text ‘parenting’ then the search engines consider this to be of more value to the searcher looking for results related to ‘parenting’ than if the backlink was labeled ‘babycare’.

Common mistakes

It’s not rare for first timers to confuse the quantity with the quality of backlinks and easily be perplexed by their lack of progress Having a significant volume of backlinks to your page doesn’t necessarily mean the search engines will view your page as relevant.

How to build backlinks

So here is my tried and tested advice for getting backlinks to your pages, good visibility in the search engine results pages and the right type of traffic to your site.

1. It is critical you select the right keywords before you expend any effort whatsoever.
2. Your objective should be to end up with a keyword cloud.
3. I most often start with a single ‘top’ level keyword or key phrase which has substantial visitor traffic.
4. The fastest and cheapest method to find out how much traffic a keyword or key phrase is getting is to use the Google keywords discovery tool.
5. I look at words and search phrases associated with my ‘top’ level phrase and create my ‘cloud’.
6. From this cloud I put together a library of content containing articles, videos and blog posts each with backlinks embedded with the appropriate anchor text and then use a portfolio of content distribution tools to disperse my articles and videos to a wide range of directories.
7. My golden rule is to author content that will attract visitors and persuade them to follow the backlinks to my money pages as well as send backlinks.