Who Cares if you have Backlinks?
How the Big Sites Do It...
Build it...and they will link?
Why?
Because they have something worth linking to! They don't ask for links, they just get them. Sites like these might also have thousands of affiliate marketers linking to their site.
So you're probably wondering how you can get as many links as these sites have...the answer is simple! Create something that is a valuable resource for people. If you can create something that is the go-to place for information on a certain topic, the traffic will come. Link Exchanges...Yes or No??
Does Reciprocal Linking Help or Hurt?
You say tomato, I say tomato sauce!
Some webmasters like to exchange links via reciprocal linking. This process is great if the site is relevant to your site. For instance, if your site is about tomatoes and you decide to link to a site about home foreclosures, this wouldn't help you in the search engines. However, if you linked to a site about tomato sauce, now we're talking!
Backlinks are still more heavily valued by search engines than reciprocal links. The ranking of the site you are linking to also plays a factor for your pagerank. Always aim high, and try to get a link on a site with an equal or better rank.
How do you know who's linking to you?
Backlink Checker
Find out who is linking to you!
My Personal Favorite Backlink Checker...
is Yahoo Site Explorer. You can see everyone that is linking to your site, check internal links and external links. Works much better than Google's Backlink checker.
- Search Engine Genie Backlink Checker
- 100% FREE Backlink Checker.
- Online Backlink Checker
- This one will not only tell you how many links you have, but where.
- Strategies for Driving Traffic
- An excellent article from SEOmoz about ways to get more traffic to your website.
How Search Engines Work
And how they determine the "value" of your site
Search engines are complicated, and have convoluted formulas to determine a website's page rank. To find sites on the web, search engines have "web crawlers" to crawl the web through every link it finds. The search engines then apply their algorithm to the site and determine the page rank. Backlinks (or inward links) are always a part of this equation. To search engines, the number and quality of backlinks are an indicator of the importance and popularity of a site.There are many other factors search engines consider, like the age of the site, URL name, image or filenames on the site, anchor text, and keywords in the content.
Forum Links
Gain a link and some traffic by posting in forums
If you've ever visited a forum, you know that they are an excellent source of information that you can often not find anywhere else. Some also receive a very high amount of traffic and are a huge opportunity for whatever niche your site may fall into. By making an effective signature link for each your posts, you can see an increase in traffic. This traffic is often highly targeted.Rules for Forums
- Don't spam!
- Upload an avatar if possible so that forum users come to know you by your image that's next to your posts
- Make a signature that's appropriate but effective, not out of control, large and obnoxious
- Be courteous to other members in forums
- Stay on topic and add something relevant to conversations, don't just drop something in to leave your signature
- Respond often for the best results!
Forum links may not be a heavily weighted link, but its a link, and it drives traffic.
Backlinks Poll
Blog Links
Receive Backlinks by Leaving Useful, Interesting Blog Comments
Blogs are another excellent source of traffic to your site. You can receive a nifty, targeted link to your site by leaving a comment to a blog post (if the blog comments are not "no followed". When leaving a comment, it is important to leave the URL of your site. Most blogs will instruct users to leave the URL of their site on the comment (leaving a link back to your site). Try Google's Blog Search to find some relevant blogs about your topic and get posting! Just like forums, you want to avoid spam and offer an honest opinion about the post. Be a worthy contributor and you'll get further.
You can also ask a Blogger to blog about your site. Depending on the Alexa/PageRank of the site, this can be very effective. The downside of this is that the post may become buried under other posts.
Driving Traffic to your Site
Search Engine Marketing, Inc.: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company's Web Site (Ibm Press)
Amazon Price: $34.64 (as of 07/12/2009)
List Price: $54.99
This book has earned a respectable 4.5 stars out of 5 on Amazon from 37 customer reviews!
Some reviews of this book:
"Using a writing style that's more conversational and readable than I expected from the cover, they go into solid detail about everything related to search engines. This includes how they work, what people are looking for when they search, and how best to understand the types of visitors you'll get in order to turn them into potential customers."
"This includes how to get your site indexed, choosing your target words, and attracting links to your site. This is some of the best, most detailed information that I have seen anywhere on this subject and shows that the authors are up to date in their understanding of how search engines work and how to get top rankings."
Avg. Customer Rating: 
Web Directories
Pay to receive a targeted link
Backlinks from Directories
-
Web Directories
-
A web directory is an excellent place to add your URL and gain a quick backlink. Not to be confused with search engines, web directories are compilations of websites categorized by topic. Not only do they offer a backlink, but traffic from directorie...
Social Networking & Social Bookmarking
You can read more about getting tons of MySpace friends here:
How to Get a Million MySpace Friends
Social Bookmarking has become a huge thing in the past few years. Sites like Digg and Stumbleupon can bring in huge traffic.
Link Baiting
Attracting links to your site by offering a useful page that's naturally linkworthy
- You have an eBay store selling shoes. Make a list of 100 places you can recycle shoes or drop them off for charity. Over time, you'll get a lot of links to your store.
- Use the mortage calculator example and apply to your own business. What tools can you provide your customers with that will attract links and attention?
Search Engine Independence
Being at the whim of a few select companies is no way to run your life or business! A lot of sucessful businesses have instead placed more value on traffic that comes in from well-placed links. These are permanent, unlike the constantly fluctuating pagerank system. While search engine traffic is always great, link traffic is better.Declare Indpendence!
By getting permanent links on blogs, forums, and other websites, you can have a steady stream of dependable traffic coming into your site that is more likely to revisit or make a purchase. Consider buying text links or a well-placed (and well designed) banner.
More on Building Backlinks and Search Engine Optimization..
Where you can find more backlinks to your site!
-
The Best and Most Effective Way to Promote your Business...FREE Advertising!
-
We've all grown up with advertising. TV, radio, billboards, pop ups, banners...it's everywhere, and you can't escape it. Now stop and think for a second...how many times have you clicked on an advertisement online, or heard a commercial on the radio...
-
Create Your Own Free Websites
-
Are you looking for your own website, but don't know where to start? Did you know that there are hundreds of websites that offer your own free domain? You can start your own blog, your own website, or just a single page on the web at no cost to you....
-
Forwarding Domains
-
Purchasing a domain to forward visitors to your website is an easy way to increase the usability and ease of use of your site. If you have a long URL that's hard to remember or type, purchasing a forwarding domain is a simple solution to your problem...
-
Targeted Web Traffic
-
It doesn't matter if you get a gazillion visitors to your website, if they aren't buying, or getting them to do what you want them to do, what's the point? So what should you be doing? Try to get targeted web traffic. This means, in short, that you a...
-
How to Submit your URL to Search Engines, Google
-
"How can you index your website in the search engines?" This is an often asked question for any website owners, Squidoo users, Bloggers, and eBay sellers. There are several top search engines to think about, the obvious being Google and Yahoo. Index...
Have a Tip of your Own on Getting a Backlink?
Be sure to leave your tips for getting backlinks here!
JaguarJulie wrote...
You know it is always 'interesting' -- and I put interesting in quotes -- to see what Google computes for a PageRank for any given page -- how it can very is 'interesting' to see -- I've seen my pages go from a 5 PR to a 3 PR! Seemingly overnight -- that's a mystery. Yep, I believe in good backlinks that are relevant to create that synergistic, positive effect to give a page credibility.
Posted July 10, 2009
59rjv wrote...
Great tips! You can never have enough information. Fantastic lens!
Posted June 22, 2009
bostonsandboxers wrote...
SUPER lens! Thanks for sharing your expertise with those of us struggling through the jungle of SEO.
Posted June 05, 2009
Susan52 wrote...
I really appreciate this important information. Thanks for the lens!
Posted May 20, 2009
sandyspider wrote...
You have a very informative lens and full of great Squidoo tips. I featured this lens in my recourse lens http://www.squidoo.com/lensrank-traffic
Posted May 09, 2009
ClassyGals wrote...
Very useful information on how to get easy backlinks. A lot to absorb, so I'll bookmark this lens to refer back to it. Many thanks!
Posted May 08, 2009
product advertising wrote
thanks for sharing such a great info and giving me some useful links
Posted March 26, 2009
sno2801 wrote...
Hii, thanks for the info! very good and excellent information, nice article, your lens is very informative and good tips for getting backlinks, this is one area of Squidoo that I need to work very hard ! Thank a lot!
Posted March 19, 2009
JenOfChicago wrote...
Great info, thanks for the backlink checker website link, very useful.
Posted March 18, 2009
kingkurt2001 wrote...
You can create your own groups in squidoo for a backlink to your lens.
Posted March 17, 2009
merchandisemaniac wrote...
One thing to watch out for is that many links use "nofollow" which means you get zero link juice from your efforts, just the occassional surfer click. I use a great little Mozilla extension that highlights the nofollows on a page so that I can tell if its worth spending the time or not and whether search engines will give me some credit or not.
Posted March 12, 2009
Treasures-By-Brenda wrote...
Thanks for a page that helps us with an important topic!
Brenda
Posted March 07, 2009
lou16 wrote...
Great info, this is definately an area I need to spend more time on as promotion is not my forte!
Posted March 07, 2009
mohan wrote
Thank you..you have explained in a nice manner.i will follow..if you like u could also visit these blogs of music and art Vintage Acoustic Guitar and Guitar learn Book
Posted March 06, 2009
jpbrady1 wrote
just getting started so anything is helpful. It is a shame that there are so many things to buy to make it easier. It gets to be confusing.
Posted February 25, 2009
Moe Tamani wrote
Such a good lens around Link Popularity it is. Link building is the strongest part of the SEO Process even some of website owner prefer link building campaign despite SEO Services%u2026.
Posted January 19, 2009
Webcodes wrote...
Great info 5*. Thanks for the best wishes on me becoming a Giant. I am glad to be in good company with you.
Posted January 14, 2009
a-ha-design wrote...
Thanks for the tips. I will use these tips in promoting http://www.a-ha-design.com.
I rate this five stars.
Posted December 13, 2008
flipflopnana wrote...
Great lens, just what I needed to lean next. Thanks so very much for the info!
Posted December 06, 2008
bread wrote
Thanks a lot. Your article has broaden my idea especially in order to improve my skills as a blogger. Keep up a good work.
Cheers
jobs that require travel
Posted November 25, 2008
beachbum_gabby wrote...
For me, there are two most important thing in SEO: informative content and quality backlinks.
Posted November 06, 2008
Artguide wrote...
Many thanks...just learning this stuff , so much to do. It is Fun!
Posted October 31, 2008
bizmanest wrote...
Excellent Lens.
Juri
Free Advertising with Advertising Blog
Posted October 14, 2008
- 20 Quick Ways to Increase your Alexa Rank
- What is Alexa and why should you care? It's one of the measures that puts an actual price on your website and ranks it.
Featured Lenses
-
GreekGeek's Squidoo Tips: How to Get Your Lens Found
-
So, you want to learn how to build successful Squidoo lenses (or any kind of webpage), attract web traffic, and get your Squidoo lens found by Google! This three-part tutorial covers: Learn the Secrets of My Squidoo Success!Part I: Ten Steps to Build...
-
How To Get One-Way Backlinks
-
When you have just created new website, you will want to attract people to visit it. One of the most important tasks for any webmaster is to build up the number of links to the site from other websites. This can be done manually via reciprocal link e...
-
Using Gather to promote your Squidoo Lenses
-
I'm not going to even start to fathom the depths of how Gather works or ways it can be used all on its own, but strictly from a Squidoo Lensmasters point of view I found it an excellent way to reach a large untapped audience and also increase ones ow...
-
How to make a MILLION dollars (and what to do if you don't!)
-
So.. you want to earn $1,000,000! You will be pleased to learn it is simpler than you thought. But simple is not necessarily easy! Just like walking is simple. But walking 1,000,000 miles is not easy! But it is simple. One step after a...
-
The Ultimate Guide To Increasing Free Targeted Traffic
-
The question should be "Who doesn't?!" Everyone wants more traffic and everyone has their own opinion on what works. In this lens, I try to compile ALL the methods that I have used and saw results. To make things easy for you, I have listed t...
More Backlink Information
Increase your backlinks and get more traffic!
Webmasters Make $$$
Does your SEO work? Track your rankings across 370 search engines.
Learn what you can do to increase your rankings and see your current search engine performance.
Take Advantage of the tools SEOmoz provides to become a SEO expert!
Use SEOmoz's search engine tools to improve your search engine rankings, see what's working, and what isn't.
- 30 Minute Backlinks ** More Traffic & Higher Search Rank.
- Build 1 Way Links To Increase Search Engine Rank, Google Pr And Site Visits. Everyone Needs More Traffic - This Will Help Them Get It.
- WebComp Analyst - SEO Link Analysis, Pure And Simple.
- The Fastest, Most Powerful, Easiest Tool For Analyzing Backlinks To Get Ranked In Google.
Are you Using Squidoo?
Squidoo can create excellent backlinks to your blog, website or other online page. Just create an awesome lens and link to it. And then, make another and link to it. It's free, and you make money while doing it.
Click here to sign up for Squidoo.
Learn More About Backlinks and Search Engine Optimization Strategies
Ebooks written by SEO experts
by kiwisoutback
Hello! Backlinks are one of the most important ways to get traffic from search engines. Be sure to read our other lenses here!
Don't know what key... (more)
Related Topics
kiwisoutback Recommends...
Favorited By
- Silver_Lotus
- chris_13
- ClassyGals
- InternetJunkie
- AdrienneJenkins
- mulberry
- Blog_Marketing
- EelKat
- beachbum_gabby
- JollyvilleChick
- kingkurt2001
- partybuzz
- luvmyludwig
- chavezychavez
- rebeccaf734
- steve866
- CherylK
- JaguarJulie
- sisterra
- JziE
- cashmultiplier
- stargazer00
- karmasherbs
- sophiesara
- Vacation-In-My-Head
- flowski
- sandyspider
- putrabiz
- WindyWinters
- Rufiundecided
- See all 45 people
