MBL Web Marketing

While optimising your website’s content is under your control, with backlinks it can sometimes seem like you have to rely on others to work for you to gain any advantage. This is somewhat true as backlinks come from other people’s websites that you have no control over but there are many aspects that can be negotiated.

Getting Backlinks the Natural Way

If a page has good quality content in it then people will start to link to the page. In theory then the more back links you can get to your site, the better. That is not entirely true. Links that come from sites with relevant information are the most valuable kind of backlinks, especially if the link text contains your keywords.

Ways to Build Backlinks Yourself

Any additional links that you can build yourself are always welcome. Doing this allows both people and search engines find another path to your website. Among the acceptable ways of building quality backlinks are getting listed in directories, posting in forums, blogs and article directories. Be careful not to use link farms, sites that contain spam, illegal content or purchasing links in bulk.

The first step in building backlinks is to find the places from which you can get quality backlinks. A good place to start is the Backlink Builder tool. Using this tool will help you get a list of sites where you can post an article, message, posting, or simply a backlink to your site.

Getting Listed in Directories

Getting listed in directories is a must for companies looking to boost traffic to their website. Directories link DMOZ and Yahoo are ways to get quality backlinks to your site for free that will be easily noticed by search engines and potential visitors. Some directories like Yell.com will charge you for an addition for your company, however there are plenty of directories out there that will give you a free listing. Look for directories that contain similar topics, products or services as you provide for the best results.

Forums and Article Directories

Search engines tend to index forums and blogs well so posting links to your website in them can be a good way to get noticed. Adding your link to a blog or forum that is a respected one can be valuable.

Social Bookmarking

Adding links to social bookmarking is a great way to boost traffic to your website. If you keep your site up to date with fresh content that people will want to come and read submitting your site to websites like Del.icio.us, Technorati, Digg, Twitter, Stumble Upon etc will spread the message of your new content around the web. If people find the sites you tag to be interesting, emotionally engaging, or timely they may follow the trail back to your site.

Backlink Building Practices to Avoid

Avoid using link exchanges to get people to link to your website. Search engines are likey to frown upon this and in some cases will lower your ranking if your website is linking to link farms. Be aware that using programs to generate links to your site is also a bad idea. Getting tons of links in a short period of time looks artificial and suspicious.