In a nutshell, link building is getting other websites and pages to link to your web site. These backlinks will drive targeted traffic to your pages, but they will also increase your search engine visibility and ranking. Search engine optimization professionals use a variety of techniques to increase search engine rankings and improve the amount of traffic a given site receives. Building incoming links for your site can seem daunting and time-consuming, especially if you’re just starting. In this article we will outline the importance and offer key strategies for anyone looking to build a strong backlink profile.

1. Purchasing Backlinks & Sponsored Reviews

It is the easiest and fastest way to get links to your website. The downside to renting or purchasing links from other website owners is that they can be very costly. Also, you will need to carefully select your candidates. You can find many websites that will help you connect with other website owners who are interested in selling you links from their pages. However, you’ll save a lot of money and time by working directly with them as opposed to hiring a broker to do the same. There is no standard for determining the value of a backlink. However, you need to pay attention to certain key factors before spending your hard-earned money on a paid one. These factors include the candidate site’s number of incoming links, overall page rank, age, and search engine saturation (numbers of pages indexed by the major search engines). Make sure you are clear about your goals when approaching website owners to buy links. Also, make sure they know that you’re interested in purchasing a link for Search Engine Optimization purposes. It is important to make sure the link is not cloaked (hidden to search engine spiders), or no-follow. This will inform search engines not follow the link with rel=”nofollow”, as these conditions can render the link useless from an SEO standpoint.

2. Comment and Post on Related Blogs & Message Boards

Even the most novice web user can find numerous blogs and message boards that cater to any niche or market. It is a good idea to sign up for message boards that are related to your topic and to include links in the signatures of your messages and posts. Blogs and comments are the same. Many blogs will allow you to add a link to your site in your message. You can also make your user name a clickable hyperlink to your site. There is a fine line between spamming and responding to valid comments, posts, and responses on community-based blogs and websites. Your reputation and brand could be negatively affected if you post spammy comments like “Cool website, check out my site at …””. It’s better not to comment if you don’t offer any valuable viewpoint or comments for other users of the site where you are posting.

3. Write User Testimonials & Product Reviews

It is a great way to build backlinks. A link to your website is often included in reviews for products or services that you have used. This is a simple technique. Write a brief 100-300 word review if you have purchased a product. Include your full name and the address of your website in the review. Nine out of ten times, the owner of the site for which you have written the testimonial will be happy to activate the link once they publish the review on their website.

4. Develop a Free Online Service or Software Application

Many people won’t consider giving away their time to develop an online utility or application. The benefits of sharing a free online utility, or software application, can quickly create many thousand backlinks to your website. This is a great example: Create a simple, user-friendly Mortgage Calculator using javascript. You can also offer the code to embed it onto other websites. In the code of the Mortgage Calculator, include a link to your site in the copyright statement. This will make it easier for you to use your free application.

5. Write Articles and Distribute Them Online

This article is not the first you have read about increasing the number of backlinks to your website. However, it is important to know that articles can be written and submitted to popular article directories. It’s simple but effective. Write a few articles that are relevant to your subject and then distribute them to various article directories. These article directories will often include a resource box or bio section. You should include information about your company and products in the author’s bio area and also a backlink. You will be given a backlink to your website every time your article is published on other websites or syndicated by website owner. These steps can be repeated over and over again to create several thousand backlinks to your website. This is a great technique because it requires very little investment.

6. Submit Your Site to Directories

Backlinks from directories and web indexes have become less valuable over the years. There are still some directories you can trust and which offer high-quality sites that you should submit your site to. This will increase both your link profile and your page rank. DMOZ and Yahoo! are two of the best directories to submit your website to. JoeAnt and Gimpsy are all good directories to submit your site to. Although most directories mentioned are not free, it is worth paying for submission. The links you will receive from this investment are high-quality one-way links with a lot of page trust and rank. Submitting your website to these directories requires that you pay attention to which category your site is submitted to. Also, ensure that your submissions are relevant to your subject. This will ensure your submission is not rejected or skipped by directory editors after it has been reviewed.

7. Exchange Backlinks and Build Partnerships

Although link exchanges or trading links with website owners have lost some of their lusters over the years, they are still an excellent way to generate backlinks. Many website owners create a page on their website titled resources or references. This page can be used to link to other websites that have agreed to link to their site. This technique is less effective than it was in the past. However, choosing trusted websites and those that rank well in search engines will make your work worthwhile. You will be able to find other websites that link to sites relevant to your niche or field that could be a good candidate for exchanging links. After you have found a website that you are interested in exchanging links with, send an email to the website owner with your offer. You should send an email to request a link from another website owner. Be specific about the content and features of their site. This will let the potential linking partner know that you have taken the time to review their website before you send your request. You will receive a much more positive response. You want to make sure that you don’t request paid links from a site. This is similar to purchasing paid links.

Conclusions

We’ve covered 7 methods that can generate huge amounts of incoming links for your website. With any luck, you will have a few ideas and techniques that you can use to jump-start your website’s success. Link building is not an do-it-yourself aspect of web marketing. It requires dedication, time, and constant analysis. It is impossible to have enough quality incoming links for your website. Once you have had some success with link building, I am confident that you will want more.

If you are in need of help with link building, content marketing, search engine optimization or anything relating to digital marketing, contact us – [email protected] or (203) 296-0995.