Ok, so now that we have a little more info on what a backlink is exactly we can dive into simple techniques to naturally build your backlinks everyday. I emphasize the word naturally because Google recognizes how quickly you receive these backlinks and in what fashion. This helps keep link buying and selling down to minimum and provides the best experience in search results for the oh so important Google searcher. Any business owner who is worth their salt is involved with their industry and what is going on in it. Obviously these days there is a wealth of information online about this in the form of message boards, blogs, and forums. These all provide great up to date information about what is going on within your niche and the discussions being had by people with similar business interests to your own and even more importantly, possible customers. This brings us to our first simple technique:
Blog and Message Board Posting
The first step to using blog and forum posting to build backlinks is finding the right blogs or forums to be involved in. The most important factor in choosing this is finding sites that you actually like, and that provide new good information and topics about your niche. This makes taking the time to visit these sites not seem so much like work, and you might just learn something new everyday (would that be so bad?). Once you have found a blogs or forums/message boards that you like (I suggest choosing 3 different ones just to get started) we need to make sure they are “dofollow”. I know, what is “dofollow”. Some websites have unfortunately been abused by people just link spamming on their sites. To devalue this the tag “nofollow” started being used so that any link that was left on the site was worthless for back linking purposes. This tag tells the search engine not to follow the link to your site and thus does you no good (accept for people actually clicking on them to go to your site). So, we need to find “dofollow” sites; how do we do it? Its easy you can just to go this website here and type in the domain. It will tell you the Page Rank and whether it is “dofollow” or “nofollow”. The best combo is a high Page Rank and “dofollow”. Try to make sure the site you are going to start following is at least a Page Rank of 1 or 2 but the higher the better. Also, here is a good list of “dofollow” blogs and forums here that can help you get started.
Make the Most out of Your Posts
Some of you probably have never commented on a blog or posted on a message board. So I will give a brief breakdown of how each works so we are all on the same page, and I am a nice fella.
- Blogs
With a blog it’s very simple, the author or authors create new posts, when they do you should see a link/button either at the top of bottom of the post leading you to comments. This will take you a page that just has that blog post and a string of comments below it from other people (unless your the first). Most blogs have options for you to use other logins to post such as Google or blogspot or they may even force you register (this is uncommon). I usually just go with the name, website, and email option. I enter my company or some other anchor text as the name, and then I enter my website URL in for the website portion (adding your email is usually optional). I then go on to leave my comment, opinion, or advice. Always make sure that you are providing good and actually have something to say. Also try to make sure in your post you refer to your target keywords for your business like “floral shop” or “kansas city honda” within your comment.
- Forums/Message Boards
These are a little different than blogs. With forums you 99% of the time always have to register as a user which fortunately works to our advantage most of the time. Most forums have a signature option within your profile. This provides a great place to link to your company. This way, every time you post you are dropping a backlink without having to do anything but participate by giving your 2cents. You can always drop links within your posts as well, just make sure you check with the moderators or check out other posts to make sure this is not a no-no. Some forums don’t allow too much of this to keep away spam and as an act of self preservation keeping people from plugging other competing forums. Just like blog commenting make sure you are actually adding something to the conversation with your post.
Well that should keep you busy for a little while. A little tip is I always have had the best luck giving people advice or helping them when at all possible. If I have done a good job, not only do I get the backlink but people click on it and follow it to the website more often. From my experience in doing this the backlinks are really just an added bonus. The knowledge and information I get from so regularly keeping up with the things that affect my business or what my customers are talking about is priceless.
Ok look for the last post in my BackLinks 3 part beginner series.
In the spirit of the Adcuda Resource I am going to give a brief overview of this, plus it is important for posts to come. The average business owner who wants his company to succeed online or search engine optimize their website has no idea what a backlink is, or why its so important to them and their business. Google uses a giant algorithm that decides where your site lands in search engine rankings and a big part of that is how many other sites around the internet are linking back to yours. So imagine you’re in the middle of a dark room, and each backlink you have represents a light shining your way. The more lights, the easier it is to find you (your website) in the dark. Now, some lights are brighter than others just like some links are better than others. In my next few posts I will be going over simple techniques for you do it yourselfers out there to get started building backlinks and ranking better.
Next up, Backlinks Part 2 – Make it a habbit.
Have you heard of Google Alerts (www.google.com/alerts)? This is a great tool setup by Google that will constantly scan the internet for whatever you tell it to look for, then it will email you a link and brief description every time it finds something that meets your criteria. This is great for any business. Let me give you a few ideas on how to make this work for you.
1. Find New Customers
Its easy to use Google Alerts to find new customers. These days’ consumers are talking more and more online giving their opinion on products and services and taking advice from one another. These are exactly the type of conversations you want to be involved in when it relates to products or services you offer. Try using terms that someone looking for your product or service might use when looking for recommendations or answers. A good example is Adcuda for instance. We use Google Alerts to find people interested in our services by using search terms such as “looking for seo company”, “I am looking for a good web designer”, or “recommend online ad agency” for example. Doing this for multiple long tailed terms sends us a lot of great links to conversations or “threads” on different sites online that we can then jump in and offer our advice, or drop our company name. This usually leads to multiple people contacting us regarding the topic service. This works just as well for online retail. Let’s say your company sells golf equipment you could use search terms such as “best Callaway driver” or “any suggestions on a driver”. This gives the retailer the opportunity to join the conversation, make some useful suggestions and provide the customer the ability to visit your online store which usually leads to a sale. This customer now has a personal experience with the company, and has built a good amount of trust based on the insightful driver suggestions you gave. Just make sure that you aren’t just spamming the website your on with your information. Always make sure to offer insight and expertise, then your information. =)
2. Track Your Brand
Using Google Alerts to track what your customers are saying about your company is a easy way to see how quickly your name is spreading and what people are saying about you. It also gives you the opportunity to answer questions people might be asking about your product or service without them even directly asking you. The fact that you can directly answer the question from a trusted source really shows this customer that you are helpful and attentive to their needs.
3. Track Your Competitors
Google Alerts is also a great way to keep tabs on what your competitors are doing online, and what customers are saying about them. This allows you to match any services or sales the company might be doing, and allows you to make sure you keep your market position concerning price, value, ect.
4. Target Keywords
Try adding keywords for terms you are trying to rank highly for like “honda kansas city”. This lets you see where Google is finding and ranking pages for this term and gives you the opportunity to try and back link from this location. This also helps you identify your competition for this phrase.
You can get good information on how to setup your Google Alerts here. Its easy, do it today.
