Webmasters, internet marketers and bloggers are very familiar with the term backlinks and what it does to a website. People who never start a website and never heard of backlinks will one day become familiar with them. This is because backlinks have great effects to a certain website. It shows that the particular website is popular and talked around any other website or forums.
Now the main question, what is a backlink? Wikipedia defines backlink as:
"Backlinks, also known as incoming links, inbound links, inlinks, and inward links, are incoming links to a website or web page. In basic link terminology, a backlink is any link received by a web node (web page, directory, website, or top level domain) from another web node." – Wikipedia
For easier understanding, backlinks are your website’s signature that you leave behind when you visit another website, forums and any other social interactions on the web. When other people who want to know more about you or your website, they will click on those links and they will be directed to your personal webpage, Facebook fan page, google+, blog, twitter or any other thing that you want visitors to go. In this case, usually people will drive traffic to their blog or blog post.
If you see the backlinks definition by Wikipedia, you realize that there are a few types of backlinks that you can create. We will go to that part later. Let’s stay at the basic first. The basic thing about backlinks is they are supposed to help your website rank better in search engines and they are good for SEO.
When you create backlinks for your website, it is closely related to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and your website’s Search Engine Result Page (SERP). Hundreds and thousands of backlinks means that your website is popular among internet users and it will push your website to higher ranking when internet users do search term related to your website topic.
Backlinks can be created manually or automatically. Manual backlinks are when you go to a certain website and comment, post or submit your link yourself. This is quite tiring but it is the best way to do it or at least pay someone to do it. Automatic back linking is when you do backlinks using certain software which is usually paid software. All you have to do is put your website url there and it will magically send your website link to any bookmarking site.
In terms of SEO, the term black hat, grey hat and white hat will be most commonly used. It is like doing SEO with ethics whether it is bad, moderate or nice. Good backlinks means your website is
SEO friendly.
Black Hat SEO
These techniques are not ethical at all. It is aggressive and usually done automatically with software that usually created by the user or that you can buy from software’s black market. The results in doing black hat are extremely fast and you can get rank on 1st page of Google. Creating backlinks using black hat techniques are super-fast but it is useless. Most of the backlinks are created using bots which is considered spamming.
The black hat techniques don’t last long. Google and other search engines are not that stupid. That is why Google launch the
Panda and Penguin algorithms. After these cute animals are unleashed, many websites are taking its toll and de-ranked from their original rank. Many people thought that these algorithms are bad but I personally think it’s good. These algorithms create a fair play in the SEO field. It means that only those who work hard to create their website are acknowledged by Google.
At this time, many webmasters don’t use black hat anymore although a few may still have but what is the use? Nobody creates a website just to get punished by Google. In other word it means that you also have to be a good boy and girl and work your way to the top.
Grey Hat SEO
This is the most used SEO techniques in the whole internet world, well at least for webmasters and bloggers. Grey hat are also aggressive but in ethical ways compared to black hat that use force to knock down their competitors. Black hat also mostly related to hacking.
Grey hat are also a bad boy but for good intention. It is hard to explain but it’s like Robin Hood on the internet, on steroids. People who use grey hat techniques will break the law but not for their own personal gain. What even better is, people who use grey hat techniques are considered not breaking any rules and will get away with it.
Webmasters who used the grey hat techniques will also get fast results for their website but not as fast as using the black hat techniques. Grey hat users will see their results in a month or a few months later compared to black hat users that will see results in weeks.
White Hat SEO
Need I to say more about white hat techniques? I’m guessing that you already know about what white hat techniques are. It is the most religious and polite kind of way to create backlinks. It follows all the rules on the
internet and it doesn’t even tend to break any of the rules.
To use white hat techniques in creating backlinks and to get good rank can take a lot of time. Some website even takes up to six months to get to first page of Google and some even take years. Don’t let this discourage you. The long term effect is what we want. Your website will be at first page of Google for a very long time like..forever. That is unless you frequently update your content and follow the update of Google algorithms.
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| Commenting on Facebook DOES NOT create backlinks, it works only on websites |
Now you already know what are the techniques involve in creating backlinks, we will move on to identify the types and terms of backlinks. Being a webmaster or a blogger, there are so many internet terms that you should know and what does it mean. I will try my best to make it easier to understand so that you don’t have to worry about the little details.
The “backlinks” term
Incoming links, inbound links, inlinks, and inward links are all backlinks. You don’t have to worry about what they really mean. All you need to worry about is how to create them. These terms are used to identify specifically on what kind of backlinks you have outside your website. All those terms are just backlinks that point back to your website and getting your website’s SERP on steroids.
There are three types of backlinks that people usually used to create to point back to their website. One is using the whole website url ex.
http://imd208blog.blogspot.com/ . The other one is using anchor text or images which look like
this. The last one is using your avatar as backlinks when you comment on other blogs or when you join a forum. The process of creating backlinks are called link building.
“Anchor Text is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. In modern browsers, it is often blue and underlined.” – MOZ
Let’s make this a lot easier to understand. All you need to know is external links and internal link, also known as deep linking. External links are already explained above. It all about the links outside your website whether you create them automatically or manually or created by other people.
Internal link or deep linking is links inside your website specifically on you posts. When you create a new post, you can add a few links that direct readers to older post by using anchor text or the title itself. Creating deep links are also good for SEO because those links will also be crawled by search engines. Another good thing is users will have no trouble browsing your older content. All they have to do is click on those links.
How To Create Backlinks?
There are two ways that you can create backlinks. The first one is to create them manually. Creating backlinks manually means you have to look for other websites, forums, social medias, bookmarking sites and article submission site and put your links there. Your links can be your website url or using anchor links which I prefer better.
To create automatic backlinks, you have to use online features that are available which can be free or paid. Most people use the free service and I know you will also but there are bigger advantages if you use the paid service. You can choose which service suits you. For beginner, I suggest you use the free service because I know you don’t have a lot to spend and you want to save as much as you can.
Create Backlinks Manually
Blog commenting
Comment on other blogs with high PR (minimum 4) with the same niche as you are. If you are in cooking niche, why would you comment on car repair niche? You get the idea there right? Most of all, those links that you create at different niche will have a negative effect to your blog.
How do you leave your link there? You will find out when you write your comment. Most websites allow readers to leave comments and also their email and website. Now for the tricky part when commenting, DO NOT use your homepage url when leaving comment. Instead, put your post url. There is nothing wrong to put your website url but isn’t it better using backlink directly to your post? As I said before, it is easy for other readers to click your link and directed to your post.
Submit your article
You can submit your article to any article directories. There are a lot of article directories on the internet. You can choose to send to them all if you want. The more, the merrier it will be. This is not as easy as you think. The best article directories will review your article first before it is posted live. They have to make sure that your article is unique, free of grammatical mistake and never been posted before in any other website.
With my bad English command, I also have trouble submitting my articles there. I have to edit and read it a few times before being approved. Below is the list of article directories that are mostly used by bloggers. Before sending to other article directories, pass these three first. Good luck for that.
Don’t get me wrong. Your job is not finish here. When you pass these top three article directories, you also have to send it to other article directories. You can find them using Google. It seems that this part involves a lot of work but don’t worry, there are tools to help you do that but it is not free. Use one tool is enough.
Join forums
Joining any forums will not help you. You have to stick to your niche. Go to Google and type your niche + forum. Don’t just register, be active. Give comments and ask questions. I am sure there will be someone who will answer you.
How will you get backlinks by joining forums? It is almost the same as blog commenting. But using blog commenting it is hard to find blogs who allow links on their comment. Some blog owners think that is spamming. It is a different story with forums. They allow you to put links or even url. There is one forum that I join even let their members post about their blog there.
Use social media
Social medias are the most highly active communication hub today. People tend to be lazy and they won’t do anything. All they need is a laptop or smartphones and chit chat all day using Facebook, Google+, Myspace and so much more..much..much more. Get that fingers busy and create an account at any social media network that you like and promote you blog. Post a few of your blog content there and don’t forget those backlinks.
Guest post
For people who are still new to internet marketing or the blogging world, do not think that guest post is an easy thing to do. Many website owners go blog hunting trying to find anyone who wants to add them as a guest poster. What they do not know is not all website owners accept guest posting on their blog for some reason. The common reasons are they don’t even read your email, they don’t trust you and you don’t have the credibility to post on their blog.
Personally, I hate this option for creating backlinks. The blogs that you are going to hunt must be high in PR and already long enough on the internet. That is why those people have to scan their guest bloggers. But on the other hand, it is not impossible. Keep on contacting these sites and show them your blog. Not all website owners will ignore you.
One advice that I want to tell you is don’t ignore your readers and people that contact you via email. If you think the person is not suitable as your guest poster, tell them. Don’t ignore and keep quiet about it. You will lose readers and credibility on your blog if you do that. Remember that you were once like them. Help those people if they really need your help.
Social bookmarking
Social bookmarking is keeping your website address and categorized them in categories for future retrieval. Easy to say, it is like in a library where books are kept in a manner for easy finding by library users. However, for SEO purpose, social bookmarking does not help like it used to be. For the purpose of link building, you can give it a try.
It is the same concept as your browser’s bookmarking process. When you like a certain website or post that entertain you, you will bookmark it. You will no longer have to browse them using your browser. Who knows that those website will lose their rank in the near future.
Even though submitting your website to social bookmark page does not increase your website’s SERP, it is still a good way to give your link away. Register to a few websites below and continue to submit your website. Do not use automation in any of them. It is better to do it yourself.
Use authority sites
What are authority sites? They are websites with high PR, trusted and full of information. To get them to link to you is super hard. If you write some crap, misleading and non-useful content, you will not get your backlink from them. In real life, you can imagine authority sites are like the local council, police, government, giant companies and so on. You’ll get the idea.
These sites allow you to write for them but like I said before, what you write must be unique and informative. This is because these authority sites have to maintain their reputation as one of the high ranking website on the internet. They don’t want their readers to get scammed or misled. Don’t even try to write any controversies if you don’t have solid proof for what you write.
Luckily, there are some authority sites that you can easily put your backlinks there. But you still have to watch out for your content. Even if your content is live, it will be removed if you don’t follow their protocol. Here is a few that you can register to:
Link baiting
Doing link baiting is easy but to get them to work is sometimes unexpected. To link bait, you create a post linking to another blog without being asked to do it. It is totally on your own free will. It doesn’t matter if you create a link text or their website url as long as links to the other website.
The trick behind the linking part is to get the attention of the other websites that you link to so that they realize that you exist. If you are lucky, they will link back to you. How good does that sound to you? Having a free backlink from high authority sites are very rare indeed so you must do it carefully with a lot of planning first.
Like always, make sure that your website is reliable to readers and has enough articles to browse for and don’t forget you must be at the same niche. Well, the concept is also the same with blog commenting. Go for the first few people who linked to that particular article, the best is the top ten people.
RSS Submission
This is the only automation in creating backlinks that is allowed today. RSS stands for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication. I guess that most people know about what is RSS feed and I think I’ll pass the explanation part moreover we are talking about creating backlinks here. So we stick on how to create backlinks for your website.
Submitting your website’s RSS feed is the easiest part in back linking. All you have to do is take your RSS url, paste and click submit using Feedage which is free to use. You also can do it manually by sending your RSS feed to any RSS directories site. The list below is a few examples. There are a lot more RSS directory sites available online.
Create Backlinks Automatically
Unfortunately, I will not share on how to create your backlinks automatically. It is because any automation or anything involving bots will be penalized by Google. Your website will not rank well because of this. If you are aware which I know you would, that Google create new algorithm in their searches. Any low quality links will be penalized.
So, don’t waste your time learning about how to automate your backlinks in other websites. For my personal opinion, Google want us to be honest in creating a website or blog. By doing this, Google creates an opportunity for all internet marketers and the lazy will be left behind. Only the determine will stay.
Conclusion
For conclusion about backlinks, there is no other way than to create them manually. If it is too tiring for you, outsource. Pay someone to do it for you. No one really knows exactly how Google algorithms really work except for the Google boys themselves. It is good to play safe for long term effects.
Google change their algorithm every five years. When they do that, it's like they're 'cleaning' their search results. To be safe from those algorithms, go for white hat. It is slow indeed but it is the best technique if you want a long term business with your blog. But most important, write for people, not for Google.
