Where to start
Before we dive in to how to build backlinks there are a few things you must know:
- Before you think about building back links make sure you’re crystal clear on why you want traffic.
- Back links are totally worthless if you don’t have the right keywords. So spend some time researching the best keywords before you build backlinks.
- I’m assuming that your website is already indexed by Google. If you’re having trouble with this then read: How to get indexed by Google over night
- I want this post to be the most comprehensive guide to building backlinks on the Internet but I have probably missed a few things. If there are any topics that you’d like covered or questions you would like answered then leave a comment below. Or you can email me nickstraffictricks@gmail.com
Why backlinks matter
Back links are like votes for your website. The more backlinks your site receives the higher it will rank. I explain this in more detail here.
These are a waste of time
While there are numerous ways to build backlinks some of them are complete waste of time in my not so humble opinion, including:
- Submitting your website to Google or other search engines
- Submitting your website to link directories or link farms
So don’t bother with them.
Also read: Link Building: What’s Naughty, What’s Nice?
Domains & IP addresses matter
Getting 100 backlinks from 100 different domains is far better than getting 100 backlinks from 1 domain.
And getting backlinks from a variety of different IP addresses is even better! (Every computer connected to the Internet is assigned an IP address.)
For example, let’s say you use BlueHost to host your 20 domains. Most likely all of those domains will be on the same BlueHost server and have the same IP address. So you could have your 20 domains link to each other but this will be less effective because the domains are all on the same IP address.
Anchor text matters
Back links to your site are going to look something like this:
<a href="http://www.mysite.com/">Ballet Cats</a>
The part that says Ballet Cats is called the anchor text. You want to use the keyword phrase that you would like to rank for as the anchor text.
Q. Do we need to use one anchor text only or use different but related anchor texts?
If you only have 1 keyword phrase you would like to rank for then I would only have 1 anchor text.
If you have 2 or 3 then you can alternate them.
Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors
I found an awesome SEO infographic from Search Engine Land.
They created it to “help clear away some of the mystery and fear for those new to SEO, and provide a reset for those who are experienced.”
Also checkout their fantastic SEO writeup and analysis.
Clicking on the image below will take you to a download page with big PDF versions and sharable images of the whole chart, with short explanations.
NoFollow vs. DoFollow
Q. What is NoFollow?
Frequently blogs will receive lots of junk comments. The purpose of these comments is to get backlinks to someone’s website. To combat this sometimes blog owners will put a nofollow attribute in any links posted in comments.
An example of this:
<a href="http://www.mysite.com/" rel="nofollow">
See the part that says rel=”nofollow”?
That’s the part that tells search engines not to follow this link. When Google sees this it won’t follow this link and renders the link almost useless for search engine optimization.
“Nofollow” provides a way for webmasters to tell search engines “Don’t follow links on this page” or “Don’t follow this specific link.”
This gives webmasters more granular control: instead of telling search engines and bots not to follow any links on the page, it lets you easily instruct robots not to crawl a specific link. For example:
<a rel="nofollow" href="signin.php">sign in</a>How does Google handle nofollowed links?
In general, we don’t follow them. This means that Google does not transfer PageRank or anchor text across these links. Essentially, using nofollow causes us to drop the target links from our overall graph of the web. However, the target pages may still appear in our index if other sites link to them without using nofollow, or if the URLs are submitted to Google in a Sitemap. Also, it’s important to note that other search engines may handle nofollow in slightly different ways.
Q. Do other search engines care about nofollow?
There are hundreds of search engines but the only ones I really care about (besides Google) are Yahoo and Bing.
Yahoo - I found an article on Yahoo.com that said they did obey nofollow. In my research I also came across several people who reported that Yahoo was counting links to their website that were nofollow.
This is contradictory and I am honestly not sure what to make of it. A big part of my problem is that most of the information I’m finding is several years old.
Bing - They mention on their Comment spam policy update for Bing blogs & forums that
All backlinks left in comments (including signatures) will be configured with the <a> tag attribute rel=”nofollow”, meaning that … there is no search engine backlink value attributed to the linked page
I also found contradicting reports that said Bing does follow nofollow links.
Like Yahoo, the biggest problem here is finding information that is recent and authoritative on the subject of nofollow.
For now I’m going to assume that dofollow links (links without nofollow) are superior for the 3 search engines I care about.
Q. Do we need only dofollow links or a few nofollow links are okay?
Some links are better than no links but I think at this point you are probably better off with links that do not use nofollow.
Q. How can I tell if a blog uses nofollow without looking at the source code?
There is a Firefox plug-in that makes it really easy to tell if a blog is nofollow.
Watch Video: How to tell if a blog is DoFollow or NoFollow
Q. How do I find websites that don’t use nofollow?
Ahh, yes this is a pain!
I have heard of software that you can buy to find them but I have never tried the software and cannot make any recommendations.
So to make things easier for you I have compiled a huge list of dofollow blogs.
Outsource building backlinks
Pretty much all backlink strategies can be outsourced but I recommend that you do it yourself for a while before you pay someone else. This will help you determine how much time it really should take when you decide to pay someone to do it for you.
And when you outsource start with small tasks and make sure that the person completes them to your satisfaction before giving them larger tasks.
Become the top commentator on blogs
Did you know you can get a backlink from every single page of a blog?
Yup, you sure can and this lengthy post tells you how.
Guest post on related blogs
Guest posting is another great way to leverage other people’s traffic and send some that traffic to you.
Here’s how it works in a nutshell: find a blog that is related to your new blog and write a “guest” blog post for them. They will pay you back with a link to your website. If people like the post you’ve written then they will likely visit your website.
Find .edu & .gov links
A while ago finding .edu & .gov backlinks was all the rage because we thought that Google would view them as authoritative backlinks and count them higher.
Read 3 Unorthodox Ways to Get King-Kong .EDU Links
Q. Do EDU and GOV backlinks really matter?
Do they help? Yes just about any backlink is helpful.
Do they help more than other kinds of backlinks? Probably, but I’m not sure how much more.
And finding .edu & .gov backlinks may take a lot longer and may not be worth it.
Paid links
If you don’t mind spending a few bucks there are quite a few places that will sell you a backlink.
TextLinkBrokers – I have never used them but they’ve been around for a while and might be a good option.
Angela’s backlinks – For only $5 a month you will get a list of 30 places that you can get a high page rank backlink from. This is something I’ve used in the past and I recommend it.
Another option is to find a blog that you would like a link from and contact the owner directly and offer to pay for a link.
Also check out Google’s policy on paid links.
Google PageRank
My advice is to stop worrying about the PageRank of your site and the sites linking to you.
Here’s what Google says:
Q: My site’s PageRank has gone up / gone down / not changed in months!
A: Don’t worry. In fact, don’t bother thinking about it. We only update the PageRank displayed in Google Toolbar a few times a year; this is our respectful hint for you to worry less about PageRank, which is just one of over 200 signals that can affect how your site is crawled, indexed and ranked. PageRank is an easy metric to focus on, but just because it’s easy doesn’t mean it’s useful for you as a site owner. If you’re looking for metrics, we’d encourage you to check out [Google] Analytics, think about conversion rates, ROI (return on investment), relevancy, or other metrics that actually correlate to meaningful gains for your website or business.
How many links does Google know about?
You can do a quick check on Google with this query:
link: your-domain.com
Unfortunately the results are wildly inaccurate.
Here’s what Google says:
Q: I have [thousands/several/at least two] links to my site, but when I search on Google it says I have [zero/not that many] links. What gives?
A: If you do a Google search using the link: operator [link:example.com], you’ll see a sampling of pages that link to your site. For a more complete list of pages that link to yours, verify your site in Webmaster Tools and check out the link reports. Note that, although these reports are more comprehensive than a link: query, they may not include 100% of all links that you know about. This is normal and you don’t need to worry about it. Webmaster Tools does not always show 100% of the links that Google knows about, so just because a particular link doesn’t appear in Webmaster Tools doesn’t mean that Google doesn’t know about that link, or that your site isn’t “getting credit” for that link.Note that the link report in Webmaster Tools only shows whether a site is linking to yours; it doesn’t show which links are most significant, and it can include links that are nofollowed or that don’t pass PageRank.
What I Learned From Lady Gaga About Building Backlinks
People will never link to your next blog post if they don’t bother to read it.
And they’ll never read it if you have a boring title.
If you want backlinks, retweets, etc. then you MUST have an awesome title.
(And when I say ‘awesome’ I actually mean ‘not boring’).
Be outrageous, be controversial, just don’t be boring. You cannot get backlinks with a lame title.
How to craft awesome titles
Crafting fantastic titles isn’t that hard and there are some great resources that I’ll share with you in just a second.
But I first want you to go to your favorite blog and make a list of the last 3 blog posts that you read. Did they have interesting titles? I bet they did.
Take notice of the titles of the blog posts that you read each day and write them down. (You read the blog post was because its title perked your interest.)
Your goal should be to find and write down 5 interesting titles each day. After a week you will have 35 good titles and you’ll start to see some patterns.
The easiest way to create awesome titles is to look at the titles of posts you have written down and use them as templates.
But Nick, aren’t I stealing other peoples’ headlines?
If you use the headline word-for-word, then yes, you are stealing. So don’t do that. Use their headline as a template or starting point and make it your own.
Resource awesomeness
Viper Chill:
Tim Ferriss:
CopyBlogger:
- Why You Should Always Write Your Headline First
- The Cheater’s Guide to Writing Great Headlines
- Do Key Words in Post Titles Really Matter?
- How to Write a Killer “How To” Post That Gets Attention
- 7 Reasons Why List Posts Will Always Work
- Why Some People Almost Always Write Great Post Titles
- 10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work
- 9 Proven Headline Formulas That Sell Like Crazy
- 7 More Sure-Fire Headline Templates That Work
- Warning: Use These 5 Headline Templates at Your Own Risk
- The Art of Writing Great Twitter Headlines
Strange behavior
A side effect (a really good one!) of having awesome headlines is that people will retweet a link to your post because of the title without actually reading the post.
But Nick, what about good content?
Sure content matters. But how will people ever partake of your wonderful content if your title is more boring than your high school civics teacher?
Remember that people have short attention spans; they’ll leave after read 10 words if their interest is not perked.
What does this have to do with Lady Gaga?
Lady Gaga is outrageous, controversial, and shocking. She is anything but boring; she is the antithesis of boring just like your titles should be.
Article marketing
Article marketing used to be a pretty popular method to get backlinks but it seems to have lost some of its effectiveness. With that said, I do have a bunch of posts on article marketing.
Also read: Link Trio: A Simple, Yet Powerful, Link Building Tactic
Back links from forums
You can get backlinks from online forums by placing a link to your site in your forum signature that appears at the bottom of every forum post you make.
Make sure the forum allows signatures and allows links in signatures.
Also make sure that the link to your site in the signature is a dofollow link.
In theory if you posted 100 times on a forum you may get 100 backlinks, which sounds pretty good, but may be less effective because all of the links are coming from the same domain and the same IP address.
Build backlinks by allowing people to copy your content
As your site becomes more popular you will find that people begin copying your content and republishing it on their websites.
You can spend a ton of time and effort trying to get these sites to remove your content or you can use it as a way to build backlinks to your site.
In every post that you publish you should embed 3 links to other posts you have published. And when someone copies your content they will be giving you 3 backlinks.
(Have you noticed how many links there are in the post you are reading to other posts of mine? When someone copies this post I will get lots of backlinks!)
Read More: My Clever Way To Handle Content Theft
Google analytics can help
Most likely you’re trying to rank for several different keywords and some will work out better than others.
My advice is to focus on the keywords that are sending your site the most traffic and ignore all other keywords.
But how do you know which keywords are sending the most traffic? Google analytics makes this super easy.
How to build backlinks naturally
The best way to build backlinks naturally is to you create content that people absolutely love. I’m talking about creating something epic that is worthy of backlinks from other people.
And copying articles from Ezine Articles will not cut it!
Once you have created something epic, and it has a fabulous title, then you should post a link to it on Twitter and let some people know to get the ball rolling.
One question I like to ask people is, “Would you refer your mother to your website as the best place to find information about topic x?”
Also, stop trying to get traffic and get backlinks. Instead work on attracting traffic and attracting backlinks. The distinction here is subtle yet important.
How Get Traffic From Google Without Building Backlinks
Building backlinks is a pain. Luckily there’s an easy way to get traffic from Google without worrying to much about backlinks.
The method involves using Google Suggest to tell you exactly which longtail keyword phrases to use.
Read How to Launch a New Blog With (Already) High Search Traffic
Afterwards take your keywords and check them for competition & profitability:
- Keyword Research Part 2: Finding keywords that are profitable
- Keyword Research Part 3: Evaluating Keyword Competition
And get the full scoop on keyword research with Keyword Research 101
Getting backlinks from blog commenting
Getting backlinks by leaving a comment on blogs is pretty simple.
Q: What is best way to structure your backlink?
Fill in the name field with the keyword that you wish to rank for. I put John Galt in this field in the example below. (Note: not all blog owners will approve comments with your keywords in the name field.)
And put your website URL in the website field.
Once your comment is approved it will look something like this:
How and where should anchor text be applied?
The anchor text goes in the name field.
Spammy comments hurt your backlink building
That’s right.
Leaving worthless comments on other peoples’ blogs will actually hurt your back linking efforts.
Let me explain.
Most blogs now use an anti-comment spam plug-in called Akismet which has an enormous database of spammy comments. Whenever someone leaves a comment on my blog it’s is checked against this database to see if it is spam.
If Akismet thinks that a comment might be spam then that comment is automatically put in the spam bucket and has to be approved by me before it shows up on my blog. And in my experience Akismet catches 95% of all spam comments.
So if you leave spammy comments on blogs that use Akismet, 95% of the time your comments will be caught by the filter and you will not get a backlink. Doesn’t this sound like a waste of time?
But Nick, how do I know if a blog is using Akismet?
There’s really no way to tell for sure. But any blog with a decent following has to deal with comment spam on a regular basis and most likely uses Akismet or a similar service. Keep it simple and assume that every blog uses it.
But Nick, what if I leave worthwhile comments but I still want to put my keywords in the name field so I can get a quality backlink?
Some blogs will allow this and others won’t. Before you leave a comment read the blog commenting policy (if there is one) and see if there are lots of comments where people have their keywords in the name field.
For example, Tamar of techipedia.com has this blog policy:
Should you elect to comment, you are asked to give your real name. This is a community and I’d like to call you by your name, not by an alias or business. I’d appreciate it if you don’t try to leverage my blog to boost your SEO rankings, because if you do, I will edit out your name and URL.
And then there are people like me who don’t mind if you leave your keywords in the name field as long as your comment has some substance.
But be warned, if I see a junk comment from your keyword I will mark it as spam and delete all future comments from you.
But Nick, how can I ensure that my worthwhile comments will not be seen as spam by you?
Spam comments usually fit one or more of the following criteria
- They are short, usually containing just a few words.
- They are generic and could be applied to any blog post i.e. “Nice work dude”, or “great work on this and I will tell my friends about it”.
- They include a link to something that is not relevant to the post.
- They include generic praise without any reasonable explanation i.e. “This is a really good read for me. Must agree that you are one of the coolest blogger I ever saw. Thanks for posting this useful information. This was just what I was on looking for. I’ll come back to this blog for sure!”
- They have poor grammar or simply do not make sense.
Do the comments that you leave fit one of the above criteria? If they does then they will be marked as spam and you will not get a backlink.
Consider signing up for a Gravatar because it will increase the chances that your comments will be approved.
Also read: Valuable Commenters vs. Comment Spammers
In short, if you don’t want to look like a spammer then don’t be a spammer. Actually read the blog post and leave a meaningful comment.
Link Farms
Avoid these. ‘Nuff said.
Reciprocal links
I’m not a huge fan of reciprocal links unless it’s something highly targeted and very relevant.
However I know of one service called Link market that can help you connect with other people looking for reciprocal links.
Don’t Ask Sites For Links
Some gurus recommend emailing webmasters and begging for a backlink.
But anyone who has actually done this for more than 5 minutes knows that it sucks.
When a site owner sees your email they are going to ask, “What’s in it for me?” and consequently will ignore your link request 90% of the time.
So please stop doing this!
Better way to get links
You can get links by first connecting with other bloggers and tweeting their stuff. Build something that they’d actually want to share with their readers. And then tell them about it.
Simple yet effective.
Read More: Don’t Ask Sites for Links. Find People and Connect.
Also checkout: Build Back Links Super Fast
Additional resources
- Mistery of Google PageRank Solved?
- Jelly Beans and Backlinks: The Link Builders Toy Box
- Link Building Tip: How to Do It the Smart Way
- Explosive Backlink Building Strategy
- How to Build Links and Generate Traffic Using Web 2.0 Tools
- 5 Killer Tips to Get More Backlinks
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. How do you keep readers coming back?
Give them a reason to come back. Create epic stuff and use social media to get the ball rolling.
Q. What kind of backlinking gets websites banned from Google?
Link farms should be avoided. If you were Google what kinds of backlinks would you ban sites for?
Make a list of everything you think of and avoid anything on the list.
Q. How to get out of the Sandbox/Google Slap?
Better content and more backlinks.
Q. Whats the impact having an anchor text vs a regular text on the link?
Here’s what a backlink looks like:
<a href="http://www.mysite.com/">Ballet Cats</a>
I don’t know what you mean by “anchor text vs a regular text”.
Q. If you have a site, lets say, in Germany and have a lot of backlings from US, does that make big difference? Would that be caught as spam?
It doesn’t matter. There are lots of sites in Germany with naturally occurring backlinks from sites in the US. If Google penalized (i.e. marked as spam) sites in Germany with links from the US then loads of legitimate sites would be punished.
Q. Directories, do they really matter? If so, the paying ones (Yahoo Dir, etc) would be worth what they charge?
Waste of time and waste of money.
Q. If I want to get my home page ranking, should all my backlink efforts go to the home page, or should I be linking to internal pages too?
I usually point backlinks to my home page. Make sure people visiting your home page can easily navigate to important pages on your site.
Take SEO to the Next Level
Fast Attack SEO can help you rank high in no time.
Did I miss anything?
Back link building is a huge topic and it’s possible I missed something. If there’s anything that you would like covered just let me know in the comments below.
Photo by koalazymonkey and dullhunk
{ 108 comments… read them below or add one }
Amazing overview Nick. I will use this post as a checklist in my next seo optimizations. Thanks!
Great guide
Oh! Just scored a back link with this post. Touch'e!
DxMonkey recently posted..The Free Ultima Online Shard That Suits All Play Styles
LOL
I see that you recommend Fast Attack SEO! I read a few weeks ago and thought that it was both enjoyable and informative, not to mention beautifully laid out, compared to many of the other ebooks out there (though I suppose that's not so important..)
I think I'll be implementing the techniques sometime in the upcoming weeks!
cheap fridge freezer recently posted..Privacy Policy
Hi Nick,
thanks for this big collection of wisdom – a real bible.
Regarding your last point:
"Q. If I want to get my home page ranking, should all my backlink efforts go to the home page, or should I be linking to internal pages too?
I usually point backlinks to my home page. Make sure people visiting your home page can easily navigate to important pages on your site."
When you have the possibility to enter two links, make one point to an inner page and the other one to the homepage. I found that this sometimes gives the inner pages a boost and that are the places where you usually have the content that you want your visitors to see anyway.
In case of just one backlink possibility, I prefer a link to inner pages. The homepage of the site will benefit from the strength of the inner page.
That's a good idea.
many many many times thanks Nick…
You save my $1000+ to learn SEO in deep…..
Keep rocking ……
Hans Raj Hans recently posted..Hans Raj Hans A Sufi Singer
Great article…
Although, left me thinking the best ways are via blog comments links and posting articles?
Tim recently posted..Raspberry Pi – the £15 computer
Yes and I am researching some additional methods.
Great article and thanks for the information. I will be reviewing back to check out all the links. You answered my question about anchor text in blog comments, simply use keyword instead of name in name field, wow. Thanks
Nicks, Can you write list of LINK FARM for avoid? Because many program spread the world web with same program. i difficult to detected
I wish there was a list but I don't think there is.
All are very effective and important too. These are really very useful sources for getting back links which the most important in site promotion.
I personnally uses many from this and also reccommend others the same.
Thanks for sharing it with us.
Meg recently posted..Bath Screens
wow nick, a lot of great extensive information on backlinks, now I have a more indept idea or ideas of how to get backlinks. thanks.
Super job Nick, you have shown once again why your fans love you: solid, extremely helpful information that is easy to understand.
Thanks again for this very comprehensive treatment of backlinking, and if I learn of a recent authoritative answer to the very few remaining questions (Bing/Yahoo! do or do not count nofollow links; value placed by Google on .edu and .gov links) I hope to share that with you and your subscribers.
I look forward to it.
Thank you. Quite comprehensive and interesting post. It gave me an overview on this topic, it's just like me, but who starts it is not so simple. Thanks.
Forgot to say, if you want to get your comment links on blogs, you have to subscribe to http://comluv.com/
Only then your comment will appear as specified here.
jo recently posted..Hydroponic in Flowerpot growth- is it possible
Yes I need to include something about CommentLuv.
Although if we get backlinks by commenting(nofollow)on blogs, still how it would differ when we use our names instead of keywords in the name field of the form? Aren't the backlinks with anchor texts(keywords) mostly worth than names as anchor texts?
Ideally you want your target keyword in the name field because you want to rank for that keyword.
Hi Nick,
I have got two things that I would like to point out. The first one being that Google does follow no-follow links. I have got my website up to page 2 by using mainly no-follow links with a PR of 3. Secondly, I think it is wrong to rubbish paid directories, I have used plenty of them with great success.
I think paying money to be listed in the Yahoo directory is a waste of money. Perhaps you could point out some paid directories that are worth it.
Hi Nick,
Valuable information on building backlinks, great for the newbie getting into internet marketing, as usual your posts rock. A side note nice of you to include a must watch video interview with Matt Cutts of Google on just how Google looks at follow or nofollow links.
Thanks
seo services recently posted..Domain Anaylsis
Excellent write up! Thank you for including my blog in the resource section, very honored to be a part of this article.
As far as backlinks goes, making a splash through great content and participating in collaborative endeavors such as guest posting are the ways to build them safely and cheaply.
You're practicing what you preach with this post because it is both great content and an example of collaborative work.
Chris the Traffic Bl recently posted..Money and Blog Focus
Thank you Chris! I will be doing more posts like this in the future and would love to include links to your blog.
Top commenters seems like a great way to get links, but when so many links are coming from the same website, it seems they start to have very little effects. Or is it just me?
Outdoor String Light recently posted..Colored Light Bulbs—Setting the Mood with Colored Light Bulbs
There are usually only 5 or 10 people who are top commentators and get back links on every single page of the blog.
Hi Nick! thank you very much for this post, really complete, blogs like yours with the comment luv plugin helps very much for creating quality back links, thanks again Nick!:)
BetterMarketing recently posted..Discount Coupon Hostgator
I understand that websites need backlinks to be noticed by the search engines and to rank. In your opinion Nick, how much backlinks should we try to get and if we reach that coveted #1 to stop getting more backlinks?
Best Father’s recently posted..Sony MHCEC709iP Mini Hi-Fi Shelf System Review- Bass Power
The number of back links needed will depend on your niche and how much competition you have. And once you have the number one spot on Google you still need to do a little bit of work to maintain it.
That's what I was thinking Nick. Because before I can get to # 1 there's someone already there so if some other site is targeting my current position then he'll have an easier time if I stop with my backlinking than if I continue building up links.
Best Father’s recently posted..JVC UX-PL5 CD Micro Component System Review- Small Package- Big Sound
Wow, there is so much great information here. In the end, the epic content you recommend will pull in the backlinks. When you give people what they want the way they want it, they can't help but tell others and share links to your site. Until then, paid linking may help, but solid relationships with players in your niche will help you get the authority that leads to backlinks…as long as the content delivers.
Tammi Kibler recently posted..Want a Link Back to Your Site
I always look forward to your comments because they are usually long and insightful.
Thanks Nick,
It is good to see a good long post that explains it in detail.
This information is exactly the kind of help needed. It is so easy to go off and spend time and money on building links both free and paid. Yet you have confirmed what I have thought, both in many/or most cases could/can be ineffective, or even harmful to a sites ranking.
Excellent work here. I just want to say, Google weights the number of backlinks you have more than anything. I recently saw a competitor for one of my sites beat me out of my #2 spot. My domain is older, my page rank is higher and I have 100 more pages indexed, my content is varied, quality and unique; theirs is kind of crappy. BUT they have 50 more backlinks to their site than mine. Fifty. In fact, I found your site because I was researching more ways to backlink and I will be going through your suggestions and implementing as much as I can. Thank you for this!
Tracey recently posted..Diabetic Dog Foods- Importance of High Protein Dog Food for Diabetic Dogs
The dofollow/nofollow thing is confusing. I definitely like do follow but I know from my own experience that no follow do get counted and do help.
Really great information!
Modern Warfare recently posted..Cool Modern Warfare 3 facts!
Keyword research is really important and Adwords keyword tool helps us a lot for it. We can easily check the competition of the keyword.
Naser @ Best Tips Fo recently posted..How to check your WordPress PHP and MySQL Versions?
Awesome post. I totally love the periodic table – so cool. Thanks man!!
Nick, I have not come across a site such as yours that have so much great information. I am still new at getting my site established, and now I'm trying to get links pointing to it. Your site have given me so much information. I have been reading and clicking the various links here for the past hour. I have bookmarked this site and will be her often.
I tried to use the link you gave to find out how many links there is to my site, but it did not work for some reason. I will try again later. Please keep the great info coming we newbies need all the info we can get, and believe me we appreciate all that you can give us. Thank you
Thank you for the kind words.
There are a ton of links on this particular blog post. Which one was not working for you?
This is a nice solid list of the right and the wrong way to do things when it comes to backlinking. Good stuff!!
Nick, I see that you are promoting the FastAttack SEO Guide which is excellent. Did you also check out FastAttack Traffic?
Heard about it but couldn't find it anywhere.
No, I haven't checked it out but I will add it to my list.
I bought it the day before yesterday and found a few good nuggets in it. Now thinking on how to implement them. With just 9 bucks the price is reasonable.
your post about back links really helped me a lot..thanks for the nice post
I've had a website for the past 3 years, but just recently started putting time into building backlinks. It is a laborious process. My mind can get overloaded with this idea and that idea, this blog, that forum, and the other directory. There are just so many ways to build backlinks it is hard to know which one is the best. I like your use of the phrase "attract traffic" and "attract backlinks". This is a good reminder that the content is important. No matter how many people you get to your site, if the content is not attractive and interesting they will leave and you will get nothing except a tic on the stat sheet.
I don't really have the time to build backlinks like I should. I don't really have the knowledge either.
I have seen LOTS of backlink gigs at Fiverr. Do you recommend any of them, or can you mention what I should look for?
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I don't have any that I recommended right now but I'm thinking about doing some testing on a few of them to see if they actually work.
i had never heard of Google Suggest but it sounds like a great idea. I suppose it is too late to use it once you have already launched your site?
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Google suggest is an excellent tool for helping you figure out which keywords to use and target for search engine optimization. Why would it be too late to do this after you have launched your website?
Thanks for the heads up on that fastattack ebook. I did get it and now I have a clearer plan of action to take when doing my backlinking.
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Hi Nick, I got a lot of great info from the periodic table, did you create that? I am going to spend more time studying your work and following the links. This looks like a great place to start key word research study.
Nope, I copied it from somewhere and linked to the source.
Nick, thanks a lot, man. Now my whole weekend is shot because I'm going to have to read every word on this site. Right now I have 6 tabs open with other articles on your site that I need to read. Great stuff and exactly what I needed right now.
Good to hear. Let me know if you have any questions.
wow that was some great and detailed information about backlinking and stuff.. great stuff as usual..ur articles give me a true insight of how less i know lol
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Found your blog through WF. Amazing guide. Took me a long while sifting through it but I am sure walking away with a few gold nuggets that will definitely boost up the SEO campaigns we are working on. Thanks a lot for taking all the trouble to share your deep knowledge about SEO issues with us, lesser mortals! We sure appreciate it!
I've added this page to my SEO bookmarks. (To the 1st place.)
Very good and thorough information.
Hi Nick,
Great share! Thank you so much for sharing so much info on this post. I just have a question though: I have just signed up for Angela’s Backlinks through your link but I did not get any email or any instructions to how/ where to get the backlinks for this month. Do you have any idea what I should do?
Thanks,
Houda
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You should send an e-mail to Angela explaining the situation and be sure to include your PayPal transaction ID.
Nick,
Thanks for the great review here of backlinks! This is an awesome post! As a long standing blogger I know the pain of having to deal with spam comments. Battling against spam comments in order to find the good ones has almost felt like a mini-crusade.
One thing for newbies is that they need to see what works best for them in regards to fighting off spam. Whether it is using disqus or askimet. They need something will help them fight off the unending list of spam comments.
Andy
There are some wordpress plugins pretty well.
Hi Nick,
Thanks for the great post. I tried to outsource the backlinking tasks but money and time are just wasted. I’m thinking of doing it on my own, read a couple of good blogs and if I can say something or share something I can leave a comment. I know in time I can get backlinks as long as I don’t spam blogs.
The article really helps. Thanks again mate!
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Hi Nick this is such a great post. you just done a fabulous work.
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Hi Nick,
I just followed your from The WF . Thanks for putting this online. I loved your comment on Link Farm….. Nuff said indeed.
Keep up the good work
Rob
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Great writer indeed! I usually don’t read lengthy posts but this is an exception. I love the Lady Gaga stuff..
Hi Nick, thank you for the tips ya sure this is a white hat seo bible for link builders. Any one who wants their site to stay out of trouble then better do as outlined in this post. Do not follow spam practices which are short lived.
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So glad I found this blog. Seriously, I’ve been looking for seo info for a while that may explain why my competition seem to rank higher than me with a lot less backlinks.I’m still a bit stumped as I have about 10x more and most that he has are pr n/a but still ranks #1 for the main keyword and I’m #2. And I’m definitely going to check out your link to how to get massive traffic from youtube as I get some traffic from youtube but not a lot.
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a very long and complete article about build backlinks, and its a little overwhelming for me… woow, great jobs btw
I was particularly interested in how internet marketing related to Lady Gaga!
I completely need to rethink my post titles, as mine certainly aren’t ‘Lady Gaga’. It’s a good point that the title needs to be really interesting as well as the content adding value.
Thanks
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awesome article on getting backlinks. I will use these steps as soon as I can
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The post that keeps on giving… Thanks Nick – there are some new ideas for me in here which I’m looking forward to putting into practice.
Thanks Nick…already using tons of the things you recommend!
Great tips on backlinking – thanks for sharing them. I use some of them on my blogs.
I been trying to build backlinks for my domain http://www.sellyourbargains.com Where can I get heavy traffic from?
Well, who really wants to use the service? Who is your target audience? That’s where you should start. If you can answer those questions I can help you get traffic.
Its an amazing post author..backlinks are very much important for a successfull blog……thanks for sharing
Never seen that periodic table before – great stuff!
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A lot of comprehensive advice here. I think its also worth meantioning that with new sites it is important to link build gradually to avoid any penalty. Also obtaining links from a variety of different sources with different anchor text helps the links appear more natural..
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I feel delighted to read such a good post, I would like to thank you Nick for your efforts.
Backlinks are very important for Every Website who actually needs higher Rank in Search Engine. Here Nick have define some Backlink building tricks which are really very helpful for us. Nick here i wanted to ask you one Question regarding to Backlinks. My question is “Link Wheel techniques helpful for getting Backlinks?” Kindly reply as soon as possible.
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Link wheels work okay as long as you don’t get caught.
i submitted my site to hundreds of webdirectory. i didn;t know is useless, lol.
thanks for share with us
9 month old and full of wisdom – clearly evergreen content that you should put in an ebook.
Nick, one question: to find out how many backlinks a site already has, I used to use the Yahoo Seite explorer, but since this is dicontinued, I am lacking a tool for good analysis.
What is your recommendation for a replacement of this tool?
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I think Google has some webmaster tools that can help you with this.
Hey Nick,
It seems that you have put a lot of work into this article and you did a good job! Very informative and straight forward. Saved the page on my computer, hope you don’t mind
Warm wishes,
Dennis
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I don’t mind at all!
This was an SEO bible in one article, very informative and detailed, I found several little things that I’ve probably missed or done wrong. Many thank Nick.
This is the most comprehensive article I have read on backlinks! I think it will be even more useful if you laid out the exact steps in building backlinks along with a timeline. Many people are confused (I definitely am) about link building velocity. I am paranoid about building too many links too fast.
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With regular SEO update, it is very risky to outsource link building, especially from a person or company that we’ve never even heard of it before.. We never know whether they used white or grey or black SEO to get the sites rank higher. If it is the latter, our blogs can be slapped away from Google’s index forever..
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HI Nick! Thanks for a very informative post,i couple of my webpages from my website has been affected by the google dance,the where all on nr 1 page on google but now on page 3-7,what should i do? whait for weeks and hope for the best or creat a bunch of backlinks and more content?
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It’s hard for me to give a specific answer without knowing what your website is. What is your URL and keywords that you would like to rank for?
Definitely this is one of your best top posts Nick, and thanks for the helpful information. All through the panda updates there was nothing I saw about any devaluation of .edu and .gov links by Google, so if that is true they likely are still very desirable to have as backlinks. And the idea of a “natural” looking backlink collection as having at least some “nofollow” links may make the question as to whether or not they are counted not matter too much.
I got fascinated about that periodic table. Very cool. Your article seem to be a little bit technical for me since I don’t really have a great background when it comes to backlinks but I am glad to bumped into your site and I’d be reading more about this. Thanks for sharing.
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Wow! There are so many ways that I can do to backlink my site more. I only used blog comment and social networking for backlinking. The nofollow add ons on firefox is very useful it helps me determine what sites are no follow and do follow. Thanks for this information. I will try this kind of strategy.
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Thank you very much for this, this has been very helpful. And the fact that you mention that directories are pretty much worthless. Makes sense to me
I submitted to Google with “Add URL” and it worked. The new site was indexed under 24 hours, so I don’t think it’s useless. I did nothing else and just added the URL.
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Thanks for letting us know!
You have a nice article with very good information. I have some comments.
I agree that Google is the significant search engine to work towards. To this end, I use Google Webmaster Tools almost exclusively. I also have a Bing Webmaster Tools account but hardly use it. Having said that, I do get traffic from Bing as my GWT metrics show.
The majority of my links are nofollow as per my blog commenting exercise. I can confirm that GWT shows my nofollow links. How much weight these links have in comparison to dofollow links is only known by Google. With about a year’s effort for one site, I was able to get PR 3 for my best pages (PR 2 for others). Then I used my PR 3 authority to link out to a new site that I am promoting but I created too much dilution (ad link on each page) and my PR has dropped back to 2. The new site managed to get PR 1 in about 2 months.
Since the PR scale is not linear, it is increasingly harder to get back to PR 3, then 4. I agree with your article stating not to worry about PR. I use it mostly as a rough gauge. The more important GWT metrics show me my SERP rankings for keywords that bring visitors to my site.
Besides all the things you said about Lady Gaga (which I agree with), she is able to command all of that attention because she is a highly talented musician. The best in any field gets the overwhelming percentage of people’s attention.
David, about Lady Gaga, have you considered that her unique performances are the reasons why people are giving her attention? I have no question about her talent, but wouldn’t you consider the unique gimmicks as a factor of her fame? Anyway, about the PR. It is but a number that represents your site’s rank in Google, and that doesn’t mean that if you have a PR of 0, your site is below standard. There are sites that have lower PR that have higher traffic than the pages with high PR. People in the SEO reseller business would look more into the methods on how to increase traffic going to the site they’re building and optimizing.
Backlinks are enormously important for sure. A lot of sites these days are scared to leaking out too much ‘link juice’ with dofollow links even.
-Jean
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I just want to ask. If you will choose between the two- a no follow site with a high PR vs a do follow site with no PR- what are you going to choose?
I’d choose 1 Dofollow.
How do you feel about a mix of links on nofollow and dofollow blogs? I have read – from several sources – that Google likes a mix of links as it appears more natural.
Yes, a mix is good.
Thanks Nick.
This article truly reveal all the secrets of backlink.
Your website really makes visitors want to return to this website to read more incredible article. ?
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This is by far the most informative article I have seen in recent times when it comes to backlinking. SEO is all very new to me and I have found scattered info here and there but this is great one stop shop for backlinking info. Just what I was looking for. Thanks heaps for writing and posting.
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Thanks a lot for this extensive post that answers a lot of questions about link building.
But I would like to note one thing: article marketing is becoming less effective these days, especially if you have to post articles on your site first and then submit them to numerous article resources. Google Panda updates treat it seriously and are likely to lower such sites.