Where to start

Before we dive in to how to build backlinks there are a few things you must know:

1. Before you think about building back links make sure you’re crystal clear on why you want traffic.
2. 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.
3. 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
4. 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.

Straight from Google:

“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:

1. Get Hundreds of Links to Your Next Blog Post, Guaranteed [by using awesome titles]

Tim Ferriss:

1. Blogging by Numbers: How to Create Headlines That Get Retweeted

CopyBlogger:

1. Why You Should Always Write Your Headline First
2. The Cheater’s Guide to Writing Great Headlines
3. Do Key Words in Post Titles Really Matter?
4. How to Write a Killer “How To” Post That Gets Attention
5. 7 Reasons Why List Posts Will Always Work
6. Why Some People Almost Always Write Great Post Titles
7. 10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work
8. 9 Proven Headline Formulas That Sell Like Crazy
9. 7 More Sure-Fire Headline Templates That Work
10. Warning: Use These 5 Headline Templates at Your Own Risk
11. 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

Top 3 Traffic posts

The big 3 traffic articles you need to read today

1. 6 On-Page SEO Strategies That’ll Boost Your Rankings
2. The 5 Best [Free] Keyword Research Tricks I Tried In 2011
3. 2011: The Year Google & Bing Took Away From SEOs & Publishers

Created by Craig from phoenix-training.co.uk

Your keywords belong in your title tag. But is the text in your title tag readable?

That’s right. There’s no magic button. No silver bullet. No puny pink pill you can swallow to make your site skyrocket to #1 on Google.

You’re better off looking for a magic button to transport you to the top of a tall mountain. 
Beam me up, Scotty!

That’s my message for today:  There’s no magic button.  Pretty short, huh?
(You can just stop reading now.)

Just for fun, let’s imagine there was a magic button…

If there was a magic button then word would spread really fast. Everyone would line up in front of WalMart like it was Black Friday to buy them and their sites would shoot to #1 faster than you can say unicorns are real too.

There would be magic button pushing parties where we would all get together and drink too much, wear ugly party hats, and practice pushing our magic buttons in unison.  Prizes would be awarded to the most creative magic button pushers.  Magic buttons would be the #1 Halloween costume.  Gerber would sell out of magic button flavored baby food.

Dancing in the streets we would congratulate each other on our brilliance and hand out candy to little children.  And because a #1 spot in Google would be available to anyone for any keyword, everyone would make loads of money and this would fix the economy within 2 days.

By week’s end there would be no more homeless people, no war, no poverty, and no radio station would play Neil Diamond songs ever again.  Utopia at last!

How I yearn for the coming of the magic button so 1,000 crappy sites can rank #1 in Google for the exact same keyword!

And now a few buts…

But Nick I want to believe that I am different, that somehow my website is special, and that the Google Gods will smile down upon me and give me a high-ranking.

You can believe whatever you want. You can wish upon a star if you like.

Actually, I recommend wishing upon a star.  Seriously, for the next 7 days I want you to suspend all SEO efforts and spend 1 hour each day wishing upon the North Star and in a week come back and report on your success.  (This may be tough for readers in the southern hemisphere.)

And if you don’t get a high ranking after a week of wishing then I have a special ebook for you:  451 Secrets Of Wishing Upon A Star To Rank High In Google (What The Gurus Won’t Tell You!).  And it can be yours for only 77 monthly payments of $499.99.

When you’re ready to live in reality checkout my SEO tutorial.  (It’s free!).

Remember the words of Tyler Durden:

You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You’re the same decaying organic matter as everything else.

But Nick, a guy said he could guarantee my #1 rank if I gave him $500.

Uh huh.  Sure.  Did he ask for your target keywords before making the guarantee?  Did you talk to some of his previous clients about their improved rankings and how long it lasted?  Probably not.

On second thought, give him the $500 and see how well it works out for your site.
(Some people only learn by doing the wrong thing a few times.)

But Nick, are you saying there’s no way to rank high in Google?

Not at all.  You can rank high in Google if you pick the right keywords, get the right domain, build awesome content, get feedback from your readers, and build backlinks.

I even put together a helpful tutorial on the subject and I really do recommend this SEO Guide (despite all the hype on the sales page it’s actually quite good).

Photo by Taylor.McBride™

This is a guest post by Adam Snyder from DormRoomCash.com and is part of my
How To Rank #1 In Google Tutorial.

Did your website get affected by the recent Google Panda update? Is your traffic and income suffering because of it? Don’t worry if your website was hit hard because I have the answer for you.

During the last update one of my websites was hit really hard and because of that I had to do something in order to get the website ranking again.

What did I do?

I turned to web 2.0 properties! The reason I did this is because they provide more link weight and you don’t have to build as many of them in order to see results. As you probably already know, the quality of the link is what matters, not the quantity. That is why high pr web 2.0 properties work much better than regular article directories.

If you don’t know where to start then don’t fret, I have included the list of 50 high pr web 2.0 properties that I used to get my website out of the Google Sandbox in less than 20 days.

50 High Pr Web 2.0 Properties

1. blog.com – 6
2. logeasy.com – 4
3. blogger.com – 8
4. bloghi.com – 4
5. bloghorn.com – 5
6. blogigo.com – 4
7. blogskinny.com – 5
8. blogsome.com – 7
9. blogstream.com – 4
10. blogstudio.com – 4
11. blogwebsites.net – 4
12. blurty.com – 5
13. diaryland.com – 6
14. easyjournal.com – 4
15. journalhub.com – 4
16. livejournal.com – 8
17. mynewblog.com – 4
18. opendiary.com – 6
19. squidoo.com – 8
20. sosblog.com – 5
21. squarespace.com – 7
22. yola.com – 7
23. tabulas.com – 5
24. tblog.com – 6
25. terapad.com – 5
26. thoughts.com – 6
27. tumblr.com – 8
28. evri.com – 7
29. viviti.com – 7
30. bukisa.com – 5
31. Blinkweb.com – 5
32. bravenet.com – 8
33. webs.com – 8
34. weebly.com – 8
35. wetpaint.com – 7
36. wikyblog.com – 5
37. wordpress.com – 9
38. zimbio.com – 6
39. qondio.com – 6
40. Xanga.com – 7
41. Flixya.com – 5
42. knol.google.com – 7
43. WikiSpaces.com – 7
44. tripod.lycos.com – 7
45. Posterous.com – 7
46. Infobarrel.com – 4
47. Tagworld.com – 5
48. Forumer.com – 6
49. scribd.com – 8
50. slideshare.net – 8

As you can see there are a bunch of sites that you can submit articles on. What I recommend is that you create between 2-5 links per day because any more than that and your website could receive a negative effect. Just remember that a constant stream of incoming links is what Google wants to see, that is why you should never create 50 new web 2.0 property links in a single day.

Trust me on this one, I tried it and my site tanked in less than a week.

Tips On Creating Web 2.0 Property Links

Write A Quality Article

If you think that writing a 300 word article for a web 2.0 property is going to help you, then think again. You need to write a high quality article that is at least over 600 words in length. If you can write a high quality article then the link will be worth much more. Just know that 1 article is all you have to write in order to get content on all of these web 2.0 properties.

Spin Original Article

The reason why you only need to write 1 article is because once you have done that, you need to spin it. The reason I recommend spinning an article is because it recycles a great article and saves you time. What I suggest is that you sentence spin and word-spin the article so that it doesn’t look anything like the original. Also, never post the original article on your website because Google could catch on to this and keep your site in the Sandbox.

Example of spinning: {I spent 5 hours {creating|building} links {yesterday|the other day} and now {I’m|I am} {exhausted|tired}|I am tired because I {wasted|spend} more than {four|4} hours on link {creation|building}|The reason {I’m|I am} so {exhausted|tired} is because I {had to create|was creating} backlinks to my {site|website} and it {lasted|took me} {roughly|about} {five|5} hours}

Do you see how sentence spinning and word spinning will make the article look and sound different, while still conveying the same message?

Use Different Anchor Text

One of the biggest things you can do to increase your search engine rankings is to simply link to your site using different anchor text. What many people do is they stick to the same keyword but the problem with doing this all the time is it doesn’t look natural to Google and therefore it will start to hinder your site. My advice is to always have 4 keywords that you are targeting therefore everyone of them will have 25% of the new links, this will look much more natural for your site.

Deep Linking Helps

If you are not sure about what page to link to then I recommend deep linking as much as you can. By this I mean you should not always link to your homepage, you should create links to some posts and pages within your site as well. If you point half of the links to inner pages and the other half to the homepage then you should have no problem increasing your search engine positioning quickly.

The last thing that I want to make sure you understand is that the more high quality links you have, the better your rankings will be over time. Trust me, you don’t have to build 1000’s of links, 50 high pr web 2.0 properties will be more powerful than that and that is why I recommend using them.

About The Author:

Adam Snyder Runs DormRoomCash.com where he teaches people many different ways to earn money online. If you want to know more about what he does then make sure you check out his website of Like DormRoomCash on Facebook.

Photo by Phil Roeder

This is part of my guide: How To Rank #1 In Google

Created by Brafton

This is part of my guide: How To Rank #1 In Google

Created by SEO for SalesForce

I want to answer all of your SEO questions.  Just leave a comment below with your question and I’ll get back to you within 24 hours!

(And if you find this helpful, would you mind ReTweeting this on Twitter?)

What’s The Catch?

There is no catch.

No strings attached.

No orangutans to wrestle.

Common PageRank questions

Does PageRank matter anymore?
Not really. Worrying about PageRank is a waste of time.

Should I be concerned if my site’s PageRank changes?
No. You have very little immediate control of your site’s PageRank and frankly, worrying about PageRank is a waste of time. There are tons of sites with PageRank 0 ranking high in Google.

How often does google update my site’s PageRank?
I have no idea and I don’t pay any attention to it. Seriously, stop worrying about PageRank.

Common link building questions

I recommend Fast Attack Backlink Building Tutorial because you will learn a ton of simple creative ways to build free one-way DoFollow backlinks to your site.

Are link exchanges beneficial?
Reciprocal link exchanges (I linked to you and you link to me) are marginally beneficial. One-way links or having a link ring is far better.

Should I do 3 or 4 way link exchange?
Sure, give it a try. Google is constantly getting better at detecting stuff like this but a lot of sites still do it successfully.  If you are paying for a service make sure you can verify that your backlinks will be built and that their sites actually rank.

What are DoFollow & NoFollow, and why do I care about them?
I have a good explanation of this here.

Where can I find a list of DoFollow blogs?
I have put together a huge list here.

Do article submissions really bring traffic or are they just a means for getting a dofollow backlink?
I usually use them to build DoFollow backlinks.  Other people write high-quality articles with awesome resource boxes to get maximum clicks.  The success of these strategies may depend on your niche.

Do .gov & .edu backlinks help and how do I find them?
Yes, they can help. Check out this video to learn how to find them.

What link building methods from the past, still work today for ranking?
Getting back links from blogs and creating awesome content that people want to link to.  I recommend checking out my Back Link Bible.

Do backlinks from whois lookup and value my site sites help improve my site’s rank?
I haven’t tried it myself but I don’t imagine it will help very much.

Is better to leave comments on a few quality sites rather than many sites(quantity)?
I think it’s important to leave comments on websites that are going to be re-crawled by Google in the near future. And judging if the site will be re-crawled by Google can be difficult. But I recommend commenting on as many of these sites as you can.

Common on-page optimization questions

Should my title be split with commas?
I don’t see any point in having your titles split with commas or any other delimiters. I recommend just putting your keywords in your title tag.

Common ranking questions

I recommend Fast Attack SEO Tutorial because because it will show you all of the ins and outs of ranking high in Google.

How can I get my site to rank higher in Google?
I have a lengthy post that covers this here.

How can I get targeted traffic to my site from Google?
Excellent question! You need to figure out exactly what you’re selling, target the 1%, do some keyword research, and read my awesome tutorial on raging high in Google.

Do meta-tags matter?
Yes, but not in the way you think.

My site has achieved a high ranking in Google, it gets lots of traffic, but nobody buys anything. What should I do?
Sounds like you built a site, did a lot of work to get traffic to it, but you didn’t understand exactly what you’re selling. I recommend going back to square one and figure out exactly what you are selling.

Is the sandbox real and how do I avoid it?
It’s not real (at least anymore) but there’s no guarantee your site will rank for the keywords you want.  I have a lengthy post that covers this here.

What’s the best SEO trick that I can use daily to maintain all keywords in the top?
There is no magic trick that will work every time and there’s no technique that guarantees results for every niche. You have to go through the same thing that everyone else does.  You need to figure out exactly what you’re selling, target the 1%, do some keyword research, and read my awesome tutorial on raging high in Google.

Common keyword research questions

Do I need my keywords in my domain name?
If you want your site ranked high in Google then it will be a lot easier (or less hard) if your keywords are in your domain. It’s certainly not a requirement but I do recommend it.

How to anticipate which keywords others will use to search for my product? Sometimes we might have a favorite “keyword” and we think that’s how the world searches for our product, when, in reality, some people type in something totally different.
Awesome question. The only way to really do this is to actually talk to your target audience and ask them.

Other common questions

How does Google’s Panda algorithm work?
I don’t know precisely how it works but I found a brief explanation on Wikipedia:

Google’s new Panda machine-learning algorithm…look[s] for similarities between websites people found to be high quality and low quality.

Basically, if Google thinks your site is low quality then it will rank you much lower or not at all. The solution is to create a high-quality site and not get punished by Google.

What do you think of the new Google Authorship, will it catch out the dodgy websites out there?
I think it’s an ongoing game of cat and mouse. Google will keep improving its ability to detect dodgy websites, and dodgy websites will continue to improve their ability to fly below Google’s radar.

Where do you see the SEO industry as a whole going in 5 years from now?
Yogi Berra said:

It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.

Five years from now I predict that Google will still be around. Beyond that I can’t say anything with any confidence.

Do you really think that automated traffic generators really work? Are there any negatives in using it? Is it as effective as they say it is?
You really need to read the 1% rule and my post about how to get traffic that actually buys your product. I despise automated traffic generators because they send you traffic that does NOT convert.

Would you recommend seo moz tools over other free one out there? What tools do you use?
I currently use the Google keyword tool and I am experimenting with several others. I will keep you posted when I find new awesome tools.

A lot of people want to know if meta tags still matter.

And they do still matter, but not in the way you might think.  Google ignores them when deciding how to rank your site for a keyword.

But there is another way that meta tag description can help you rank higher and get traffic.

I explain in this quick video

Links from the video

• Fast Attack SEO Guide