BUILDING BACKLINKS FOR SEO:
There are numerous ways to promote your blog and build authority for your site. Probably the best way.. the most popular way and most widely known way is by building backlinks for SEO and working to develop a good backlink profile.
* This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure for more info.
Backlinks serve as a signal to Google that your site just might have something to offer.
When there are numerous other sites who are linking to your site.. this indicates to Google that your site must be a worthwhile source of valuable information.
A good backlink profile is crucial to your website’s success. A toxic backlink profile on the other hand has the potential to destroy your site in short order.
BUILDING YOUR FIRST BACKLINKS FOR SEO…
THE FIRST BACKLINKS YOU SHOULD CREATE:
The very first and most obvious thing you should do as soon as you have registered your domain name is to create your social profiles.
The most important ones are of course.. Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter. You may want to add others as well. Not that you need to be actively using all of them, but at some point, you may decide you would like to use other platforms as well.
The obvious reason to sign up ASAP is to try to register your domain name to use on these platforms. It is nice to have everything coordinated and makes it so much easier for people to find you on each of the platforms.
These will become your first backlinks for SEO. You want to be sure all of your social media profiles have been indexed before you start any sort of serious backlinking campaign.
WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO BUILD BACKLINKS FOR SEO?
The absolute best way to build backlinks for SEO is to create high quality content that others will find link-worthy.
For instance.. if you were to link to another site from one of your articles.. that webmaster may visit your site to read your article and see what you had to say about them.
If they find your article to be well written and informative.. they may choose to link to the article on your site.
When site A links to site B and site B links back to site A.. these type of reciprocal links are normally not given much validity. Nevertheless, it is still a link.. even though the two links somewhat tend to cancel each other out.
However.. there is always a very good chance that those who are visiting the other blogger’s site will find the link to your site.
Maybe they click over to your site purely out of curiosity.. but once they read your article they discover it is a well-written and informative article.
The best case scenario is that this blogger feels his/her readers could also benefit from the information in your article.
This blogger then decides to link to your article.. and voila.. you just got another link. Yay!
It is nice when things work as they should and you are able to acquire links to your blog posts organically.?
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SHOULD I BUY ONE OF THOSE BACKLINK PACKAGES?
There are right ways and wrong ways to get backlinks to your site. New bloggers often times see ads offering 1,000 or more backlinks for an unbelievable price.
They think that sounds like a great deal.. so not knowing any better they sign up and purchase one of these offers.
The links from offers like this are from low quality spam sites in China and Russia. Instead of improving their backlink profile.. these naive and inexperienced bloggers may have just set themselves up for a major setback.
Buying backlinks for your site is a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. This will many times result in a Google penalty depending on the particular scenario and how Google interprets it.
If you are in an extremely competitive niche.. many times competitors will purchase a toxic link package in the hopes it will lower your rankings in the SERPs, thus benefitting them. Google is well aware of these underhanded tactics.
If the site being targeted is a successful site Google takes this into consideration. They realize that no one with a highly successful site is going to jeopardize their success by purchasing some low-quality backlink package. In this case, Google pretty much ignores the toxic links.
On the other hand.. if yours is a new site it is quite obvious no competitors would have any reason to target you at this point in time.
In these cases, Google assumes you must be one of those naive bloggers who purchased one of the low-priced spam link packages in a desperate attempt to game the system and get your blog moved up in the SERPs more quickly. This can definitely have a negative effect on your website.
IS BUYING BACKLINKS REALLY THAT DANGEROUS?
WHAT IS THE WORST THAT CAN HAPPEN?
If you purchase one of these link packages from some unethical huckster.. your blog that you have been working so hard on could be removed from the Google index and you will be starting over from square one.
Trying to recover from a Google ban is not only extremely difficult.. it is also time consuming.
You can hire someone to help you with it.. but you could be looking at somewhere close to $2000 or more.. depending on how many toxic links you have pointing to your site.
And, IF you are able to get all of the toxic links removed.. you will still need to appeal to Google to reinstate your site into their index.
Most people find it easier to simply register another domain name.. move their site to the new domain and start over. They consider it a lesson learned and move forward.
IS IT OK TO PURCHASE HIGH-QUALITY BACKLINKS?
This can be a problem as well. Unfortunately, if you gain too many top-tier backlinks in too short a time.. Google will assume you must be buying these links.
Although it is normal to gain quality backlinks from high-authority sites.. these links are acquired over time. Too many high authority links acquired over a short period of time will raise a red flag.
When you are trying to gain backlinks for SEO.. keep in mind these links need to be obtained honestly and ethically.
Any kind of link scheme to try to game the system will not improve your backlink profile. This will only serve to put you on Google’s s**t list.
The Google bots have become very sophisticated over the years. They know exactly what is going on in the online space.
Google is very aware of the private blog networks (PBN’s) and various other schemes that claim their amazing link-building methods will boost your site in the rankings.
Proceed with caution!
BACKLINKS FOR SEO DONE THE RIGHT WAY:
One of the most popular ways to get relevant backlinks pointing to your site is through blogger outreach.
This is done by finding other blogs and websites in your niche or in a compatible niche and reaching out to contact the blogger with an offer to write an article or guest post for their site.
The other blogger is happy to have the additional content for their site.. and in return, you are normally allowed one link back to your site either from within the article.. or from an author bio at the end of your article.
This works best, of course, if the site you are submitting to is in the same niche or similar as your site.
A link from a WWE wrestling site for instance.. would not make much sense if your blog is in the spirituality niche. I think you get the idea.
When contacting a blogger to ask whether they might have an interest in accepting a guest post.. do not mention anything about receiving a link.
The best approach is to appear completely unselfish.. giving the impression that providing top quality content for their blog is your primary concern.
You can always discuss the matter of placing a link later. In many cases, the link may be a no-follow link as many webmasters are not prepared to pass their website authority to a site with less authority.
Nevertheless, no-follow links are important as well in the overall scheme of things. If you were to have nothing but do-follow links.. this does NOT present a well-rounded link profile. In a well-rounded link profile, you need to have variety.
Some bloggers will be happy to have you write a guest post. Others hire people to write content for them and/or may not be interested in accepting a guest post from another blogger in the same or similar niche. Don’t take it personally if they decline!
NOTE: When you do land a guest posting opportunity:
1) Never create a guest post based on a keyword YOU are trying to rank for.
2) Always create links to the guest posts from your social media accounts.
Since there are more backlinking techniques than we can possibly explain in detail in one blog post.. I will refer you to the #1 best book on the subject for your further research:
Debbie Gartner has written an excellent book:
Easy Backlinks for SEO
176 Pages chocked full of valuable information
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
NOTE: Before I recommend any books and/or courses
I always purchase them myself. I want to be sure the information is accurate, useful and most importantly
that the product is worth the price being charged.
Get Debbie’s Easy Backlinks Book
To learn more about guest posting.. read our post:
* Guest Posting for SEO
DOES BLOG COMMENTING STILL WORK TO GET BACKLINKS?
Blog commenting used to be a viable way to gain a link to your website. Unfortunately, people began to abuse it.. leaving pointless comments simply for the sake of a backlink.
As a result.. blog commenting is no longer as relevant as it once was.. albeit not totally useless either.
If you find a blog in your niche, or in a similar niche, and you have enjoyed one of the articles and want to leave a genuine comment this can be beneficial in other ways.
Engaging with others can lead to relationships with other bloggers, which is a good thing. This is why it is important to leave a thoughtful and genuine comment.
Your comments should be somewhat brief and to the point. However, avoid leaving comments that are totally useless like “I really liked this post”.
Your comment should be relevant to the blog post you are commenting on. Mention some aspects of the post that you found interesting and informative.
Hopefully, the person who owns the blog.. as well as others who are reading the post will like your honest and respectful comment.
If you have entered your name and website information.. these people may visit your site and as a result, you begin getting more comments on the posts on your site.
As a blogger.. comments on your blog posts can help improve your rankings. Also.. these types of relationships can also lead to finding some good blogs where you might be able to do some guest posting.
NOTE: Any commenting done for backlinking purposes should be done ONLY on sites that are compatible with your niche.. and that have a decent DA.. preferably in the 40’s or higher.. or at the very least 10 points higher than your own.
HOW IMPORTANT ARE BACKLINKS TO YOUR SITE?
SEO basically consists of two parts.. On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO. Each of the elements is an equally important part of your SEO strategy.
As you are writing the first posts for your blog.. you are, of course, concerned with trying to optimize each post to the best of your ability using On-Page SEO optimization techniques.
If you are not familiar with On-Page SEO methods.. Debbie Gartner has written an excellent book on that subject as well.
The book is 139 pages of valuable information
as to writing SEO optimized posts
that will rank in the Search Engines.
Easy On Page SEO
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NOTE: Before I recommend any books and/or courses
I always purchase them myself. I want to be sure the information is accurate, useful and most importantly
that the product is worth the price being charged.
As important as On-Page SEO is.. Off-Page SEO may actually play an even bigger part in increasing the overall authority of your website.
Prior to starting your backlinking efforts however.. be sure you have plenty of unique and engaging content on your site that is worthy of receiving a backlink.
Go back and re-read the posts you have written so far. Make sure they are the absolute best quality you are capable of producing.
If you are not the greatest when it comes to grammar, spelling and punctuation.. check out Grammarly. This is a free extension available for immediate download.
Visitors to your website will consider whether or not they trust your content based on a perceived level of competence.
Also.. as you begin contacting other bloggers requesting the possibility of a guest posting opportunity.. many will want to visit your blog to get an idea of your writing abilities. Grammarly will help you correct any glaring grammar, spelling and punctuation errors.
About the Author: Sherry Bennett
Ms. Bennett is a Professional Blogger, who has been earning a living online with niche websites for 25+ years.
Through hard work and dedication, she has turned her passion for blogging into a 7-figure business.. and you can do the same.
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