Building Backlinks and Link Building - Creating High Quality Keyword Backlinks

Building backlinks or backlink building is tedious, so you want to make sure you maximize it benefits by understanding how backlinks works and how to create unique keyword page rank backlinks. This article explains what are backlinks, how they work, types of backlinks, when you should start link building and how to create anchor text keyword backlinks that will actually help your site and pages rank high for your chosen keywords.

Backlinks Definition

Backlink definition or link building is a general term used to describe the different strategies to implement or implemented to increase the incoming links to a site.

Backlinks is also known as inbound links and incoming links.

Backlinking to your site has three strong benefits :

Backlinks on different sites to yours helps the search engine find and index your pages quicker.

You benefit from click through on the link placed on those sites to yours (traffic).

And you rank higher in the search engines for your chosen keywords which would bring you high regular traffic.

For easy understanding, a link to a site or page serves as a vote to that site or that particular page. The more votes a site or page gets, the more value the search engines places on that site. And the higher the chance of the site ranking higher for it chosen keywords at search engines search results.

Building Backlinks

How it works

There is what is called Search engine Optimization and it is a term that sums up all the factors the search engines uses to judge and rank a site in search results for their chosen keywords. Search engine optimization is broken into to major categories, on page or on site optimization and off page or off site optimization. See blog optimization and how to write a blog for a better understanding of on page and off page optimization.

Link building is a big part of off page optimization. And one of the major factors the search engines uses to rank a site.

Does this mean that all backlinks count?

Some people would say "a link is a link". But in reality a backlink is not a backlink. When building backlinks focus on high quality backlinks preferably focus on building 80/20 links. Backlinks that require 20 percent of work to give 80 percent result. I've already discussed how to get and build such backlinks in other articles. Links to those articles are below.

When a related site finds your site, or a particular article useful to his readers, he links to it using HTML code so that people can click through to your site and read your page. This is referred to as backlinks, inbound or incoming links to you.

Same thing applies to you. You could find an article or site that interests you and relates well with your theme and link to it. When you do that it is referred to as out-bound links.

Your in-bound links should naturally be more than your out-bound links.

You would build backlinks and naturally get backlinks too as long as you write quality content.

What does Building High Quality Backlinks Mean?

In other words what are good backlinks?

Good links are keyword backlinks from authority related sites. Authority related sites are sites that provide related content to yours and have good credibility for the niche they cover. If you have a site where you discuss Blogging for example, it wouldn't help your page if you get backlink from a site discussing Fashion. But backlinks from sites on Online Business, Internet marketing, Blogging tips and so on would help your page greatly.

When creating backlinks related goes with related whether internal linking or external linking. A page links to another page that helps the reader get more information on the page he or she is reading. Use this as a guide when building backlinks and you'll help your readers just like the search engines will help your pages.

You'll learn below how to create keyword anchor text backlinks. But keep in mind that backlinking from low quality sites can harm your site. But more harmful is linking from your site to low quality site because you can't actually control who links to your site but you can control who you link to.

Types of Backlinks

For building backlinks there are different type and they are explained below.

One-way links: These are links from one or more pages of another website to yours without you linking back to that website.

Reciprocal links: Also referred to as link swapping, reciprocal link as the name sounds is a two way linking. You link to me, I link back to you.

Three - Way links: This is where I link to a site and instead of the owner of the site to link back to my site from that site that I linked to, he links to me from another of his site. This creates a one way link since the sites are not linking to each other.

The best links are one-way links where a webmaster links to you without you linking back.

Reciprocal links are also valuable when they are done between authority sites with related content.

But no matter how it's done, one-way links gotten from an authority related site holds more weight with the search engines.

When and How to Start Building Backlinks to your Site and Pages

Before you start backlink building to your site and pages make sure you have some valuable content. Say 20 pages or more. I didn't start building backlinks for this website until I had 33 pages.

This is essential because nobody will take you seriously and link to your site when you have just one page up.

When you have 20 or more pages and you are ready to start your link building, then the first thing to do is create a plan.

A plan? What for?

First, if you choose to use a particular strategy for backlinking you should know why you are using that strategy. What you hope to achieve. Are you using it to just create links to your site? Or do you hope to increase your incoming links with it and also your traffic?

There are different ways of creating links to your site. Some of them involve just 20 percent effort to get 80 result. Why others is the other way round. You need to know where to start from to jump start your incoming links.

When building backlinks diversifying is very important. Do not just concentrate on a particular strategy of building links. If you do, you risk losing all your links should something happen to that one method you've used. So at the end you will get links from almost all the link building methods available. But when starting I believe it's best to do the ones that require 20 percent effort to get 80 percent benefit.

It's advisable that you create a link building checklist for yourself. And tick as you progress.

Say you find a site you like or you want to place a link on another site, how do you create that link?

How to Create Search Engine Friendly Backlinks

It's not enough to just add the URL of your site (http://www.yoursitename.com) or page (http://www.yoursitename.com/your-page-name) to the site. Linking to your site from another site or linking to someone's site like this would only benefit the domain not the overall site.

And you should know that ranking your domain is not your focus. Your domain usually takes care of itself as you build backlinks to your pages.

The method above doesn't tell those you want to click on the link anything about the site neither does it tell the search engines. And if the search engines and readers are not given specific information about that link, none of them will follow it (search engine follows it but wouldn't know what the site is about). This way you won't be maximizing the search engine benefits for incoming links.

This is why some people put in so much work in building backlinks to their site but get no real benefits.

Now to make both important parties follow that link, it has to be informative. A text link. A text with a link underneath known as hyper-links or anchor text. This is achieved using HTML code.

If you are linking to a site, use a text related to the site's topic or article topic to create the link so that it briefly tells readers what to expect at the link underneath the text.

If you are creating a link to your site same thing applies. If you are linking to your home page, the link text should read the home page's keyword. It could include other words, but it MUST contain the home page's keyword. If you're linking to a particular article on your site (deep linking), the text link should read the specific keyword for that article.

HTML Code to Create Hyper-link or Anchor text Backlinks

Let's assume one of my page's keyword is "how to start a blog" (which is true anyway). To create keyword backlinks to that page, I would use the HTML code below.

<a href="http://www.blogging-the-beginners-complete-guide.com/how-to-start-a-blog.html">how to start a blog</a> (opens in same browser or window)

The above code can be used to create a link to other pages within your site and also to other sites. But when you use the code above to link out of your site, it opens the website on the same browser, removing your site from the background which is not advisable. Have all your extended links open in different browsers or windows.

Here's the HTML code to open a link in a different window or browser.

<a href="http://www.blogging-the-beginners-complete-guide.com/how-to-start-a-blog.html"target="_blank">how to start a blog</a> (opens in a different browser or window)

Now here's how the link will look on a web page :

how to start a blog

What is Deep Linking and What is it relevance?

Deep linking is a word that goes with link building. Deep linking as the name sounds is linking to specific pages on your site that focuses on the specific keyword of that page.

A good example of deep linking would have been the example of the link I created above if it was placed on another site linking to mine. Why? Because the link is an actual page on this website and that is the keyword for that page. Using it on my site like that is not deep linking, rather it's called inter-linking.

What is the Benefit of Deep linking?

Linking directly to a specific page on your site increases the ranking for that page and also that of your overall site.

Linking to specific pages is actually easy and it can even be automated.

You can either do a guest post (submit your article to be published on another site) and link to a specific page from the author's resource.

Or find a blog related to that page you want to link to. Then make a relevant comment and add that page's link in the website address column of the comment form. And the keyword in the name column of the form. That displays it as an anchor text or hyper-link when published.

Automate Deep linking with Social bookmarking icon

Use a social bookmarking icon on your blog such as addthis then write content with value that people would want to re-tweet.

Every time someone re-tweets your post, it carries the post title (which should contain your keyword) and it URL. This is a good example of 20 percent effort that generates 80 percent result. You only have to write a strong content and you have others deep linking to your pages without even knowing it. This is a method of building backlinks you can start right away.

Another way to create deep links automatically, is to use a twitter plugin (can use twitter tools) that automatically updates your twitter page every time you make a post (you must have a twitter account).

Tips for Building Backlinks

• When getting backlinks from another site make sure that site doesn't add a no-follow tag (Websites that use a rel="nofollow" tag for their out-going links) to it out-going links. If not you build backlinks without search engine benefits.
• You have to balance your backlink building efforts with content generation, credibility building and traffic generation. What I am implying here is that you shouldn't ignore some ways to build credibility and traffic just because they don't have SEO benefits.
• Use related forums and answer some Yahoo questions related to your niche to build credibility in your niche and generate traffic.
• When building backlinks don't get carried away by acquiring quantity instead of quality. Aim for quality sites. Do not fall for link farms, they will only harm your site.
• Never stick to one method of building backlinks. Diversity is the guiding word. Get little of every linking method. It's better to have 50 quality links from different places built over time than to have 500 links all from directory submission done yesterday.
• There is no exact amount of links that is enough for a site. Naturally if you have a competitive niche your link building efforts will be more than someone in a narrow niche. There is nothing like too much links. As long as they are quality links. The more the better.

Backlink building is a continuous process. It is not something you can just do once and forget it. So do not spend too much time on it trying to do everything one day. As time goes on when you have built credibility through the value your posts or articles offer, you won't have to do much or anything to get links. People will willingly link to you without you asking them to.

But for now since you are still new, you need to build backlinks consistently and persistently.

Everything I know now about link building, I got from the book Make Your Links Works by Ken Evoy. The book focuses your link popularity efforts on the time-efficient side of Pareto's "80-20 Law. And it presents the vital bigger picture required for building targeted traffic (now and for years to come) and for building long-term online profits. It's all the book you need on building links. Luckily it is free to download.

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RSS Directories : How to Increase or Get More Backlinks Submiting Wordpress Default Feed to Directories

Building Backlinks with Social Bookmarking : Get lots of Juicy Backlinks

Guest Posting : Get One way Backlinks Fast from Authority sites

Directory Backlinks : Web Directories Submission Still a Good Way to get Started on Backlink Building

Instant Backlinks : Get 25 Free Unique Quality Backlinks Daily with Just a Click of the Button with SocialMonkee Backlink builder

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