In simple terms, back links are incoming links to a website or page. This means that some other website has a hyperlink on one of its pages which is “pointing” to your website. When it comes to search engine optimisation, the more back links you have pointing directly to your website the better, especially if the website which they’re originating from is particularly relevant to your field or area of expertise.
As the primary goal of almost every website or online business is to increase its traffic, i.e. individuals intentionally going to the website, it just makes sense that in order for this to happen you have to find a means of making the website very visible. Generally speaking, to make your website visible, people must be able to find it when they search for keywords directly related to your product, niche, service or whatever else your website represents. People are generally looking for such information via the major search engines, and the operators of those engines have somewhat complex algorithms to help them determine whether a given website is relevant to the searchers query, or not.
Although they will not divulge exactly how they go about composing these algorithms, the search engine operators do assure us that relevancy, as viewed by others, is most important. If it’s readily apparent that you have a large number of back links from other websites - of page rank 1 to 10, which have some degree of relevancy to yours, this is definitely a plus. In addition, if the site linking to you has a fairly high “page rank”, this helps as well. Page rank is Google’s proprietary means of assigning a number (zero being rock bottom and moving all the way up to ten) which indicates how important a website is inside its particular field.
There are a number of ways to achieve back links for your site.
ARTICLE MARKETING.
As Bill Gates once said, “content is king”. Article marketing is known as one of the most solid Internet marketing methods. By writing highly relevant and informative articles and submitting them to high profile article directories you do several things, not the least important of which is to help establish you or your site as an expert in your niche. Within your article, published in the article directory, is a resource box which contains your details - who you are and what you do, and a link back to your site, the all important Back Link.
SOCIAL BOOKMARKING.
There are many hundreds of social bookmarking sites, and their primary motive is basically to provide a way of informing people about the existence of content related to any niche or interest in a very manageable format. You can sign up and initiate a process of notifying social bookmarking sites about fresh content, including back links in many cases. It should be noted at this point that some website webmasters initiate a “no follow” tag which can negate the impact of a back link, as the no follow tag tells the search engine spider not to give you points, or link love.
SOCIAL MEDIA - TWITTER.
Whilst Twitter and other similar sites are becoming increasingly more powerful in marketing terms, you should know that to include links within your “tweets” or in your URL profile box is not a powerful back linking strategy, as these are all allocated the dreaded no follow tag. However, you may find that it is possible to link within a bio box and get some link love this way. Also, if you syndicate, your Twitter feeds are updated via the RSS aggregators, earning you back links.
BLOG COMMENTING.
Firstly, you will need to find blogs or forums that are relevant to your niche. This is not difficult to do as a simple and relevant search will find hosts. Once you find these blogs you can sign up and create a profile. Often you will be allowed to create what is called a “signature”, and within that signature you incorporate your links. Note, you should check to see if there are any no follow tags, as these will appear occasionally.
Enter into the spirit of the place by interacting with other members and making entries and posting comments that are relevant, useful and educational. In addition to a back link appearing every time one of your comments is posted, you will also build a valuable relationship with members - and this can lead to all kinds of new opportunities.
Back link building remains one of the most important SEO strategies to adopt for virtually any website development.
Michelle Dale is The Managing Director of Virtual Miss Friday, a cutting edge Executive Virtual Assistant Service which assists organisations and enterprising individuals with every detail of their entrepreneurial aspirations. Do you want to peruse some further information on these incredible online business building success strategies? Contact VMF Now!
