10 No-Nonsense Ways to Build Backlinks

Posted: June 07, 2012

Wikipedia defines backlinks as incoming links to a website or web page. In basic link terminology, a backlink is any link received by a Web node (Web page, directory, website, or top level domain) from another Web node. They're also known as incoming links, inbound links, inlinks, and inward links. Whatever you call them, backlinks can be a great way to increase traffic to your site or blog.

Many bloggers are very much averse to participating or learning anything about SEO, and truth be told, I think that’s a real shame.

Maybe my time with my SEO agency has made me biased, but I personally think most bloggers are missing out on a huge potential source of traffic by just plain ignoring how search engines work and what practices are most effective.

The truth is, SEO for blogs doesn’t have to be overly complicated or require “black magic” in order to work.

My “World’s Simplest SEO Formula for Great Rankings” is:

Craft amazing content that’s built for readers, not search engines.
Get great links to that content.

Okay, so SEO can obviously be a lot more complex than that, but if you’re a blogger just looking for the essentials, that two-step process is actually relevant.

The problem most bloggers run into is this: how do we actually get those “great links” to our content?

Today I’d like to break down a “no-nonsense” guide to attracting (and outright earning) some powerful links. We’ll skip stuff like forum profiles and social media bookmarking. The links we’re going after are going to be powerful and actually send us traffic. Let’s get started.

1. Check your competitors’ backlinks

If there is one great way to find good backlink ideas, it’s to check out what your competition is doing.

While “old faithful” (Yahoo! site explorer) is now a part of Bing’s webmaster tools, there are still a few great options around.

My current favorite is the Open Site Explorer, an excellent backlink tool created by the knowledgable folks over at SEOmoz.

With the free version, you can check where links are coming from (that is, domains and pages). While the premium offering gives you far more insight, you can generally get a good idea with just the free version.

Did your competitor get linked to from a publication/blog that covers your niche? Email the author personally and let them know about a piece of content that you created (or about your site in general) and offer to give them a story to help them out.

That part is essential. Emailing people with direct requests or not-so-subtle begging to “please link to me!” is not going to work.

Fixing a problem that they have (for journalists, this is generating new stories, for bloggers, new guest posts could fit the bill) is the key to getting a link.

You may also find other communities that have linked to your competitors: relevant sites, resource pages, etc. If your competitor can get a link there, so can you.

2. Create a site for readers, not Google

This may seem counter-productive, but hear me out.

As time goes on, search engines (notably Google) are beginning to become more and more in tune with following people, rather than with following links.

I’m not going to sit here and tell you that links won’t matter in a few years (they will, for a long time), but I am telling you that the more you focus on creating a site filled with content that’s meant to be enjoyed by real people, the better your site will do in search results.

With Google recently making moves to punish “over-optimized” sites, you have to recognize that fact that a site built just to rank runs the risk of being penalized and losing all of its traffic.

Conversely, a site that has built an audience can withstand any rank drops because a thriving following does not depend on search traffic. Also, a site that is built with useful content and reader enjoyment in mind is going to garner natural links much more easily than a “built for search” site. Content for people generates discussion, and where discussion comes, links will follow.

Read the entire article 10 No-Nonsense Ways to Build Backlinks.