How to Get Backlinks to Your Website (And Increase Your Google Rankings)

pWhilst SEO is a topic as vast as Asia, it is commonly agreed that backlinks play a major role in how well your website ranks in the search engines. The more links you have pointing to your website, from other websites on the internet, the better you will rank in Google and the other search engines. But what are the best kinds of backlinks and how do you actually get these beloved links?/p
pIn the early days of search engine optimization (SEO), getting links was a ldquo;free for allrdquo; scenario ndash; you could get links from pretty much any site, any way possible, and you were sure to enjoy some sort of SEO success. This lead to the creation of ldquo;gatewayrdquo; pages and all sorts of other dirty tactics that optimizers used to underhandedly get their websites to the top of the search engine rankings. Of course, as time went by, the search engines caught on to these tactics and, as a result, refined their requirements regarding backlinks. It is now widely agreed that the most effective backlinks need to:/p
ul
liCome from websites that have some authority (i.e., have been around for a while, have decent traffic and are not clear cut spam sites), and/li
liCome from websites that are relevant to your niche (i.e., donrsquo;t get a link from a plumbing site to a gaming website, as this would be seen as irrelevant)/li
/ul
pOf course, some will still argue that ldquo;a linkrsquo;s a linkrdquo; and essentially raise the ldquo;quality vs. quantityrdquo; debate, but for the purposes of SEO, I would recommend working smart rather than hard./p
pSo, now that the rules are laid out, how do you get such links? Well, itrsquo;s actually fairly easy, provided that you have a bit of time and are prepared to commit to an ongoing link building process.nbsp; Here are some easy link building tactics that you can implement today:/p
pstrongGet Active in Your Community/strong/p
pIrsquo;m not talking about joining the local country club here (although that would be fun…), but rather about joining forums that are relevant to your niche. You want to find a forum (or forums) that is active and well ranked, and place your link in your ldquo;signaturerdquo; section. This way, whenever you contribute to the forum (i.e. say something), yoursquo;ll be building backlinks. Itrsquo;s important that you contribute to these forums with your knowledge and not just abuse them for links. Yoursquo;ll get banned quicker than you can say ldquo;backlinkrdquo; if you do this. ldquo;Contributerdquo; is the keyword here./p
pstrongSuss Out Your Competition/strong/p
pWrite down the website addresses of the top five results for your desired keyword. Then, using Google, type in ldquo;link:websiterdquo; (replace website with the actual website address). This will show you where each site is getting their links from (well, most of them in any case) and hopefully spark some ideas for your site./p
pstrongGet Writing…/strong/p
pArticle syndication is one of the most popular methods used to build links. You simply write a short article (400 ndash; 600 words) and publish it on as many article directories as possible. Each directory will allow you to place your link in the ldquo;resource boxrdquo;, thus growing your number of backlinks. You might be wondering ldquo;But what do I write about?rdquo;. The answer is simple ndash; write about your area of expertise. So if yoursquo;re a handyman, write about some basic DIY tasks that people can carry out. Write how-torsquo;s, 101rsquo;s and the like ndash; Just give it some thought, itrsquo;s well worth it… If you donrsquo;t have the time to put pen to paper, outsource the task to a professional writer. This will ensure a constant growth of backlinks to your website./p
pstrongSubmit To Directories/strong/p
pWherever there is an industry, yoursquo;ll find directories, especially on the internet. Do a search for your keyword and the word ldquo;directoryrdquo;. Register on as many of them as possible ndash; itrsquo;s a free link every time, and you might even gain the benefit of organic traffic (i.e. real people) finding you on these directories (thatrsquo;s what theyrsquo;re there for, after all)./p
pstrongGet Blogging/strong/p
pMy final tip is to get blogging, or at least commenting on other peoplersquo;s blogs. Look for blogs that are relevant to your keywords or topic and post constructive comments on them. Each comment will earn you a free link, plus potential direct traffic if the blog is popular and well followed. A word of warning though ndash; make sure that the blogs donrsquo;t use ldquo;nofollowrdquo; tags, as this will render your link null and void in the eyes of the search engines./p
pOf course, there are an endless number of link building tips and tactics out there, but these are just some of the simpler and more actionable tactics that I can recommend. The key to link building is consistency ndash; itrsquo;s no use building a hundred links this month and none next month ndash; rather commit to a consistent approach./p
pProvided that you have chosen the correct keywords, building your backlinks over time will ensure that you enjoy good rankings in Google and company. Get started today and yoursquo;ll be enjoying the benefits of free traffic sooner than you think./p
pPS – If youre still new to SEO, download a href=http://www.seobasicscourse.com target=_blankthis free SEO course /aand learn the a href=http://www.seobasicscourse.com target=_blankSEO basics./a The a href=http://www.seobasicscourse.com target=_blankSEO course /awill give you a good base from which you can build up your knowledge./p