Author: Bob Wakfer
Accumulating Backlinks
The title of my first article was Google PageRank & How to Get It. I thought
I answered the "how to get it" question by indicating in the chart,
that accompanied that article, how many backlinks, or inbound links (IBL),
are needed from various PageRank (PR) level sites to achieve a desired PR.
For instance the chart indicated that you can achieve a PR6 with either 101
links from PR5 pages or one link from a PR8 page. However, several readers
wrote me and said that I had not answered the "how to get it" question.
What they wanted was an explanation, or tutorial, on how to accumulate the
necessary number of backlinks. This article will attempt to explain the various
techniques that can be used to accumulate backlinks.
Internal Backlinks and Navigation.
Backlinks are normally thought of as links from outside or external sites.
However it must be remembered that Google also counts internal links
or navigational links within the site as part of the PR calculation. So
let's take a minute
and deal with that first.
Google uses a program known as the googlebot to crawl, or read, web
page content. The most important thing to remember about internal
navigation is that the
googlebot must be able to read and follow the links. The googlebot
cannot
do this if the links are exclusively javascript or some other non
html scripting
or programming language.. The best links for the googlebot are straightforward
text links. Images can be used as links, but alt tags should always
be used in conjunction with these image links. If you are simply
in love
with the mouse
over, drop down navigation that you can program with javascript then
you must also supply the googlebot with text link that it can read.
This is normally done by placing simple text links across the bottom
of the each page, or on large sites with many interior pages or sections,
by the use
of a site map.
Assuming that the googlebot can find and follow a link to every internal
page how do we maximize the PageRank that is generated by these
pages? Normally
our initial concern is to transfer as much PR as possible to our
home page. The way that this is done is to make sure that there
is a Google
readable
link on every page pointing back to the home page. If you use a
site map there should
also be a text link on every page pointing to the site map.
I haven't got the space to go into all the other nuances of internal
linking, but rather than try to link to every page from the home
page, it is best
to link only to the major category pages. The category pages
will then link to
all of the individual pages in their category and these third
level pages will all link back to their category page as well as the
home page and
site map
as mentioned above. This general hierarchical structure will
transfer the highest PR possible to the home page and site map, and the
next highest level of PR
to the category pages.
How to Get External Backlinks
Finally we arrive at the part of the article the readers were
really asking for. There are an unlimited number of ways
to accumulate IBL or backlinks.
Here are the four most common ways:
1. List your site in as many Directories as possible
2. Engage in a reciprocal linking campaign
3. Buy backlinks
4. Write newsletters or articles and get them published on
other sites or in your own blog.
Some purists advocate a fifth way of accumulating links.
They maintain that if your page has enough outstanding
content that
people will
put up links as
a service to their viewers without asking for, or demanding,
a link back in return. That is certainly possible for
some types of sites,
but is
not generally
a viable method for competitive commercial web sites.
Submit to Directories.
There are many directories, both paid submission and
free, where you can submit your site. The most famous
is probably
the DMOZ
directory, however
be prepared
for a long wait to get into this directory. Many
of the other directories like GoGuides, Joeant, Gimpsy and the
brand new
Bluefind will charge
you about $40
as a submission fee. Then of course there is Yahoo
who will charge you $300 just to review your site with no
guarantee of inclusion.
Depending on your market place and demographics there
may be many regional, local or industry specific
directories available.
Some
are free and
others have a nominal inclusion fee.
Reciprocal Links
Let's deal with the objection that some people
have to reciprocal links. Some "experts" claim
that Google devalues reciprocal links. I don't believe this, but rather than
attempt to tell you why I would rather refer you to this article written
by a leading link building expert.
So how can you find people who are willing
to exchange links with you? One of the simplest
ways is to
search in Google
for your prime
keywords.
Then
do a "search within results" for all the pages that contain "add
your URL" or "add your link". The other variation on this
is to do a link: search on the top 10 or 20 pages. This will show you all
the
pages that link to these sites. You can then contact the webmasters of these
sites and ask them to exchange links with you.
If you are really serious about reciprocal
linking you may want to use some software
that will help
you organize
and
monitor your links.
As
part of managing
a reciprocal linking program you need constantly
to be checking for dead links from your
site, and to verify
that all the
reciprocal links from
other sites
are up and running. The software I use
for this purpose is LinksManager.
Buy Backlinks.
There are a number of sites that will sell
you links. Some people are mortified
at this thought,
but I
see no difference
between
buying links
and online
advertising. If you pay to have a banner
displayed on a busy web site you are
also buying
a link.
It is possible to buy individual links,
or to buy what are known as "run
of the site" links. These are normally text links from every page on
the site. An entire industry has grown up around link buying. There is an
auction
site dedicated exclusively to buy and selling links and there are several
link brokers and re sellers on the Internet.
Anchor Text
To get the maximum return for your
investment make sure that you
use your prime keyword
phrases as
anchor text
in all
your IBL.
This practice
should
even be
employed with internal links.
Try and exchange link with sites that
are related
in content
and theme
to your own
site. This
may mean
that you
will have to
link to your competitors upon
some occasions.
Articles, Newsletters etc.
If you want to have links from
relevant and related pages
without linking
to a competitor
the easiest
way to accomplish
this
is to write an article,
or
a series of articles, about
your industry or market niche, and
link to your site
from these.
There
are many people
who are looking
for,
and
will publish,
good articles. SitePro News
is one example of this. I also publish
a
collection of articles in my
InfoPool, and am
always looking
for new
articles and
good content.
Link Building is Hard Work
There is no free lunch when
it comes to link building.
With
the possible
exception of
purchasing links,
accumulating and managing
an aggressive
linking campaign
is continuous hard work.
However, experience has shown that
if you want to place well
in the SERPs for competitive search
terms
you
really have
no other
choice.
About the Author
Bob Wakfer is the owner
of Computer Partners
and a long
time student
and practitioner
of SEO. Computer
Partners
offers
web site design,
hosting and search engine
optimization for its
clients. If you would like to discuss
any of
these
services with
Bob you
can email
him at bob@compar.com