Getting traffic to your website or blog is perhaps the most important step in making sales or making money through AdSense. A great way to get the traffic you need is by employing the age-old techniques of search engine optimization by getting backlinks.
Backlinks tell search engines that your site is popular. Search engines, in turn, kick your site up higher in the search results (which means more traffic for your site.)
Fortunately, there are tons of places on the web that are willing to link out to you making the backlink process a cinch.
Each site is different and offers its own appeal to both marketers and writers like you and search engines. Each of these places offers their own perks (some of which even pay you for using their services for a nice added bonus.) So without further ado: where to get backlinks for your site.
Article Directories
Article directories are amazing places to get backlinks. Unlike quick bookmarking sites like RedGage and Delicious, submitting content to article directories take a considerable amount of work. SheToldMe and EzineArticles are some great examples of article directories and are mentioned in their own sections in this article because of their uniqueness.
There are a huge number of article directories on the Internet; some pay users to submit content and allow for backlinks and some just allow backlinks (but are still great.)
The best way to take advantage of an article directory is to write a unique article related to your backlink and submit it to only one site. For more tips on getting the most from article directories, check out my article on writing for article marketing.
EzineArticles
EzineArticles is a classic example of an article directory and, besides HubPages, is one of the BEST places to get backlinks! Check out their site, yeah, it's ugly, but Google loves it. Therefore, it should be your new best friend for getting backlinks.
There are a few things that make using EzineArticles not so fun. The first thing is that they don't pay you for the content you submit. Also, each article you submit must go through their editorial process so they can make sure it meets their guidelines. That said, it's like yucky medicine -- it's not fun to do but pays out in the long run.
The best way to get a backlink from them is the write an article that is relevant to the keyword you'll be using as your backlink. They allow you two links per article, but your links should be 100% relevant to the article's topic.
It is better to get just one backlink than to put a link in the article that doesn't really fit with the article topic. DO NOT use the extra link to link elsewhere UNLESS the site you are linking to is relevant to your article.
Social Bookmarking Sites
There is a huge number of social bookmarking and social networking sites and each is unique. Not all social bookmarking sites and social networking sites offer do-follow backlinks, but even so, the ones with no-follow links are still extremely important and should not be ignored.
Reddit and Delicious are decent social bookmarking sites to use, but they aren't great unless your article becomes popular on those sites. Digg is helpful for SEO, but you have to be very careful as to not submit too much of your own work as it's considered a no-no in the Digg community.
Stumbleupon is great for getting traffic, but they can drive down how much you earn from ad clicks. Also, Stumbleupon users are highly unlikely to click an ad. I wouldn't consider it a backlink since the link from Stumbleupon to the article is scrambled and not the actual URL of the site/article.
Twitter can be very useful but is known for making all their links no-follow. That said, many sites aggregate what people write on Twitter and make links do-follow. Tons of RSS feeds, many also do-follow, are taken from Twitter. Furthermore, many reader services like Google Reader make links do-follow.
You'll want to post things on Twitter that others would be interested in and make sure you participate in retweeting things others say and give kind thoughts and words to others. This way, there's a higher chance that the stuff you post ends up somewhere with do-follow links.
RedGage
RedGage pays users to submit teeny tiny bits of content. All users have to do is submit a URL, some descriptive keywords, a small description of the content, and you're done! The catch? Nobody will ever make an income off of RedGage and the links don't weigh very much. That said, it's an easy way to get some backlinks to your content.
Technically, RedGage is not an article directory. However, they don't mind if you have a long-winded description of your link. Also, since your link is likely an article, for all intents and purposes, RedGage is listed here as an article directory.
RSS Feed Aggregators
RSS feeds allow readers to be the first to know when their favorite blogs get a new post. The purpose of RSS feed aggregators is to give readers one place to read all their favorite blogs (and to help them find new blogs to follow.)
Many of these sites give do-follow links to the blogs in their directories, which is why it's great for getting backlinks to your blog. These aren't the strongest backlinks in the world, but they automatically update as you create new blog posts. You don't have to keep coming back to the aggregator site to add more backlinks as you write more content.
It's extremely important to note that the term "blog" here is meant to mean "anything with an RSS feed." If you're a HubPages user, just add your HubPages RSS feed URL to each RSS feed aggregator site!
If you don't know your HubPages RSS URL, you can find it in your profile under your picture. Most HubPages users' RSS feed URL is: http://YOUR_USERNAME.hubpages.com/hubs/latest?rss
Just replace YOUR_USERNAME with your username here on HubPages.
Posting in Forums
Forums are a phenomenal place to get backlinks if you do it correctly. If you spam your hub in a post, the mods will just delete your post. If you find yourself a forum where the mods don't care and let everyone link out to anything, then your link won't help you.
You have two real options when it comes to getting backlinks on forums, you can use your signature line which is perfect since moderators usually don't throw a fit about the links people have in their signatures.
Your other option is to find a forum that is related to your hub. You'll want to make a few posts that aren't related to your hub -- just being friendly and replying to things people say. Then after you've at least made a small presence on the forum mention that "this article kind of describes how I feel BACKLINK_HERE." Just be respectful, no-one likes a spammer.
Looking for a forum? There are a huge number of forums all over the Internet. If you need help in finding a forum, I highly recommend making a quick Google search like "your_interest forum." All sorts of results will show up and you'll quickly find the perfect forum for your needs.
There are some things you have to look out for when selecting a forum. First, you'll want to make sure that the search engines can access the posts. This is easy. Just check and see if you can access posts on the forums without being logged in. If not, then the chances that a search engine has access the posts is slim.
You'll want to make sure the links in the forums are do-follow. There is a really handy free tool that will let you know whether or not a link is do-follow.
Do-Follow Blog Commenting
Commenting on do-follow blogs is a great way to get backlinks. While these backlinks are generally light-weight, you can rack up a ton of them as blog commenting is quick and painless.
There are many directories that have tons and tons of "do-follow" blogs on them. I use the term "do-follow" loosely as many of the directory owners either don't regularly check the list to make sure the blogs remain do-follow or don't know how to check to see if a blog is, in fact, do-follow.
This is why I highly, highly recommend using the link checker add-on I mention in my 7 Must-Have SEO Tools article. This way you can quickly check to see if comments for each blog in these directories really are do-follow. Build up a list of the blogs that pass your do-follow inspection as they are a golden resource if they accept your comments, which brings me to the last bit.
Make sure your comments are on-topic and thoughtful. I manage a number of blogs and I delete a TON of comments where I can tell the reader didn't even stop for a second and browse through my post. Comments like "Great post, totally agree" are going to be deleted. Be thoughtful, offer a point or and idea and you should be fine.
Link Baiting
Link baiting isn't, by any means, a direct way of getting backlinks. Essentially it's writing content that so good that people will share it with their friends, family, or post around the net. 'Link baiting' was poorly named because it sounds like something scary and blackhat, but it is seriously one of the best ways to get backlinks -- by writing great content so that other people will get backlinks for you! It's perhaps the most organic way of doing SEO.
Blogspot
It takes just a few seconds to set up a Blogspot blog and it's a great way to get backlinks. I recommend having at least three articles on your blog for any backlink you get to be a good one. That said, they don't have to be works of art. Just stick up a few posts full of blah blah stuff that is related to your website or hub and you've got yourself a really nice backlink. I also do not recommend linking to more than one hub with each blog.
The fewer places you link out to, the more worthwhile the links are -- if that makes sense. Think of your blogger blog as the Nobel Peace Prize, it's special because it's really hard to get (few people win this award), if they start giving the award to everyone, it wouldn't be as special. Okay, that's a strange analogy, I admit, but you get the point.
There are many directories that have tons and tons of "do-follow" blogs on them. I use the term "do-follow" loosely as many of the directory owners either don't regularly check the list to make sure the blogs remain do-follow or don't know how to check to see if a blog is, in fact, do-follow.
This is why I highly, highly recommend using the link checker add-on I mention in my 7 Must-Have SEO Tools article. This way you can quickly check to see if comments for each blog in these directories really are do-follow. Build up a list of the blogs that pass your do-follow inspection as they are a golden resource if they accept your comments, which brings me to the last bit.
Make sure your comments are on-topic and thoughtful. I manage a number of blogs and I delete a TON of comments where I can tell the reader didn't even stop for a second and browse through my post. Comments like "Great post, totally agree" are going to be deleted. Be thoughtful, offer a point or and idea and you should be fine.
Link Baiting
Link baiting isn't, by any means, a direct way of getting backlinks. Essentially it's writing content that so good that people will share it with their friends, family, or post around the net. 'Link baiting' was poorly named because it sounds like something scary and blackhat, but it is seriously one of the best ways to get backlinks -- by writing great content so that other people will get backlinks for you! It's perhaps the most organic way of doing SEO.
Blogspot
It takes just a few seconds to set up a Blogspot blog and it's a great way to get backlinks. I recommend having at least three articles on your blog for any backlink you get to be a good one. That said, they don't have to be works of art. Just stick up a few posts full of blah blah stuff that is related to your website or hub and you've got yourself a really nice backlink. I also do not recommend linking to more than one hub with each blog.
The fewer places you link out to, the more worthwhile the links are -- if that makes sense. Think of your blogger blog as the Nobel Peace Prize, it's special because it's really hard to get (few people win this award), if they start giving the award to everyone, it wouldn't be as special. Okay, that's a strange analogy, I admit, but you get the point.
Guest Posting
Is there a particular blog you enjoy reading? Many blogs allow writers to submit content as a "guest post." It's essentially like being a guest star on a television show, you just submit one article to the blog and your commitment is done!
Make sure your post is well-written and original. A guest post on a popular blog not only gives you backlinks, but gets you a bit of fame. You'll want a great article attached to your name, so you'll perhaps get asked back or have other blog owners contacting you for guest post opportunities.
Is there a particular blog you enjoy reading? Many blogs allow writers to submit content as a "guest post." It's essentially like being a guest star on a television show, you just submit one article to the blog and your commitment is done!
Make sure your post is well-written and original. A guest post on a popular blog not only gives you backlinks, but gets you a bit of fame. You'll want a great article attached to your name, so you'll perhaps get asked back or have other blog owners contacting you for guest post opportunities.
EmoticonEmoticon