Top Search Engine Ranking = Winnable Keywords + Keyword Focused / High Value Content + Quality Backlinks
Simplified –> Top Ranking = Keywords + Content + Backlinks
What Are Backlinks?
If you are new to SEO the term “backlink” may be unfamiliar to you – a backlink is essentially a link that points back to your website from another site. Search engines rank sites based on a number of factors, but of particular importance is the number of backlinks a site has pointing to it. To take a basic example – if you have two sites attempting to rank for the phrase “premium wordpress themes” and one site has 10 links pointing to it (using the phrase as the link text) and the other has 100, search engines will most likely rank the site with more backlinks above the other site.
Not All Backlinks Are Created Equal
It’s important to note, however, that not all backlinks carry the same weight – some types of backlinks will provide much more value than others, and you’ll want to target the ones that will have maximum impact on your search engine rankings. One factor is the relevance of the backlinks that are linking to your site. For example, if the majority of the 100 links that point to the site mentioned above are mostly irrelevant to the site’s topic (e.g. links from Wedding sites pointing to a site on Premium WordPress Themes), then the search engines are likely to move that site down the rankings. On the other hand, if the site with only 10 links has highly relevant/related backlinks, it could potentially outrank a site with many more links.
The relevance of backlinks is not the only factor to take into consideration – the quality of the link is also very important. That is, how well regarded is the site that is linking to you? If you have a link from an authority site (e.g. BBC, CNN, Wikipedia, etc.) then it will have much more impact than a link to your site from a new blog with only a couple of posts on it. So a site with only a few highly-relevant backlinks from high-authority sites has the potential to outrank sites that have many more backlinks where the relevance is not as good and the quality of the sites linking is poorer.
Maximizing The Impact Of Backlinks
In your SEO efforts you want to try and get backlinks from authority sites where the link text used matches the keyword phrases you intend to target. So, for example, if another website links to your site using http://www.vooshthemes.com – that’s really good – it’s a backlink to your site and the search engines will recognize that and credit your site with that link.
However, what would be even better is if one of your keyword phrases was used as the link text – so if the link was something like “Premium WordPress Themes” your site would get credit for the backlink and the words used in the link. The search engines would then potentially move you up the rankings for that particular keyword phrase.
This highlights just how important the words you use in your backlinks are – so often you’ll see sites that say something like – “Please click here to visit my site”. This is such a waste as it means the site being linked to gets credit for the term “click here” – which isn’t very helpful at all! So, whenever you link to your website from other sites, always try and incorporate your keyword phrases into the link text. It’s worth getting into the habit of doing this as it’s absolutely key if you want your site to move up the rankings.
Where Can You Get Quality Backlinks?
There are lots of different places where you can get high-quality backlinks that can help improve your rankings. Remember – you’re after links that will provide maximum impact – below is a list of some of the places where you can get these types of links.
Always Start With Great Content
Perhaps the most important of all! Consistently create great content that others want to link back to. Sure, you don’t have any control over the link text that others use, but the number of sites that link to you is important to Google and this will have a large impact on the ranking your site gets for a range of different keyword phrases.
Internal Links & Site Maps
You should get in the habit of linking to older posts on your site when writing new content. This has a double benefit in that it carries some weight with the search engines and it also promotes your older content to readers who may not have seen it before.
Article Directories
Submitting articles to article directory sites can be a great way to get some quality backlinks to your site. They can also send a nice amount of traffic as well! There are hundreds of these types of directories, although two of the main ones you’ll want to check out are EzineArticles and GoArticles. Article Marketing – Author’s Resource Box
Blog Comments
Find the leading blogs in your market/area of interest and start making on comments on their posts and include a backlink to your site. However, ensure that you don’t spam them with your link – add value to their site with thoughtful and useful comments that contribute to the general discussion taking place.
RSS Feeds
Given that you have a WordPress site, you will more than likely have an RSS feed that you can distribute to a number of different sources. The good thing about this is that you get a link to your site when you submit your site’s feed, but you’ll also automatically get a new link each time you add a new post to your site. Feedage.com and Feedagg.com are two sites that are worth submitting your site to.
YouTube & Other Video Sites
If you create some videos related to your site and then distribute them to sites like YouTube you can get some quality backlinks coming into your site. Again, this has a double benefit in that you get good backlinks, but you can also get lots of traffic from these sites (if the videos you’ve created are interesting and add value). TubeMogul is a site that you’ll want to check out for distributing your videos to a number of different sources.
Community Blogging & Links
In most communities, the local newspapers, television & radio stations have blogs. Simply, create an account with them and submit your articles and other blog posts. Be sure to include your desired keyword phrase link back to your website.
Ning Networks, Online Forums & Yahoo/Google Groups
Another great place to submit your content and get high value backlinks are niche ning networks, online forums and groups. Spend some time getting to know the members and find out what they want. When you see an opportunity to provide a useful solutions to their needs, submit your articles or videos. In this way, they will appreciate it and most likely respect your recommendations.
Facebook Groups & Fan Pages
As you know, Facebook is one of the Social Networks on the Planet. In 2010, studies show there are over 500 Million people using Facebook for games, marketing and connecting with friends. The opportunity here is to join groups and fan pages where your targeted niche market members are hanging out. Similar to ning networks, online forums and groups, you will want to spend some time getting to know the members and find out what they want. When you see an opportunity to provide a useful solutions to their needs, submit your articles or videos.
.edu and .gov links
Links from sites that have .edu (educational sites) or .gov (governmental sites) in their domain names carry a lot of weight in Google. If you can get links from these sites it can give you a nice push up the rankings.
Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking sites enable people to bookmark all their favorite sites and pages in one central place (examples include Digg, Propeller, and Delicious). You can bookmark your own stuff to help market it to other people and to get a backlink to your site. An even better approach, however, is to create great content that people will automatically want to add to their own social bookmarking accounts.
Web 2.0 Sites
There are several sites out there that enable you to create pages on a particular topic and then include a link back to your site. Such sites include Squidoo, Hubpages, and Scribd. All of these sites are regarded as high-authority by Google, so links from them to your site can really help improve your rankings.
Online Directories
There are several online directories that you can submit your site to – in particular, you’ll want to submit your site to DMOZ. It can take a while for your site to get listed (as each submission is manually reviewed), but once it does it can give your site a nice boost. If you’ve got cash to burn you might also want to target the Yahoo! Directory – it’s quite expensive, but if your site is listed it can really help your rankings.
These are just a few ways to naturally create backlinks to your website. If you concentrate on at least three(3) of the above strategies, you will be will on your way to creating high quality backlinks. We highly recommended that you implement as many strategies as possible.
Winning the Search Engine Game is an ongoing process of selecting winnable keywords, creating high-value content and quality backlinks. The more you do, the better you rank. The better you rank, more people visit your website. More visitors = more profit. It is just that simple!
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