Once you realize just how important backlinks are to your rank in search engines like Google and yahoo you will start wondering about how to get backlinks and more of them! With an estimated 80% of page rank being determined by backlinks it is no wonder this is of prime importance to anyone who needs people to find their website amongst the clutter of the net.
The issue many people ignore in their quest for backlinks is that not all of them are alike. Smart search engines have long ago learned that people will do unscrupulous things on the net to manipulate their methods of determining good websites and have ways of detecting and qualifying good backlinks. A backlink itself is a way to determine if a site is popular as reciprocal links are not as good as webmasters can just "swap links" to gain more links; backlinks go just one way so there is less chance of anything being manipulated for gain.
The other issue with backlinks is quality. For a backlink to be counted by a search engine as good an that will help rank up your site it must fulfill a set of criteria to prove its quality. While search engines do not give out their code on this matter it essentially comes down to three things:
- Relevance - The site the backlink comes from must have some relevance to your site. Links from sites that are similar to your own will be counted more highly than those from sites that have no relevance to your site.
- Page Rank - The popularity of the site that the backlink comes from it very important. If a very large popular site links to you it is seen as a bigger endorsement than a bunch of very low page rank sites backlinking you.
- Originality - The content of the site that backlinks you must also be original content. Google punishes copied material and links from sites that are punished are punished accordingly also.
So now you know what a quality backlink is how do you get more of them? One way is to write articles and link your site from the article that you post on article sites that litter the net. Another tactic is to post in forums with your site in your signature so every time you post you create a backlink. As always if you site is good, well put together and relevant then you will create backlinks from people simply willing to link you and some smart networking can also help. How to get backlinks quickly though is another matter entirely as it is a slow process.
