Link-building is one of the most important aspects of SEO but many business owners go about it the wrong way. Not all links are going to make a difference in your search engine rankings so blindly accumulating links will not be to your advantage. Of course the top search engines like Google tell us that the best links to have are natural links that you receive without taking any action on your own. While these natural backlinks are ideal, it’s not as easy as it sounds to get them.
Other Types of Quality Backlinks
There are many other ways to get killer backlinks besides naturally. Three factors you can use to measure the quality of backlinks are the source of the link, the motivation behind the link, and the link itself. When judging the source of a link, you have to look at the site’s page rank, how much quality content the site has, and if the site has a high number of quality backlinks itself. Killer backlinks come from popular websites that have high page rank and plenty of quality backlinks.
The motivation behind a backlink is judged by whether you had to manipulate someone or something in order to get the link or if the link was created based on pure intent. An example of a link made with pure intent is when someone makes a natural link to your site because they like your content and simply think you have a great site. A manipulative link on the other hand is a link you had to pay for or otherwise take some sort of action to get.
When judging the actual backlink itself, you have to look at how it is built. A link to your site that says click here is better than no link at all but it can’t be considered a high quality backlink. Ideally, backlinks should have anchor text containing your target keywords.
Tips for Accumulating Killer Backlinks
In a perfect world, hundreds of nice people with reputable websites would find your website and link to it simply because they think it rocks. Such natural links are harder to get than it sounds. The first step you can take towards attracting more of these natural links is by creating top-notch content that is interesting, informative, and useful to your site visitors.
Beyond natural links, there are a number of other types of backlinks that could be labeled killer backlinks. For example, you can share your content with a Creative Common License, allowing people to reproduce your articles, videos, and pictures, just so long as they link back to your site. On those terms, you can receive links anytime someone uses your content.
Creating what is known as linkbait is another way to receive tons of backlinks. Linkbait is interesting content that appeals to a large group of people. It could be a funny photoshopped picture, a catchy blog post about an evergreen topic in current events, and much more. Linkbait, also known as viral content, can attract tons of backlinks to your site in a short amount of time through social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and Reddit.
Other types of content that are viral in nature include content that can be embedded into people’s blogs and sites such as widgets and videos. An incredibly useful widget that includes a link back to your site can not only bring you a ton of backlinks, it can also drive a substantial amount of traffic to your site.
Another way to gather quality backlinks is through submitting your site to reputable directories such as the Better Business Bureau, the Yahoo Directory, and the Librarian’s Internet Index. You can also drive traffic to your site and build killer backlinks when you contribute articles and blog posts to popular blogs and article directories on the web. And don’t forget about the power of online press releases to build killer links to your site.
Link-building is not an exact science but focusing on accumulating quality backlinks will certainly pay off with time. Make the creation of quality, informative content your top priority and you’re sure to gradually attract those awesome natural links. Utilize these other link-building methods as well to help you achieve your long-term SEO goals.
Hope this helps.
-Michael
