How do you generate backlinks?

[MortimerJazz]

I was reading another thread on the forum where a member was talking about how it only takes him a couple of hours to build a new site and then generate the necessary back links to see whether the site will be profitable.

I need to understand the most efficient way to gain some backlinks to my site. Are there a few 'standard' sites that are a must when it comes to getting backlinks?

Where do you submit your new sites to? And does it only take you a couple of hours to get a load of decent backlinks?

Thanks alot

[Tezza]

I wouldn't build all of your backlinks in one go, too many at one given time may harm your rankings. But otherwise, a steady flow using the following techniques could be useful:

Directory submission to quality directorys
Article writing & submission
Press Releases
Social Networking to dofollow networks
Dofollow blog comments
Related forum signatures
Linkbaiting
Link exchange with similar themed sites (on topic, but not direct competition).
Blog reviews in good ranking blogs.

Some of the above methods are free and paid, it depends on your budget. One site I have has today gone within the top two for one of my main keywords using these techniques, it took about 3-4 months for the site to settle though and is still not a stable rank. I'm still waiting for Google to settle it.

A breakdown of what I paid is $25 for both 1500 directory submission (about 75% acceptance), & 500 articles (60% acceptance) - I bought the package, but had to submit & confirm them myself, took me about 4-5 hours.

$8 for 100 social bookmarks submitted by somebody I know.

A further 200+ articles written and submitted by myself using an article spinner. Find dofollow blogs using the firefox seo plugin that highlights nofollow links in red. Pretty easy to find using Google, but sometimes its like finding a needle in a haystack as most blogs thesedays are nofollow. The ones you find could be priceless.

Linkbaiting I have not tried yet and still reading into it, I have heard good things about it, but also some bad things, like the money.co.uk stunt and how it backfired. Article submission is a form of link-baiting, whereas webmasters are allowed to used your article for their content with your linkback to your site, as is template creation for the less imaginitive. Create a template for your favourite app, maybe WP or Joomla and add your link to the bottom, then allow other to use it. I have never used this technique, only come across it in reading.

Blog writing I think can be quite useful, but it requires payment to the top blogs. They will review the product like on your site on their blog with a link back to your site. It can be useful if the blog reviewing your site is strongly thought of in Google and the content of their review is good. Better 10 strong links than 100 weak links in my opinion.

Forums I dont have the time to post much, like this one. Digital Point, I have been a member since 2005 and only posted about 80 posts But a lot of people swear by them.

I usually look at around 1000 backlinks to my niche site to get me a stable ranking in the top 2/3 pages for my main keywords. I'm still trying to crack loans in the SEO department, my own little challenge, but it is going to take a hell of a lot more than 1000 backlinks using these techniques I think.

You could also post on some classifieds like craigslist, etc may help. Other than that, good content and natural backlinking

It helps to spend a little, but not a lot. It costs a lot more in time.

Terry

[fizzbird]

Or, you could spend 10% of the time involved above and produce something people will link to naturally.

[MortimerJazz]

Tezza, you star - thanks very much for taking the time to type all that out. It's much appreciated.

At the risk of pushing my luck, I've got a couple of questions:

- Do you recommend any particular directories? There seem to be a lot of them out there that punish your site rather than reward it.
- Can you just explain what an article spinner is?

Thanks again for all your help.

[Tezza]

Originally Posted by fizzbird Or, you could spend 10% of the time involved above and produce something people will link to naturally.

Your so helpful

On a serious note, yes... content is king. Natural linkage is the best way, but it is not the easiest method to undertake seeing as it is out of your control, unless your a pro linkbaiter. I know that is the way Google likes it, but sometimes you have to pull a few strings to make it happen.

The above methods you can take with a pinch of salt, but they haven't done me any harm.

[Tezza]

Originally Posted by MortimerJazz Tezza, you star - thanks very much for taking the time to type all that out. It's much appreciated. At the risk of pushing my luck, I've got a couple of questions: - Do you recommend any particular directories? There seem to be a lot of them out there that punish your site rather than reward it. - Can you just explain what an article spinner is? Thanks again for all your help.

To be quite honest, I would start with blogs. See if anyone will review your site on their blog, or find blog comments without the nofollow tag. Do not spam the comments though and I steer (reluctantly) away from using the anchor text in the comment, otherwise it gets deleted as spam. I also like to stay tuned to a blog, write well informed replys and just link my name to my site. Its not as good as anchor text, but still works as a backlink. Bloggers also reward loyal and well written commenters, at least, some do.

Find directorys that will best suit your needs, the only problem is that there is a lot of directories out there that wont serve your needs, its just finding them that do. Like I have stated, the techniques I have used have never done me any harm. I'm sure there are some good directory lists out there. Try and get into Dmoz for a start, that will list you in the Google directory and other top partners that use the Dmoz results. This could take a few months though depending in what category you submit to.

This next bit you can decide for yourself, some may disagree with it. But like many I rely on article submission as part of my SEO linkback campaign, as with many of the other techniques I use.

An article spinner is one little way I have found of creating about 100 articles with slightly different content, each article 'spun' would only be about 35% similar to other articles that have been 'spun'. It is a method of which you create 1 article and changing certain words/sentences/paragraphs using a little formula in the article spinner. This has to be done very cleverly to see top results. The article spinner would then rearrange everything and spit out a number of articles with different content, may this be 10 articles, or 100 articles, its your choice.

Many article writers submit the same article over and over again to different article directories like ezinearticles, etc in the hope that they can linkbait, which sometimes works wonders, but every article they write will get written off by Google as they are all 100% duplicates in the article directories, thus writing off the backlinks as either void or having very little weight.

It has strongly been discussed that slightly altering the content of the articles can serve the backlinks better, some will get written off, some may not, it all depends on how well the articles have been 'spun'. Its not a method I would jump straight into, but would research it first with another domain, a landing page or something to get a feel of what works and what doesn't.

And as stated, content is king! If you are a good writer, use that first above anything.

[Stellar]

I steer (reluctantly) away from using the anchor text in the comment, otherwise it gets deleted as spam.

Is there much SEO benefit if you can not use anchor text in the comment? Because then it is just your name or similar as the anchor text, so not relevant to the keywords you are targetting.

Or looking at it differently, if the blog is related to your site and dofollow, then it will still add some value even if the anchor text is unrelated?

I have seen some people with keyword rich domains using:
"name - keyword domain name" as the name in the comment. Therefore it is less spam like because you just have your name and the name of your site.. it just so happens that the name of your site is one of the target keywords.
What do you think of that method?

[gadget]

Try Content Now which is Kieron's ( UK Offer ) new business.

Introducing ContentNow.co.uk - Content Writing and Link Building services

[keano]

Creating content using article spinners can be a bit risky due to possible duplicate content filters on search engines (as Tezza mentioned) and is edging towards markov chain territory. Reading up on "n-grams" or "shingles" will shed some light on the subject.

Also the pdf at http://www.cs.umd.edu/~pugh/google/Duplicates.pdf is quite interesting reading on mathematical modelling that maybe in use at the search engines when it comes to dupe content.

[Tezza]

Originally Posted by Stellar Is there much SEO benefit if you can not use anchor text in the comment? Because then it is just your name or similar as the anchor text, so not relevant to the keywords you are targetting. Or looking at it differently, if the blog is related to your site and dofollow, then it will still add some value even if the anchor text is unrelated? I have seen some people with keyword rich domains using: "name - keyword domain name" as the name in the comment. Therefore it is less spam like because you just have your name and the name of your site.. it just so happens that the name of your site is one of the target keywords. What do you think of that method?

I'm not sure, with the very few blogs out there that offer dofollow I dont want to risk getting my comment deleted. I was lucky enough to find a good blog in one of my sites sectors which I can probably comment 3/4 times a day and within a month you have sitewide links, 120 links per month. I suppose if you are a regular poster and email the blog owner, and get to know them pretty well, they will let you use anchor text as it is no loss to them. Even if it is your name, they are still sending you the same link strength, be it with or without anchor text, its just that anchor text matters more to your site than theirs for SERP reasons. I suppose all that matters to them is regular and detailed comments regardless of why you are posting. Other bloggers may be stricter as it may send off a bad impression to other bloggers/seo-ers.

To be honest, I use keyword domains myself, I always have... but I dont spam them, but I get together about 4 or 5 main keywords I will use two of them and form the best 2 word domain that also sounds like a company and is easy to remember, keeping in mind the best way this will effect you.

For instance, if you was to enter the micro memory card business, then maybe you could throw together micromemory.co.uk or .com as your domain name? That domain has already gone, but I use it as example (no, its not my site). That domain name is good for SEO and repeat business as it is not really too hard to remember, its just a shame that the owner doesn't realise it, the .co.uk one, it has been registered since 1999 and isn't being used.

'Micro Memory' gets a few searches too and also you can build your links campaign around those two keywords... 'micro memory cards', 'memory stick micro', 'micro sd memory card', etc, etc. Throwing your two domains keywords into the anchor text should be beneficial. It has also been strongly suggested that you should mix your anchor text, dont always use the same anchor text, mix it up with some broader phrases that match your homepage SEO.

Terry