WHAT IS BACKLINKING?
Backlinking is also known as off-page optimization. It is the development of back links from another site going to your site in order to gain high rankings in search engines. It is very essential in search engine optimization and is considered to be the best strategy in gaining a high ranking for your site.
Back links, also known as inbound links, incoming links, inward links, and inlinks, are incoming links from a site that goes directly to your site or page. It is a vote of trust from the site that is why it has placed your link in their content. Back links builds the reputation of a site. The number of back links a site has is an indication of the popularity or importance of the site. This is used by Google to determine the PageRank of a site, and eventually, the relevance of a page or site for a particular search query.
Not all back links are good for a site- some back links could do more harm than good. Back links should come from authority sites for the link to be valuable. The sites you link from should be related to the topic of your site and should also have high PR. The more authority the site has for a particular topic and the higher the PR of the site, the more benefit you get from the back link.
Another important factor to consider when building back links is the anchor text of your link. The anchor text is the name of your link that appears on the site. Instead of displaying the full URL of your site, using an anchor text as a hyperlink is better since search engine spiders uses anchor texts in evaluating the relevance of the link to the content of a page- it gives an idea of what the linked to page is about. The anchor text used when linking is most often the targeted keyword/keywords.
How do I get back links to my site?
There are numerous ways for your site to gain back links. Some of these techniques are for free, while some would need you to pay a fee. The easiest and most natural way of gaining back links to your site is through natural linking. A site that has unique, interesting, and high quality content drives visitors of the site to share the URL of the site, therefore creating a natural link that goes to the site – this is natural linking.
Another way of getting back links to your site is through participating in blog and forum postings. This would require you to read blogs that are related to your site, comment on the blog posts, join forums and participate in them. You could place a link going to your site in the signature section of a forum. You could also promote your site but be cautious of this as some forums are strict with regards to promotion. As for blogs, there are areas in a blog post where you could comment and place a link to your site. Aside from gaining back links from these kinds of sites, you would be able to gain additional knowledge and also share what you know to others.
Article submission to article directories is also another way of gaining back links. Write articles that are related to your site and use your keywords as anchor text that links to your site. You could also place a brief information about you and your site plus a link going to your site in the resource box of the article. Make your articles well written, informative, and interesting. This helps in leading readers of your article to your site.
Another popular way of getting additional back links to your site is through reciprocal linking. This is done by exchanging links with other websites – you place the link of a site to your site and the other site also places your link to their site. Exchange links with sites that have good content, and have high PR.
Submitting your site to directories, posting your site in social bookmarking sites, sharing your sites in social networking sites and web 2.0 sites are easy methods of gaining back links.
These are just some of the popular methods of gaining back links to your sites. Keep in mind that you must avoid placing your links in link farms, spam sites, and virus sites as these kinds of sites could cause your site to be penalized by search engines. Also, it is important to take note that too many back links built over a short period of time seem unnatural for search engines and could get your site penalized and booted out from search results. Slowly build back links to your site and spread out your linking at different intervals.
How do I check the back links of my site?
There are numerous available software and programs that help sites in keeping track of their back links. Most content management systems include features that track the amount of back links and the referring site for the link. Some search engines also offer free services that determine the number of back links that your site has. One particular example is for Google. You can search the amount of backlinks that your site has by using “link:URL of your site” in a search query. As for Yahoo!, you could do this by typing “linkdomain:URL of your site”. However, please keep in mind that these tools are not entirely accurate in showing you the total number of back links that your site receives. There are some software and programs in the internet that offers back link tracking – some for free while others for a fee. These software and programs are often more accurate than those offered by search engines.