Backlinks For SEO
Where should you get backlinks from?
Backlinks have a lot of importance in the algorithms of modern search engines like Google. The more backlinks your blog has, the better is your ranking in the search engine result pages (SERPs).
Of course, if you have your keywords in the backlinks, your rankings would be even higher.
(Image source)
But where should you get these backlinks from? What should be the source? Is it fine to get the backlinks from any website or blog?
No! The type of sites from where you get these backlinks affects your ranking – and has the potential to even harm your rankings!
So, follow these principals in your link building exercise:
Site / Blog having content on a related topic
Try to get links from blogs that write about topics similar to yours.
For example, if your blog is about celebrities, try to get links from blogs about celebrities, celebrity fashion, or even movies.
Having a link from sites having related content adds extra weight to that backlink in the eyes of Google. (And if you can have your keywords in the anchor text of the backlink, it’s a big bonus!)
Site / Blog having a good Google Page Rank
Page Rank is an assessment of a webpage by Google. It ranges from 0 to 10, and the higher the number, the better is the page from Google’s point of view.
A page rank is assigned to each individual page (URL) of a blog or website. Thus, every webpage of a blog or a website has a different page rank.
Try to get links from pages or posts that have a high Page Rank. A backlink from a high page rank webpage carries a lot more weight than a backlink from a low page rank site!
However, in your link building efforts, do not focus just on high page rank sites – if Google sees that all your backlinks are from high page rank sites, it would assume that the links are not organic (that is, they are purchased). This can harm your rankings.
Therefore, have the backlinks from sites having different page ranks so that the distribution seems natural to Google. But you can put in slightly more effort in getting backlinks from high page rank sites!
Link farms?
There are many sites that exist only for providing links to other sites. These sites have thousands of outgoing links, pointing to all kinds of sites!
Such sites are called link farms, and are considered “bad” by Google and other search engines. (They are also known as “bad neighborhoods”).
Avoid getting links from these sites. A backlink from a link farm would have a negative impact on your SEO efforts – your rankings would actually suffer due to this.
Web Directories?
Web directories are also sites linking to other sites and blogs, and are usually arranged based on topics and subtopics. (Yahoo is a web directory)
The problem is that there is a very thin line between a link farm and a web directory.
Therefore, please avoid directories that include any and every blog in their listing. Submit your blog’s link to only those directories that have a manual or human review process for inclusion of links.
Conclusion
Follow these simple guidelines, and you should be achieving top rankings in the SERPs soon!
Do you think there are other types of sites from where links are desirable, or from where links are avoidable? Please let me know through the comments.
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thanks!You made some good points there. I did a search on the topic and found most people will agree with your blog.
Thanks though, i’m glad some people share good stuff like this! It will greatly help me in my SEO activities.
Thanks for making such great points. Really had a good idea about backlink and SEO efficiency.
Ah alright. Because my blog is more about religion, I’d need to check on religion and/or spirituality blogs then, right?
Thanks for the tips!
I’ve recently heard that being in a similar sites blogroll helps with pagerank in Google – it’s something that google looks at as a recommendation. Have you heard this too?
Yes, Google is contextually sensitive. A link has more value if it comes from a site on similar subject. So, even a blogroll link from a same-subject blog would have a high weight attached to it.
Oh, I understand about the same-subject blog, but someone at search engine wach was talking abot the blogrolls getting even more google juice because of them being a ‘human recommendation’ within the full blog. Just wondering if it is something new they are doing and if others are testing it…
Thanks for the post, it has helped me out a lot!
Cheers
John
I haven’t heard anything certain about it.
Although, it makes logical sense. When a link appears in a blog post, it’s a vote. But when it appears in a blogroll, it means the blogger has a lot of confidance in the blog linked to. Also, technically, the link is from every page of the blog, so it would automatically carry more weight!
Just found your site and loving the content. I am doing some research for a client and wondered if you might be able to answer this question. She has a website that links to her blog (completely separate domain name, but similar subject matter). She wants me to move her blog to a completely separate web host because she “heard” you get better SEO if your website and blog are hosted separately. I have not heard of this and wondered just how true it was…which prompted my research and finding your blog. Any truth to this?
Well, there is a theory that says links for websites hosted on the same IP or same IP family have lesser weightage in the eyes of Google.
The reason – people wanting to create artificial links would create multiple websites and host they using the same hosting account / host. (And therefore the same IP / IP family).
I personally do not subscribe to this school of thought – but I guess this is what your client has heard!
I am new to this and your site has been very helpful. I posted a comment on one of the blogs and it’s been giving me backlinks everyday without me posting new comments. It’s giving me about 30 links a day. I don’t know if it’s bad for me to gain so many links everyday. I don’t know how to stop it. Is this bad?
You did’nt mention article directories.
Some forums and social bookmarking sites can be a good source of backlinks too.
i need some help , can improove my backlink by stumbleupon.com. I have little knowledge about seo
Hi… i need help… i study many articles they tell me there are two main site for promote blogs.
1st digg.com
2nd twitter.com
can u please tell me how can i auto submit my post in digg.