Nigel McFarlane

Getting More Backlinks

Written by admin on July 19, 2009

If you’ve been blogging for a while now, you’re probably wondering about what backlinks are, and how they can help you make money blogging more effectively.  Backlinks, which are also called “incoming links”, are links to your blog or blog pages that are put up on another blog or website.  If a fellow blogger puts up a link that directs his readers to your site, that in itself counts as a backlink.

Of course, backlinks aren’t just some little detail that bloggers can forget about.  In fact, they’re responsible for your success as a blogger, and have a direct effect on your blog’s ranking on major search engines.  The more backlinks your blog has, the higher its rank will be on Google and other search engines.  If you have more backlinks for a keyword that other blogs are already targeting, your ranking on search engines will be much higher, therefore making you more accessible to the online community.

You also have to know that backlinks are better if they contain a keyword that’s already targeted by your blog.  You also have to know about “anchor text”, which is basically a backlink that contains your targeted keywords.  These kinds of backlinks have a stronger pull on Google, so aim to get more of these, as well.  Here are some of the ways by which you can start getting backlinks and blogging more profitably:

1.  Comment on other blogs:
The best way to introduce yourself to other bloggers is by posting comments on their entries.  Of course, you shouldn’t just post any comment for the sake of putting up one.  Instead, leave a thoughtful comment that’s relevant to the post in question, and don’t forget to include your URL at the bottom of your comment.  If you want to take things a step further, use your targeted keyword as your username, which will also be linked back to your own blog.

2.  Hop onto forum boards:
Another way to collect more backlinks is by joining a forum board where you can socialize with other like-minded people about subjects that your blog is already dealing with.  Be active in these forum boards, and make informative and helpful contributions on various topics that might arise in these boards.  Be as polite and friendly as you can, leave your URL at your signature, and you’ll have people clicking over to your blog before you know it.

3.  Link baiting:
Link baiting is the practice of writing about hot news or controversial topics about the niche that your blog is focused on.  If you can pounce on breaking news about your niche and write a really good entry about that topic, you’re bound to get some people linking back to you.  This method’s a little trickier (because you’ll have to work at making your post unique and special), but it’s very good at making a lasting impression on your blog readers and visitors. Just make sure your title of your post contains the keyword that you’re targeting as it’ll be easy for webmasters to copy that as the anchor text for their backlinks to your blog post.

As you can see, getting more backlinks isn’t the hardest thing to do.  Just don’t neglect the part about dishing out good content that will impress readers and keep them coming back to your site.  In the end, there’s still no better way to promote yourself – and getting backlinks – than by writing great posts that your visitors will remember you for.