Often called off page links, backlinks are the oxygen of search engine positioning and traffic generation. Backlinks have three key elements, the web page from which the backlinks originate, the anchor text of the backlinks and what’s on the page to which the backlinks directs the visitor to.
The quantity of backlinks
The majority of search engines look at the quantity of backlinks to a web page when deciding where this page should be presented in the search results.
The source of the backlinks
Backlinks are like votes with different ‘rights’ that are derived from where they originate from So it follows that pages with backlinks from ‘trusted pages will receive a much higher value consideration from the search engines. Pages from sources such as educational (.edu) or government (.gov) sites naturally are attributed with more trust and authority.
Google Page Rank
Backlinks from web pages with high page rank (a value given by Google to each page that it considers over a period to have attracted, sustained and continued to accumulate relevant backlinks) pass some of their page rank via the backlink to the target page.
The ‘anchor text’
Just like a label, the backlink anchor text has influence over the search engines valuation of the backlink. If the content of the page is about ‘parenting’ and the backlink on the page is labeled or given the ‘anchor’ text ‘parenting’ then the search engines consider this to be of more value to the searcher looking for web pages related to ‘parenting’ than if the backlink was labeled ‘babycare’.
Common issues
Many people screw up their backlinks building activities because they fixate on quantity as opposed to quality of backlinks. Having a significant volume of backlinks to your page doesn’t necessarily mean the search engines will view your page as relevant.
How to manufacture backlinks
So here is my tried and tested guidance for getting backlinks to your pages, good visibility in the search engine results pages and the right type of traffic to your site.
- It is essential you select the right keywords before you expend any effort whatsoever.
- I like to build a keyword ‘cloud’.
- I most often start with a single primary keyword or key phrase which has significant visitor traffic.
- To work out the volume of visitor traffic is being coming from searches for my top level keyword I use the Google keyword analyzer tool.
- The Google tool generates a list of keywords associated with my main keyword and from this list I grow my cloud.
- I then manufacture content in the form of articles and videos with backlinks with the correct ‘anchor text’ to my ‘money’ or ‘target’ page and push these to a wide range of content directories.
- My guiding principle is to write content that will attract traffic and persuade them to follow the backlinks to my money pages as well as send backlinks.