A friend once told me, the best place to hide a dead body is on Page 2 of Google search results. You can imagine the look on my face. It sounds really funny when you look at it from an SEO perspective. This goes to show you how important being on the first page of Google is.
Nobody really cares what is on the next page and the page after.
For those that have not read any of my previous blogs, I’m Ian, I appreciate nature and have a thing for wildlife, dogs, Digital Marketing, and SEO. I read a lot and like to have fun trying new SEO techniques and strategies. By the end of this 30-day backlink building course, you will get to understand what backlinks are, how to identify good and bad backlinks, how to create them and get the best out of them.
Some people say, create it and they will come, but that is not the case when it comes to backlink building. You don't just need to create the links but you need to create them right.
We are going, to begin with, getting to know what backlinks are and their importance in your pursuit of Google Page 1.
If you are reading this article and it is your very first time hearing about backlinks, I will start with the basics.
Backlinks are created by linking one website to another. Sometimes they are called inbound links because they bring or direct people into your website from other pages, they can also be called external links since they can also redirect readers/visitors to other external sites.
However, you may see them; backlinks are essential when it comes to SEO. See the link I just inserted above? That is an example of a backlink and it leads to the blog page for Moz where you can find various topics regarding backlinks. I read a lot from Moz and trust their content enough to use them as a referral in my blog. To Google, this seems like a vote of confidence. The more quality links you get pointing to your website, the higher its perceived quality is. Now you see I used the word “Quality”!! Your aim should not be to get tons of links pointing to your website. Not all links have the same value, some links cause more harm than good and it is better to earn a handful of quality backlinks than tons of spammy links.
That being said, what do we perceive to be a quality backlink?
A quality backlink is said to have a dofollow link within the written content on the source site.
Where can you get quality backlinks? The best source for a quality backlink is a relevant high authority site.
Let me shed some more light on the above statement.
Relevance OF A Link !! Why Consider That?
These days, Google is really smart, and gone are the days you can easily create a backlink on any random website, blog, or page and move on. Today, if you have a website or blog that deals and talks about cars, a relevant link will be one that comes from a similar website or blog (automobile). You cannot be creating backlinks from stores or blogs that deal with kids' clothes.
Building relevant links are not just to appease Google but also to your personal clientele and future sales prospecting.
Since your source of backlinks are similar to what you provide, you have a bigger shot at getting them to purchase some products you have to offer. Should they not even make a purchase they are likely to spend more time browsing your page and that results in a low bounce rate. For those that do not know what bounce rate is? Simply means the percentage of visitors to a particular website who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page.
Site Authority
When you begin to rank higher in Google search and the competition heats up, you will need more than relevant links to beat the competition. You will also need backlinks from high domain authority sites to boost your rank.
Internationally known news outlets such as CNN, New York Times, and The Daily Mail may not necessarily be related to what you have available on your website but their high domain authority will pass on to your website should you be able to get a backlink from them.
Today there are a lot of tools out there that can give you a fair idea of a website’s strength by looking at its Domain Authority. Domain Authority (DA) is a metric used by MOZ to assign every website a score depending on the number and quality of links it has.
Kindly refer to the image below.
As you can see in the screenshot above, I used a simple tool “Moz domain analysis” to check for these metrics. There are other online SEO tools that can be used to check for these metrics such as smallseotools and SemRush.
It may not be 100% accurate but the domain authority of a website can help determine if a website is worth the time and effort in creating a backlink.
Domain authority is not permanent and can change at any point in time depending on the kind of links you are building. That being said, if you should come across a freshly established blog or website that has a low domain authority, don't be quick to scrap it away, because with the right amount of links put in place a site’s domain authority can have a significant boost.
To conclude on this subject, I will like to say do not get rid of all sites with low domain authority. These can still be of use to your site but you should always aim for sites with higher domain authority.
When it comes to backlinks, there are some important points you need to take note of as they are very vital; these include the nofollow and dofollow attributes as well as an anchor text. Will quickly explain what they are and what they do.
Dofollow and Nofollow. What comes to mind?
When it comes to linking to another site or your website is being linked to, you will need to treat the links well for Google to understand what is going on. How you handle your links determines how search engines treat them as well. What I mean by that is whether your site uses Nofollow tags within its links.
By default, backlinks are dofollow and this allows link juice to be passed from one website/ blog to another. All the same, you can instruct crawlers not to give value to the link and this can simply be done by adding a “nofollow” attribute which looks something like this
If you want Google to crawl the link and follow it, the link will look something like this. If you refer to the image below you will notice the absence of the nofollow attribute.
Having some nofollow links from popular websites is also a great way to get discovered by online users. Feel free to mix it up and get some nofollow links to your website from some popular websites as these are great referrals for your website.
Trying to game the system will not work well for you in the end. It is important to have balance when building your backlinks. A mixture of follow and nofollow links are deemed more natural by Google. You can learn more on Dofollow and Nofollow links from this blog by ahrefs
Anchor Text
What is an anchor text and what role does it play in backlinking?
An anchor text is a clickable phrase or word on a blog or page that links you to another page and this can either be an internal or external link.
Anchor text is easily noticeable on a page due to the following characteristics listed below:
Use of generic words like “click here”
URL of a website {www.sitename.com}
Keyword
When it comes to the use of anchor text in your post and pages you need to be careful as you can easily overdo it, thus putting your site at risk of being penalized by Google.
You will come to notice most of the anchor text contains a keyword/keywords that tell you what the linked page is about and this helps with ranking. Your main aim should not be to match the same exact keyword as the anchor all the time. You will want Google to crawl your links and have them seem natural
Now that we know what backlinks are and how to use them on our websites and various pages, let's see how best we can leverage this information to get our pages to the first page of Google
Getting To Google First Page Using Backlinks
When it comes to link building we all have one aim and that is to rank high in Google search results and get to the first page. To take this a step further we will prefer to have our sites in the top 3 spots when a search is made.
Let's take a quick example. We are making a search for the keyword “social reviews apps”. We will all like to have our website showing in the top 3 like the image below.
As you can see in the above screenshot these are the top 3 sites that show up when we search for the keyword “social reviews apps”. These 3 sites are going to get the majority of the clicks by online users when they search for this keyword.
This is how the ratio is going to work out between these 3. The number one spot gets 33% of the clicks, 2nd spot gets 15% and 9% for the third. This percentage keeps dwindling all the way down. This alone should let you know the importance of Google first page, and this should be your target as a marketer. The only way you are getting your website to be among these top 3 spots available is with the help of quality backlinks being built. If you think you are going to get there without the help of backlinks then you better be prepared for a long tough ride.
Backlinks are very crucial when it comes to Google ranking your website on the first page and your website staying there. But to survive the test of time and keep hold of that number one spot, you will have to stay on top of your competitors.
How do you stay on top? Here are a few tips to help you out
Step 1
Evaluate Your Competition
When you search for a particular keyword in search engines, the first 10 spots on the first page are occupied by those that Google deems to have the best content and have done something right to be there. That being said, they have kind of a blueprint for you to check out and see exactly what they have done. When you have that information available to you, your next task will be to decipher the strategies that were used in getting them there and try to do better by incorporating some of the strategies.
You can simply start by searching for the keyword you wish to target. Once you do that, Google will provide you with all those on the first page and you can now target the top 3 sites on page 1 and analyze them.
Let's say you trying to rank for the keyword “social reviews apps”, you can simply search for it like I did in the above screenshot and you get to see your competitors. So ranking for the keyword social reviews apps, your competitors will be Weebly, Kudobuzz, and then we have Yotpo as the final website on this list.
Now what you need to do next is get their website URL and do a thorough backlink check on each of these websites showing up in the top 3. This way, you get to see the websites that are linking back to your competitors and the tactics being used by each of these sites
Step 2
Spy On Competitors
If you are going to be more successful than your competitors, you will definitely have to keep an eye on them and see what they are doing and what they have already done that has pushed them to the top.
There are a number of online tools that can help you with that. I personally like to go with Monitorbacklinks, Spyfu, or Semrush. All these tools come in very handy when spying on your competitors, they should give you a firm idea of what your competitors have been doing, their backlink sources, and more. You can also use these tools to locate your competitors. Now that you have the links for the various competitors you chose to spy on, you can then scan through them one by one and ensure to be selective. What I mean by that is you stay clear of all spammy links that are displayed on your competitor's site.
These links will be marked and you will be able to tell the quality of the link and when it was created by your competitors. Concentrate on good links that can be created by you as well. Take your time to choose the links, find out if they are sponsored and how the anchors are being used in the post.
You do not have to do the exact same thing your competitor is doing, take note of the most authoritative links he has per each site. These include those with high domain authority. Avoid links that have warning flags or a high spam score. Don't worry, theses apps will provide you with all the necessary information to help you go through the links and make your pick.
Now it is time to reach out to all those people and pages you got of your competitors and get the same quality backlinks your competitors are creating plus some extra you will do on your own.
But before we do any of that, is your website worth linking to? Do you have any quality content or products available? If not, you are certainly going to be driving a lot of visitors away after they land on your page. No worries I will help you work around that and get your website ready for a quality backlink campaign.
Preparing Your Website For Link Building
One may ask, what is the key to successful link building? I usually reply It starts in your own backyard. If you have a prolonged website that is not responsive, difficult to navigate, has poor image quality, and no assistance whatsoever available, you will always drive visitors away, and they are never coming back. Building the best of links or having the best bloggers provide amazing content will still not compensate for your poor website quality. These negative experiences are seen by Google and will definitely affect your website ranking Follow these few steps to get the best ROI from your link building campaign and prevent quality link juice from slipping away.
Increase Your Website Speed
When people come online looking for information or products they usually don't have time to sit and wait for your website to keep on loading. If you have a website that takes more than 5 -7 seconds to load, users are going to be avoiding it like a virus.
Should you even show up on the first page, rest assured no one is waiting on your ass. Simply do a website speed test to see how fast your site loads and attend to any issues that might come up when you do.
Tools such as Google pagespeed insight can help you check your website speed and also provide you with recommendations to improve your website speed
Some of the most common issues you may come across include the following;
Minify CSS and JavaScript
Leverage Browser Caching
Compress Images
Optimize Your Mobile View
These are some common issues that can be easily fixed by your web developer or done personally if you have a fair idea of what they are.
Check For Technical Errors On Your Website
Taking time to fix errors being reported on your website will go a long way in helping your SEO and backlinking campaign. How would you find these errors to fix? It's easy, Try the Google Search Console.
Simply add your website and you will always be sent a notification through the email you register with when you have any errors. Once you log in, go to “Crawl Errors” to get a fair idea of what is going on with your existing pages that need to be attended to.
Some codes can really affect your website and will need to be attended to immediately. Examples of such mentioned codes will be a 404 error and a 302 error. Don't get confused just yet, I will be explaining them shortly
302 Found
What this error does is to tell Google that you have moved one of your pages temporarily. When Google sees this, the link will be ignored and no authority or link juice won't be passed through that link. Preferably, a 301 redirect will get the job done as Google can trace the whereabouts of the new link and transfer all the link juice from the old page to the new one.
404 Not Found
I am sure we have all come across a 404 error page one way or the other. This happens when a link leads to a “dead-end” or an empty page that has no information whatsoever. This is very upsetting to online users that think they have found what they are looking for and get hit with a page that has nothing to offer. You can fix this by setting a 301 redirect to an already existing page or create a new page in place.
Last but not the least, let's talk about what your website looks like. When a user lands on your page, how easy is it for them to navigate to a product or collection page on your website. Do you have a well set up architecture in place that will help users locate products or information with ease?
If not, I will try to give you a fair idea of what a good website structure should look like.
Improve Your Site Architecture
Organized site architecture is key to easier transfer of link juice through your entire website. How can this be achieved?
Have a silo structure set in place. What are Silo structures?
Silo structures help you breakdown your main idea into different categories, and you can go deeper into a topic or collection for users to gain access to answers and products that fall under one main header. This way you can categorize products under niches.
Your Silos should look something like this
Image Source: https://wiseseo.guru
The image above is really self-explanatory and shows how you can break down your main topic into subheading or breakdown categories all the way down to products.
Link Building Strategy
We are now ready to begin our link building and get our website to the first page of Google. It will take a lot of hard work and doing, but we would definitely get there.
Backlink building takes time, but once you begin seeing results of your hard work, you will smile. It will take some time but you will see results when you do it right.
That being said, it is important to focus your efforts on good tactics that will drive quality results from the start than spending countless hours that don’t have an effect. When it comes to link building, diversity is key. Never set your focus on one source only. Creating backlinks from just one place will grow suspicion with Google and that is not a good sign. Mix it up, create some social bookmarks, image post, video posting, guest posting, and the list goes on and on. There are several means of getting backlinks to your website so take advantage of that and do yourself a good job. These tactics have been used by seasoned backlink builders and SEO managers and it has proven helpful when it comes to getting your site to Google's first page.
If you want to have a successful link building campaign going on you will have to at least engage in some of the following.
Guest Posting
This is simple terms means, writing an article to be published on someone else's blog or website. This can help bring brand awareness from different types of readers or audiences and this will drive new traffic to your site. You have to take your time and do our research well when doing this as there are a lot of spammy guys out there that can contribute to your site getting penalized.
What I like most about guest posting is it can bring results as soon as it goes live and this is because these are niche-based and not just posted on any random page. You have a target audience/readers and they are more likely to click and make a purchase on what you have to offer. That being said, what would pass as a high-quality guest posting or blogging site and how are you going to go about it?
Phase 1
Make Your List
Make a list of possible places you will like to have your post shared to. YOu can easily come up with a list of possible blogs and pages by searching for any of these in Google
Niche + guest blog
Niche + guest post
Niche + write for us
So should you have a blog that speaks about SEO services, simply type this in Google and you should get a list of websites that are in your niche and accept guest posts? Take a look at the screenshot below to see the list I came up with after my search
Take your time to review each and every one of these websites and check their quality for the following metrics.
Social Media Shares And Blog Comments.
This should give you a fair idea of the website's popularity and how engaging their readers are.
Domain Authority (DA). At least 35.
The domain is a ranking metric devised by Moz with scores that range from 0-100 and this is all dependent on the likelihood of how a backlink from them can improve your page.
Phase 2
Make a Juicy Offer
You should definitely be aware of the fact that you are not the only one out there looking for a guest post. So the question you should be asking yourself is what you are going to do to stand out from the others. As an SEO Manager, I have received tons of emails regarding guest posting, and believe me I have seen it all.
But before you do anything else you will need to look for the following to ensure your guest blogging success.
Name of the site owner
The email address of site owner
Links to some of your guest posts on some popular pages. Should you be new to this and have no guest post out yet, you can add some links to some blogs you have already shared on your site or any community you may be part of.
Infographics
Infographics !! Just as the name spells out the obvious, they are simple representations of information in a graphic format, and these are designed to make data easily understandable at a glance.
I can say for a fact that anytime I am reading a blog and I come across an infographic I do grab the concept much quicker. As long as it is done right, you should not have an issue understanding what is being displayed. They turn the most boring of blogs into eye-catching, shareable pieces. As humans it is in our nature to choose graphic visualizations over text. Should you want to hop into this bandwagon, there are a few things you need to consider.
Get The Necessary Information
Sit down with your team and think about possible topics that you can easily turn into visual content that can be shared. Target a hot topic in your niche and you can also look at some top posts shared on Pinterest as examples.
By simply searching for a topic on Pinterest, you can find various types of top infographics regarding your topic.
I went ahead to search for Digital Marketing on Pinterest and as you can see below I have been provided with various Infographics. You can look at these and have a fair idea of how to go about it.
Once you have agreed on a topic to work on and discuss, you can get some quality content to add up from trusted and authoritative sites or bloggers in your niche. Come up with attractive, captivating headers, titles, and captions when working on your infographics.
Get The Design Done
If you are not well equipped to design your very own infographic, it only makes sense to get someone who is a professional and get it done the right way. There are tons of decent designers online that can get this type of work done for a little fee.
Broadcasting And Promotion
Once you are done with your infographic and uploaded it to your blog or page, it is important to have an embedded code so it can be shared by your readers on their sites as well. If you don’t have an idea what that is, you can check out this code embedding generator.
Now that this is all said and done, time to get some backlinks with our infographics. We get this done by doing any of the following.
Share on Social Media Pinterest is one place where you can get a lot of traffic to your site when it comes to image posting. Upload your infographic on there and watch users repin your images years after you shared it.
Share On Directories There are a number of infographic directories you can visit and share your content. By doing so you not only get clicks and visits but you also boost your SEO and social signal building. Here are some more infographic websites you can leverage on.
You can read more on using infographics when building backlinks here.
Now that we have a fair idea of what link building is and some ways and methods to go about it, there are a few things that you need to be aware of to keep you on the right track. Let's call these:
The LAWS Of Link Building
Diversify Your Link Building
Getting backlinks from a single source like I mentioned before seems spammy and will raise flags with Google. Diversity of link building is very good as the more unique domains pointing to your site means the higher your rankings will be.
That being said, don't expect to get a backlink from any website and instantly get raked. Getting backlinks from the right sources is very vital to getting to the top pages of Google. 100 quality links will always be better than 1000 spammy links.
Simply put, get backlinks from the right sources, check the domain authority at all times, and check for spammy links as well before linking anything back to your website. Do this the right way and you are on track to getting to the top pages of Google.
With monitor backlinks, I can view all unique domains I have pointing to my website and in my backlink profile. I just have to click on unique domains on my dashboard and I can gain access to all of this information
These unique referring domains are updated on a daily basis once they are picked up by the app.
Do Not Put Your Site At Risk With PBNs
PBNs have been around for a while and is used in the link building eco-system. Some people speak highly of it and its effectiveness whiles others have tons of terrible stories about how PBNs harmed their websites and this goes to show it is not worth all the work and risk.
First of all, you spend a lot of time scrapping the net for expired domains with some good link profiles. After that has been done, you now have to get some content unto these domains. Once they are ready, you will then link all these dummy websites to your money site.
Once this is all done, just think of how you are going to minimize or clear your footsteps so your PBN is not caught on by Google.
It does work alright, once you are ready to take on the high risk of being penalized once you are caught, be my guest and by all means give it a try *Evil laugh*. All I will say is money and time is better spent on white hat SEO methods that will last for the longest time than black hat SEO methods.
Track Your Backlinks
Some competitors will do whatever it takes to push you off so they can rank higher than you. Some competitors come up with shady tactics that are solely aimed at hurting your website.
Take time to look over your backlinks every now and then to ensure you are not being linked with any harmful sites. You will know when you are being targeted once your site is being linked to many low-quality sites. They usually contain spammy content and also most at times have nothing to do with your products or services. Their content is usually stuffed with keywords and a lot of similar anchors text to lead Google to think you are trying to outsmart them.
If you are not well aware of what is going on with your backlinks your website can be totally damaged overnight. All this can easily be prevented by tracking your link profile. There are many tools out there like Monitor Backlinks that can help you do this. You get a notification once you get a new backlink and you can monitor the different metrics it provides. Should the link be a bad one, you can simply disallow it with the click of a button.
It's Time For You To Try It Out Let Me Know What Link Strategies You Come Up With
What Influenced Your Rankings Most?
Did You Try Something I Made No Mention Of In This Article?
I will Like To Know What You Think.
If you made it to the end, Thank you for reading and I hope you all enjoyed my article and be sure to comment, like, and share.