Backlinks: The dummies guide

backlinks clinic

Often called off page links, backlinks are the sledgehammer of search engine positioning and traffic generation. Backlinks have three key properties, the web page from which the backlinks come from, the anchor text of the backlinks and what’s on the page to which the backlinks sends the visitor to.

The quantity of backlinks

The volume of backlinks to a page is one of the factors the search engines take into account when deciding where to position the page in the results displayed to the searcher.

The origin of the backlinks

Backlinks are like votes - the higher the volume of votes (backlinks) the more authoritative the page is considered by the search engine. But ‘votes’ passed via backlinks from trusted or authoritative pages to a page have greater influence over the search engines consideration of this page than backlinks originating from pages with lower ‘trust’ or authority. Obvious examples of trusted sources of backlinks carrying higher authority are pages belonging to education (.edu) and government (.gov) web sites..

Google Page Rank

Backlinks from web pages with high page rank (an attribute given by Google to each page that it has observed 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 sites related to ‘parenting’ than if the backlink was labeled ‘babycare’.

Common issues

The majority people mess up their backlinks building activities because they focus on quantity as opposed to quality of backlinks. Having a large volume of backlinks to your page doesn’t necessarily mean the search engines will consider your page as relevant.

How to manufacture backlinks

So let me tell you my no nonsense method for acquiring backlinks that will make the search engines love you and bring quality and relevant traffic to your web site.

1. To begin with you should focus on selecting the right keywords.
2. I always aim to create a keyword cloud.
3. You should always start by identifying a key word or phrase which has a good traffic.
4. To find out how much visitor traffic is being generated by searches for my top level keyword I use the Google keyword analyzer tool.
5. The Google tool builds a list of keywords associated with my main keyword and from this list I flesh out my cloud.
6. I then create content in the form of articles and videos in which I have embedded backlinks with the right ‘anchor text’ to my ‘money’ or ‘target’ page and send these to a wide range of content directories.
7. My guiding principle is to write content that will attract visitors and compel them to follow the backlinks to my target pages as well as send backlinks.