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March 17, 2010

Backlinking Etiquette - A Guide to Better Backlinks

Building backlinks is perhaps one of the most important aspects of search engine optimization in any scenario, as it directly affects the way the search engines view the popularity of your site. Without an adequate amount of backlinks, it is nearly impossible to get the search engine ranking you desire, as your site will simply not have the overall web presence it needs. Building backlinks is also one of the most difficult aspects of search engine optimization as it often requires a lot of manual work. If you are not familiar with the concept of backlinking, then you'll need to know that a backlink is any link on the web hat links back to your website. The more links there are, the more popular your site appears to be to the search engines.

Proper Link Exchange

It may sound impossible to get a lot of other sites to link back to your site with no experience or connections in the web industry, but it is actually quite possible with the right technique. All you need to do is exchange links with other webmasters in your industry. Simply contact them, and offer to place  their link on your site, if they will do the same for you. You have to remember that it is not the quantity of the backlinks that matters, but the quality. Meaning, your goal is to have backlinks placed primarily on sites that are highly relevant to yours, and that have plenty of incoming traffic. The reason for this is because you want the traffic that is coming through those links to be as targeted as possible. If the traffic is not targeted, then you'll simply be wasting bandwidth and time, as the traffic coming to your website is simply not going to convert into sales.

Take Your Time

Since there are two different kind of backlinks, the amount of time it takes to build those backlinks varies. If you want high quality backlinks then it will most likely take you several weeks to several months before you have established a healthy amount of backlinks. On the other hand, there are other options for you if you are not concerned about the quality of the backlinks, such as automated software and backlink building services. The problem with the backlink shortcuts are that Google monitors the progression of backlink building closely, and if your site is building too many backlinks too quickly, it can easily become de-indexed from Google.

Link to Your Whole Site

One of the main mistakes people make when building backlinks is using only links to their home page. If you decide to spread only the link to your homepage, then you'll effectively be promoting only your home page. This means the rest for your site will not get nearly as much search engine traffic, thus minimizing your overall web presence. The best way to drive targeted traffic to your site in large amounts is to have at least 5-10 backlinks to every one of your pages.

Tags: website popularity,  SEO,  search engine ranking,  search engine optimization,  building backlinks,  backlinks