Backlinks sometimes described as ‘inbound links’ are key to the visibility of your web pages in the search engines and attracting visitor traffic. When thinking about backlinks there are three elements you need to consider, the source from which the backlinks come from, the anchor text of the backlinks and the content of the page to which the backlinks sends the visitor to.
The amount of backlinks
The number of backlinks to a page is one of the elements the search engines take into account when deciding how to position the page in the SERPS (Search Engine Page Results).
The origin of the backlinks
Backlinks are like votes – the higher the number of votes (backlinks) the more authoritative the page is viewed by the search engine. So it follows that pages with backlinks from ‘trusted pages will receive a much higher value consideration from the search engines. Government (.gov) and educational (.edu) sites are prime examples of sites that are authoritative and trustworthy.
Google Page Rank
Backlinks from web pages with high page rank (a ‘reward’ awarded 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 influences 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 mistakes
A significant number of people undermine their backlinks building activities because they focus on quantity as opposed to quality of backlinks. Having a significant number of backlinks to your page doesn’t necessarily mean the search engines will view your page as relevant.
How to manufacture backlinks
So let me tell you my no nonsense process for acquiring backlinks that will make the search engines take notice of you and bring the right type and appropriate traffic to your web site.
- To begin with you should focus on selecting the right keywords.
- I like to build a keyword ‘cloud’.
- I most often start with a single ‘top’ level keyword or key phrase which has significant visitor traffic.
- To work out the volume of visitor traffic is being generated by searches for my primary keyword I use the Google keyword analyzer tool.
- The Google tool creates a list of keywords associated with my main keyword and from this list I grow my cloud.
- I then generate content in the form of articles and videos with backlinks with the right ‘anchor text’ to my ‘money’ or ‘target’ page and push these to a wide range of content directories.
- When I write my content I do so with the reader in mind so as each piece of content attracts backlinks to itself as well as sends backlinks to my target pages.
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