How to obtain backlinks

Getting backlinks depends on many factors about your page on which you have control. And it is essential for receiving visitors and improving your score with the search engines.

Links from directories do not bring anything except a few of them. It is essential that the backlinks are on pages of same topic as your website, and the anchors are not the repetition of the same group of keywords. Over-optimization is now penalized by the algorithms of search engines.

Content which bring links naturally (but celebs)

• Create a page in the style "10 tricks to do this or that", because such a page obtains links easily.
• Demystify an established truth. In the same idea as the preceding rule, give the list of the myths concerning some subject.
• You can choose a subject seeing the annual report Google or Yahoo on the most often given keywords in queries. As will do many other...
  Conversely, a topic which you are the only one to speak must provide links.
• If you can, create statistics on a subject of general interest. Or more easily, make a survey.
• When a new product or software is announced, get in-depth documentation about it and what is referred to it, to be able to say more than all the others which will announce the news.
• A long article is more likely to get links than a short article but what really matter is the originally of the content.
  

Design of the site

• Pages must be accessible and easy to read, written in a simple language, even if it comprises technical terms and it must be easy to find complementary information on the site. Look after the style, the orthography.
• Look after the design. Of course employ CSS and images.
• Check the validity of your HTML code. See tools.
• Do not place too much advertisements, in particular these groups of giants advertisements on full page.

Show you are an expert

• For that, give on your site a list of experts in your field.
• Always mention the licence of software and all legal mentions.
• Add links on sites of references, but forget this online wiki-encyclopaedia that is known too well, to not annoy visitors too much.

Promoting

• Directories. Some as Botw bring visitors, but it is useless and even it can be prejudicial to refer a site on hundreds of directories with no visitors and that require a link in return.
• See how to promote a website.

Take part in sites of news

• Write articles for sites open to external writers.
• Send e-mail to webmasters to announce your product.

Collaborative sites

• By putting a question on Answers from Yahoo, or by answering questions of other Net surfers, you make yourself be known.
• Take part in forums. You will easily have the occasion to put a link on your site if its contents contribute to solve a problem which is posed. On the Google groups in particular.
  It goes without saying that this will have a return if on this occasion you show your competence and not whether you tend to just spam by adding links to your site.
• Write a summary of your best articles and propose them on the blogs and collaborative sites of information (digg-like).
• Add comments on the pages which allow it, which is always the case of blogs. As for the forums, that can possibly be the occasion to add a link.
• There exists many wikis in which you can take part. It is of course not a tool of referencing, but if there are articles on products similar to yours, and if yours is popular, verify that one speaks about it too.
  Most wikis do not bring backlinks because of the nofollow attribute on the links, useless thus to add a link on your site.
• Use Twitter and register in following for accounts related to your business. This can let know your site to the Webmaster. In a second time you will get your own followers.
• Make a review on Amazon, add comments, or create a list. You can even get a percentage on sales.
• Participating in specialized forums on Google Groups you can have the opportunity to publicize your site.

Contribute with scripts

• Build a template for Wordpress, PhpBB, or another CMS. (See the list of CMS). The template must not contain itself a link towards your site (it would be spam) but the page describing the theme should link it.
• If you know hot to program, write an extension for Firefox.
• More easily, an extension for a CMS, which is only PHP code, such as a protection against spams for example.
• Any script is a source of backlinks.

Exchanges

• If a site speaks about your articles, speak about this site, that shows to your readers that you are known. But that should not be automatic, and do not contact Webmasters to say to them "you owe me a link" when you speak about their site.
• Quote others webmasters in your articles, as experts. They will be flattered and will speak about your site.
• If your site is a blog, blogrolls on similar sites allow to exchange visitors.

The hunt to broken links

• Webmasters do it for themselves or for their clients' websites. Look at good sites, with pages relevant to the site you want to promote, for broken links. This can be done with a link checking tools like Link Checker (see in the scripts section).
• Send an email to the webaster to signal that the page contains a broken link, and offer him instead a link to one of your pages.
  The result depends on how you will present your request and on the webmaster: he may only thank you or simply not respond and delete the broken link. In the best case it will be grateful to accede to your request and replace the link.

Make a blog (for a commercial website)

• As all public celebrities and characters do it now, as well as companies, add a blog to your site. That let you enter in a blogosphere, a group of blogs dependent between them. It is common in a blog to quote another blog. That also makes it possible to speak about what you want to make known.
• News obtain links easily in particular if an RSS feed is created. They must be renewed because their duration is limited.

Select the sources of backlinks

Whatever the nature of the sites from which we hope links, digg-like, partner, another blog, etc. avoid sites that have unfair practices :

• Black hole sites: they get the benefit of incoming links but do not link to other sites.
• Networks, another form of black hole: they do links inside a network of partners only.
• Invisible use of X-Robots: their external links are nofollow, but it is invisible.
• Google highlights it, there are few directories, from wich links are valuables.
  Often they make use of the submissions as a medium for advertising. Sometimes they stole the place of submitted sites in search engine results through X-Robots yet.
  Get assured they are moderated and structured and the descriptions have a unique content.
• Link exchange, usually in footer, are to be avoided as well, it is another thing that the previous article from Google reminds.

To see which sites provide links and which do not provide, see at the Links entry in Google Webmaster Tools.

List of directories

• botw.org/
• www.joeant.com/
• www.dirjournal.com/
• www.goguides.org/
• www.skaffe.com/
• www.rubberstamped.org/
• www.sevenseek.com/