What Are Backlinks And Why Are They Important?

One of the biggest search engines out these days is Google. Google ranks using content, formatting, and linking. The higher that Google calculates the 'quality' of your website, the higher your ranking will be in Google searches. One way to have your website seen as high quality by Google is to have other websites link to it. This is known as backlinking (thus "how to create backlinks").

In this article I will show you how to create backlinks to your website and have it indexed by Google a bit faster (usually). This is by no means meant to be a long and wordy novel on the joys of how to create backlinks. What I'm hoping is to give some simple steps that you can take to jumpstart your site on Google using backlinks. Please comment and let me know if this article was of any help!

(To recap: Backlinks are links from other sites to your websites. Backlinks are important because good backlinks increase your ranking on Google searches.)

NOTE: Nothing beats having great content! Make sure that you have something that will catch people's attention. What good is a link to something that doesn't make people want to keep coming back to your site?

There are already plenty of sites that rank highly on Google. Why not use these to boost your site's ranking? Here are 3 ways to create backlinks from these websites:

1. Post regularly and then ask for a link, or post a link eventually. Make sure that you add information and quality to their site before trying to create a backlink from it. (No one likes a freeloader!)
2. Find older, high PR sites that still have guestbooks setup. Simply enter a nice comment that features links to your website.
3. Search in Google for high ranking blog sites that feature comments by typing in "[your keywords here]" "powered by wordpress" "leave a comment" -"no comments". Once you gain some results, go through the sites and make sure that they do not have the "no follow" code. (you can do this by pressing "Ctrl+U" then "Ctrl+F". Type in "nofollow". If the word search finds "nofollow" in the website code, then you are unable to add a link. Otherwise, you should be good to link to your website.)

A VERY good and popular way to get your website listed on Google is through social bookmarking websites such as Digg.com. Not only do these sites give your website exposure, but they also create tons of backlinks. These sites are indexed by Google pretty regularly, and so your submissions stand a good chance of being indexed quickly. 3 simple steps of getting setup on social bookmarking sites are:

1. If it applies, make sure to optimize your article / post headlines for maximum interest. (see: "10 Surefire Headline Formulas That Work")
2. Got to www.socialmarker.com to sign up for, and submit your website to, social bookmarking sites
3. Make sure to submit your major articles and posts (but don't overdo it!).
4. Make sure to add friends and comment on other posts / articles. The more friends that you have, and quality posts and votes that you've made, the more chance you have to get traffic (and backlinks) to your website.

Squidoo and Hubpages are both websites that provide users with one webpage to write about any topic. This is pretty useful since, just like the social bookmarking sites, these sites are indexed regularly and rank pretty high on Google. A good strategy is to submit articles, that include links back to your website, to these sites as pages. Submit articles with enough quality and people will link back to your squidoo and hubpages sites.

Video Marketing is a great way to advertise and create backlinks. A Secret: There is usually a lot less competition for the ranking of videos in searches, than the ranking of websites. So there is A LOT of potential to get yourself noticed. Not only will people link to and view your videos, but they will sometimes put your videos on their websites as well! 3 steps to creating backlinks through videos are:

1. Sign up for the video website and enter information about your website in your website profile.
2. Post funny, shocking, or informative videos that have to do with your website. make sure to use software like Camtasia to edit the video so that it includes a branded watermark (An example: BigBadBully: Teach Your Dog To Sit).
3. Make sure to also post your videos to your blog or website with added text.

(YouTube and Google Video are great websites to create backlinks)

Another option is going back to the basics with text link trade. I'm not talking about the trades that you're used to. This linking system basically adds links to sites that choose to have a link posted from your website. The good thing about it is that the code that THEY use will include a backlink to your site. The code that the person who clicks through their site will use will have a backlink to your website as well. Check it out at.

Binary Traffic

6: Get Creative!

Some creative ways to create backlinks include:

1. Create Software that includes links to your website.
2. Create Plugins that include links to your website.
3. Create Website Code that includes links to your websites.
4. Create Website Layouts / Templates that include links to your website (can you imagine how many backlinks this could make for you?!).
5. Donate To A Non-Profit Organization / Cause that posts up informatin about people who make donations. Have them post up information about your website.
6. Answer questions on "Yahoo! Answers" and other "answer sites". Make sure to put a link to your website in your answer (preferably to an article or page on your site that addresses the question).
7. Join Twitter and have it follow your posts.
8. Create a Myspace And Facebook Profile for your website.
9. Be a guest author on blogs and news websites.
10. Create an online forum or Yahoo/Google group.
11. Create an ebook, that has plenty of links to your website, and that you can give away for free.
12. Submit your site to web directories.
13. Link inside of craigslist ads.
14. Link inside of forums.
15. Join the BBB (Better Business Bureau).
16. Network with friends and local businesses for links.