Episode 011 – Building Backlinks Part 1 of 3

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Building backlinks is one of the most important aspects of SEO. Who, where, and how many all are important. This six step series will guide you through popular ways to get backlinks.

As we discussed before, don’t use automated, subscriber based services, or other shortcuts. There is no substitute for good old fashioned hard work!

These steps assume you’ve already made a keyword spreadsheet and have your top terms selected. If you don’t have your terms selected this tool will help immensely. SEOBook Keyword Tool.

STEP 1: Email Link Requests
Your competitors are on the front page because of their backlinks, age, and on-page optimization. You can’t do much about the age of your domain but you can change the other two aspects.

Type your phrase your competing on: “little dog clothes” The top result is www.gwlittle.com

Now take that domain and plug it into your backlink checkers. I like http://www.iwebtool.com/backlink_checker because it provided the pagerank of the link. That way you don’t spend all your time chasing down low value links. I like this tool http://www.webuildpages.com/neat-o/ because it also gives you the anchor text with the page. Use both tools together to get a combination of anchor text and page rank.

After you get 10-15 quality links to pursue, write them a personalized email. Try not to sound like an automated spammer.

EXAMPLE:

Hi [Name – try to get a name if at all possible],

Your site on [subject] is very interesting. I found your list of resources on [url of page] helpful. I’m a small business owner of www.[websitename].com. We provide [describe services] and would be a valuable resource to your visitors. Please come check us out at www.[your website].com

This is my personal email address and phone number, [name@email.com]. Please feel free to contact me.

Regards,

[Name]

STEP 2: Submit to Paid Inclusion Directories
These directories are trusted directories and provide great backlinks quickly. If you have to pick just one, pick yahoo. An important thing to remember when submitting to most directories is that your site can’t be under construction or not have any content on it. Yahoo will decline your site if it looks like hell.

dir.yahoo.com/
www.stpt.com/directory/
www.joeant.com/
www.ezilon.com/
www.botw.org/
www.elib.org/
directory.v7n.com/
www.rlrouse.com/
www.uncoverthenet.com/
www.abilogic.com/
www.sunsteam.com/
www.alivedirectory.com/
www.site-sift.com/
www.wowdirectory.com/
www.socengine.com/
www.octopedia.com/
www.massivelinks.com/

For a more exhaustive list: http://www.seocompany.ca/directory/top-web-directories.html