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9 Free Ways To Get Good Backlinks
Whether you’re a blogger or a small business owner with a website, the cornerstone of SEO is backlinks. What are backlinks? In plain English it’s when another site links back to your site.
The more the merrier. But how do you get backlinks? There are many ways to gain links back to your blog, below are our top nine picks.
1. Guest Posting – This is by far one of the absolute best methods to generate good backlinks to your blog or site. Why? Because you get to literally choose which blog to submit to and this could be a high PR site, a highly targeted niche, a high traffic blog, etc. Also known as guest blogging or guest articles.
2. Yahoo Answers – I found out about this one, when one day i was looking at my backlinks on a blog of mine, and noticed a link from Yahoo Answers. Someone had reference a blog post of mine as an answer to a question. Pretty cool.
3. Digg – This method only works if you become an active member. Don’t just visit once a week and drop a link, or most likely you will get banned. Submit stories from reputable and big name sites like CNN, WSJ, etc. When you write a killer post, submit it and share it with your friends.
4. Digital Point Forum – This method involves joining the forum, becoming active and adding your links in signature area of your member profile. You’re only allowed a few links in there, so use wisely.
5. Blog Carnivals – In my opinion, this is the second best method to generate backlinks to your blog, and is pretty easy to do. Go to the blog carnival website, find related topic carnivals and submit your best blog posts. That’s it.
6. Do Follow Blog Commenting - Some blogs allow for links back to your blog when you leave a comment, these types of blogs are considered dofollow blogs. Find relevant niche dofollow blogs and leave good comments. Update: Even if the blog or site is no follow, go ahead and leave a comment anyway. They carry less juice, but still count.
7. Top Commentators Widget – This is a widget that some WordPress bloggers use to thank their commenters. Essentially when you get listed on this widget, you get a linkback from the carrier blog.
8. Throw a Contest – have a giveaway on your site and make sure that to enter, members have to write about the contest on their site and then this way you get a nice link back. Then be sure to submit it to the various online contest sites, as not only will you get interested parties coming to check out your hot contest, but you might get another nice shiny new backlink as well.
9. The Almighty Blogroll Link- Keep in mind that an established blogger with a PR 3 and above Google pagerank isn’t likley to give up a coveted blogroll spot to a new blog with zero rank. Why? Because (in Googles eyes) this blog is not yet gained any authority and you should not be linking to it. The best type of link for a new blog is another new blog in the same niche. If you find someone with an established blog to give up a blogroll link, something is wrong. Stay away.
Some other cool ways to build good backlinks to your blog or website include press releases, wordpress theme links, widgets, article marketing, directories, and the list goes on and on.
Key is relevancy and to stay away from what Google considers “bad neighborhoods”, in other words sites with little to no content and a bunch of ads. Steer clear of these sites.
Share Your Creative Link Building Ideas Below?
What creative backlinks methods have you tried and or heard about that caught you by surprise? Please share below.
About Missy
Missy Diaz is primarily a freelance writer (and blogger) that offers a popular guest blogging service to website owners. She also creates WordPress powered websites and blogs and is the author of Super Blogga, a fun action packed pocket guide aimed at new blog owners with over 70 bite size tips available as an ebook and on Amazon.
Connect with me on Google+.
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Thanks for sharing this insight. I have been considering getting involved in the DP community, but haven’t yet. Didn’t realize that it was do-follow backlinks. That is awesome. I have to get started this week.
I am still with Yan on this one, commenting on blogs seem to be the best for me….when I am participating. Will be doing more of that this month.
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Hey, Freddie:
I too recently (within the last few months) just got hip to the fact that the links in your sig on Digital Point are dofollow. I had always used it before, and had links on there. Just didn’t know they were dofollow. lol. Now we both know. Plus i have been a member there well over a year now and am an active member. Both key to backlink success.
I do comment on blogs, but not as much as Yan. And yes it is an excellent method for generating backlinks.
Thanxs for the Monday visit.
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Hi, UA: Weird name for a blog site. You might want to rethink that one. lol. In any case glad you dropped by and let me know if you have any questions.
Hey, Brando: Glad you enjoyed the post. And hang in there with your blog, build one step at a time. I checked out your blog, looks good to me. Keep it up.
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You provide some good suggestions, though I wanted to comment on some of them.
1. How do you recommend getting a chance to guest post?
2. Yahoo Answers links are no follow if I remember correctly, does this hurt its value?
4. Great from all aspects. You can alsso learn a lot from their forum!
Otherwise, everything was great! Nice job!
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P.S. I forgot to address your other questions. As for landing a guest post from a cool blog in your niche, my advice would be:
1. Ask
2. Ask
3. AskThis usually does the trick. Make sure the blog you ask is one that ties into your niche. Is the blog established, does it have a rank of 2 or better, etc.
Yahoo Answer links are “nofollow”, but his doesn’t mean a link there has no value. It does. It has value in the sense that it can garner you traffic, exposure, etc. Many bloggers swear by using Yahoo Answers as a blog marketing tactic.
Thanxs for the visit. Do come again.
Talk soon,
Missy.
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Sorry, just spotted your comment on Yahoo Answers in the comments section. But still, it’s a topic I’ve been curious on. What are the implications of no follow? Does it have no weight?
And I agree with Derek. When you find people in your niche, it often makes sense to ask them to link to you since visitors will be interested.
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Hi, Xscape:
Essentially when your link is “nofollowed” it means Google doesn’t give it alot of credence. Google assigns a rank to each site on the web and this rank is based on the number (and quality) of links pointing to a site. So when a link is nofollow, essentially (in Google’s eyes) it doesn’t count. For the purposes of rank.
When a link is “dofollow”, it does count. (towards ranking)
Hope this answers your question. I’m not an SEO expert but then again who is. Let me know. Talk soon, Missy.
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Hi, Simon: Many bloggers rec Yahoo Answers because of the targeted traffic benefit, and i know it works. Because i get a dash of traffic to a veg blog i run when someone (not me) posted a link to YA leading to an article on the blog. The page doesn’t get boodles of traffic, just some hits here and there. But it is targeted traffic.
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Max: I swear something is wrong with my comments, as i’m pretty sure i had replied to your comment. Hmmn. I think the comment monster ate it. Really.
Well, let me answer it again. Hopefully this time it will stick. I see now that i replied to your Kaboodle backlink idea but not the CommentLuv question.
***I have CommentLuv enabled and always have, but it apparently iswont working. I noticed Andy (the creator of CL) on Twitter the other day and quickly asked him why it wasn’t working, he advised me that the CL plugin won’t work alongside the MCE plugin.
So i’m deactivating MCE for now. Hopefully this will get CommentLuv working again. Thanxs for catching it and i do hope ALL you guys get good use out of it.
Talk soon,
Missy. -
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Hi, Dave:
Some blogs have the nofollow removed via a wp plugin, and this makes comments dofollow. The TC widget also can be dofollow.
I am in the process of making this blog dofollow through the TC widget. So do comeback and leave some comments to make it on the Top Commentators widget, and get a little link juice love.
I appreciate your visit (and your comment). Cheers!
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Thanks for the post. I have used a lot of blog commenting before with success. I also do some Digg but it seems to take a long time. I’ll try the yahoo answers soon. I thought they didn’t work well but recently I had a problem with my computer and the yahoo answers came first in Google so I guess people actually seem them
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Seems like every page I visit on this blog just keeps cementing the fact that I have no idea what I’m doing.
I comment on blogs, not for any other reason but to ask questions. I will admit that I had no idea what a follow no follow was before today.
Does having a few links from yahoo answers help build authority?Thanks,
Stanley -
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Hi, Mingus:
Article marketing is a very good method for generating backlinks. Whether you write the articles yourself or hire someone to write them for you, I highly recommend it.
Want to know what I consider the absolute BEST method for generating good free backlinks? In my opinion guest posting is even better than article marketing because you have total control over everything, including the anchor text, pagerank, the author box and everything else. Find blogs that are related to your niche that have atleast a PR of 2 and send them an email asking if you can submit a few guest posts. Most likely they will be thrilled and be happy to receive a few free articles.
Let me know if you have any other questions. Cheers!
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Thanks for these useful tips.
My favorites way to build backlink is dofolow blog o r even better: dofollow + top commentators blogs, but there are not munch blogs which have this widget…
Dofollow and High PR forums like Digital point, warrior forum, ect is very good too, if we are very active, traffic will all jump on our links. ^^
.-= Sushie´s last blog ..To lose weight with light products =-. -
Hi Missy- I did not know you had this site until you sent me the download link tonight for gv. Funny thing i was searching for backlink info today… great post!
.-= tmo´s last blog ..Apartment investing check lists =-.-
Hey, Thomas:
Nice to see you here. I’ll be happy to guide you on link building and anything else I can assist you with. Just let me know.
p.s. I have a roster of blog sites, some are to flip and some are mine to keep. This one i’ve had quite abit, but have changed it up a MILLION times. lol. I want it to be more of a CMS than a blog. So working on it.
Cheers,
Missy
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Thanks a lot you have really made my link building mission alot easier by explaining the basics. I have spent many hours searching everything I can about S.E.O. I came across alot of useful information until I came across your info. Backlinks is everything in S.E.O and I just didnt understand it. You made it alot easier to understand so thank you.
Chris
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Missy:
Hi, Tom:
I have an idea. You could read the article above.Thank you yes I did read the article above. Yahoo answers is great for traffic I’ve used it before but there links are nofollow..and its seems more and more websites are now. I’ve browsed through lists of ‘do follow’ social sites but when I submit my link it turns out to be nofollow…I’ll keep looking.
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Missy:
Hey, Tom:
Was just joking above. But seriously one of the best methods to get quality do follow backlinks is via the following methods:
1. Guest Articles
2. Article Marketing (try Ezines)
3. Blog Comments – look for relevant niche sites and add a commentYeah guest articles are something I really want to look into in the next few months, I also agree that blog comments are great, but as I mentioned…I’ve begun to notice that a lot more are nofollow than I thought which is a shame
Cheers for the tips!
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Thanks for the advice on getting backlinks, I have been looking for blogs and sites within the same niche to join in with conversation and commenting but I find it hard to actually find them.
I noticed a question above regarding if reciprocal linking still being good? Having looked around for the answer, I seem to find mixed feelings about it so still not entirely sure?
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I just found out from a friend on Twitter that Yahoo Answers is nofollow, which means links don’t count as backlinks. FYI, all links are good for SEO, but some carry abit more weight than others.
I must have spotted the Yahoo Answers link in Google Analytics not on my wp admin baclinks dashboard, like i originally had thought.
**Shout out to Ben from Frogstr for the correction.