What is a backlink and why should I care?

Building back-links to your website is one of the most important steps you can take to make your website visible to the search engines.  However, when I speak with clientelle and I talk about building back-links, the most common response is a blank stare!

So what exactly is a back-link and why is it important?

A back-link is one website linking to another.  That's it.  Pretty simple!

Why is this important?

This is one of the MOST important steps to your website building endeavors because the search engines count how many other people are linking to your site.  The search engines are very sophisticated, however they are still not as sophisticated as human beings.  The search engines consider a back-link to be a recommendation for the content on a page and the philosophy of the search engines is that what other people say about a website is more trustworthy then what is placed on the site itself.

How do I build backlinks?

As with just about everything in SEO, it all begins with keywords.  The first thing you need to do is spend some time to research the keyword that you want to your site to show up with.  Then, you want to use that keyword as the "Anchor Text" for your link.

Here is an example:

Beaverton Carpet Cleaning

This is one of my current clients.  The anchor text in this ad is the actual keyword we are targeting for.  We are targeting for Carpet cleaning in beaverton oregon.

The search engines now look at these backlinks as really relevent.  many people make the mistake of using the words CLICK HERE as the actual anchor text, but the search engines consider the actual keyword like Beaverton Carpet Cleaners as much more relevant.

So how do I get backlinks like this?

There are several strategies that you can implement to put this strategy to work for you.  One thing you can do is start a business blog.  When you start a business blog you can write about your industry.  In this example, our client is going to start a blog about cleaning carpets, and Beaverton Carpet Cleaning is going to be used thoughout the articles.

Another strategy is to use article directories.  You can write business articles about your industry and you can place your back-links within the content of your articles.  Once again, you could teach how to get stains out and write Beaverton Carpet Cleaners in the article.

Do this consistently over a period of months and as the search engines find your links, they are going to give more and more credit to your primary page.Tweet