With over 4 years of experience in blogging and search engine optimization I decided to share almost every possible way to create backlinks.
Links to your blog or website can help your website accumulate a large audience (make sure to have killer content before you start content marketing). Not only can search engine fueled web traffic can help catapult your website to the top ranks, but it can also help you out preform your competition.
Without a doubt this list will be very helpful for beginners. So if you don’t have single clue about backlinking, you’ve stumbled upon a great article! If you’re a blogger yourself or a SEO expert, you may already know many of the tips mentioned below. But don’t close this tab, I can guarantee that you will walk away with something new after reading this.
So, let’s cut the crap and check out all the way you can create backlinks to your website. This article is formatted so you can easily skim through the methods you already know and halt on the ones which you had no clue about.
1. Backlinks from the social media
Before you start backlinking, you can easily get your links up on the most common social networks and web directories. Get your website links on a Google+ Profile, Facebook page, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, Dmoz, MySpace,etc. Getting your links on these websites is very easy. You just have to create a profile, page, or submit your link.
2. Business Listings
Online Business Listings on Google Places, listings.local.yahoo.com, and LinkedIn will make your website more visible. People searching for your service could quickly see if your business exists, or is actually legit.
3. Article Directories
A good read always makes your heart and mind full. You could talk about different prospects of your business or explain better ways to use a product. Depending on whatever you sell, you can let people know about the benefits and good parts of your industry, product, or service. Put a link to your website at the bottom and you’re good to go.
After a hefty read, people will tend to click on your link and follow your website. Directories like Ezine articles, GoArticles, Articlebase, Helium and a lot of other article directories can help you with this. Just Google for “Article Directories” and you will have hundreds of article directories at your disposal. (I request not to submit to those directories which already got hit in recent penguin update.)
4. Create Pages wherever you can
Almost all social networking sites allow you to create page a for your business. Start by creating a page on Facebook and adding a link in the “About” section. It’s always important to keep your page updated and constantly reach out to as many people as possible. People tend to visit website which are highly active,. Don’t just create your page and allow it to collect digital dust.
Google and other search engines give a ton of value to popular pages on Facebook. Don’t put your eggs into one basket, other networks like MySpace, LinkedIn etc. are also worthy of your time.
5. Free web pages
Create your own blog at common blogging sites like Blogspot, WordPress, and Tumblr. Create unique blog posts and promote them. An easier way would be to contact good bloggers in your niche and strike a deal with them. This “deal” would be something along the lines of you donating funds to them to get a link back to your website.
Find related blogs ( site: blogspot.com “social media” OR “SEO”)
You will get a list of 100 blogs.
Sort them with decreasing PR. (Use seoquake addon in chrome or firefox.)
Start contacting each blogger. Tell them you’re interested in donating some funds to make his/her blog active.
That’s it!!!!
Create a Squidoo Lens
Squidoo pages are very effective. Make a Squidoo page with unique content and describe your business there. Get effective backlinks from a Squidoo Lens and create more lenses around different aspects.
6. Tweet, Tweet, and Tweet
There are numerous automated scripts that keep track of Twitter 24/7 for particular keywords and topics. Other businesses, bloggers, or enthusiasts in the same niche will follow you if you tweet frequently about things relative to their/your niche. With a simple Google search you can find automated tweeting scripts that will tweet content from your website at random time intervals. Also, be sure to use hashtags to make your tweets more effective.
7. Youtube Links
This tip might be a bit unethical, however many people do this.
As you may already know, Youtube is one of the most visited sites on the Internet. Using a Youtube video downloader, download videos related to your niche. Re-upload them on your fake Youtube account and link back to your website.
I don’t really recommend doing this, however this “trick” has been out of the bag for quite sometime. If you take some time to produce original high quality content, that would definitely bring in a higher degree of traffic back to your website.
8. Backlinks from Comments
Links from comments are typically easy to get. Make relevant comments on well-known blogs with good authority. For example, if you sell technology stuffs, a related comment on some other technology blog is effective. Just take a note that spamming never helps.
It’s better to invest some time and post valid comments rather than the usual “Great post,” or “Great article.”
9. Links on Forums
Forums are where people meet and discuss various topics, ideas, or problems. Spreading links across forums related to your niche is an effective link building strategy. You should obviously spend some time to find the top 10 forums related to your niche and spend more time there. Wasting time on less active forums isn’t a smart thing to do.
If the forum is very popular, links from it will drive healthy traffic back to your website. Remember that search engine spiders track backlinks from forums. Also, be sure to have a link to your website in your signature. This will increase your chances of exposure.
10. Link Exchange
There are several ways to exchange links. You can directly mail webmasters of related websites trying to negotiate a deal with them. On the other hand, there are forums which have sections to exchange links. You can also post your offers to exchange links with them.
11. Paid Links
There are link directories who charge you a small amount of fees to list your link in their directory. The payment is worth it.
12. Guest Blog Posts
Guest articles are a great weapon to build backlinks. You can write an article for another blog and have a backlink to your blog.
For example, if you are selling Android phones, you could target well known Android blogs like AndroidPolice, AndroidandMe, or AndroidHardwares.
Simply drop in a mail to their webmasters and check for the options available for guest blogging. Google for “inurl:write-for-us” “inurl:contribute intext:write for us” etc. You can find many blogs relevant to your niche that accept guest articles.
Some useful resources:
http://www.petersandeen.com/list-of-guest-blogging-sites/
http://www.shoutmeloud.com/list-of-50-best-blogs-that-accept-guest-posts.html
http://www.guestbloggingtactics.com/blogs-that-accept-guest-posts/
http://www.bloggingways.net/2013/05/list-of-top-100-high-pagerank-guest-blogging-sites.html
(You can contact me with your resource to get listed here)
13. Create Resource Lists
A comprehensive resource list makes it easy for bloggers to point to your website instead of rewriting the content by themselves. Take for example this article. Sure, you can copy this exact article and publish it on your website, or you could simply tweet or share it with your friends and save about 10-15 hours of work. People value good articles. They can clearly see if something was slapped together in a few minutes.
14. Reviews and Case Studies
People like to compare before they buy anything. While product owners flaunt with only advantages of their product, you can combine a few similar products and list down their advantages and disadvantages. Affiliates tend to link your article on their site and thereby backlinks are automatically generated.
15. Review other’s content
Everyone loves to be praised. So the next time you praise a good author or link out to his/her article from yours, he or she may see it and link back to your site. This is basically common courtesy.
16. Host a survey
Provide an incentive for people to complete your survey. This will bring in more people to take your survey. For example, when somebody completes your survey provide them with an ebook once they complete your survey.
Share your survey data with high authority websites via email. They may cover your survey and write about your findings. This will result in more spotlight for you or your business. It’s a win win situation if you think about it.
17. The Free Tool Story
Once you provide a tool for free, people will point to your site for downloading the same. Hire a bunch of developers to get a free utility built.
This should be exclusively available on your website so that others create a backlink to your tool download page.
18. Add social sharing Widgets
Social sharing widgets enable readers to share your content. Any useful content that you generate will most likely be shared by your readers.
Your readers’ effort of sharing good content will give you a lot of backlinks in the long run and gain you more valuable visitors.
19. Sponsor a Cause
Sponsor any organization and they’ll be most likely link back to your site. You can find plenty of websites to sponsor, just make sure to check their page rank and authority first.
20. Attend Events related to your niche
By being an event attendee, you’re exposing yourself and your business. It would be even better if you get a chance to speak at an event. Never ever miss an opportunity to speak if you’re given a chance.This will gain you contacts as well as good readers.
21. Create a free Webinar
If your webinar delivers some useful content, people will tend to link back. Be sure to cover an interesting topic, don’t go for topics which people have little to no interest in.
22. Create eHow and wikiHow Articles
This one is pretty straight forward. Create niche relevant “How-to” articles.
23. Answer questions raised by others
There will be a lot of questions raised by your audience on sites like Yahoo Answers and Quora. Answer such questions and add a backlink to your website. If the question is common and you have a good answer, it may also be listed as the chosen best answer. This is a very good tip in reaching the direct audience.
24. Paid Links
Many websites can include your link in their blogroll if you pay them. Strike a good deal to get a backlink from their website to yours.
Be sure to search for the high page rank blogs with good backlinks. Your rankings in Google will be boosted.
25. Avoid Automatic Tools
There are many automatic applications that will generate “quality” backlinks. These are mostly false and in return will lover your websites rankings. STAY AWAY FROM THEM!
If there was some magic software without any flaws, everybody would be using it. Building back links takes a lot of time and effort. Don’t be gullible to “short-cuts,” if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.
26. Avoid Article Spinning
Article spinning was a golden path of the past. Spinning articles is absolutely useless these days and could even get you sandboxed. Be genuine and only use unique content. If needed, post a few lines from one of your articles and link back to your website. But whatever you do, never use spun content.
27. Verify link exchange requests
When other webmasters email you asking for a link exchange, verify the deal. Never accept a link exchange with a website that has a lower page rank than you.
28. Bookmarking Services
This should be a part of your daily techniques for building back links. Use bookmarking services like Diigo and Del.icio.us regularly.
All you need to do is visit popular bookmarking sites, register, submit your site, and you’ll get a back link.
29. Give away free Ebooks
Ask your content writer to create an ebook relevant to a specific niche. A title like “One Hundred Ways to create Backlinks” will do wonders. Be sure to provide multiple links to your website in the ebook. You can then contact other bloggers to mention your free ebook. Future downloads will generate traffic, it’s a win win situation.
30. Get a WordPress Plugin developed
Hire a developer to create a useful WordPress plugin and list it for free. Have a backlink within your plugin. When users install your plugin, it will automatically provide you with numerous valid backlinks.
31. Ad sites provide amazing backlinks
Post free or paid classified ads on well-known advertisement sites. Although, you may not need whatever that ad says, all that matters is the existence of the advertisement with your back link on the ad sites.
32. Create CrowdSource posts
Many of your competitors are listing 10 or 20 pros and cons for a particular product or service. Compile multiple articles and write up a crowd sourced article which hosts all the points on one single page. Search engine spiders will crawl your page and rank it higher because it contains all information in one place.
33. Host a Question and Answer / FAQ page
Try to host and maintain a Question and Answer / FAQ page related to your niche. Once it gets popular among your audience, bloggers will link back to your Q&A/FAQ page.
34. Use Torrents
Include your backlink in torrent files. Normal torrent files let you add a description during submission. Include your link there.
35. Create a Petition
Raise an ordinary petition for some cause and include your link when you introduce yourself. Petitions are shared by many people and good causes spread like wildfire. You’d be basically hitting two birds with one stone.
36. Free Testimonials to startup web-hosts and development services
Free testimonials for startup web-hosts and development services are never refused. If you have a good website, developers will love to have your testimonial with your link on their website. Prepare a well written testimonial about their product/service and send it over.
37. Links on .edu and .gov sites
Many .edu and .gov sites ask for tenders. Tender pages are made public on many occasions. Although, you would not make the best tender, there is no wrong in claiming that you can. Just include your link when you send your offer. Many times .edu and .gov sites have broken links to non-existent websites. You could offer to help them update their links with a similar resource as yours.
38. Host documents on File Sharing websites
Websites like Slideshare and Scribd hosts documents in a PDF format. You can have a few of your documents uploaded there with a backlink in each document. Others who embed the same document will also carry your back link to their site.
39. Search for expired Blogspot blogs
Expired Blogspot blogs have a number of existing backlinks. Try searching for such expired blogs and re-register them. Post a link back to your site and reap the leftover benefits from the blog.
40. Target expired and Parked domains
Expired or parked domains may have a lot of links already pointing to them. A good way to capture the link equity would be to host a simple template and point back your website from there.
41. Weekly Podcasts
A weekly podcast wouldn’t take up much of your time. Host a weekly audio podcast informing visitors about some relevant content related to your industry. Discuss the latest issues and provide an insight about new products/services. Link back to your website from your podcast.
42. Install Toolbars
Get toolbars for your website. Toolbars like Wibiya have great sharing features and scoreboards where users score points whenever they visit your website or share your links. The accumulated points help them get coupons from Starbucks or other places.
43. Repair other sites
Good help has always been courted with a back link as a note of thanks. Help others fix their website and ask them if they can link back to you.
44. Hire a wicked Writer
There are thousands of permanent writers who write content for well-known blogs and Article Directories. Writers who write bulk content may agree to slip in your link in their client’s articles. While the client pays him for the article and a link back, you can pay just for another link back and make easy back links at far less costs.
45. Hire a SEO Agency
A SEO agency has the skills and man power to generate high quality back links. Well known SEO companies invest a lot of effort to build high quality backlinks for you.
46. Bonus: Never SPAM
This is the most important negative point which can negate all the 45 ways above. Stay away from strictly spamming. Once your business or website is known for spamming, you’re in a sticky situation. Things may go downhill from there.
I hope the following strategies will help you in your future backlinking efforts. If you have other great ideas, feel free to comment below.
Author information
Sarah Lurleen
Sarah Lurleen is an editor and writer at Webhostinggenius.net, a professional web hosting review rating site. She worked as a tech support for many web hosting companies. Get in touch with her at Facebook or at Twitter.