Put simply, back links are incoming links to a particular website or page. This means that the other website has a hyperlink “pointing” to your site. In terms of search engine optimisation, the higher the number of back links you have pointing to your site the better, especially if the site is particularly relevant to your niche.

As the primary goal of almost every website or online business is to increase its traffic, i.e. individuals intentionally going to the website, it just makes sense that in order for this to happen you have to find a means of making the website very visible. Generally, if you want to make your website very visible, individuals have to be able to easily find it when they look up keywords which are directly related to your product, niche, service or whatever else your particular website happens to represent. Most people are usually looking for this sort of information via the main search engines, and the individuals who manage these engines have extremely complex algorithms to help them decide whether or not any given website is pertinent to a searcher’s request.

Although they will not divulge exactly how they go about composing these algorithms, the search engine operators do assure us that relevancy, as viewed by others, is most important. If they see that you have a back link or a number of back links from other websites that have some relevancy to yours, this is a plus. In addition, if the site linking to you has a fairly high “page rank”, this helps as well. Page rank is Google’s proprietary method of allocating a number (zero being lowest and moving up to ten) indicating how important a site is within its particular niche of operations.

There are a variety of effective ways to get large numbers of back links to your website.

ARTICLE MARKETING.

As Bill Gates once said, “content is king”. Article marketing is known as one of the most solid Internet marketing methods. By writing highly relevant and informative articles and submitting them to high profile article directories you do several things, not the least important of which is to help establish you or your site as an expert in your niche. Within your article, published in the article directory, is a resource box which contains your details – who you are and what you do, and a link back to your site, the all important Back Link.

SOCIAL BOOKMARKING.

There are many hundreds of social bookmarking sites, and their primary motive is basically to provide a way of informing people about the existence of content related to any niche or interest in a very manageable format. You can sign up and initiate a process of notifying social bookmarking sites about fresh content, including back links in many cases. It should be noted at this point that some website webmasters initiate a “no follow” tag which can negate the impact of a back link, as the no follow tag tells the search engine spider not to give you points, or link love.

SOCIAL MEDIA – TWITTER.

Whilst Twitter and other similar sites are becoming increasingly more powerful in marketing terms, you should know that to include links within your “tweets” or in your URL profile box is not a powerful back linking strategy, as these are all allocated the dreaded no follow tag. However, you may find that it is possible to link within a bio box and get some link love this way. Also, if you syndicate, your Twitter feeds are updated via the RSS aggregators, earning you back links.

BLOG COMMENTING.

Firstly, you will need to find blogs or forums that are relevant to your niche. This is not difficult to do as a simple and relevant search will find hosts. Once you find these blogs you can sign up and create a profile. Often you will be allowed to create what is called a “signature”, and within that signature you incorporate your links. Note, you should check to see if there are any no follow tags, as these will appear occasionally.

Enter into the spirit of the place by interacting with other members and making entries and posting comments that are relevant, useful and educational. In addition to a back link appearing every time one of your comments is posted, you will also build a valuable relationship with members – and this can lead to all kinds of new opportunities.

Back link building remains one of the most important SEO strategies to adopt for virtually any website development.

Michelle Dale is The Managing Director of Virtual Miss Friday, a cutting edge Executive Virtual Assistant Service which assists organisations and enterprising individuals with every detail of their entrepreneurial aspirations. Do you want to peruse some further information on these incredible online business building success strategies? Contact VMF Now!