How to Build Quality Backlinks and Unlock the Power of SEO

The importance of high quality, relevant backlinks to your website should never be understated. You made it this far without even knowing what backlinking is, but after this article, you’ll have no excuses. So read on as we kick out with… “A tale of two businesses”.

The key to getting higher Google ranks

Two new video gaming consoles, both alike in dignity, are created by two different people, who decide to sell their consoles online. Neither have much money nor do they have friends in high places.

They’re just two people trying to push their near-identical consoles to the same market.

So who’s going to strike it rich?

Who is going to corner the market?

The one with the best web presence, of course, the one who comes up highest in Google search results.

It’s no secret that search engine optimization (SEO) is a huge part of online marketing, and any company lacking in this is never going to make it past the 1,000,000,000th page on Google search results.

The key to getting higher ranks starts with creating a diverse linking profile for your company and harnessing the power of links in order to pull your website up in the ranks.

It sounds intimidating, but creating a savvy link profile is possible. In order to pull yourself up from the depths of the Google Sea, you need backlinks to your website. We are not talking about backlinks from sketchy or spam-looking sites but from good blogs and respected websites. You should strive to create a link profile that only has high authority links and no spam links.

So let’s return to the video gaming console example. Let’s say one of the console competitors is a company called Gamer Tech, which is operated by one person selling his a new gaming console. He’s hoping to attract a sector of the gaming market by posting on blogs, forums and other sites and then using backlinks to lead people back to his site. He is also going to blog on his website about gaming systems, adding in links to other related sites. This is basically what a linking profile is.

What makes a good link profile?

Neil Patel at QuickSprout breaks down a good profile for us like this:

• To have a good ranking, you must have a link profile
• In order to have a useful link profile, you must have good, quality backlinks
• To properly utilize these backlinks, you must have anchor text for most of these backlinks
• To best utilize your anchor text, it should be diverse to attract all sorts of searches

Let’s go through this process using Gamer Tech as an example.

Cultivating a diverse group of backlinks is incredibly important. Simply put, more backlinks to Gamer Tech’s website means more popularity and higher search results. Google will see it as being more relevant.

Implementing backlinks on other websites should start with anchor texts.

What’s the anchor text and how can I use it?

These are the words that will have a link embedded in them. Simply writing Gamer Tech and linking to gamertech.com is an option, but using other keywords can drive up traffic and expand the link’s potential.

For example, Gamer Tech’s newest hand-held console or new video gaming company called Gamer Tech will help gamertech.com rank higher when people search for any of those other key words.

It’s also a good idea to diversify your anchor text, referred to as semantically relevant texts. Rather than just using “console” over and over, use “gaming device”, “video game machine”, or “entertainment platform” to cover the markets.

Even if these weren’t Gamer Tech’s targeted keywords, Google recognizes similarities between words (disease and illness for example) and will pull up gamertech.com for words other than the keywords. Just be sure that they are relevant, or Google will see it as spam.

Social search graph. Photo: CC-BY-3.0 2009 Darwin Peacock

Diluted anchor texts can also enhance SEO. While doing a guest blog, Gamer Tech might write, “Are you bored with the same-old-same-old gaming systems? Well, get ready because there’s a new gaming console in town.” The underlined text would go directly to gamertech.com.

Bottom line is that different types of anchor texts make up a healthy SEO.

Cultivate keywords and links by creating blog content

While Gamer Tech should be posting its link, creating great content for a blog and using links to other websites will also help drive traffic up. Blog content can be useful in cultivating keywords. Most SEO experts recommend about 1,000 words per article to ensure good, quality writing that will attract a readership.

For Gamer Tech’s blog on console care and maintenance, it’s a good idea to link to other relevant blogs because that’s where your market will find you. It will also encourage them to link back to you. Getting a backlink from non-relevant websites, one about app games, for example, isn’t going to help. Those readers are interested in games for their phones, not more traditional systems.

Above all, avoid spammy and older websites in all linking efforts.

Spammy links go to pages that look like they were created when the Internet first took off, complete with annoying background music and all. If you link to spammy websites, prepare to have your profile treated like spam. That also goes for linking to other sites that link to spam. You are what you eat, so to speak. Older links that go to pages made several years ago and can be out of date or unvisited.

Do’s and don’ts of creating a great link profile

If all else fails, here are a few dos and don’ts to follow when creating a link profile:

• Do link to various parts of the website. Use the “Contact Us,” “Blog” and “About Us” pages in varying degrees when relevant.
• Don’t ever pay to have someone post the link. It makes the website look link spam, usually with gimmicky titles like “Mother is 50, but looks 30! Discover her anti-aging secret!” Whatever fountain-of-youth they’re selling, you’re not buying.
• Do link to a wide variety of sites that are relevant to the product.
• Don’t put too many of your links on the same website. It’s not going to make you look spammy, but it’s also not helping you in the slightest.
• Don’t use directory pages as links.

Gamer Tech won’t hit the first page of Google results overnight, but with dedicated linking, he can use SEO marketing to paddle his way across the vast sea that is Google.

Do you have a strategy in place? Do you have any other do’s and don’ts when it comes to link building?