5 Easy ways to get Solid Backlinks to your Site

May 19th, 2009 | 40 comments

link building One of the best ways to get traffic is from the Search Engines (SEO.) It’s free and if you rank for the right keywords it can have loads of traffic potential. Of course that means you need to build lots of backlinks in order for you pages to rank highly!

Even if you’re extremely knowledgeable in your niche, you still need that initial “push” to get your brand out there. After all, how can someone recommend something or link to it if they don’t know it exists, right?

You need links – But how? Below are 5 ways I do it:

5 Solid Link-Building Methods
(For best results, combine all of the following!)

1. Article Marketing – I use article marketing primarily as a direct traffic generator, but it’s also a great way to build links. Combined with other techniques, article marketing can add some quality links to a site’s overall backlinks.

2. Blog Networks – There are 2 blog networks I use regularly. I pay a monthly fee for both, although I could probably get away with only using one, but for the large amount of quality links I get in return it’s WELL worth the investment and makes me much more indirectly from the rankings my sites achieve as a result. I use 1WayLinks and occasionally the blog network at FirePow. Both are excellent networks!

3. Web Directories (aka link directories) – Probably the oldest and easiest way to build links easily, yet still effective. You don’t want to get too crazy, but submitting to a handful of quality web directories every day is a great way to gradually build backlinks easily.

4. Forums – I wouldn’t participate in forums JUST to build links, but if you’re going to be participating in them and networking, you might as well get your link(s) in the signature (if they allow it.) They are links and they still count and in many cases they can generate hundreds, even thousands, of links.

5. Participating in the Blogosphere – Commenting on releveant blogs in your niche, guest posting and being part of the community. This is a GREAT way to network, but it’s also yet another link builder and can even be a solid means of direct traffic.

Of course there are many other link building techniques, but these are some of the most frequently used and effective. But remember, nothing you do online, or offline for that matter, will amount to anything if you aren’t persistent! Everyone fails. What separates winners from losers is their willingness to keep going when they face failure!

If it seems like your building links and building links, but haven’t seen good results, that just means you’ve come to a brick wall… the same brick wall that just about everyone else came across when they started building links! Don’t quit and you WILL get over that wall!

And don’t forget, you have access to ALL of my link-building knowledge… everything I know about link-building in my “Ultimate Link Building Report.”

img source: brentdanley

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40 comments

Nick
20th May, 2009 at 4:30 am

Hi Josh

What is the difference between 1WayLinks and Brad Callens blog network that you submit articles to.
Also what gets the most traffic, submitting articles to blog network or article directories like EzineArticles.
Mark Harrison (1 comments.)
20th May, 2009 at 8:43 am

Hi Josh
I think the value of getting good backlinks to your site is undervalued by many of the so called internet marketers. It’s something I have been concentrating on and I make sure that I spend half an hour everyday on my backlink strategy. It’s not difficult so there should be no excuses!
Jeet (4 comments.)
20th May, 2009 at 2:34 pm

@Josh: I also use these methods (except blog networks) to build links to my site. Some forums provide link to latest posts so that shouldn’t be ignored.

Will be downloading the book to see if I find more interesting methods.
Shaun (3 comments.)
20th May, 2009 at 3:10 pm

I agree with the article marketing thing. I used to think it was bull, but I decided to enter a few competitive niches with only article marketing, and now I’m pretty sure it’s just as underrated as ever.
Justin Case (3 comments.)
20th May, 2009 at 3:22 pm

Hi Josh,
Very nice post. As luck would have it I just finished reading this interview with a dude from Google that may be of interest to your readers. It is very informative about linking and be of big help in clearing up some linking myths.

http://www.stonetemple.com/articles/interview-adam-lasnik-012408.shtml
Nick Bokhonok (1 comments.)
20th May, 2009 at 3:24 pm

Hi Josh,

Do not forget about these blog-links projects – Linkvana, Traffic Kahuna and Free Traffic System. They are the best to get good backlinks.
Bryan (3 comments.)
20th May, 2009 at 3:33 pm

Thanks for the tips Josh.

I currently use article marketing and I am working on using forums more often.

response to above, Nick, I get quite a bit of traffic from ezinearticles.com, not sure about blog networks.

Thanks,
Bryan
Carole (2 comments.)
20th May, 2009 at 3:40 pm

Thanks Josh for the info. One thing I have not focused on is web directories so I appreciate the list. I have reaped rewards from articles and forums.
Mark (3 comments.)
20th May, 2009 at 3:45 pm

Josh, I’d like to know how you use blog networks, more in detail. Perhaps a new blog post in the future?
Article Cash Secrets
20th May, 2009 at 3:54 pm

Hey Josh,

Thanks for the post. I have been doing some of these for sometime now but I have been doing the blog network.

I think I am gonna try it.

Awesome post.
Nando (5 comments.)
20th May, 2009 at 3:54 pm

Thanks for the reminders, sometimes you can get so caught up with building links from one method that it’s easy to forget about the others.

I’ve used them all at different intervals, so thanks again for the reminder.

Good Stuff,
Nando
Rich Hill (5 comments.)
20th May, 2009 at 4:00 pm

Good stuff as always Josh. I just retweeted this post @linkmoneydotorg.
I did use NextGenLinks for a few months but it was klunky and the links broke outside the WordPress template so I unsubscribed.
Angie Berg (23 comments.)
20th May, 2009 at 4:01 pm

Link building is not one of my strong suits. I spend a bit of time in the early days of a site to get some backlinks, but I have to be reminded from time to time to steadily continue to build links.

Your post serves as one of those timely reminders. It’s not something I do on a daily basis, but I do need to make a habit of link building (in a variety of ways) at least on a weekly or fortnightly basis.

Cheers.
Aisling D'Art (3 comments.)
20th May, 2009 at 4:18 pm

Useful info and great links. Thanks so much for this post. I’ve been online for years and that list of web directories is one of the best I’ve seen.

My to-do list will include several of these steps.

Thanks!
Mikael @ RetireRichRoadmap (11 comments.)
20th May, 2009 at 4:21 pm

My personal favorite is article marketing by far and especially when using the different distribution services that are out there,
JT (1 comments.)
20th May, 2009 at 4:46 pm

Thank you for those insights. I am fairly new at link building. From afar, I know it is indeed going to be very effective as I have seen the visitor report of my google analytics to rise steadily.
The Mad Webmaster (5 comments.)
20th May, 2009 at 5:08 pm

Hey Josh!

I have only one problem with your 5 sources of back links.

It’s this one:
Participating in the Blogosphere

More and more blog owners are going to a “no follow” link back.

That’s a little disturbing considering that a lot of their content is built from comments from others who participate in the blog.

Do you have any tools in your toolbox that might address how to find and participate in blogs that allow link backs?

Thanks,
Paul
Welly Mulia (10 comments.)
20th May, 2009 at 5:21 pm

Hey Josh,

Thanks for sharing your 5 methods of link building.

I’m also in the 1WL network and I have to say that the service works!

And I also like what you say about perseverance will eventually pay off if you’re consistent and patient enough.

Cheers,
Welly Mulia
Wedding Dresses Liverpool
20th May, 2009 at 5:28 pm

Josh

As usual you remind us that to have a long term successful business – just stick to the basics.

I would like to pick you brain about article marketing. Recently I’ve built a couple of sites for friends with bricks and mortar businesses so I need to target back links that include the geographical location.

The problem I have is not the back links, but I feel I am wasting potential traffic as I can only write a generic article for ezinearticles etc. If I include the location in the article title then I can’t figure out how to stay on topic without the body of the article becoming a promotion for the business.

If I’m off topic the article will be rejected, if its a business promotion it will also be rejected.

Any ideas?
Nancy Boyd (2 comments.)
20th May, 2009 at 7:13 pm

Thanks for this article, Josh. Can you give us more info about blog networks and how best to use them to help build traffic?

Actually, what I’d really be interested in is converting targeted traffic to optin lists Got anything on that?

Thanks again.
Mikael @ RetireRichRoadmap (11 comments.)
20th May, 2009 at 7:19 pm

Nancy, you can use all of these for driving people to an opt-in page. It is just a matter of linking to it from the 5 different sources Josh talks about.
Andrew
20th May, 2009 at 7:48 pm

Hi Josh,

Just wanted to say thanks fro another top quality post. Those five methods really are the “pillars” of backlinking.

Cheers

Andrew
Sara@plrhealtharticlesforsale (1 comments.)
20th May, 2009 at 10:08 pm

I have been trying to buid up my backlinks the ‘whitehat’ way. It is so hard though because Google has really made it harder over the past couple of months. They aren’t indexing pages as fast. The only place I can get backlinks is through blog commeting and writing articles for ezine articles which is not a lot of traffic. Maybe 200 visitors per day! Fustrating!
Ninah (11 comments.)
21st May, 2009 at 12:31 am

Hi Josh.

It’s been three months now since I started a niche site for which I primarily use article marketing for link building. Recently, I tried using a backlink checker to see how many links for my site I already have. The checker says there are absolutely none. I wonder what I did wrong.

Oh and by the way, forums are indeed a great sources of instant traffic. I just need to find a couple of quality ones
Dawn (2 comments.)
21st May, 2009 at 2:33 am

A very timely reminder for me to work on more back links. Google does not love my home page for some reason although it views all my other pages kindly! so I do need to do more link building.

I’ve never tried blog networks so I shall take a look at that.
Bob McClain (6 comments.)
21st May, 2009 at 3:24 am

Just out of curiosity, was this an ebook that you had an “advance” signup for? I ordered an ebook from you a few months back and paid in advance for it and was supposed to be on an advanced list to get it. And I never heard anything after that. Perhaps I’m mistaken and it was someone else or the payment didn’t go through but I only read a small group of Internet Marketers because you’re one of the few that impressed me. Would it be possible to find out if I was on the list?
Kim | Web Design (1 comments.)
21st May, 2009 at 5:07 am

Hi Josh
Its been awhile but I have been getting all your mail, thanks for the refresher on getting links, I am still using most of them,

Keep well
Regards
Kim
Chuck Brown (70 comments.)
21st May, 2009 at 1:59 pm

I tried 1WayLinks and was disappointed by their hyper-restrictiveness. I believe in standards, and I guess I even understand Jon’s reason for doing things the way he does (he’s gotten burned by some idiots in the past)…but it made the system unusable for me.

One nice little system I’ve found for blogs is Linking Press. It’s free for early adopters, and fairly customizable…so you can stick with only relevant sites if you find that to be important.

http://www.linkingpress.org/
Jason Ayers (1 comments.)
21st May, 2009 at 5:20 pm

Great post Josh. A lot of us are guilty of not actively building back links, primarily because it can be time consuming. Do you outsource any of these backlink building tasks?
Marco (3 comments.)
22nd May, 2009 at 11:49 am

Hey Josh,

With my sites, one of the greatest link builders I have is simply… a link to your site in your facebook profile (or MySpace, Orkut, whatever).

Of course, it helps if you have lots of friends.
Josh Spaulding
22nd May, 2009 at 2:36 pm

@ Nick – I’m not familiar with Brad’s network, so I’m not sure. Article directories definitely bring in much more direct traffic, but blog networks are great for link building. Just do both, it’s not about which is better.

@ Mark – Write an article, submit to the network. The end Perhaps another blog post, but wouldn’t be much to say.

@ Rich – Thanks for the support.

@ Aisling – It’s a great list. He also has an article directory list.

@ Paul – Participating in the blogosphere is not just about links. It’s about networking and making friends in the business too. I added that to the list because you can get links too from some.

@ Wedding – Sure, you can pick my brain along with my other members in my Private Internet Marketing Coaching Forum. Would be glad to have you. P.S. Please read my comment policy.

@ Nancy – There isn’t much to know about blog networks. You write an article with a few links to your pages in it and you submit it to the blog network. In regards to email marketing, sure, I wrote an entire report on the subject http://www.newageemailmarketing.com/

@ Ninah – Not sure why you would need a link checker. Just go to yahoo.com and do a link check from there (link:http://www.mysite.com/)

@ Bob – Yes it is. An email was sent out to all who signed up for the prelaunch list. I could see if you’re on the list, but I’m not sure what good it would do? You can email me if you would like to discuss it… and thanks for the support.

@ Chuck – Yeah I can understand his reasoning too and it’s only a handful of niches, so it’s still great for all other niches.

@ Jason – I have, but I don’t regularly. Would be a good idea to do it, but make sure you trust whoever it is doing the work! Could hurt reputation and brand.

@ Marco – Those links are nofollow, so the only benefit is the direct traffic, if there is any direct traffic.
Maria Palma (1 comments.)
22nd May, 2009 at 7:04 pm

I’ve used all of the above except,like many people here,the blog networks. Article marketing has really halped because many of my articles make it to the first page of Google for my keyword. ArticlesBase and Ezinearticles are my favorite article directories.
Nick
23rd May, 2009 at 1:01 am

Josh
I would just like to say thanks for taking the time to answer everybody’s comments, I can’t imagine how busy you are … this kind of personal help to those trying to improve their Internet sucess is very rare, but very much appreciated I’m sure by all those that made comments.

Regards … Nick
Paul Hooper (2 comments.)
24th May, 2009 at 6:44 am

Hi Josh,

Thanks for sharing your knowledge. As you said, Article marketing is a very effect method for both traffic generation and link building. Using an article submission software to post an article that contains backlinks to hundreds of sites can be very effective.

can I ask you, what do you belive is the most powerful backlink method?

Cheers,
Paul
Writers Needed-$2000/Daily
25th May, 2009 at 12:56 am

I have used article marketing as well, but it is a big ol’ pain in the rectum! First off, most of the article directories have been disvalued by Google. Only 5 are really good. Ezinearticles are a stickler about accepting articles and the rest take 50 days just to review one article. I rather stick to blog commenting and participating forums.
Rick Wordpress Builder (4 comments.)
31st May, 2009 at 6:08 pm

Hey Josh,
There seems to be a bit of conflicting thoughts about nofollow links. Some people say that Google does not discount the PR of the page the nofollow link is on but still look at the page linked to.
Rick
Josh Spaulding
1st June, 2009 at 1:15 pm

@ Rick – If a page contains nofollow links that page isn’t discounted, of course not. But authority isn’t passed to the page that is linked to from a link using the rel=”nofollow” attribute.
Mikael Rieck (11 comments.)
1st June, 2009 at 5:38 pm

@ Josh, isn’t there something about Yahoo not paying that much attention to the “no-follow” tag and that MSN is completely overlooking it?

I know that we’re all competing in Google but the other two can still send a little traffic
Beth Partin (12 comments.)
2nd June, 2009 at 3:47 pm

The only blog network I am a member of is Facebook’s, and I do get some traffic from that. I also get traffic from Urbanspoon, which allows you to place ratings boxes at the end of your restaurant review. For anyone who has a food blog or a travel blog, it’s a great way to generate links.
Mike Free Golf Tips
8th November, 2009 at 5:57 pm

I have to agree, as article marketing is still very powerful. Getting links from them is icing on the cake, but if they are written well, with an enticing resource box, you will get “warm” visitors to your landing pages. Then it’s all about your landing page converting, and that’s another story