Backlinks in nutshell

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Backlinks sometimes referred to as ‘page links’ are critical to the visibility of your web pages in the search engines and attracting visitor traffic. To understand backlinks there are three things you need to consider, the web page from which the backlinks come from, the anchor text of the backlinks and what’s on the page to which the backlinks directs the visitor to.

The quantity of backlinks

All search engines count the quantity of backlinks to a web page when deciding where this page should appear in the search results.

The origin of the backlinks

Backlinks are like votes – the higher the quantity of votes (backlinks) the more relevant and popular the page is considered by the search engine. But ‘votes’ cast through backlinks from trusted or authoritative pages to a page have greater influence over the search engines perception of this page than backlinks coming from pages with lower ‘trust’ or authority. Real examples of trusted sources of backlinks carrying higher authority are pages belonging to education (.edu) and government (.gov) web sites..

Google Page Rank

Google has the concept of ‘page rank’, this is the property it attaches to a page it considers to have accumulated authority over time from backlinks pointing towards it.

The ‘anchor text’

When you see a backlink on a web page it normally has a label a word or text related to the information at the page to which this backlink is pointing, what this ‘anchor text’ says has influence upon the value the search engines award to the link. If the content of the page is about ‘parenting’ and the backlink on the page is labeled or given the ‘anchor’ text ‘parenting’ then the search engines consider this to be of more value to the searcher looking for content related to ‘parenting’ than if the backlink was labeled ‘babycare’.

Common problems

It’s not unusual for newbies to confuse the quantity with the quality of backlinks and become quickly perplexed by their lack of progress For instance if the volume of your backlinks to your ‘parenting’ page come from sites not related to ‘parenting’ then whilst you have backlinks they will almost certainly bring you the wrong visitors.

How to manufacture backlinks

So let me share with you my fail safe method for getting backlinks that will make the search engines love you and bring quality and relevant traffic to your web site.

1. Selecting the right keywords from the outset is critical.
2. I always set out to create a keyword cloud.
3. You should always start by identifying a key word or phrase which has a good traffic.
4. To uncover how much visitor traffic is being generated by searches for my primary keyword I use the Google keyword analyzer tool.
5. I analyse words and search phrases related to my primary phrase and create my ‘cloud’.
6. Using this cloud I generate a library of content containing articles, videos and blog posts each with backlinks embedded with the appropriate anchor text and then use a suite of content distribution tools to send my content to a wide range of directories.
7. My golden rule is to author content that will attract traffic and persuade them to follow the backlinks to my money pages as well as send backlinks.

Everything you needed to know about Backlinks

backlinks

For any web page to be ‘ranked’ in the search engines and attract searchers it’s essential it has backlinks. To understand backlinks there are three things you need to consider, the source from which the backlinks are derived, the anchor text of the backlinks and the content of the page to which the backlinks sends the visitor to.

The number of backlinks

The majority of search engines appraise the amount of backlinks to a web page when deciding where this page should be displayed in the search results.

The origin of the backlinks

Backlinks are like votes – the higher the quantity of votes (backlinks) the more authoritative the page is viewed by the search engine. But ‘votes’ cast through backlinks from trusted or authoritative pages to a page have greater influence over the search engines consideration of this page than backlinks coming from pages with lower ‘trust’ or authority. Good examples of trusted sources of backlinks carrying higher authority are pages in education (.edu) and government (.gov) web sites..

Google Page Rank

Backlinks from web pages with high page rank (a value awarded by Google to any page that it has observed over a period to have attracted, sustained and continued to accumulate relevant backlinks) pass some of their page rank via the backlink to the target page.

The ‘anchor text’

Just like a label, the backlink anchor text has influence over the search engines valuation of the backlink. If the content of the page is about ‘parenting’ and the backlink on the page is labeled or given the ‘anchor’ text ‘parenting’ then the search engines consider this to be of more value to the searcher looking for results related to ‘parenting’ than if the backlink was labeled ‘babycare’.

Common issues

Many people mess up their backlinks strategies because they focus on quantity as opposed to quality of backlinks. For example if all of your backlinks to your ‘parenting’ page come from pages not related to ‘parenting’ then whilst you have backlinks they will almost always bring you the wrong traffic.

How to build backlinks

So here is my risk free advice for getting backlinks to your pages, good visibility in the search engine results pages and quality traffic to your site.

1. Choosing the right keywords from the outset is critical.
2. Your objective should be to end up with a keyword cloud.
3. You should always start by identifying a key word or phrase which has a good traffic.
4. The fastest and cheapest method to find out how much traffic a keyword or key phrase is getting is to use the Google keywords discovery tool.
5. I look at words and search phrases associated with my ‘top’ level phrase and create my ‘cloud’.
6. I then create content in the form of articles and videos in which I have embedded backlinks with the correct ‘anchor text’ to my ‘money’ or ‘target’ page and distribute these to the various directories.
7. My guiding principle is to write content that will attract visitors and compel them to follow the backlinks to my target pages as well as send backlinks.

The link between backlinks and Google authority

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Phew, this is a immersive concept and I need to emphasise it’s not clear cut. But here is what I have learned in my research at the Backlinks clinic:

Authority – basics

The more authority your web pages have the higher you will rank on Google. Authority means that searchers trust you and your content. The good news is that authorities trusted by humans are also trusted by Google. A great example is the .edu and .gov suffixes. These suffixes imply they are credible sources of content and it’s an established fact that in the eyes of Google backlinks from these domains to your site will send authority to your web pages. Another perfect example is Wikipedia as the web pages here are largely added by by tribes of people as opposed to a single source.

So it follows that authority is very heavily influenced by the source of your backlinks and if authoritative content link to you then you inherit their influence and in the eyes of Google you become more authoritative and hence the trust in your content by Google increases.

How Google declares what is and isn’t authoritative is confidential for solid reasons and falls in line with Google’s philosophy of “Do no evil”. The last thing the Internet needs is someone exploiting the mechanisms that Google uses in its efforts to try and bring some order to probably the most significant technological resource of this period in history.

How not to get Authority and Backlinks

In the same vein it’s worth my while stating some ‘black hat sources and practices of building backlinks that Google not only disapproves of but appears to be acting to ‘’categorize as illegitimate authorities. In no particular order of merit, the common offenders are:

• Paid backlinks – web sites where people buy and sell backlinks
• Comment spam – entries that have links on web pages that are just not associated to the main theme.
• Low quality and *duplicate content – ‘scraped’ or otherwise
• Unnatural growth – there are a myriad of ways that this is achievable, Google isn’t dumb. Any sudden increase in the amount of backlinks is going to register on Google’s radar, specifically if it’s a recently registered domain.
• Backlinks from unscrupulous sites – these are particularly henous as you are guilty by association – need I say more.

*There is another factor where I may be on shakey ground, but key press portals seem to get a lot of authority and I have definitely observed significant quantities of the same content over and over again on different portals with no penalties, I am still monitoring this, only as some of the results I am seeing go against the consistent behaviors I usually expect to see. More on this is in a future post….

Essential add ons and strategies for WordPress Blogs + 600 reviews of Internet Marketing Products to be published

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BREAKING NEWS: Help for all WordPress Blog Owners

About me

I am self educated and have closely followed the evolution of Internet Marketing for just over five years. On average I personally answer around six hundred questions about Internet Marketing through my blog every week. I know a lot of people who are really up against it at the moment and whilst I am making a half decent income on the web from my work I am more and more doing what I can to assist others to avoid the mistakes, choose the right approaches and get off to a good start.

In my experience I have discovered a substantial number of Internet Marketers who look excellent on paper but most often don’t deliver what they claim. Until now I have focused publishing my discoveries to a tiny group of sites because their owners have been very helpful in helping me with my reviews.

Over Six hundred reviews

The total number of ‘products’ I have tested over five years is just north of 600, naturally I will only be writing about products that are still for sale. All of the products I review on my blog have been or are currently being used by me.

Easy to use and organised catalog

I am determined that everyone who visits blog gets some help so I am going to make sure that every ‘product’ summary is typed in terms of the amount of money they will have to spend, the level of experience they will need, how much effort they should spend and how long it normally take to see some results.

First Review – The ‘blueprint’ for WordPress blog success

I am going to kick off with WordPress Blogs and what products and techniques you can use to monetize them. Everyone should have a blog and I am passionate about blogging as a large portion of my ’monthly salary’ comes from blogs but and however I am conscious that setting up a blog can be a little bit tricky so if you join my list I will walk you through step by step how to do it.

Create once and replicate

I will also share with you a ‘cut and paste’ strategy anyone can use with blogs so once you have set up one blog and mastered the art of making money from it then you just replicate it as many times as you want. I have a basic rule of ‘getting a rope across the river’ before commencing on any large amount of work so I always start with building a ’concept car’ that I develop into a blueprint that I can evaluate, refine and copy, to do this you have to really understand what methods and tools you need to use.

No bullshit, just answers.

So if you own a WordPress blog or you need some real assistance with your purchases of Internet Marketing products then please do sign up to my list at www.backlinksclinic.com.

See you there

NJC