For any web page to be ‘ranked’ in the search engines and attract searchers it’s essential it has [2] backlinks. To understand [3] backlinks there are three elements 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 amount of backlinks

The volume of [3] backlinks to a page is one of the elements the search engines take into account when deciding how to position the page in the results displayed to the searcher.

The origin of the backlinks

The pages from which backlinks originate pass ‘authority’ and searchers to the page to which the backlinks point. But ‘votes’ passed through backlinks from trusted or authoritative pages to a page have greater influence over the search engines view of this page than backlinks coming from pages with less ‘trust’ or authority. Great 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 notion of ‘page rank’, this is the value indicator 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 often has a label a word or text associated with the subject at the page to which this backlink is pointing, what this ‘anchor text’ says has influence upon the value the search engines give 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 mistakes

A lot of people screw up their backlinks strategies because they focus on quantity as opposed to quality of backlinks. Having a significant number of backlinks to your page doesn’t automatically mean the search engines will see your page as relevant.

How to manufacture backlinks

So let me share with you my no nonsense approach for getting backlinks that will make the search engines take notice of you and bring the right type and appropriate traffic to your web site.

1. It is critical you get the right keywords before you expend any effort whatsoever.
2. I always set out to put together a keyword cloud.
3. I always start with a single ‘top’ level keyword or key phrase which has significant visitor traffic.
4. To work out how much visitor traffic is being generated by searches for my primary keyword I use the Google keyword analyzer tool.
5. I look at words and search phrases related to my ‘top’ level phrase and create my ‘cloud’.
6. I then put together content in the form of articles and videos with backlinks with the right ‘anchor text’ to my ‘money’ or ‘target’ page and push these to the various directories.
7. My guiding principle is to write content that will attract traffic and persuade them to follow the backlinks to my money pages as well as send backlinks.