Creating BackLinks - What Are Backlinks & How Do You Get Them?

Creating BackLinks – What Are Backlinks and How Do You Get Them?

Posted by Linus Ruzicka On January - 9 - 2010

Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to Register For New Posts in the RSS feed for updates on this topic.

“Thou Shalt Backlink To The Ends of The Earth”

When I first started blogging and creating content (keep it noted, I have not begun MASS blogging/article creation yet) I kept seeing this term “BACKLINK” popping up.

I heard it in webinars on SEO.

I kept seeing it in text.

I had other people preaching “Backlinks” left and right – “You need backlinks for your content”

It all seemed so vague and ambiguous. I had NO CLUE to what a backlink actually was, or how they worked, or what you should do with them.

I was generating enough traffic that in a month period of time to take my blog from an Alexa ranking of #1,081,000 to #394,208 at the time of this post, but I know that to REALLY be “seen”, I needed to step up my game and look at some strategies that I hadn’t been using yet.

So I decided one afternoon that I better investigate more of these backlinks, that frankly I had just blown off all this time. I needed to know what is a backlink, why backlinks are needed, how to create backlinks, and how to get backlinks for you.

So I set off on another wild adventure on the world wide web looking for backlinks (really, it wasn’t that exciting and it didn’t take that long – I didn’t even need to have my wife pack me a lunch).

Want to know what I found?

O.K., you twisted my arm.

When you look at the concept of generating traffic to your site, obviously you want your site to do well in the eyes of the “Almighty Google” and have a great Google ranking.

Well, how do you create a great Google ranking?

You can look at some of my other posts here for some ideas Blog Marketing Strategy – How To
Track Your Competition and this one: Blog Marketing Strategy – Generate More Traffic with a Comment Parade!

But, the point of this post is to Create Backlinks to your blog.

Simply put, backlinks are links to your website from another website. Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. love these. When their web-crawlers see the link on someone else’s site, the crawler goes over to your site, and then indexes your site which places it on a search engine organically instead of you going over and entering it. This activity is preferred by the search engines.

Pretty sweet huh?

But wait, it gets better…

…here is how you actually create the backlink to use on another site:

First, you need to actually create the main link itself. Don’t worry, it only takes a few steps:

1. If you want your link to send people to your home page, or to a specific article or blog post, make sure you have the specific URL for that. Look at this for example: http://www.LinusRuzicka.com which is the main page of my blog or this: http://www.linusruzicka.com/blog-marketing-strategy-generate-more-traffic-with-a-comment-parade which is a specific post.

2. Now you need a little HTML magic. You can open up a free HTML editor (I use NVu) and create a hyperlink. But the basic idea is that you will need to use this HTML code to make a link:

<a href=”http://www.yoursite.com” target=”_blank”>Put Your Keywords Here</a>

3. You will need a keyword for your link. Don’t use keywords from the title of your blog, because the search engines will already see it in your URL. Choose something else that is relevant to where you are sending people. For example, using the above post I might use the key word “Learn To Generate More Blog Comments”.

Using the example from my blog I’ll show you what it looks like, in code and then the way it appears in code as if I were placing it in someone else’s blog comment box.

<a href=”http://www.linusruzicka.com/blog-marketing-strategy-generate-more-traffic-with-a-comment-parade” target=”_blank”>Learn To Generate More Blog Comments</a>

Here’s what it will look like in their comment box: Learn To Generate More Blog Comments

SO, now all that you need to do is go and leave your backlinks around the web. I plan on creating a blog post on this topic in the future, but in the interest of time, you could use any of these:

Blogs (WordPress.com & WordPress.org, Blogger, Drupal, etc.)
Social Media (Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, etc)
Articles that allow comments
Video sites (Youtube, Viddler, Daily Motion, etc.)
Wiki sites
Hub pages or Squidoo pages

My favorite place to leave backlinks is on other blogs. Blogs are great, but one thing to think about before leaving a backlink is the page rank of that blog. The general rule of thumb (what is a rule of thumb anyways?) is you want to be back linking from a blog with a higher page rank than others. It is typically recommended 4 – 5, or higher.

You’re probably asking what the *#%$ is a Page Rank and how do I find it?

Google came up some insane formula to determine their ranking of ANY website and they can rank it from 1-10. Basically it is how important that website is in relation to its content and its importance on the web.

Looking for blogs and figuring out their page rank could take you forever – oh AND a day.

I stumbled on some great piece of software to use to help get this job done fast. But I will save that for my next post.

The main point I wanted to get across here is creating backlinks and their importance. I think that I have done that for you here. If I haven’t, let me know.

If you have any brighter ideas, leave a comment post as I actually RESPOND to each post. Crazy I know! Imagine that, interacting with my readers. Who would have fathomed?

Keep an eye out for my next post in the coming days on the cool tool I use for looking for those elusive Google rankings. The easiest route would to be actually subscribing to my blog over here on the right of the screen and get the blog posts live as I make them.

I am also a member of an exclusive master mind group of uniquely varied marketers that will teach you techniques just like the one you read about. We can help you to take your online income to the next level. Fill in the form below to work on my team and start your training today.

Leaving No Network Marketer Behind,

37 Responses to “Creating BackLinks – What Are Backlinks and How Do You Get Them?”

kathy Sammons says:

January 10, 2010 at 4:56 PM

Great article Linus! I can not wait to see the software that you have to share with us on how to check the score of the other blog posts.

In reference to: “The general rule of thumb (what is a rule of thumb anyways?)” It seems I have the unfortunate job of telling you where this statement comes from. While a thumbs width has been used as a way of measuring since the 1690s it is most noted from the English law that allowed a man to beat his wife with a stick so long as it is was no thicker than his thumb. Thank God for the evolution or our societal norms!!!!

One question that I have is, what is the proper etiquette in leaving a back link on someone else’s blog post?

Thanks for the article,
Kathy Sammons

[Reply]
Linus Ruzicka Reply:
January 10th, 2010 at 11:46 PM
Kathy,

HA! You learn something everyday. Now I can use rule of thumb with a fonder sense of where it came from. Awesome deal!

In reference to your question, I am going to cover it in the next blog post, but i’ll give you a sneak peek. Here is what I recommend:

Without giving away too much yet, there is a tool you can use to find the appropriate blogs to leave comments on – and it’s free. BUT, the idea is that you want to post on blogs with a page rank of 3-5 or higher.

Each comment page has a spot for name, e-mail, website, and comment box. For name, just leave your name. For E-mail, put in your e-mail, BUT for website, put the FULL url of the website you want to have the back link into. (MAKE SURE that your url correlates to the topic on whatever you’re commenting on). Then in the comment box, leave the comment PLUS include the HTML code that has the backlink in it. Somehow tie that in with it flowing well in your comment.

Make sense?

~Linus

[Reply]
Anna Aparicio says:

January 11, 2010 at 5:42 AM

Thanks Linus!
What if your blog, like mine, is wordpress.com? http://delitelifesolutions.wordpress.com
Can I still do this…?

Anna

[Reply]
Linus Ruzicka Reply:
January 11th, 2010 at 9:31 AM
Anna, If I’m reading you right, you’re asking if your blog can still be backlinked eventhough it’s a wordpress.com link correct?

Yes, you can. You can still go out and backlink your blog on other content sites no matter the URL of your blog. You just did it here on my blog Now, all you need to do is step up the pace and watch your Alexa ranking start to increase, eventually your Google ranking will as well.

[Reply]
Bob Howard says:

January 11, 2010 at 5:59 AM

Wow there is a lot of content in this article. You could have done three or four with all this great information. It is indeed all about backlinks. You have given a ton a great content that everyone should read.

As always you have great information.

Bob

[Reply]
Linus Ruzicka Reply:
January 11th, 2010 at 9:24 AM
LOL…it’s funny that you mention that Bob. I was looking it over yesterday before I posted it, and I kept thinking that I needed to make it shorter. But I couldn’t find a great spot to cut it off, so I kept it like it was. As it is, I could have made it longer, but decided that where I cut it off, I could get another 2-3 posts out of what I DID cut off. Keep an eye out for them this week

~Linus

[Reply]
John Stone says:

January 11, 2010 at 9:58 AM

Linus,

Another greta post. I have been using backlinking but have never completely understood why it works. Thanks for the information.

John Stone

[Reply]
Linus Ruzicka Reply:
January 11th, 2010 at 5:03 PM
That is EXACTLY why I wrote this post! I wanted to make sure that other people understood exactly what backlinking is all about, because I knew I had questions as well. I appreciate the comments John.

[Reply]
Tamra says:

January 11, 2010 at 11:06 AM

Linus,

See if I understand this correctly, when commenting on other blogs, instead of using my domain name as my website, I should use a full url to backlink to an article on my blog that is relevant to the blog entry I am commenting on. That sounds simple enough.

So when I use a hyperlink in my comment, should it also backlink to the same article I used as the Website or can/should I direct the backlink to another article?

Learning these simple little shortcuts will help build more bridges to your content and generate more traffic.

Looking forward to your next post with the software needed to put a backlink within my comments.

Tamra

[Reply]
Linus Ruzicka Reply:
January 11th, 2010 at 5:11 PM
Tamra,

In your first part, you have it correct – post the full URL in the “website” text box.

When you hyperlink the comment, yes, backlink to the SAME piece of content that you use in the website box. The search engines will identify your URL in the website text box, as well in the hyperlink of the comment box. All that will be visible to the casual reader is your hyperlink, but the search engines will be able to identify the entire code.

The next post will certainly help out a bunch to increase your backlinks. I’m already working on it.

~Linus

[Reply]
Cristian says:

January 11, 2010 at 11:09 AM

Hey Linus! Enjoyed you post and lookin’ forward to see your secret weapon.

Quickly I want to address the PageRank issue; Google has another PageRank, other than the displayed on the Toolbar PR – the real PageRank that has higher numerical values. If you care to take a look, here’s a post I build around what is PageRank.

When it was first conceived, PR was equal with the probability that a given surfer would land, randomly, on your page. Now things are totally different and PR doens’t dictate how a webpage ranks in Google. It’s another ranking factor among (around) 200 of them.

If you’re not over demanding, you could settle with backlinks on webpages that only have a superior ranking not necessarily PR 4 (or 5) and above. This applies especially for those marketers without established authority that don’t enjoy (on demand )dofollow backlinks from well established sites in their niche.

Nice comming back to your blog, Linus!

Cheers,
Cristian

[Reply]
Linus Ruzicka Reply:
January 11th, 2010 at 5:15 PM
Cristian,

Man I have to say, I took a look at the formula that Google alone uses to determine page rank. I think one could seriously offer a course at a university on their formula and all of the components. Good Lord!

All I know is that I’m doing what I can here to keep building my rank, and I’m sure that reading your post on “What is PageRank” will certainly help not just myself, but others as well.

Thanks for the extra info brother!

~Linus

[Reply]
Cristian says:

January 11, 2010 at 11:10 AM

Here’s the link, if you care to insert it in the appropriate section. ME, I forgot about it! Thanks! what is PageRank

[Reply]
BIZUSAONLINE says:

January 11, 2010 at 2:22 PM

Nice article, it is the way that I set up backlinks also, along with directories, press releases, social media sites, etc.

[Reply]
Linus Ruzicka Reply:
January 11th, 2010 at 5:16 PM
Isn’t it amazing just how it all starts to interconnect?

~Linus

[Reply]
Bill Palte says:

January 11, 2010 at 2:27 PM

Hey Linus,
Great post. I agree with Bob … this is a LOT of information in a short time. You always hit the topic dead on and you succeeded again with this post. The down side is that you make more work for the rest of us.

Thanks and keep making us work.

To Your Continued Success,
Bill

[Reply]
Linus Ruzicka Reply:
January 11th, 2010 at 5:21 PM
Palte,

LOL…sorry brother! I got so hyped on this post that I couldn’t help myself. I tried to condense as much as I could. I even cut out more, and then realized that I could get more posts out of the content I cut.

This next post will be shorter – I promise

~Linus

[Reply]
Carlos says:

January 12, 2010 at 1:04 AM

Linus , great blog post.I agree backlinks is a must to get higher Alexa rankings.I love the way you explained this procedure.Looking forward to your next blog post.. To the top my friend

Carlos

[Reply]
Linus Ruzicka Reply:
January 12th, 2010 at 5:15 PM
Carlos,

thanks for popping in and leaving a comment. You know as well as I do (and looking at your blog I can tell) that you know the importance of getting articles with backlinks as well as blog posts. Your blog site is “killer”.

Send me a message with the success you’re having.

~Linus

[Reply]
Nathan McClure says:

January 12, 2010 at 11:12 AM

Thanks Linus for this essential tool. Thanks also for letting me know about NVu. I look forward to your next blog on this issue.

[Reply]
Linus Ruzicka Reply:
January 12th, 2010 at 5:18 PM
Nathan,

Thanks brother!

the more you get to know me, the more you’re going to learn that I am ALL IN FAVOR of anything that will make my job easier – and some of the tools I’ve talked about already as well as some of the ones I have coming up are going to twist your mind a bit.

Linus

[Reply]
Bert McClure says:

January 13, 2010 at 12:22 PM

Kick ass post Linus,

I didn’t know that our anchor text back links should not be one of the keywords in our titles. Learned something new from you again. You have great detail in your instruction on how to actually make these links.

Thanks again,
~Bert

[Reply]
Linus Ruzicka Reply:
January 14th, 2010 at 2:15 AM
Bert,

Yes…the actual text that you see in the anchor text a href=”http://www.yoursite.com” target=”_blank”>Put Your Words Here should be different. The keywords are already being seen by the search engines in your text and the title of your post, so make the viewable text something different and that catches the eye of your readers.

Hopefully that explains a little more clearly.

~Linus

[Reply]
Yo Le says:

January 14, 2010 at 2:08 AM

Hey Linus,

Damn man! You really went above and beyond with this post. Lots of killer information here and you even went into some basic html which was really cool.

- Yo

[Reply]
Linus Ruzicka Reply:
January 14th, 2010 at 2:23 AM
Yo,

I have a laugh when I go back and look at this post. I did make it long and could have made at least 2 more from just this one. But I liked the flow and how everything connected.

But my ENTIRE reason for this post was like I said in the beginning of the post. i wanted to give a base-line of how to create backlinks for your blog and how they work. I wanted to give a point of reference not only for my entire team, but also for those that are looking for information on the search engines.

~Linus

[Reply]
FlyBoy Wakesurf says:

May 25, 2010 at 1:13 PM

Great explanations, but tell me is there a way to determine if the comment text box allows html coding? I’ve tried this on a few blogs and instead of a wakesurf related hyperlink, I wind up posting gibberish! Is there an easy way to determine if anchor text html is recognized?

[Reply]
Linus Ruzicka Reply:
May 25th, 2010 at 4:17 PM
Flyboy,

thanks for taking the time to comment.

As far as comments and if you can tell if they accept HMTL coding or not, at this point I am not aware of a tool or anything on the blog site itself to tell you yes or no.

I think if there were one, i would know about it.

If I hear of anything soon, i will let you know about it!

God Bless,

~Linus

[Reply]
Tommy DiPietro says:

May 29, 2010 at 12:38 PM

Hi Linus,

Great post. I have been utilizing most of these tips and
a few that I didn’t. You really did throw the kitchen sink
out on this one.

Lots of goodies!!!

Glad I found this, thanks for sharing.

Have a great weekend!
Tommy D.

[Reply]
Linus Ruzicka Reply:
May 31st, 2010 at 8:59 AM
Tommy,

Kitchen sink? hmmm…hard to carry. Maybe I should focus on a moving company too then.

Any resources for moving a “blog kitchen sink”?

God Bless,

Linus

[Reply]
Jesse says:

May 30, 2010 at 3:37 AM

Linus,

You rock another amazing post. Keep cranking out high quality posts.

[Reply]
Linus Ruzicka Reply:
May 31st, 2010 at 8:58 AM
Jesse,

Thanks for stopping by to comment brother!

Looking forward to watching the growth of your blog.

God Bless,

Linus

[Reply]
Nic Penrake says:

June 1, 2010 at 4:52 AM

Hey Linus, really useful on backlinking. Didn’t know the stuff about html for blog post url. Will have to try it out. Certainly will be returning to your site for further tips.

Cheers

Nic

[Reply]
Linus Ruzicka Reply:
June 1st, 2010 at 7:35 AM
Nic,

Thanks for the message and comment.

How long have you had your blog?

[Reply]
sohai says:

June 30, 2010 at 11:04 PM

Thank for the wonderful article, can you suggest some good paid websites for buying backlinks. as I tried commenting on so many blogs about my website, but still it has zero page rank. domain is one year old.

[Reply]
Linus Ruzicka Reply:
July 3rd, 2010 at 7:37 AM
Sohai,

I do not recommend buying backlinks.

If just starting off, I personally would use “Google Alerts” and set up alerts for the keywords I want to rank for. then you will receive e-mails from Google Alerts when someone else posts a piece of content on that same keyword. Simply go to the link provided in the alert and backlink to that.

Thanks for commenting!

Linus

[Reply]
Darryl Krikwen says:

August 15, 2010 at 10:05 PM

Finally, I found the information I was searching for. I have been doing research on this subject, and for two days I keep finding websites that are supposed to have what I am looking for, only to be discouraged with the lack of what I had to have. I wish I could have located your web-site quicker! I had about 30% of what I needed and your website has that, and the rest of what I need to complete my research. Thank you and keep up the good work!

[Reply]
Lynn Wilkinson says:

August 17, 2010 at 10:05 AM

Thanks for the info. Have just been put in charge of the SEO for the company website (Stoneline Designs) and am new at this “backlink” thing. I will be following your blog for other tips and tricks!

[Reply]