5 Things to Avoid When Getting Backlinks
Getting links to your site is a key component to Internet marketing.
With the holidays around the corner, you are probably looking for inexpensive ways to get some web traffic to your “mom and pop” type of online business. Getting backlinks — that is, links from other sites — to your web page is an excellent and proven way to make your site popular.
Many small businesses who are relatively new to Internet marketing, however, spend time getting links using methods that will not be very helpful. Here’s my Top 5 list of things to avoid when getting your links:
- Submitting Your Website to FFA (Free For All) link services. Many years ago, submitting to FFA sites may have had some value. Nowadays, this can be done using automated services and the result is that FFA sites contain thousands of unorganized links, many of which are links to poor quality sites. You’ll spend a lot of effort submitting links to FFA sites with little in return — except thousands of email ads.
- Linking All of Your Sites Together. This is something that I’ve seen quite frequently by webmasters who are just starting out, so I’ll try to explain it simply. Let’s say that you have a hosting service that will let you put two, three or more domains on one account. Unless it is used for navigation purposes, linking all of these sites together for search engine purposes will not help you get higher search ranking or help you get more traffic. If all the sites are on the same hosting account, the search engines see the IP address and are aware that each site is operated by the same person, is at the exact same address, and is basically one site. You can work around this by placing other sites stored elsewhere as buffers (more of this to come). For example, let’s say your first site is MyDomain1.com and your second site is MyDomain2.com. Rather than directly linking the 1st and 2nd domains, link MyDomain1.com to a free blog on Google, or a another of your websites that is stored on a different hosting account. Use that “buffer” site (i.e., the free blog) to link to MyDomain2.com.
- Blasting Your URL. There are services out there that will “blast your ad” or submit your URL to thousands of links. This is a waste of time and money. Basically, your site will be submitted to a bunch of FFA or useless classified ad sites and will result in worthless links. You might also get penalized if the “blast your ad” service is spamming the major search engines. My advice? Save your money. Don’t bother.
- Indiscriminate Reciprocal Linking. Some people argue that reciprocal linking is a waste of time; others say it can help. I tend to agree with Jim Morris, owner of NicheBot, who claims that reciprocal linking can be a powerful tool when used right. My take on reciprocal linking (which means giving a link to another site on your site in exchange for a link on that other site) is that you’ll see some search engine popularity if you exchange links with sites that are related to yours. For instance, if you have a health site and exchange with other health sites, your reciprocal link can be valuable. If you’re exchanging with any site, such as a gambling site, your link will not have much value.
- Using Javascript Based Programs. There are a number of programs out there that will have you copy and paste a javascript code into your home page. The code contains links to a handful of other sites. In return, your site will appear on other pages hosting the same type of code. This might be okay for some traffic;. For instance, if you have drafted a catchy link phrase and the code is appearing on a site that’s related to yours, someone might click it out of curiousity. However, your link that’s in a javascript code will not be picked up as a backlink by the search engines. All they see is the code, not your link.
In your battle to get links pointing to your web page, consider submitting to directories, submitting comments or articles to blogs, and writing articles. These all contain “hard links” on .php or .html pages that will be picked by the search engines.
Free Resources
If you are looking for blogs, visit the Blurbosphere and take advantage of the free offerings there. Instead of merely submiting your home page (i.e., www.yoursite.com), you can get links to the interior pages of your site (i.e., www.yoursitePage1.com).
Submit your home page at the Link Cruncher for an immediate one-way link.
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