How To Get Free Backlinks

One of the key things, no let me change that, THE key thing you can do to raise your site profile in the search engine results is to get more backlinks. And not just any old backlinks. They must be:

1. Non Reciprocal. This means one way backlinks, not reciprocal links, not triangle links. Your site must be linked to without a nod back!

2. Relevant. Although any link will do (as long as its not from a "baaaaad neighbourhood") up to a point. However, the search engines far prefer relevant links. So if you can prioritise getting backlinks from relevant websites, and then "top up" these links with a few lesss relevant links, you will be doing ok.

3. Authoratitive. The more "authority" a link to your site has, the better it will be. For example, which would be seen as a "better" link in the eyese of Google - a link to your site from this page, or a link from time magazine? You get the picture.

4. Contain keyword anchor text. Any link is better than none, but if the link contains keyword anchor text then its nearly perfect. For example, if your webpage is optimised for the keyword "big blue cars"" and the link text says "buy big blue cars" then that is going to give you more of a search engine boost than if the link says "buy cars". It will also mean more targeted traffic as only people looking to buy a big blue car will click - rather than anyone looking to buy any car.

Of course packing all the above criteria into every single free backlink you get is not easy! I also emphasise the word free. Google especially loathes paid linking (unless its "nofollowed"), much preferring more natural one way linkbuilding, obtained free through natural building, networking and progression.

So how do you go about getting these free, relevant, non-reciprocal backlinks then? Well that is the million dollar question! Those that succeed, and see their sites on page one of a SERP (Search Engine Results Page), combine strategies to build the most comprehensive, varied, relevant linking network they can. They look for high authority links with good relevance and a good "PR" rating (viewable using Google toolbar usually, or a more specialist tool such as SEO Quake). They also try to ensure that links are not "nofollowed", as these links do not count as "votes" towards your sites popularity.

Some of the strategies employed include:

1. Building strategic linking partners.

2. Writing articles for article directories.

3. Posting on forums using keyword-rich forum signature link.

4. Posting comments in "nofollow" blogs, usually with their name as a backlink.

5. Using social media such as Digg to get people talking about their site and linking to it.

6. Using hosted sites such as Squidoo to create keyword-rich pages containing link to their main site.

7. Starting blogs to write posts that contain keywords.

So what other ways can you get more backlinks free?

All of the above, and many more, are ways people routinely use to get more backlinks for free. I would obviously like to throw into the ring using IBL Builder, as its my company! Our site is a directory where people use a credit system to linkbuild. By giving people backlinks free, you build credits that allow you to then request backlinks to your site from other members. So everyone has to build to benefit, giving to recieve. We make non-reciprocal linking a reciprocal task.

Our system then manages those links for you, using code on member sites to display them with anchor text of your choice. We take the worry out of backlinking, by managing both your live links, and the sites in our network.

Some people have said "thats automated, non-natural linking, I will get a Google bash for that". I have to say to that, NONSENSE!

Why? Consider these points:

1. Is doing link deals with other webmasters/SEO's etc in our directory any less natural than swapping them via a forum, or via an email or verbal agreement? NO - its another variation of the same theme, and is more honest as you will notice that most of these "deals" done on forums include triangle linking agreements to try and get around the search engine! How honest is that as a strategy?!

2. Is managing how links appear on a page ANYTHING to do with the search engines, again a categorical NO. Once a link deal is done, how those links are generated onto a webpage and monitored is entirely up to the individual. Our monitoring tools are a legitmate service that falls outside the whole process of link building.

3. I would challenge that building links through a directory of people looking for relevant one way backlinks will do more to build relevance on the internet than using lists of "dofollow" blogging companies to dump random comments all over the place just to get a free backlink to your site. Yet that is "acceptable" while a few people are questioning using the semi-automation that we offer with IBL Builder. The people using our network I would challenge, are showing more good intention than a lot of those people doing most of the strategies I outlined earlier in this article.

Now I know, before I get an avalanche of mail from outraged SEO's, that there are more ways to build links. There are some wonderfully creative ways to "bait" people to link to you totally naturally (although using the word linkbait grates with natural bit don't you think?). My point is that a huge majority of the day-to-day linkbuilding done on the internet is not "holier than thou" and certainly is not "natural" as Google originally intended it. I know you can spend a working week analysing link potential, keyword data, and a million other stats. But the bottom line is that it all comes down to one thing - someone giving you a link! Thats the bit you will notice is ALWAYS skipped over in SEO articles. They tell you about all the wonderful ways to analyse data and "natural strategies", but it all comes down to one single thing - getting a person to link to you. My service deals with that reality that millions of people with websites face daily.

So there you go, there are many ways to get hold of free backlinks on the internet, but its getting tougher, and less easy to do it legitimately. My company offer a service that complements other ways of building one way links, a way that uses automation to ensure fairness in our linkbuilders directory, and an automation that protects our members from poor quality spam sites, and people moving the goalposts once a link has been added. It does not contravene Google's TOS, and is actually less morally questionable as a strategy than engaging in what is, in effect, filling the net full of spam by starting endless squidoo lenses to point at other sites for example.

So ignore it at your peril, and for those of you enlightened enough to rise above the dogma you will read about "natural" linkbuilding , I look forward to seeing you benefit from using IBL Builder as part of your free backlink building strategy.

Jason Temple
Managing Director, IBL Builder.