How to Get Quality Backlinks

What's all the hype about backlinks? What IS a backlink? I'm sure you have a lot of questions, and are dying to find out, once and for all, how to get quality backlinks. I've done a lot of research in the last couple of weeks, experimenting with backlinks, and what it does...so I thought I'd share my findings, and tell y'all how to get quality backlinks.

What is a Backlink?

A backlink is simply a one-way link to your blog or website that is on another site. Knowing how to get quality backlinks will help raise your rankings in the search engines. Having quality backlinks shows the search engines that your site is important enough to link to, so it raises your worth in their "eyes".

What is a "Quality" Backlink?

You must take into consideration the pagerank of the site, the quality of your link, the niche of your website or blog and dofollow/nofollow.

A Site's Pagerank

A quality backlink is one that is on a site the search engines see as important. In other words, get quality backlinks by putting your backlinks on sites that the search engines have a high regard for; i.e., high pagerank sites. When you are placing your backlinks, you want higher page rank websites. You can check the pagerank of the website before placing your backlink.

Your Link Quality

When I say link quality, I mean the content of your link. For example, if you're posting comments to get backlinks, don't just post "Great post!" or "Thanks for the post"...you want to actually read what you're commenting on, and contribute to a discussion about what you read. Make it meaningful, so people will want to clink on your link to see what else you have to say!

If you're posting to forums or community sites, don't just set up a "fake" (also known as spammy) account that you're never going to visit again. You want to become a somewhat active member of the forum/community. From experience, I can tell you that just setting up accounts to put your link on community sites and forums is NOT going to give you quality backlinks. Read more here.

Your Niche

The best way to get quality backlinks is to stay within your niche. If your blog or website is on photography, why would you post a backlink to a rape crisis center?? (sorry, speaking from experience with Angela and Paul's backlinks again) Read other blogs about the same topic as your website/blog. Post MEANINGFUL comments. Join community sites on photography, pictures, whatever part of photography you are interested in. This will also benefit you, as you will find others who share your passion, and discussions on these sites will help give you topics for your blog!

The point of trying to get quality backlinks is to raise your reputation; the best way is to have other sites in the same topic link to you. Therefore, when working on building your backlinks, concentrate on sites with high pagerank in the same niche as your blog/website.

DoFollow vs NoFollow

There's a lot of hullaballoo right now about "dofollow" and "nofollow". Let's first discuss what exactly they mean.

"DoFollow" means that the page tells the search engine to "follow" that link. This means that if you post your backlink on a site with "dofollow" tags, the search engines WILL count it as a backlink to your site.

"NoFollow" tags are for links a site/blog owner does NOT want the search engines to follow. If you post your backlink on sites with "nofollow" tags, then they won't help you at all in your quest for quality backlinks.

The hardest part is trying to find blogs & websites with "dofollow" tags. Here's a list of Dofollow blogs in the making money online category. I am continuously updating this list, and will be adding other categories in the near future.

Well, that's all I have time for tonight...tomorrow I will give instructions on how to find "dofollow" blogs, and how exactly to create your high quality backlinks. I have told you what you need to look for, and tomorrow will tell you HOW to do it. Have a great night!