104 Ways To Get Backlinks

104 Ways To Get Backlinks | Mega Backlink Guide

by Ryan

Building backlinks to your blog/site is crucial in achieving, maintaining, and improving your search engine rankings. If you don’t already know, a backlink to your site is like a vote. Not all votes are equal, and the same rings true for Backlinks, but we can all agree that attaining more Backlinks (healthy ones) is a key integral part of your website and it’s rankings. Having said that, the question I get the most, and one I see often asked in forums and other SEO blogs is, “How can I get more backlinks?”. While some of us may take it for granted the fact that getting backlinks is easy as pie – most new webmasters and bloggers are still overwhelmed with the fact that not only do they have continually add fresh content, but they also have to work on getting more backlinks! Below is a list that I put together that is more of a brainstorm session than anything – and keep in mind, some of these methods are ways of getting more exposure for your site that have the possibility of leading to links. I hope you find it useful, and if I forgot anything, feel free to leave it in the comments.

104 Ways To Get Backlinks:

1. Create viral linkbait.
2. Write and give away a free ebook.
3. Write a pillar (authority) article.
4. Create a numbers list (10 ways to xxx, 20 different xxxx).
5. Hold a contest, and require that they link back to you for an entry.
6. Send off interview templates to big bloggers, and post up completed interviews.
7. Create a Wordpress plugin.
8. Design a hot Wordpress theme, and distribute it for free, requiring they keep your link in the footer.
9. Create controversy (be careful and don’t get into something you can’t handle)
10. Find a scammer/shady website or blogger, and make the world known about it.
11. Submit a press release about your new product or news.
12. Submit your site to free directories (careful, only SEO friendly ones)
13. Submit your site to paid directories (dmoz(kidding!), yahoo, alive)
14. Submit articles to article directories.
15. Submit posts to blog carnivals.
16. Email a webmaster, and ask for a link.
17. Offer to buy a one way link from another relevant website (keep this on the DL)
18. Send unsolicited, yet awesome articles to other bloggers to reference or post
19. Let your networked friends know that you’ll do reviews and testimonials.
20. Buy reviews on pay-per-post or a similar service.
21. Get on the Digg front page (and watch your server melt).
22. Exchange Stumbles on popular webmaster forums.
23. Submit to Del.icio.us
24. Answer a question on Yahoo Answers and reference your site.
25. Pick a hot ebook or software program and review it for free.
26. If you get paid for a review – make it a great one, and you’ll get a link back.
27. Don’t be afraid to link out – share the link love (just don’t get too spammy)
28. Be the first to report breaking news (hard, but very effective)
29. Review a semi-popular tech gadget.
30. Review stuff on Amazon, and put your link in your profile
31. Create a Linked-In page, and make sure to put your link on it.
32. Speaking of that, do the same for Facebook, Myspace, and others..
33. Hire good writers to pump out quality content.
34. Join all applicable Chamber of Commerce’s’ in your area for free links
35. Join the BBB (Better Business Bureau) for a free link.
36. Post a bulletin in your Myspace account about your new site.
37. Throw a relevant link in a Craigslist ad.
38. Create your own SEO tool.
39. Buy TV air time on a small station flashing your URL.
40. Buy Radio time for a short commercial spamming your URL.
41. Put bumper stickers on your car with your link on it.
42. Look for older, higher PR sites with Guestbooks, and sign them! Easy links.
43. Comment on Do-Follow blogs (meaning the link in your comment will be followed by a spider)
44. Post your link in forums, and your forum signature.
45. Don’t forget to link from some of your older, more established sites.
46. Buy post level links from other bloggers/webmasters. (usually cheap)
47. Don’t be afraid to ask for links, you just never know!
48. Do pro-bono work for a non-profit, and they may link to you.
49. Offer to be a guest blogger or regular contributor on a bigger blog.
50. Apply to about.com for a topic that you can write about.
51. Sell items on ebay and agree to donate proceeds to charity – they will link to you.
52. Hire someone from a webmaster forum to submit links for you.
53. Trade articles with industry related webmasters
54. Rewrite old content they may have been buried to fast…breath new life.
55. Find out about getting a link on your local libraries website.
56. Launch an affiliate program for your site, ebook, or product.
57. Technorati tag all of your posts for good Technorati exposure.
58. Take advantage of “old world media” (newspapers, magazines)
59. Rent links from Text-Link-Ads or similar service (careful with this one!)
60. If you have the ability, create a Firefox extension and release it.
61. Answer questions on Google Groups and link if necessary.
62. Call in to a radio show and shamelessly plug your site!
63. A good PPC campaign can draw exposure which could = links.
64. Head over to the slums (chat rooms) and mention your site if appropriate.
65. Create a controversial political cartoon and get it some attention.
66. Most local Fox sites have a blogging community you can tap into.
67. Hire someone to do everything in this list. Outsourcing is cheap and fun.
68. Get business cards, and distribute the hell out of them for exposure.
69. Drop your link on Xbox live.
70. Mention your link when you’re playing online PC games.
71. Donate a larger sum of money to a small charity in exchange for a link.
72. If you’re in school, put your link on your college website (even sneak it in for a free .edu backlink – lol)
73. If you have family friendly content, get a link from your Church’s website.
74. Set up a Squidoo lens with good content, and link to your site from it.
75. Sponsor an event or a big contest – trust me, lots of link love there.
76. Enter all the group writing projects you can find – good links.
77. Start a community helpful website, and get on the local news – they love it.
78. Submit to RSS feed sites – hopefully they’ll link back.
79. Make sure to take advantage of trackbacks when linking out to other blogs.
80. Set up an award system on your site, and have readers vote on best site.
81. Speaking of that, enter all the award sites you can.
82. Make a super crazy viral type video, and get it on Youtube.
83. Start a podcasting series, and build an audience, they’ll link to you.
84. Write a heavily opinionated piece to get people talking.
85. Retain a real linkbaiting service. (There are a few out there, but $$$)
86. Hire an actual real life publicist for your site (if you can justify it)
87. Help with an up and coming web 2.0 project for more exposure.
88. Start a content writing service website, and have clients link to you for a discount.
89. Crack the top 100 in Technorati, or create the largest MyBlogLog community.
90. Go old school and trade links with other relevant sites.
91. Check who links to your competitors, and get links from them!
92. Provide a sexy “link to me” button or banner, and people will use it, for real.
93. Create a good Facebook app, and if it’s really good, the links will pour in.
94. Review bands, local restaurants, and small shops and get links on their sites in return for the exposure.
95. Speaking of that, sponsor a hot local band’s show one night with big flashy banners with your link on it (in the background)
96. When Hannah Montana comes to town, buy up some tickets, offer them on your site as prizes. Local news stations and papers will eat it up alive.
97. Sue Yahoo, Google, or whoever, and you’ll get plenty of publicity – lol
98. Answer all of your emails promptly and professionally. People love that, and will link to you and let everyone know how swell you are.
99. Create a thorough walk through on a game or even an electronic device. People love that stuff!
100. Network with like-minded individuals offline. Talk to them about tossing your link up on their site.
101. Write about the hottest celebrities, and make it unique. People love Hollywood.
102. Create your own Wiki page (it’s nofollow, but could lead to natural links)
103. Create your own training program for your field of interest.
104. Offer an on-page language translator to reach out to other countries, which can lead to new links

forums that have do follow

http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/ - SEO - PR 7
http://forums.seroundtable.com/ - seo PR 3
http://www.v7n.com/forums/ - seo, webmaster PR 5
http://www.webmaster-talk.com/ - webmaster
http://paymentprocessing.cc/ -PR 6 Payment Processing - (Min14 Post)
http://webhostingtalk.com/ WebHosting PR 6
http://namePros.com/ Domain registration PR 5
http://www.webdigity.com/ PR4 - Webmaster, Forum, SEO
http://talk.iwebtool.com - SEO PR 3
http://www.lex224.com/forums/index.php - computer (links only in sig)
http://www.affiliateseeking.com/forums/ PR6 minimum 25 posts
http://forums.seo.com/ - SEO, webmaster

Here is a list of forums that has a do follow attribute

Top 10 SEO Mistake

1 Targetting the wrong keywords

This is a mistake many people make and what is worse – even experienced SEO experts make it. People choose keywords that in their mind are descriptive of their website but the average users just may not search them. For instance, if you have a relationship site, you might discover that “relationship guide” does not work for you, even though it has the “relationship” keyword, while “dating advice” works like a charm. Choosing the right keywords can make or break your SEO campaign. Even if you are very resourceful, you can't think on your own of all the great keywords but a good keyword suggestion tool, for instance, the Website Keyword Suggestion tool will help you find keywords that are good for your site.

2 Ignoring the Title tag

Leaving the tag empty is also very common. This is one of the most important places to have a keyword, because not only does it help you in optimization but the text in your tag shows in the search results as your page title.

3 A Flash website without a html alternative

Flash might be attractive but not to search engines and users. If you really insist that your site is Flash-based and you want search engines to love it, provide an html version. Here are some more tips for optimizing Flash sites. Search engines don't like Flash sites for a reason – a spider can't read Flash content and therefore can't index it.

4 JavaScript Menus

Using JavaScript for navigation is not bad as long as you understand that search engines do not read JavaScript and build your web pages accordingly. So if you have JavaScript menus you can't do without, you should consider build a sitemap (or putting the links in a noscript tag) so that all your links will be crawlable.

5 Lack of consistency and maintenance

Our friend Michael from solutions industries often encounters clients, who believe that once you optimize a site, it is done forever. If you want to be successful, you need to permanently optimize your site, keep an eye on the competition and – changes in the ranking algorithms of search engines.

6 Concentrating too much on meta tags

A lot of people seem to think SEO is about getting your meta keywords and description correct! In fact, meta tags are becoming (if not already) a thing of the past. You can create your meta keywords and descriptions but don't except to rank well only because of this.

7 Using only Images for Headings

Many people think that an image looks better than text for headings and menus. Yes, an image can make your site look more distinctive but in terms of SEO images for headings and menus are a big mistake because h2, h2, etc. tags and menu links are important SEO items. If you are afraid that your h1 h2, etc. tags look horrible, try modifying them in a stylesheet.

8 Ignoring URLs

Many people underestimate how important a good URL is. Dynamic page names are still very frequent and no keywords in the URL is more a rule than an exception. Yes, it is possible to rank high even without keywords in the URL but all being equal, if you have keywords in the URL (the domain itself, or file names, which are part of the URL), this gives you additional advantage over your competitors. Keywords in URLs are more important for MSN and Yahoo! but even with Google their relative weight is high, so there is no excuse for having keywordless URLs.

9 Backlink spamming

It is a common delusion that it more backlinks are ALWAYS better and because of this web masters resort to link farms, forum/newgroup spam etc., which ultimately could lead to getting their site banned. In fact, what you need are quality backlinks. Here are some more information on The Importance of Backlinks

10 Lack of keywords in the content

Once you focus on your keywords, modify your content and put the keywords wherever it makes sense. It is even better to make them bold or highlight them.

Optimizing Your Web Design

It only takes an average of four seconds for each visitor to decide whether to stay on your site or not. This means that it is essential to optimize your website’s main page not only for the search engines but also your average visitor who may buy your products, engage your services or even recommend your website to people they know.

A visitor-friendly design
A web design that carefully considers the browsing needs of your site visitors, compliments the content, and overall theme of your site can give your site visitors a good impression. Not only will they have an excellent motivation to browse through your stuff, they just might also decide to bookmark your site as a resource to come back time and again.

While content plays a vital role to your site’s ranking and popularity, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t provide them with a candy-for-the-eyes user friendly images and design. Would you opt to shop from a site with simple yet elegant layout, appropriate product images and relevant descriptive content that’s easy to navigate and browse through. Some sites may offer just about the same products and services but the way their website is presented and designed may spell the difference between high sales traffic and a trickle.

Basic things to consider
Keep in mind that there are two things you have to take into account in your basic website design layout:

First, you must keep in mind what your visitors would like to see in your site. If you plan to be in authority of a certain topic, you can’t just put on poorly designed graphics. Everybody loves colors, and a little Flash animation here and there wouldn’t hurt but remember that search engine bots won’t be able to see or index them. Your website, especially your main page, should convey something to your customers. It should communicate trust and confidence in what you have to offer them. Bottom line for your consumers, make your site easy and simple with design and with complimented content.

Second, you have to design your site search engine friendly. This could be a tad more difficult but search engine friendly sites have greater chances of topping the SERP’s rather than flashy, graphic intensive sites. Most search engines have what they call “spiders” that crawl into your website particularly your HTML codes and scripts. The easier the spiders can get to your text of your web page, the better. This gives the spiders a better view of your site’s content. On the other hand, spiders frown on a much complicated programming like that of java scripts, cloaking tactics, invisible texts, and too much flash pages.

Basic Design Tips
Here are some tidbits you might want to take note of when optimizing your web design for search engines:

Go easy with images. While you have shouldn’t have to totally omit the use of graphics and images, remember that SE spiders can only read HTML text. You just have to make sure that your images don’t overshadow your text content. Use appropriate ALT text and keyword related filenames for your images.

• Avoid creating webpage frames. Spiders seem to have difficulty crawling into web pages with frames. Same advice is given to tables and layers.

• Though tempting, minimize using Flash images and texts. The thing is search engine spiders will be having a hard time what you ought to convey through your Flash. If you can utilize your Flash designs to be accompanied by HTML, the better.

• Links, nowadays, are often blended with JavaScript which presents similar problems with spiders. It is important to note that links play a major role in getting your site ranked in search engines. If their spiders can’t get through your links and index them, you’ve wasted time and effort harvesting your vast links.

• Make use of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to anticipate future changes without affecting your entire site design. CSS can smooth the flow of your website as you add content, images, or whatever future updates you may have.
Bottom line is: create a simple and interesting design for your savvy visitors and, by the by, gain better positioning in major search engines.