How to Get on the First Page of Google Tip #3
12 Websites Where You Can Get A Backlink
You can also get a list of top directories / citations by industry on this list.
What Are Backlinks?
Backlinks, also known as inbound links, link-backs, incoming links, inlinks, and inward links, are incoming links to a website or web page from an external web page.
Originally, inbound links were important as a primary means of web navigation (getting from one website to another). Now robots and search engines do that for us, so it’s not totally necessary for navigating from one site to the next. Now, their significance is most important in search engine optimization (SEO) aka getting on the first page of Google. Outside of SEO, the backlinks of a webpage may be of significant personal, cultural or semantic interest: they indicate who is paying attention to that page.
The number of backlinks is one indication of the popularity or importance of that website or web page, so Google and other search engines use that as a major factor in determining the page rank of a website.The more backlinks to your site, the more important your website seems.
To use the example from earlier in our series on SEO, let’s say you have an ecommerce website that sells handmade aprons. An example of a backlink would be if someone else has a blog about cooking, and they came across your e-store. In an article they are writing about looking good while cooking, they might write something like “Click here to see some adorable handmade aprons.” That text on their site would link to either your home page or a page on your website.
Whenever someone else takes note of your site and links to it, it makes it seem important, helpful or noteworthy. The more backlinks the better!
How Can I Get More Backlinks?
Directories (aka citations)
There are a few ways you can get more backlinks. One way is registering for free (or paid) website directories, also known as citations.
A citation is a fancy SEO phrase for an online profile. Citations typically feature the business’ name, address, and phone number (NAP). A directory is a website that hosts citations of lots of different businesses for users to easily find companies. Think of these like the phone books of today.
These websites exist to help sort and direct web users to various businesses. Most of the time registering for these types of sites is something you could do yourself, but it does take time.
Note: many of these are free, but some are paid. It is up to you to determine whether the paid listings are worth it. See the list above for several website directories that you can sign up for. There are zillions more of these type of websites. You should also look for directories that are specific to your industry, as that will also likely help drive traffic to your website.
One important note about directories: It’s important to keep all your information (NAP) across all platforms the same. Read more about how citations affect your local rankings.
Social Media
Signing up for social media accounts is almost imperative for businesses these days. Even if you don’t plan to use a Twitter account or Facebook much (I know, you don’t have time, right?), you should still sign up. Then at least your company information is available, and you get the all-important backlink.
Blogs
Another place to get backlinks is being a part of social forums or commenting on other people’s blogs and linking to your own website from the comment area. When used appropriately, readers of a blog will be interested to know if another site has additional information, or if there is a product or service that may be able to help them. However, you must be careful not to post your URL just any old place, or you could get marked as a spammer.
If you have your own blog, you know that this is one of the primary ways spammers and “black hat seo” companies try to get backlinks to their sites or customer sites. Their robots just post silly general comments like “This blog is amazing!” and then they have links to their website under that. Some people who don’t know what to look for will publish the comment thinking it is a sincere compliment. When in reality, this is a dirty trick. Delete these kind of comments!
Friends and Colleagues
If you know other business owners or bloggers with websites, you can offer to trade links to each others’ websites as a professional courtesy. This could be done subtly on a Resources or Links page or as a sort of advertisement.
As mentioned, the more backlinks the better! If you have questions or know of other good directories or places to get link-backs, please post them in the comments below! And if your company would like help with setting up listings at various websites, please contact us!