How To Build Natural Backlinks

First things first

Why do back links matter?
Free one-way backlink from Nick – Checkout Free One-Way Backlinks
Quality content – Quality content attracts 1,000 times the traffic and builds links naturally. The key is to do something remarkable which Seth Godin explains in this video.

BackLink Tools

Keep a text file of your backlinks – Not every site will accept your backlink and you need to track of which sites will accept your backlink.
Before you build any links - You need to sign up for Google’s Webmaster Tools and know about anchor text, IP’s, NoFollow vs. DoFollow, etc.
Spy on your competition – Why re-invent the wheel and spend hours finding a few places to get back links when you could just look at the top 10 results for your keyword phrase and figure out where their back links come from?
Google analytics – Some keywords will send you traffic; some won’t. Use Google analytics to discover which keywords are working best and build links with those keywords. Read more: How Google Analytics Helps Me Get More Traffic
Drop my link – Helps you use Google to find thousands of sites to drop your links on and create backlinks. I made a quick video that shows you how.

NoFollow & DoFollow

NoFollow & DoFollow Explained
How to find NoFollow & DoFollow sites
DoFollow blog directory – Checkout my Massive DoFollow Blog List Directory

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Vary your BackLinks

BackLinks from Blog Commenting

Keep a text file of your backlinks – Not every site will accept your backlink and you need to track of which sites will accept your backlink.
Blog commenting – Leaving meaningful comments on other blogs can be a great way to build backlinks. Read my lengthy “How to” here. If you have trouble find blogs to comment on then checkout Sneaky Way To Find Blogs To Comment On And Get Backlinks
Blog commenting – Top commentator – You can get a back link from every single page of a blog through blog commenting and this post tells you how.

Guest Posting

Guest Posting – Guest posts typically link back to their author’s site. Read more: Guest Post Your Way To Loads Of Traffic

Reciprocal BackLinks

Blog roll – Find other sites in your niche and add them to your blogroll. Invite those sites to add your site to their blogroll. If you have good content then some sites will add you. Sites with a lengthy blog roll are more likely to add you so target them first. Once added to their blog roll, your link will (usually) appear on every page of their site.
Reciprocal links (The Smart Way) – Near the bottom of my Massive DoFollow Blog List Directory post I have a link to YoungPrePro’s Post List Of 51 Dofollow Blogs to Comment On. And YoungPrePro’s post links to mine. In addition to having a good back link I get a decent amount of highly targeted traffic to that post.

Link Bait

Irresistible content is considered link bait. It may take the form of controversial content, infographics, or an awesome video. There are several blog posts dedicated to the subject:

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Clever ideas

Top Dog List – Create a list of 20+ people in your niche that your readers should follow. For each person, include a summary explaining why this person is awesome and the reason that your readers should check out there website. Include a link to that person’s best blog post or article. Contact each person on the list and let them know what you’ve done. Some of them will link back to you or Tweet a link to your blog post.
Let people steal your content – When my blog first started getting traffic I noticed other sites were copying my blog posts without my permission. At first I was mad. And then I realized that one of my copied posts linked to another of my blog posts. The site that had copied my stuff was linking to my site. Read more: My Clever Way To Handle Content Theft
Interview someone in your niche – They’ll likely link to the interview and tweet about it because it makes them feel important. And if they say something controversial you’ll get more traffic.

Good Writing

Awesome Titles & headlines - People will never link to your next blog post if they don’t bother to read it. And they’ll never read it if you have a boring title. If you want backlinks, retweets, etc. then you MUST have an awesome title. (And when I say ‘awesome’ I actually mean ‘not boring’ like 90% of blog posts are). Be outrageous, be controversial, just don’t be boring. You cannot get backlinks with a lame title. Read more: What I Learned From Lady Gaga About Building Backlinks

Press & Media

Press Release – Sites like PRWeb can help you gain visibility. Make sure your press release has a link to your site, and when other sites pickup (publish) the release you’ll get a back link. Furthermore, track which sites publish your press release and build a relationship with them directly. Paul Graham has a great post about the power of good PR
In the News – Write about, and link to, companies with “in the news” pages. They link back to stories and blog posts which cover their developments. This is obviously easiest if you have a news section or blog. Do a Google search for [your industry + "in the news"]. (Copied from 101 Ways to Build Link Popularity)
Help a Reporter – Get a back link by helping out reporters that are looking for experts in your field. http://www.helpareporter.com

Help Others

Improve a blog post – I wrote a post Why Pinterest Traffic Is Worthless and Adam from DormRoomCash responded in a comment with his own experience with Pinterest. I copied his comment into the blog post and linked to his site because his comment added genuine value. When you see a blog post that you could improve, contact the blog owner and let them know. They may include your insights and link back to you.
Help a Reporter – Get a back link by helping out reporters that are looking for experts in your field. http://www.helpareporter.com
Be a sponsor – All sorts of charities, contests, and conferences link to their sponsors. This can be a great way to gain visibility, links, and a warm feeling in your heart. (Copied from 101 Ways to Build Link Popularity)
eBay Auctions – Sell items on eBay and offer to donate the profits to a charity. Many charities will link both to the eBay auction and to your site. (Copied from 101 Ways to Build Link Popularity)
Yahoo! answers – You can get backlinks by responding to questions. Read more: How To Get Traffic From Yahoo Answers
Make people feel important - Perform surveys and studies that make people feel important. If you can make other people feel important they will help do your marketing for you for free. Salary.com did a study on how underpaid mothers were, and they got many high quality links. (Copied from 101 Ways to Build Link Popularity)
Send a gift – Get a blogger’s attention by sending them something from their Amazon wishlist.

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Miscellaneous

Forums – Some forums allow you to post a link to your site in the signature section and this is a good way to get a back link from a reputable source.
Pat Flynn Method – Pat has developed his own strategy. Read The Backlinking Strategy that Works
Outsourcing – Once you find a link building method that works you can pay someone else to do it for you.
WikiPedia – At the end of many WikiPedia articles you can get a link in the External Links section.

Mediocre Link Building Methods

These methods just don’t work super well anymore.

Article Marketing - 7 years ago article marketing was all the rage but now it’s lost some of it’s effectiveness. However there are some good posts that you can checkout if you want to learn about it:
Gov & Edu Links – You can get quality links from sites that end in .edu or .gov. Read Ana Hoffman’s: 3 Unorthodox Ways to Get King-Kong .EDU Links. The reason .edu & .gov links are considered decent but not great is that they are a pain to find. In the time it takes to find 1 .edu link you could find 5 other links.
Paid Links – You can buy links from various sites but it’s a hassle. You can go through a link broker service like text link brokers which makes this a lot easier. Make sure you’re aware of Google’s policy on paid links.
Reciprocal links (Mediocre Method) – You can swap links with random sites and link market makes it easy to find other sites to swap with.
YouTube – You can get a NoFollow link in the description of the video you post. Or you can find a popular video and pay the owner a few bucks to put your link in the description. Read: 5 Ways To Get Free YouTube Traffic
Squidoo & Hubspot – Spend 5 minutes, make a page, and link to yourself.
Onlywire – Let’s you submit your url to something like 30 social networks at once.

Ineffective Link Building Methods

These won’t hurt your site’s ranking but won’t help much either.

RSS Directories – Submit your RSS feed to various RSS directories and get back links.
Submit to Directories – Submit your site to directories like DMOZ
Fiverr deals – They promise 5,000 back links for $5. You’ll likely get the back links but it’s doubtful that Google will see & count them.
Begging – Harass bloggers and ask them for a link and offer nothing in return.

Bad Link Building Methods (Avoid these!)

Link Farms – Great way to get your site blacklisted
Blog comment spamming – Many bloggers use Akismet which has a huge list of urls used by blog comment spammers. When you leave a spammy comment on a blog your url will likely be added to the Akismet list and all future comments will likely be discarded even if they’re legitimate.
Facebook page spamming – People get angry when you slap your link on random Facebook pages. Often people will complain and get your account banned.

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Did I miss any link building methods?