The White Hat only List of FREE Backlink Building Methods
Despite all the ups and downs of the SEO industry, backlinks have been the mainstay of what makes a website rank well in organic searches. However, many webmasters, site owners and businesspeople don't understand how to build backlinks and consequently pay others large amounts of money to do so. In this article we'll discuss 9 ways that you can build powerful backlinks to your site without violating any search engine's Quality Guidelines or TOS. In all 9 cases these white-hat backlink building techniques are totally FREE.
If you know of other legitimate backlinking techniques that work and you'd like to share them, please use the module at the end of this lens. If you need help building backlinks, click here for an award-winning search engine optimization firm that can provide you with an immediate, no cost consultation.
And don't forget to take part in the comments! Enjoy!
-Chris Vendilli
Article Syndication
Article Marketing is still one of the best ways to build good links
One of the oldest and best ways of building backlinks, article marketing is the mainstay for many internet marketers. It's pretty simple to do: write an article of around 500 words or more about a topic that you know well or can properly research, and then syndicate that content out to the world. How do you do this?
1.) Research a good keyword to focus the article on.
2.) Choose a powerful, compelling topic and title.
3.) Write an article of 500 words or more with perfect grammar and spelling.
4.) Write a short biography or "resource box" at the end of the article. Include 2 links to your site, or any site you'd like to create backlinks to.
5.) Create accounts on and then post your article to free article directories like EzineArticles, ArticleSnatch, ArticlesBase, IdeaMarketers, ArticleBiz, and many, many others.
What happens when you submit to these sites is that webmasters and end users will go to those sites in search of articles. When they find ones that they like, they may choose to republish those articles, along with your two links in the resource box. If your articles are written well and discuss popular subjects, you can easily turn those two backlinks into thousands. For free.
Blog Commenting
Interaction, Social Proof, Readership - Doesn't get better than this
Blog commenting remains one of the most effective backlink building techniques. All you have to do is read some blog posts about things that are related in some way to the page you'd like to create links to. Once you've read the post, leave a well-thought-out comment that clearly indicates you actually read the post, and give your opinion or otherwise add something of value. Then, reference your own page or post by including an anchor text link or straight backlink to your site.
If your comment is good, it will likely have terms and keywords and overall provide value to the site owner, so they'll want to publish it. In return you get a link to your site, and when people read through the comments they may follow your posted link in order to learn what you're all about.
Tip: Always make sure to publish and index your articles on your site FIRST, then syndicate them.
Press Release Syndication
PR is still one of the best ways to get noticed, and to get links
Press release syndication works a lot like article syndication but on specialized media sites. To write a press release is easy: all you need is about 400 words discussing an event, special accolade or change or some other piece of news about your website or company. Include a link to the page you'd like to build links to, then submit your release to press release sites like PRLog, OpenPr, and many others. These sites will syndicate your press release, and people that read them may share them among their own circles. In this way a press release can quickly go viral and spread itself - and your links - all over the web.
Keep these things in mind and you'll get your press release accepted every time:
*Write in a journalistic style
*Do not write in first person or refer to the reader
*Do not advertise or sell - no gimmicks
*Use perfect grammar and spelling
*Keep it to 400 words or less if possible
*Write a catchy title and summary - the summary must be different than anything else in the press release
*Include relevant, accurate contact information, as journalists may contact you for an interview
Tip: Always make sure to publish and index your press releases on your site FIRST, then syndicate them.
The Best FREE Backlink Building Method
What's the most powerful free backlinking strategy: Articles, Press Releases, Guest Posting or Blog Commenting? Please voice your opinions in the comment section below, and let us know specifics - why are you voting the way you do?
Link Exchanges
I'll show yours if you'll show mine...
This old practice will only work if done correctly. Essentially, you'll need to research to find sites that are related to yours that you would like a link on, and also that you'd be willing to link to. Use the contact information provided on these sites to send the owner or webmaster a query to request a link exchange - meaning you put a handsome link to them on your site somewhere, and they put a comparable link on a comparable page that points to your site.
This is a simple practice but one that people often mess up by asking for exchanges on totally unrelated sites. This provides no real value to anyone and in fact can seem misleading. If linking out to another source outside of your website doesn't provide real value to your readers and site users, then don't do it.
Guest Posting
Being a guest can make you a regular and earn some valuable backlinks at the same time
Guest posting is a great way to build heavy-hitting backlinks to your site for free. In fact, it's actually a lot like article marketing. Here's how it works:
*Research sites that are related to yours in some way. Ensure that the sites are credible, high authority, high PR and have great content. Only choose sites that publish articles, blog posts, commentary or other user or staff writer contributions.
*Research the site in its entirety to determine what type of articles or posts it has already published. Use this information to develop a persuasive title and topic for a post that you would like to propose to them.
*Contact the editor or webmaster of the site and ask if they would accept a guest post for publication. Briefly describe the article you have in mind and provide a potential title.
*If the site owner agrees, they'll publish your article with one or two links back to pages of your choice. And it's all free, except for your time.
As with other writing based link building techniques, ensure that the work you submit for publication is free from any spelling, grammar, syntax, tense, word choice or other errors. Remember; if the site you guest post on is authoritative, it will likely result in a lot of people reading your post, and a percentage of them will follow your links.
Web 2.0
For example, Squidoo, LiveJournal, InfoBarrel....
Websites like Squidoo, HubPages, InfoBarrel and LiveJournal are all great ways to build FREE backlinks. For instance, consider this post. It's all about how to build backlinks, and I'm an SEO pro. So within this post I've put a couple of links for my readers to help them find me and my company. This provides real value to the readers, and it allows me to build some relevant links - even if they're only internal links.
However, you must keep in mind that you can't just submit junk to these sites and hope to get your links. You have to come up with great topic ideas and titles, and you have to write so that people can actually follow your advice and take action.
Social Bookmarking
Social Proof. Readership. Viral Marketing. Backlinks. Oh yeah!
If you've published an article, press release, guest post or blog comment, all of these will produce their own backlinks. By plugging these backlinks into social media sites like Facebook or Twitter, you can spread the word to all of your followers about your work. If they read it and like it, they might share it among their own circles, and those people among their circles, and so on. Each time your bookmark is spread, you get another backlink, gratis.
In fact, many internet marketing experts believe that social media has risen to the same level as backlinks when it comes to impact for your site's organic SEO rankings. Therefore, social bookmarking is not only a powerful way to get backlinks, it's also a good way to stay engaged and develop social proof for your posts and pages.
RSS Syndication
Spread it all over the world....
If you publish a blog, it's time to create an RSS feed of your site. When that feed is updated with each new article, syndicate that feed to the top RSS aggregators. These aggregators store vast amounts of trending information and recent publications and they spread them to various outlets on the web. Each time your RSS feed is syndicated elsewhere or is picked up by a user, you get not just one but multiple backlinks because a typical feed will show 4, 6 or even 8 items - each with a unique link to your site's pages or posts.
Of course, this is not to be used just because you made a few tweaks or changes to your website. You should only submit your RSS feed to aggregators when you've added some valuable, useful content to your site.
Directory Submission
An oldie but a goodie!
Directory submission is one of the oldest SEO tactics, but surprisingly enough it still works. Directories list businesses ad websites, often categorized in some way related to what the directory specializes in, if anything. For instance, there are plenty of free directories that you can list your site with, and then there are paid directories as well, such as the DMOZ listing, Yahoo Directory listings, ASR and hundreds more.
Each time you list your site with a directory, you'll get at least one backlink, and the majority of these listings are free.
