SEO Building Blocks Part 2: Back Links & Off-Site SEO

Category: Blog

Written by Estevan Montoya

When you have a website, you want it to be read, or at least I do. I don't want to put time, money, and effort into something that ends up on the back side of the search engines. I want my websites to be found. This is SEO (Search Engine Optimization) comes into play. In our recent SEO article, we spoke about on site SEO, which teaches how to optimize your website for better results when search engines scan your site. The next foundation building block to successful SEO is off site SEO, link building and quality backlinks.

How Do I Build Backlinks & My External SEO?

Submit Your Website To Search Engines

When people normally search from something online, they normally turn to the BIG 3: Google, Yahoo!, & Bing (Learn how to submit your website to search engines here). Each has a specific market. Though I don't have exact demographics, I have worked with people long enough to have a feel of how is on what search engine. From my observation, the search appeal in the following ways:

Google: Google appeals toward a younger or more technological group of people. They normally have a better understanding of how to search .That does not mean that person is a computer whiz, they just simply stepped outside of MS dominated world. I know that Google is becoming a full blown system that can eventually replace office and productivity software. That in mind, we find people that trust the web and online cloud servers tend to learn toward Google for much of their online efforts, and searching is just part of what they do online.
Yahoo!: Yahoo! has been around for a long time, and unlike other search engines of the past (RIP CompuServe, Netscape, Juno...) this search engine has maintained it's overall presence on the internet. In fact, the very first free email my mother got was form Yahoo!, and she still uses it to this day (over 10 years ago!). This search engine seems to capture those who were around when the internet became popular. They have the mindset of not switching because what they have isn't broken. They know how to search, but are not too caught with all the hype of what's new. They know what they want, and they normally don't stray too far from their search path.
Bing: Formerly known as MSN, Bing is owned by Microsoft. In many attempts to keep of with competition, this search engine has had it's ups and downs. From my recent experience, I find that people that don't know too much about the internet tend to use this search engine. Why? Well because it's the homepage for most people in IE, until they get a different browser. Yet, because this group won't stray too far off the pre-packaged software, they end up using IE and Bing for everything.

Submit Your Website To Online Directories

After you have completed your on site SEO, and have submitted your website to the major search engines, it's time to build back links via online directories. For this, you will need an SEO optimized title for your website, a list of 20 keywords, an SEO optimized website description, and your actual website url. In many of these sites, you can add your link for free with no link back to them, free with a link back (which makes for faster indexing), or a paid link which makes for even faster indexing. I personally just do the free link with NO link back, and it takes a couple months to get indexed. That's fine for me, since I do SEO on a shoestring budget.

Here is a website that has tons of free online directories to submit your website to!

Article Writing In High Page Rank Sites

Last, but not least is article submission. This is the most time consuming and mind numbing this I do, it yields great results, so it's worth it to me. What I do is write a 300-500 word article that would apply to my target niche or market. I make to to insert my keyword/keyphrase no more than 10 times in a 500 word article so I don't get penalized for keyword stuffing. I think submit it to an article directory.

This helps people I make sure to write actual content that has value to the reader. Also, with that valuable content comes valuable keywords. Combine that with a link back to my site in an anchor text on a high Page Ranking and you will get noticed in search engines pretty quick, well...faster then the online directories. You might wonder if those directories are worth it. Yes, they are! When those links get indexed, as well as your keyword optimized articles, you will start popping up in search engines for your targeted keywords/keyphrases, as we as long tail keywords.

Here is a list of great places to submit articles:

These sites have HIGH Page Rank, and to get in them with optimized keywords/keyphrases will help your backlink building a LOT! Just make sure that you don't submit the same article all over the place. Google penalizes a site for duplicate content. So mix it up, but target the your niche or market with well researched keywords and keyphrases.

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