Welcome back to part 5 of the basic search engine optimisation guide. In this, the final part of the “basic guide”, we will be looking at how to create traffic and authority for our site by building backlinks.

What are backlinks?

Backlinks are usually called “votes” and is where one web page “votes” for your web site by adding a hyperlink to your site. These can be as simple text links - like the ones on the right hand site of this blog, or as images advertising your site. We are only going to cover text links in this guide and search engines don’t give no preference to image links so unless its going to generate a lot more clicks stick with simple text links.

The best type of backlinks are ones that are relevant to the topic on your site and from an authoritative site. The authority of a site can easily be judged by its Page Rank. Page Rank is rated from 0 to 10 with 10 being the best. To check a sites PR you can use the Google toolbar available here:

Types of back links
There are 3 main types of back links:

One way link - This is where a site links to you and nothing else happens. This is the best sort of link and carries the most weight in the search engines.

Reciprocal Link - This is where you link to a site and they in return link back to you. There are rumors about that search engines such as Google are clamping down on these sorts of link exchange so these may not carry too much weight. That said there is no such thing as a bad link, if the search engine doesn’t count it, visitors can still use it to navigate to your site.

3 way link - This is where you link to one site and the owner of that site links back to you from a different site. This stops the search engines being able to identify the link as reciprocal.

Where can I get backlinks?

Well there’s the easy option, you can pay for backlinks. But we don’t want to do that because you can start building backlinks at no cost at all. So what are these free ways?

Forums - A great way to start off building backlinks is to find a forum that allows you to have a link in your signature. That way every time you write a thread or a reply on the forum you will gain a link to your site. Another way is gain links from forums is to join web master forums, this way you can meet fellow site owners and ask them to exchange links with you. Be prepared to add links to other sites on your site so make sure you assess the site you are going to link to and make sure you will benefit from this link and you are simply not sending your visitors off to a competitors site.

Blogs - Find a blog or a few blogs that are relevant to your topic, when you leave a comment you will get to add the URL of your site. This creates a back link. Some blogs have a widget called Top Commenters, this keeps track of the most active visitors on the blog and adds them and a link to their site to a list. (This is a great way to build back links).

Both of the above methods require that you take part in the community part of the forum or blog and don’t spam them but instead add valuable content. The more interesting your reply or comment the more likely someone is to follow the link to your site.

Directory Submission - Directories are lists of sites split by topic. All you have to do is find a directory and add some basic information about your site, some sites will index it straight away and others will review it and let you know the outcome by email.

So there it is the simple 5 step basic guide to Search Engine Optimisation. If you would like some more information, have any questions about the post’s or if you want a list of a few resources to get you started feel free to leave a comment below or email me.

If this is your first visit to my site be sure to check out the rest of this guide starting here - Part 1 - Intro.