How to Properly Use Backlinks to Increase Search Engine Rankings

Believe it or not, there are proper and improper ways to use backlinks, and using them in the improper manner are not going to get you the results you want.

If you’re spending your valuable time building backlinks to your website, then it would be in your best interest to learn the proper usage, otherwise that’s a lof of wasted time with nothing to show for.

Please don’t let this happen to you.

The first thing you need to know is that there is a difference between a regular/plain link and an anchor text link.

What Are Anchor Text Links?

Here’s a clear definition I found: “The anchor text, link label or link title is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. The words contained in the anchor text can determine the ranking that the page will receive by search engines.”

That pretty much sums up everything I’m going to be talking about. The anchor text is essentially keyword phrases that you want your website to rank for in search engines. Got it?

Search engines, specifically Google, factor in the anchor text as part of “off-page” optimization when determining how to rank websites in their search index.

What Keywords Should I Target?

This subject has been talked about before on my blog, so here are some past posts that should help you come up with some good keywords to target for your website.

Once you do some minor “on-page” optimization as talked about in at least one of the linked posts above, you’re then ready to start building links to your site and increasing your search engine rankings.

Now, as I mentioned towards the beginning of this post, there is an improper and proper use of backlinks.

The Proper Use of Backlinks

A lot of beginners think that just any link will do, specifically an plain link, and that they’ll be counted the same or equal as an anchor text link.

This isn’t true at all.

While these plain and ordinary links are counted as backlinks, they’re not given near as much weight as if they were to be anchor text links. Knowing this, you’ll now be able to take advantage of every opportunity you have to create anchor text links rather than than just a standard link.

Don’t know what the difference is?

Here is what a plain backlink looks like with no anchor text used:

Now, here is anchor text being utilized properly in a link:

See the difference?

The first link shows the full URL to the website, while the second link shows actual words that describe the site that the link is pointing to. When the second link is clicked, it will still go to the same website as in the first example.

That’s taking advantage of anchor text, where you place your target keywords in the link. Then, the more links you build up using your target keyword phrases, the higher up in search engines your website is going to rank when someone searches for that keyword.

Exceptions to the Rule

You saw this coming, right?

There are going to be times where you can’t always use an anchor text link. It just happens. That’s the nature of the internet, and it happens on a per site basis. Now, this actually isn’t a bad thing, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

There will be times where you may be on a site that allows you to put a link to your site. Some may only allow you to type in the full URL to your site, and that’s it.

My question to you is this: Do you type in your URL and get a non-anchor text backlinks, or do you just ignore it altogether and not get any backlink?

The answer I think is pretty obvious. I would much rather get a backlink whenver possible, than to give up that chance and leave that particular field blank.

NoFollow vs. DoFollow

This subject has been the center of debate since forever, and here is what I have to say about it, and what others who actually know what they’re talking about will tell you.

DoFollow links are links that Google’s spider bots will follow and index and use for their ranking algorithm. Simply put, everyone wants to get dofollow links when building backlinks because they’ll be sure to get credit for them, and they’ll help increase your site’s search engine rankings.

NoFollow links are shunned by many internet marketers because they think that nofollow links hold absolutely no value whatsoever and that it’s a waste of time to even go after these types of links.

The truth is that nofollow links do hold little value, but they DO have value, and it would be in your best interest to at least get a few nofollow backlinks.

Why?

Diversifying Your Link Building Efforts

Building links should be a natural process, done over time and in the most natural way possible. Google likes it this way, and if it thinks something fishy is going on, that can be bad news for you.

This means you don’t want to build 1,000 backlinks in one day. That’s not natural at all, and you’ll most likely get your site banned because you’ll be seen as a spammer. Not good at all.

Another thing to consider is the types of links you get, for instance: plain links, anchor text links, nofollow links and dofollow links.

The truth is that you want to get all of these types of links. It will be in your best interest to get more of the anchor text links and dofollow links, but you want to diversify your link building and keep it as natural as possible.

The next thing to consider are the sites you get links from. Getting a link from a non-relevant site, meaning a site that has nothing to do with your site, will be weighted lower than getting a link from a site that is relevant to yours. However, with that said, the Page Rank of the site is also a factor to consider. If the PR of a non-related site has a very high PR (PR 4 or higher), then it would be in your best interest to get a backlink from that site.

Now that you’ve absorbed all of this information, you’re probably wondering where you can get backlinks that are going to help your website increase its search engine rankings.

Where to Get Backlinks

This subject has also been covered pretty extensively in the past, so below are all of the posts I’ve ever written on how to build backlinks to your website. I encourage you to take some time to read over them…

So now you should have a strong understanding of how to use backlinks properly and how they are used to increase search engine rankings, and also where to get quality backlinks for your website/s.

I would now like to turn it over to you. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, leave a comment below…

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Tags: anchor text, anchor text link, Article Marketing, backlinks, DoFollow, get free website traffic, hyperlink, improve search engine rankings, keyword phrases, Link Building, NoFollow, one way backlink

14 Comments

Steve from LIfestyle Design
Twitter: stevescott1
says:

August 27, 2010 at 4:40 PM

Nice post. Very thorough explanation of back-links and their essential importance in creating a good SEO profile.

I liked the way you stressed the importance of anchor text and diversifying back-links. Something that not everyone does.
.-= Steve@LIfestyle Design´s last blog ..My Ten Favorite “Pre-Battle” Speeches =-.

[Reply]
Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater

@Steve@LIfestyle Design,

Glad you enjoyed it, Steve. Thanks for adding your input and hope to see you stick around.

[Reply]
Samuel says:

August 27, 2010 at 5:05 PM

Great post man! now i understand! i guess i will need to look into nofollow links becasue i don’t cherish it before! thanks for sharing take care.
.-= Samuel´s last blog ..How To Finance a Business Startup =-.

[Reply]
Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater

@Samuel,

Glad I could help you out! Most people don’t go after them either, but they are beneficial. Thanks man, have a great weekend.

[Reply]
Dave from North York Moors Bike Routes says:

August 28, 2010 at 2:15 PM

You’ve managed to explain this in such a clear way. I have a couple of questiosn though: first, in your opinion, how much should you diversify anchor text? What I mean by this is if, for example, I want to target the keyphrase “bike routes” – do i literelly build every link with the anchor text “bike routes”, or do I use combinations, such as “uk bike routes”, “mountian bike routes” and so on?

Second question is regarding relevence. The site I am trying to compete with in one of my niches has something like 200 backlinks. But 99% of these seem to be from resource pages on unrelated sites. I’ve always thought that these hold very little value, but I seem totally unable to beat this site in the SERPs, no matter what I try!
.-= Dave@North York Moors Bike Routes´s last blog ..Raleigh Freeze 24″ Boys’ Mountain Bike =-.

[Reply]
Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater

@Dave@North York Moors Bike Routes,

Hey Dave, those are two excellent questions! Thanks for asking.

1. At the beginning, I would focus just on the keyword “bike routes.” Since it will be your primary keyword, the more backlinks you get with that anchor text, the better. Over time, you can then start incorporating the other keyword phrases into your backlink portfolio.

2. It depends. PR plays a factor and can easily override the relevance factor. If those 200 backlinks are on high PR sites, then that could be a reason why. What you can do is start to build high PR backlinks to your site and also get your links on some relevant sites. Eventually, you should come out on top.

I hope that answers your questions, and if you have any more feel free to ask away.

Thanks again, and I hope you’ll stick around.

[Reply]
William from Virus Protection says:

August 29, 2010 at 4:44 AM

This is a neat article for beginners to get a hand on how to setup a backlink. But I really disagree with you on the point you make about how link building can get you banned.
“This means you don’t want to build 1,000 backlinks in one day. That’s not natural at all, and you’ll most likely get your site banned because you’ll be seen as a spammer.”
This is actually not true. Google don’t penalize sites because they get 1,000 backlinks in one day. Actually, Google don’t penalize any site due to its backlinks (Google have stated this quite a few times). As long as your page is not spammy, Google is not gonna penalize you. For new sites it may raise a flag, but in the loong run it really doesn’t matter.
.-= William @ Virus Protection´s last blog ..Virus Protection- Ways to find if a Virus actually is a Virus =-.

[Reply]
Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater

@William @ Virus Protection,

Certain link building tactics can in fact get you banned. The 1,000 number I mentioned is actually low, but it was just an example. The fact is that if you use various link farms and other spammy techniques to build, say 10,000 backlinks in a single day, then most likely your site will be banned. In fact, I bet on it.

There’s also the Google Sandbox which involves building too many backlinks in a very short period for a new site. It could take a month or more for the site to show up in rankings again.

[Reply]
Dylan from penny stock says:

September 17, 2010 at 3:34 AM

Alan,

Should have put up a kind message to not spam those backlinks sources and ruin it for others, that’s an area where especially starters or outsourcers don’t pay attention much. But apart from that this is an excellent article. I also support the idea of having nofollow links as well in your campaign and mixing up with nofollow and dofollow will actually do your site more good than only sticking up with dofollow in my opinion.

[Reply]
Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater

@Dylan@penny stock,

Yes, I agree. It’s a shame too. Thanks for pointing that out, Dylan.

Great… glad you agree on that point.

[Reply]
Mike from UK Job Search
Twitter: showmejobs
says:

November 15, 2010 at 8:39 PM

Alan, really useful post here, I’m fairly new to link building, my site has been in ‘beta’ for about 6 months, though I’ve only started building links for the past week or so. It’s difficult to gauge what could be considered ‘natural’ link building, not something I thought of before reading your post.

I’ve avoided outsourcing the job as i understand it can cause issues, especially if the links are poor quality or in bad “neighborhoods”

Cheers

[Reply]
Alan Mater
Twitter: AMater

@Mike@UK Job Search,

So true… natural links can come in many forms.

Yes, outsourcing to someone you don’t know is risky. Better to do it yourself to ensure you don’t risk your site’s integrity and risk being blacklisted.

[Reply]
Brian from denver condos says:

August 24, 2011 at 3:34 AM

I like reading your articles, Andy and most of the time its more about learning from your posts because I’m new to SEO works and its looking like a never ending story but more interesting and challenging each time I come across new tools and new topics.

[Reply]
project management system says:

November 7, 2011 at 8:18 AM

Yes,we need only natural and quality backlinks to improve our search engine ranking.Quality backlinks are those which we get from do follow,high PR and relevant websites.We should always create both do follow and no follow backlinks.Because combination of do follow and no follow make natural link building and Google loves it.
Thanks

[Reply]