21 Great Ways to Build Links For Free and Get Higher Search Engine Rankings

Tweet

 

Getting links to your blog or website from sites outside your domain is the most important part of building backlinks and optimizing for higher search engine rankings. The more backlinks you get, the higher your site will climb in the result pages of the search engines. I have already written a couple of articles on the subject, so a few of the tips may be familiar to regular readers. In this post I am going to I create a list of popular techniques used by today’s online marketers to get backlinks. You can always refer to this list as a guide and implement one technique at a time to rank higher in search engine result pages (SERPS).

First, I want to get one misconception out of the way. Many people equate building backlinks to reciprocal linking. In the case of reciprocal links, you need to provide a link on your site in exchange for a backlink on someone else´s site. Reciprocal linking is two way linking and not a very effective tool for link building. The techniques discussed in this post are all one way link building. You do not have to provide any links to anybody to get backlinks to your blog or website.

1. Post Classified Ads

The easiest method. Chose a few sites, but only ones that provide ad renewal. Submit half a dozen ads and renew them regularly. Classified ads expire and if you do not renew them, your ad will be gone along with the links.

2. Join a Webring

It is a very old techniques and I have used it at times in the past. A webring is a collection of websites in a particular niche linked together in circular fashion. Vistiors can jump to a website clicking on a link in a website that is the part of the webring family. Check out a popular webring site called webring.com.

3. Get Listed in Web Directories

Web directories were popular for searches prior to Google. But they still help get links to your site. When you submit to a web directory, make sure that your site is submitted to the relevant category. Here you can find a list of free web directories.

4. Create an eBook and List It in eBook Directories

Create an ebook and insert your website link in it. Creating an ebook is not difficult. There are many ways to do it on a weekend. Just google “how to create an ebook for free” and you will find some helpful guides. Once you create an ebook, you can list in eBook directories. Here is a list of ebook directories where you can list your ebook for free.

5. Create a Forum and Get Listed in Forum Directories

There are lots of free software silutions available to create a forum in your site. A forum is great for interacting with your site´s visitors. If you are using a web hosting with cPanel, you can install a forum in one click using Fantastico. Once you have a forum, get it listed in forum directories. Big-boards.com is currently the largest forum directory. For a list of forum directories, check out this website.

6. Use Yahoo Answers

Posting thoughtful answers on Yahoo Answers and including a link to your website is still one of the best way to get a backlink from a very authoritative source. Check out my article “How to Generate Traffic Using Yahoo! Answers – A 13 Steps Guide” for driving traffic using Yahoo! Answers.

7. Create a Blog and Get It Listed In Blog Directories

I have emphasized the importance of creating a blog many times. You can create a blog for free using Blogger. Once you have a blog, get it listed in blog directories. Here is a list of blog directories.

8. Get Links from .edu and .gov Blogs

Search engines consider .edu and .gov domains as authoritative. Find blogs in these domains that are related to the topic of your blog or website and leave thoughtful comments with backlinks. To find .edu and .gov domains in your niche, do a Google search using the syntax: site:.gov inurl:blog “your niche keyword”. Check out my article on how to get inbound links from government and university sites. If you happen to have a relative in a government job and/or at an university, ask them to create a blog and put a backlink to your websites.

9. Post Reviews

Amazon and Barnes and Nobles will let you post your links on the reviews. If you have purchased a book recently, create a review and post a link back to your site. But you have to be clever to make it relevant.

10. Write and Submit Articles

I ´ll write a guide on article marketing in the near future. It is one of the most popular online marketing techniques. You cannot go wrong with this method. It has helped quite a few people a lot in making their sites popular.

11. Write Testimonials with Your Link

Have you recently bought a digital product and found it useful? Write a testimonial, put your links in it and send it to the product creator to be included in his testimonials page.

12. Comment on YouTube Videos

When you watch a video on YouTube, do not leave the site without posting a comment with your link. You have already spent an x amount of time watching the video, spend another two minutes to build links to your web site.

13. Review on Script Directories

There are lots of free script directories and if you use them to download scripts for your websites, why not spend an additional few minutes to write a review with a link to your web site? Hotscripts.com is a popular script directory where you can write reviews on scripts.

14. Post on Document Sharing Sites

Create a small report or power point presentation with links to your site  and upload it onto document sharing sites. You can also post comments with links on some sites. Here is a list of document sharing sites.

15. Get Listed in Free Stuff Directories

The same concept applies here. Offer something for free and get listed in free stuff directories. The best thing to give for free is a digital product like a report or an ebook. Here is a list of free stuff sites.

16. Submit Press Releases

I have discussed this topic in the past. You can submit a press release whenever there is a major event in your business. As you know, a major event is in the eye of the beholder. A major even can be adding a new feature to your site, an increase in web traffic to your site or an increase in revenue.

17. Post on Forums

This is also a very popular method to drive traffic and build backlinks. For a detailed discussions on this topic, look for my upcoming article on forum marketing.

18. Get Backlinks from Authoritative Sites

Getting backlinks from authoritative web 2.0 sites like social news and bookmarking sites, or article publishing sites is very hot now.

19. Upload Videos and Leave Comments on Video Sharing Sites

Just like YouTube, on of the most popular sites on the net, there are other video sharing sites where you can upload your videos and leave comments on other people´s videos with backlinks to your sites. For a list of video sharing sites, click here.

20. Create a Link Triangle

Using Squidoo, HubPages and your blog or website, you can create a link triangle, for example link from HubPages to Squidoo lenses to your website.

21. Create a Top Site List

At one time top sites were very popular but they are less visible now. It is a list of sites that exchange links to each other and the site sending the most traffic ranks on the top of the list. To implement this, you need a top site script and there are plenty of them available for free. Just do a Google search. The most important thing in implementing Top Site Lists is making the sites relevant. Create a Top Site List in your own niche and only accept sites that are relevant to your topic.

There are many other ways to build one way links to your site. You need to be on alert and whenever you see an opportunity, drop your link. Do not think too much about dofollow, nofollow or all the other stuff that you have read in internet marketing forums. For me, a link is a link. Once your links are about, they will spread to other sites and some of them will be dofollow. If you are going to concentrate on dofollow links only, check out this dofollow blog.

Good luck!

 

Related articles:

Ten Proven Methods to get More Traffic to Your Blog

12 Important Things to Check Before Buying Backlinks

7 Tricks to get Tooooooons of Links