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Building quality backlinks is an important step in the development of your blog, or any type of website for that matter.

It can be a boring and time consuming process but the success or failure of a site can depend on it.

What is a backlink?
A backlink is a link from another website to yours.

Why do I need backlinks?
Backlinks are important for a number of reasons:

• They can increase traffic to your website.
• They are an important factor when Google assigns PageRank.
• They help to improve your ranking on search engine results pages.

What follows is six of the most effective methods you can use to build backlinks.

1. Directory Submission

Submitting your blog to directories should be one of the first things you do to kickstart your link building efforts.

It is unlikely you’ll ever see any significant traffic from directories, but that’s okay. The purpose here is to gain backlinks to help increase your PageRank.

There are both general directories and blog specific directories. Seeing as this process can be quite monotonous I’d suggest starting with the blog specific directories and if you don’t run out of steam move on to the general directories afterwards.

Note: Make sure you only submit to directories with high PageRank.

Alot of directories require a reciprocal link, meaning they will only list you in their directory if you link back to them from your blog. It is generally better to stay away from these sorts of directories.

Here are a few directory lists to get you started:

• Blog Directories
• General Directories
• Free SEO Friendly Directories
• High PageRank/Non-Reciprocal Directories

For those of you who would rather not plug away at their computers all day you can find plenty of people on the Digital Point forums who offer directory submission services. It comes at a price of course, but most of them are pretty reasonable.

2. Link Exchanges

Look for blogs that cover the same topics as your own, and have been up and running for about the same amount of time.

Keep in mind you don’t want too many outbound links, so don’t go crazy with link exchanges.

Note: Don’t waste your time asking large established blogs for a link exchange. It’s not going to happen.

3. Social News/Bookmarking Sites

Social sites like digg, reddit, and del.icio.us are not only good for generating backlinks but also for driving traffic to your blog as well. If you’re lucky enough to make it to the front page of any of these sites you can expect to gain alot of secondary links.

With that in mind here are a few things you should consider.

• Make sure you are submitting quality content that fits with the interests of the sites users.
• Don’t submit every post you write or you might find yourself banned.
• Write an eye-catching headline that draws people in.
• Don’t be lazy when writing summary descriptions.

You can find a large list of social sites at populair.eu, and another here.

4. Link To Other Blogs

Every blogger keeps an eye on who is linking to them. But if you want to make an impression it is important to write a well crafted post that adds to a discussion and doesn’t just parrot what’s already been said. If you do make a good impression you may find them linking back to you in the future.

Note: Bloggers are narcissistic creatures so a bit of ego stroking will go a long way.

5. Leave Comments

Leaving comments on other peoples blogs is a good way of generating awareness of your own. It is important to leave thoughtful and interesting comments to draw people to your site.

The Top Commentators plugin has also added further benefits to leaving comments.

If you make the top commentators list on a blog you get a link back to your site on the sidebar. It’s not a permanent link however but making the list does have some advantages.

• The exposure will bring people to your site.
• The links are included in your Technorati ranking.
• Some blogs will link to your site in a post if you are one of the top commentators.

6. Create Quality Content

Nothing will get you more backlinks than quality content.

• Quality content gets noticed.
• Quality content gets linked to.

 

 7. Forums
Forums are a good way to increase traffic and build backlinks, especially crowded forums specializing in one or two topics. I get many visitors from big forums like SitePoint, DigitalPoint, NamePros, SEOChat, Freewebspace, Webhostingtalk and dnScoop. Don’t overreact with your advertising because you might get banned, a decent link in your signature and profile is enough.