Search engine optimization, whether you are talking about the Google algorithm or Bing’s new search results formula, revolves primarily around your ability to build backlinks. However, backlinks typically don’t just happen for new sites so we (IMPACT) want to provide you with the top 5 strategies to spike your backlink campaign.

  1. Forums and Blog Comments — Simply the easiest form of creating quality backlinks!  Develop a consistent username that delivers your branding message throughout industry related blogs and forums, and post quality comments within the message boards and blog comment sections. Not only will you be able to generate backlinks, but you could also start a huge online following with high-quality posts/comments. My suggestion, and what I have found works very well, is to dedicate an hour each day to forum posts and blog comments which has increased my site’s traffic and my overall online presence exponentially.
  2. Article Publishing/Marketing — Once again, the goal with writing articles isn’t solely the idea of creating backlinks to your site, but the bigger picture rests with the ideal situation of growing your online identity/reputation. There are several online newspapers and blogs that are looking for “volunteer content”; research which blogs would benefit from your expertise the most and just write. Become a consistent contributor to their blog/newspaper and grow a following through their audience. I have found that writing articles for various sites is second to none when it comes to building an online reputation throughout a variety of audiences.
  3. Social Bookmarks — I have preached this to countless clients!  Create accounts and meaningful usernames on the most popular (and up and coming) social bookmarking websites. Not only will you create the backlinks through these sites, but you will also be able to drive direct traffic and a following to your site as well (similar to the above two scenarios). Some of the websites that I have found truly worth while are: Digg, Stumble, Mixx, Reddit, and Delicious. Take 30 minutes following an article or blog that you created has been published, and distribute those links to the social bookmarks.
  4. RSS Marketing — RSS stands for really simple syndication, and it lives by its name…really simple!  Feedburner (owned by the powerhouse Google) is one of the best RSS managers to date, and still releases industry leading marketing campaigns. If you have an established blog, run your feeds through Feedburner and allow them to distribute consistent e-mail marketing campaigns on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Allow them to rotate older posts into your feeds, and allow Feedburner to truly market and build backlinks for you. I have found this to be the easiest way to build backlinks and current audience backlinks as the only think you need to do is create an account!
  5. Directories — One of the more time consuming yet efficient backlink strategies is to submit your site/blog to directories. IMPACT has recently outlined the top 50 places to submit your site, but that isn’t nearly as many as you have the opportunity to utilize. Even though this may take a while for you to accomplish, I have found that by dividing the sites into daily tasks, I have been able to submit my sites to over 250 directories within 50 days!  That’s about 15 minutes a day for 5 backlinks a day…not a bad ratio!

Backlink campaigns, like any other marketing campaign need to be well planned and implemented efficiently. Keep in mind that for every 1 minute of planning, you save 10 minutes in execution!  So, take advantage of our blog posts about link building, contact IMPACT to develop a backlink or search engine optimization campaign, and start creating backlinks to your site today!