Strategies to Get Backlinks and Increase Traffic

OK, so you’ve got some great content on your blog, but how can you get more people to find it and read it? When it comes to blogging, great content is just the foundation of your blogging efforts. It’s also very important to invest a good portion of your blogging time and energy in strategies that will help you increase traffic and get the backlinks you need to get found in the search engines.

The following are some great strategies I’ve used to get backlinks and increase traffic that have worked very well for me. Hopefully these are helpful for you as well!

• Consistently update your blog with good, keyword-targeted content. Search engines like websites that are updated on a regular basis, so being consistent with your posts is important. Additionally, when you write posts, consider targeting long-tail keywords with low competition so your posts will have a better chance of ranking well for those keywords. If your post ranks well, it’s more likely that people will find them.

  Make sure to include your most important long-tail keywords in the title of your post and in the opening paragraphs, as well as in your post body. Don’t overdo it though, the search engines penalize for keyword stuffing. Make sure to use normal English when you’re writing.

  You can use the Google Keyword Tool to do your keyword research, but I highly recommend the keyword tool at Wealthy Affiliates, which is what I use. For more information about Wealth Affiliates, feel free to check out my website in my signature below. You have to pay a nominal monthly fee to join Wealthy Affiliates, but the keyword tool and the large variety of other great resources makes it more than worth it.

• Add an RSS feed to your blog. RSS, which stands for Real Simple Syndication, is great for easily distributing content because it provides a universal format that can be integrated into web browsers or other websites, which can help you get backlinks. If you have a Wordpress blog, you already have RSS built into your blog. Even better, Wordpress allows you to distribute RSS by post category. If your blog content is directed at more than one reading audience, it might be beneficial to offer separate RSS fees for specific categories.

• Build an email list. Building email lists is an enormously powerful way to market your website or blog because it allows you to continue the conversation with your visitors long after their initial visit to your site. You won't necessarily directly get backlinks this way, but email marketing can keep your content in front of your subscribers on a regular basis and can be a great means for marketing additional products or services. A great service for building email lists that I use is MailChimp, which currently allows you to send 12,000 emails per month to a list of 2,000 subscribers for free. To build your list more quickly, consider offering an incentive for signing up, such as a free report or software.

• Comment on other blogs. Commenting on other blogs is a great way to build awareness, traffic, and get backlinks for your site. To find blogs related to yours, take a few minutes and do a search on Technorati.com. Once you’ve compiled a list of related blogs, make the rounds once or twice a week and comment on the latest posts. Make sure that you only post good, thoughtful comments that add to the conversation. Don’t just leave a drive-by “I like your blog” or “nice job”. That’s the kind of stuff that spammers do and you will find yourself most unwelcome if you do the same. As you comment, you’ll notice that you often will have the opportunity to submit a URL with your comment. This is how you get backlinks for your site that can really help your rankings in the search engines.

• Do guest posts on other blogs. Another great way to get backlinks and traffic to your site is to become a contributor to other blogs. As you surf various blogs, look for opportunities to do guest posts. Depending on the site, you may need to first send in your post via email or do a trial post in a forum, but if you generate solid, informative content, you’ll probably find yourself welcomed back time and again.

• Article marketing. Article marketing is a great way to get backlinks and traffic because it’s free and easy to do and the backlinks you create come from high traffic, authoritative sites. Consider writing articles for well-known and respected article directories such as EzineArticles, Hubpages, Squidoo, ArticleBiz, and StreetArticles. Article marketing is not necessarily going to generate massive amounts of traffic in the beginning, but if you continually generate new content over time, each article will serve as a sign post directing people to your site. And the more signposts you have from authoritative sites, the better your site will rank and the more traffic your site will get.

• Integrate with Facebook. If you’re already on Facebook, consider creating a Facebook page that advertises your site. Additionally, Facebook offers a variety of plugins that you can use to integrate your blogs RSS feed into your Facebook page.

• Integrate social bookmarking. Social bookmarking can be a great way to build traffic and get backlinks for your site. If you use Wordpress, there are a variety of plugins available that will display a toolbar of various social bookmarking links at the bottom of your blog posts, making it super easy for your readers to bookmark your post with their favorite social bookmarking site.

• Add your URL to your email signature. If you use email a lot, an easy way to help increase traffic is to add the URL of your blog or website to your email signature. Use the Google URL Builder Tool to create a URL that you can track in Google Analytics. You may also get backlinks this way if the recipients of your emails like your content enough to link to it on their website.

Conclusion

I hope that these tips are helpful! Building traffic and getting backlinks is a process that takes time. But making the investment of time and energy now can reap significant rewards in the future in the form of more backlinks and increased traffic to your site. Happy blogging!

- Mark Robert

Learn the secrets of making money online that one marketer calls "dead simple". No get-rich-quick garbage, no gimmicks, just solid information about how you can learn to make money online. Find out more at How to Make Cash Online.