A Backlink (aka link) is simply a link from one website back to your website. This one of the most important ways you can get your website to rank organically. There are many ways to get backlinks to your site. One of the best places to start is to check out your competition’s Backlinks, copy them and then do more. There several sites out there that will give you reports, but the best one I have found is http://www.opensiteexplorer.org. You can enter your site and up to four competitors to get link statistics. You can also get reports on exactly where they are getting links from. This information is gold. Find out where the high ranking sites are getting links and try to get as many links from the same sources.
Now let’s talk about Citations. A Citation is defined as your Business Name, Addresss and Phone Number listed on a website. Google uses Citations to rank your Google Places listing. The best Citations come from Directories or local news/info sites. (Check out my list of Top 10 Directories for more info). So, how do we find out where our competitors are getting citations? Just do a Google search for their phone number. This will list all of the places that their business is listed on the Internet. Once again, your job is to copy their work and then do more.
For more information on getting Backlinks, check out these videos:
Please feel free to leave comments or questions below. Thanks,
Joe Burnich
