Backlink how-to: the easy ones

Kristof Maret

14 years ago

You don’t just do backlinking to improve your positioning in the SERPs* and because Google gives inlinks a certain value. You also do it to create, to attract traffic to your site, to establish your presence on the web, your authority and your popularity on the internet, your future customers or members of your tribe…

Definition of backlink

Permalinks from other websites point to yours are called backlinks .

It is also referred to as inlink. In French we use “Lien entrant” or “Lien retour“. Search engines consider that they give your site a certain authority since these links are interpreted as a recommendation for further reading or a reference to the content of the article that makes it.

Backlinking is first and foremost about being organized and methodical:

Make a backlink a day at breakfast
Vary and balance link sources
Select your referring sites carefully
Vary your anchors
Don’t just point to your homepage, think “internal pages”
Stay as much as possible in your theme
Stay mostly on sites in your territory and the language of the site
Remember that you will spend time there

First and foremost, you need:

About twenty different descriptions of your site in 400/450 characters
A dozen different descriptions of your website in 350 words.
(With these 30 descriptions you have enough to see coming without having to copy and paste)
Two or three beautiful articles to publish elsewhere but which will make their readers want to come to you.
Several beautiful articles on your portal that may receive links
One or two email addresses dedicated to this activity
A human identity dedicated to this activity and a complicated password but which will be considered unique to your specific “Backlink campaign” registrations.
A spreadsheet whose columns will look something like this:

Example of backlinking tracking, realistic and humorous

Directory Listing

If it’s true that Google started by indexing the yellow pages (well, the Yellow pages)… and that directories were for a long time powerful levers of visibility on the Internet, they are now mostly devalued. The traffic they generate annually is almost zero, a look at your Analytics/traffic source will confirm this. With a few exceptions, these are links of little value, don’t spend hours on them. Nevertheless

Look for directories that rank

Search for “Your business + city of your market”
Do it on three main search engines
Look for directories that rank in the SERPs on the top 30 results.
Sort and remove the paying ones… (or keep them, depending on the situation)
And those that require a backlink
Search for targeted business directories for your business
Sort in the same way in the latter the paid ones and those that impose the exchange of links.

Depending on your industry:

Revised List March 2017

Yellow page Canada (if you have the GST/QST numbers if not, forget about it and stay with the free registration despite the marketing pressure they will put on you)
All of Montreal
Search everything
Canadian Directory
Annuaire.pro Internet Agency
Net-Liens Directory
Webrankinfo English demanding… Be careful with your description
Gralon (released in Quebec)
Free directory (mandatory backlink you can skip)
Site reviews
Internal directory links
Website SEO

Do you still want directory listings?

If you want even more, it is easy to find them on the web, there are even “directories of directories” sites, in reality when you start looking, you don’t know where to turn. but beware of their qualities…

Review Directories

Review sites are like directories that allow anyone to leave a review on a page dedicated to the company. Whether you like it or not, you should be interested in these sites because you can be perfectly well included without your knowledge. While it is clear that the tourism and catering sectors must be particularly aware of this parameter, all sectors of activity are welcomed in generalist directories such as ourbiz and monavis. It is therefore necessary to take care of your company sheets in each of them and go and put your hyperlink, your address, your phone, a beautiful unique description of your activity containing your keywords and even a photo of the truck or your achievements. If a file has been created without your knowledge, it is possible that it is denigrating, know that you have a right of reply and the possibility of claiming ownership of the file. Some of these reviews are collected by Google, which may flag them in Google address. The screenshot shows that there is no direct and total correlation between the number of reviews / their quality and the final ranking.

Review directory sites

Depending on your sector of activity: Some “review directories”, you also need to search for the sites in your territory.

Final tip about review sites

If you want your customers to express themselves, chew their work:

At the end of the contract, send an email mentioning the fact that today word of mouth is played out on the internet, that by clicking on this link [point to your company profile on a review site], he will be able to express his satisfaction with your work,
that it will help you in the race for visibility on the web and
that it will only take him 5 minutes of his time.

There are even some who do it!