White hat methods to build backlinks to your blog

Let us start with a few definitions. Firstly you have SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization. This is the process of making your website more search engine friendly.

If you use SEO techniques and apply if you optimize your website, then your website will become more search engine friendly as a result. This will make your website more likely to feature highly on the search engine results page.

SEO that is done according to the advice given by Google is going to make your site more search engine friendly. Doing this is often called White Hat SEO, as it is the opposite method to Black Hat SEO.

Google set out a bunch of guidelines for making your website more search engine friendly, and set out a different set of rules for the things you should not do. If you purposefully break these rules or try to manipulate the search engine, then you are using Black Hat methods.

There are quite a few Black Hat link building methods that Google does not like. The ones that are left over are White Hat SEO methods (even though Google has never been too candid about the best link building methods).

Submit articles to article sites

This is the most efficient and search engine friendly way of getting links via white-hat methods.

There was a bit of concern that linking from such websites would cause problems because Google was punishing them, but this was a misunderstanding.

Google only punished the sites that were content farms, where there were lots of poor quality articles that were there just to create links. Legitimate article sites such as Squidoo, are very search engine friendly, and are a great place to get legitimate and followed links.

You can also write your articles so that they are relevant to your website. This will make your links from the articles more powerful.

You can try guest blog posting

This is the second best method of getting backlinks via a white hat method. This is because blogs have the potential to create some very useable and very powerful links to your website. These links will also help your website SEO.

There are however a few downsides to guest blog posting.

For example, you need to upload articles that are relevant to your website, but that then means finding a blog that is relevant to your articles. Many blogs will reject your guest posts or will just plain ignore you.

Getting someone to agree is time consuming, plus once it is posted, you will have no control over it at all. This means that the link may be removed without notice, and that the blog may take a big downward slide which may passively affect your blog or its SEO (as your link becomes dirty).

Submit to paid link directories

Link directories are pretty much bad things, but there are still a few kicking around that are not punished by the search engines.

These are link directories that people are supposed to use.

So, you will be expected to give a link (or more) and a description of your business or service.

The links you buy from these sites are usually followed by Google, and are not seen as Black Hat SEO, since you are not technically paying for the link, you are paying for the advertising, and the link is acting as your contact information, the same as if you had left a phone number or address (which many will also allow you to do).

Link from your own websites and blogs

There is nothing stopping you from linking from any other your other websites or blogs. And, why not ask your friends if they will link to you too, and you can link back to them.

There are rules against asking other people to link to you as a favor, but so long as you ask in private and do not declare it on your website, then you will be fine.

Google does not like it when you solicit links, but if you arrange a few reciprocal links through personal contact with people, then how is Google ever going to find out.

Reciprocal links are not bad things, and Google will not suspect that you are arranging them unless most of your links come from reciprocal links.

Bio: This is a guest post by Kate Funk, an occasional guest-blogger and a full-time online tutor. She currently represents rushtutor.com which provides homework help online for everybody who needs it.