How To Build Quality Backlinks And Boost Traffic To Your Blog

For those of you new to SEO, you may be wondering what a backlink is, and why they are important. Backlinks have become so important to the scope of Search Engine Optimization, that they have become some of the main building blocks to good SEO. In this article, we will explain to you what a backlink is, why they are important, and what you can do to help gain them and drive traffic to your blog.

                                                What are "backlinks"?
  Backlinks are links that are directed towards your blog.Also knows as Inbound links (IBL's). The number of backlinks is an indication of the popularity  of that blog.Backlinks are important for SEO because some search engines, especially Google, will give more credit to blogs that have a good number of quality backlinks, and consider those blogs more relevant than others in their results pages for a search query.You should not be satisfied with merely getting  links, it is the quality of the inbound link that matters.When inbound links to your site come from other sites, and those sites have content related to your site, these inbound links are considered more relevant to your site. If inbound links are found on sites with unrelated content, they are considered less relevant. The higher the relevance of inbound links, the greater their quality.
For instance, if a blogger has a blog about how to make money blogging, and received a backlink from another blog about how to drive traffic to a blog, then that would be more relevant in a search engine's assessment than say a link from a blog about car racing. The more relevant the site is that is linking back to your blog, the better the quality of the backlink.
           

   Warning; Don't be an unscrupulous blogger trying to achieve these inbound links by deceptive or sneaky techniques, such as with hidden links, or automatically generated pages whose sole purpose is to provide inbound links to blog. These pages are called link farms, and they are not only disregarded by search engines, but linking to a link farm could get your blog banned entirely.And be very careful when exchanging links because linking to bad neighbors can do you a lot of harm.

                                                     How to use backlinks
The backlinks setting can be found under the Settings | Posts and Comments tab, and consists of a single, simple option to turn it on or off:
                                       

                            Few Things To Consider When Beginning Your Backlink Building 

-Keep Track Of Your Backlinks; This helps you to know which sites are linking back to you, and how the anchor text of the backlink incorporates keywords relating to your site. A tool to help you keep track of your backlinks is the Domain Stats Tool. This tool displays the backlinks of a domain in Google, Yahoo, and MSN. It will also tell you a few other details about your website, like your listings in the Open Directory, or DMOZ, from which Google regards backlinks highly important; Alexa traffic rank, and how many pages from your site that have been indexed, to name just a few
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-The Backlink Builder Tool; It is not enough just to have a large number of inbound links pointing to your blog. Rather, you need to have a large number of QUALITY inbound links. This tool searches for blogs that have a related theme to your blog which are likely to add your link to their blog. You specify a particular keyword or keyword phrase, and then the tool seeks out related sites for you. This helps to simplify your backlink building efforts by helping you create quality, relevant backlinks to your site, and making the job easier in the process. If you need list of sites within your niche where you could get backlinks from, check the Backlink Builder tool.

- Anchor text; When a link incorporates a keyword into the text of the hyperlink, we call this quality anchor text. A link's anchor text may be one of the under-estimated resources a blogger has. Instead of using words like "click here" which probably won't relate in any way to your blog, using the words "Please visit our tips page for how to make money blogging" is a far better way to utilize a hyperlink. A good tool for helping you find your backlinks and what text is being used to link to your site is the Backlink Anchor Text Analysis Tool. If you find that your site is being linked to from another website, but the anchor text is not being utilized properly, you should request that the website change the anchor text to something incorporating relevant keywords. This will also help boost your quality backlinks score.
     Building quality backlinks is extremely important to Search Engine Optimization, and because of their importance, it should be very high on your priority list in your SEO efforts. I hope you have a better understanding of why you need good quality inbound links and boost traffic to your blog.

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10 WAYS TO DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR BLOG THROUGH TWITTER

Driving traffic to your blog is about as essential to your blogging success as your writing itself.If you want to promote your blog,then take the opportunity  cross and promote your blog on Twitter. Tweeting about your blog can be an incredible way to reach out and connect with your consumer. With over 500 million users, you can find lots of new readers through tweeting too.If you use Twitter well, it can drive tons of traffic back to your blog. But simply tweeting the title of your blog post with a link back to your site will not work.
You need to be pro-active. You need to be creative. You need to use great marketing when you are tweeting about your blog posts.
   Below are 10 suggestions  on how  you can use Twitter to drive traffic to your blog;

- Create A Twitter Account, if you have not already. Make sure to put in a picture or logo, and place your blog in your short "bio" description. Choose a username that is your website name.

-Start Following People And Posting Daily, Spend 2 weeks to a month posting about the website, the industry, current events, comedy and professional culture. Few people follow brand new accounts, so it is important to start developing a community-friendly voice before you start looking for followers.
        Follow people who you think are interesting and who have a lot of followers. A referral from a popular or interesting Twitter user will spread your website's reach. Follow 10 to 100 every week to slowly build up your following. Many people receive alerts from people who follow them, and then follow your account in turn.
        This should not be the only way you garner followers. It is often regarded as "spamming" when done in large groups. You should only do a small number at a time, and try to build followers through consistent promotions, community posts and witty or sincere communication with your other followers.

-Generate Traffic
Twitter has a viral marketing effect to it wherein your tweets could spread quickly across the Twitter community if they are interesting. For example, if you're hosting a blog contest or launching a new feature on your blog, send a tweet to let your followers know. Chances are they'll spread the word as well. As word gets out, more and more people will visit your blog to check out what all the hype is about.

- Post  Short Provocative Tweets
A tweet is pretty short in and of itself while it might seem that micro-blogging through Twitter might just be a fun thing to do ,you can actually use Twitter to grow your blog. Remember, building relationships is a key part of growing your blog. Generating compelling content in 150 characters or less can present a good little writing challenge.
When you’re tweeting a link to your blog post, get creative. Try making really short tweets that invoke interest in your blog article. They work.
When you’re tweeting about your article, keep in mind that you don’t need to stick with the title of your post.

-Learn to use a hashtag ,

This is a Twitter-based device that tags your post and allows people to click on a keyword to find many posts about the same topic. You need to include a "#" hash symbol before your keyword to correctly use the hash-tag. Hash-tags have been in use on Twitter for many years, and they provide a great way to connect with twitter users beyond just your Followers.
There a few methods to use hash-tags when you are tweeting to drive traffic back to your blog. Here are two examples.

Use theme specific hashtags. If you want to promote a particular blog, landing page, contest, or eBook, you can create your own hashtag for it.

Use general post related hash-tags. Include hash-tags with the topics about your blog. This gets your tweet seen by other Twitter users searching for the topics you've written about.

        For example, instead of writing "Today's deal is $5 off my eBook,instead write Today's #deal is $5 off my eBook." Include your website and/or a coupon code to drive people to your site. Users will click on "#deal" and your post will come up in their list, or Twitter aggregate sites, like Cheap Tweet, will pull all of the hash-tagged deals from the day from Twitter and list them on their site.
        Follow trending topics, which are popular hash-tags, on Twitter. When a topic relates to your industry, or you have something to say that correlates with the topic, use the hash-tag along with a comment and your URL. Some websites have started blogging about current events so that they can effectively use the hash-tag to bring Twitter users to their website.
        Create a short and memorable company, event or website hash-tag. Use it in your own posts, so your followers know to use it every time they read something on your site or buy a product. Search your hash-tag daily and respond to people who have used it, in order to encourage good conversation, or redirection to a conversation on your site.

- Use @mentions

A mention is how you include Twitter users’ @usernames. They are a way you can send a tweet directly to followers, customers, or anyone on Twitter.
You can use @mentions in a number of ways.If your blog post comments on prominent bloggers, companies or customers - mention them in a tweet that links back to your post. Not only will they appreciate the mention, but it might just get your tweet retweeted to their followers too.
Mention people who’ve made good comments on your blog post, too. This is a great way to thank your loyal blog readers.
You can also mention the author of the blog post. Whether they are a guest blogger, a new blogger, or even a regular blogger on your site, mention them in a tweet that links back to their post. It’s a nice gesture, and will likely result in a retweet to their followers.

- Get Ideas for Blog Posts
If you're having a dry spell in terms of coming up with post ideas, Twitter can help get your creative juices flowing. Read and send some tweets and see what people are talking about. Something you read is apt to spark a post idea or two to get you through a temporary state of blogger's block.

- Ask Questions

Just as you might use Twitter to establish yourself as an expert in your field, other people use it for the same reason. Don't be afraid to ask questions. You just might learn something new and find new bloggers and users to connect with!

-Comment on Other Blogs
Post friendly comments on blogs or websites and link them to your Twitter account, if you think your followers would find them interesting. Be a guest blogger on someone else's website, and let them blog on your site. Working with other businesses or professionals who have a good Twitter following will get you more followers, who will then see your profile and visit your site.

- Follow Like-Minded People
Twitter is set up inherently to act as a networking tool. People "follow" users whose tweets they enjoy or interest them. As such, you'll be able to connect with like-minded people by using Twitter which could lead to more traffic to your blog and much more.

Be patient. Becoming part of the Twitter community takes a number of months to a year.So,start tweeting well and build a profile and followers. Once you start to use Twitter promotion strategies, your followers should grow steadily and your blog traffic will increase.

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