First and foremost, backlinks or inbound links are links to your site from other sites or pages. Having a lot of backlinks will increase your Google PageRank. Now, the PR factor isn’t really important, but helps your site rank better in search engines.

To get backlinks, you have to buy them or request them. There are seldom occasions that you get backlinks without even asking for them. These occur when a webmaster really likes your site and decides to feature it or add a link to it on his own website.

Buying Backlinks

When buying backlinks, consider featured listings on strong directories. That way, your site will have strong backlinks and will get a higher PR. Do not waste your money on low PR directories as they won’t do much.

A few strong directories:

• 2yi
• Alive Directory
• Aviva Directory
• Directory Dump
• Sevenseek

You can also buy links on related websites, provided that your content are not too similar that you’re already competing against each other. Here’s an example:

Jack’s website sells cameras while Jill’s site sells memory cards and films. Jill can buy a link on Jack’s site since a person who needs cameras might also need some films or memory cards. Jack can also buy a link on Jill’s site for her customers might need some new cameras too.

But if their sites are both image hosting sites, Jack should not buy links on Jill’s site because both of them will just lose their precious customers. It’s like having Photobucket’s link on ImageShack’s homepage.

Requesting Backlinks

If you do not have the budget, you can still get backlinks by requesting them. The easiest way to do this is to submit your website to free directories. Just be sure to put an informative description to ensure inclusion. And PLEASE avoid bombing the title field with keywords as it will just give the directory owner a bad impression of you and your site.
*note: links with the nofollow attribute do not count as backlinks!

You may also ask webmasters to put your link on your site. Send them an e-mail or reach them through their contact form (if they have one).

Two tips on getting linked by webmasters with related sites:

Be polite and proper. Do not send e-mails with the subject “LINK PLZZZZZ” or anything similar. Also, check your message for misspellings, grammatical errors and the like. Those may not be really important to some, but giving the webmaster the impression that you are professional will surely make your chance of getting that link higher.

Don’t be dumb. Sorry for the word, but please… send your request e-mails to the right address. Some people send link requests to complaints@blahwhatever.com or even billing@blahwhatever.com. Do you think the billing team has something to do with link requests? Remember, you are just asking for a favor.

Here’s a short example of a link request e-mail:

Dear Chip,

I have noticed that your site has a page wherein relevant links are listed, and I can see that our products are kind of related. If your page still has some space, may I request that you put my link there?

I believe that it would benefit the both of us - your customers will not leave your site to search if they need anything because your links page will have a good list of similar links, and my site will get visitors who will be interested in my merchandise as well.

I’m hoping for a positive response.

Regards,
Dale

You may also request for link exchanges, but one-way links are much valuable than reciprocal links.

Unrequested Backlinks

As I have mentioned above, some backlinks may come without you requesting for them. The key to these occurrences is content. Build good and frequently-updated content and your visitors will like your site and might put a link on their site to yours. Your site might even be featured by them! Who knows?

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