• The definition of link building
• Why link building is an integral part of SEO
• How to make reliable & trustworthy backlinks efficiently and with minimal or zero cost
• Link building applications, to help you with this tedious task

Link Building – Definition Most simply put, link building is the process of getting other domains link to your website. Why link building is an integral part of SEO? Link building is essential because it is a significant component on how search engines rate and rank your website. For example, we own a web site that sells computers. Of course, we’re competing with well-established brands that also retail computers. Some of these well-known brands are: ASUS, Acer, Toshiba, Sony, etc. One standing aspect that search engines will look in determining how to position our website for a specific query (e.g. “computers”) is our backlinks. While the above example provides a common visual understanding of how backlinks are used, it omits key aspects such as:

• Trust & authority of the linking internet sites
• On-page optimization
• Key terms of the inbound links

How to make cheap, or even free, reliable & trustworthy backlinks? There are variety of link building techniques& strategies used to get exterior internet sites to link to yours. Some of them these are:

• Content Creation & Marketing – Creating compelling articles that individuals will want to reference and link to.
• Submissions – Sending your news to press announcements. Submitting your website to directories.
• Reviews – Put your products or services in front of powerful web owners.
• Links from friends & partners – Get individuals you know and individuals you work with to link to your site.

There are several other options that will offer you more extensive and granular lists of ways to get backlinks, but there are also main issues with all of these guidelines.

• They take some time – creating high-quality articles and developing backlinks from parties who may be interested takes a while. It also requires certain resources like: excellent copy writers, dedicated social manager, etc.
• They are out of your control – You are relying on internet websites that you do not manage. This means you’re unable to control the words they use to discuss your products or services, nor the genre of these sites linking to you.

Now, how can you build quality and trustworthy backlinks? There are few aspects to consider:

• Actual anchor text – Are you familiar with anchor texts? Anchor text is the visible text of a link (hyperlink). Take a look at the link below:

SEO Philippines

The HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) code for that link would be: <a href=”http://www.bloganize.com/seo-in-the-philippines/”>SEO Philippines</a>

The red text “SEO Philippines” is the anchor text. Notice that our anchor text is keyword-based, yes, search engines look into     these anchor texts to conclude the genre of our site. For example, we have links from different domains with the following anchor texts: SEO company in the Philippines, SEO specialist Philippines, cheap SEO Philippines & affordable seo outsourcing Philippines. Google MIGHT realize that our website talks about SEO.

• Content around your anchor text
• Quality of the linking page
• Keyword Variation

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of taming the search-engine ranking of your site. It encompasses numerous optimization techniques that make your website get more traffic and more conversions. SEO is the mission of increasing the visibility of your website in search engines using quality links, social media and domain authority. Simply put, it’s the process of making your site search engine “friendly” and “compatible”. By doing optimization, you want to tell the search engines that your site is the most relevant in terms of a search query. SEO roughly starts with the identification of your site’s current search engine statistics. This data can further be used as the ground for optimization. Your site’s weaknesses are uncovered in this phase so that SEO specialists can make strategic and sustainable plan to target and alleviate these weaknesses. Following this phase is the On-page Optimization.  On-page calibration is the process of abiding your site’s physical page elements with what search engines look for. The search engine ranking of your site is determined by several factors, including how your site is coded, and how you use specific tags. To understand better what search engines do, read my article about ‘How Do Search Engines Work’. After on-page optimization, here comes the painful process of Keyword Research. Keyword Research is a tactful long process of identifying effective keywords for your site. Effective keywords are not just those keywords that suites your site’s genre, but these may refer to the keywords that bring more traffic through search engine searches. I have described this topic well on this article, “Keyword Research | An Introduction”. Next to Keyword Research is a more stabbing work, Link Building. Most simply put, Link Building is the process of getting inbound links from other domains. One ranking factor is on how many authoritative sites link to your website, this factor is what link building addresses.  This phase is the longest period of SEO and oftentimes it lasts months, years and even during the whole lifespan of your site.

Why do you need SEO?

The internet has become a cut- throat market place. There are millions of websites longing for attention from internet surfers. A recent research shows that almost 90% of these surfers are using search engines to navigate the web. Now, how would you be found and be relevant enough to make search engines realize to include you in their search results? Answer, Search Engine Optimization. So if you don’t want to miss this enormous opportunity to attract more traffic to your site, you should start considering SEO.

I always love to hear from my readers. For you, how do you define SEO?