Backlinks for Dummies
81
Resources
- Blogging tools
If you are serious about making money blogging, there are a number of tools that are indispensable, a few tools that are nice to have in the box and about 27 million tools that are completely un-necessary. These are what I consider to be vital.
Backlinks, backlinks, backlinks; everyone is talking about backlinking. Should I backlink? How many backlinks do I need? Where do I get these mythical backlinks? How many is enough? How much time should I spend doing this? Can I get banned for having too many backlinks? What is a friggin' backlink and will I get pregnant if I eat one? Too many questions, too much information, too much misinformation, too much crap on the internet to make any sense of it, everyone is suffering from informational overload, why is everyone talking about backlinks? Stop the Merry Go Round ! Please`!
Now, if that is something akin to the thought process in your head recently, you have come to the right place. I know how you feel. A good proportion of people making money on the internet do so by selling lousy, rotten, useless, out of date advice to people with less knowledge than themselves. I know because when I started out, I was the dummy paying for the lousy, rotten, useless, out-of-date advice, and I can guarantee 99% of the stuff being sold is not worth the money. Sad, but true - much of what I see being touted as useful information is regurgitated crap that worked 5 years ago, but will not now because everyone and his grandmother has been doing it for the last 5 years. Enough of that - back to the backlinks. Wat a frickin' backlink?
What is a backlink?
A backlink is a link back to your site from another website. And you could just call it a "link" because it is only a "backlink" to you. A bit like Chinese food in China. It is just food there. Simple really. This is an example of a link:
This link - if you click on it with your mouse, will take you to another webpage. In this case, it is the google home page. This is a backlink to google's home page. That is it. That is what all the fuss is about. Nothing complicated, although, if you have never written a webpage before, a complete and utter mystery. Go ahead - click on it - it won't hurt you.
Why is backlinking important?
Google - and the other search engines - use links between websites to find other websites. They have a little robot that wanders around the internet looking for stuff. Any stuff. Cool stuff, spammy stuff, crappy stuff, stuff for sale, informational stuff. You know - stuff. It does that by following along any links on any webpages it is on and seeing what is on the other end of that link. Then, when it finds stuff, it has to try and decide how useful that stuff is if some one is doing a search for that stuff.
One of the ways it determines whether or not the stuff on a particular webpage is any good or not (and therefore worth showing in their search results) is by counting how many other websites are linking to that website or page. This is why backlinks are important and you can even buy link building software to help you in this process.
All things being equal, google will rank one page higher than another page if the one page has more incoming links (or backlinks) than the other one. They also measure the quality of those links. So - as an example - a "backlink" from your Mom's facebook profile, might be counted as being worth less than a link from my personal blog because my blog has some authority compared to your Mom's facebook page. Unless your Mom is Oprah Winfrey or some one.
Dispelling a few myths - How to get backlinks
The simplest way of getting backlinks is my preferred way and takes no effort on your part whatsoever. Write really good quality, informational pages and people will automatically link to your page. Easy peasy. I know several writers who do this and it works for them - up to a point. I even did it myself for a long time. Until I started writing about things that make real money - then I found it did not work.
But - if it was that easy all the time, there would not be a need to make your own backlinks. Here is an example - Let us say I have written the ultimate guide about how to make money blogging. It is the best page ever on that subject and I get 200 people that like it and link to that page. Now - Mr. Meany Internet Marketer goes out and makes 5,000 links to his own page about making money blogging.
His 5,000 links outweigh my 200 and his page gets shown higher up the google results when some one types "make money blogging," into the google bar and hits "search." No fair? Sorry - internet marketing is like any other human endeavor - people will cheat and do almost anything to beat the competition and "fair" is not something you should even think about. You want to make money with your webpage? You need traffic. One way to get that is organic search engine traffic and that takes incoming links. More good quality incoming links than your competition.
Will google penalize my page if I go out and make lots of backlinks?
This is probably the second most talked about subject on the internet, and you really need to apply some common sense to all the spurious advice being handed out. I use my tried an tested "does it make any sense," question that I apply to anything. Well? Does it make sense to you that you will be penalized for going out and artificially creating backlinks?
It makes no sense to me either. Seriously - if there was a way of getting a website penalized by doing something off site - don't you think Mr. Meany Internet Marketer would be out doing that to his competition right about now? Exactly. So - stop worrying and go out and get some backlinks to your pages. Here are some suggestions and ways of doing that apart from just writing kick-ass content. For a beginner starting out on the process of backlinking, it is easy to waste time creating effectively useless backlinks. You could say that all backlinks are good links, but that is not the case. If this links do not get indexed and followed by the google robot, they are wasted. All of these resources will help you learn more about the various types of backlinks and how to build good quality links to your sites and hubpages, plus some advice about how to make content that will generate free backlinks. Just remember - there is more than one way to skin a cat so take the advice given here and adapt it to your own needs and skill set.
Good luck out there in the internet. :)
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Mark this is my new favourite pastime. Well ... maybe not my favourite pastime but I'm on with convincing myself it is. So far, doing it the hard way but maybe one day I won't have to :)
Mark, you are a genius! Oh! You already know that? Ok.
If you had written this six weeks ago, maybe i would have more traffic more when i started!
Excellent, thanks Mark.
Well Done Sir Mark.... another well KISSed hub on the subject of "Oh, is That what we're supposed to do!" and you have even Linked to the other things that will stop hubbers from trying to get contentious forum links lol. I wonder how many will still argue that blue is black... once they are enlightened by your grey! Thanks for sharing your wisdom. Take Care.
I could listen to you talk about backlinks all day. Thanks for this.
great hub about backlinks!
Okay okay I know I'm that (a techno-dummy) but do you need to advertise it world wide? Not nice Mark. Now one question remains to be answered...why did I understand what you were talking about? Thank you for sharing you know-how again...now what was a back-link again? just kidding I got it
greetings from snowy and cold Canada
Zsuzsy
Thanks for this invaluable information. As a techno-dummy I will find this very, very helpful.
Thanks again
Love and peace
Tony
As usual it is well informed and concise. For the first time ever I have a clear picture of it all. Thank you.
In Morocco, Morocco Mole is called... Mole.
Secret Squirrel, anyone? Anyone?
You're a common sense artisan, Mark. This hub should be required reading :-)
Jen
You must have written this hub for me - the biggest dummy in the world. I could hug because that was bugging for months and now I can do it. Thank you so much.
Someone else got banned for life from the forum and he is also a good writer - ryankett and another lady but I can't get her name. They seems to bann all the good writers. I don't understand. Thank God I never done it because I would be out within two weeks or even less.
We got snow in London lying for days and it will get worse in February. Global Warming?????
A delightful read on the “not so mysterious” back link myth. I like you, have wasted $$$ on useless eBooks, etc.
Excellent information. But could you tell me - when you bookmark hubs on digg, twitter,etc, are these seen as backlinks as well?
Thanks
FYI: This is not your fault but wanted to let you know I have been a bit upset today. I am new at all of this stuff so I am a dummy but nevertheless customer service is customer service. While reading your page I went to 1waylinks.net. Big disappointment. I have tried all day to get some answers on somethings I did not know I needed: hosted Wordpress #1. While waiting for an email with answers that I did not understand I read their guidelines inside the web. They will not allow links to any blog/article that hints religion. So when I found that out, I cannot use them because I have a Christian title blog in google; I have lots of motivational articles as well and if I am going to pay money for links they have to meet my needs. They still have not responded to me. I told them to cancel in my last emails and a post on the site. I can't see using someone who cannot give a new customer information besides not allowing certain links. Thanks for your advice though.
Nice hub on back linking, personally, I am enjoying the high pr back links from social bookmarking sites like digg, folkd, and jumptags. While I do a little bit of blog commenting, I try to avoid it for the most part when it comes to promoting my websites, I prefer the bookmarking most of all. UAW does a great job of gathering lots of back links fast, but most are 0 pr, of course this speaks to the age old question of how much power a 0 pr site gives you when garnering their back link to your site...
Love the "idiot proof" explanation - backlinks are to your website what Chinese food is in China - just links. Never heard it put like that before but it certainly gets the message across:)
I was going to leave a comment but you have so many already, it just seems repetitive.
I am not to proud to say I need help wioth alot of things even if we have to say its for dummies.
I admit, when I first started I had no idea what a backlink was and it took reading a few hubs to figure it out. There is a lot of hubbub about it, but it really is a quite simple concept to grasp - especially when someone like you tells it like it is and doesn't make it complicated. Great hub, especially for beginners. Thanks!
Thank you, how awesome are you? I was one of those who was afraid of back linking to much. I read a few good articles here on different ways to do it and now yours. Hell, I'm ready!
Thank you, thank you, thank you....bookmarking this hub. :)
Wonderfully written hub. I'm going to have Mr. Meany Internet Marketer nightmares, from now on - instead of the unwritable expletives I usually save for him (her). Loved that explanation and example.
Clear, honest and to the point. Great hub on backlinks. Are you sure there is no Mr. Meany Internet Marketer? I think I have run across him a few times.
I will definitely follow up on some of your other resources listed.
Hello from the 2Dummies (sorry 2patricias). Thanks for a clear explanation of backlinks. We did know some of this, but not all of it. For us, the best advice is to stop and ask yourself 'does this make sense?' It is sometimes easy to get paranoid and imagine that things will/won't work.
Saw a mention of wordpress in the comments above - we have found it very helpful in gaining traffic for our website.
You are learning to make money and turning into an affiliate monster. I'm going the same way myself. You can't eat quality, informative hubs.
Thank you, Mark. I love this easy explanation for backlinks, I might backlink it to my blog.
great info. very useful.
Great hub Mark, you've explained something which can get quite complicated quite beautifully, I absolutely love the humour, I couldn't stop laughing.
Can't wait to read your forthcoming hubs, how about something like 'latent semantic indexing' for dummies? Lol
Regards
Zaheer
Nicely explained oh Wise One !
I always learn something new when I read your hubs, great info. I'm still a newbie, so it's taking a while to get all this info into my head, but I'm getting there.
Great informative hub, and great advice. Thank you for sharing. creatvieone59
Okay, Mark, first thing you need to know is that I am not "lazy". Think what you like but I have worked at this 8 to 10 hr some days. I am a little older than you, I am sure and this is after a long career in mortgage lending and I am learning all of this from scratch. But, I am a fighter and I don't give up easily but your words are offensive. I am trying to make a "little" extra income, down here in the "south" where people are suppose to be dumb, by some measures.. I read some of the 1waylinkstuff before hand and did not find the infor for which I mentioned until after the fact. I am sure I could set up Wordpress if I wanted to. I don't argue over religion with anyone. I try to write motivational things and encourage instead of blanting to someone like you just did. But since you have a mind set, it doesn't matter. I already have other options but since you are suppose to be so good at your stuff and helping others, I merely thought I would give your recommendations a try. Sorry I made the mistake.
Please think what you like. People like me? You don't know me and I don't know you. Simple!
thanks for sound advice, good to hear from someone who knows what they are talking about
You made it easy for this newbie to understand. Thank you and I will use your tips.
Very well written. In fact, delightfully written. Except I think you are wrong on two points.
Google does penalize you if you have too many links. It's called the Google sandbox. It happens when a website is new and all of a sudden it gets hundreds of links, many of which have nothing to do with the subject matter of the website. Google figures that a brand new website that suddenly gets lots of links from irrelevant places bought the links from a service. Google wants you to get lots of links, but you should get them naturally because your website is good and it gains friends who are real people. They don't like paid links.
Also there are some people who try to sabotage their competition so they go out and purposely write bad stuff on forums and third party blogs using the name of their competitors. The purpose is to try to get Google to penalize the competition. This trick has a name, which I forget at the moment. I wrote about it elsewhere. Google Webmasters write about it also. But don't worry about it too much. First of all, Google says it can detect it. Second, it doesn't happen very often and it will probably never happen to anyone here.
Great information. Thanks for the advice.
I think you are right on when you say that the best way to get the best backlinks is to simply write kick-ass content. I can't help but think that good writing still has a place in all of this Internet stuff.
Great advice, and great hub.
A well constructed explanation of backlinks. Thank You.
Good points. Very straightforward and simple. 10/10
Hi mark,
You have not written some thing new as we expect from you. You are a master in back linking but nothing in this hub.
Pls write some content that is new.
Thanks,
Jyoti Kothari
My AdSense approval just came and I'm afraid to stir it to nothing. I'm looking around for ways to keep it. Wow! This is the answer to my fears. Of course, aside from hubbing, I want to earn money like all the others do. I'll read this for the nth times, as I'm a slow learner, a newbie. Thanks!
thanks for the info,especially your simple explanation of what a backlink means.
Perhaps my comment is very very late.But the points here are proper and to be followed.
1.Back links help to increase traffic and to the reader they help to reach supplimentery and related material without delay.So, they have to be used.
2.But only related backlinks are to be used.Otherwise, it may appear like a drama.Unrelated hubs should not be backlinked.Same caution should be taken about keywords also.
Wow! People are still talking about backlinks! I got out of that biz a few years ago, with all the SEO stuff; just got burned out with all the hogwash, even though I made decent money. Restrospectively speaking, it used to be all about 'reciprocal link exchanges' and the baloney PR (Google page rank) talk - also notorious for being called "green fairy dust." You will always here about quality content (as rare as it is) but keywords are obviously still thought about, and they are just as mechanical as ever. ...Yeah, place this here with that, use this word here, and so on. What's competitive and what isn't?
See..., that seems to be the problem.
There are too many people keyword-suffin' for SEO reasons, super-linking for a crazed campaign for nothingness, and typing about a bunch of poppycock that leads to more of the same ol' garbage - in hopes to sell something.
It reminds me of the "get rich quick" scheme that only sells "get rich quick packages" and no actual anything but a bunch of hype.
Anyway, I got a little side tracked.
What I meant to say:
Good luck helping your hungry audience.
I think it is quite magnanimous, for you to try and assist other future affiliates, freelance writers, or curious & potential entrepreneurs.
Thank you, Mark, for being honest & generous to the public.
Nice hub, and keep up the good work!
Thanks Mark,great info that i need, now lets see if i can apply it and make it work for me as well.
One of the best articles about backlinking that I've ever read (and I've read my share believe me). I also viewed your blog, "How to make money blogging."
Awesome!
lela - you have got to get a life! Backlinks and this Hub maybe interesting. But, reading about it all day. Please!!
SEO
Mark, I love your "does it make any sense" method of thinking. I see your point about why making your own backlinks can't hurt. Thanks for giving me the motivation to put some time to this.
Hi Mark, thanks for answering the backlink questions for me (I know it wasn't just FOR me lol...but your hub certainly cleared away a lot of crap :D
It's amazing just how many myths there are floating around when it comes to link building!
Great, useful, helpful and clear information. Thanks for this hub. Explains backlinkg quite simply.
Gary B.
Dear me, there is just so much to figure out. I am new to all of the activities of hubbing.
I bookmarked this excellent piece and maybe I can unwind enough one day soon to experiment.
thank-you for writing this article, I have been backlinking and had no clue what it was called. Thank-you for explaining it in simple terms for people who are just learing about the whole social netwoking stuff. Sonetimes I feel like my mind will explode with all the information out there and half of it is not even good advice so thank you again!!!
Superb hub. You blew me away. I'll admit I'm still not positive but you gave me hope with "links" . My idea is that if I have a blog/website/ I can link to my hubpages. I actually have a blog but no one follows it lol! I like the fact that people will link for you if (the content is really good). Now that is something I need to work on! awesome awesome awesome Hail to Mark!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you for another great teaching article. I liked all of it except the part about skinning a cat. I know you were kidding, though.
Bookmarked - Thank You from a newbie.
Cheers mate. Makes sense. I hate backlinking but it seems to be the only thing we have some control over in SEO.
Super article. Great information!!
Excellent article! Love the information and your style!
This is just what I need! I have no idea about using backlinks.
Thanks very much for writing this for us who are not internet savvy at all.
All the best!
Thank you for this information Mark. Like anything in life it is learning the first step. Once you know how, it becomes easy and then you are chasing another step.
hello thank you for your useful hub which I so needed. i.m so glad that you simplified back links for me and i'm actually thinking that people make these things look complicated just to make themselves appear oh so bright! . . Cheers and i'm goin to attempt to put into practise D
Thanks much! Very helpful info.
@lctodd1947
Wow Mark surely showed his colors by sending you to pay for a backlink program that REJECTS SPIRITUAL ARTICLES?? That's insane. I can't believe that , it sounds made up.
With the meanness he so blatantly shows ,even in his hub comments, I can't see why anyone would follow him, unless they agree with cruelty meanness and insaneness.
I hope you got your money back. Boy. He needs to be reported big time. And they say nonbelivers (some) are sweet and kind. Bullcrap!!
Mark Thank you for being so straight forward on backlinks. I still need to implement backlinks as part of my strategy, but my fear of being penalized has caused me to hesitate. I definitely needed to read a hub like this to motivate me. Definitely Deserves a vote up and a backlink in a hub.... How many backlinks would you recommend per article to see significant progress?
Perhaps I may spend time "backlinking" one of these days when I have time! It may be sooner than I think because I have decided to finally give up trying to make a decent living from the farm! Not that I have been doing so as I have several other means of income besides farming.
But for now I write for fun and it makes me a few bucks despite my lack of backlinking! Damn I hate to ruin my fun by having to do actual work! LOL! Thanks for the links in case I weaken!
Randy
Back linking is hard work, mentally ... but the hardest part is getting a feel for the sites. Particularly the social bookmark sites, i don't find them very user friendly. Good article this...cheers.
I absolutely love your writing style in this piece. Straightforward, amusing, and right to the facts. Google is looking for "stuff" and ranking it (at least in part) by the links to that stuff. Spot on!
This really a science. Backlinkology should be called
Nicely written post with very good content too! All kinds of link building tricks and gimmicks will come and go, but I have to believe that quality content will never go out of style.
I'm off to see what else you have written here on HubPages.
omg I am going crazy trying to figure this out. I have recently launched an online website selling wedding and party invitations, and I cannot thank you enough for this information. I hope I get more traffic soon...
Nice hub on the topic of backlink which elaborates everything about backlinks. I got some great advice regarding will google penalize the site for getting lot of backlinks in short span of time.
Thanks for the great post. I think I now understand backlinks.
"What is a friggin' backlink and will I get pregnant if I eat one?"
Hahahaha. I love it. Nice article.
Great info and nice breakdown of what a back link is for a newbie like me. Bookmarking for future reading. Thanks
"What is a friggin' backlink and will I get pregnant if I eat one? "
You have no idea how much i laughed with this one....
This is really nice and cool stuff....I ve been researching this online marketing thing for almost a year now...i have gathered thousands of pages about everything...and still it is so hard..
For a newbie this hub is really useful...read it people
Thank you, this is exactly what I needed to know. It's all so simple. So how much money do you want to link to my best hubs? About 5 people read everything I write - I could return the favor ;-)
Excellent info for beginners and even the not so beginner types. I had no idea what a backlink was when I first started trying to increase my sites' pageranks and get more traffic - it sounded like something important especially related to what it could do for your site, but what was it? Your "What is a backlink?" section of this hub explains it nicely, and simply. It is as it is - a link from somebody else's site, to your site or article.
I still have a lot to learn, but am also pleased that I've now come far along enough to also know that those 5 000 backlinks you mention that a competitor has may upset your 200 backlinks, may not matter if his 5 000 backlinks are all from unrelated topic poor page rank sites that have tons of outgoing links, while your 200 backlinks may be from page rank 4 or higher sites that have related content and not too many out-going links on them.
I may have got to that point of realization more quickly had I read this hub when I first started out, when I didn't even know what a backlink was - and I think your hub is one many will find very useful indeed - thanks for the information, and advice, you give to many.
I am new to hubs and this was a useful quality write up. Thank you for your help and I will be sure to give this back linking a try.
thank you, rorshak sobchak
This was clear and concise! Thanks, Voted Up!
Brilliant hub - voted up. This is what you call a practical hub. Thanks.
Useful info! Thanks a lot for sharing~
Great post, but I am not sure how to go about creating "high quality" backlinks.. any suggestions?
Hi Mark,
Love the Hub! I found it to be useful for helping me on my site. Besides the great information, I enjoyed your back and forth commentary with the angry lady. LOL
Keep up the good work!
Amazing post. I would say the best post about backlink! absolute originality! nice job :)
I have the Dummies book for back linking but unfortunately I haven't read it completely yet... I'm glad that I came across your hub. It looks like a summary of the book, now I don't need to read the 400+ pages anymore. Lol
Nice hubs mr knowles :) but to be honest, you remind me with Hulk Hogan : lol !
Very good hub, but a little depressing. Looks like since I am fairly new to hubpages, I have a long ways to go! Thank you for sharing the information. Voted up!
Thank you for the informative and simply written article! I may have missed this, but did you ever give a step by step method to create a backlink? Because I do not know how to go about doing that...Thank you for all the rest though!
Thanks for the useful hub. Now that I'm not working, I'm working harder to write and improve my travel website. This info helps.
I have been attempting to learn how to do this for a while, your information is helpful, but what would be more helpful to me would be step by step directions.
thank you,
hammerconsulting.biz
Thanks for this useful information about back linking. I needed this. Voted up!
Wow! Thanks for this relevant information!
Really good advise! Will come in usefull for our site! - www.limpetlabels.co.uk


























































































CMHypno Level 6 Commenter 2 years ago
Thanks for the info about backlinks - all info gratefully recieved. Now just have to go and put some of your sound advice into practice!