Get Quality Backlinks - How To Track Them

Do you want search engines to take notice of your website? Then we cannot say it too much - the key is creating backlinks.

But not all backlinks are the same, of course. Some can be very effective, while others not as much. Some backlinks could shoot you up, while others are no good in increasing your rankings.

Here are 2 important things you should know about backlinks:

Backlinks Quality over Quantity

This one just kills me! What's vital is the kind of backlinks you create, not the number. Seriously good backlinks are well worth it! Matt Cutts of Google has reiterated this in his presentations.

So what's a quality backlink? You can tell this by its Pagerank. If the site is not ranked or in Page rank 1, then it's not a quality backlink. And Google cannot give it much value. If the website has a Rank of 5 or 6, however, then that is considered a quality page. Having a Page rank 6 implies that some important websites think your site has good content, and tells Google so.

Page rank is logarithmic, meaning with every rise in Pagerank, there is a ten-fold increase in value. So a PR 6 is 10 times the value of a site with a PR 5. Now if you're creating backlinks by making guest posts and choosing between a blog with a PR 5 and another with PR 6, then go for that with the higher PR.

Of course, if the Page Rank is higher, it will be harder to get a backlink. But look at it this way: You can use several days making 25 low quality backlinks on low PR sites -- or you can spend those days making a quality backlink on a PR 5 or 6 site. You use the same amount of time, but your PR 5 or 6 backlink is worth so much more then the 25 PR 1 backlinks.Anchor Your Text in Backlinks

Search engines use anchor texts to decide what backlinks are about. So when you get a backlink, make sure the link uses your keyword or phrase in the anchor text. Now instead of the backlink showing your domain name, you'd want it to indicate your keywords.

Search engines keep track of anchor texts to link to websites. It is one of the major ways they determine what your site is all about. When people doing a search use your same keywords, do you not have a better chance of getting a high rank if your keywords are right there in the backlinks? If the site with the backlink doesn't use keywords for your site, then you can simply email them to change it.

It is true, backlinks are vital for high ranking in search engines. Don't be wasting your time creating hundreds of useless backlinks. Rather, use your time for those few, but quality backlinks.

Tracking Your Backlinks Growth

Tracking backlinks is definitely essential, but you want to do more than that. You also want to track their growth. This is because you would like to keep moving forward, and that is not possible if you do not get more backlinks. It's so important to keep increasing your web presence and your business efforts, even if it seems like you're doing very well at present.

Customers change, and if you stop looking for others, your business could really plunge. This is true whether you are selling some goods or services, or you're relying on other people clicking on ads in your site for revenue. Whichever, you want more new people to come your way always.

Of course you won't track backlinks unless you have reasons to--and you do have reason:

• Backlinks are the main differentiating aspect that Google uses to rank for relevance.

• All your onsite optimization including having a unique title, descriptions, and others, are a waste if you do not get plenty of backlinks.

• Search engines look at backlinks as votes in favor of your site.

• If competition has better quantity and quality of backlinks, they'd simply outrank you. You have to change that by having more quality backlinks.

• Link breadth or the number of websites that link to you is so important, just as those that come from diversified C-class IP addresses.

• Who links with you also makes a difference. It is of course better when higher Google Pagerank sites link with you than the weaker ones.

What You Can Use to Track Backlink Growth

You can track the growth of backlinks on your own, but it is much easier to use software designed to track that for you. You'll be able to quickly see the backlinks you're getting, and determine if they're growing, shrinking, or remaining just the same. You'll also see whether the links are from a particular place or location. There is now the 100% free tool called the Link Velocity Tool you can use for tracking your growth.

Backlinks may seem randomly scattered all over. You want to track backlink growth, but you also want to see how good the backlinks are. If all you get are spam sites with regards to backlinks, then that could be hurting your website's credibility. And that's even though you personally are not doing anything wrong.

One of the best backlink analyzer tools there is today is the Yahoo Site Explorer. This tool is so user-friendly, showing links from the same domain, those from other websites, and the entire number of backlinks. It also shows you a list of the websites that link with the source and destinations. If you can have SEO Quake installed with Firefox, you can also determine quality of links displayed with their Google Pagerank from the sources. There, you have a great combination of two of the tools that deal with both quantity and quality of backlinks. You can also use the Link Velocity Tool in tracking the growth of your backlinks, as data points are taken.

Quality versus Quantity When Growing Backlinks

In case you're not getting the kind of backlinks you're hoping for, you will want to analyze why irrelevant or unrelated sites are linking with you. Consider other content on your website, well-written articles that expand issues that matter to people you want to attract. Continue to do keyword research, an important practices to find new content titles.

Growing your backlinks is not simply getting more, but cultivating the right relationships with the right site owners and bloggers. This is so the backlinks you get are those that you need. It will be hard to grow your business on the internet if you do not also keep on getting quality backlinks. All tracking tools cannot help you, if you do not make a broad backlink growth strategy.