We’ve discussed on-site search engine optimization in great depth – including some of the different adjustments you can make to your webpages to make them more appealing to search engines – but these techniques are only half the battle. Off-site techniques are just as important in getting your site ranked well in the search engines results. For the most part, off-site SEO techniques revolve around the links that point to your site from other webpages. These links back to your site are commonly called backlinks.

The following types of backlinks offer the most benefit in terms of off-site search engine optimization:

Links from sites with a high Google PageRank – Google’s PageRank system is a website quality indicator that takes into account how popular a site is by reviewing the amount and quality of the sites that link to it. Sites with a high PageRank are considered to be more reputable than those with low ranks, so backlinks to your site that come from high PageRank sites naturally offer more of an advantage in terms of search engine optimizatiton.

Links from sites with similar content – Search engines consider the source of an inbound link when determining how much weight to give it. For example, if an authority site on working from home links back to your site on making money online, the search engines perceive this as an endorsement of the quality of your content. Consequently, the search engines will give this link more weight than they would to one from a free link exchange directory.

Link extensions matter – Search engines tend to give more weight to backlinks that come from well established sites with .com, .edu and .gov extensions. Specifically, search engines tend to assume that the information on .gov and .edu sites is more reputable than that on less well-known .info or .us extensions. These links can be extremely difficult to get, but if you are able to get linked from one of these sites, you should see your rankings increase dramatically.

The number of links to your site – Of course, all things considered, a site with 600 high quality backlinks will be ranked better by the search engines than one with only six high quality inbound links. In the eyes of the search engines, this demonstrates that many different people think highly of your site – making it a better choice to send traffic to in response to user searches.

Link building is hardly a precise art, as there are a number of additional factors that the search engines take into account when measuring the strength of the backlinks to your site. In addition, search engine algorithms change frequently, so the factors they give weight to now could change without warning. However, it is safe to say that building up good backlinks from other quality sites is a sound strategy when it comes to search engine optimization, and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

So how can you start getting links? Well there are several different methods you can choose to jumpstart your link building campaign. These include directory submissions, article submissions, press releases, forum and blog commenting, and social bookmarking.

Additional Articles in the SEO Tutorial Series:
SEO Module 1 – SEO Introduction & Keyword Research (Watch Online Video)
-Part 1: What is SEO?
-Part 2: Keyword Research
-Part 3: What is LSI?
-Part 4: What are Long-Tail Keywords?

SEO Module 2 – On-Site Optimization (Watch Online Video)
-Part 5: On-Site vs Off-Site
-Part 6: On-Site Optimization Details
-Part 7: What are Meta Tags?
-Part 8: What is Anchor Text?

SEO Module 3 – Off-Site Optimization (Watch Online Video)
-Part 9: Off-Site Optimization
-Part 10: Directory Submissions
-Part 11: Article Submissions
-Part 12: Press Release Submissions
-Part 13: Forum & Blog Commenting
-Part 14: Social Bookmarking
-SEO Tutorial Conclusion

SEO techniques can be broken down into two general categories – onsite and offsite. Both of these will benefit your rankings, so it’s worth your time to address them both when building and promoting your website.

On-site SEO includes the specific actions you take on your webpages to increase your search engine position.

Off-site SEO techniques are the actions you take outside of your webpages to increase your search engine position. Backlinks are one of the most important strategies in the offsite SEO toolbox. For example, say you’ve put together a site on reducing hypertension and heart attacks. If Google or another major search engine notices that the American Heart Association has linked back to your site, it assumes your site must include good content. The more of these quality links back to your site you get, the more free traffic you’ll receive from the search engines because your site will rank higher.

Both on-site and off-site optimization help the search engines categorize your site and rank it higher. On-site optimization is more under your control than off-site optimization. So you need to make sure each page of your site is well optimized and then start a link building campaign.

Additional Articles in the SEO Tutorial Series:
SEO Module 1 – SEO Introduction & Keyword Research (Watch Online Video)
-Part 1: What is SEO?
-Part 2: Keyword Research
-Part 3: What is LSI?
-Part 4: What are Long-Tail Keywords?

SEO Module 2 – On-Site Optimization (Watch Online Video)
-Part 5: On-Site vs Off-Site
-Part 6: On-Site Optimization Details
-Part 7: What are Meta Tags?
-Part 8: What is Anchor Text?

SEO Module 3 – Off-Site Optimization (Watch Online Video)
-Part 9: Off-Site Optimization
-Part 10: Directory Submissions
-Part 11: Article Submissions
-Part 12: Press Release Submissions
-Part 13: Forum & Blog Commenting
-Part 14: Social Bookmarking
-SEO Tutorial Conclusion

Just a quick update letting you know that I’ve added more dofollow blogs to DoFollow Diver. There are now over 700 dofollow blogs indexed in this blog search tool.

I’ve also removed several nofollow blogs as well. If you’re looking for a fast, easy way to get backlinks, use the DoFollow Diver tool and start posting relevant comments to blogs related to your topics. It’s a great way to build links.

I just want to let you know that we have completed the transfer of DoFollow Diver from it’s previous location on www.linkbuildingbible.com. You may find DoFollow Diver at http://www.inlineseo.com/dofollowdiver

If you happen to go to the old url, you should be redirected to its new page. So it’s fully transferred.

I plan to do my best to keep it updated so it is still a valuable resource for you. I’ve also considered the idea of adding a DoFollow Forums category to it.

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We as humans always want the best… the top… the supreme… but in link building, that doesn’t always matter. Yes, if you can get some good PR 6+ links, it’s going to help you out in a pretty tough niche. But, if you have a fairly uncompetitive niche, then go for any backlinks. As many of you know, I am anti-Page Rank and I find it pretty useless.

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