Back links tool and sanity checker

[htpcva]

Ok I've spent some time looking in the forum and have found some interesting articles and I am officially confused. I have a twitter account, Facebook account, blog and websites. I'm trying to build links and get a following and I know it doesn't happen over night but everything I seem to be doing is manual. Is there a tool out there that I can use to help me build my back links? I don't want to buy for submissions but am happy to buy the right tool if it works plus a lot of the places I'm coming across their PR is non existent. I'm getting frustrated I guess.

I'm a mac user too just to throw that in to the works, so if I was to purchase something it would have to be compatible.

[vangogh]

Try not to think of social sites like Facebook and Twitter being about links. Think of them as real communities with real people. The marketing opportunities there are less about links and about networking with people. The sites aren't mean to be used as ways to build backlinks directly.

You can generate links through Twitter and Facebook though. What you want to do is first create the best content you can create. Spend some time seeing what kind of things get retweeted and shared a lot. You might have to tweak your content to match what the communities of the sites like. For example I'm looking at your latest post about Hurricane Irene now. It's a good post, but I'm not sure if it's the kind of thing that would get shared a lot on social sites. Just a guess, but a post with an image of the world's largest cockroach might. Top 10 lists work too. Spend some time understanding what the communities want and try tailoring your content to those wants.

Add some buttons to your site to make it easy to Tweet or Like your posts. Having the buttons there does increase how many people tweet and like your posts. I know it increased how many people shared my content when I added them. I recently came across an article suggesting that having the buttons led to a seven fold increase in sharing.

It helps to have an existing audience to share, but it's ok to share your own content as long as it's not all the time. Build up your Twitter account by sharing links to other sites. Look to tweet posts that are going to be similar in some way to the posts you end up writing. You generally build up a social profile by participating. You don't have to be in the community all day, but if you can spend a few minutes there a couple times a day you'll be building an active account. Same thing with Facebook. Do you have a fan page or is it a regular Facebook account?

Don't forget about other communities. It's probably worth filling out a profile at LinkedIn. If you do post more images on your blog, StumbleUpon will be a good fit. Look for niche communities around your business too. Don't skip a network just because it's not large.

As far as automation is concerned be careful. You can do things like set up tweets to publish when you're sleeping, but you still need to make the tweets genuine. Look into something called HootSuite. It's a popular online tool that allows you to automate when things are published to some social sites. There are others out there too. I think you'll find the best results come the manual way though.

[htpcva]

Thanks Vangogh.

You have given me some food for thought with the social sites. A picture in the blog posts will definitely help break up some of the text heavy stuff. I'll also monitor other tweets for trends. However I guess this poses a question as to how can I make this relative to my business? which is what I've been trying to do but then maybe that's not the right way to use twitter.

We have a fan page and the people that are on there are currently friends and family members and a few customers along the way.

I think my original post may have come across in some confusion. I'm not trying to use the social sites for building back links, I was just saying I have those too. I guess what I was trying to ask what's the best way to build back links? I've come across tools to buy text links and I'm not sure that's a good idea. I've submitted to search engines and blog sites too. Is there a back link tool that you can check where you're links are coming from as well as maybe look at competition? I've been using Yahoo site explorer as an interim measure, I was just wondering if there is anything that can allow you to monitor that easier?

Hope that makes sense :)

[vangogh]

The best way to build links into your site is to create content that people want to link to and then give your content a little push by letting some people know it exists. Tools that promise to build links for you are mostly garbage. They best they could do is build the lowest quality links and your competition could always use the exact same tool to get those same links, which instantly takes away any advantage of the tool.

There are tools that help you analyze your links and the links of others. The one I used to use was Windows only and I think the tool is now discontinued. The better ones are probably pay only at this point. I tend to just use some advanced searches to check on link information or use Google Webmaster Tools and Bing's Webmaster Tools. Both give you info about your own backlinks.

I also tend not to worry too much about analyzing backlinks. I'd rather spend the time creating new content to attract links.

With social media it's about matching your content to what the community wants. Take those "will it blend" videos. The company tosses random things into their blenders to see what happens. It was a creative way to get people to watch videos about blenders.

[KristineS]

The best way to get links through social media is to become part of the community. If you put quality content out there, and you help spread the word, through retweets or sharing or whatever, about the quality content that other people are putting out, people will do the same for you. Along with everything else, you have to remember that social sites are reputation building sites as well. A lot of people are reluctant to pass along information from people they don't know and trust.

[htpcva]

Makes sense and I'm feeling much more saner after reading all of this. Although trying to match pest control content to community is where I'm falling down at the minute I think. Will ponder some more. Thanks guys

[vangogh]

Remember that not every piece of content you create has to be for social media. Also remember that you can be a little more creative with those posts you do want to do well on social sites. Again think of the "will it blend (http://www.willitblend.com/)" videos. They aren't trying to convey any kind of useful message. They're just trying to be funny. They also get a lot of views and help sell blenders.

You could create a weekly comic strip with 2 bugs as the main characters. You could create top 10 lists of different kinds of home pests. Matching things to the community doesn't have to be a literal which community likes pest control. Discover how humor works or images or video, etc. Then get creative with your own content. And again not every post you create needs to be something meant specifically for social sites.

[htpcva]

I see your point and I like your comic strip idea. So much so that I can see it happening. I've started re-tweeting on other pest/insect related news which seems to have attracted new followers so sharing is caring. And some of the stories have been quite funny. Well they made me laugh!

I'm gonna think some more on the comic strip and top 10 lists. I like your thinking VG so thanks! I appreciate it :)

[vangogh]

Glad I can help with some ideas. The comic strip thing just popped into my head while I was writing the last post.

A lot of link building is about being creative. You have to put in some research time to understand what your target audience wants and then figure out how you can give it to them in a way that fits with your business.

[radiogene]

I'm with you. I've just started a blog and I'm looking at SEO techniques, just starting to learn. Been going forums both black and white hat. The general consensus seems to be that the old fashioned way is best. There are some freeware programs out there, one of the most often seen called Google Footprint Finder by Stephan Miller put a virus on my PC, the first time I downloaded it on one PC it was Ok, the second time on another PC it had a trojan, so beware. There's one called Link Assistant that seems to be promising for finding high PR blogs but I haven't really messed with it yet. I like VanGogh's advice on this, I want good content on my blog anyway.

[ThirdSEO]

I hope you're not counting on Twitter or Facebook for backlinks because both sites use no-follow links. Your blog should probably be your main focus, along with your main website. Submit your blog to blog reputable directories and try to publish the best, most interesting content you possibly can. Try to keep your posts relatively short as well. The attention span of Internet users these days only lasts a few seconds. Top 5 and Top 10 lists seem to do pretty well. For some reason, people are naturally attracted to lists.

As far a automated backlinking tools, I'd stay away from them. I tried a few when I first started with search engine marketing and they never were worth they money or the time. Automated software tends to get you in trouble so I wouldn't recommend them at all. If you really want backlinks, you're going to have to get them the old-fashioned way, at least if you want to maintain quality.

[vangogh]

Automated software tends to get you in trouble

Agreed. I think most of it is garbage. Automation in seo is good at collecting data. It's fine for helping build a keyword list or doing research on who's linking to your competition. However tools that try to offer advice or those that claim to do the work like getting backlinks are generally not worth the time, let alone the price.