Backlinking Basics for Clueless Bloggers

Hello, bloggers! Welcome to the land of infinite snark. Today, I want to share with you the number one most important thing I’ve learned in building my blog. It’s got a scary name, so bear with me: backlinking.

It’s okay. Don’t let those twinges of anxiety that say, “you will never understand this technical stuff,” come over you. They’re wrong! You can totally do this because it’s super freakin’ easy.

First of all, what is backlinking anyway?

In a nutshell, backlinking is the practice of creating links back to your website from other websites. Those can be social media outlets, other blogs, or really, anywhere people can access your website that is not on your website directly.

Why bother with backlinking?

Obviously, anywhere people can access your site means that you increase traffic, readers, and potential earnings (if you’ve monetized).

Even more than that though, backlinking makes search engines happy. If you have a great website isolated in the middle of the internet with no links coming or going, Google doesn’t really think much of you. They see that, yeah, you have a good site, but you’re not an authority. Otherwise, people would be linking in.

Backlinks are the foundation for a strong, search engine optimized blog.

If you have little links around the web, the search engines see that you’re an authoritative, popular resource that others go to for great content. That’s why we do this — it’s fuel for the search engines.

That might sound a little boring. Who cares if Google wants to share my website? Well, that works. Think about why you started blogging in the first place. Do you want readers? Do you want traffic? Backlinking is your answer.

So, how do I get these backlinks?

Really, it’s very simple. You can get backlinks in a wider variety of ways, but my favorite is blog commenting! For avid blog readers like myself, this is even easier. Find blogs in your niche (those who write on similar topics), and leave comments. Only leave real comments that add something to the conversation (otherwise you’re just a spammer).

Unfortunately, each website comes with its own issues. On some, you can leave a comment with no problems. On others, you have to use a weird system or there’s some odd setting that won’t let you create that backlink. Below, I’ll give you a play-by-play for different blog platforms and log-in services.

Blog Commenting on Different Systems:

WordPress

You know, WordPress is friendly to backlinkers. Really. It’s very easy to leave a backlink since the automatic comment format allows people not in the WordPress.com system to add the URL setting.

Blogger

Okay, so Blogger is my least favorite blogging platform for leaving comments. Unless the blogger allows the Name/URL feature, you won’t be able to leave a backlink to your website. Don’t sign into the other programs or you won’t get the link (If your blog is hosted through Blogger, you can use the Google Account).

Many bloggers don’t allow the Name/URL feature because it allows more spam comments. It’s kind of a mini-controversy, so I’ll leave it at that for now.

Honestly, check the comments set-up before leaving a response on Blogger blogs. Look for the highlighted option below. If that’s there, you’re good to go!

Disqus

Alright, so my backlinking love goes straight to Disqus. It’s a comment management system that is really well-organized and user-friendly. You do not have to create an account to leave a comment, but if you do, you can link directly to a social media profile or your URL via the Disqus profile. Plus, it’s awesome for bloggers (I’ve received 0 spam comments since I installed Disqus).

When it asks you to create a profile, I recommend checking the box. It doesn’t send you to another screen or require you to do anything special before commenting. Then, you can use the same Disqus account to comment on any blog with the Disqus system. Create a profile, attach a URL, and you’ll get backlinks while managing all of your comments (and their responses) in one place.

There are way more blog commenting options out there than the three shown above, but these are some of the most common ones. Look for a way to leave a URL or the backlink won’t register in your favor.

A note on backlinking services:

So, business owners and bloggers in the past have hired backlinking services to add tens to hundreds to thousands of links across the internet to their site. Search engines have wizened up to this practice, and can tell if your backlinks are real or not. Don’t waste your time or money with these services. Instead, engage with other bloggers and leave real comments to really do this whole thing the right way.

Do you backlink? How? Where? When? Why? Comment below (and get a backlink in the process)!

Rachael is a loud and sometimes goofy blogger and cheesemonger who lives in the DC area with her father and orange scaredy cat. She lives for food, but shares her freelance and blogging stories with people right here. Why? Because she loves you.