Wanna get your Competitor’s Backlinks?
Did you know one of the best methods of getting back-links to your site is by spying on your competitors backlinks? To get on the front page of the serp’s, let’s say for Google, you will need relevant, quality backlinks, from trusted sites. One of the easiest ways of doing this is to enter your keywords into Google, and look to see what sites are on the front page for the keywords in your niche. Now you need to use a SEO tool so you can see exactly where they got their back-links from.
This method of spying on your competitor’s links is used by many of the Pro SEO’s and saves you time from having to search the internet for quality back-links from relevant sites. There are several SEO tools that will do this for you such as SEO Elite, but will cost you an arm and a leg. That’s why I did some research and found some of the best FREE SEO tools that will get the job done. No diss to SEO Elite, Brad’s software works and has a few other features that the FREE SEO tools may not have.
Backlink Checker – 5 FREE SEO Tools to find your Competitors backlinks and More
1. SEO for Firefox – this is a total package of $300 worth of valuable SEO tools for FREE. It includes everything to Firefox extensions, to the latest SEO tools and a SEO mini course with the latest tactics. You do have to sign-up for the FREE tools, but it’s definitely worth a minute of your time.
2. Backlink Watch – this is a decent tool but a little slow on loading, hey it’s FREE. It shows links, some anchor text, some page rank and dofollow or nofollow attributes.
3. iwebtool – is one of the fastest FREE seo tools I’ve used. It’s pretty basic, but I like the speed and it shows pagerank for some of your backlinks.
4. Url dogg – nice little site. Shows you backlinks and other information for any domain.
5. Yahoo site explorer search – it’s a FREE tool that Yahoo offers, you can just enter the url’s into the “explore url” search bar. It doesn’t show all of the backlinks but shows results in pretty good detail and speed.
Just a reminder, you want to get dofollow backlinks. Many of the back links you see when using some of the SEO tools above will be nofollow links, meaning you won’t get any PR juice for them.
Being able to see where your competitors are getting their backlinks helps incredibly and if you put in the work, you should be able to start seeing the results within a month or more. You may not be able to see every source they are using, or obtain a backlink from every site, but adding this method with your regular SEO routine will help you get on the front page of the serp’s for even very competitive keywords.
Top 9 Ways of Getting Powerful Backlinks
I have made a list of 9 Ways to get the Most Powerful Backlinks or one way links to your site or blog. One of the most important parts of SEO is getting backlinks to your site, that’s if you want to be on the front page of the search engine results pages (serps) and get higher PR. The trick is gaining one way links to your site that look natural (meaning don’t go get 1,000 backlinks in one day) for seo purposes, especially for Google.
You should try to get high quality links from trusted sites that are relevant to your site, and use the correct anchor text (keywords you want to improve search rankings for). You need to make sure that you are placing links on DoFollow sites – search engine spiders will follow and give link juice back to your site. Nofollow links tell the search spiders not to follow them and they don’t pass on any link juice.
I’ve added some great references below every dofollow backlink method that contain Incredible lists of great places for you to use.
1. Do Follow Forums – This is one of the easiest ways of getting FREE Backlinks. There are 1000′s of forums on the net and more popping up daily. Most good forums are do follow and allow you to leave a link to your site in your signature at the bottom of each post you make. Just make sure you find relevant forums to your site and it is a do follow forum. This is also an easy way to get many links back to your site because the more posts made by you the more one way links. Even if you add a new site to your signature and you have 1000 posts then you automatically just added a 1000 links to that url.
Here are some great sites that have listed DoFollow forums with their PR as well.
- http://getinternetmarketingstrategies.com/2008/11/do-follow-forums/
- http://www.peiprofit.com/traffic-secrets/list-of-dofollow-forums
2. Blog Commenting – Leaving a comment on Do Follow blogs is a very easy and FREE method people have been using for years. Just make sure you are commenting on relevant blogs and don’t spam. Add value with your comments and add your opinion to the subject. Don’t forget about using trackbacks!
Here’s a few great sites with a huge list of Dofollow blogs and their PR.
- http://www.peterleehc.com/blog/work-from-home/the-easiest-way-to-get-backlinks-starts-here
- http://www.thewwwblog.com/top-commentators-blogs-list-october-2008.html
3. Directories – Use them correctly and you will be on the front page of the Serps in no time. Directories are great because you get to leave a small description of your site then it’s placed in a relevant category which gives you a very authoritive link back. Some are FREE and many cost money for a dofollow link but usually worth it. I’ve also noticed many of them are now doing the whole reciprocal link exchange as well if you don’t want to pay.
Here’s a few sites with dofollow directories.
- http://www.onewaytextlink.com/links.php?type=free
- http://www.best-web-directories.com/free-directories.htm
4. Social Bookmarking sites – Okay, I’m sure you’ve heard social bookmarking is a way to get TONS of free traffic, exposure and authority but it’s another great way to get one way links. You get to add a description of the site or post and a link to it.
Now there is always a argument over which bookmarking sites are dofollow but I’ve found some good sites below that pretty much got it right and even if you don’t get any linkjuice then you’ll still get plenty of traffic from them if bookmarked correctly and with valuable content like from Digg, stumbleupon and propeller.
- http://www.caroline-middlebrook.com/blog/do-follow-social-bookmarking-sites/
- http://franklinbishop.net/27-dofollow-social-bookmarking-sites/
5. Article Directories – This a very popular method if you are familiar with internet marketing then I’m sure you’ve heard about the power of Ezinearticles.com and all the benefits of using them. Writing and submitting your articles will give you traffic, backlinks, it’s simple and effective. Instead of just a description of your site you can write a whole entire keyword rich article which will help your website or blog out tremendously.
Usually they are FREE and I’ve got some sites that will point you to the right article directories below.
- http://www.vretoolbar.com/articles/directories.php
- http://www.sitepronews.com/article-directories.html
6. Pressrelease – A powerful way of letting the media and consumers know about yourself and your products/services with a document. The more professional and well written the better. Pressreleases need to be more of a journalistic style rather than a marketing style and more informational, not just trying to make a sale or review.
I’ve got an awesome url for you below with a large list of pressrelease sites most are probably nofollow but still use as many as you can.
7. Submitting your RSS Feeds – Many people find your blogs from reading your feeds (small description of your post) they find on different feed directories. Make sure you are careful to make sure you don’t submit the same feed to many times to the same site. Some automatic feed services like pingomatic and pingoat submit to the same sites or search engines. If you need more info on RSS Feeds go here http://www.whatisrss.com/
I would definitely suggest joining a automated feed and post service, then add your feed url to some of the feed directories you’ll find at the site below. Some are dofollow and some are not, experiment but it’s a great list.
- http://www.mooladays.com/category/lists/page/2/
8. Buy Backlinks – This is a good way to get very relevant and High PR one way links, but will cost some money. Definitely worth it. If you are going to have a major website or blog, then you’ll eventually have to pay for SEO services and for Powerful back-links, or you’re competition will run you over and never look back. You gotta remember, accomplished and successful sites may have a team or a dedicated person just for their seo, so paying for backlinks from a good source, can usually put your sites ahead of the pack.
9. Reciprocal Links – Exchanging links with other relevant sites has always been very popular but not as powerful as it use to be ever since Google cracked down on the Linkjuice from this method a few years ago. It still works great and a must do SEO tactic to out rank your competition with similar niches. The best way I’ve found to find similar websites to do this method is by joining forums, usually they’ll have a section for this or by doing some research in the search engines.
I wanted to add, make sure you also use hubpages and squidoo because they really don’t fall under anything above they are more considered as internet tools, web 2.0 website or community websites. You’ll find they both work very well for your seo needs. The 9 Ways on how to get Powerful Backlinks above are not in any particular order. Oh yeah, I wanted to mention don’t forget about “Link Baiting” (creating content just to receive backlinks) that is seriously a very powerful method as well, and Guest Posting (creating posts for other relevant blogs). If you got something to add then let me know. Make sure you are using a few or all of the methods mentioned above and you will soon be getting more traffic and PR then expected!
