Simply bringing the problem to the attention of article marketers was my goal in that previous piece.  With this article, I’ll try to bring some resolution to the dilemma.

Two ways to solve the problem present themselves.  One is to violate the rule of website design by letting our linked page offer two alternatives allowing our readers to satisfy their information seeking and provinding an opportunity to buy the product or service from the same page.  Another solution to our dilemma is to include two different kinds of links from our distributed articles.  One of those link types leads to a landing page dedicated entirely to providing valuable information (and an opportunity to learn even more by signing up for our newsletter), while the other link category will direct the visitor to a product (or purchasing) page.  In these cases, our anchor text must make clear what to expect on the landing page.

When presented with these two options, I recommend the second.  Allow me to elaborate on why I endorse this approach and what the respective landing page for each type of link will contain.

Remember that our distributed article attracted the readers because those readers intended to gather useful information.  The only likely way we are going to attract those readers to our site is to offer them even more information than our article provides.  Of course, we always follow through with our promises or we shall immediately lose credibility.  Thus, our article marketing content must be interesting, accurate and informative, but it must leave the impression that we still have more to tell them.  Hence we link to a content page.

At the same time, within the syndicated article, we let our readers know that once they have gathered all the information they need to make a buying decision, they will find the product or service that will solve their problems right there on our site.  By including that information, we have an opportunity to link to one of our selling pages largely for the purpose of search engine optimization.

It is easiest to achieve the task of incorporating these two types of links within articles that we syndicate directly to other sites within our niche, because we can place those links contextually.  On the other hand, when we publish on article directories, we must make the connection between our informational link and our selling link more quickly as it must fit within our resource box and not within the article.

On our content landing page, we focus upon bringing our readers much closer to the buying decision end of the decision making continuum.  Remember that the visitors have already been persuaded to accept our initial offer by clicking on our link, so they are in an agreeable frame of mind.  They are no long “just readers,” they have become serious prospects.  Consequently, we make our link to the actual buying page very prominent on this content page, but we focus primarily on getting them to take one more small step by asking for the contact information in exchange for the promise of even more valuable content. 

In our syndicated article we use our content to sell our expertise.  On the linked page, we’re selling our credibility and integrity.  After they have signed onto our mailing list, we can actually begin selling our product by building our relationship with our new prospects and then more blatantly recommending our product or service.

The second type of link from our article marketing content leads directly to a product page.  Since the purpose of that link is primarily search engine optimization, it is especially important that our anchor (linking) text is at once an accurate description of the selling page and a useful long tail keyword with commercial value.

As marketers, all of our efforts are toward making the sale.  As writers we must make the sale without disturbing the flow of our content.  So our first objective is to convince the article readers that they need more information, and that the necessary information can be found by clicking our link.  Then, with the second link type, we need to demonstrate to the search engine spiders that we have provided anchor text that is a truthful name for the content that we have on our selling page to which that link leads.  Thus our anchor text and the landing page content must be very similar.

Sometimes called off page links, backlinks are the oxygen of search engine positioning and traffic generation. Backlinks have three key properties, the web page from which the backlinks come from, the anchor text of the backlinks and the content of the page to which the backlinks sends the visitor to.

The number of backlinks

The number of backlinks to a page is one of the elements the search engines take into account when deciding where to position the page in the SERPS (Search Engine Page Results).

The source of the backlinks

The pages from which backlinks originate pass ‘authority’ and searchers to the page to which the backlinks point. But ‘votes’ passed through backlinks from trusted or authoritative pages to a page have greater influence over the search engines view of this page than backlinks coming from pages with less ‘trust’ or authority. Great examples of trusted sources of backlinks carrying higher authority are pages belonging to education (.edu) and government (.gov) web sites..

Google Page Rank

Backlinks from web pages with high page rank (a value given by Google to a page that it considers over a period to have attracted, sustained and continued to accumulate relevant backlinks) pass some of their page rank via the backlink to the target page.

The ‘anchor text’

When you see a backlink on a web page it often has a label a word or text related to the content at the page to which this backlink is pointing, what this ‘anchor text’ says has influence upon the value the search engines award to the link. If the content of the page is about ‘parenting’ and the backlink on the page is labeled or given the ‘anchor’ text ‘parenting’ then the search engines consider this to be of more value to the searcher looking for sites related to ‘parenting’ than if the backlink was labeled ‘babycare’.

Common issues

It’s not unheard of for newbies to confuse the quantity with the quality of backlinks and easily be perplexed by their lack of progress Having a substantial number of backlinks to your page doesn’t automatically mean the search engines will consider your page as relevant.

How to create backlinks

So let me share with you my fail safe method for acquiring backlinks that will make the search engines take notice of you and bring quality and appropriate visitors to your web site.

1. Initially you should focus on selecting the correct keywords.
2. Your objective should be to end up with a keyword cloud.
3. I most often start with a single primary keyword or key phrase which has significant visitor traffic.
4. The fastest and cheapest method to find out how much traffic a keyword or key phrase is getting is to use the Google keywords discovery tool.
5. I look at words and search phrases associated with my primary phrase and create my ‘cloud’.
6. Using this cloud I create a selection of content containing articles, videos and blog posts each with backlinks embedded with the right anchor text and then utilize a suite of content distribution tools to send my articles and videos to a wide range of directories.
7. When I write my content I do so with the visitor in mind so as each item of content attracts backlinks to itself as well as sends backlinks to my target pages.

Hmmmm, this is a big concept and I need to emphasise it’s not clear cut. But here is what I have learned in my work at the Backlinks clinic:

Authority – explained

The more authority your web pages have the higher you will rank on Google. Authority means that people trust you and your information. The great news is that authorities trusted by humans are also trusted by Google. A great example is the .edu and .gov domain extensions. These domains imply they are credible sources of information and it’s a proven fact that in the eyes of Google backlinks from these web addresses to your web pages will contribute authority to your web pages. Another good example is Wikipedia as the contents here are mostly added by by tribes of people as opposed to a single person.

So it follows that authority is largely influenced by the source of your backlinks and if authoritative sites link to you then you inherit their apparent trust and as far as Google is concerned you become more authoritative and so the trust in your web pages by Google increases.

How Google determines what is and isn’t authoritative is undisclosed for good reason and aligns with Google’s philosophy of “Do no evil”. The last thing the Internet needs is someone exploiting the methods that Google employs in its efforts to try and bring some order to probably the most important technological resource of our times.

How not to get Authority and Backlinks

And on this thought it’s worth my while stating some obvious sources and practices of creating backlinks that Google not only dislikes but appears to be moving aggressively to ‘classify’ as negative authorities. In no particular order of severity, the common examples are:

• Paid backlinks – hubs where people buy and sell backlinks
• Comment spam – entries that contain links on web pages that are just not related to the main content.
• Low quality and *duplicate content – ‘scraped’ or otherwise
• Fast growth – there are a large selection of ways that this is achievable, Google isn’t stupid. Any sudden increase in the amount of backlinks is going to show up on Google’s monitoring systems, specifically if it’s a brand new domain.
• Backlinks from unscrupulous web pages – these are particularly nasty as you are guilty by association – need I say more.

*There is another factor where I may be on shakey ground, but reputable press properties appear to get a lot of authority and I have definitely discovered significant numbers of the same content over and over again on different portals with no penalties, I am still monitoring this, only as a percentage of the results I am seeing defy the consistent behaviors I usually expect to see. More on this is in a future article….

For any web page to be ‘ranked’ in the search engines and attract searchers it’s essential it has backlinks. When thinking about backlinks there are three elements you need to consider, the source from which the backlinks are derived, the anchor text of the backlinks and what’s on the page to which the backlinks directs the visitor to.

The volume of backlinks

The number of backlinks to a page is one of the key properties the search engines take into account when deciding where to position the page in the SERPS (Search Engine Page Results).

The origin of the backlinks

The pages from which backlinks originate pass ‘authority’ and visitors to the page to which the backlinks point. So it follows that pages with backlinks from authoritative pages will receive fairer consideration from the search engines. Government (.gov) and educational (.edu) sites are good examples of sites that are authoritative and trustworthy.

Google Page Rank

Google has the notion of ‘page rank’, this is the value indicator it attaches to a page it considers to have accumulated authority over time from backlinks pointing towards it.

The ‘anchor text’

When you see a backlink on a web page it sometimes has a label a word or text associated with the content at the page to which this backlink is pointing, what this ‘anchor text’ says has influence upon the value the search engines award to the link. If the content of the page is about ‘parenting’ and the backlink on the page is labeled or given the ‘anchor’ text ‘parenting’ then the search engines consider this to be of more value to the searcher looking for information related to ‘parenting’ than if the backlink was labeled ‘babycare’.

Common mistakes

It’s not rare for newbies to confuse the quantity with the quality of backlinks and easily be perplexed by their lack of progress Having a substantial volume of backlinks to your page doesn’t automatically mean the search engines will see your page as relevant.

How to manufacture backlinks

So let me tell you my no nonsense process for getting backlinks that will make the search engines take notice of you and bring the right type and appropriate traffic to your web site.

1. Selecting the right keywords from the start is essential.
2. Your objective should be to end up with a keyword cloud.
3. I most often start with a single primary keyword or key phrase which has significant visitor traffic.
4. To find out how much visitor traffic is being coming from searches for my top level keyword I use the Google keyword analyzer tool.
5. The Google tool creates a list of keywords connected to my main keyword and from this list I create my cloud.
6. I then create content in the form of articles and videos with backlinks with the right ‘anchor text’ to my ‘money’ or ‘target’ page and disperse these to the various directories.
7. My golden rule is to author content that will attract traffic and compel them to follow the backlinks to my money pages as well as send backlinks.

OK, this is a big concept and I need to emphasise it’s not clear cut. But here is what I know in my work at the Backlinks clinic:

Authority – simplified

The more authority your site has the higher you will rank on Google. Authority means that people trust you and your content. The great news is that authorities trusted by humans are also trusted by Google. A great example is the .edu and .gov domain extensions. These domains imply they are authoratitive sources of information and it’s a proven fact that in the eyes of Google backlinks from these domains to your site will send authority to your web pages. Another shining example is Wikipedia as the web pages here are largely added by by group of humans as opposed to a single marketer.

So it follows that authority is significantly influenced by the source of your backlinks and if authoritative web pages link to you then you receive their influence and in the eyes of Google you become more authoritative and hence the trust in your web pages by Google goes up.

How Google decides what is and isn’t authoritative is a guarded secret for good reason and falls in line with Google’s philosophy of “Do no evil”. The last thing the web needs is someone exploiting the mechanisms that Google employs in its efforts to try and regulate probably the most significant technological resource of this period in history.

Backlinking methods you should avoid

And on this thought it’s worth my while stating some underhand sources and practices of creating backlinks that Google not only disapproves of but appears to be acting to ‘’categorize as illegitimate authorities. In no particular order of merit, the prime examples are:

• Paid backlinks – web pages where individuals buy and sell backlinks
• Comment spam – entries that contain links on web pages that are just not associated to the main theme.
• Low quality and *duplicate content – ‘scraped’ or copied
• Unnatural growth – there are a myriad of ways that this is achievable, Google isn’t stupid. Any sudden rise in the number of backlinks is going to register on Google’s monitoring systems, especially if it’s a brand new domain.
• Backlinks from unscrupulous sites – these are particularly destructive as you are guilty by association – need I say more.

*There is another factor where I may be on shakey ground, but key media portals seem to get a lot of authority and I have definitely seen significant numbers of the same article over and over again on different web sites with no penalties, I am still monitoring this, only as a percentage of the results I am seeing defy the consistent behaviors I normally expect to see. More on this is in a future article….