The number of websites that include a link back to your website is a metric that Google takes quite seriously when deciding where to rank your website on its search pages.

Google views these "backlinks" as a measure of your website's popularity.

Back in the olden days when the GoogleBot wasn't so clever one could kind of cheat the system and get or buy a program that automatically submitted a website to 35000 web directories.

A crafty SEO consultant could simply type in your domain name, add a description, select a few categories, add a "confirmation" contact email address and the run the program. The submission program would churn out your web address and details all night and 24 hours or so later your website would be listed on a few thousand sites.

The inbox of the email address that was submitted would fill in with hundreds of "verification" requests, thousands of "upgrade your free listing for only $25" emails, plus another ten thousand SPAM messages. One would feel sorry for the people out there who unwittingly used the same submission program with a real email address! 

Nevertheless, one could get hundreds of backlinks virtually overnight and reap the rewards. Easy done! (other than for the SPAM issue)

However all free rides eventually come to an end.

Google Search reputation

To maintain its market dominance Google needs to keep its core business in shape. Google Search needs to be the best search engine. Search is what made Google a household name. And one can be fairly certain that delivering the most relevant Search results is still one of Google's top priorities.

So the GoogleBot needed to improve its website popularity rating algorithm. Because a website listed on 35000 random, and often dubious, web directories didn't really make the destination popular or indicate quality. Often quite the opposite. It was just a website that a crafty SEO consultant automatically submitted using a dodgy program! Yes, we did it too... back in the 90s.. it worked then OK! It was one of the recommended strategies!

So to improve that quality of it's search results Google adjusted its algorithm's and started to assess the "quality" of the incoming website links.

Consider this. What would indicate that a website was more popular or more important:

• Two thousand links on websites that look something like xyz33bizdirectory.com?
• One link on a local government website?
• One link on the New York Times website?
• One link on the BBC website?

The end of dodgy backlinks

To ensure that it's search engine delivered quality results Google started calculating the reputation of the websites where each backlink was coming from.

No longer could the crafty SEO specialist simply run a program to obtain backlinks. Sure, these scripts are still around and can still automatically submit a domain name to thousands of directories, however the effectiveness of the strategy has become negligible. There are downsides of automatically submitting a website to a random directory (aside from the instant SPAM). 

One problem with submitting sites to websites that you don't even know are out there, particularly business directories, is that if you have a change of phone number or other information the details may never be updated. Some of these dodgy directories are unmanned projects that are no longer being managed, a small time entrepreneur's "get rich quick" business directory idea with little focus. Or an abandoned ghost directory.

The ever observant Google team decided to start rating some of these "get rich quick" and "ghost" directories in the negative. i.e. a link to your website from dodgy website directories could actually negatively impact your website's popularity rating!

So what is the best backlink strategy in 2021?

Let's recap:

• Backlinks to your website are important.
• Backlinks to your website from quality websites have great impact.
• Backlinks to your website from dodgy website directories are not good.

These three dot points flagged the demise of the "submit my website to 35000 directories now" program and re-introduced the old concept of "manual labour".

There are still tools out there that can help you rival the backlinks that your competitor's websites have amassed. These tools can identify legitimate website directories where you might manually submit your website link and details. Many of these sites will offer a free listing and will then actively encourage (SPAM) you to upgrade to a more prominent or featured listing. But there are also many website directories of high quality that willbe pleased to list your website or business. These sites might include local business association websites, local government websites, and websites that have an active interest in the type of work you do. It will take some time to find these and then submit or kindly request a link to your website however a quality back link will have a great impact on your website's popularity ranking in Google.

An even higher impact can be made by having a page or blog on your website linked to by a news or magazine website. This will take more manual work in the form of quality writing.

If you wish to pursue backlinks of this nature you first need to be prepared to write about your work or area of interest. You are the expert in your field which makes things easier. Use whatever mechanism works for you to write your stories down. You can jot notes into a notebook, laptop or phone while sitting in a cafe, or record yourself using a dictaphone app on your phone etc.

Once you have a quality article or instructional written and published on your website you will instantly get a boost in your Google rank for having fresh and unique content on your site. (see our post What is the number one strategy for SEO success?)

So how do I get a link to my site from a newspaper or magazine?

Ideally your content will be so cool and informative that it will be appealling not only to your target customer, client, or reader, but it will also be helpful to a professional, journalist or writer in your field.

You could actively seek out editors, writers or journalists that might be interested in your content (manual work again) and forward your blog or article link to them. "I was reading your recent article about growing tomatoes and problems with frost and thought that my blog on gardening in Melbourne might be of interest, particularly my suggestion on not planting before Melbourne Cup Day!"

With some luck your contact might lead to a quote or link to your site or potentially a request to publish your entire article which might finish off in italics "Devon Joyce is an avid writer and gardener who has a blog at www.dddjoyce.co"

If that sounds like too much manual work you might be encouraged by signing up to the Help Out A Journalist website HARO.

There are apparently 75,000 journalists and bloggers who are signed up with HARO and over one million "sources".

If you sign up as a "source" as an expert in your field you will receive three email per day (Mon-Fri) with requests from journalists that are relevant to your industry, expertise or personal experience.

You can then respond and assist with information, share an article that you have written, or offer to assist with writing a new article etc with a request that a link be posted to your website as aknowledgement.

The HARO slogan is: "HARO connects journalists seeking expertise to include in their content with sources who have that expertise."

Quality backlinks take work but are worth their weight in gold.