RSS Feeds: Show Appreciation By Linking To Your Backlinkers
Before I get to the meat of this topic, I'll briefly explain to you what backlinks are. They are not "linkbacks", as they are sometimes called. Backlinks are inbound links to your website and I don't know why they aren't just called inbound links.
I don't how to do it with other search engines right now, but with Google you can use the toolbar to display all the backlinks to your blog or to a particular page. You just have to be on that page before clicking the option. If you don't use the toolbar, just enter the query in the search box like this: link:http://www.untwistedvortex.com/ (no spaces).
You want to make sure you only have to do this once. It's much easier to monitor who's linking to you by going to Google Alerts and setting up links to watch for. Here are the link formats I watch for:
link:http://untwistedvortex.com
link:http://www.untwistedvortex.com
Untwisted Vortex
UntwistedVortex
untwistedvortex.com
www.untwistedvortex.com
It might seem like overkill, but this will catch any mention of my blog, even if it isn't a link.
In order to do it right, you have to visit each link in the results presented by Google at least once. Some of the backlinks are going to be the result of making comments on particular blogs that have the rel="nofollow" link attributes removed from the comment headers, some are because your blog is on their blogrolls, and some are going to be the result of some other plugin (like "Top Commentators"). What you're looking for are mentions of your blog in the text of an article/post.
The people that mention your blog, for whatever reason, deserve reciprocal treatment even though it isn't required. It shows two things: 1) You appreciate what they have to say about you or your blog, and 2) That you're paying attention. If you do decide to reciprocate, please be creative and don't just create a list of links.
To go through hundreds, possibly thousands of links is going to take some time. Set aside a full day for it if you can. If you click each link, each link will get that "visited link" color. Don't clear your cache before you're done and you can use that to "remember" where you left off. Although I've been using the Google Alerts method for a couple of months or so, I'm sure I missed someone. I've already started going through my "list".
You may want to ask me why you should go to all this trouble. The answer is simple. If you link to others, those links will find their way back to you in the form of visitor traffic. Something as simple as a comment on someone else's blog will get you visitors. How many more do you think linking will provide?
Check those backlinks. You'll be surprised where some of them come from.
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RT, I do something similar (but I haven't tried the link: alert yet). I like to know where my site is being mentioned, and I try to do something in return if I can – at the very least leave a comment.
However, there's another side to it. I found out that my feed is being scraped. The only reason I know this is because of a Google Alert (for the term DualFeeds). I'm not sure what to do about it at present. I may decide to switch my DualFeeds plugin over so the default feed is a summary and the full post is in the second feed.
You're not going to stop the scrapers no matter how hard you try. The best thing to do, if it bothers you, is to include your site link in every post. The splogs will have no choice to show attribution unless they manually change the articles.
I don't let it bother me.
I want to mention a word of caution about using google's backlinks. There are also some "dubious" backlinks which are not backlinks at all, but are spam sites that manage to somehow 'cheat' google into thinking that they've linked to you. This is similar to the "referer spam" (NOT referral spam) that you get on the website stats section of your administration panel
Always check the original web page for the link back. If it's not there and it appears to be a link-farm, it's a spam website.
That's why I recommend visiting each link.
Yahoo Site explorer is another very effecient tool to find all the links. Yahoo also helps you sort the results in several ways.
I was waiting for someone to mention the Yahoo backlinks. I'm curious about other search engines as well.
Show Appreciation By Linking To Your Backlinkers – Untwisted Vortex…
Before I get to the meat of this topic, I'll briefly explain to you what backlinks are. They are not "linkbacks", as they are sometimes called. Backlinks are inbound links to your website and I don't know why they aren't just called inbound links….
RT, you have illuminated the power of Google Alerts for bloggers very nicely! I do this myself and I make it a point to thank anyone linking to me or saying something about me even without a link.
Plus, I use it to follow my niche.. like firefox extensions, rss readers, web apps, etc with Google Alerts. I have linked a post I did about this last month to my name for anyone interested. Sorry for the plug, but I figured someone might find it useful. :-)
Plug all you want. The more info out there, the better off we are.
I was just wondering earlier this week how to track this kind of info. I couldn't have come across this post at any more an appropriate time. Thanks mucho, RT!
I aim to please. Now, if I can only practice what I preach.
Great post, RT. I will need to set up some time to give links back to everyone I may have missed to show my appreciation. I usually just check my WP dashboard to see any new links to me.
Cheers!
:grin:
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Very interesting post I shall give this a try
thanks