Once you've got good backlinks to your website, you may think that your backlink building work is done.  Not so—it can take weeks or even months for Google and other search engines to index your backlinks.  During that time, your search engine rankings will be the same as they've ever been, rather than reflecting the progress you've made on link building.  To get that link juice flowing to your website faster, you might be thinking about using a piece of software like Backlink Energizer or Backlink Booster.  In this guide, we'll take a look at these pieces of software and help you understand their pros and cons so that you can make an informed decision about using them for your backlinks.

What Is Backlink Energizer?

One of the ways that you can get your backlinks indexed faster by Google is to have backlinks made to your backlinks.  Backlink Energizer is a backlink indexing tool that is hosted on a WordPress blog.  Rather than hosting this plugin on your already existing website or WordPress installation, you set up “drone” accounts that are only designed to post backlinks to your backlinks.

According to the creator of Backlink Energizer, in initial tests, websites that weren't using any backlink indexer typically see 20% or so of their backlinks indexed within 90 days.  Websites that use Backlink Energizer, on the other hand, tend to see about 75-85% of their links indexed in the same time span.  Currently, Backlink Energizer costs about $50.

Keep in mind that you should only use this piece of software if you already have spent time building good backlinks.  If you don't already have a large number of backlinks to your website, you need to work on that before purchasing any kind of backlink indexing software like Backlink Energizer.

What Is Backlink Booster?

Another service designed to encourage Google to index your backlinks, Backlink Booster works in a similar way to Backlink Energizer.  In much the same way as with Backlink Energizer, you should probably not use Backlink Booster unless you already have a significant backlink presence on the web.

Instead of working from a WordPress install, Backlink Booster is a standalone service.  It is sold on a subscription basis, and can incorporate not only your blog backlinks but also any social media services that you use in order to better help with indexing your backlinks.

If you want to try Backlink Booster but aren't sure that you want to commit to paying the monthly subscription price (anywhere from $19 for a “Lite” account with limited functionality to $599 for the Enterprise package), you can do a five day risk free trial.  This allows you to “test drive” the backlink indexing tools offered by Backlink Booster and see if they're right for your website.  In some cases, you may find that you actually want to create more backlinks first before even starting to use this kind of indexing tool.

Are Backlink Booster and Backlink Energizer Effective?

Hundreds of people all over the web have reviewed Booster and Energizer.  Unfortunately, their results have been quite mixed.  While some people praise both pieces of software, it's more common for people to have a less than satisfactory result.

Several online reviews have noticed very similar results: after their search engine rankings initially climb substantially while using these tools, they later taper off or even start dropping.  Others noticed very little difference from what they might have expected without using any special backlink indexing software at all: for example, one review noted that after 6 months, only 23 percent of backlinks that were “boosted” by Backlink Booster had actually been indexed by any search engine.

These mixed reports may reflect differences in the nature of the original backlinks—for example, it wouldn't be surprising if these programs had more success in boosting or energizing high quality backlinks than low quality ones.  However, until more testing can be done to understand what makes the difference, it's unclear why the effectiveness varies so significantly from website to website.

Backlink Energizer, Backlink Booster, and Google Penguin

One thing that has had a significant effect on all backlinks and backlink indexing tools is an algorithm update called Google Penguin.  Google Penguin works by penalizing websites that are perceived as being artificially search engine optimized instead of relying on quality content and organic backlinks.

Because of this algorithm change, Backlink Energizer and Backlink Booster have gotten updates.  Each now claims to be Penguin-proof, using secret networks of high PageRank websites that Google has yet to detect are being used for artificial backlinking purposes.

Even with these changes, some webmasters have reported seeing their search engine rankings drop due to Penguin after using these tools.  What's more, it's very unlikely that Penguin will be the last update done to try to foil artificial search engine optimization.  What seems like a “safe” website to have backlinks on today may not be once new updates roll out.

Conclusion: Should You Use Backlink Energizer/Backlink Booster?

The mixed reports about the efficacy of Backlink Energizer and Backlink Booster should make you think twice about using either of these pieces of software.  If you're considering using any type of backlink indexing program, you should at a minimum ask for a trial period and try the software out for yourself first.  If you're not seeing significant increases in your backlink indexing within the trial period, you probably don't want to subscribe on a long term basis.

It may well be that the time of generating easy automated backlinks has just about come to an end, as Google increases its ability to detect and penalize any website that uses these techniques.  You may be better off focusing your attention on generating organic backlinks using high quality content and social networking.  This kind of backlinking is unlikely to ever result in penalties from search engines, so you can count on it as a long term strategy instead of just using it for now.

If you've been learning how to build backlinks, you might feel overwhelmed by the information.  Changes to how Google sees backlink building have affected a total of about 15 percent of all web searches.  In the midst of all this change, you may be wondering if you should use some kind of automated backlink builder software to help you create your backlinks.  In this guide, you'll learn tips and tricks about how to build backlinks, and why backlink builder tools are no longer as useful as they once were.

The Rise of the Machines: Automated Backlink Building

A decade ago, search engine optimization (SEO) was more about creating the right keyword density and using the right keywords than learning how to build backlinks.  However, as search engines became increasingly sophisticated, they started looking for measures of “authority” on websites—in other words, how many other websites trusted them.

One quick way to find out how much authority a website has is to look at its overall number of backlinks.  As this became more weighted, learning how to build backlinks became increasingly important for search engine optimization professionals.  Backlink building became a science, and as people learned how to create backlinks fast, backlink builder software began to emerge.

Usually, backlink building software worked by generating automatic comments on blogs and content on affiliate marketing websites or press release sites.  When marketers began to learn how to build backlinks with a backlink builder, it seemed like a dream come true: it no longer took a great deal of work to make a website appear early in search results.

The Problems With Automated Backlink Building

It wasn't long before there was trouble in paradise.  It turned out that all that backlink builder software was working—too well.  Instead of finding what they wanted at or near the top of their web searches, web searchers found results that looked much more like spam.  An automated backlink builder could make links, but it couldn't make quality content.

As a result of so many people learning how to build backlinks with automated tools, Google began tweaking its search engine algorithms.  In 2012, they rolled out their solution to the backlink builder problem.

Google's Solution: Penguin

To combat the rise of automated backlink building, Google's algorithm update, code named “Penguin” or simply called the “over optimization” update, was devised.  This update allowed Google to focus more on the quality of backlinks, and discouraged using any kind of automatic backlink builder software.

Penguin has forced many search engine marketing pros to learn how to build backlinks the old fashioned way, because now, if the algorithm detects unnatural optimization, it decreases your search rankings.  Websites that had been on top with old backlink building strategies now saw little or no traffic.

Penguin works in part by assessing the quality of your backlink building by looking at the PageRank (Google's perceived authority measure) of the websites doing the backlinking.  If you've only been backlinked by very low quality websites, Penguin may affect your website and you may have to learn how to build backlinks all over again.

How to Build Backlinks Post-Penguin

Because Penguin has made it so much more difficult to do automated backlink building, you may need some quick tips about building backlinks from scratch.  If your website has been affected by Penguin already, you may first need to ask webmasters to remove the links that were made by your automated backlink builder.

Once you've had the offending links removed, you can work on how to build backlinks for your new, post-Penguin website.  The key is quality: you want to do backlink building with as many high PageRank websites as possible.

Another thing you'll need to learn before becoming your law firm's post Penguin backlink builder is how to vary your anchor text.  That's the text of the link itself, and if it's always the same, Google Penguin recognizes that as a sign of potential automated backlink building.

Finding Backlink Building Resources

If you're not going to use an automated backlink builder any more, you need to find new places to put your backlinks.  You should start by reading, rather than doing immediate backlink building.  Do all of the research you can into how to build backlinks in your niche.  There are several other articles on lawfirms.laws.com about building effective backlinks after Google Penguin.

You should also start to form some connections via social networking websites and blogs.  Reading Facebook and Twitter feeds, as well as law blogs, can give you some great ideas for creating new quality content to attract new backlinks.  Keep in mind that you'll want to focus on relevant, contextual blogs, so that you can build the best quality links possible rather than being caught by Penguin or any future Google algorithm updates.

How to Build Backlinks Organically

Building organic backlinks that will pass muster with any future Google updates doesn't have to be terribly difficult—it's just a bit slower than using automated backlink builder software.  That slowness may actually be a blessing, though: Penguin appears to also penalize websites that are seen as building links too quickly for their web traffic levels.

In order to do organic backlink building, you'll need to begin posting to your blog and commenting on other people's blogs.  You can also create organic backlinks by entering information pertaining to your law firm on directory websites like Google+ Local, or even local or regional chamber of commerce directories.

You may want to check what your competition is doing.  There are a wide variety of tools that allow you to detect backlinks to a website of your choosing.  By analyzing where your competitors are putting their backlinks, you can ensure that you are able to have backlinking opportunities in the same or similar places.

In some cases, you may want to outsource your backlink building.  If this is the case, make sure that your backlink builder service knows how to build backlinks post-Penguin and has a good track record.  You don't want to get hit by the next algorithm update, so make sure that they're posting real, quality content—not just spam.

Learning how to create backlinks is a must do for anyone who wants to bring their website up in Google and other search engine rankings.  If you're ready to start creating backlinks today, you probably want to know some places to start and some principles to keep in mind.  When you create backlinks on today's world wide web, you'll need to make quality a priority.  Keep reading this guide to find ideas on how to create backlinks that are high in quality and that will keep viewers coming to your site.

Tip #1: Create Backlinks on Local Websites

Sure, the internet is global—but it's also very, very local and getting more so every day.  With so many locally based websites, odds are that you can find a few local sites that allow people to create backlinks after creating an account.  For example, many local news websites have comment sections—perfect for creating backlinks with relevant content.

You may also want to look for local and state level attorney directories when learning how to create backlinks.  Many of these directories make creating backlinks easy by allowing you to make a profile for your law firm or for each of the attorneys at your firm.  These directory listings help you in several ways—you can not only create backlinks to make your Google search rankings better, you'll also have a place for people to find your website when they're searching for a lawyer in the directories.

Tip #2: Create Backlinks on High PR Sites

It's not enough to know how to create backlinks.  Because of the way that Google ranks websites, you also have to be able to create backlinks that are on high PageRank websites.  These are the web's most high traffic centers, and they're usually (but not always) tough to get links on.

The easiest way to start creating backlinks on high PR sites is to find a list of websites that are accepting links and posts from anyone with an account.  These websites can vary from month to month, especially because PageRanks can change somewhat quickly.  Make sure that any list of high PageRank websites you're using to create backlinks is from May of 2012 or later, because changes to the way Google searches work changed many websites' PageRank number at that time.

Tip #3: Creating Backlinks on .Edu Websites

When you create backlinks from either of two websites with the same PageRank, they'll have the same effect on your search rankings.  However, there is a place where this is not true, and where creating backlinks can have an effect that's substantially better than it would normally be.  Any time you create backlinks on .edu websites, they count for more than a similar backlink on a different domain.

Because there are only about 7000 total .edu websites, it can be tough to learn how to create backlinks on them.  Lawyers can get creative by creating backlinks through law school websites.  As an attorney, you can give talks at law schools or talk to students on school forums.  These give you great opportunities to create backlinks.  Remember—part of how to create backlinks is always making sure you're providing quality content.  Don't spam, or your posts will be deleted, your account will be banned, and you'll lose a great resource for creating backlinks with a very high value.

Tip #4: Create Backlinks that Get Noticed

It's all well and good to try to optimize your website by creating backlinks with exact keyword anchor text.  However, this kind of anchor text often appears when people create backlinks that have been mass produced.

Instead, learn how to create backlinks with “link bait” text—text that makes people want to click.  This could be text that involves a question being asked of your readers, or some interesting aspect of a blog post you're linking to.  This is a much better formula for creating engaging, noticeable backlinks—and those are the links that will get your website the most overall traffic and conversions.

Tip #5: Shake It Up When Creating Backlinks

Don't use the same anchor text over and over again when you're learning how to create backlinks.  Google often sees this as a sign of artificial link building, and could give your website a rankings penalty.  Even if your link text pertains to your firm brand rather than an exact keyword to be searched, Google might penalize the site.

This means that you should think of how to create backlinks with variations in anchor text, even if those variations are subtle.  You should also make sure that at least some of your backlinks have anchor text that is not an exact keyword match with anything in the page linked to—after all, this is often how naturally created backlinks look online.

Tip #6: Create Backlinks to Interesting Content

Even if you know how to create backlinks that get clicks, remember that the point of a backlink shouldn't just be to game the rankings.  It should also be to bring people in to your website from other places online.  Make sure that any time you're creating backlinks, they are going to content that is original and engaging.  Learning how to create backlinks won't help if your website can't convert any actual new clients.

Tip #7: Check Your Competition's Backlinking Strategy

If you have a competitor who clearly knows how to create backlinks that get their website noticed, remember that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  By running a backlink checker program on their URL, you can find out where they are creating backlinks online.

Once you've seen where your competition's backlinks are hosted, you can start to learn how to create backlinks on those websites.  Odds are that you won't be able to duplicate all of them—after all, they may have built some by using personal connections or social networking—but you can make big inroads on making your backlink profile look similar.  Learning from people who already know what works is a big part of backlinking strategy for the smart and efficient law firm marketing professional.

Thousands of marketing professionals have been impacted by Google's April 2012 decision to weight backlinks differently according to where they come from.  Now, rankings aren't just about how to get backlink traffic—they're about where to get backlinks with a high value, and finding the best backlinks possible.  That's why you need to keep reading this guide.  You'll learn how to get backlink traffic that really counts in searches, and why you should seek smaller numbers of the best backlinks instead of trying to get low-quality links everywhere.

How NOT To Get Backlink Traffic: Links to Avoid

Before you start learning where to get backlinks, it's a good idea to know what strategies to avoid.  These strategies are typically those which were used by spammers in the past.  Because of these spammers, Google and other search engines now devalue the backlinks of people who use these techniques today.  For example:

Don't use any kind of article marketing or article spinning service that copies the same content onto a huge range of web pages, including many with little or no relevance to your firm's business.
Don't use the same anchor text every time you make a new link, or make all your anchor text exact keyword match text.
Don't have all your links come from the same IP addresses.  That's not a sign of the best backlinks—it's a sign of spam.
Don't start building backlinks too fast once you learn where to get backlinks—this is regarded as suspicious, try doing just a few a day.
It's important not to learn how to get backlink traffic from any guides made before the latest Google search updates in April 2012.  Any guide telling you where to get backlinks that is from before that time can be safely ignored.

You should also keep in mind that the best backlinks are those from websites with high PR rankings.  If you learned how to get backlink traffic several years ago, you may just have tried to get a high quantity of backlinking done.  Today, you need to know where to get backlinks that are high quality and likely to be indexed quickly.

How To Get Backlink Traffic From Blogs

Every guide on how to get backlink traffic for lawyers will talk about blogging, and with good reason.  Any law firm professional who wants to know where to get backlinks when you've just started a website can start with blogs.

In order to get the best backlinks from blogs, you'll want to find other blogs that are either part of your local community or that pertain to similar subjects.  This is a great way to find opportunities for guest blogging.  If you don't know where to get backlinks from blogs, start by just reading some.  By creating a list of blogs you read regularly, you'll start to learn which ones would yield the best backlinks and guest blogging opportunities.  Once you figure out where to get backlinks that will suit your firm best, you can approach the blogger about linking to your website.

How to Get Backlink Traffic From .Edu Sites

It can seem almost impossible for many businesses to know where to get backlinks on .edu websites.  Fortunately, law firms have a competitive edge that most other businesses completely lack.  If you find a .edu website for a law school that has a student forum, you may be able to post in the student forum to get the best backlinks possible.

If you don't know how to get backlink traffic on these forums, just think about the kinds of questions you might have had as a law student about the areas you're practicing in now.  These answers can help you get fantastic .edu backlinks, which are the best backlinks possible as far as Google is concerned.

How To Get Backlink Traffic From Facebook

When thinking about where to get backlinks, don't neglect Facebook.  As the single largest website for B2C social network marketing, it has a high PageRank and tremendous visibility for the average consumer.  Some of your best backlinks in terms of total traffic generated may very well come from Facebook.

The easiest place to start getting backlinks from Facebook is on your profile page.  However, as long as you keep your content posted publicly, there are several other places where to get backlinks on Facebook.

How to Get Backlink Traffic From Twitter

Twitter is another place where you can get some of the best backlinks for your website.  If you don't know where to get backlinks on Twitter, start with your profile.  You can also use Twitter to create backlinks to your backlinks—a process called tiered linking that helps to get your links indexed by Google.  This kind of tiered linking ensures that you get the best backlinks performance.

How to Get Backlink Traffic From Directories

Another great answer to the “where to get backlinks” conundrum comes in the form of directory listings.  When learning how to get backlink traffic, you may have learned about using directories like DMOZ or Yahoo! Directory.  These kinds of directories can still provide good links, but the best backlinks from directories today come from local directories and Google+ Local.

That's because when someone searches using a geolocational term, Google+ Local will take these local directory backlinks into account more than your other links.  If you want to rise fast in local search rankings, these are the best backlinks you can get—and what's even better is, they're completely free.

How to Get Backlink Traffic From Press Coverage

A lot of law firms, especially those just starting out, don't think that they can actually get press coverage.  Instead, they put phony press releases (which aren't even released to their local press!) on sites like PRWeb.  These websites no longer count for much with Google, so they don't help your search rankings.  

Instead, for the best backlinks, try making real, engaging press releases and getting media coverage.  Just an interview or profile piece in a local or regional magazine, or a local weekly newspaper, could be a huge boost for your search rankings.

Over 90 percent of internet users use search, including over 85 percent of prospective legal clients.  When you try to find out how to improve your search rankings, though, you can find a lot of contradictory information.  Sorting out the myths (which are usually perpetuated by services that have something to sell your law firm) from the facts can be tough, especially when it comes to building cheap backlinks.  Before you buy cheap backlinks, read this guide.  It could help you to avoid a costly mistake.

Myth: All Cheap Backlinks Help—At Least a Little

Because the quantity of backlinks matters, some people think that if they buy cheap backlinks, they'll see their search rankings increase.  You'll see some search engine marketing companies saying essentially this—that in spite of recent changes to the way Google and other search engines work, you still need big numbers of cheap backlinks.  Usually, these companies will acknowledge that not all backlinks are worth the same amount, but they still operate on the assumption that when you buy cheap backlinks, you'll increase your amount of “link juice,” or authority from backlinks.

Fact: Some Cheap Backlinks Can Hurt Your Website

Obviously, the companies you would buy cheap backlinks from have an interest in getting you to buy them.  Because of this, they may not tell you that some cheap backlinks will actually make your search rankings decline.

What kinds of links should you avoid purchasing when you buy cheap backlinks?  Don't buy any backlinks that aren't contextually relevant to your website.  If the context of the website they're on is completely different from yours, Google is likely to notice and suspect that you buy cheap backlinks instead of building them organically.

If you get cheap backlinks on a number of websites which are all owned by the same person and hosted at the same IP address, you're also likely to be flagged by Google.  Don't ever buy cheap backlinks without verifying that they will be from websites with different IP addresses.

Myth: Backlinks Should All Have the Same Anchor Text

If you started to buy cheap backlinks a few years ago, you may want to run a backlink checker program that can look at what anchor text is linking to your website from your backlinks.  You may find that almost all of your cheap backlinks have identical anchor text.  This kind of strategy was often employed to give websites better search engine optimization for a particular keyword or phrase.

Other times, you may find that almost every link to your website is a brand link—for example, one that lists the name of your firm or the URL of your website.

Fact: You Need to Vary Anchor Text

If you've used these tactics in the past, be warned: when you buy cheap backlinks with identical anchor text, it's very likely that you'll trip Google Penguin's over optimization detection.  If your site is seen as being over optimized, you will be penalized because you chose to use cheap backlinks instead of building quality links.

One of the easiest ways for Google to detect that you are trying to buy cheap backlinks is a lack of variance—remember that natural backlinks will have a very wide variety of anchor text, including not only brand and exact keyword matches, but sometimes just simple phrases that aren't designed as SEO keywords.  A good backlink audit can help you see whether your linking pattern appears natural or unnatural.

Myth: Blog Comments Are Bad Cheap Backlinks

When companies would buy cheap backlinks in 2011 and the early parts of 2012, their backlink purchases often included huge numbers of blog comments.  These comments were often very spammy and Google took action against cheap backlinks on unmoderated blogs.  Because of this, some companies today believe that all blog comments are risky and not worth trying when you buy cheap backlinks.

Fact: Some Blog Comments Work Well

While it's true that spam blog comments are bad cheap backlinks to buy, this doesn't mean that you should rule out blog commenting altogether as a source of backlinks.  Make sure before you buy cheap backlinks in the form of blog comments from any source that these comments will be contextually relevant.  This means that they need to be real responses to the blog entry, not mass produced “this was a good article” text that could go in just about any comment section.

Myth: Article Spinning and Press Release Sites Still Work

Some of the classic resources that law firms used when they would buy cheap backlinks in the “old days” before Penguin were called article spinners or article marketing services.  These services worked by reproducing a single article, or small variations on one article, through a huge number of affiliated websites.

Because of the huge quantity of cheap backlinks that law firms could buy using these services, they were one of the most favored techniques for a long time.  Unfortunately, today, they're not a good solution.  Google has identified most of the websites that are part of these affiliate networks, and no longer value the “link juice” from these links or even assign it a negative value.  Many law firms that had used article spinners are now having to request that their links (which they paid for months or years ago) be removed from low quality affiliate websites.

Fact: You Need Different Cheap Backlinks Sources

By far the best way to avoid any big backlinking mistakes is to have a diverse strategy.  If your backlinks are spread out on a number of different types of websites, and come from a wide variety of different post formats, odds are that your backlinks will be much safer than those from firms that put all their SEO backlinking eggs in one basket.

Diversify your backlink sources as often as possible by keeping an eye on internet trends.  By learning about new backlink sources before your competitors, you'll maintain a wider link variety and better visibility.

If you're working on internet marketing for your law firm, you may need contextual homepage backlinks that help to give your website more authority in Google's search rankings.  Contextual backlinks are one of the best ways to make sure that your rankings rise steadily, and have many advantages over non-contextual links.  In this guide, you'll learn about your options for building contextual homepage backlinks, including organic link building techniques and hiring a contextual backlink service.  Keep reading to find out what strategy your law firm should employ for 2013 while building contextual backlinks in 2012.

What Makes a Backlink Contextual?

Simply put, there are two types of backlinks: contextual backlinks and non-contextual.  In a non-contextual backlink, a link goes from another website to your website, but the website the backlink is on doesn't need to have much relation—if any—to your practice or even your location.  For example, let's say your law firm purchased a large number of non contextual homepage backlinks.  These backlinks might appear on websites advertising products ranging from prescription drugs to work from home opportunities.

Contextual backlinks, on the other hand, rely on the context of a website.  When you build contextual homepage backlinks, they'll come from websites that discuss some of the same topics as your site and use some of the same keywords.  A contextual backlink service is a service that exclusively works on getting these types of backlinks for law firms or other companies.

Why Are Contextual Backlinks Best?

In the internet search world, contextual homepage backlinks are king.  Whether they're built by a contextual backlink service or organically grown, contextual backlinks make the web make more sense than a non-contextual link would.  When websites about similar topics are linked together via contextual homepage backlinks, it makes information more available to consumers.  Non-contextual backlinks, on the other hand, are much like email spam: website visitors didn't ask for them, and odds are, they never wanted them.

Contextual backlinks also help you to build more than your SERPs.  While your search engine rankings are important, it's also much more likely that someone will actually use contextual homepage backlinks to visit your website.  This is one of the biggest advantages of these links, whether you're getting them from a contextual backlink service or doing it yourself.  If you're using exclusively non contextual backlinks, you'll probably never (or at least, very rarely) see actual web traffic coming in from all of those backlinks you purchased.

Should I Use a Contextual Backlink Service?

There are advantages and disadvantages to getting your contextual homepage backlinks through a contextual backlink service.  On one hand, you'll get your contextual backlinks more quickly, helping you to build your rankings faster.  You'll also have the freedom to do other marketing tasks instead of painstakingly building individual contextual homepage backlinks.

However, giving up that control can make it so that your contextual backlinks aren't as high quality as you would like.  You'll want to make sure that your contextual backlink service makes only high quality links before using them.  It's also more expensive to use even the cheapest contextual backlink service than it is to just build backlinks organically, because most organically built contextual homepage backlinks are completely free.

Do Contextual Backlinks Work Right Away?

Whether you make them yourself or have a contextual backlink service make them for you, you can't expect for your contextual homepage backlinks to work immediately.  This is because before they can have any impact at all on your Google SERPs, they will need to be indexed by the search engine.  Sometimes, the process of indexing can take days, weeks, or even months depending on how deeply embedded in a website your contextual homepage backlinks are.

In some cases, your contextual backlink service will “tier” your backlinks, linking to your already existing contextual backlinks.  This can help them to be indexed more quickly.  If you're not using a contextual backlink service, some pieces of software also claim to do this kind of tiering automatically.  However, use caution: not all users of these pieces of software have reported positive results, and your mileage may vary.

Does Google Penguin Punish Contextual Backlinks?

One of the biggest questions many internet marketers have about any method of building links is whether it's Google Penguin safe.  In most situations, a contextual backlink service will guarantee that their links are Penguin proof (and if they won't, you should find a different service to provide your contextual homepage backlinks).

As long as you're building quality links, it's very unlikely that Google will punish you for any contextual backlinks.  After all, these are the kinds of links that tend to make the web better, by making it easier to move from one piece of information to other relevant websites.  Any contextual backlink service should be able to help you understand how your links are relevant and why they won't trip any red flags for over optimization when Google indexes them.

How Many Contextual Backlinks Should I Build?

When you start to work on building contextual homepage backlinks, don't go too crazy all at once.  If you build too many links in very short succession, it's very likely that Google will believe your website is over optimized and may take action against it in the search rankings accordingly.  Ideally, your backlink presence should be just a step or two beyond your real web presence—one of the main metrics that Google looks at is how many backlinks you have compared to your overall website traffic.

Consider starting by just making one or two new contextual backlinks per day at first, then working your way up to three to five per day.  This is an easy pace that you can easily continue on for the indefinite future.  What's more, if you're only making a few backlinks a day, you can make sure that they are the highest quality backlinks possible.  This ensures that your strategies will continue to be effective long into the future, not just until the next search update changes how Google looks at your links.

It seems like every search engine professional today wants to get free backlinks, and that's no surprise.  Because Google and other search engines now use backlinking for up to 70 percent of your search ranking determination, you need to focus on getting free backlinks as often as possible.  In this guide, you'll learn nine easy ways to get free backlinks that attorneys can start using today.

#1: Blogs and RSS Feeds

Blogging is one of the easiest ways to get a free backlink, and it's not hard to see why.  After five to ten minutes of account creation, anyone with an internet connection can start a blog about any topic under the sun, and from then on, it's easy to create free backlinks on that blog.

Having your own offsite blog is a great way to get free backlinks, especially if you start interacting with the owners of other blogs and doing guest posts.  You can get even more free backlinks by syndicating your blog with an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed.

#2: LinkedIn Questions

Because LinkedIn is considered a very high quality website, any free backlink you get from LinkedIn is more influential in your search rankings than many other websites' free backlinks.  A great way to multitask your marketing is to start answering questions that have been asked on LinkedIn by other attorneys or people with legal issues.

Not only does answering LinkedIn questions help you to get free backlinks, it also puts your name out there in front of a lot of people who might want to call your office.  If you're answering questions for other lawyers, you can increase your odds of getting referrals while you're getting free backlinks.

#3: Facebook

Even if your law firm doesn't do much marketing to consumers, you should make sure to get free backlinks by filling out a Facebook profile for your firm.  Ignoring the free backlink potential of Facebook would be a mistake, because it's by far the most popular social networking website in the United States.

You can create free backlinks on Facebook in a wide variety of ways, both on your profile and in your public feed.  Make sure that your posts are set to “public” by default, so that every free backlink you create to your website can be detected and indexed by Google.

#4: Twitter

“Tweets” are limited to 140 characters long but can still include a link to your website.  Twitter links are generally considered to be high quality, so this is a great way to build free backlinks that will really generate results.  The most interesting part about using Twitter to get free backlinks is that several studies that have compared the efficacy of every social networking site at raising search rankings, and Twitter seems to come out on top.  This may mean that a free backlink from Twitter is worth more than one from Facebook or LinkedIn.

#5: Social Bookmarking

From Metafilter to StumbleUpon to Reddit, social bookmarking websites take a wide variety of forms.  All of them can be great for free backlinks, if you're willing to play by their rules.  You'll need to make high quality content that people really want to read—and then you can put a free backlink to that content on their websites.

If you try to get free backlinks using these websites but are linking to poor quality content or direct advertising, it's likely that your links will be deleted.  This is a waste of your time and effort, so make sure the content is good before you create a free backlink to it.

#6: Press Coverage

To get free backlinks from the press is often easier said than done, but it's still worth trying.  If you get news coverage, the newspaper or television station will often include a free backlink to your website as part of their content.  Free backlinks can also come from commenting on news stories and including a relevant backlink as part of your comment.

#7: Yahoo Answers

Yahoo Answers has a lot of answers (both good and bad).  You can help to improve the quality of those answers while simultaneously getting free backlinks.  To get free backlinks on Yahoo Answers that will be in answers rated as “most helpful,” make sure that your link pertains to the topic of the question and isn't just inserted randomly.

Make sure that you provide all appropriate legal disclaimers when you answer any kind of legal question online.  No free backlink is worth an ethics inquiry from your state bar, so take every needed precaution before you answer any online questions on Yahoo Answers, a blog, or anywhere else.

#8: Blog Comments

Posts aren't the only place where blogs can provide free backlinks.  Another easy way to get free backlinks is to make informative, relevant comments on blogs about legal topics.  Every free backlink you get in this way can also help you to make connections with bloggers. Those connections can lead to new business, either directly or through word of mouth referrals.

Make sure that you're only commenting on active blogs, preferably those with moderation policies for comments.  This type of comment gives you a higher quality free backlink according to Google than comments on unmoderated blogs.  In fact, if you have too many free backlinks coming from unmoderated blogs, you could see your blog incurring over optimization penalties.

#9: Directory Profiles

The last place we'll talk about to get an easy free backlink is in web directories.  These directories offer a great way to get free backlinks while making it easier for people to find your website.  Every free backlink that you get on these websites will generally be considered high quality, as long as the directory itself isn't full of spam.

You may want to consider getting free backlinks on directories that are specifically for attorneys, or just for local businesses in your area.  Investigate all of your options to get the best free backlink arrangements possible.

In 2011, Google released an update called Panda that sent reverberations throughout the internet community.  Affecting 15 percent of websites, Panda started looking at where backlinks were coming from, rather than just basing search rankings on the total number of backlinks.  All of a sudden, companies didn't just want any backlinks, they wanted high quality backlinks—and fast!  Read this guide to find out how your law firm can build quality backlinks that pass muster on today's Google, and why you don't need to buy quality backlinks to be successful.

#1: Use Your Real Life Connections

Because quality backlinks are a part of the online world, many people forget that they can build high quality backlinks just by using their in person social circles.  Before you decide to buy quality backlinks, think about your connections.  People working for your law firm have social connections both locally and nationally, and can leverage those connections to get the kind of backlinking you want.

For example, you may find out that one of your real life friends or acquaintances has recently begun to keep a blog.  After they tell you what their blog is about, if you can think of a topic for a guest post, you'll be able to get high quality backlinks by piggybacking on their blog.  This is a great way to avoid having to buy quality backlinks even if you don't have very much web presence yet.

#2: Complete Your Profiles

One of the best and fastest ways to get high quality backlinks is to complete all of your law firm's profiles on social networking websites.  If you don't have a fully filled out profile, you're missing several different opportunities to create a quality backlink with great anchor text.  If you buy quality backlinks, creating these profiles will be one of the first things that a service does.  You can save yourself time and money by making these high quality backlinks on your own instead of purchasing them.

Usually, these profiles take about an hour or so to set up completely, so there's no reason to buy quality backlinks of this type unless you really want to.  For the relatively small amount of time investment required, you'll get quality backlinks that didn't require you to create any new content at all.

#3: Keep Quality Levels Up

Whatever content you're producing to generate your high quality backlinks needs to be at a high level of quality on its own.  If you're not producing good content, no matter how good your quality backlinks are, and no matter how well positioned your backlinking has gotten, you'll never get the conversions you need out of your backlinking.  Keep in mind that the end goal isn't just increasing your page rank, it's growing your business.

Some services claim to allow businesses to buy quality backlinks, but not all of them deliver on that promise.  High quality backlinks are often difficult to purchase, and you may end up with lower quality backlinks that help you much less.  Ask to see samples of the work any company is doing before you buy quality backlinks from them.

#4: Use Social Networking

Don't just abandon your social networking pages once your profile has provided you with some high quality backlinks.  You can create additional quality backlinks by participating and posting on these websites.  While you shouldn't overload your social networking feeds with backlinks to your website, an occasional link is a great idea—especially if it's to some content that's interesting enough for your viewers to share, creating even more high quality backlinks.

When you buy quality backlinks, this kind of posting is often included as part of the package.  However, if you choose this route for building quality backlinks, be careful.  It can be obvious to your readership that you chose to buy quality backlinks instead of making your own content and participating yourself.  Often, it's easier to make your own high quality backlinks, which your readers will be able to see come from a real person in your firm.

#5: Participate in Comments and Questions

No one likes the person who just talks and never listens.  Consider having some of your high quality backlinks come from asking your readers questions, and making comments on people's social networking feeds and blogs.  Note that this does not mean to make low quality backlinks by spamming blog comments with irrelevant links—you need to be really responding to what's being said, and participating in a two-way conversation.

#6: Talk to the Press

Why buy quality backlinks when a great public relations campaign can get them for free?  One of the best ways to get high quality backlinks on websites your competitors can't even touch is to get media attention.  If you've recently won a case that you think a local television station or newspaper might be interested in, get the publicity.  When they post quality backlinks to your website, you'll see your rankings skyrocketing.  Media sources are among the best places to position your high quality backlinks.

Now, unlike the kinds of links you get when you buy quality backlinks, you won't be able to set your own anchor text.  However, because these are such difficult high quality backlinks to get, they'll count for a lot in your search rankings even without great anchor text.

#7: Audit Your Backlinks

Every once in a while, you'll want to check to make sure that your backlinking is still effective and that the backlinks you've received still direct people to functional URLs.  This is even more important if you buy quality backlinks—without checking up on the backlinking, how do you know if you're really getting what you paid for instead of spammy backlinking attempts?

Many free web tools can help you examine your backlinks.  You can easily sort your backlinks by PageRank so you can find which are high quality backlinks and which are lower quality backlinks.  Quality backlinks will have a higher PageRank number (the maximum is 10), while lower quality ones will have lower numbers, all the way down to zero.

Is your firm having trouble learning how to get high PR backlinks for free?  Have you been considering a deal to buy high PR backlinks, because you don't know how to find them for yourself?  Don't worry—it's not nearly as hard to get high PR backlinks as you think.  Keep reading this guide to find out some creative ways to obtain high PR backlinks without needing to pay a service for every link you get.  You'll also learn why it can be a bad idea to buy high PR backlinks, and why this strategy can backfire dramatically on websites foolish enough to use it.

What Are High PR Backlinks?

Before we get started on how to get high PR backlinks, we need to take a look at exactly what they are.  PR stands for “PageRank” (all one word).  PageRank is a number on a 0 to 10 scale that is, essentially, a guide to how popular and high quality a website is considered to be.  The very most popular websites on the internet have a PR of 10, while a brand new website or one with very few connections to anyone else online would have a 0.

Backlinks are links to your website from another website.  If the website has a high PageRank, these are said to be high PR backlinks.  It's not always easy to get high PR backlinks, especially from websites that have very regulated submissions.  Because of this, many services exist to help people buy high PR backlinks.

Why Does PageRank Matter?

PageRank matters because not all backlinks give the same amount of ranking value to your website.  High PR backlinks are weighted significantly more heavily than low PR backlinks when Google decides where your website should appear in someone's search.  Because the vast majority of web users pick a website from the very first page of results, rather than going through many pages, it's critical to get high PR backlinks.

The reason that Google gives more weight to high PR backlinks is because these links give much more authority.  Typically, in order to get high PR backlinks, you'll need to have some type of relatively high quality content.  On the other hand, people can much more easily buy low quality backlinking services, so these lower PR backlinks are considered to be substantially lower quality.

Why is it much harder to buy high PR backlinks than low PR ones?  Mostly because there are far fewer high PageRank websites in total.  Before Google based a website's search rankings in part on the PR of its backlink sources, it was very easy for companies to use “article spinning” services that gave them hundreds of backlinks in just a few hours.  Now, with the changes to the search algorithm, it's considered much harder to get the kind of high PR backlinks you need to make your rankings rise.

How Do I Get High PR Backlinks to My Site?

Just because it can be difficult to get high PR backlinks doesn't mean it's impossible.  You definitely don't have to buy high PR backlinks in order to have them.  Some of the highest PageRank websites allow for public posting, and as long as your content meets quality guidelines, you can give yourself the links you want.

For example, one of the highest PageRank websites that you can post to quite easily is Youtube.  If you record some video content for your website and host it on Youtube, you can create backlinks in the description of your video.  These backlinks will come from a very high PageRank website, so they will be worth much more than if you had just gotten low quality links.

It's worth keeping in mind that Google's new algorithms also reward diversity.  If you buy high PR links exclusively, or just focus your energy on getting high PR links, you may end up having a backlink arrangement that appears suspicious to Google.  Generally, you should get high PR links as part of a comprehensive backlinking strategy, rather than working only for these links and not other types.

Should I Buy High PR Backlinks?

Even if you're struggling to get high PR backlinks, buying them isn't always a good answer.  While some services that allow you to buy high PR backlinks are on the level and offer good, contextual linking, others will post low quality items on as many high PR websites as possible.  Keep in mind that Google doesn't like it when businesses buy high PR backlinks.  Their search engineers have been getting better and better at identifying when people get high PR backlinks by buying them instead of earning them with great content.

If you do decide to buy high PR backlinks, use a lot of caution and check out the services carefully before deciding on one.  You don't want to get high PR backlinks, pay for them, and then find out that they haven't actually helped your website because it's now designated as “over optimized” by Google.  Only buy high PR backlinks from services that can show you a track record of success even after Google's new Penguin and Panda algorithms took effect.

Can I Get High PR Backlinks for Free?

There's definitely no real reason to buy high PR backlinks instead of making them yourself.  You can easily get high PR backlinks just by blogging, then linking to your blog entries on various Web 2.0 sites.  If you're making good content, you'll quickly have high PR backlinks without needing to buy a single one.

If you've already tried to get high PR backlinks in this way but haven't been successful, you may think you can buy high PR backlinks as an alternative.  Think about it, though: if people aren't coming to your website when you linked in those places before, could it be that your content quality was simply too low?  Consider making better quality content before choosing to buy high PR backlinks.

Creating and Adjusting the Perfect Twitter Marketing Campaign

Twitter Marketing Campaigns

Adjusting a Twitter marketing campaign should not rely on general statistics, but certain Twitter marketing with focus on international law should consider adjusting, especially if they’re mainly focusing on the United States at the moment. 

Valuable Statistics for Attorneys

Twitter and marketing is popular in the United States, but the only ranks 18^th in the world for Twitter influence.  If you need to adjust your Twitter marketing campaign internationally and within a field of law, the following regions (greatest to lowest) have the most influence from Twitter and marketing:

·         Venezuela

·         Indonesia

·         Brazil

·         Turkey

·         Mexico

·         United Kingdom

·         Ireland

·         El Salvador

·         Dominican Republic

·         Columbia

·         Paraguay

·         Philippines

·         Ecuador

·         Japan

·         Argentina

·         Malaysia

·         Guatemala

·         United States

·         Netherlands

·         Spain

·         Kenya

Apart from countries, the following cities are most influenced by Twitter and marketing:

·         Caracas

·         Jakarta

·         Sao Paulo

·         Istanbul

·         Rio de Janeiro

·         Mexico City

·         New York City

·         London

·         Los Angeles

·         Toronto

·         Madrid

A smart Twitter marketing campaign in law will also account for gender, age, income as well as education and how it relates to the services of your firm.  The following statistics provide valuable data for Twitter and marketing campaigns within different fields of law:

·         about 61% of all users on Twitter are women, while about 39% are men

·         the 25-34, 35-44, and 45-54 age groups are using Twitter the most

·         about 15% of users are 18-24, about 7% are below 18, and less than 10% are 55 and up

·         Twitter and marketing works best for users earning $25,000 to $49,999

·         Twitter and marketing works second best for those earning $50,000 to $74,999

·         over 60% of Twitter users have some college education, and just below 20% have their bachelor’s degree

Important Tips for your Twitter Marketing Campaign

Twitter marketing campaigns for a law firm need to consider statistics and their followers, but they also need to embrace the important steps listed within this section.  Successful Twitter marketing campaigns contain the following strategies and more:

1. Have Multiple Workers for your Twitter Marketing Campaign

You can address more problems within Twitter and marketing if you have more associates in your firm helping with the campaign.  The most successful Twitter marketing campaigns have several partners using Twitter on a daily basis to provide updates and respond to followers.  If followers realize there are multiple partners working together, they’ll recognize that the firm is devoted to helping their clients. 

 2. Implement Timing into your Twitter Marketing Campaign

The most successful Twitter marketing campaigns by law firms will post incentives informational tweets  during times that clients are most likely to view the updated information.  Generally, Twitter and marketing work best before followers go to work, during lunch, around 3 p.m., and multiple times during the evening hours. 

Additionally, a Twitter marketing campaign for a law firm should also adjust for days of the week and even times during the year. 

3. Promote Multiple Accounts for Twitter and Marketing

Many of the best Twitter marketing campaigns will encourage individual partners to use their own personal accounts to promote the firm as well.  This technique allows the firm to expand its presence past the followers it has already.  If a firm does encourage such Twitter marketing campaigns, they should establish clear rules for professionalism and responses concerning the company. 

4. Focus on your Content within the Twitter Marketing Campaign

The best way to combine Twitter and marketing for your firm is to only provide information that can inform and help your potential clients.  Report important events within the news that relate to your services; report certain events that your firm is holding; report certain projects that individual partners are working on; and provide information about incentives and discounts your firm may be offering. 

5. Focus on Keywords

If you’re just starting your Twitter marketing campaign, you’ll want to perform keyword searches within Twitter that relate to your services.  How can you integrate those keywords into your profile, your bio, and your tweets?  The most successful Twitter marketing campaigns will use keywords to appear higher up within search results and gain more followers. 

6. Don’t Underestimate Hashtags

One of the most effective tools for Twitter and marketing for a law firm is the use of hashtags.  Your firm should encourage employees and followers to use hashtags for the firm itself.  Additionally, a Twitter marketing campaign should research hashtags to promote in order to try and bring in more followers.  Twitter marketing campaigns should create new hashtags for new updates. 

7. Use URL Shorteners as much as Possible

Using a URL shortener can have great results for yourTwitter and marketing campaign.  There are different tools available on the internet to help you shorten URLs so you can provide longer links within the 140 character limit for tweets.  After you begin to shorten links, you should provide links to your blog, your official website, other social media websites, and helpful information for your followers. 

8. Track your Results

After your Twitter marketing campaign is under way, you’ll want to monitor a large number of information using the analytics on Twitter as well as outside tools.  All Twitter marketing campaigns need to make adjustments—especially in the legal sector—and it’s hard to make adjustments without real time results. 

Conclusion: Twitter and Marketing

No campaign is perfect, and adjustments are needed constantly in order to maintain awareness and potential leads through Twitter.  Twitter marketing campaigns can greatly improve not only profit, but brand awareness and reliability from clients as well.