Happy Kids, Inc: Must Have Blog Resource: Incoming Links

Highlights of this article:

--The importance of incoming links for your site
--Creating a clickable link in a comments box on a blog
--Using your blog button

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An important part of the puzzle for you as a blogger is incoming links. This part of the puzzle is important because it helps you rank higher in search engines relevant to your theme or topic. Furthermore, links on other sites gets your name and brand out there for other to see.

In the simplest of terms, an incoming link (sometimes referred to as back links) are links that are on other sites or search engines, linking back to your blog. How do you create such incoming links?

One way is to pay to have it done. You can use expensive SEO managers to accomplish this task for you. I've had a lot of luck with the site Fiverr.com. This is basically a listing site for networkers and computer geniuses to offer their services to you in regards to links, SEO, social media presence, and more. A word of caution: if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is and will cause more harm than good. For example, a networker offering you 1,000+ Twitter followers in 5 days sounds great, but at what cost? Usually it means forced follows for you and a lot of spam. Carefully read through offerings based on what you are looking for. Make sure the networker has good reviews from other users and has done a lot of jobs for others.

The best and most genuine way is for you to do the work. Yes, this is very time consuming! But in the end, it will pay off. One popular way to link back to your blog is through the ever-popular blog hops. You enter your link on a given site that leads back to your site or social media page. It's important, though, to take the time to comment and follow back others.

This is where an additional bonus of linking back to your site comes in, the comments box. Whether you are commenting regarding a blog hop, or simply commenting on a post you like, it's important to leave your information in the comment form. The most common piece of information to leave is a link back to your blog. Unfortunately, many bloggers make a huge error with this and they don't even realize it! Many of you might leave a comment like this:

I really loved what you have to say here. Your newest follower via Twitter. Drop by my blog sometime:

http://www.happykidsincblog.com

While the sentiment and information is right, it is entered wrong! You can't click on the URL you have entered. Not only do users then have to manually copy and paste your URL into their browser, search engines are not reading it either. But never fear, there is a quick fix. See the HTML below:

<a href="YOUR LINK HERE">YOUR TITLE HERE</a>

Replace YOUR LINK HERE With your Link

Replace YOUR TITLE HERE With your Link title (this is what will show up as the clickable text)

Example:

<a href="http://www.happykidsincblog.com">Happy Kids, Inc</a>

Once you copy and paste this code with your link and title, it should thus look like this:

Happy Kids, Inc

Now, you not only have a clickable link, you are being picked up by search engines, too.

Finally, another common and important incoming link is placing your button on other blogs. Most up-and-coming bloggers offer a free swap option, where you both place your respective buttons on each other's sites. Not only does this provide an incoming link to your blog, it also is a mini advertisement for readers to see. If you don't have a button for your blog, be sure to read my previous article on how to easily create a button for your site.

And there you have it. You're on your way to creating your unique presence in the blogosphere!