You need high quality back links to your website to gain the attention of the search engines. Without search engine attention, it is virtually impossible to get the type of traffic you need for your website to become successful. Let’s face it, people conduct millions of searches online every day from around the world. If your site is going to stand out and have a chance of being visited as a result of these searches, you need to be near the top of the search results for your keywords. You want your site to be one of the first that searchers notice. Getting good quality back links is an essential part of getting to the top of the search engines and getting that all important traffic. 

Search engine traffic is very targeted, since it comes from people who are specifically searching for information on your website’s topic. Because of this, conversions are higher on websites that get a lot of search engine traffic….conversions meaning the number of sales you get from your website if you are monetizing it. Building high quality back links regularly and consistently is key to getting into the tops of the search engines. The more back links you have and the higher the quality of those links, the higher your site will move up in the search engine rankings for your keyword and the more traffic you’ll get from it as a result.

Here is best way to get high quality back links to your website:

Post comments on high authority blogs and forums. You should make sure the blogs and forums are of similar topics to your own website, and make sure the comments you leave are relevant to the post or thread you’re commenting on. On forums, leaving a link to your website in your signature is considered the appropriate way to add a back link. On blogs, you can leave a link in the comment itself, or link through your name or website’s name in the name field when filling out the comment submission form. Look for blogs and forums that have some age to them, good page rank, and that rank highly in the search engines for keywords that are similar to yours. These are high quality sites that will help your site rise higher in the search engines.

Commenting on blogs and forums that are “do follow” is important, too, as “no follow” websites will not allow your links to get indexed by the search engines. You will still get traffic from these links, but the traffic will come from the blog or forum on which you left the comment, not from the search engines. It’s search engine traffic you want for your website (at least the majority of your traffic….other types of traffic are valuable, too, just not as much as search engine traffic), so look for do-follow blogs and forums on which to leave your links. This is the best way to build high quality back links, either on your own, or by hiring a professional back link company to do it all for you.

Today’s Genealogy Tip—Looking for Massachusetts vital records and don’t have the time or ability to make in-person visits to all the town halls there to collect them? Try the Massachusetts Vital Records database on NEHGS.org (it’s $75 a year). They have birth, death, and marriage records from most Massachusetts counties from 1841 to 1915. You can actually view the original records online!

Today’s Genealogy Tip—A good source for old newspapers (some going back to the 1700s) is GenealogyBank.com. It’s always a good idea to look in old newspapers where your ancestors lived for mentions of them, as these mentions can sometimes be the only existing proof of a birth, death, or marriage. At the very least, they sometimes give very cool personal stories that bring your ancestors to life, metaphorically.

Today’s Genealogy Tip—Looking for a headstone for an ancestor who lived far away and aren’t able to make the trip to look for it in person? Try FindAGrave.com. This website has millions of listings for cemeteries and the people laid to rest in them from all over the world. Pictures of headstones, and even family infor…mation, are often included. Check it out. Your ancestor may just be listed there!

Today’s genealogy tip—State archives provide a treasure trove of information. Many counties eventually sent their very old records to central repositories like state archives. These may be the best (and sometimes only) places to find information on your pre-Civil War ancestors. Call first to find what records the archives have before visiting so you have a more productive trip.

Today’s genealogy tip—Here’s another good website for you. Footnote.com works in conjunction with the National Archives to make the vast records holdings of the archives available to the public online. It is a subscription site, but well worth the cost, especially if you have ancestors who fought in the Civil War. You can find their entire military records online at Footnote.com, which can contain some good genealogical information.

Today’s Genealogy Tip—Looking for pictures of your ancestors? Photographs are like genealogical gold…and often just as hard to find. Try going to www.deadfred.com. This is an online database of old photographs submitted by people from all over the world. You just might find the face of your ancestor among them!

Today’s Genealogy Tip—Lots of family histories were published in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, when there was a resurgence of interest in genealogy. Check your local library, eBay, Amazon.com, and local LDS Family History Center to see if a history was written on your family. If there was, and it’s well documented, that can save you a lot of research!

Today’s Genealogy Tip—Looking for the maiden name of an elusive female ancestor? Try checking her husband’s will or the wills of any of her known relatives. If she outlived any adult children, check their wills, too. Her original surname may be mentioned in these documents. If she outlived her husband, check his obituary. You can also check the wills of her husband’s relatives, and even her neighbors. Her maiden name could appear in some pretty unexpected places.

Today’s Genealogy Tip—Censuses are taken every 10 years in the USA, and have been since 1790. The 1890 census was mostly destroyed in a fire in 1921, however, but fragments of it remain. Census records are released to the public 72 years after a particular census is taken, so right now, only census records through 1930 are available. The 1940 census will become available on April 2, 2012.