Anyone have some good websites to use for backlinks for your main site? Obviously right here on BP is great, but what are some other real estate sites for backlinks?

I have gotten a ton of links by commenting on real estate blogs an other forums. Not only do you get a link with each comment, often it leads to a relationship with the blog owner and that can lead to other links and potential for guest post etc.

One way to find sites to comment on is look at the website in the signature of other posters here. Also there is a forum to announce your website here. You'll find lots of sites to comment on there. Good luck - Ned

@Ned Carey Thanks for the Tip Ned. It seems sort of spammy to visit other peoples websites, leave a blog comment, and then post a link to your website in the comment. Is that what your getting at?

No not at all. I will use my site as an example. Go to [REMOVED]

Scroll down to where is says leave a comment. You leave your name, email which does not show up, and your website. When the comment is Posted, your name is linked to your site. If a reader clicks your name they go to your site.

Also my site has a plug in called "Comment Luv" This is a common plugin and many sites use it. When you leave a comment, If you have a blog it will add a link to your latest post. On this post you can see Seth who is a BP Member left a comment and his name is linked to his site. Also there is a link to Seth's latest post "finding the right property management company"

Now many people will leave a Spammy comment just to get the link. However this will backfire as this will get you blocked by Akismet plugin and your comments will never show up on any site! - Ned

@Samantha M. - do you have a YouTube channel? If not, it might be worth opening an account and putting out some good videos. This obviously involves a bit of work, but a good video can send a lot of traffic to your website (just remember to put your URL in the description section). Remember - YouTube is the #3 website in the world right now, so keep a presence in the big avenues like this.

And just to back up @Ned Carey 's point, it does help to just stay active in the blogosphere. Check out other people's blogs and websites, make comments in your different social media outlets, keep contributing in places like the BP forum, and be sure that you're always adding to the discussion in a meaningful way.

You aren't doing these things solely to drive traffic to your site - you're doing it to build relationships, because these are what can (and will) build a dedicated following over time.

There are a lot of people making "noise" on the internet by throwing links all over the place (that nobody is going to click on) and making thoughtless and irrelevant comments.

...but people take notice of those who are actually bringing some substance to the table. It pays to take your time and come up with thoughtful and smart questions/answers (things that bystanders will actually benefit from reading).

If you've got a unique insight or perspective on things, people will definitely want to hear what you have to say - and they are likely to check out your website as well.

@Seth Williams -Seth, I'd be interested to hear what your experience has been with YouTube. I have not had good results at all, especially for the amount of time and work. I've always wondered if I'm just missing something.

@Samantha M. if you're asking about Backlinks for the purpose of merely having a backlink to your site, then there are a myriad of clean ways to get quality backlinks, one of which @Ned Carey highlighted...being active on blogs and leaving your mark through comments (offering good dialogue, insightful comments, and providing value) is a great way to get a link and strike up a relationship with the blog owner.

Why are you asking about backlinking? Is it for ranking purposes? or for just getting your website and brand out there?

I like the direction this is taking; sharing useful comments and building relationships, instead of focusing on having numerous backlinks.

Hey @Mike D'Arrigo - you're definitely not an anomaly. I think a lot of people struggle with YouTube because they don't understand how to create videos that people want to see - or they don't know how to get their videos noticed in the first place (or both).

There is a lot that goes into making a video that gets noticed, things like:

- Creating content that isn't boring
- Delivering information that people want to know
- Having the right title
- Using the right keywords
- Choosing the right video image

Is it worth all the effort? In my case - yes, I think so. If it can drive more quality traffic to your website and make people aware of your business (and if it's part of the overall value of what you're trying to deliver), then go for it!

On the other hand, if it literally adds no value to your operation and has nothing to do with your business - then maybe it really isn't worth your time (I'm not sure what your business activities consist of, so I can't really give you an opinion on that).

If you want to learn more - I'd suggest checking out this podcast episode from Pat Flynn at [AD LINK REMOVED] which is VERY informative on this topic.

I am getting started with youtube and other internet marketing items. I follow the course I bought and my first video ranked on the first page of google as soon as I posted it. It has back links to my website so it helps overall SEO for my website.

@Scott Meredith

To clarify links posted on your youtube videos do not qualify as backlinks. They are flagged as nofollow. Nofollow links do not increase page rank and aid SEO like backlinks do. For a link to be considered a “back link” it must be flagged as dofollow. You can check the status of a link with various firefox SEO extensions, or by simply right clicking on the page and and selecting “view page source” it will show the HTML code of a page. If the link has dofollow it is considered a backlink.

This is not to say that quality youtube videos won’t drive traffic to your website. But it will be through natural click through rate, because your video was informative and of high quality. In the case of youtube all links are categorized as nofollow and do not help increase page rank for organic searches. In other words, no it does not help the overall SEO of your website; however, it can lead potential visitors to your website if they stumble upon your video. In addition, your youtube video can rank independently of your website. So its possible to rank on the front page with both your primary domain and a youtube video.

Here is an illustration I put together to help explain this concept.

Whoa... that was a really helpful explanation - thanks Chris F.!

@Seth Williams Thanks Seth, I appreciate the feedback. SEO tends to be a nebulous a concept. I intend on creating a series of blog posts in the near future that explain the intricacies of SEO in simple terms. Just stating what you need to know without going overboard with extraneous details.

Use these google searches (change the phrase "real estate" to whatever you want to rank for:

{real estate} "Notify me of follow-up comments?"+"real estate"

{real estate} "powered by disqus"+"real estate"

{south carolina} "Notify me of follow-up comments?"+"real estate"

"real estate" "powered by wordpress" "leave a comment" -"no comments"

{real estate} “powered by WordPress”

“real estate” "Remember my personal information" "Notify me of follow-up comments"

"powered by wordpress" + "Mail (will not be published) (required)" + "real estate"

“Top Sites for Researching {real estate}”

site:.gov inurl:blog “wordpress” “comment” “real estate”

site:.com inurl:blog “wordpress” “comment” “real estate”

inanchor:"real estate"

allinanchor:real estate

site:digg.com "real estate"

"Powered by Phbb" real estate

"Powered by vBulletin" real estate

"Powered by SMF" real estate

Phbb real estate

"Powered by Phbb" real estate

"Powered by vBulletin" real estate

"Powered by SMF" real estate

Phbb your real estate

"powered by IPB" real estate

"[real estate]" "Post A Comment" INURL:blog name email website

"Recent Comments" "[real estate]" "Post A Comment" INURL:blog name email website

Be aware that leaving comments is an art. Some will say you can automate the process but this will open you up to getting labeled a spammer. Which will hurt your website.

I also would caution against using keywords as your name. I delete all comments from jerks that do this. If someone is nice enough to let you have a link, be nice enough to follow their comment policy.

Comments such as "Great post" are NOT what you want to leave. Actually read the articles and leave a comment directly related to the topic. Asking a question is a great way to comment.

If you only concentrate on Do Follow Links, Google will know. Mix it up. You want links but you also want people to follow the links.

Make sure you create and verify a Google+ page for your business address. Place a link to your main homepage from our Google+ page. In addition to your URL, you are able to define business related keywords on your Google+ page. It's no surprise that Google likes & indexes this content.

I like the exchange of thoughts here. I'm getting several great ideas.

Doing more linkbuilding work in blogs, forums and submit your site to web directories or do article

submissions are good ways to practice.

Engaging in a healthy exchange of comments in Dofollow sites with high page ranks is good way of getting quality backlinks. You're comments should be true to the topic of course.

If you want to check if the site is a DoFollow or NoFollow website, you can use your browser:

1. Open the webpage.
2. Press CTRL + U to check the page source.
3. Press CTRL + F and type "nofollow."
4. If the term appears, then it is more likely to be a nofollow website.

You can also look for sites that allow guest postings.

I am finding it harder and harder to find 'dofollow' blogs....

@Mark Brian These are too old techniques to find relevant thing, this comes up with crap things even if we made these inverted commas to bring the exact phrase especially with real estate industry, i m looking for some forums and discussion boards but this won't work at all because i m looking in a specific region. If you have something like that, i would love to hear it from you. Thanks

A good tool is ahrefs. Look them up. I use the free service.

Look for websites that rank well for the keywords you want to rank for. Your competition. Type their website in ahref and it will show backlinks they are using. It gives you some good ideas on where to start looking for backlinks

Active Rain is a good one to comment on for a backlink. There are paid press release services that do a great job of connecting you with authority sites such as PR Wire, and Emailwire. They can get you on ABC, NBC and CBS affiliates as well as USA Today. You have to have pretty good content to get picked up by those stations and brands.

Wow, thanks guys, this thread was a learning experience for me, almost as I'm a total newbie to this jargon. I'll have to get out more I guess, LOL.  Might start a site like Ned's, I'm sure I can think of something to say, LOL. Again, good thread! :)

Two best resources I know for backlink education:

http://pointblankseo.com/link-building-strategies

http://backlinko.com/link-building

Hope that helps!

Here is a link to citation/ directory sites that you can get your information and links on. Many of these are do follow links and are free (some are paid). Throwing your info into some of these can definitely help.

http://www.brightlocal.com/2014/10/09/top-citation-sites/#real