Do you need to worry about backlinks?

I was at the ProBlogger event last week (and by the way, you must go if you ever get a chance) and someone asked me about backlinks.

I started thinking about backlinks post-Penguin and I did some checking on a site or two that I’m working to help rank.

Backlinks are some of the last things you need to worry about, but only in that you have to have your basics in place first or your backlinks won’t matter a bit.

If your SEO is straight and you’re putting out interesting and relevant content on a regular basis, now’s the time to work on your backlinks to try to improve your Google rankings.

In these post-Penguin days, throwing content up on your site just won’t cut it. It has to be quality work with your keywords included in a natural manner, and it has to be posted and updated on a regular basis.

Think of the Googlebot as a human reader. If you’ve got fresh new interesting articles on your blog all the time, the Googlebot is going to continue coming back to your site, which will increase your ranking.

If you’ve got backlinks from blogs and websites with the same attitude, your ranking will increase even more.

It’s not just a matter of getting a huge collection of backlinks; they have to be quality links that pertain to your website niche.

Does your reader base hang out on certain forums or chat rooms? Go in there and be helpful. Find out where they are, and then ask the blog owner for a natural backlink, maybe in return for a guest post gig.

Get personal and talk with real people to get the backlinks that Google will like on your site.

Whether you’re trying for a global reach or a local group, aiming your focus on that group will get you the best results.

Jim Stewart is a leading expert in search engine optimisation. His business StewArt Media has worked with clients including Mars, M2 and the City of Melbourne.