Firstly, I must apologise for the lack of posts recently. I’ve been taken a bit by surprise by how busy this wedding photography season has been so far.
I’m well and truly into the season now, and its time to start taking more attention of this blog. By the way, I’m going to start reviewing photography sites from an SEO/Usability point of view (not the photography) – so, if you want me to take a look at your site, and get a free overview then please get in touch. The results will be published on this site.
So, onto this post. One of the questions I am asked most frequently is “How do I check which sites are linking to me?”.
As you [should] know, back links – links into your site – are probably, the most important factor you need to address to help your site in the SEO rankings.
The links of course, should be from relevant and trusted websites and there are lots of ways to find out which sites link back to your site.
However, my favourite tool for this exercise is: http://www.backlinkwatch.com/
Try it – simply pop your URL into the box, and it will report not only how many back links you have, but other key information such as which links have the “nofollow” rule enforced.
A really quick post today, which answers a question for quite a few of you.
Clearly there are other methods of checking your links – and please feel free to post these in the comments so we can all check those out.
-km (listening to: South Africa v Mexico on Five Live)
Hi Kevin
I just used the that yo recommended.
has 400+ backlinks, but the anchor text is mostly for ‘Q Photography’ – my company name.
Should I try and get the anchor text changed to something more search worthy like “wedding photographer in Edinburgh.” ?
Thanks for your help
Simon
Hi Simon – yes, it would be more beneficial, but only marginally. The link back is the most important thing as that will give Google confidence in your page. The anchor text will help, but personally I leave comments on blogs using my name only, and links on directories and no-blog sites as the business name or “photographer in Wiltshire” for example. Getting the links should be the priority though.
-Good luck.
Hi Kevin,
We have worked hard on our optimization over the last 12 months and have taken on board quite a few of your tips, thanks for these!!
We would appreciate if you could give our site a free overview for weddings, family portraits and business portraiture.
Thanks
Chris
Thats great Chris – I will add your site to the list and let you know when the review is online.
Kev
Hi Kevin,
Just wondered if you have had time to publish the review online.
thanks
Chris
Hi
have read your articles with interest only got 8 backlinks though! Would be keen to see what you make of my site as I have spent a lot of money getting someone to optimise it for me but haven’t a clue what hey have done! Am getting a reasonable amount of interest though so we shAll see! Keep up the good work!
Thanks Sharon – I will add your site to the list too and let you know when its complete.
Cheers
Kev
Hi kevin, hope you’re well. Would love you to look at the site. Would also like to book some time with you to maximise the potential for my site/blog/ etc etc…. can you send me a message with info / costs etc
Hi there, ive just started looking at SEO, ive started making basic steps but could do with more direction. I use photium as a template so tips on how to improve SEO with in Photium would be great.
Cheers
Matt
Hi, I just on the throws of my website being updated and need to get back on the SEO trail, since my site been offline for a good while.
Anything you can say will be useful to me since I want to improve my listings.
Thanks
Tasha
Hi Kev,
Let me throw my hat in the ring. Thanks for supplying that backlinks address. What a great idea.
I use a CMS to create my site and such supply my SEO info via that.
Really not sure how succesful it is helping clients find me. Not a lot I’m guessing as all my clients are via referrals.
Anyway thanks for the review – if you get the time.
Cheers
Anurag
Hi Kevin thanks for the great info. The backlink you have described is a new one. Will have a look to see how our sites are going. Thank you so much.
Hi Kevin, I’ve just found your site today ! I’m trying to get my head round all this seo/social media stuff – a bit tricky – have enough difficulty with my ‘unsmart’ phone!
I have always used yahoo’s Site Explorer, but Backlink Watch is much better! Thanks!
There are others of course too but backlinkwatch is pretty cool.
I just tried this link but it takes you onto other sites… do we know if it is still a valid link?
Hi Emma – I just looked and it still seems to be valid (it does try and throw up an advert first though).
I also got your email and will get back to you over the next day or so with more details.
Thanks
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
I love reading your tips on the swpp forum. I just thought I’d be cheeky and create myself a wee backlink by posting! LOL
Hx
Hi Kevin,
Just came accross this article and found it useful.
Many Thanks for sharing.
Great article Kevin; very interesting!
Really useful post Kevin. Much appreciated.
Hi Kevin,
Do you recommend using one of the sites that offers x 1000 of backlinks for a fee or is Google wise to this?
Cheers, Graham
No – don’t do that Graham. Organic link building is best – you will be penalised by Google if you purchase links in bulk.
Amazing! I have 96 backlinks, going for the first 100! Many thanks for all your sharing.
Didn’t seem to work for me – got a fatal error message. Hopefully just a temporary glitch!
A bit off topic, but could you recommend any books on SEO? Also, would you say it is useful to know a bit about HTML and CSS? I use a ToFurious WordPress template, but don’t know enough to perform any customisation beyond what is allowed through the standard ToFurious config options.
Thanks
David
Seems to be working OK for me David.
For books take a look on the Amazon links on the homepage of this site