The importance of quality backlinks in your SEO strategy should be at the top of your list. We can all find other blogs to comment on just by doing a keyword search in Google’s blog search; but how do we get those high PR, .edu, .gov, and .mil links back to our blog? Its actually pretty easy if you know the right search strings to use.

There have been a few products that have entered the market explaining some of those search strings, but very few people willing to share any of them for free.

Image via Wikipedia

But, before we get started with the search for quality sites, let’s look at a tool that will make your work easier.

This item is a plugin for Firefox, called Search Status… Still using IE? Dump it! Firefox is a much friendlier browser, with its many available plugins, for SEO work. I just downloaded Firefox 4.0, and this plugin still works… So you know its cool.

Some people will tell you to use SEO Quake, but I would advise against it for two reasons. First, they do not have an updated plugin for Firefox 4.0, yet. Secondly, some marketers have had problems with Google locking out their IP address temporarily from the search function when using site specific type search strings that target .edu, or .gov domains and using SEO Quake. Why? Ask Google…

Search Status will show you the Alexa, Compete, mozRank and Page Rank for each site that you are on. It will also highlight no-follow links, so you can easily identify blogs that are do-follow and give your backlink more juice in Google. Once we have this installed we can move on to finding quality sites to leave comments and gain backlinks from.

There are a couple of sites that shorten the learning curve for finding .edu, .gov and .mil backlinks. The first is SearchEdu. This site will allow you to search all three extensions, without having to know to add in site:.edu, site:.gov or site:.mil in the search string.

You will still need to add in a search string like:

• “powered by wordpress” “your keyword”
• “powered by phpbb” “your keyword”
• “leave a comment” “your keyword”

You get the idea… Anything that is a common phrase on sites that allow you to post a link, you can do a search for with your keyword and find high quality contextual places to post your link.

One of my favorite search strings is: “this site uses commentluv”. This will find blogs that use the Comment Luv plugin, which normally provides you with a nice do-follow link to your latest blog post. Unfortunately there aren’t too many .edu, .gov or .mil sites that use the plugin, but it can be used for normal .com, ,net, etc sites, too. Just look for sites that have a high Page Rank… I try to look for PR3 or better sites, but will comment on most anything to get a do-follow link.

The other site is Free EDU Blog Finder, which searches Google’s Blog Search for .edu blogs. You still need to add your keyword to get the most from your links in terms of context, although many marketers believe that any .edu, .gov or .mil backlink is good for Page rank regardless of the context and/or do-follow/no-follow status.

There you have a few ways to get quality backlinks to your site. These type of links will not only improve your SERP, but also play a major role in building your page rank. So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and get you some backlinks!

Related articles

• 4 Types Of Backlinks To Grow Your Blog (davidshawblog.com)
• How Many Backlinks Do I Need for a PageRank 2? (dailyblogtips.com)
• SEO Demystified (buildabetterblog.com)