Much of the time in our quest to connect with an audience, make sales, get opt-ins and more, we are depending on our visitors to make that connection via a web link. Thus it would stand to reason that one of our primary tasks in this quest is to make it our business to know how to get them to click!

Turns out there's more to this than simply hyperlinking “Click here” and expecting them all to show up and shower us with money, emails and more. You really have to coax these things out of them. (You didn't think it was that easy, did you?)

So to help make your pages a veritable clicking nirvana, let's look at 5 tips on how to optimize your links for clicks.

5 Tips for getting more clicks from your links!

Get informative with your click text – You have the opportunity to make your links both informative and enticing. Don't waste this! “Click here” conveys very little in the way of information about what you're offering or they're getting. Studies show that link text like “Download your Free PDF Now!” perform significantly better.

Make every link serve a purpose – Don't link to any other page without a clear purpose. This means to either an offer, resource or other content that will benefit your audience. (and you!) This is particularly true for landing pages, where you hopefully have a singular purpose for any links on the page.

Understand about the color of your links – There is a definite psychology regarding color, and you have to have this firmly in mind when designing links and buttons. For example, blue is a trust color, and orange encourages quick action. Get familiar with these concepts!

Don't get cute – Trying to hoodwink your audience by promising something in your link that's really not true will get you a venomous response, and little or no results. Avoid using “clickbait” type of link text at all costs.

Use strategic placement – Understand that the placement of your links is very important. Typically on a landing page you'll want one link “above the fold” on the page, and include others every scroll or two. After all, the objective is to get the click, right!

Try as we may wish to, abandoning link building to our pages doesn't seem to be going the way of the dinosaur. Google still looks at incoming backlinks as a sign that your page is worthy and popular, although it has gotten significantly better in recent years at ferreting out attempts to game the system.

To help get you started, we've listed 7 easy ways to get quality backlinks to your web pages. Now you just have to do it!

Related: 5 Ways to Sink Your Site with Bad SEO Mistakes

7 Strategies to get quality backlinks to your pages

Press releases – Some are running scared of press releases right now, and if you are doing these simply to score an anchor text link, you might well be. Instead, use them for what they are meant for: real news, naked links, and wide distribution.

Relevant business directories – This is essential if you have a local business, but works well for any site. Don't blanket the Web with directory listings; but choose the best and use carefully thought-out entries.

Get into image sites – You might be amazed to learn that sites like Pinterest and Instagram can drive huge traffic, and what's more, convert really well! Making use of these sites as part of your cross-promotion is the ticket here.

Guest posts – Still a worthwhile tactic if you are willing to take the time to not only write killer content, but place it on relevant, authoritative sites that get a lot of traffic.

Related: See How to Build Better backlinks in 2015!

Social media – The highest and best use of social media for your business is to help you promote your other content. Extending your reach through the fans and followers of others is a great way to get the word out.

Create infographics – A sharp looking and informative infographic has the ability to be shared far and wide, and linked to in a whole lot of places. Something to think about!

Videos – Links from a video on YouTube are highly regarded by Google, and have the chance to go viral when done well. Be sure that your video is optimized well, so that it appears highly in YouTube search, as well as related videos.

It's very easy to screw up your own SEO, and if you've hired someone else to do it for you, that doubles the anguish when they also make these sorts of mistakes. (You just paid for it!)

Whether do it yourself or hire your SEO out, you have to be aware of what not only just doesn't work, but also what may indeed be counter-productive, and harm you even more.

Let's examine 5 ways SEO mistakes can happen, and how they can be avoided.

5 bad SEO mistakes you'll want to avoid at all costs!

Misusing keywords and anchor text – Today the Google algorithm has wised up to the point where it can sniff out attempts to game the rankings with keyword manipulation from a mile away. The best practice today is to use keywords naturally on your pages, utilizing related keywords and synonyms, and diversifying your anchor text accordingly, using natural combinations, naked URLs, and some generic terms like “click here”.

Avoid using Tags – The primary reason you'll need to avoid the use of tags is that they automatically create a duplicate content issue for you. Use categories instead. And if you use a tag cloud you've only compounded the problem by using valuable front page real estate as well.

Using Flash on your pages – While this may be necessary to achieve some sort of visual effect you'd like to use, you should ask yourself if it's worth it, as it can be bad for SEO and how well your site renders in mobile.

Not optimizing for Mobile – Since over half of all web users now get here via a mobile device, you need to make sure you recognize and account for this. Google also now devalues unresponsive pages in search with the label that your page “May not work on your device”.

Poor internal linking – The spate of recent Google updates has made this one of the last bastions of effective on-site SEO that really works well. Strive to make your site user friendly in this respect, and this is one area to not be shy about using keywords. (With prudence and diversity, of course!)

Given that backlinks are showing to still be a huge part of ranking well in Google, it only makes sense to utilize what amounts to the very best practices for acquiring backlinks that not just count with Google, but are likewise sure to hold up to scrutiny.

Understanding exactly what Google desires with respect to back links is a tough venture, and one fraught with alarming errors that can cause search engine results catastrophe.

To help avoid that circumstance, let's take a peek into a few of the very best practices for developing backlinks moving on in 2015, and how you can benefit from them.

5 Suggestions for link building in 2015

Make certain you alter your anchor text – These days a website with a link profile consisting of 95 % of one specific keyword is a sure signal to Google that there has actually been some funny business occurring, and a charge waits for. Your job now is to ensure you change your anchor text to consist of a variety of keywords, naked URLs, and a few generic phrases like “click on this link”.

Go after social links – One of the easiest methods to garner new and relevant back links is through your social channels. This works for you in 2 ways, likewise revealing that your pages are socially engaged.

Aim for natural development – Any huge influx of links is normally taken a look at really carefully, and typically not all counted. This cannot be assisted often, obviously, as when it come to a launch or event, but just be forewarned.

Don't buy links – There is no safe way to purchase back links and you will eventually be found out. Keep away from those castle in the air offers of 10,000 links for $10, due to the fact that it will absolutely injure you, probably earlier instead of later!

Don't use private blog networks – Very popular over the last numerous years, using private blog site networks has actually been thoroughly uncovered by Google and dealt with in recent search engine algorithm updates. If you're extremely creative, you could make your very own, but that can be quite a time-consuming and expensive task.