With so much information and mis-information propagating the internet when it comes to link building and SEO. Sometimes it’s better to go back to basics when building your search engine profile.
Every link ultimately makes a difference in the vote for link popularity as the methods you use to build links for your website invariably leave their mark and either (a) give you a boost and build authority or (b) put you in a category of lackluster spam ridden sites.
Being selective about where you advertise, socialize and link is the first step, but aside from that it’s about truly understanding the goal (your industry, your competition and your strategic advantages) and how link building fits in as an integral part of your internet marketing campaign.
Here are a few things you may wish to consider.
1. Have you enlisted your site in directories or portals related to your business?
Directories (before they were abused from excessive paid links) was one of the fastest methods for rising in the search engine result pages for your website. Now as search engine algorithms are clever enough to detect the symbiotic relationships between sites, paid links just don’t carry the same weight they used to.
If you must go this route, then you can at least stick with the links that count the most like Yahoo Directory, Best of the Web, Business.Com, and others that will not only give you quality inbound links (page rank 4 or higher on the pages that link to you), but they will also serve to pass trust rank and authority over time. Here is a list of some of the best directories to use for this purpose.
2. Do you have a blog?
If not then you should consider starting one (hosted on your own website). Links are only one part of the equation, but through using a blog on your site to provide fresh content, write topical and specialized niche based information and through using social bookmarking and RSS feeds, you can truly developing a solid base for your site and establish your domain in the SERPs (search engine result pages).
3. Are you building links via using comments on relevant blogs?
This is one tactic expressed by Loren Baker at Search Engine Journal, whereby you can tactfully build links via blog comments. If you comment, make sure you are tactful, mindful and truly have something to add to the conversation, not just a tag line and a link such as “nice post, thanks xoxo”.
The reason being, writing an in depth (but not excessive) comment does more for your reputation than a brief generic comment. Also, realize that although the no follow tags are by default added by word press unless otherwise selected by the host, this is really a Google thing for the most part and Yahoo and the other search engines still give you credit for a link to your site.
Spam them and you can end up on the bad side of Spam Karma, Akismet or other spam protection programs installed to protect blogs and your site could end up blacklisted across the web. So, keep it on point and don’t stuff in domain addresses unless it is a resource. Your name is the hyper link, so if you could always use your company name to submit your comment.
Another tactic is, if you seek out your competition or just find out who the industry leader is for a niche, chances are they will have some form of interactive media (a blog) that you can either comment on or post a link. Although this is only one method, use it don’t abuse it.
If not, then you can always sift through their links and online resources and build links to those sites that augment them in the SERPs.
In conclusion as Loren indicated, just by posting 3 targeted and tactful links a day via blog comments is over 1200 links a year from quality sites that will all pass traffic and or link juice each year.
4. Have you written any articles lately?
Article marketing is an excellent method to put your link building efforts on auto pilot. If your content is on topic and appealing (outside of just writing about yourself). Then other will publish your article and provide a link back to your site in the author’s box.
Use the anchor text in the author’s box wisely with your main keywords, this way you can build 20-50 solid links back to your site for each article.
5. Find a secret stash for link building.
Each SEO company or link building service has their nest egg for links, some use social book marking sites, others use blogs or private networks or domains they own, others rely solely on directories and internal links they develop from on page factors or many use a combination of all of these methods.
The bottom line is, content is the first ingredient and links give each of those pages the ability to rank independently on your behalf.
There is one interesting argument about building links that we would like to explore a later time. Traditional link building vs. web 2.0 link building, from one perspective the new web 2.0 platform which already has high powered sites with visibility that you can post your content on for viral distribution, votes & links like Digg, Stumble Upon, Delicious, etc. So then, why would you even want to consider using your own site to market your brand? Stay tuned to find out…
The idea is traffic vs. traffic that converts and short term exposure vs. long term positioning. Web 2.0 sites rise fast in the SERPs, but typically subside in a week or so, leaving right where you started (lacking visibility), so having the proper mixture of old school SEO and Web 2.0 is the key.
I agree paid for blogging killed most awesome portals. There is still hope though. I use one based on content relevance and it works fairly well without spam or abusive links.
For the curious: http://www.arkayne.com
Thanks Paul:
I think I missed the boat on this one as far as a timely comment. Will most definitely check out the site.
The (rel=”nofollow“) Issue
This “nofollow” rule was created to tell the search engines that thety can’t follow a link from their site to whom ever they are linking to. Many people do this in link exchange programs because they know many people will not know how to find this code and they can then trick the search engines and you into gaining one way links. They will for sure increase their online traffic while you suffer “wasted time”.
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Reeta
Social Bookmarking