By Matt Jackson (c) 2007
Link building has long been the staple dietary topic for SEO and
Internet marketing experts, but with good reason. This is hardly
ground breaking news but having a powerful link profile will
help you to rank well in the search engines. Having an
especially powerful link profile will also drive traffic
directly to your website.
As the webmaster of a new site, there are several things you
must do. First, you need to create a genuinely useful website
filled with equally useful and informative content. You need to
ready yourself to add fresh content on a frequent basis, in
order to retain existing site visitors and to attract the search
engine spiders. You also need to start building links – a good
link profile takes time to develop so it is essential that you
start as soon as possible. Below are some of the more and less
effective methods of building quality inbound links to your new
website.
Create Quality Content
OK, we've already mentioned this in passing, but it's
important. Linkable content will get linked to (eventually). You
may not have the traffic base to command links organically in
this way yet, but you will do soon. Unique, informative, and
even controversial content will ultimately see other sites
willing to link to your own.
Video marketing has become especially popular because of its
viral nature. You can create a good video clip, embed it into
a page of your site and include "email to a friend" links. Also
ensure that it is well branded so that everybody knows where the
video first came from.
Free Directory Submissions
You should submit your site to a lot of web directories over
time. If your domain is brand new then you should attempt to
limit the amount of submissions you make in the first month.
Google is believed to penalize sites that build too many links
too quickly in this way. However, free directories can take
days, weeks, or even months before they get round to accepting
your submission so do start early.
As well as general category directories for your search engine
link profile, you should research industry specific directories.
These will also help your search engine ranking, but they can
drive excellent levels of targeted traffic to your site.
Consider paying some of the bigger and more influential
directories for an annual submission.
Paid Directory Submissions
Free directories typically only allow you to link to the main
page of your website, but most also allow you to choose the
title of your link. This gives you the opportunity to build your
links according to your keywords, which is an essential
component of link building for search engine rankings. Paid
directories, on the other hand, also usually allow deep linking
to individual pages of your website.
Consider paying for one or two annual subscriptions to the
better directories. Yahoo is perhaps the most expensive at $299
per annum but it commands a lot of respect and a lot of traffic.
Business.com isn't much cheaper ($199) but is almost on an equal
footing. Less expensive directories include Best Of The Web
(http://www.botw.org) and Uncover The Net
(http://www.uncoverthenet.com).
Join Forums And Post Relevant Comments
Forums are, in reality, becoming less popular. The advent of the
oft discussed web 2.0 means that the forum is seen as something
of a dying trend. However, a lot of people do still use them and
they do offer the opportunity to garner your website with some
traffic and provide you with signature links.
Join forums that are relevant to your industry, create a
signature link using your more important keywords and then
browse. Find topics that genuinely interest you, or areas where
you can offer assistance. Post comments, without linking to your
site, and rely on your signature link to do the rest. If you
provide genuine, helpful information then you may find that you
pick up some very interested leads along the way.
Request Links
You don't get anything if you don't ask. Find relevant websites,
though not in direct competition to your own site, and request a
link. Point out a particularly useful section of your website
content that is easily linkable and offer the HTML code to
provide a link.
This isn't, in all honesty, the best way to spend your linking
time. It can take many attempts with various websites before you
get an acceptance and a link to your site. Webmasters will
usually link to sites they have genuinely found themselves, or
else sell their advertising spaces. Alternatively, they may only
link to other sites within their own network.
Tagging And Social Bookmarking
So, you've read all about social bookmarking and tagging, but
don't know how it can help your site? Well, the principle is
fairly simple – join the social bookmarking sites, create a list
of useful sites including one or two of your own, and then
publish them. Some search engines are known to be particularly
fond of using links found in this way. Also, if your list is
genuinely useful then you should find some traffic diverts to
your own site as a result.
Blog Commenting
Find blogs that are relevant to your industry and your site and
sign up. Most blogs provide the opportunity to link to your site
via your name so pick a name that includes relevant keywords.
Like forums, only post relevant content and comments. Answers
like "me too" do not count. If you don't have something
valuable to add, then don't add anything, and move on to the
next link building venture, please!
Article Syndication
Write articles, or have them written for you, and submit them to
syndication websites. GoArticles (http://www.goarticles.com/)
and EzineArticles (http://www.ezinearticles.com/) are among the
more popular syndication sites and the article pages typically
rank well. You have the opportunity to include two biographical
links with most article directories, and these should point to
the relevant pages on your site and include keywords as the
anchor text.
Article syndication is a very good method of building links, but
only if you can create article content that is appealing to
visitors and to webmasters. However, one good article could
generate many links and hundreds or even thousands of visitors
to your website.
Offer Content To Other Sites
This is similar, although more specific, than article
syndication. Contact webmasters of websites that operate in the
same industry as you. Offer unique content in exchange for a
link or links to your website. Again, if you can write well,
then you shouldn't find it too difficult to find an avenue for
publication of your work.
A lot of sites actively look for submissions in this way, so
keep an eye out when you are next browsing the web.
Press Release Submissions
Press releases have been around a long time, and are still going
fairly strong online. Again, press releases offer the
opportunity to drive interested traffic to your website and some
PR wires allow authors to include links to their website. PRLeap
(http://www.prleap.com/) and PRWeb (http://www.prweb.com/) are
among two of the more popular and beneficial sites to submit
your PR to.
Reciprocal Links
I find myself sitting on the fence when it comes to reciprocal
links. Once upon a time, a reciprocal link campaign was the most
popular way of building links. You exchange links with another
website and you both benefit. They do still have their place, if
you can negotiate a well placed link on a relevant website with
a lot of traffic. However, in terms of SEO, reciprocal links are
known to have been devalued by the search engines. Consider
every reciprocal link opportunity based on its own merit and, in
most cases, ignoring the search engine optimization
possibilities.
Don't Spam Blogs And Forums
Above, we have detailed a couple of link building methods that
include posting on forums and blogs. Please, don't spam. Spam
is the scourge of the online world and something that every site
owner could do without. Spamming will make you unpopular, may
get your site delisted, and it sure won't make you any friends.
Don't Use FFA Link Farms
A FFA (Free For All) website enables any website owner to place
their link on a web page. Don't do it. Search engines despise
this practice and you will not gain any benefit in any way from
the use of this kind of site.
Avoid Any Dubious Link Building Practice
If you see a link building opportunity that looks dodgy, ignore
it. At best you will waste your time, but at worst your site
could be penalized and you may never be able to recover. If it
looks too good to be true... you know the rest.
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