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SEO 101: Link Building

February 16th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under •

This is one of the most effective way of promoting your website online and should be an important part of your ongoing online marketing activity. Here are some great link building techniques.

  1. Create a Great Website
    If you have a website that has really useful features or content people will link to your site, which the search engines see as a “vote of confidence” and your search engine rankings will improve.
  2. Press Releases
    This is a tried and tested way of promoting your business online and off-line. Make sure that your press release is newsworthy and well written; and it will get picked up. I will be compiling a list of decent press release services in later posts, but in the meantime I can personally recommend Response Source which has helped me to get on TV and radio as well as countless newspaper mentions.
  3. Online Forums
    Many forums allow you to put a web link to your website in signature of your posts and may tolerate links to your website in the posts as long as you are adding value to the forum - check the forum terms and conditions or you may get banned.
  4. Blog Comments
    Many websites, especially blogs, allow you to comment on content and add a link to your website. This is a great way to get links, but make sure you are adding value otherwise your comments will be seen as spam and will get deleted. (Ed. why not add a comment to this blog ; ))
  5. Blogging
    Create a blog to complement your web site and provide inbound links. There are lots of public blogging services such as wordpress.com and blogger.com.
  6. Directories
    There are countless directories on the web that can benefit your site. Some of the oldest are http://www.dmoz.org/ and http://dir.yahoo.com/, but there are also countless niche directories that are a great source of links. Google says this about directories:
    Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as to other industry-specific expert sites.  Read about evaluating directories.
  7. Buy text-links
    This is a bit of a short-cut to building links and Google does not like it as they see it as ‘gaming’ their algorithm and has been penalising sites that sell links. However, as long as the site you buy links from has not been spotted you can still benefit - see http://www.text-link-ads.com.
  8. Ask for links
    This is quite simply a case of writing to fellow webmasters and asking them for links or whether they want to swap links with you.
  9. Article Marketing
    This is essentially the writing of an intersting piece of content that you upload onto the various article directories on the web.  The great think about this is you get a link back from a relevant page, assumming you write something relevant to your website.  Watch out for sites that don’t give a link back or use no-follow links.  Read more about article marketing.
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There Are 46 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by SEOmaster on 26 February 2008:

    Great post, but it is worth mentioning/warning your readers that most blogs have a “no-follow” on all external links meaning that they pass on no link juice. I notice that this blog is do-follow, which is great for your commenters : ) I’ll be back…

  2. Comment by Vinyl Wall Words on 2 March 2008:

    Fist, thanks for the link. Second, forums can be a great source for links. But is having 3000 links from “bobs forum” be the same as having 30 links from “bobs forum”? There are some people selling their signature spots and wondering if it is beneficial to buying these from a user that has a large number of posts. Thanks

  3. Comment by Tony on 2 March 2008:

    I have only seen people selling links on the large webmaster forums that Google monitor for sure. You can use the link operator i.e. link:www.domain.com in Google to see if the links are being picked up. I doubt this will be the case.

    In the past it used to be a simple case of getting as many links as possible, but now it seems that links from relevant sites are of more value e.g. niche blogs, directories, competitor sites etc.

    Tip: You can make forum signatures more relevant by including some text around the link.

  4. Pingback by SEO 101: Anchor Text | The Hip Zone on 3 March 2008:

    [...] PostFebruary 16, 2008 — SEO 101: Link Building (3) Filed Under: Search Engine Marketing Tags: [...]

  5. Comment by JHB on 11 March 2008:

    There are a number of other strategies such as article submission websites, guest books, link baiting, hiring a link builder and more…

  6. Comment by Tim on 12 March 2008:

    This was really useful thanks. Does this make the difference in the ranking?
    Tim

  7. Comment by Tony on 12 March 2008:

    Yes, especially if the links are from a page relevant to your site and the anchor text is relevant. So in this case as this site is not related to your in terms of the subject matter and as “Tim” is your anchor text the link will be of limited value in terms of passing link juice.

  8. Comment by seocontest2008 on 15 March 2008:

    Great article, for your information posting on blogs it can be a waste of time for just link builders due to the nofollow attribute. Luckily there are several plugins for firefox which automatically highlight the nofollow attribute on websites.

    Regards, Resonate
    UKWW Internet Marketing Admin

  9. Pingback by SEO 102: No-follow links | The Hip Zone on 7 April 2008:

    [...] Popular PostsFebruary 16, 2008 — SEO 101: Link Building (8)February 17, 2008 — High Definition Wii (1)March 6, 2008 — SEO 101: Meta Keywords and Descriptions [...]

  10. Comment by Elizabeth Baxter on 8 April 2008:

    Very intresting reading esp as I have just finished my own website. Well, apart from adding a little picture of myself.
    I shall try the things you sugested.

    Many thanks.

  11. Comment by Tony on 8 April 2008:

    The new site looks good, well you have got your first link from this site! BTW you have a couple of typos - “down load” and “it’s progess”

  12. Comment by Tony on 8 April 2008:

    If you want to dig a bit deeper into this Kingpin has written a more detailed post on link building tips. Enjoy!

  13. Comment by KinPin on 8 April 2008:

    Thanks for the comment Tony and I hope you enjoyed the read :)

  14. Pingback by Squidoo and Zimbio | The Hip Zone on 19 April 2008:

    [...] Popular PostsFebruary 16, 2008 — SEO 101: Link Building (13)February 17, 2008 — High Definition Wii (1)March 6, 2008 — SEO 101: Meta Keywords and Descriptions [...]

  15. Comment by David Lea on 28 April 2008:

    Thanks for the info it is really useful. I guess from reading your other posts that it is worth putting the anchor text in the link like this Home Information Packs from hipright : )

  16. Comment by David on 1 May 2008:

    I must admit the link tips to me are very confusing, whats no-follow?
    I will look at Kingpins. Is posting your own website on various forums a good idea?

  17. Comment by KingPin on 1 May 2008:

    David, No-Follow is part of the META family. A little bit of code you add.

    Basically what the no-follow tag does is stop the search engines from following all the links on that particular page, which in turn does not pass on any PR (Page Rank).

    Hope this helps.

    KP

  18. Comment by Tony on 1 May 2008:

    David, look at this to find out about no-follow in more detail. And to answer your question, yes it is a really good idea to post your website on forums especially if they are relevant e.g. homeinspectorforum.co.uk or a local forum in your area. Also, you need to think about the anchor text.

  19. Comment by Atul on 3 May 2008:

    All the points regarding link building are very good. Thanks for adding to my knowledge. I have a query regarding anchor text. Suppose 10 sites link to my site with anchor text “seo india company” and another 10 sites with anchor text “SEO India services”. Does it means that my site will get ranked for “SEO India” as “SEO India” is common in both these anchor text?

    Regards
    Atul

  20. Comment by KingPin on 3 May 2008:

    Not necessarily no. You would more likely to be ranked better for what the anchor text displays.

    Saying that it will help your ranking for SEO India because they will be the first two words the spiders/bots will see.

    KP

  21. Comment by adam on 10 May 2008:

    Hey Tony, thank you for sharing your very condensed knowledge and SEO wisdom, here. How do I know, if comments on my blog are do-follow or not. And what do you suggest about how it should be?
    Thank you in advance!

  22. Comment by SEO Pro on 12 May 2008:

    You can see if a site has no=follow by viewing it’s page source, just press control F then type no follow.

  23. Comment by Tony on 12 May 2008:

    As you use blogger the comments are nofollow. I don’t think you can change this, but I am not 100% as I have not used it myself. Glad you like the blog.

    Making a blog do-follow is risky as you may end up linking to dodgy sites inadvertently, but it does encourage people to comments.

  24. Comment by Atul on 13 May 2008:

    Regarding nofollow, it can be changed very easily on blogger template. As far linking to dodgy sites are concerned, it’s entirely upto you. But yes, it does encourage people to comment on your blog which you can moderate.

  25. Comment by Tony on 13 May 2008:

    Thanks for the confirmation regarding Blogger Atul - I am planning to have a play soon.

  26. Comment by temi on 17 May 2008:

    Excellent link building tips Tony. I use them all as part of my link building mix.

  27. Comment by David Brown on 18 June 2008:

    I usually take the ‘asking for links’ a step further… do a whois search and call the webmaster, talk to them about the win/win a link from their site would be for their visitors ;) great way to get some IBL’s

    And if you do reciprocate w/ them make sure that it’s a 3way and not a straight reciprocal link exchange as those are basically worthless.

    .02

  28. Comment by Tony on 18 June 2008:

    Hey David,

    I thought you had gone AWOL. Anyway that is an absolutely brilliant suggestion which I will use, although it might freak a few people out.

    I have thought of another thing to add to the list after poking around on Guru.com which is “hite a link builder” to do it for you - this is surely the best option of them all : )

    Cheers,

    Tony

  29. Comment by SEO India on 19 June 2008:

    Does sitewide links have any advantage as far as seo is concerned ? Does Google counts them ?

  30. Comment by SEO India on 19 June 2008:

    I fail to understand why this blog use nofollow attribute ? Isn’t it time to change this ? This is a nice blog having useful tips and could do without nofollow

  31. Comment by Tony on 19 June 2008:

    Hi SEO India, I take it that is not your real name : ) Sitewide links can be dangerous for new sites as they can look spammy to the search engines, but as part of your overall linking strategy they are fine. I use nofollow to encourage people to post like most webmaster forums. What do you think is the problem with it?

    Tony

  32. Comment by SEO India on 20 June 2008:

    Yes, SEO India is not my real name. And I see nothing wrong with promoting my site. And I am not here for gaining link value. Otherwise, I would not have posted this comment in response to yours.

    You mean if you don’t use nofollow, people would not be encouraged to post.

  33. Comment by Tony on 20 June 2008:

    Yes the blog is do-follow to encourage posting as most people don’t have a directly related site like you. I feel it encourages posting. Do you think it is bad make it do-follow?

    Tony

  34. Comment by SEO India on 21 June 2008:

    “I use nofollow to encourage people to post like most webmaster forums” and then you said “Yes the blog is do-follow “. Please clarify which of the two is true.

    It’s not bad to make it do-follow.

  35. Comment by SEO India on 21 June 2008:

    I would like to insert “Post a Respone” box in my blog just like seen above. What is the code for this ?

  36. Comment by Tony on 21 June 2008:

    It is a standard Wordpress feature - not sure what the code is. The site is do-follow : ) I must have been tired when I wrote that.

  37. Comment by Dewaji - SEO Baby on 21 June 2008:

    no : 4 & 7 really fast strategy :D

    Dewaji - SEO Baby’s last entry on http://www.dstudiobali.com: Optimize your page layout

  38. Comment by SEO India on 23 June 2008:

    Thanks for your response Tony. But I have a blog in blogger.com. Is there a way to insert such type of text area in blogger blog. I want users should be able to comment on my blog.

  39. Comment by HIPS on 23 June 2008:

    I have been writing to many webmasters of late. It can be very time consuming though well written polite requests can often be accepted.

    HIPS’s last blog entry: Landlords will need EPCs to market property (External link to http://hip-consultant.co.uk/blog)

  40. Comment by EPC on 23 June 2008:

    I have found that using a combination of the above points a fantastic strategy to promoting our websites. Dmoz is certainly not easy to get a listing in, though believe me ive tried.

  41. Comment by MyBlog on 30 June 2008:

    if have enough money for advertising, Buy Text Link is the easiest way to raise blog PR and visitor.

  42. Comment by Raj Krishnaswamy on 1 July 2008:

    This whole concept about nofollow is taking away time from bloggers who are in all reality more interested in providing valuable content. Now they are having to spend time with the nofollow headaches. Why not have everything as a dofollow and as far as spammers are concerned, introduce Captcha and at the same time have a manual moderation of comments. Once the content is highly specific, spammers naturally will stay away. For sites that deal with highly competitive stuff like insurance, that is a problem those specific sites will have to deal with. Anyway, for now, all of us are having to pay for what a few bad apples are doing.

  43. Comment by HIPS on 2 July 2008:

    I have spent hours since last post here, building links as per your advice. I am amazed at the speed that google has recognised these links. I haven’t checked yahoo though sure they won’t of been so efficient.

  44. Comment by HIPS on 7 July 2008:

    I have tried promoting an article on my blog over weekend. I used this list to build the links and promote article. Within 12hrs was indexed and appearing in top 10 for 5/6 longtail KW searches.

    HIPS’s last blog entry: Should I train as a domestic energy assessor (DEA)? (External link to http://www.hip-consultant.co.uk/blog)

  45. Comment by HIPS on 7 August 2008:

    Using a blog feed within forums seems to be also having a good impact on my blog posts being picked up quicker. Will this help the SERPS for these articles?

    HIPS’s last blog entry: Finding your next home (External link to http://www.hip-consultant.co.uk/blog)

  46. Comment by Tony Starks on 12 August 2008:

    Thanks guys, this information was really useful and packed with stuff I will try and implement.

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