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Link Building Fundamentals

Posted on 07. Jan, 2010 by Pete Hollier in Link Building, Search Optimization

Building Web Site Authority With Link Building

Link building should be an ongoing prioritized web site management task. The quality and quantity of the links pointing to your web site has a significant impact on the visibility of your web site in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

The Search Engine Algorithm uses two primary factors to determine where in the SERPs a specific page will be placed. The primary factors are Domain Authority and Relevancy. A key factor in the Domain Authority equation is the number and quality of the links leading to a specific web site. Relevancy is determined through the Search Engine’s analysis of the web site’s topical content.

Link Building Requires Long Term Commitment

Building an effective Link Building Program takes time, and in return provides long term benefits. An effective Link Building Program will not be an overnight sensation and should not be. Search Engines will begin to red flag a site which suddenly dramatically increases the number of inbound links. Steady consistent link building over the long term is the recommended method.

However, as will all things there are exceptions. Should your company be fortunate enough to develop a highly viral content item such as a video or widget, you may receive a significant number of links in a very short period of time. In these cases the Search Algorithm is likely to accept the links and not red flag the site for perceived link building violations such as Link Buying.

Building a LInking Strategy

There are numerous methods to obtain inbound links, some ethical, others most definitely in the gray area such as link buying/renting. Regardless of link buying and renting being frowned upon and penalized when discovered by Search Engines, it is a practice that is carried out regularly by many Search Optimization Firms.

Please note SeoWizardy does not condone, nor practice any form of link buying for this site or for client sites, but regardless of this point I will identify some practices to avoid should you be brave enough to partake in link buying/renting activities.

Link Buying and Renting

Enough said about the ethical aspects of link buying, if you are brave or desperate enough to buy or rent links there are some things to keep in mind:

1. Avoid link brokers offering text links, if your aware of them so are the Search Engines.
2. Determine where your links will be placed. What other links are on the site? Are they site wide? Are they hosted on multiple sites owned by the same company?
3. Avoid links from sites which have no relevancy to your web site’s topic.
4. Avoid linking from sites heavily laden with Gambling, Porn or Prescription Drug links as these are often using Black Hat SEO. In other words avoid Bad Neighborhoods.

Ok, so you have decided that to get the links you want, you are prepared to risk being de-listed by the Search Engines (yes it’s that bad). The best way to move forward is to identify high ranking relevant web sites and broker a deal on a one on one basis. The highest value link will be one which is included within content relevant to the page content of the page you want the link pointing to.

The flip side of the equation Selling Links is of course also frowned upon to the point that Google offers a form to report link buyers and sellers. You have been warned.

Directory Submission

Directory Submissions are an effective method to increase the number of links. Although there is an endless selection of Directories where you can list your site I personally find most to be a waste of time for driving traffic and many do not pass Page Rank and therefore provide little value in the link building program. However, even after saying that Directory Submission should not be ignored, inbound linking is a numbers game more is better, do keep in mind quality and relevancy count.

Directory Types

Paid / Free: There is an endless supply of free directory listings available, some good, some not so good but the old adage that comes to mind is; you get what you pay for. Some of the better directories charge a fee for your listings. The following directories are recommended:

Geographic / Niche: Using Search Engines to find Directories which target your specific geographic region and niche is well worth the investment of time and financial resources. Regional directories play and important role in creating web site visibility in Local Search. Creating listings in Directories related to your business niche provides links which are relevant to your business and web site topics.

Developing Content for Links

Link Baiting with content is my preferred method of link building, although time consuming building links through content development generally results in good quality and highly relevant links.

The first step is obviously developing content which may come in the form of a Blog Post, an article for submission or an audio or video presentation. Once the content has been developed it must be promoted to potential link partners. In many cases this is as simple as submitting your article to an article submission site such as Ezines, or uploading video to any one of a multitude of Video sharing sites.

Both methods offer excellent linking opportunities, plus each of these methods create the potential for your content to go Viral spreading throughout the Internet creating an extensive network of inbound links to your web site.

Link Requests: Requesting links is an arduous task which can be made much easier by providing high quality content as an incentive to get other web sites to link to your site. After all, linking to your web site requires effort on potential link partners behalf and must present some form of benefit to either their business or web site visitors to encourage web site owners to link to your web site.

Finding Link Partners: There are a couple of primary methods to identify potential link partners.

1. Using the keyword you are targeting within your content, search for potential link partners using your preferred Search Engines. Review the site and email a link request to potential link partners.
2. Web sites which currently link to your competitors are good targets as potential link partners as they have already indicated they are open to linking to other sites. The best method to obtain a list of the web sites linking to your competitors is to use Yahoo and type in the following in the search form linkdomain: competitors-web site.com -competitors-web site.com The - sign is important as this removes your competitors site links from the results leaving only sites linking to their domain in the search results.

Determining partner site quality: It is always a good idea to use a Browser Add-on which provides an indication of the following:

1. Page Rank: Identifying potential link partners with higher page rank is one of the elements used to determine the quality of the link leading to your site. A higher Page Ranked web site has the potential to pass more authority to your web site than lower ranked pages.
2. Site Traffic: Alexa.com provides estimates of web site traffic, the lower the number the more traffic the web site generates and potentially is able to pass on to your site through the links they provide.

Social Book Marking: Social Bookmarking depends on high quality content to encourage web site visitors to go through the effort required to bookmark your site on the social recommendation sites such as Stumbleupon, Technorati and Digg. These link types are highly regarded by the Search Engines and have the potential to drive significant traffic to a web site as well as increasing the Domain Authority and visibility of the web site.

Blog and Forum Commenting

Commenting on Blogs and topic related Forums is a hit and miss affair. Most Blogs and Forums use something called a "nofollow" attribute which indicates to the Search Engines that the link is not meant to pass on Page Rank to the receiving page which reduces the value of the link significantly. However, commenting does have benefits and should not be ignored as they do have the potential to provide additional traffic to your web site simply by enabling other Internet users to read and view your comments. So again content plays a significant factor in encouraging visitors to click on the link provided in forum and blog commenting forms.

The Last Word

Link Building is critical to improving the Authority your web site is perceived to have by the Search Engines, which will have a significant impact on your business’s online visibility. As you can see it is not a quick fix to traffic problems, but so often anything worth doing takes time and effort. Not developing a Link Building Program is a sure fire method to ensure your web site lingers towards the end of the Search results.

Take the time to start your program, an hour a week or more if time permits, your business is not a short term project, therefore in the long term the effort put into developing a significant linking network will provide excellent ROI for your business.

Want to use this content on your web site?

If you would like to use this article on your web site please contact pete@seowizardry.ca for an html version. All I request is you provide Pete Hollier and Seo Wizardry with a reference to this article and provide a link back to www.seowizardry.ca

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