Effective Link Building

Building inbound links

An important element of search marketing involves building as many relevant inbound links to your pages as possible.  What does this mean?  Having a keyphrase page, for example "search engine optimization tips," that is correctly structured and coded and has plenty of relevant content, is by itself not enough to break into the top search engine rankings unless the phrase has virtually no competition.  For example, if you optimize on "purple banana eating bee stingers," - you'll probably get the top spot for that phrase, since at the time of this writing you had zero competition . 

Obtaining links from other sites to yours

One of they keys to increasing your page's ranking is to have relevant inbound links from related, important pages.  When a search engine sees that other prominent sites on your topic like your page, it figures that page must be somewhat important as well.  But you don't want just any sites linking to your page - for effective link building, they should be from important, well-established websites and they should be linked to from pages that contain similar content.  In other words, it won't do you much good to have a page discussing the merits of Fuji apples over Braeburn apples linking to your "seo tips" page, since they're completely unrelated.  On the other hand, if a prominent search engine blog discusses a list of important seo tips and they reference you and provide a link to your "seo tips" page, it will give your page a boost in the rankings.

How do I obtain links to my pages?

So, how do you go about effectively building links to your pages?  There are a variety of sources and ways via which to obtain quality links.  And remember, you want the anchor, or link text, of the link to your page to reflect your page's keyphrase.  

Directories

One of the first places you want to obtain links from are website directories.  Begin with the largest directory on the Internet - dmoz.org.  Dmoz links are sourced directly by Google, so if you have a link to your site in Dmoz Google will take notice.  Search for a category that fits your site and then click on the "suggest url" link and fill out the form to have a link to your site added to dmoz.  There are tons of other useful, industry-based directories out there - to find them, simply google for a directory in your industry. 

Partners, clients, and your own websites

The second place to promote effective link building is amongst your partners and clients - many of them will have websites, and many of them will be happy to link to your site and refer their clients; often in return for a link from you.  A note about link swapping - search engines place more weight on one-way links.  That is, if a page links to you and you link right back to that page, you don't get nearly the ranking benefit that you would if that page were simply linking to you.  If you must use circular links (two-way), make sure that the content on both pages is relevant and related.  Read our article on Building One Way Links for more information on the merits of one way (vs. circular) links.

Online social networks

Online social networks can be a huge source for not only inbound links to your pages, but for viral, word of mouth marketing that practically markets itself (which I guess is the whole idea, isn't it? 

Blogs - it's a good idea to research and get involved in blogs in your industry.  Most offer free accounts where you can sign up and contribute.  Or, you can post anonymously and link to your site.  Be careful, however - not all blogs accept link posting, some will consider it to be spam.  If you're going to post a link back to your site make sure it's appropriate and relevant to the topic.

Social bookmarks - At the bottom of each one of our pages you'll notice links to social bookmark sites.  There are hundreds of them out there.  Their objective is to allow the user to store links, or bookmarks, to her or his favorite pages on the web.  They can then easily track them, organize them, tag them with keywords, and share them with friends and fellow enthusiasts.  The benefit to you is that if many people bookmark your site you'll effectively have inbound links from the social bookmarking sites to yours. 

You'll notice that on occasion these bookmarks will change or be updated to reflect new and more popular servcies.  Facebook, for example, has been making waves recently, so we've added them.

RSS feeds and content syndication

Another great way to promote your website content is via RSS feeds.  RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication – an XML-based format for sharing and distributing Web content.  In the upper right corner of this page you'll see our RSS icon:  We've linked it to our front page feed, so by clicking on it you can subscribe to the feed with your web browser.  What does this mean?  It means you'll be notified, via a drop-down or bookmark in your web browser, when new content is posted on Guru of Search.  If you prefer, you can enter your email address and subscribe to receive these updates via email instead.

RSS Feeds - Keep Your Visitors Coming Back

RSS feeds can be used to turn a visitor into a repeat visitor.  Once you have a visitor subscribed, she or he will be notified when there's new content that might interest them.  Once your site is well established and you have lots of content, you can offer multiple feeds based on categories.  That way, your visitors can pick and choose which type of content updates they'd like to subscribe to.

Next UP: Google Analytics

Now that you've got a firm grasp on how to optimize your website code, structure, and content; research keywords and build inbound links to your pages by marketing your content, it's time to take a look at how effective all your optimizations are.  Enter Google Analytics.  The free successor to their popular commercial offering Urchin, Google Analytics provides you with enough visitor data to make your head spin.  Read our article on Advantages of Google Analytics to get started.

Link Building Update - Published January 21, 2012

Nobody can deny the power that solid one-way links can have for your website. Not only will it build credibility for your website in the eyes of the search engines, it will also build credibility in the eyes of your readership. This happens for many reasons. If a person is following a link to your website from a website that they already have respect for and find valuable, that is only going to make you look good in their eyes.

As times change, there are more and more opportunities for you to build solid one ways backlinks for your website. These are the types of links that both search engines and humans will respect. Gradually, your website might become an authority site in its niche if you handle your content and your marketing effectively. To follow are some additional methods that you can use to build solid one-way links back to your money website.

Free and Paid Directories:

Though free directories have been around seemingly since the Internet began, there are some new twists. You really should not list your website on just any free directory that will take you. You want to try to list your website on free directories that offer some value to their readers. Listing your website on a local list of small businesses that provide discounts to families with kids is a great list to be on. If you are participating in a local festival in some capacity, make sure that your website link is listed near your company information. Some of these links wind up having the same power as .gov and .edu links, and they are perfectly valid. Instead of paying someone to sneakily create false .gov and .edu links back to your website, why not donate to a legitimate charity, volunteer your services, teach a class, or provide goods from your business to the poor. Not only will you get solid backlinks, you will be building up others and helping people in your community.

Some paid directories are worth having listings in. Many of these will be local business listings. The main thing that you are going for is to lend credibility to your business. You create credibility by listing yourself with respectable businesses, in a related category. There are tons of junk directories all over the web. You should try to avoid those like the plague.

Interviews are So Interesting

You would be surprised to find out how easy it is to get in touch with someone interesting that is an authority, a leader, or an interesting personality within your business niche. For example, if your business is hair styling, and you are trying to build up quality backlinks to your website so that it shows up first in the natural listings for hairstyle salons in your town, attend your local hair show. Speak with product and style representatives from out of town, and that work for large hair companies like John Frieda and Paul Mitchell. Eventually, you will find someone that is willing to discuss some hair tips with you in an interview that would be really interesting to your clients. You could release this interview as a press release, or publish it on your business website. You should ping social media outlets and social bookmarking websites when you publish this article, so that eventually people can find it. Many businesses maintain a blog to create backlinks to their main site, and to post useful information like this so that clients can find it. Maintaining a blog for your business is something that people really enjoy. It can bring you a lot of business.

Your Content Quality is Vital

Another thing that you should keep in mind regarding your blog and your main website is that you should not publish rehashed content. It really is not necessary. If you published rehashed content, you will not get much love from the search engines. If you find a really good article that you must publish, please make sure that you at least write an original introduction for the article and why you like it. If you need to, you should hire writers to produce the content that you need. You should also consider your readers. Nothing is more frustrating than doing a search for something, let us say you are looking up, “how to make scented soy candles.” Nothing is more infuriating than getting a search results page of 10 websites, seven of which have a rehashed version of the same article. The remaining three websites are articles about “canned soybeans” Why not be the one website on the page with an original article that you or one of your writers wrote, that is valuable to the reader and answers her questions without dancing around the point.

You should also make sure that your content is well written and grammatically correct. If you are not a good writer, make sure that the writer you hire is professional enough to do a good job. Many webmasters have been tempted to hire international writers, because these writers are willing to work for low wages. Though there are some international writers that are very good, some do not write well. You do not want to represent your company with content that is terrible.

Other Bloggers are Your Friends

As a blogger, you should start to develop relationships with other bloggers. You can do this by simply visiting their blogs, and commenting. Join their membership and after about 6 or 9 months, make contact with them. Talk to them about what you like about their blog, and ask if they could come join your side of things. Do not be afraid to ask them if you could write a guest post on their blog, and if need be, provide them with a free sample or payment for a one-way backlink from them. Many bloggers make money this way and would be happy to do it for you.

Make it a point to let all of your readers know that you never sell their information, and that you respect their privacy. You should have this type of thing posted on your website at least 3 times or more. People naturally have a bit more respect for companies that do not go the spammy web hustle route. Stating that you will not sell their name, and following through with this promise will make them more likely to think of you as a legitimate, trustworthy business.

Spread a Little Love

On your blog, cover blog postings that other bloggers have written. Review products that are not in direct competition with you and spread as much goodwill as you can online. It will come back on you tenfold, and you will look like a professional to your audience. It really does not look good if you spend three or four blog entries bashing your competitor. You can have one post that compares your product with the competition in a fair and balanced way, but that should be about it. You do not have to send business to your competitors, but if a company is in your niche, but they do not threaten you directly, then definitely help them out. Taking the hair salon for example, you can cover local nail techs, trade show managers, fashion designers etc. Covering others will also help you to develop relationships that could one day bring in further profits for you. Not only will these people eventually backlink to your blog post on them, they might be willing to go into joint ventures with you, or allow you to do guest posts.

Your website’s design is a key component in the formula as well. The style should be clean and easy to read, but it should also be stylish and eye-catching for people of all age groups. Nobody is going to link to a website that is really junky and confusing looking if there is not amazing content on the website.

The Power of Tutorials

Everybody comes onto the Internet trying to find out how to do something. The best way to teach people how to do something is to write a step-by-step tutorial, or create a tutorial YouTube video. People really love these little information nuggets and will email links to their friends and embed the video that you create on their personal websites. The key here is that you must come up with a tutorial that will be interesting to your customers, and you must create a professional looking video. It is important to realize that the Internet allows you to publish 10 minute commercials promoting your business or establishment, and you can do this free of charge. If that were not enough, if you make your video funny, or extremely useful, or sensational, you will draw an extremely interested audience, without paying an expensive marketing company to handle your campaigns.

Keep Padding Blogger Pockets

Bloggers love making money, just like anyone else. If you can give them another way to bring money into their front door, without them ever having to leave their front door, they are going to be there. You can join a paid blogging service and pay bloggers to review your websites, or products. The most important thing that you should do here is make sure that the bloggers that you hire to review your products or services seem like they would genuinely be believable fans of your products.

Another way to get link juice from other bloggers is invite them to do a guest post on your blog. When they write a guest post on your blog, they are going to backlink it from their website so that their readers can check out how popular they are and how much of an authority they are turning into. It makes them you look great, and you will definitely get one or several backlinks because of it.

Are List Posts the Best Articles Online?

Well, there are some good articles out there that are not list posts, but you cannot deny the drawing power of a list post. If you write a list post, people are just going to read it if it is relevant to their search and informational needs. If the list is full of useless facts, then it is better not to publish, it, but if it is full of information that readers will be scouring the web for anyway, then throw that list up there. People will back linking it just because it is so useful to others. Do not publish any garbage on your website, no garbage articles, no garbage list posts, no garbage at all. Publish consistently useful, unique and well-written content, and the backlinks will seem to appear out of nowhere.

Free Giveaways Still Have a Place

On the Internet, it seems like people are always giving something away free. Most of the time it is versions of crappy software applications or rehashed eBooks. Some marketing professionals even feel that the worldwide web killed the power of a free giveaway. Well, this may be true when it comes to the shortcut free giveaways. However, when you are giving a way something that is useful to your target audience, and you are not stingy about it, people will take notice. Let us take the hair salon website as an example again. If you announce on your blog that your hair salon is giving away a free hair cut for an entire month, or a set of free face framing highlights for first time customers, or a free kids’ wash, cut and style, you are going to have the rapt attention of your target audience. You just have to make sure that the free experience you offer to your potential customers provides them with a unique and comfortable experience, almost as if they are special and being pampered. They will remember this amazing service, and come back again if your prices are affordable to them.

Some people say that contests can draw backlinks. That is somewhat iffy in this day and age, simply because so many people are so cynical. It is hard for the average person to believe that they are going to win a competition. Now sponsor a contest where anybody who enters will win one of ten prizes ranging from something really amazing like a vacation, to something really simple like a disposable digital camera. As long as everyone is going to be a winner, you will probably get some attention and some buzz. If this type of contest is not something that you can do, then it is best that you do not bother.

Give Your Opinion

Write your own honest, unbiased opinion of other products. It is bad form to constantly downplay your competitors and in the end, you will reap the negativity that you sow. However, if you can write critiques of products that are interesting to your customers and relevant to your business model, then you will attract a lot of attention to your website. Think about yourself for a minute. How many times do you go online to find a review of something in order to help you decide whether to purchase the item or service or not? You are not the only one that does this. In addition, how many times do you wind up on some random person’s blog that you were not following? If you get good information there, won’t you bookmark the website, or save the html page to your computer. How many times do you see other people’s reviews and informational blog posts backlinked on forums and message boards? Couldn’t you use some link juice like that?

Hire a Grunt

It does not sound pretty, but there are a lot of wiling web grunts out there that do excellent work when it comes to building links. It makes for great steady work and many people are looking for opportunities like that these days. Your link builders will build backlinks for you in forums, on message boards, in comments on other people’s blogs, in bookmarking websites, and in social media websites etc. Some of these workers will also write articles about your company and post them in article directories, building you backlinks that way as well.

DoFollow Blogs, Do They Still Exist?

DoFollow blogs used to be everywhere. When you commented on someone’s blog posting, you could leave a link to your website. It was great. However, after some time, most blogs became no follow. Sometimes even if a webmaster wants her blog to be do follow, her hosting service will not allow it. Finding do follow blogs is a little more challenging than it used to be, but it is still possible. Just remember, the blogs must be relevant to your niche, and nobody likes spam. Post useful comments, read the article you are posting under and do not waste web space or the blog owners time with super sticky stupid spam.

Let Everyone Know When You Have Posted an Article

When you have posted an article on your blog, it is important to ping all of the different social bookmarking services like Digg, Technorati, del.icio.us and all of the others. If you are consistent with this, and you use these accounts regularly, along with your Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace accounts for business promotion, you will find that after a year or so, your blog will have a life and an audience of its own. In addition, all of that life, attention, backlinks and respect you have earned with your blog is yours to harness and direct right over to your business website over and over again!