The third step in search engine optimization is link building.
In the first article of the series I suggested several ways to receive links. In this article I will look more in depth at ways to get hundreds, even thousands of back links to your website to better your rankings.
After you have successfully been listed in the major search engines and optimized your website you are now ready to begin major link building. Link building is essentially finding other website to link to your website, be it by creating great content and them linking naturally or be it by submitting your site to directories.
Directories
The first place to look is directories. After you have about a hundred pages of quality content (for small business web sites, once the site is completed) you can begin submitting to the obvious big two free directories: Yahoo and ODP (which may be hard to get into).
Websites that have yet to be established can more easily find directory links at niche directories and smaller general directories. A great place to start is by searching Google for [add link 'niche'] replacing ‘niche’ with your topic of choice. You can also try searching [submit link 'niche'], [submit site 'niche'], or any other combination.
Web logs
Web logs (blogs) are a great way for unestablished websites to get noticed within their industry. The trick is finding relevant blogs and leaving insightful comments and leaving your website URL within the URL box. Although many blogs are nofollowed, meaning your link doesn’t technically send juice to Google, Yahoo or MSN, it will bring the author of the website along with the sites visitors to notice your name and website. Overtime, they will visit your website and in theory notice your great content and link to it in a future article.
Tip
Can’t wait? Try searching Google for ‘You comment, I follow’. This will give you a list of websites that do not place ‘nofollow’ on its links within their comments. Try word searching around your niche with the keyword phrase and you might find quite a few sites who accept it. Find sites without spammy comments to make the most out of it.
Forums
Participating in forums is another great way to receive links and be considered an expert within your niche. Find forums (also known as boards) about your given topic and begin participating. If the forum always signatures, be sure to add a link back to your site. Over time not only will Google, Yahoo, and MSN give value to the links but visitors to the website who find your post useful will click through to your page, and hopefully find something useful and continue coming back. Who knows, they might even find it useful enough to link to from their own website or recommend it to friends.
Article Submissions
Another great way to receive link is by writing great content and giving it away for free to hundreds of website free to use. There are many great article directories to choose from, so you don’t have to be too picky on which ones to submit your works to.
In the past I have successfully submitted articles and had others use them on their websites from:
Guest Posting
A great way to get your writings out but to keep it unique and still receive a quality link is by guest posting. Although it is one of the hardest to get involved in, once you do an article for a major blog you are set for a at least a few months.
Link Exchange
Exchanging links has long been a practice by SEOs to gain quick exposure in the SERPs. This of course means Google has long since began sniffing out link exchanges and discounting them, especially the links listed on ‘links’ pages and directories that require a link back.
To get the most out of link exchanges you must make the link will have these qualities:
- The website is related.
- The link is from a page with a very small amount of external links.
- The website is not spammy (is listed in search engines, no links to other spam sites, etc.).
- The link will bring natural visitors and isn’t only for link juice.
The next article in the series will be about reducing duplicate content.
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Written: Apr 2, 2008Tags: link building, search engine optimization, seo
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Morning. Just got this fresh and delivered in my email box.
Title really took my eye, so thats the importance of having good titles, this one worked.
Really interesting and informative article as well, didnt realise you could submit post to directories to use. I tend to write a lot but never get round to posting much for some reason. So may take a look at this.
Obviously we both know about the Guest Posting, and I have seen a spike in traffic the few days after the post, which was interesting to look at.
The other things ofcourse is using Twitter for example, I have been heavily into this for a while now and the contacts I am building is quite amazing. If you follow the right people, or the right people follow you, anything is possible. Including links.
Hey this article as helped me a lot, I’m fairly new to all this SEO stuff, so I’m still learning but I think I’m getting there.
If you get a chance, feel free to drop by my blog: http://www.hedgeagainstspeculation.com
Best of luck to you!