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131 (Legitimate) Link Building Strategies . . .
131 (Legitimate) Link Building Strategies . . .
"The Definitive Source of Link Building Strategies
on the Internet"
Co-authored by Robin Nobles, Eric Ward, and John Alexander
In search engine optimization, "off page" factors have become
more and more important as they relate to rankings. In
particular, solid link popularity can literally make or break a
site with the search engines.
Before we go any further, what is "link popularity"' In very
simplistic terms, link popularity refers to the number and
quality of the incoming links that are pointing to your site.
These other sites consider your site important enough to link to.
So, in the engine's view, your site is considered important as
well. What is meant by "link popularity" can get much more
complex, which is discussed further in this article.
However, one of the most difficult areas of SEO is building link
popularity. Why' Because the engines don't want "artificially
created" (or useless) links, so there are no easy ways to build
link popularity. The days of link farms and huge link exchange
programs are over. Try those strategies now and you can easily
find yourself booted out of an engine.
Rather, the engines want links from authoritative sites, or links
from sites that share the same focus as your site.
But besides the link popularity you gain by getting an
authoritative site to link to you, you also gain additional
visibility for your Web site. So, when working on building link
popularity, don't forget those two basic reasons for requesting
links.
The Purpose of this Article
Because building link popularity is one of the most difficult and
time consuming aspects of search engine marketing, we decided to
join forces with each other and with other search engine
optimizers to create a list of legitimate ways you can build link
popularity for your site.
When looking through this list, you may find strategies that are
subject to abuse. If you use them as recommended in this article,
you will have no problems. Abuse them, and you're treading in
potentially dangerous waters.
Stephen Baker with Fast said one of the most memorable statements
I've heard as it relates to what the engines like or don't like
to see. He said:
"Our position is pretty straight forward...it's not the technique
that we are concerned about, it's the intention."
So, always keep that statement in mind when you consider linking
or any other strategies for your Web site. Analyze your
intentions, and if you wouldn't mind an engine knowing what
you're doing, your intentions are okay.
Now that we've gotten the preliminaries out of the way, let's get
down to business: learning ways to increase the link popularity
of our sites. To write this article, we went to professional
search engine optimizers for their ideas. After each strategy, we
briefly attributed it to the SEO who sent it to us, and then we
provided a list of all contributors along with their companies
and URL's at the end of the article.
Keep in mind that these strategies aren't in any particular
order. Also, keep in mind that though it isn't always stated
explicitly, we're always referring to "related" and "important"
or "authoritative" sites as our targets.
Start with the Basics:
Before you begin link seeking, you might want to read the
article, "A Linking-Campaign Primer":
http://www.ericward.com/articles/primer.html. (Eric Ward,
President, NetPOST and URLwire) (http://www.ericward.com)
This is by far the oldest and best-known method of improving link
popularity. Basically you e-mail or contact the Webmaster of a
site that is complementary but generally not competitive to your
own. You ask them to link to your site while outlining the
benefits of doing so. You would generally offer to link back to
them in exchange for this courtesy. Be sure you have developed
genuine content on your Web site of interest to the trading
partner. Explain the advantages to them and to their visitors by
providing a link to your content. Tell them where the ......
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