Hi everyone. Recently I was asked, from a reader via email.
"David, what are some SEO Link Building tips or tricks that I can use on my website. I run a photography website and I would like to market it on the internet. Do you have any advice or can you point me in the right direction on how I can get more information?"
- Jeff M.
Well Jeff their are many ways to obtain links on the internet with out having to go through an internet marketer. Below I have broken down a list / guide of the ways you can build links to your website, and I have also given direction on each.
SEO Link Building Tips and Tricks Guide
Paid Links
Blog Reviews
Article Submission
Press Releases
Social Commentary (blog commenting)
Social Content (hub pages & squidoo)
Wiki Content
Social Bookmarking
Webmaster Outreach
Directory Submission
Guest Posting
Out of all of these half of these are no longer useful or contain very low quality return.
1. Paid Links
Obviously this is the paying of a Internet Marketing Company to market specific keywords for your company. This is not recommended for many of the links that the Internet Marketers do use could be black listed by the search engine. if you are going to pay for links do a background check on the website. Knowing that the website is in good standing with Search Engines will rest you and your money assured that an editor is monitoring incoming submissions.
2. Blog Reviews
This is something that does work and depending how you get it done is still viable. If you get someone to review your website or your product in a blog / article that still have some value. This can be harder to do is not as cost effective, but it still does work.
3. Article Submission
Articles are a good resource only regardless if you are able to link out of them, but for the fact that the end user do read the articles and could re-purpose it on their website. Or they will socialize it into Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks.
4. Press Releases
Matt Cutts has stated that Google may not be willing to give links in a press releases any more weight than anything else. (or any weight at all) Right now press releases are good generating quick traffic today, but not tomorrow. It's great for a brand building perspective, but Press Releases are still an iffy tactic, and it is hard for me to recommend at this time.
5. Social Commentary (blog commenting)
Blog commenting, oh goodness. Sure if you can find a blog I suppose this will work temporary but don't waste your time. Many blog authors rel=nofollow to your website giving search engines no permission to index or recipiccol link to your domain.
6. Social Content (hub pages & squidoo)
Currently creating content pages on these sites are currently iffy with the new Google Panda Update. It has been stated that Hub Pages, Squidoo, and Ezine Articles were for the top domains that were hit the hardest during the Google Panda Update with that in mind I would use another tactic, and many SEO's recommend Tumblr.
7. Wiki Content
This content is usually hard to get in for instance Wikipedia. Much it's links are rel=nofollow any ways, but their is still a lot of debate out on the web wither rel=nofollow on Wikipedia mean anything, but their are many Wiki's out there, and I am not sure if they were or were not effected by the Panda Update. Many Wiki's have good content, and many have bad content, but since I have yet to hear about Wiki's getting Google slapped I would say it is fair to continue to link build on relative Wiki Content.
8. Social Bookmarking
Ok, I would recommend this for getting your website or blog spidered by search engine. Many users use Stumble Upon, it's a fun an easy way to see some really great content that people have created and submit your own to their directory. Stumble upon is a great way to recieve easy traffic from people looking for new and interesting things on the web in a certain category. I recommend adding comments or add a social bookmarking tool like a Twitter or Facebook widget so you can scale your traffic, and possibly have even more traffic coming in from those 2 popular social networks.
9. Webmaster Outreach
Simply one of the easiest, but possibly the slowest and hardest ways to build links is to simply call or email the webmaster and ask for a link that extends from their domain to your domain. Many webmasters are very particular who they link to, and many (including myself) will rarely reply to users that request for me to link to their lower ranking domain.
10. Directory Submission
Currently their are perhaps one or two directories that are still vaiable outside of a simple recipicol link. Dmoz is great, Yahoo Directory, and the Google Directory. From what I know Dmoz is rarely used, but being the old fashion SEO that I am I recommend getting your link submitted. Yahoo Directory, well now a day's I am not sure if their is any value in the Yahoo Directory, but if I were you I would save the $299 (w/ recurring annual fee) and use it to generate better content. As for Google's Directory, well that is bascially a feed or web fetch of Dmoz's Directory so again if you can get added to Dmoz's you will get added to Google's. It has been said that Google will be discontinuing the Google Directory, but I have yet to see that happen. Keep in mind that any directory that you submit to that requires you to pay for review / submission is probably your best bet. Only becouse an editor needs to review your website before it can be submitted. All other link directories that do not do this or do not have an editor I would stay away from. See your Google Webmasters Guidelines for more information.
11. Guest Posting
This is a really valuable way to build links. Guest posting is the ability to have a webmasters all you to write content on their website. It's basically the ability to write some content for the webmaster so that you can embed a link our two back to your domain. This is hard and more time consuming but it well worth it in the long run.
Keep in mind that Search Engine Optimization and Link Building is NOT an easy task, and if you are building links easily...well your probably not doing things correctly. Should you have any follow up questions just leave me a comment and be sure to follow me on twitter @davidpolanco.
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