December 21, 2005

I guess you could call this a meaty look at just about everything related to link building. Contains uses of links, the dos and don'ts of links, how to get links, links from directories and using link building services.

Being Seen Means Being Heard.
Every website needs to be seen to be useful. Regardless of whether you are trying to make a little money through Adsense, affiliate links, direct sales or you are simply trying to inform people of some valuable information your website needs viewers. Unlike in the real world, you won’t receive casual window shoppers who happen on your website by accident and it is necessary to make a concerted effort to promote your site. One way of doing this is through link building, a two pronged assault on Internet marketing. Not only do you get the visitors that click on the link and are taken directly to your site but you also receive extra kudos with search engines.

The True Value Of Link Building – SEO
Unless you get really good links with very good placement you are unlikely to see a massive affect from direct clicks on your link, although with a reasonable sized link building campaign you may get a few extra visitors every day. However, where your link building really comes into it’s own is search engine optimization (SEO). Different search engines use different algorithms to determine how useful your site is and these algorithms will subsequently determine how high up search results your website appears for your chosen keywords or key phrases. Most search engines, and certainly Google, utilize text links to determine how relevant your site is although not just any link will do in most cases.

The Dos And Don’ts Of Link Building
There are a number of dos and a larger number of don’ts when it comes to link building campaigns and while both are very important, it could be argued that the don’ts are more important. This is because a failure to adhere to them may not only render your link building completely useless but you may also be heavily penalized for your efforts. In some cases this not only means a deterioration in the ranking your site achieves but can also include the complete exclusion from a search engine’s index.

Don’t Get Links From Spam Sites
Not only should you avoid spam within the content of your own website but you should do your utmost in ensuring that you do not receive links from pages that are deemed to be spam. You, or the person undertaking your link building campaign on your behalf, should research any website before requesting a link. You should also try to ensure that any site that does link to you does not convert to spamming ways, although this can prove difficult when you have thousands of incoming links. However, the importance of this cannot be stressed enough. You may get away with links from a couple of unscrupulous sites if you have enough good links, but if you are seen to be receiving links from many spam sites you will inevitably be ousted from a search engine’s listings.

Don’t Get Links From Link Farms
Link farms are those irritating pages that have hundreds of links to other pages. While reciprocal link pages obviously serve as a useful way to attain links if there are too many links then they will also be determined to be useless by search engines. Try to stick to pages that have less than 40 or 50 links on, although the smaller the number the better in many ways. If you are hoping to get visitors clicking on the links then ten to twenty links on the page is a reasonable number.

Don’t Get Links From Off Topic Sites
Don’t get links from pages that contain irrelevant content to your own site. The link will only be treated as being a vote of confidence from another site if it contains information of a similar nature to your own. Look for links from sites that are on the same topic as your own and you should do fine out of your link building campaign.

Do Get As Many Links As Possible And Spread The Wealth
That just about covers the don’ts and to be fair most of the dos are basically the opposite. Do get links from sites with relevant content and do make sure there is a reasonable number of links on the page. However you should get as many links as you can and you should ensure they are from sites that are at least indexed. If you receive a link from a website that is not indexed with Google then it will not count towards your Google campaign. Also, you should try to get links pointing to different pages of your site, and not just the homepage. By all means concentrate the links around the homepage but ensure you have some pointing to other areas of the site.

Checking Up On Your Links
Check your links regularly using one of the many free online tools or using the search engines yourself. For example, search on Google using the term link:http://www.yourdomain.com and you will see a list of the Google indexed sites that link to your own website. If your numbers are dropping do whatever you can to get them back up again. A link building campaign should not be a short-term effort, and to make it effective you will always need to be on top of it.

Links From Directories
Directories provide an excellent means to receive links and you don’t need to worry about the number of links on a page within a directory. Directories supply the pages for many search engines and so by being included in some directories you will also be guaranteed inclusion in those search engines. For example, Google uses DMOZ to source many of their web pages and if you only use one directory it should be this one.

Manual Link Building
Once you have submitted your site to the many directories on offer you need to start manually building links. This will take time and can be fairly tedious but you should remember that link building is an ongoing process that will show excellent results if done properly and regularly. The first place to start is with your competition. Use the link: search term to find the sites that are linking to your competitor’s sites and then try to get a link on the same pages. Once you have done this you need to broaden your search.

On Topic Web Sites
Search for websites that have content the same as your own. You can do this by searching for the keywords you use yourself and then look for the ones that offer links. If you have a links page you may need to offer a reciprocal link back to some of the higher-ranking sites in order to be consider for inclusion on their site. Use this as a bartering tool for the higher ranked sites whenever possible, though, and not just any old site.

How To Apply For A Link
Some sites will have an “Add URL” section, also referred to as “Add Site”, and you can complete the online application. Those that do not include this you will need to contact by email or using the contact form. Always be polite and courteous and explain exactly what you are after. If you are willing to offer a reciprocal link then you may want to reserve this offer until it is requested. This way you can keep check of the amount of sites that receive a reciprocal link.

Ongoing Link Building Using Professional Services
An effective link building campaign will take time and it is something you should not take lightly. If you don’t have the time or you would rather employ the services of a professional then do so, because the price you pay will be more than worth it in the long run. Just ensure that they work to the same guidelines as given above and your website popularity will flourish given time.