Lessons learned for backlinking my first large domain project.

I bought a website 5 months ago and put affiliated products on it. I optimized it, created over 40 pages of unique content, and I was very excited to see it explode.

I began backlinking to it like crazy -- I got hundreds of backlinks within weeks, thousands within months.

I was a member on about 10 different forums and parsed my link in my sig.

I was sure I would go straight to the top off Google page 1.

Well, my website was never indexed for its keyword. All of its non-backlinked sub-pages are on either page 1 or page 2.


What have I learned?

I am no longer using backlinks from forums. I'm no longer using backlinks from profile pages. Instead I am focusing on article directory submissions using relevant content. I realize that one or two keyword-relevant articles will gain so much more power as far as SEO goes than random low-PR profile pages or forum posts.

I wish that all of the new practitioners of SEO would learn not to spam and backlink like crazy but make educated, worthy backlinks. Remember, it only takes a few powerful relevant backlinks to make your rankings soar!

 

I agree completely. I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to explain this stuff to people here but it falls on deaf ears. Relevant, merit based links for the win Linkwheels ,forum work, profile links are largely useless. Especially if you actually care about your brand.

I work on one site in particular in the screensaver demographic. I am killing everyone and some of the comp has 10's of thousands of backlinks. My clients site has about 30. Despite that, I still can't make people see reason lol... Its not how many its where they are and why that matters.

congrats,
Nigel

 

Interesting!

But what do you mean by "article directory submissions" ... and could you provide me with a few examples ...?

Thanks!!!

 

Then what do you suggest to be done?

 

Very plain and simple...

You want Powerful, Credible, Quality and Authority Backlinks

 

I have been asked a few times in the last day or so to write an actual post on this so I am going to but in the meantime......

I operate out of the following few concepts...

1. It is Google's job to return the most relevant result for (x)query. So, in order to rank well, you have to make the site actually relevant.

This is not done by throwing a bunch of arbitrary links at it. and....

2. Seek out links in your same niche( I do not concur)

While I am fairly certain I follow how this logic may have originated, I find it completely retarded.
Why should I spend hours of my day contacting my "competitors" in attempts to swap or obtain links?

Additionally, most folks in the wild realize that reciprocal, 3 way link schemes and now linkwheels, are dead and a waste of time and effort.

That said, the best links you can get are relevant, in content and merit based links. These links do not appear in footers nor are they governed by an htag titled blogroll.

The not so quick and dirty way to this is to write copy worth reading and post it on your own site or have someone post it for you.... eg: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1835483

For example, I am working on branding the surf shop in my sig. I quickly discovered that even a surf shop blog has issues with posting copy or interviewing those folks if they have even one t-shirt for sale on their site.

It is a much better idea, in this case, to seek out "Green"( company is fair trade, carbon neutral, etc.) related blogs. Sites I contact get properly written copy from me, the client gets a sweet link and proper exposure without spammy blog comments and pointless links in their link profile.

My point here is that you don't seek out sites that provide the exact same service or product as you do. You seek out sites, blogs, what have you, that exist in what is called a vertical or complimentary market. That way it is a win/win for both parties(except me who has to do all the work lol...)

So, a quick tip... Sort out what exactly is a vertical or complimentary market to your own, head over here http://www.blogcatalog.com/ and start typing.

I just got cracking on the surf folks in this particular sense. I crafted a nice personal note and I change the name or try to address folks by their name where possible. I sent off about 50 notes to site owners on day one. It only takes a few hours. For reference, I have 46 responses sitting in my mailbox I have to deal with in regards to the first 50 I sent off. I got a bit sidetracked because a range of websites want to not only write a post on them, but they want to buy a bunch of their stuff out of the gate and sell it for them.

I not only get way better links but I make really valuable connections with folks who are not my competitors but largely interested in the same things that is what makes the job fun.


To attempt to recap this.... there is no quick and easy way to market anything unless you hit some sorta fluke.

I further submit that I can in 5 links do what linkwheel peddling idiots do with 500 links in half the time. I will continue to repeat this ad nauseum until people quit buggering up the internet with blog comments and xrummer.

how is that?

Nigel

 

Thanks Nigel! Makes sense and I might try doing that.

 

Just a word of advice, you'd still want to vary up your links a little bit, and that would include utilizing profile, signature, and other types of links. A good mix is always best.

 

as evidenced by what exactly? I had to have a few clients sign off on me talking about them before I can post specifics but I can now... so lets talk metrics, definable stuff.

Nigel

 

Great discussion ... Much appreciated!

 

This is really a good of experience of SEO. For me, i only build backlink from forum sig and SB and some Directory submission and i could get rank only on some low competition keyword.

 

Amazing. Are those ~30 backlinks relevant?

(EDIT: just read your second post -- ha! I guess they are!)

I'm going to make another thread regarding relevant backlinks, so look for it, but I'd love to know what genre of links those were that seemed to overtake such a competitive market!

Heading over to post it now ...

 

Yes, they are entirely relevant I am going to write a blog post on this. I keep getting pm's from folks asking how I do things. I need to be able to reference something. I get tired of repeating myself lol...

Nigel

 

Thanks for the info... I'm going to try this asap! thanks again

 

Very interesting, I'm sure this will help me soon!

 

I see Nigel is still trying to lead those who are in the dark! LOL

I have to agree with Nigel. I've been preaching similar techniques for a long time. Don't approach your competitors for links. It's just flat out never going to happen. They would be fools to link to your site. Instead, approach complimentary websites.

For example, if you're trying to promote a local used car dealership website, you don't want to approach used car dealers. Instead approach local tire dealerships, body shops, car stereo companies, car upholstery shops, etc. All of these are relevant, complimentary businesses which the car dealership will not be competing against for business. So a link to the car dealership on those sites adds value for their visitors, yet doesn't detract from their own marketing efforts.

If you're promoting an architectural firm, you don't want to approach other architecture companies. Instead approach builders that the architectural firm uses (contractors and sub contractors), roofing companies, painters, companies whom they buy supplies from (appliance stores, building supply companies, etc.), etc. Offer to send them a little more business or to refer other businesses to them in return for a link. No money is exchanging hands so it's not a "paid" link. It's the normal way that companies market themselves offline... "You scratch my back... I'll scratch yours!"

Most SEOs are crappy link builders because most SEOs have a technical background... They are web designers or web developers who have picked up SEO skills as part of building web sites.

Unfortunately, there is nothing really technical at all about link building. The skills required for link building are really marketing and sales skills (which most technical people... and therefore most SEOs... totally lack).

Great link builders are creative marketers, thinking out of the box to come up with unique angles to convince (i.e. sell) other website owners that it is in their best interest to link to the site being promoted.

Good link builders might spend a couple of weeks tracking down one good link, but that one link is worth 100s of crappy, low quality links from blog commenting, forum sigs, directory submissions, and other "unnaturally" built links where the SEO "plants" a link on another site rather than convincing the webmaster to give you a link themselves.

 

Hey, I was just thinking about you. Glad to see you around my friend.

Nig-

 

Sup Nigel! I've been around. After 10-11 rounds of layoffs over the last two years at LendingTree.com they finally pulled my number in December and laid me off with a bunch of others. Since I'm no longer their Sr. SEO Manager, I've been focusing on getting my SEO consulting business up and running. I've popped in from time to time, but just haven't been posting a lot. Things are starting to roll with my business so I'll be on from time to time.

 

I also suspected that building tons of backlinks with no sense, by means of forum profiles and signatures, was just a waste of time.

I've been working and studying how to get relevant links related with articles you write about the content of your site and reading this thread makes me see I'm in the right track.

Thanks a lot for this discussion, it helped a lot.

Cheers

Jorge

 

Thanks for the great insights my friends.

This will definitely clear many misconceptions about seo and backlinks.

I create a site a year back and I was in page 1 ,rank no 1 still with less than 100 backlinks.

To show you as proof,you can head over my site :www.conferencecallingforless.com


My site is in # 1 position among competing 9.1 million results http://budurl.com/ccno1

Thanks Nigel and others for sharing..