Link exchange is no longer what it used to be Buying backlinks is something google does not like Signatures/directories/blog comments etc give you hardly any weight or even considered to be spam. Various scripts/themes/templates with a "must display" backlink in the footer will have the same anchor text that SEs dont like + might be worthless if the sites linking to you are unrelated Article submissions are getting oversaturated and it seems like they no longer work like they used to So what do SEs want us to do? It looks like they dont even want the webmasters being able to manipulate the SERPs.
Make great sites that people will want to link to. Natural links always have been and always will be the best.
They want it to be natural. Problem is, you need to be ranked for people to find you... yet you can't be ranked or even cached without backlinks.
tlainevool It takes traffic to get picked up. mdvaldosta Thats what i mean. SEs need to take developing websites into account. Quite a few great websites started out small and not that good. No rank = no traffic = no development = no word of mouth = no natural backlinks = Back to no rank.
There are ways of getting the word out there about your site - Press Releases, Forums, Newsgroups, Blogs, etc. If you know your niche your know where the movers and shakers hang out. Get their attention with a good idea and they will take it from there.
Who will come? I must disagree. I dont think it matters that much now days. Depends what you mean by "good content" though. If i go and buy a domain and write a quality article on genetically modified crops, how is that going to improve my SERPs?
Go find blogs and news sites, etc that are about genetically modified crops and email the people who run them about your article. Post a link to your article on genetically modified crop forum and news groups. People who read them are the ones who have GM Crop websites. If it really is a a quality article people will be happy to link to it. These will be authority sites on the topic of "genetically modified crops" and getting natural links from them will be worth a lot more than getting links from directories, article sites, link exchanges, etc.
Yep, in a perfect world something great on the site that makes people want to link to it, talk about it in forums, blog about it, tell people they know, email people, write their own articles etc etc.
Sometimes it is so hard to have a forum with SEO.... argh Other than that, people can take advantage of you by advertising, but it will increase your backlinks, then PR!...
Defenetely, what i ment is that good content by itself will not help you much if you are not willing to work.
Content is not king. In fact, content means very little in comparison to links and other issues like general exposure. You can have the "best" content on a particular topic, but that doesn't mean crap as far as ranking goes. Having content helps, but if you don't get the word out on your site, nobody will link to you. "Linkbaiting" is NOT automatic. It's only automatic when you already have a bunch of linkers visiting your site and reading your stuff. otherwise, you have to post about it on forums, etc... I hate to say it, but sometimes it's a good idea to have a shill or two working the forums for you.
Content only helps as link bait. Excellent quality content will encourage others to link to you rather than you having to do all the work.
I think for newer sites especially, link exchanges, directory submissions, articles, forums, are a great way to get up in the serps. I know, it worked for me. Once you get your site up in the serps with this process, you can then get people reading your site and hopefully, then you can achieve some natural links, people linking to your site because they think it is great. Until you get your site ranked well, it will be hard to acquire natural links even if your content is fantastic since for the most part nobody will know that you exist.