does NATURAL link building still exists/happens?

just wondering if one can expect backlinks to appear also by themself with time (I mean 3rd party webmaters/users publish links to your websites without you asking them to do so), or this never happens and link exchanges, forum signatures, blog comments, content syndication, social bookmarking is the only thing we can rely on?

 

Actually yeah of course it still exist. Do you post links to other people's sites sometimes when you want to show your friends something or point someone to a useful or fun site? Then it still exists. I found one for my site the other day actually that someone had posted.

 

you will get natural links as long as you connect with other webmasters and provide great content. If your content is good people will link to it. also mentioning other sites on your website will often get you good in context links back.

 

Of course. The best way is to contribute something original. It could be funny, inflammatory, unusual, etc.

If you develop a following of visitors, then some of them will link to your content and share it with their following.

 

could you explain?

 

SEO moz has a good article about this, also a little ironic considering this would be a natural link seomoz.org/blog/how-to-make-seo-an-unfair-competitive-advantage-for-your-business except I don't have permission to post links yet

 

Of course it does. Have you never linked to another site without them having to ask you to? I do it many times per day.

 

Only if you have something very, very good and unique; otherwise you'll probably get passed or never make it to the 1st page.

If you are the 1st ranking, then natural linking compounds simply cause you get more views than every one else.. and more chance for exposure to somebody that will link to you; even if your product is crappy.

 

Yes.. it does exists
and it is the only thing that
help you in serps

 

ROFLMAO The "ONLY" thing? Not hardly...

 

I laughed when reading this, because many webmasters feel the same way. It of course can and does happen, but when someone submits a link via pm or instant message it doesn't get crawled. Therefore you have to rely on semi-natural link building promotion techniques to get the word out...unless you have a major press release and bloggers interested in your niche / website.

 

ABSOLUTELY! I see links to good articles all the time, as in, I read about xyz over at blah-blah blog...
The key is it has to be excellent content... and you need to get the word out (usually via "unnatural" links)...
So first it is unnatural... but then natural follows.

 

When you start getting back-links without requesting them (or paying for them), I would say that you've reached the "smooth-sailing" part of SEO. There is always something else to do - a tweak here, a change there, etc. But when users decide on their own to propagate your URL amongst themselves, you have achieved victory!

 

I like the sound of smooth sailing . Will that be sustainable? Or that position will be taken away eventually by sites using mass backlink building outsourced to India?

 

To be completely honest, I have only really read about this stage of search engine marketing; I've never achieved it myself. If you look at seomoz, they have achieved sustainability by allowing registered users to blog about "home-grown" SEO tactics. Some of these people have very bright ideas. People view them, tweet them, post links to it on their own personal blogs, etc. In that manner, a single URL to their site propagates exponentially and they did not even provide the original copy/content or create the link! I call that sustainability.

My opinion on the Indian back-link business is that it's a waste of money. These firms offer mass-submissions for pocket change, but I'm not sold on the fact that mass submissions do much for you. I think it's very likely that anyone who hires a company like this and sees the lackluster results will probably use more creative linking methods in the future.

In short - I believe that this strategy of link building (link-baiting/natural linking) is completely and totally sustainable, however getting to that point is very difficult.

 

Its always possible to get natural links if you are already well known and have many people who read your content, if they like it they will link to your content and share it with others.

 

Yes definitely. I'm a natural link builder for 9 months and handled almost 10 clients since I started SEO and all the sites I optimized until now have better rankings. Thanks to natural link building

 

Yes if your on a forum someone can post a link to a site and it will be crawled and will be a backlink, simple as that.

 

In my own experiences, real natural back links would only exist via link baiting. This might only happen when you have real attractive and useful contents for others to reference.

all the best,

 

Yeah, just build great content and you will naturally acquire tons of great organic links.

Blah! What a myth. This is what the greedy and selfish webmasters are telling you, as they work hard on gathering up all the links for themselves. They can say bye to you now as competition, cause you're waiting around for "organic links" to come.

Organic links may come, but I wouldn't hold my breath and wait. Work hard on acquiring links, all the while making sure you are offering the best site (and content) you can.