First of all, this is my first started thread, so my English could suck a bit. OK, the first thing that comes into my mind is that so many presumed "SEO Experts" try to get good quality links to their (clients) website, blog or whatever. The truth is that they often get stuck along the way and let me explain the drawbacks: 1. Email linking: If you email another person and you ask for a link on their web page you will often be refused. This option is so 2003, leave it, bury it, kill it. IT Doesn't work ANYMORE! 2. Blog comments: Another stupid idea, most of the blog owners tend to no-follow their blog comments section, so if you find 1 do-follow blog for 20 no-follow blogs, you're lucky. It simply doesn't worth it. 3. Web directories: This is the beauty who died. I don't say that web directories are bad, I just want to say that they are to overcrowded. And the relevancy is well...How can u tend to reach higher rankings when you are competing with links of casino, dating, porn websites. You need to be in the same team!!! OK. Enough of the bad things, I`m shure a lot of the good old things that worked in the past are not valid anymore, so PLEASE if you know one, post it in here. Now let`s get to the goodies part of getting more links TO MY ARTICLES and not my website. Why do I said this? Very easy. People tend to viralize and share a resource if it means something to them. Let me show you an example. Let`s say i got a post that entitles: "21 ways to save money on your next gas station stop". This a much better way to get your articles shared, and even republished and let me tell you why. Which sounds better: "Hey, check this out, 21 ways to save money on gas" or "Hey, I found a website on saving gas-money". First step is done. Try to get links to your articles and not your website! Here are some useful resources on how to write a great list-post: 10 steps to the perfect list post by Problogger Next step is to get a small amount of people to read and simply vote your article. I don't use Digg, I don't use Mixx or any high social bookmarking website. I use only reedit and 3 other small social bookmarking websites. The reason for this is that I get a much bigger chance of getting voted that I would have on digg. And trust me, when you get a high amount of social love, the sky is the limit. Your articles will skyrocket on the SE results. My social bookmarking resources: www.wpscoops.com www.designbump.com www.designmoo.com Note that wpscoops only accepts wordpress related stories! The other 2 only accept design, development and web stories. So no poker and weight loss pls. The strategy I use on these website is that I comment a lot, both on the news website, and on the author`s website. And if I like what I read, I often leave a vote. The thing is that the others do the same with my articles. Tips: For each of the sites, it is better to include their bookmarking button right smack onto your website, near your article space so users who visit and read have an easier option to vote. This is how I got almost 5000IBLs for a client website in over 5 months. I know its a lot of time, but these are good links, with great authority and from trusted websites. So go ahead and use your directory submission software. This is an open discussion, so if you want to prove me wrong, please do so. I would be happy to read some of your critiques. -- Design tips that even Chuck Norris can't strike - www.designstrike.net
Good idea to use smaller bookmarking sites, meaning more people will actually find your articles. It's nice to have someone suggest something new (at least to me) and not just repeating the same thing as everyone else does. I do think, though, that blog comments still works (if dofollow that is). Looking at my results show that blog commenting and article writing are the most effective forms of SEO that I've tried. Agree that asking sites for links is a waste of time.
Tips: For each of the sites, it is better to include their bookmarking button right smack onto your website, near your article space so users who visit and read have an easier option to vote. what i need is just the practical experience like this
Always great to have a debate.. so here goes #1 - Your first point is about link exchanges. Firstly, let's nail down the importance of links. Googlebots aren't human; they work by pre-programmed algorithms which determin the best results per search. Links are human - they are set up by someone who thinks enough of the link destination to link to it. That's human approval; and kinda important considering that Google's client is human. Now visualize that I am the worlds expert on nuitrition. If I send off a links exchange to the worlds second best know nuitritionist or a food manufacturing group (a closely related website..) and they agree - that is an incredibly powerful thing. Why? Because going along with the 'links are credibility' idea, if you have two "experts" recognize each others work, then Google knows that their pages are top notch and would please its searchers. Links exchanges don't work when you simply request random, unrelated link exchanges. Your recognising something just because of what you get in return. It doesn't work like that - links are credibiliy, and stuff like this is counter-productive (hence the email turn-downs). Exchange links with related, high-quality websites for maximum effect. --- #2 - Blog Comments can bring in links and traffic. There's a Wordpress plug-in I don't quite understand called CommentLuv (?) which allows for do-follow links in a bid to encourage traffic and more comments. The idea of blog comments is to add something to a discussion, ideally leading some of the discussion (involving highly targeted loyal readers) to your webpages. Also consider the traffic potential if you hit a really big blog - you'll get a massive, but short, spike in traffic. #3 - Web Directories are important. Before search engines really developed, this was how users would find what they were looking for. These days, the value of directories is in the quality of the link it provides. Back to the earlier point of 'human judgement', a directory is basically serving up 'human judgement'. You need to pick directories which have quality editorial procedures in order make real benefit. Yahoo Directory is known and trusted by Google. Many, many people testify that their rankings jump after a Yahoo Directory listing is approved. Why? Because of the PR rank? I think Google picks and chooses what PageRank it considers in it's listings (just a theory..). Nope, Google values Yahoo's editorial policy. A Yahoo Directory listing tells Google that a qualified editor thinks enough of your site to list it. It is also an indicator of how serious your website is, since you're plunging $299 into one single directory listing! That's what I think - I can totally appreciate you think some of these are a total waste of time, but link building needs targeting and efficient execution. You could spend your life building links - how sad is that! - but by thinking smart you can build up a links program which is more effective in less time.
We can all agree that links from (and too) related websites are far the best links you can get. Links from other non-realated sites will simply confuse the search engines as they will have problems figuring out what your website is about. The commentluv plugin works with both do and no follow links. It simple shows the title of your last post on your blog. Can bring both traffic and link juice (if the blog is do-follow). Also here it is important that the blog content is closely related to that of your own blog. (not many SEO interested people will follow a link to your wieghtloss post). I cannot comment on the yahoo listing, as I have seen no proof of it. But surely is something to investigate. Make sure you don't just leave alink wherever you can. Get links from trusted, content realated websites will be worth it in the long run.
That's great idea.. but I think blog commenting is still useful not only for backlinks but also for relationship and information
I don't really think that all of the above are a total waste of time. It`s just that I like building my links organically, wich I think counts more than web directories and link exchange, and it`s a bit less work for me. althou blog comments are let`s say just out of my league for link grabbing. I use blog comments to set up relationships
I reckon we'd all like to see our link programs balloon all by themselves, but let's face it - if your a new fledgling little site with barely any traffic your not going to be attracting a sufficient volume of "self-seeding" links. You are right; Google will look for value in the 'Awesome Links' which are seeded by other people (check out this SEOmoz video of 'How to Get Awesome Links' ) - that link I've just placed is an example of an 'awesome link' because it wasn't seeded by an SEOmoz member of staff. But to get to that point you need regular, loyal traffic who can remember and reference your infomation. That means you need AMAZING content and functions on your site. Does you page unveil something that's totally unique and useful? Do you have an awesome function such as a 'cheapest flights finder'? Do you have amazing value? - why would people want to link to you? Whilst starting out, it's especially important to look for your first few quality links - but then to keep link building momentum going. Keep coming back every now and then and find a few blogs and forums to comment on, submit the occasional article to a directory (for traffic apart from anything else), participate in a links exchange program where you can browse through and select 'the cream' of the potential partners and send requests to them - if they answer back; great! That would be semi-organic right? Building relationships is important with links - remember, from a search engines point of view LINKS ARE CREDIBILITY. Relationships build credibility. If you regularly contribute to a blog, not only do you familiarise yourself with that blogs followers (building relationships and credibility..) but search engines will recognise that > don't forget that search engines will look at off-page criteria such as traffic sources to determin how much of an 'authority' your site is. Regular blog traffic could mean higher search engine rankings - just a theory..
your absolutely right, thus for a new blog is healthy to give it a boost sometimes with some personal link love that`s why I listed the 3 small social sites.