I have a site with high quality unique content that is helpful for my readers. The problem is I am being outclassed in SERPS by spam sites with terrible/duplicate content. I have been building links manually on forums etc. until but can't get much beyond that. Is there any way to break this glass ceiling? Should I just go out and purchase links? Any help is great.
But how do I get backlinks from relevant sites? The best I can do so far is posting relevant links in forums, but that doesn't get me very far in terms of SERPs.
Many of those low quality sites are for sale. Many others can be created by buying expired domains... heh, when in Rome? Expand! Find a free directory list and get to working on it! Submit a handful every couple of days, eventually you'll make it down the list. Remember to use a jump email account though (Yahoo gives them out for free) as many of the free directories seem to sell email addresses. Write a handful of helpful articles complete with your link. Submit them to the top notch article directories. Then take the articles, re-write them, and submit those to the not so top notch article sites. Remember to keep the BEST content on YOUR site... no sense in giving A++ content away Find relevant blogs and post relevant content filled comments... feel free to leave a link if needed, but sometimes it's best to simply 'help' on a blog before you start pushing links (you'll find more links accepted that way). Are you utilizing your forum postings to your utmost advantage? If not click the question and find out how
I think everyone hits that ceiling,or effect, where nothing you do in the course of your current SEO strategy can move you past your present rank or worse you are slowly getting pushed off the front page by serial link and page spammers As far as buying links go, you may do better and not risk a penalty by finding good quality niche directories where you pay to get listed, many SEOs keep a small list of these choice directories, the directory will only list clean sites,have good PageRank distributed to the categories,usually around 20 US per year. Also don't forget the utility of backward link surfing, that is follow the links of your niche competitors and analyze where they are getting their juice from, you can sometimes find a good resource they are using, or under utilizing, to give yourself a boost.. Qryztufre gave excellent advice..
the solution is get more "good/relevant" sites linking in, if you can't get a link for free or for some sort of trade, try buying good links on powerful sites. Try to offer unique content that links back to your site that a high quality site might want to use on their site. In my mind, winning in SERPs is a combination of lots of links and quality links. Though it's always seemed that huge quantities of crap links do better than a couple dozen great links.
There are 10 kinds of links.. High PageRank Links Mid PageRank Links Low PageRank Links No Follow Links PR No Follow Links i can go on and on... basic point is you want to not just have 1 thing. Remember having to much of one thing isnt that great. Start to work on other things such as getting low pagerank links. (How? Simply just ask blog owners if you can write or exchange links)