If you have reached this article in search of some good Link Building Ideas, there is a good probability that you are a blogger. Link building is one of the essential components of SEO and is definitely one of those processes which takes most of your time in developing your blog.
The Importance of Link Building
While you would have heard a lot about what to do in order to successfully generate some useful inbound links, I believe that there are DON'Ts which are more important to know than the usual Do's in this particular case. There is no one single strategy through which you may get good number of links and a high ranking; right strategies may increase the probability of the same though.
But there are some things which you must not do in order to avoid losing all the good work done by you so far. Here is a quick overview of things which you must avoid while building your links –
Avoid Link building through buying links
This is the first one to come on the list. I believe that most of you would already be aware of why you must never purchase links from reliable/unreliable sites.
Those who don't know are advised not to try this one ever. The reason: Google hates it! Â A small hint of your involvement in any such deal may get you banned in the most prominent search engines.
Link Building on Directories
While many of the bloggers still suggest the use of web directories for posting links, I feel that they are outdated now. Even though, it is no crime to get the help of directories, I feel one may waste one's energy on this not-so-useful tool.
In short, you may do it when you start up by default, but don't rely on it as your sole link building strategy.
Link exchanges
This one can be as serious as purchasing links from a site. Even though link exchanges take place even now, they are not as favorite a choice as they used to be a few years back. The smarter we get, the smarter become the search engines.
The search enignes of present world are smart enough to realize if you are exchanging links or not, if done on a regular basis, and that is something which may hamper your reputation with them. Anyhow, link exchanges usually do not provide you much of link juice because
a) there is a good probability that the person might be exchanging links for the same page with others as well which reduces the page's contribution to your ranking, and
b) you usually get to exchange links with blogs which are yet to make a name for themselves and hence, do not have a good page rank.
In addition, this comes under two way link building which is mostly neglected by search engines. Only one way links are usually valued.
Use Anchor text in your link building strategy
Many of us, even now, do not understand the value of anchor text. Creating links to your desired anchor text helps you to build backlinks for desired keywords. That is something which adds value and credibility to the link when the search engine spiders look for the inbound links to your blog.
Not using the same, is simply losing out on an already available opportunity. It doesn't take much time anyway on your link building schedule!
Posting unwanted links
That last thing that you would like to know is your link to be slammed as a spam link. Do not clutter other's comment area by your link. Link building process is something to be treated with caution and respect. It's a slow process which reaps great benefits if done properly.
While it is true that in order to look natural, you must build links with your url too. But leaving a url hyperlinked is not welcomed in most places, especially when you leave comments. Even when you write guest posts, it is a best practice that you leave anchor-texted hyperlink to your blog and not a direct url.
So, what other goofs do you know about link building?
Good Tips on Link Building, especially the value one gets by taking the extra time to create and code an anchor text link. Although, a savvy SEO guy will tell you that on-page optimization is just as important as Link Building and off-page optimization.
What I have yet to read, is an easy way to get those that naturally link to you, to use your desired anchor text…or even a difficult way. lol
Dennis Edell@ Direct Sales Marketing wants you to check out..How to Kill Comment Contest Comment Spam
Hi Dennis,
I recently came across a couple of blogs that actually include on their pages a little blurb to the effect, “if you link to us, we’d prefer you use *this* anchor text.” Not the exact words (and I don’t remember which sites) but I did think that was particularly clever.
Hi Dennis, Vernessa,
That is pretty clever. But then *that* particular anchor text will be all over the internet for that blog. Link building should allow variation of anchor texts to sound natural. May be the blog owner should change the keyword once in a while 🙂
Cheers,
Jane.
What I’d ultimate;y like Jane, is anchor text displayed for each individual post; much more important then the homepage any day.
You’re right.. Changing keywords once in a while is good in making your link building as natural as possible. Otherwise, Google might ban your website because it might think you are spamming.
Jane,
I have wondered about buying links and have just stayed away from it. I did purchase a list of high PR dofollow sites but I had to do the link creation myself and it worked great.
I have a friend that was doing a lot of blog commenting and she must have been reported by someone to Akismet and could not leave comments anymore so you do want to be respectful and part of the community.
Your comment here about the same anchor text over and over is important. You want to have a “natural” look to your backlinks and you want to make sure they are to deep pages and not just to your home page.
Debby,
Buying links from some generic company can be a real loss. It is best to get a spreadsheet of backlinks together and hire someone from Elance or one of those services to do it manually for you.
The only worthy “automated” way to get backlinks is to write articles.
Come to think of it, I saw that once myself, it was awhile ago though.
Do you remember where on the page it was?
Hey Dennis,
Seems like it was right under the post, maybe right above the “sharing” buttons. (then again, it could have even been in the footer so it appeared on every page).
Hey Vernessa,
That’s awesome for the home page, although Jane has a good point. What I plan to test is individual posts, as I replied to Jane. 🙂
It seems you can’t do anything that 2 years ago were the basics of link building. It’s getting a bit frustrating
Nice to see you here with something interesting to disquess. I guess people are too conscious about buy and sell links. I do not know much about blogs but for websites that do not allow comments selling links is really tempting. There is good money every month regularly for my site. But i understand trying to influence search result is what google hates. So be cautious.
You got me. I am guilty of doing a lot of goofs, back in the early days, lol. You are right though as most of the points you mentioned above are really not worth spending much time on. maybe, as you said, in the beginning, to help a site get indexed faster, and I still have doubts as to whether this is a good strategy.
Another possible “goof” is article submissions. With the panda event (and more min panda’s on the way), this type of link building strategy has been somewhat devalued. Maybe, in the near future as article directories, such as eZine, get their act together and make them once again a “quality” website. that remains to be seen. And ohh, stay away from link farms too 🙂
Hey Ditesco,
I am sure every blogger would have committed all these mistakes when they started out afresh LOL. Me included. That is why I am able to write this post after learning from mistakes.
With article submissions, yes you are right. But the article directories have updated their rules and they are quite strict now. As far as I know, ezines and hubpages have strict guidelines to accept articles.
Jane.
Hi Jane,
Thanks for pointing out the goofs to avoid.
I was recently revisiting the idea of submitting websites and blogs to directories. I agree a lot of them are outdated; but I’d like to point out that there are numerous types of directories beyond the ones bloggers generally encounter. That said, my cursory research also revealed ongoing hot debates on the issue as well as opinions that lean towards still keeping them in the mix.
Hey John,
It is not about the cost. It is not a good practice 🙂 Search engines are smart enough to know such sites that “sell” links.
Cheers,
Jane.
Hi Jane,
Never tried to build links or buy links from other, I just use to commenting on other blogs in my niche and love COMLUV enabled blog. Above you have quoted some wonderful points, generating hugh amount of links in a very less time means spamming, which is not healthy for a blog in long run.
Thanks for sharing.
-Imran
Imran,
I very much resonate with you. I mostly do except blog commenting and guest posting to build backlinks. Comluv enabled blogs are my favourites although I don’t look for them. But they are great for link building, I agree.
Jane.
Good Tips, Jane. When people start their blog and try to build links for their blog, their first intention is to go for link exchanges. But it’s a complete mistake and everyone of us should try and avoid exchanging links. Anyway, thanks for sharing these useful tips.
Sathish
Sathish,
Very well said. As newbies, link exchange sounds like a super easy deal. But then later on I am sure every blogger realizes it 🙂
Jane.
I only do commenting on ComLuv enabled blogs for my SEO stuff for my blog. Being a SEO guy myself, I agree with the same thoughts you have shared in here.
Hey Argie,
Preferring commentluv enabled blogs for commenting is good, but don’t rely only on those blogs. Indeed you need variation of your backlinks; that is how search engines like it. So a good percent of no-follow backlinks with your name or site name as anchor text should also be a part of your link building campaign.
Jane.
I agree that article directories are starting to get outdated due the recent Google update, however there may be some value if you write a compelling article as people will still be reading.
I would say that link spamming is probably one of the worst techniques to practice as it is likely to get you banned from a site.
Thanks for your tips on building back links. One of the most efficient back link is by appropriately comment on article. This kind of back link can show audience about your knowledge in different kind of topics.
Some great info here, I do definitely think link exchanges are on longer worth while, Google has moved on along way since then.
Hi Jane,
These are some good useful tips. Thanks for sharing.
Ashvini
Hi Jane,
Some of my SEO friends suggest me to do blog pinging, did you tried blog pinging site. please share your experience if you tried
Thanks for shairng wonderful post
John
Jane,
You mentioned that directories are not as useful. I was just wondering how you came to this conclusion. Although I would not spend much time doing submitting to directories there are some pretty nice easy submission tools out there.
I am mostly curious to know if it worth taking the time to register with directories like Dmoz.
Good Tips, Jane. When people start their blog and try to build links for their blog, their first intention is to go for link exchanges.
Links from unreliable source for me is a no-no. I can’t afford to spoil the repetition of my site
Hmm, I’m not sure all tips are as valuable as they profess to be. First of all, buying links is fine if you do it intelligently and privately, and ensure the site is REAL (not a spam site that will link to anything). Secondly, anchor text is not quite as important as it once was – Google are now looking at context and a whole host of other things outside of anchor text. Also, don’t forget the importance of branding. You can’t build a brand if you focus only on anchor text…
Hey Matt,
Yup buying links is fine, but it is still black hat. This means that the person who has loads of money can easily get good rankings while the poor blogger with excellent content can do nothing! Inbound links should come naturally and that is the point of Google valuing those links.
With anchor texts, I am not saying that you should ONLY focus on anchor texts. You need to use your name and blog’s name to build brand. It should be a combination. Use relevant things at relevant places, that is.
Jane.
Yes In starting of any work we must concentrate on Do’s and Don’ts. Thank for sharing this link building goofs. I agree all your points. Its better to go for three way link building instead two way link building.
My opinion about link building is
Free links building are only effective until you are paying
I have submitted my site to many free directories, no results.
By link exchanging the ranking of my site is lowered.
Link building is very much essential to survive on internet. You have provided great tips for building links. Very useful !!!
I think the #1 goof is using automated link building software. A good way to kick your blog right in the kisser 🙂
These tips help me a lot , I think backlink is the most important for SEO your website. Keep it up
Good information here. I still don’t quite understand what anchor text links are about. And the other fellow talking about only commenting on Comluv blogs, was he NOT correct? If a blog is no follow, how does it help SEO?
Hey Jasmine,
Anchor texts are great for SEO. When you comment on other blogs or do guest posts, you have the option to leave a link back to your site. If you use a keyword or a relevant text hyperlinked to the link then that is called anchor text. You have to use it in a non-spammy way, of course.
Preferring to comment on blogs with commentluv is good, but it should not be a total constraint. We should also value the quality of the post. IF it deserves a comment, then just comment.
Link building should involve variety. That is how Google and other search engines love it. You should have a mixture of do-follow and no-follow backlinks, anchor text-ed and plain link type backlinks and so on. Concentrating on only one type of links is bad and may not sound natural, according to Matt Cutts, from Google.
Jane.
hey Jane You made some really great points here. the biggest goof I see though is focusing on SEO in the first place. If you focus on the direct traffic you can get, and creating a buzz around your site, Google will rank you. But, you have to focus on interacting with people and building relationships not links.
I think backlink is the most important for SEO. Thanks for your tips.
Hi Jane,
I’m a first time reader of your blog and a fairly new blogger as well and I just wanted to thank you for this post. Any tips are wonderful for a beginning blogger and hopefully I’ll be able to get to your level one day! 🙂
These are some really useful link building tips thanks!
Everybody knows that to get on the top page of major search engines, in addition to on-site optimization, you should get a lot of backlinks referring to your web site from other internet sites. This is why link building is a vital part on search engine optimization process. And the easiest way to increase your search engine rank and link popularity of your web site is to buy links from other relevant internet resources.
What is your opinion on 3-way link exchanges? i.e., {Site A} links to {Site B} which links to {Site C}. Do you think that they also are pointless?
Google is smart 🙂
Ah, link building. It’s such a tedious task that I can imagine how tempting it would be to use a few of the outmoded or questionable practices like purchasing links.
Natural links are just one way to gain better SEO rankings, though, so I tend not to sweat it too much. Of course, that might be self-preservation as well, since it can be a bit difficult and crazy-making, lol.
Delena
Delena,
You are right. Natural link building is what everyone likes – humans and bots. But it may takes some time. I prefer that only.
Cheers,
Jane.
Guest posting and link baiting are the most effective link building strategies right now. They don’t violate any principle of link building.
I agree all your points . I have stopped link exchanging and incluing more internal links . The only best link building is blog commenting 😀
Thank for sharing these goofs . I am now eagerly waiting for Google PR update 🙂
That’s right. Blog commenting is excellent and it not only helps in building links, it helps bringing down your Alexa rank very much.
Jane.
Great post as always, Jane. Have a good week!
that is absolutely true with web catalogues. i’ve wasted couple of months registering some of my sites there – no result at all!! no visitors. frankly speaking, got PR 1 instead of 0. but it may be the result of some other work…
I think that using link directories on new sites can hold them back, especially if you use low quality directories in builk quickly, you need to balance low and high quality links or you will never get a break in the serps.
Hi Jane,
Interesting post, I know that Google hate buying link but I don’t know how Google know that?
I think the best way to get link is from blog commenting 🙂 I get a backlink, you get small content and we have new friend. Win-win 😀
Blog commenting is certainly a win-win just like guest posting. Only the length of the content varies.
Jane.
Hi Jame, thanks for the great tips and have a wonderful weekend.
Shame that buying links os still against Google T&C’s so it’s still considered Black Hat!
i don’t know whose suggation is right, because i visited several blogs to read about seo and link building, but each one is different from others..
A very informative post, must act as an eye opener for many. Many people are still into the practice of these methods, so I guess those people might need a little tweak for themselves and their link building strategies.
A good lesson, especially for newbie like me. Thanks.
So link exchange is not good way to get backlinks? I never known it thanks for the info
This post helps readers know what link building is. It also informs us the importance of it. Many people are still into the practice of these methods. I will always keep in mind these points during link building. They don’t violate any principle of these.
I am actually using softwares for making some backliks to my site. I dont know if google can penalized me for this.
Depends on what and how you are doing it with the software 😉
Getting paid link is too much harmful for blogs . We buy links from any link building company to increase the ranking of our blog post to search engine but the company uses unethical way to create line ,by using softwares and only do spamming
Starting out, I only knew of directory submission, article submission, and social bookmarking. I have stopped doing all of these altogether, I found that article submission works but is too much work. The other two, just not worth the effort in my opinion. I heard that Google values link diversity though so probably they still have some benefit for others.
Hey Myles,
Believe me, I am still on to a lot of guest posting. I prefer that than article marketing because I can build backlinks and at the same time authority from many sites. Not just one or two content farms.
Jane.
This is an interesting post especially the part about not buying links from different places. But I have a friend who does that all the time getting high PR packages from all sorts of websites and also found a guy on fiverr who does some nice backlinks. I don’t know how good they are in the long run but for now they seem to be fine..
After reading the ebook on ‘feeding the panda’ I have a new concept on link building.
I have stopped submitting to article directories and also rebuild my sites’ structure. Link velocity plays a part too in SEO.
Hey Adam,
I appreciate your decision. But not article directories are bad, for instance EZinearticles has great standards. You can also use web 2.0 properties like Squidoo and Hubpages and submit your articles after spinning them enough so that they are unique 🙂
Jane.
I still get very confused if I site is I high PR, do I need to only get links to higher sites than mine or the same, does this make a difference. Newbie comment I suppose
I can’t agree more that buying links is a bad idea. I seem like nothing good comes out of getting links this way.
Inne sarey links kaha se banaye fir ? :/ It is a tough job to build quality links for a blog.. :/
We should avoid paid links but some times it may be helpful if you by links from some who use manual way to create links for you . I addition you may also do social bookmarking of you blog post to sites like digg to get backlinks and traffic also to your blog
I have no doubt that the big dogs use paid links but they can afford to do it and do it so Google doesn’t catch on. That’s the reality of the situation and why they can beat the smaller guy, but not always…
One point that I would like to make sure is clear.
Buying links and paying someone to do your link building are different.
I know this is clear for warriors but for newbies I just wanted to make sure.
Jackie,
You are right. I have been outsourcing my link building and if it is done right, it will be a huge blessing to your site’s rankings. Buying the links is so unpredictable and really hard to track. There may be benefits but the money would be better spent in hiring someone to do some back linking for you. Make sure they are familiar with the new Panda updates.
I find it interesting that the article recommends not putting the time into directory links.
Is it still a good idea to submit to directories. I have IBP and can use a semi-automatic submission process to directories. Basically it just moves me from one site to the next and populates fields for me but I have to do a number of manual things.
Is this worth it?
This is magnetic article concerning link building because who wants to know and make to construct link for site. Everybody desired that their site will have reserved high rank in google page that’s why always keep avoiding to purchase link from the non recognized sites. Thanks for anchor text strategy because of its value to enhance the site. For getting quality site this is obviously good information.
I think its important to build links from as many different places as possible but I track my search rankings daily and would agree with you that link directories really have very little impact – they never seem to give my sites a boost at all.
@Danika, How specific has your testing been with Directories? My experience is that you are not getting anchored text with directories. I thought that you would get more exposure, more traffic, more popularity and a higher PR and not necessarily higher rankings on a keyword. There is also the factor of just having link diversity for Google to look at and I suppose if you wanted to be real specific you should use a proxy server…
Jane, any thoughts?
Danika,
You never worry that daily tracking may drive you mad? Rankings can change several times even within the same day…
Online marketing seems so complex. And, the more I read that is supposed to be helpful, the more confusing it gets. Tutorial cater to those who allready know things in this area so they tend to be of little or no help.
While most link building techniques are already outdated and devalued, link building becomes more difficult. Thanks God, there is now what we call social media optimization.
One of the big questions I am normally asked about linking is the no follow , follow debate, is it a waste of time to use no follow.
If you just buy links you never know what you are going to get.
I am testing an automated backlink system that you get reports daily and they seem to be pretty good. The highest PR I have seen is 4. For a free system it seems good.
I recently paid someone to do backlinks for me and my site got sandboxed. They were too agressive and I think they put my site in some questionable spammy neighborhoods.
Great article. This is very real to someone who has had some experience in a number of backlink strategies.
Gosh, this blog is filled with useful information after useful information!
I love the practical, simplified look at SEO here. Some of my fellows certainly need the constant reminder not to spam folks. Haha
The general rule of thumb with link-building is to provide context, preferrably a social one. I see so many anchor text blunders that I have to shake my head at the missed opportunities there. One thing most seasoned SEOs will agree on is this:
Use those long-tail keywords whenever possible.
With those, you can capture more focused traffic as well as traffic for more generalized searches. You don’t have to have a niche site to do this, either… Because, really, you should be optimizing on-site and off-site on a by-the-page basis, right? That means that your top content should be focused as it is, rather than trying to be something for everyone.
That’s where landing pages and conversion forms come in (not to be confused with those icky squeeze pages that are filled with market speak – YUCK).
Directories are an interesting things.. It depends how you define a directory. When a directory has an active community or search engine attached to it, like DMOZ and Reddit do, there is more valuable. Most think of a directory as a plain, hierarchal listing but we’re seeing some social media versions of old-school listings now so they’re still relevant. Regardless, I agree that they’re not the main place to focus.
The key thing is to engage people, create avid fans, and plug into the mediums that help you do this.. Seth Godin’s concept of the ideavirus puts it into words better than I can right now.
Anywho, these quick tips right here are great so I thank you for keeping it real and sharing this. It’ll be a great resource for my audience when they want the quick-fix version of my long-winded, epic explanations. ;o)
Good list!
What is also important is consistency.
Don’t build 5000links one day and then the following days nothing. That doesn’t look natural.
Depending on how old your site is most people advice for new sites around 10 links a day. I would say 20 is still fine. Just variate the amount a bit.
Older sites can get away with much more.
And when you get into the google dance(you drop hard or disappear from the serps): just keep doing what you are doing and you will be back soon, stronger than ever 🙂
Until recently, I had no idea that link building was such an important thing! Thanks for the great resource for all the methods of obtaining them.
Hello,
I have been outsourcing my link building and if it is done right, it will be a huge blessing to your site’s rankings. Buying the links is so unpredictable and really hard to track.
Hello Jane
You have mentioned a very good article describing what link building strategies we should avoid.
If you ca share some good link building strategies as well, it would be very helpful. I have a blog on love and fashion niche and i am really finding it difficult to build links for that blog.
Sanjib
Well explained jane!
I’ll take care of these goofs further 🙂