Is Manual Linkbuilding Even Worth It?

[rimam1]

I have a site in a pretty competitive niche that isn't listed in the first 1000 results of Google's SERP's yet for my main keyword phrase. The site IS indexed because I'm getting some long-tail traffic.

I'm adding content to it daily, to the clip of 1-2 new blog posts a day and social bookmarking nearly every post. I'm a member of Dan Thies and Leslie Rohdie's SEO BrainTrust and am taking all the steps to optimize my site.

I am building links via Angela's method, social bookmarking, blog comments, etc. but am thinking of doing some mass article distribution. Dan Thies warns against fake blog networks, but it looks like some competitors of mine are doing the same and getting page 1 results on Google.

The question is this: is it better to build tons of links via automated article submissions to save time?

Thanks,
Raza

[rimam1]

What about product giveaways and contests? I'm sure giveaways can generate tons of links, but how do you publicize a giveaway like that?

[jasonmorgan]

Dan Thies warns against fake blog networks

I would be interested in knowing more about this. What reasons are given.

[EaglePiServ]

You don't say how old your site is, or how long it has been active. We had sites that just wouldn't get into the top 10 for us no matter how much backlinking we did. One thing we changed was - the title, and the description meta tags. Everyone will tell you this doesn't affect google rankings, but we found it absolutely did. Our niche was a tiny localised niche.

Cheers.

[rimam1]

I guess Google doesn't like artificial networks because they're designed to game them. It's hard to prove, but if Google thinks that your *intent* is to game them, you'll get hit.

[rimam1]

thanks for your response Eagle... the site is less than 2 months old. Onpage optimization is pretty good, including title and header tags. I'm just building lots of content and lots of links. Hoping to get them recognized soon.

[EaglePiServ]

2 months is a short time. It's like watching grass grow. It's frustrating for sure, but you hit the nail smack on the head when you talked about intent. It just takes time.

Cheers.

[Zeus66]

You need backlinks from authority sites. Doesn't matter if they're relevant to your site's niche or not. Angela's links are a great booster. Then go out and find your own. Look for forums and blogs with higher PR. The page your link on doesn't need any PR. That's another myth. The key is the SITE being an authority, not the individual pages. But yeah, if it's a competitive niche, dig in and stick with it. It'll be awhile with a 2-month old site.

I'm not a big fan of blasting out articles for backlink purposes - especially for competitive niches. You get so much more from the kind of links I outlined above.

John

[rimam1]

Eagle and John,

Thanks for the advice. I'll keep working, building pages, building links, etc. I've gotten other sites ranked pretty quickly but I purposely took on a challenging niche so I knew what I was in for.

Best,
Raza

[InternetMarketingIQ]

It's easiest to rank quality. But ultimately it's you against the search engines. And when you figure out how to make something work you do it.

Google is the ultimate scraper site... they scrape content then display it for profit, then tell you not to do the same.

A lot of people will tell you not to do this or that... then they are actually doing it themselves.

The bottom line is you need to worry only about not breaking laws... beyond that anything you can do to rank is in your favor. But don't be afraid of the consequences of being caught if you employ tricks.

[mrozlat]

a mix off automated and manual is the way to go... i've found that i always get ranked for the keywords i target... it's just a matter off getting those all important backlinks with the right anchor text

[rimam1]

InternetMarketingIQ,

Some very heavy hitting insight. I like it.