inbound linking for new site, help please!!!

[brightgravity]

Hi Warriors I've been a silent member on here some time but finally decided to jump in.

First of all I'd like to say thanks for the contributions you guys make as you've really helped me, I am trying to nail SEO (currently work in social media) at present.

So I have been tasked with marketing my business partners website and have a few questions regarding inbound linking.

I will list what I plan on doing (already done half of this)

• write regular blog posts with a mixture of keywords inserted (blog is on website)
• claim the blog in Technorati
• write regular articles, pretty much all on the same topic, all on the same keywords, and all linking to my site. Submit to Ezine and GoArticles (currently not tried spinning)
• write regular lenses and hubpages, again each one being similar, and same keywords and links
• submit each blog post, article, lens and hub to 15 bookmarks using IMAUTOMATOR
• register on all 42 bookmark sites on ONLYWIRE and submit each blog post/article/lens/hub to the lot

How does this all sound? Am I daft to make lots of hubpages on the same topic? Thing is, if they're different topics, they wont be able to link/keyword to the site.

My problem is I everywhere I look I read something new and end up wasting time trying to learn it - like registering on forums as means of backlinking, I've been told to search forum footprints for high pr sites and register on them... I still dont really know what a footprint is, and have no idea how to know what a high pr site is!

So some pointers would be much appreciated thanks

[NeilC]

Don't build too many links too quickly and keep your links varied.

You can build momentum with your linking over a number of weeks and speed it up as your site grows so it's "natural"

[Rob Greco]

Neil is right, start small at first. 'If' the domain is aged then you can push a bit harder however if this is the case you may want to look into the link trends before you go from 0 to 60. Visit MajesticSEO to see what you are working with first.

[faysal969]

Thank you very much for being live among us.

It seams your are in the right track. Hope your great success. Just work as you are planning.

[brightgravity]

THANKS for the replies!

The site has in fact been live for about 2 years now, so what should I do differently?

[Rob Greco]

Originally Posted by brightgravity

The site has in fact been live for about 2 years now, so what should I do differently?

The existing link trend will help set the pace. If there is little/no link trend, then you need to start slower. If the link trend is showing an upswing then you can increase the volume of your link building efforts.

Just dont go link crazy, the engines 'may' flag you for unnatural link building, which can have a negative impact on various fronts.

Since the domain has some age, you should see how much authority it has. This goes beyond Google PR.

A simple way I test the authority a domain carries is by creating content on the domain on a generic high volume high competition keyword. How long does it take to index and how long it takes to rank within the first 30 - 50 serp results with no link building efforts. Basically, if the content can rank by itself with no support other than domain authority, I know I can increase its rank by building some links for the specific content page in addition to understanding how many links and link quality is needed.

Repeat the same test, but now use a long tail phrase.

At this point you should have a base line how well the short tail and long tail optimized content can rank on its own feet.

Then, start building some links and monitor the heck out of the movement, this will help determine 'where' and 'how much'. I will actually monitor movement daily when I am testing. Once I have the data and full strategy, I monitor weekly and analyze trends monthly.

Don't bank your money on off-page content such a squidoo or hub pages to rank on page 1 - especially on high volume keywords. Use the off-page sites to boost your main domain.

Don't think 'different', think 'data' - nothing happens over night unless you know what to look for in the first place...

Best of luck

[brightgravity]

Thanks for the info!!

You say dont go crazy with the links, is what I have done so far probably a bit too much then? squidoo, blog post, both submitted to bookmarks AND articles?

I dont get how some people can send an article to 100 sites and bookmark everthing also, without going a bit 'crazy' with the links?

If you could suggest how much I will be safe doing that would be great.

I would be happy to build links all day via hub pages/squidoo/articles/blog if it were OK to do so. Dont really know any other methods tbh.

Thanks.

[Rob Greco]

There is no right or wrong here, thats why testing is so important.

As a quick example of what 'not' to do, lets assume that the site has been building an average of 100 links per month, steadily. Let's now assume that you come roaring in and start building 2,750 links per month... A sudden jump from 100 to 2,750 'may' set off a red flag for Google and push you so far down in the serp there is no recovery as this is obviously not natural for a site that has been steady for the past X months at 100 links per month.

You are much better off building slow and steady, ESPECIALLY if it's for a client. 100 to 200 to 300 to 400 and so on... Once you stop link building, you also run the chance of being flagged. A sudden decrease in links is not 'natural' and is usually a sign of link manipulation.

If you start seeing drops in the serp due to your efforts, please don't stop building links... It's Googles way of testing your site. If these links are 'natural' then the flow of links will continue with time and your rank 'should' return, don't give any indication of link manipulation or you will be pushed down even further in the serp.

I can't tell you how many links you should build and how often. You just need to build them and monitor the results, appearing as natural as possible.

Sounds like you should do some research on article submission software/tools. But I warn you, if you are representing a client you need to keep your nose clean. If you have never performed mass article sumbmission, bookmarking, blog commenting etc before, this is not the time to try. Get a few test sites of your own and see what these tools can really do, if the sites crash and burn who cares.

[brightgravity]

You're making out like what I am suggesting is black hat - like bookmarking etc I just assumed was all standard stuff to boost SEO, as in there was no risk.

So you say in your example if I had a client doing seo for them not to do all the stuff like articles/bookmarks etc... what else is there except what I have listed? If you pay someone to do seo I assumed this is what they do!

Also, PLEASE could someone tell me how to know how many links a site has? This will be helpful to know how many our site has, and also to know how many we need to beat the top ranked sites!

Thanks again

[Big__Lebowski]

Also, PLEASE could someone tell me how to know how many links a site has? This will be helpful to know how many our site has, and also to know how many we need to beat the top ranked sites!

Site Explorer - Search Results
Majestic SEO: Link Intelligence Tools

[MrMoore]

Traffic Travis is a free site that can tell you loads about your site. I would also get some EDU and >GOV links come in to your site maybe some simple blog comment post.

[brightgravity]

how does commenting on blogs help and how do you know which to comment on? I assume they have to be do follow.

[brightgravity]

I dont get this, both of the tools say my site has 0 backlinks (although it does say I have 2 'deleted' backlinks).

I can see that one of my articles and my squidoo lens are both indexed on google - so this means the tools are wrong I take it?

[brightgravity]

Strange - when I do a yahoo "link:___ -site:___.com" search of one of my competitors it returns 6500 results, most of which are random pages which seem to have no relevance.. and more importantly, no links!

Doesnt this sound odd?

[Rob Greco]

Originally Posted by brightgravity

You're making out like what I am suggesting is black hat - like bookmarking etc I just assumed was all standard stuff to boost SEO, as in there was no risk.

LOL... Anything and Everything you do to manipulate the search engines is frowned upon in the eyes of the search engines. Once you do something that is 'not natural' to boost your serp ranks you have crossed over to the dark side....Muhahahahahaha... seriously...

There is always risk, which is why I said you you should be testing if it is something you are not familiar with.

GOOD SEO takes time.

Originally Posted by brightgravity

I dont get this, both of the tools say my site has 0 backlinks (although it does say I have 2 'deleted' backlinks).

I can see that one of my articles and my squidoo lens are both indexed on google - so this means the tools are wrong I take it?

The tools are not real-time. Give it a few days/weeks for the data to be collected. Regardless, you are starting from scratch in terms of link building.

Originally Posted by brightgravity

Strange - when I do a yahoo "link:___ -site:___.com" search of one of my competitors it returns 6500 results, most of which are random pages which seem to have no relevance.. and more importantly, no links!

Doesnt this sound odd?

Nope... It is possible that since the inbound link page was indexed the link has been removed, if the engine never re-indexed than site explorer (or google link: query) will still show results.

Give this site a try: backlinkwatch[dot]come

[brightgravity]

thanks for the reply

ah so bookmarking etc is unnatural!? Had no idea. I dont see how you are supposed to boost rankings naturally without writing articles and blog posts and bookmarking them etc, submitting to directories.

Its not like people are going to just start linking to you which is the only thing I can see being classed as 'natural'.

So just to confirm, I am doing black hat seo? LOL just sounds so bad as I thought the black hatter were the cheaters who get shut down etc...

[Bruce Hearder]

Hi,

I would stringly suggest that you spread your linking about, don't get all your links from one type of links.

Get some links from all of the following :
-Blog comment links
- Article Links
- Video links
- Social Bookmarking (Twitter, Facebook, etc etc)
- Guest Articles
- Some directory links.

You don't need a lot of each, sometimes 2-3 decent articles, 4-5 videos spread far and wide (use traffic geyser or something like that), a twitter account attached to the site and some directory links (100-500, should cost $5-$20) and your website is well underway to ranking well in the serps.

Depending on the competitiveness of your keyword, you may have to scale the number of items up to appropriate levels..

Also make sure that your links have other links pointing to them..
This way your links become more powerful in the eyes of the serach engines.


Hope this helps

Bruce

[brightgravity]

Originally Posted by Bruce Hearder

Hi,

I would stringly suggest that you spread your linking about, don't get all your links from one type of links.

Get some links from all of the following :
-Blog comment links
- Article Links
- Video links
- Social Bookmarking (Twitter, Facebook, etc etc)
- Guest Articles
- Some directory links.

You don't need a lot of each, sometimes 2-3 decent articles, 4-5 videos spread far and wide (use traffic geyser or something like that), a twitter account attached to the site and some directory links (100-500, should cost $5-$20) and your website is well underway to ranking well in the serps.

Depending on the competitiveness of your keyword, you may have to scale the number of items up to appropriate levels..

Also make sure that your links have other links pointing to them..
This way your links become more powerful in the eyes of the serach engines.


Hope this helps

Bruce

Thats very helpful, thanks. Bet its blazing hot over in Perth right now, miserable here.

OK so I could say make a squidoo lens and then have an article pointing to it.

Will look into paid directory listings, so far just tried Dmoz really.

When you say blog comments, is this just registering with whatever programme a particular blog uses as their commenting system, and then leaving comments (link in name)?

I guess I've been thinking about it wrongly, I was planning on having a routine say one article per week, lens every 2 weeks, bookmark the lot of them for about 20 bookmark sites, and also submit to SU. I gather from what you're saying that its best to just to the lot at once then leave it for a while?

Thanks once again,

James

[Rob Greco]

Originally Posted by brightgravity

Had no idea. I dont see how you are supposed to boost rankings naturally without writing articles and blog posts and bookmarking them etc, submitting to directories.

Its not like people are going to just start linking to you which is the only thing I can see being classed as 'natural'.

Welcome to my world...

Originally Posted by brightgravity

So just to confirm, I am doing black hat seo? LOL just sounds so bad as I thought the black hatter were the cheaters who get shut down etc...

It's NOT black hat. It's all about high risk and low risk. Using a auto blog commenting software and posting 5000 comments on random blogs to get the backlinks can be risky. Commenting on 5 or 10 blogs with meaningful comments that add to the discussion or add value is low risk. Writing quality articles and submitting them to the top quality sites is low risk. Writing one article, spin in 1,000 times with a 20% uniqueness and submitting to thousands of sites is high risk.