Link Building 101 - Tips & Tricks

[Tirmizi]

Hey guys,

Its been a while me writing a thread here, thought today is as good day as any. Anyways, I was just having a conversation with another warrior fella who I met in the link Sales forum. Now this guy wanted to buy links to get his site to rank well. I come across such people all the time, though its extra $$$ down my pocket but basically most of poeple don't know if they put some time and effort into link building they could do alot on themselves and won't have to pay $$ to keep up ... Buying links is an easy way up the SERP if its done carefully no issue with that but that should be done if you don't have time and have $$$ to spend. If you do have time then save yourself from spending tons of money on buying links by doing it yourself. This way you'll be learning the whole process yourself + saving money too.

Below is one good article by Aron Wal of SEO Book on the subject if you are interested in link buidling you'll find it really helpfull. And again me reffering his article here is again what he has described " write something good" and people would love to link to it.

101 Link Building Tips to Market Your Website : SEO Book.com


If you are into buying links then this is a good place to get hold of some quality links;

Articles Submission & Backlinks Service


Plus you can always get back to me for it


Happy Holidays // Tirmizi

[michaelmac]

Hey Tirmizi,

Thanks for that, have it bookmarked!

Happy holidays to you also buddy,

Michael

[SolidSolutions]

GREAT resource! Thanks for sharing.

One thing I did not see in there is submitting blog posts to community type blogs. I've found a couple of them and it seems to be a good thing so far. This is where you can actually post the blog entry on someone elses blog, giving you complete control of the content. It would be much like article writing I guess, but in a blog format. And, since others post there as well, it is much easier to keep it hoping without doing all the work, like you would your own blog...not that I suggest using that and NOT your own blog.

Dan

[Joanne Greco]

Great post - thanks for sharing it. I like that blog and have it bookmarked but hadn't read it for a while. Thanks for the reminder.

[mfleisch]

Hey Tirmizi,

I was wondering what you think about the Google controversy on paid links. I used to use this as one form of link building but moved away from it since Matt Cutts made issue of the paid link category.

Personally, my thought is that paid links are okay as long as their not your dominant form of developing in-bound links to your site. Additionally, if they are from some of the top directories, I believe that Google is still valuing them.

Just a final note for anyone thinking about going the paid route... make sure that the links are "follow" vs. "no-follow". I've had a lot of clients get burned by purchasing links that really provided no value what so ever because web masters coded them as no follow!

[skydivedad]

The recent SES Chicago, 2008 (Search Engine Strategies Dec. 8th-12th) one of the largest gatherings of Search Engine Professionals in the World had an excellent panel consisting of 4 highly qualified link building experts, Eric Enge of Search Engine Watch, Todd (Oilman) Friesen, Doug Heil and Dave Naylor.

It was an excellent presentation and discussion of paid links with Doug Heil and Todd Friesen both saying they would only use "paid links" sparingly during a sites start-up phase. Eric Enge along with Doug Heil both advise against the practice unless your using a "throw away" site for the following reasons.

• Google is at War with Paid Links because their algorithm places a high emphasis on links as an indicator of quality and paid links subverts that emphasis. Google's solution has been to disallow paid links by penalizing or banning sites from the main and supplemental index's.
• Jeremiah Andriock the Product Manager of MSN Live Webmaster tools in a recent interview isn't recommending the practice but Live is more concerned with the neighborhood the paid links are coming from, they won't ban your site but they don't forbid it. "Paid Links are a gray area. Are they of value to the end user more so then the webmaster? Sometimes they are but very often they're less valuable and much less relevant than the organic links on a page. We reserve the right to treat them that way!" not exactly a ringing endorsement.
• Competitors can easily figure it out and report you to Google. If you suddenly appear out of the blue on the SERP's using "paid links" and take traffic from the top players understand they will and are researching your site.
• It is increasingly difficult to place the paid links properly to cloak them from the Spiders as well as human reviewers. Time spent better building quality content and attracting natural links.
• The Major Search Engines feel paid links threaten the "level playing field" where he with the deepest pockets can rule the SERP's reducing the relevancy of the result for the user and driving the smaller sites out of business.

There are legitimate Marketing reasons for using paid links to drive traffic but it is probably best if it's done with a domain for which you have no long term plans. The Search Engine algorithms have been greatly improved over the course of the last 24 months since Google declared war on paid links. It easy enough to get upset with them but they get to make the rules. So really, its best to not confuse purchasing "paid links" with Search Engine Optimization, by definition they are diametric opposites and "paid links" can disappear at any time and your site from the SERP's with them. .

Even Jim Boykin of "We Build Pages" a former premiere bastion of "Link buying" recently announced "paid links aren't worth it". I couldn't agree more. Unfortunately, many newbies don't have all the facts with which to weigh a business decision. Hopefully my post can give them the other side of the story. My 2 cents worth.
All The Best
Happy Holidays
Paul