Linkbuilding techniques within Google's guidelines [a few examples]
- SEO |
Here's some ways link building methods you can use which will not run afoul of google's guidelines:
Nothing new here, but people need reminding.
I know these things seemingly take more time and not to mention alot more money. Prweb is $200 a pop, Yahoo wants $300 for a link;good infographic designers will demand more than $600;My linkbait idea above has already costed me in $2,000+ in development so far. I assure you it's all worth it.
Combine methods like these (there's alot more) with common sense on-page structure and content and you'll find that you don't need thousands of links to compete.
Nothing new here, but people need reminding.
- Human Edited Directories where there is no guarantee of acceptance. That is: you pay for a review of your site, NOT for a listing. Examples: Yahoo Directory, BOTW, DMOZ, smaller niche related directories. (none of the submit to 1,000 nonsense)
- Guest Posting, of course but be smart about it and think further than just getting a link.
For Example: I recently did a guest post on a really popular PR7 site. It was well receieved and got over 200 comments.
In the content of the post, I linked to three other sites (all PR5-6) which I was not affiliated with but also wanted links from. The link to my site was in the byline of article. The post generated 3,000 visits for me, and I can only guess how many it sent to the other three links. A few days after it was published, I emailed the other three sites telling them how great they were and that I had recommended them on Popularsite.com in xxxxx article. Two of the three had no problem linking to MY website when I asked them. ( Third guy was a dick, and complained because I sent people to his site *scratcheshead* )
So with a single guest article, I killed three birds.
- Join an industry group or organisation or get certified.
Examples: BBB.org; If you run a health website - apply for HONcode certification; look for niche related organisations that offer membership + linking to member sites.
- The last point brings me to the next one. Outreach, sometimes called link begging.
Lots of people curate lists of things, might be a college librarian or a professional in your industry on his personal site or a blogger. Set yourself apart from all the people that linkbeg and offer something in return. For Example: instead of just begging for a link, go through the list and find links which are dead. Point out the links which are dead to the owner of the list and suggest new ones (yours included).
- Press Releases!! Real news releases about your site or other interesting information about your industry.
Again avoid sites where there is no human editing process or sites where every single press release is accepted (little or no quality control). Long story short, stick with PRWeb and do like 1 per month.
If you have no news worthy content (or if you can't think of something), then please don't do a press release. The goal of your press release should be to get the attention of journalists, web reporters, bloggers, etc in your industry, NOT to get a link from a press release site or to get it picked up by Yahoo news, or random newspapers. That's just a by-product.
- Donate to a charity that is known for thanking donors by recognizing them on their website. The closer related to your industry, the better. Start your search at Charitynavigator.org
- Link Bait & Infographics - People like sharing useful stuff. People like sharing useful stuff even more when it makes them look good/smart/cool/funny/etc.
Example: For one site of mine, I have an idea in the works to create an web tool of sorts that will display some historial data related to my niche in a really useful way. The data is currently available but it's just not easily accessible or digestable. Once my tool goes live on my domain, it WILL explode and I am certain that even .gov's will link to me naturally because I've identified a gap or need for something that doesn't exist yet.
- Link to Others - Stop hoarding your link juices. It does you no good. Give some link love naturally within your articles and you'll get love back. Take off the link condoms (nofollow) for those you trust. And avoid creating blogrolls or getting listed on blogrolls. Resources lists on a single internal page are great though. If you can curate and maintain a list of the very best resources in your industry, it will get linked to. Added bonus points, if you can write unique descriptions and commentary for each site you link. Yes, people will link to you if you link to others.
Another way is by ranking other sites in your industry. For example: Wisebread.com has Top Personal Finance Blogs | Wise Bread which is linked from their navigation (that's how important it is). They take it a step further and add interesting tidbits like follower counts, likes, etc. OSE (which hasn't been updated since Feb) reports 200+ root domains linking to that page. Stuff like that are signals that you are an authority in your niche.
I know these things seemingly take more time and not to mention alot more money. Prweb is $200 a pop, Yahoo wants $300 for a link;good infographic designers will demand more than $600;My linkbait idea above has already costed me in $2,000+ in development so far. I assure you it's all worth it.
Combine methods like these (there's alot more) with common sense on-page structure and content and you'll find that you don't need thousands of links to compete.