What is the hardest part of link building for you?

10 years ago

Originally Posted by benjaminbeck

Hi Warriors!

I wanted to start a thread where we can list our struggles with link building and as a group help each other come up with solutions.

For me - I think the hardest part of link building is cold emailing possible linking prospects. Any tips or suggestions?

as someone that gets a ton of requests for links...

My suggestion would be to first give your potential partner a link first on your site and then send the email....lead off with saying you've already given them a link. POLITELY ask for a link back, and then offer to help in whatever way you can with their site.

seriously... the lack of common courtesy is the biggest hurdle for most link builders....that and laziness.

Thankfully at least you have realized that the only legit linkbuilding method that works anymore (and will continue to work) is simply by asking for one....you're already well ahead of the game compared to most people.

[ 1 ] Thanks
2 replies

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8962889].message }}

RickCopy

10 years ago

I think another problem is that there are far too many people building sites that just don't provide any value to the reader.

as a site owner... if someone asks me for a link and the link goes to some obvious PBN site with 15+ different topics im not going to approve it. If its not in my niche imnot going to approve it. If its not quality content im not going to approve it. If its over-optimized, im not going to approve it. If its a poorly built site, im not going to approve it.

my honest opinion is that 99% of ALL IM problems are due to people trying to rank or promote sites that honestly shouldn't be ranked or promoted because they're worthless.

[ 1 ] Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8962900].message }}

benjaminbeck

10 years ago

Originally Posted by RickCopy

I think another problem is that there are far too many people building sites that just don't provide any value to the reader.

as a site owner... if someone asks me for a link and the link goes to some obvious PBN site with 15+ different topics im not going to approve it. If its not in my niche imnot going to approve it. If its not quality content im not going to approve it. If its over-optimized, im not going to approve it. If its a poorly built site, im not going to approve it.

my honest opinion is that 99% of ALL IM problems are due to people trying to rank or promote sites that honestly shouldn't be ranked or promoted because they're worthless.

Great feedback! I agree if the content is crap nobody will link to it! You need quality first & then a courteous outreach to someone who genuinely appreciate it and use it.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8963657].message }}

online only

10 years ago

Originally Posted by RickCopy

as someone that gets a ton of requests for links...

My suggestion would be to first give your potential partner a link first on your site and then send the email....lead off with saying you've already given them a link. POLITELY ask for a link back, and then offer to help in whatever way you can with their site.

seriously... the lack of common courtesy is the biggest hurdle for most link builders....that and laziness.

Thankfully at least you have realized that the only legit linkbuilding method that works anymore (and will continue to work) is simply by asking for one....you're already well ahead of the game compared to most people.

This is more or less like a link exchange.

This is not how proper linkbuilding should be done, unfortunately.

If I'd implement what you are saying - I'd have to turn my site into link farm...

[ 1 ] Thanks
2 replies

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8964333].message }}

benjaminbeck

10 years ago

I agree that you should be polite when reaching out to website owners, but you do not need to turn your site into a link farm where you link out to every person that links to you.

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8965171].message }}

RickCopy

10 years ago

Originally Posted by benjaminbeck

I agree that you should be polite when reaching out to website owners, but you do not need to turn your site into a link farm where you link out to every person that links to you.

unless you're just doing a guest post I dont see how reciprocating links are avoidable in most situations. I don't post links without getting one in return and would expect the same from anyone I approached.

A PBN would be non-reciprocal but I dont get into PBNs... doesnt make financial sense for my site. Other than that and guest posting you're left with blog commenting (worthless for juice in most cases) forum posts/sigs (same) article directories (lol) and a ton of other no-follow link tactics.

This is also highly dependent on the site and niche though... my site has new posts every other day....building links myself to every single post isnt really practical or possible most of the time so I let those happen organically. I do go out and find links to my homepage though and they're usually all reciprocating. This tactic has always worked out well for me in the serps and avoids me having to do a whole lot of linkbuilding.

Yeah maybe its a link farm if you want to call it that but Google doesnt seem to mind....probably because of my diverse link portfolio, which happens mostly on its own.

I think there's a lot of grey-area out there as far as link value....very dependent on the individual site and its link portfolio. bunch of crap links... blogroll links arent going to do much... highly diverse link portfolio... blogroll links help... I dunno... just speaking from my experience, YMMV

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8965323].message }}

benjaminbeck

10 years ago

Originally Posted by RickCopy

unless you're just doing a guest post I dont see how reciprocating links are avoidable in most situations. I don't post links without getting one in return and would expect the same from anyone I approached.

A PBN would be non-reciprocal but I dont get into PBNs... doesnt make financial sense for my site. Other than that and guest posting you're left with blog commenting (worthless for juice in most cases) forum posts/sigs (same) article directories (lol) and a ton of other no-follow link tactics.

This is also highly dependent on the site and niche though... my site has new posts every other day....building links myself to every single post isnt really practical or possible most of the time so I let those happen organically. I do go out and find links to my homepage though and they're usually all reciprocating. This tactic has always worked out well for me in the serps and avoids me having to do a whole lot of linkbuilding.

Yeah maybe its a link farm if you want to call it that but Google doesnt seem to mind....probably because of my diverse link portfolio, which happens mostly on its own.

I think there's a lot of grey-area out there as far as link value....very dependent on the individual site and its link portfolio. bunch of crap links... blogroll links arent going to do much... highly diverse link portfolio... blogroll links help... I dunno... just speaking from my experience, YMMV

If you have quality enough content people will link to it.

Why wouldn't someone link to the best resource for their industry?

Here are few examples of great content that got a lot of links w/o linking out to a lot of websites:

* 309 linking domains - How do our favorite tech companies make money?
* 203 linking domains - Content Idea Generator - Portent
* 396 linking domains - pointblankseo.com/link-building-strategies

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8965775].message }}

gearmonkey

10 years ago

Originally Posted by online only

This is more or less like a link exchange.

This is not how proper linkbuilding should be done, unfortunately.

If I'd implement what you are saying - I'd have to turn my site into link farm...

Yeah I just came here to say this. The best way is to create viral content that builds backlinks from your visitors BUILDING backlinks for you... not to mention email opt-ins and social shares.

I figured out some really good techniques that makes content go viral in my niche. Just need to be creative and try different things.

Thanks

Signature

My Guitar Website | My SEO Blog - Advertising spots available.

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8967163].message }}

Kevin Maguire

10 years ago

Waking up before noon.

[ 3 ] Thanks
2 replies

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8962996].message }}

benjaminbeck 10 years ago

Originally Posted by Kevin Maguire

Waking up before noon.

Depends on what timezone you are in That might be right on time!

Unfortunately for me its usually too late.
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8963660].message }}
sweezeter 10 years ago

Originally Posted by Kevin Maguire

Waking up before noon.

This is so true, when things are on autopilot and you work through the night sometimes it's tough to wake up to that alarm clock.

Maybe 2014 will be the year to stick to that alarm clock but its hard to not let your body wake up on its own course.
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8965983].message }}

Jan79

10 years ago

First off you need to have a quality website with great content. I also suggest that you do not put ads and affiliate links on your website in the beginning, it's easier getting links that way I have noticed. But it still remains a slow and annoying process to me. And I also hate it if they reply that it costs money to get linked on their website.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8963981].message }}

Tashiads

10 years ago

The hardest thing in link building is that if you started to build links to your site, your site started to drop in rank, when you think that you are doing wrong so your ranking is going down, and you stop building links, but suddenly you notice that your ranking is going up and up..you becomes happy, thinks that no need to build links again, but after few days, you will notice your site is again going down and down..you start building links...but the ultimate fact is that search engines are not going to value them...so better keeping a continuous flow of links, which is again a boring work...

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8964037].message }}

creaturelocaljohn

10 years ago

The hardest part of the link building is when you have built almost all of the possible sites and you will struggle to find new link opportunities.

Thanks
1 reply

Signature

10% OFF For All Local Citation Services

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8964043].message }}

benjaminbeck 10 years ago

Originally Posted by creaturelocaljohn

The hardest part of the link building is when you have built almost all of the possible sites and you will struggle to find new link opportunities.

Interesting what niche are you in that you have built links from all of the possible sites?

I guess you just have to get creative
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8965100].message }}

veekay31

10 years ago

The biggest challenge with link building is to keep building quality links. A lot of links that you build get deleted after some time, so unless you build links continuously you cannot maintain rankings.

[ 1 ] Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8964184].message }}

himanuzo

10 years ago

For me, the hard part of link building - is finding many authority sites (with high trustflow or high page rank) which allow backlinks for free.

And also time for the link building. So I do outsourcing.

Thanks
2 replies

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8965301].message }}

benjaminbeck

10 years ago

Originally Posted by himanuzo

For me, the hard part of link building - is finding many authority sites (with high trustflow or high page rank) which allow backlinks for free.

And also time for the link building. So I do outsourcing.

You could outsource the prospecting to a team on Odesk OR you could use a tool like BuzzStream to find opportunities & metrics for you.

This post shows how to find & outreach to high authority sites with Buzzstream.

Let me know if you have any questions or feedback on the process.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8965787].message }}

blackbodhisattva 10 years ago

I'm curious if anyone sends out regular Press releases as part of your link building?
- Thanks
Signature
www.periscopebook.biz
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8967137].message }}

MillionDollarBucks

10 years ago

I think the hardest part is to find free high pr site to get them link back to your site.

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8965480].message }}

benjaminbeck 10 years ago

Originally Posted by MillionDollarBucks

I think the hardest part is to find free high pr site to get them link back to your site.

I agree, Unless you have something great to offer them it will be really hard to get a high PR link from a site.
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8965779].message }}

darlanne

10 years ago

Finding links is a "time sink". Then finding out many of them get dropped or Google doesn't index the blog or article they are in, despite that you have pinged it, is disappointing.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8966328].message }}

What is the hardest part of link building for you?

Trending Topics

How do I effectively build and nurture an email list for affiliate marketing purposes?

Are Solo ADs the Most Cost Effective Way to Promote your Product?

Are billboards still effective in driving customers?

Been a while! Any of you Old Timers here?

How much does the rebranding affect CR ?