Entries Tagged 'link building' ↓

I have 2 friends who have recently started blogs. They both have created a certain amount of content. In a way this is the easy part because anyone can write articles. The art of blogging is getting links to what you have written, so you will get reasonable Google Rankings.

These are some of the suggestions to Get Links

Write Articles For Ezines

Write articles of 400 words include a link to your site at the bottom and submit to ezinearticles.com. There are many others, but, this is the best. These articles should not be on your blog, but written specifically for the ezine. You don’t want to spend along time writing these articles, but, they want to be good enough so other sites will copy and give you more links. Use article titles like 10 tips for getting links. More on ezine articles here. e.g. vary the link text. The benefits of ezines may have become devalued because everyone is doing it these days. Therefore, don’t rely on this strategy.

Get to Know Other Bloggers in Your Niche.

Look at other bloggers in your niche. In particular look at blogs at a similar stage of development. It is more difficult to get links from a top blog, but, easier to develop relationships with blogs of a similar stature.

• Leaving comments,
• Linking to them
• Dropping an email

All these will get the blogger interested in your blog. If he likes your blog and you have good content, the above strategy’s may result in links. However, I would point out I never expect links from other bloggers. I never ask for them directly. Think about building relationships rather than just a mindset of ‘getting links’

Linkbait.

Linkbait is an article that is unique, highly interesting or something people will love. As a new blogger, you may not appreciate what link bait is. For example, this post is not linkbait. It is  not exactly the first article on getting links on the internet… However, if you had an interview with a celebrity in your field on your blog, that is unique – it is a first. People will be interested in viewing it. Another strategy is to get collections of photos which are particularly interesting for your blog. After writing the linkbait, you need to let people know about it. Email specific bloggers (it is of course helpful if you already have some relationship). Also this is something not to overdo.
The second thing, is to mention it on a forum in your niche. This can work if you know the forum members will really like the content. If it is unrelated or selling a product, it is dangerous. It also helps if you have contributed to the forum in other ways than promoting your own content. If the content is really good, it can lead to appearing on several forums and blogs. Getting several links like this is definitely worth the effort of creating superior content and the effort of letting people know.

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Every blogger knows that links are important, but, the quality of a link varies enormously. These are some of the factors that determine the quality of the link to your site.

Number of links on a page.

If your link is the only one on the page, it will have much more weight, than if it is one link out of 100. In the initial creation of Google’s page rank. The strength of a link was determined by a random walk model. If you goto a page, how much chance is there that the visitor will click on the link to your site. Clearly if there are only a few links, there is a higher chance people will click so Google give it a higher weighting.
For example, Blog Carnivals are a good way to get links, but, the quality is invariably reduced because there can be upto 100 links on the blog post.

A link on a sidebar is good. But, if there are 100s of links on the sidebar, its weighting is reduced.

Relevance of Link.

This is very important. Why would a blog on cycling link to a site on life insurance. If you have a blog on life insurance, you need to get links from finance sites, preferably sites about life insurance. If you have a link to life insurance on a blog about poetry, there is a higher chance google might suspect it is a paid link.

Duplicate Content.

Sometimes I see other blogs copying my content and giving a link back to my site. This splog is of little benefit. Sites with duplicate content are not given high weighting by Google, so their links will be less important.

What is Purpose of Site?

If the site’s purpose is to give links to other sites, I feel this reduces the quality of the link. For example, anyone can write an article on an ezine and get a link back to their site. Because everyone can do it and because ezines link to so many sites, I feel that the quality of the link is reduced. It is the same with blog directories and link directories. Their main purpose is to give links, nobody actually reads these sites because they have no interest. Therefore, the power of a link is reduced.
If the site offers high quality articles and doesn’t link out to all and sundry the power of the link is worth more.

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For any blogger, getting links to your blog is essential to success.

I have previously suggested some tips for building links here – Tips for getting more links

In recent months, I have been working hard in building up links on my blogs. One my favourite strategies at the moment is becoming a regular commentator on other blogs.

I don’t target the very successful blogs, but look for blogs which are relatively new and blogging on a similar theme. Becoming a regular commentator helps to build up a friendship, which often leads to mutual links as well. If it doesn’t no harm; but, on quite a few occasions it has led to blogroll links and links in posts. Don’t be tight about linking to other blogs either.

Note: a while back I said I had stopped commenting on other blogs (for Net Writing’s niche) I found it wasn’t working for this particular niche. However, in the cycling and to a lesser extent economics niche, comments have been very effective. Either I was

1. Wrong,
2. Commenting in the wrong place or
3. Maybe it just depends on the niche.

How To find Good Blogs for Developing Contacts.

1. I use google blog search to search blogs on my niche e.g. search ‘cycling’
2. If the blog is very good I add it to my RSS feed and give it relevant category.
3. Once or twice a week I go through my feed and comment on my favourite blogs
4. Alternatively, look at popular blogs and click on the people who leave good comments.
5. It is a mix between finding new blogs and establishing relationships with the blogs you like. Don’t just be a hit and run commentator

Useful Tool for checking backlinks – backlink watch

When I started my websites, I spent a lot of time and energy in writing articles for ezines. These are websites that allow you to publish articles on their sites in return for a link back to your site. Overall, I think ezines are an excellent way to help your blog / website get established.

These are some of the benefits of Writing For Ezines

Increase Number of Links

Firstly, you get a link from the ezine. But, more importantly your article is invariably copied by other websites looking for free content. Some articles have been copied by 20-30 other sites, therefore, you can quickly build up a range of inbound links. Many of these links are of low quality. Sites which just scrape content are not valued by Google. However, sometimes your article may get picked up by a good quality website in your niche. These links are more valuable than the initial ezine where the article was published.

Choose Anchor Text Keyword

• When writing ezines it is important to carefully choose the most useful anchor text keywords. Don’t just link to your home page. But, link to specific articles with the most valuable keywords.
• For example, quite a popular keyword at Net Writing is ‘writing good email’. Therefore, I will include this anchor text and link to the specific article. The important thing is to focus on particular articles and vary the anchor text.

Traffic.

One of the most surprising things about the ezine articles is that they have provided a good source of traffic. It is not a huge amount, but, to my economics site, ezinearticles may send about 50-60 a month. It is quite a small % of total traffic, but, the traffic is quite targetted and google analytics suggest the traffic from ezines spends a long time period at the site. By linking to my blogs, this traffic can help to build up RSS subscribers. True I have written quite a few articles, but, if you write 1 article per week, you are constantly adding to your traffic sources. There is a powerful cumulative effect. Just don’t expect to write one article and then sit back.

• This is always the sign of a good link – does it send traffic? If a link is sending traffic, it is likely that Google is valuing the site and therefore more likely to value the link.

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Many hours I have wasted trying to get websites included in DMOZ.

When I first began building websites, getting into DMOZ was seen as just about the best thing you could do – Guaranteed to raise the all important page rank.

The problem was that it just grew too unwieldy and you could be waiting for up to 2 years to have your site reviewed and possibly put in. If you dared complain about waiting two years you were given short shrift and threatened with permanent banning.

The other problem was the potential for corruption, editors wield enormous influence and so inevitably some were tempted by charging a market price for inclusion. Of course, these editors are in a minority and DMOZ always said it sought to weed out corrupt editors. But, if a site has such power, the temptation for using it for selfish ends is enormous.

I’m glad to see DMOZ is no longer of any importance or relevance. DMOZ can tell us many things.

The internet changes very quickly – What is an important SEO tactic one year, can become irrelevant the next.
Success on the internet is not about getting one arbitary link from an anonymous editor. Success comes from building readership and quality pages.
DMOZ rarely sent significant traffic. One way to value links is how many real visitors do they send?
Links from link Sites are always rather dubious. No one goes through web directories. Why bother, when it is much easier to search on google?
Who will want to be an editor at DMOZ now? If there is no personal gain, why spend hours going through sites (a lot of them probably spam) when nobody cares anymore.
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It is worth submitting your blog to Outpost Earth

• Unlike other blog directories the site is done as a blog, so the link back counts in the technorati rankings.
• Another good feature is that your most recent posts get featured on the home page and also the different sub categories, such as your location.
• By chance I found a useful blog entry looking through the internet section.
• If you have more than 1 blog, you can still submit them, you just need to use a different username.
• Nothing to lose, Free links.

I have started experimenting with Blog Carnivals and feel these are a good way to increase the number of inbound links to your site. In addition, they can provide new readers and greater exposure for your blog.

How Blog Carnivals Work

1. Go to Blog Carnivals
   
2. Search for Blog Carnivals related to your Blog. You can go here to list of blog carnivals and browse by category. Alternatively, you can also use the search button for looking for your keywords.
3. After finding a suitable carnival you can submit relevant blog posts. Most ask for a short summary of your article.
4. If you don’t find a carnival relevant to your recent postings, it is worth writing articles with certain carnivals in mind.
5. If your blog post is useful it will get mentioned on the host carnival, creating a link to your site.

For a relatively short amount of work, you can gain inbound links from a relevant blog. I cannot see any downside to this at all. Obviously, the better the blog posts submitted the more success it will have.

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1. Very Good Content.

If your content stands out as being particularly useful, then over time this will attract webmasters to link spontaneously. Ask yourself, “Is this content I would want to link to?”

2. High Traffic.

If your site is getting 1000s of visitors, you automatically increase the chance of gaining natural, organic links. Most really successful sites have a combination of high traffic and good content.

• The problem is to get high traffic, you need links, without links you can’t get high traffic. Therefore other strategies are also needed to get links.

3. Blog / Web Directories.

A good place to start off for one way inbound links. Some directories are selective, so make sure your blog is worth linking to. If a blog isn’t selective, I doubt the link will have much weight.

• Dmoz is less important, but it worth trying to get listed (don’t get mad if it takes 3 years though)

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