Link Building Tips

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I often look for false positives in Google.

A false positive (in this sense) is when a site appears for a keyword search it is not relevant to. It’s like looking for microwave ovens and seeing a page for oranges. The page about oranges isn’t supposed to be there. A false positive in Google SERPS that sticks around is sometimes the VERY BEST way to getting a glimpse of how Google works under the hood.

False positives are usually caused by webmaster error, not really an error of Google. It can be caused by a misplaced 301 redirect or canonical tag screw ups, but that’s not what I am talking about here.

I’m talking about plain old linkbuilding tactics apparently causing these false positives. This is what I am on the look out for.

It’s like in (is it Eugenics?) when you are trying to prove genes influence a person’s behaviour more than environment, and so you need to find two twins who were seperated at birth to prove a case. I think that’s ball park correct. Anyway – sometimes hard to find….

This is one example (I think).

I see a lot of seo saying directory submissions don’t work anymore –  or that it depends which ‘quality’ directories you submit to, so I thought I would, rather than theorise, share a false positive that might indicate differently. THis might show directory links can still count, and directory link building might still be worth it.

Personally, I think a lot of so-called ‘out-of-date’ tactics still work sometimes….. no matter what some say.

Here’s the SERP for “keyword stuffing” – see if you can spot the odd one out – i’ve made it kind of easy – though this is what I look for when I am not working:

Keyword Stuffing

Did you spot it?

False Positive

My first reaction is always….

I wonder why that is?

I usually look at Google cache just to ensure those key words aren’t hidden on the page, though just because Google says it is in ‘links’ to the page, that can often be totally misleading too.

Google Cache

So I look at the website link profile using nothing more than Google itself, and here’s what i find buried away:

Directory Submissions!

OOPs! Perhaps that webmaster should keep an eye on his directory submissions lol – I mean he even ranks no1 for ‘Keyword stuffing not allowed’ lol – above Wikipedia – (which also shows you proof a focused anchor text approach beats down even all the powerful relevance of Wikipedia – for all those seo who claim relevance beats links.)

Keyword stuffing not allowed

Things to think about:

• You don’t need to use seo tools – in fact, you probably should not pay for any seo tools until you can USE Google properly
• The directory links have aged
• They are interestingly not incurring a keyword penalty – which is probably more to do with how Google views a link profile as part of the whole (I might discuss this later)
• The links beat out relevance of Wikipedia – proof LINKS beat RELEVANCE in this instance
• All the links *seem* to come from directory submissions that have gone wrong
• Pick any seo tool on the market today and they will tell you these links are next to worthless – (I might share something else which embarrasses most seo tools on the market today later on this week)
• What if, the fact that because these directory pages had “Keyword stuffing not allowed” in their titles too, and then linked to the target site, gave an ‘impression’ of relevance for that term? Who knows but it is always worth keeping an open mind.

I thought it was an observation worth sharing. Feel free to have a look and see if you can spot something I missed.

———-

NOTE – I am never comfortable discussing somebody else’s seo strategies in public. This is a site I think I can discuss – cited as an example in

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/property_and_mortgages/article2071068.ece

A Home Office spokesman says that the Government is concerned about the practice: “Individuals producing or selling such documents are liable to investigation and prosecution by law enforcement agencies.”

Anyway – the tactic employed used to be advised by Google – ‘submit your site to directories‘, I believe. I wouldn’t recommend your entire linkbuilding activity consist of just directory submissions, but there may just be a place for it as part of a wider link acquisition strategy.

PS – If you have any false positives you want to chat about, get me on Twitter or leave a comment below.

An observation I think that links on duplicate posts which have been stolen – duplicated and republished – still pass anchor text value (even if it is a light boost).

Take this Cheeky beggar…. -  he nicked my what is seo post I did in 2007 and stripped out all my links (cheek!) and published the article as his own (well, haven’t we all…).

Well he stripped out all the links apart from one link he missed:

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Yes, the link to http://www.duny*.com.pk/ is actually still pointing to my home page. (Hey, maybe this guy is just complying with my copyright license )

 

This gave me an opportunity to look at something…..

The article itself wasn’t 100% duplicate – there where a small intro text as far as I can see. It’s clear by looking at Copyscape just how much of the article is unique and how much is duplicate.

So this is a 3 yr old article republished on a low quality site with a link back to my site within a portion of the page that’s clearly dupe text.

I would have *thought* Google just ignored that link.

But no, Google will return my page for the following query:

This Google Cache tells fibs, but is pretty accurate this time:

… which looks to me as Google will count links (AT SOME LEVEL) even on duplicate articles republished on other sites – probably depending on the search query, and the quality of the SERP at that time (perhaps even taking into consideration the quality score of the site with the most trust?).

How to take advantage of this?

First, you get an idea of just how much original text you need to add to a page for that page to pass some kind of anchor text value (perhaps useful for article marketers). And in this case, it’s not much! Kind of lazy though.

It seems, syndicating your content via RSS and encouraging folk to republish your content will get you links, that count, on some level it seems (which might be useful for longer tail searches). I still always make sure even duplicate (in essence) press releases and articles we publish are ‘unique’ at some level.

Google is quite good at identifying the original article especially if the site it’s published on has a measure of trust – I’ve never had a problem with syndication of my content via rss and let others cross post…. but I do like at least a link back, nofollow or not.

Want to republish my content? Please. Do.

Any thoughts?

This manual directory submission software & service (Directory Maximizer (AFF) ) is pretty cool. I’m curently testing it out on a few of my own sites and so far so good. 14$ per 100 directory submissions can’t be bad.

You add and control multiple site descripions and you have a team of directory linkbuilders actually manually submit your site to 100s of directories.

Adding Your Site

It’s easy using the control panel, or by uploading a CSV if you want to submit multiple sites.

You can also keep track of your submissions, and add as many as 25 descriptions to your directory descriptions and anchor text links to (importantly) mix up your link profile.

Reports

Your online control panel lets you keep track of all submissions and you can get a report of all directories submitted too.

To Finish

Well it certainly seems pretty slick. It took us a while to organise 20+ sites and test it, and so far, all sites have been submitted as per the agreement. So far it’s been a spread of PR0-PR5 sites of from questionable to decent directories. The best thing about this is YOU retain editorial control and control the rate at which your site (s) are submitted to niche directories – you’re just outsourcing the actual donkey work of visiting directories and submitting your sites.

There’s clearly better links you can get to your site than directory links, but I’m not one of those who think old-school seo techniques hold absolutely no value in 2010. There’s too much evidence plenty seo stuff works ‘when it shouldn’t’ or when we’re told otherwise. I still think IP diversity is probably useful and this is one way to achieve it.

I’ll leave it to you to make your mind up. At 14$ per 100 sites submitted – directory maximizer might well be worth a punt and let you get on with obtaining REAL QUALITY LINKS to your site from REAL SITES.

Disclosure – Affiliate links used in this post and as usual we don’t sell before we trial. We have no relationship with the providers of this service, but it’s worth advertising (we think).

Another question I get asked daily it seems so I thought a blog post I could point folks at was called for.

Clients send me unsolicited emails from companies that ask for “reciprocal links between their site and yours”, usually because it will “improve search engine rankings” for both websites.

I can tell you I usually ignore all reciprocal link exchange requests via unsolicited emails and recommend you do to.

I spend my time looking for quality links and believe me, I’ve not found ANY in any email.

It’s actually against Google TOS to do this type of reciprocal link building:

Your site’s ranking in Google search results is partly based on analysis of those sites that link to you. The quantity, quality, and relevance of links count towards your rating. The sites that link to you can provide context about the subject matter of your site, and can indicate its quality and popularity. However, some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. This is in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact your site’s ranking in search results. Examples of link schemes can include……

• Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging (“Link to me and I’ll link to you.”)

Now I suppose that’s rich advice coming from a seo (whose supposed to be manipulating search engines if you listen to some of the bollocks some big name web designers linkbait with these days), but reciprocal link exchanges like the one I mention above offer NO REAL SEO benefit to YOUR site (especially when they are on link partner pages) and Google says it might NEGATIVELY impact your rankings. So why manipulate in this amateur manner?

IF YOU TAKE A SECOND AND VISUALISE in your head the link scheme in place and the relationship between pages via links in the reciprocal links hub scenario, you can see how easy it is to do so. Google can probably compute and identify that one a lot faster than you can its so obvious.

99.9% of the time I IGNORE ALL SPAM EMAILS ASKING FOR RECIPROCAL LINKS especially if they are from some company who sells something totally unrelated to my site. I honestly can’t even remember the 0.1% I’ve responded to but I assume I did at least once back in the day – I know I asked for them when I started out 10 years ago but that’s when recip linking was of some use.

Note – Usually they will put your link on a “useful links” page. Now, Google hates these kinds of pages because they are just there to manipulate rankings. A useful links page out to unrelated sites on a low quality domain is just spam to Google and more often or not the pages your links are on will just be ignored by Google so there is no point getting a link from these pages.

Unrelated Sites

• Should you reciprocate links with irrelevant unrelated websites? NO – It’s a waste of time and possibly damaging.
• Should you link out to other unrelated sites at any other time? OF COURSE YOU SHOULD BUT NOT JUST TO MANIPULATE SEARCH RANKINGS. If the page is relevant to an article on your site, then it’s a good link. These types of links are the currency of the web!
• Should you worry if unrelated sites link to you? Of course NOT.

Linking is the foundation of the web, without links, there would be no web as we know it, no Google even, so never be scared of linking to good sites or pages – in fact, Google WANTS or at least EXPECTS you to do this and will thank you for it at some level…. probably. Bear in mind reciprocal links with a website tell google your two sites are related. Do you want that?

Related Sites

• Should You Reciprocate Links Related Websites? Perhaps, but ideally not on “usful links” pages, unless the page itself only links out to useful related sites. Here’s a good example of a useful links page I don’t mind linking to. But then, a seo can tell this sort of thing I suppose.

But if your INTENT is to SCREW with Google, Google might very well SCREW with you, depending on the vary nature of your intent, or the intent of others you now associate yourself with because of their intent and that reciprocal link you did.

Should You Ask For Reciprocal Links?

Of course, you should ALWAYS be ASKING for links. just not reciprocal links. One-way links are better for search engines though as they indicate editorially approved links from other sites, to yours. And that’s the best kind of links you can get.

I am working with a client at the moment in a global market who makes something amazing a lot of blue chip companies pay a lot of money for. Their website has a very poor link profile. We are currently asking for them to contact all these big brand companies and ask them for a link on their websites to the client website because this COULD NEVER HURT ANY OF THE SITES INVOLVED and links from these big brand websites who have bought their products – ie testimonial links from REAL sites that dont just link to anybody,  are good quality links.

We’ll probably reciprocate those links (if they ask us) but only AFTER Google sees the big brand sites linking to us first (thats a habit) – I use a few methods to ensure this is the case. The aim is to get the BRAND websites to VOTE for our site FIRST, so OUR search engine rankings improve, because Google now TRUSTS our site because of these new quality links on sites it already trusts. The brand websites don’t need our links for search enigne purposes – all we need to ensure is we are linking out to their sites in a more appropriate manner that is probably more useful to them….

I think all Brand managers would like another good-news-page in the SERPS, so creating a case study for their brand, on your website, is probably better than a link on a links page google will probably eventually ignore. So we’ll probably do that.

This post is a lot longer than I thought it would be.

PS I used  the very cool http://www.wordle.net/create to create the cool text image on this page.

Q – Which keywords do I use to linkbuild with?
A – Look at your analytics.
Use keywords (and synonyms) that already drive traffic that you are not already no1 for (in anchor text in articles). Write 50 articles with 50 of the anchor text variations below (going to the relevant page that Google already thinks enough of to rank and send traffic to) and syndicate.

Virtually no chance of a penalty, either. Of course, I’m assuming you’ve built a decent site (the site below has 50 pages on it - if you are subscribed you would have got even more info

Scenario – New site, optimised, solid architecture, unique content and  3 months worth of traffic….

CLARIFICATION – The aim of course is to get MORE traffic of the type Google is ALREADY giving your shop. By linkbuilding to the positions Google is already giving you traffic for, you’ll quickly improve the amount of traffic to your site via these terms -  your site will rank naturally for SOMETHING – so focus on improving those terms at the beginning, instead of JUST going for the most competitive terms. It looks more natural.

I’ll often throw up a store and see what Google gives me, then link build to these longtail terms to capture quick positions via simple article syndication. Then go for the money keyterms over a realistic timescale. For instance, with the example below, I will happy to be no1 for the single keyword (+ plural term) in 6 months…. but I want to improve relevant traffic now.

This is a linkbuilding tip for a new ecommerce shop for example. I thought it might be of more use than:

get links from the bbc

	Keyword		Pageviews	Unique Pageviews	Avg. Time on Page	Bounce Rate	% Exit
1.	widget		191	122	00:00:39	22.22%	25.13%
2.	cheap widgets		47	27	00:01:06	0.00%	19.15%
3.	buy widget		39	24	00:01:17	28.57%	17.95%
4.	widget for sale		26	17	00:01:25	28.57%	26.92%
5.	widget sales		25	17	00:00:18	0.00%	20.00%
6.	widget for sale		16	12	00:00:11	20.00%	31.25%
7.	widget cheap		14	9	00:00:30	33.33%	21.43%
8.	childrens widget		13	8	00:00:15	0.00%	23.08%
9.	black widget		12	6	00:00:19	0.00%	8.33%
10.	widget sale		12	11	00:00:16	20.00%	41.67%
11.	buy widget		11	7	00:00:22	0.00%	18.18%
12.	cheap widget		11	6	00:00:18	0.00%	27.27%
13.	cheap widget online		10	5	00:01:14	0.00%	10.00%
14.	sale widget		10	6	00:00:28	0.00%	20.00%
15.	cheap widget		9	6	00:00:28	0.00%	11.11%
16.	cheap widget for sale		8	6	00:08:32	33.33%	37.50%
17.	widget black sale		8	4	00:00:35	0.00%	12.50%
18.	buy a widget		7	4	00:00:11	0.00%	14.29%
19.	cheap widget		7	4	00:00:19	0.00%	14.29%
20.	buy a widget		6	4	00:01:04	0.00%	33.33%
21.	cheapo widget		6	3	00:05:03	0.00%	16.67%
22.	widget cheap		6	5	00:00:07	0.00%	16.67%
23.	buy widget online		5	4	00:00:11	0.00%	20.00%
24.	buy white widget		5	4	00:00:15	0.00%	20.00%
25.	widget sale		5	3	00:00:16	0.00%	20.00%
26.	buy “widget”		4	3	00:10:05	0.00%	25.00%
27.	cheap widget for sale		4	4	00:00:17	0.00%	25.00%
28.	low cost widget		4	4	00:00:09	0.00%	25.00%
29.	widget		4	4	00:01:03	66.67%	75.00%
30.	childs leather kilt widget		3	2	00:00:14	0.00%	33.33%
31.	low cost widget		3	3	00:00:26	0.00%	33.33%
32.	widget widget for sale		3	2	00:00:24	0.00%	33.33%
33.	widget, scottish, for sale		3	2	00:00:31	0.00%	33.33%
34.	widget order		3	2	00:02:08	0.00%	33.33%
35.	where can i buy a widget		3	2	00:00:12	0.00%	33.33%
36.	white widget		3	3	00:00:22	0.00%	33.33%
37.	white widget		3	3	00:00:27	50.00%	66.67%
38.	buy white widgets		2	2	00:04:10	0.00%	0.00%
39.	cheap widgot		2	2	00:00:56	0.00%	50.00%
40.	grey skin widget		2	2	00:00:11	0.00%	50.00%
41.	sale widget		2	2	00:00:16	0.00%	50.00%
42.	silver skin widget		2	2	00:00:31	0.00%	50.00%
43.	widget clean		2	2	00:04:40	0.00%	50.00%
44.	online purchase		2	1	00:10:57	0.00%	50.00%
45.	widgets clean		2	1	00:03:34	0.00%	50.00%
46.	widget		2	2	00:00:29	0.00%	50.00%
47.	widget		1	1	00:00:00	100.00%	100.00%
48.	animal widget		1	1	00:00:00	100.00%	100.00%
49.	antique widget for sale		1	1	00:00:00	100.00%	100.00%
50.	black widget		1	1	00:00:00	100.00%	100.00%
51.	buy cheap widgets		1	0	00:00:00	0.00%	100.00%
52.	grey  widgets		1	1	00:00:00	0.00%	100.00%
53.	grey widget		1	1	00:01:39	0.00%	0.00%
54.	leather widget		1	1	00:00:00	100.00%	100.00%
55.	widget chain		1	1	00:00:46	0.00%	0.00%
56.	red widget		1	1	00:00:00	100.00%	100.00%
57.	scottish widget for sale		1	1	00:00:00	100.00%	100.00%
58.	widget buy		1	1	00:00:00	100.00%	100.00%
59.	widget on sale		1	1	00:00:00	100.00%	100.00%

Using Analytics of course you can quickly identify the most valuable traffic you are already getting…. and improve that traffic first….

Some time ago I was asked to participate in another group interview of 30 linkbuilders discussing backlink analysis on Search Engine Land. If you read this blog at all, you’ll realise the all importance backlinks still have when it comes to ranking in Google results.

We asked 30 link building experts 9 questions about backlink analysis… and got 20,000 words of response. This article is part 1 of a 3 part group interview series on backlink analysis. Part 1 covers how backlink analysis – of your site and your competitors’ sites, as it applies to link building campaign design.

It’s another great article you’ll probably pick some stuff up from. It’s in 3 parts:

• 30 Link Builders Discuss Backlink Analysis For Campaign Design – Part 1
• 30 Link Builders Discuss Backlink Analysis For Campaign Design – Part 2 (TBA)
• 30 Link Builders Discuss Backlink Analysis For Campaign Design – Part 3 (TBA)

I’ve seen a few people mention this kind of link building tactic in the past but i thought seeing as Google itself does it for others, it’s an example worth highlighting, and perhaps copying.

This looks like a decent link for those linked at Google Press Center….. a single outbound contextual link on a cached PR7 page on a very trusted domain.

If your following Google’s example, it’s perfect for sites with exact match domains, too.

Best practice (if your looking to get a link, or at least host such a page on your own site)?

• Link to the home page
• Use The URL keywords or domain name as in the example
• You don’t need to identify the person who gives the testimonial outright
• One external link to a non related property on a page? (I surmise)

If Google does it… it must be ok? Right?

We’ve started sending out our free linkbuilding guide for beginners PDF to all subscribers.A beginners guide to link building created from tips from the Hobo blog, and a thanks to the folks who’ve put up with my ramblings on seo and linkbuilding.

If you want a free copy of the PDF, subscribe with your email

Our free link building Ebook will be sent out end of this week, but here’s a quick online press release tip for small businesses meantime….

A lot of press release sites are crappy, but some do a job. Google makes it simple for you to idnetify which press releases are decent ones by including them in their News Results.

1. Examine your niche in Google – by typing in varying keywords related to your industry – it doesn’t even have to be your industry
2. Observe if any of these keywords bring up “News Results“
3. Go to the site and see if it is a free press release site (a lot are)
4. Spend 15 minutes crafting a unique original article about your business and submit it with a link back to your site – NOTE – ensure you include valuable keywords in the article TITLE!
5. In 15 minutes you might find you’re at the top (or at least on the front page) of Google results (and you can stay there I’ve witnessed for up to 6 days)
6. The residual bonus effect is that these sites might even have the domain authority for the article itself to rank in organic listings (so do it at least a couple of times on the same site to get double listings in Google etc) – that’s why you want to have unique articles, too.
7. Rinse and repeat ad nauseum if you like

If you’re a small business in a less competitive niche or in a particular geographic area – you might find yourself at the top of Google for a week – for free.

I could have listed ten free press release sites ( I never pay) to submit to but in all honestly I like to see the sites that Google likes at that instant and you do that by using Google.

Press releasees are pretty useful to get the word out especially about events and product launches etc.

Get your free link building tips ebook shortly after you subscribe.

Hope you like it and find it useful – it’s based on linkbuilding tips from the Hobo SEO blog for those that prefer to read it in a PDF Ebook format – there will be a post or two where to get links (in a responsible way) that’s not at this time available on the blog

If you’ve not subscribed by email – it’s 100% free of course so just add your email in the box on the right or below (you do of course get our FREE Google SEO Guide For Beginners (150+ pages) as standard) when you sign up and you’ll get a free copy of the updated version next year when i get around to updating it.

Did you know that linking to us will help your rankings lol? Yeah right. But getting links from other sites will help YOUR rankings – no arguement there.

First, there’s probably no PERFECT link request email. but here’s how I do it (for the Hobo site, every so often).

• I don’t send that many out – just a few a month.
• I keep the email short and to the point
• I use a title like “Organisation Website Name” Website
• I never automate them – each one is crafted personally and (much like the blog) in a laid back manner.
• I CORRECTLY IDENTIFY the exact PAGE I want a link on (after identifying it’s a good page (and yes, Pagerank comes into it regardless of what others say but I also look to see if that page ranks high, gets traffic and is itself internally (at least) well linked to.
• It’s never JUST a links page with no content I want my link on, and it’s never on their home page.
• I also correctly IDENTIFY if they have a habit of linking out to relevant articles.
• I NEVER ask them to link to my home page.
• I always provide them with the URL I desire them to link to
• I ALWAYS have a piece of content that’s of value and WORTH linking to – after all, I wouldn’t link to pap.
• I NEVER specify anchor text that should be used.
• I NEVER even mention reciprocal links
• I only contact them once

Most importantly – I am honest about why I want a link. I don’t tell them it will help them, I tell them (usually) it’s more up to date information than they currently link to and it will help us and might be useful to their readers. And it is. I don’t tell them it will help their rankings, or that I was “browsing the web and came accross their site”.

I’m not exactly sure what above is the ‘killer’, but this method works more often than not.

Lastly, if I spot something amiss on their site, I’ll point it out in a friendly manner, and tell them to contact me if they need any assistance in the subject of what I do – SEO.

Not exactly rocket science is it.

Edit – This post was set to publish today – but I noticed Julie Joyce had a good recent article on the subject of link request emails too. For me, link requests are from dead, you just need to be relevent, linkworthy, polite and honest!

I am working with a new client who wants to know why, after being no1 for years, their site is now no.2,3 or 4 for some of their most valuable terms. Looking at the competitors backlinks using Yahoo site explorer for 30 seconds I quickly identify the problem.

Your competitors are actually picking up some very decent amazing ninja links from trusted sites with excellent anchor text

Very quickly in my head I had a strategy to assimilate these links and add them to my client’s link profile while all the time sourcing my own decent links – links that can’t be so easily cloned.

Then I thought:

Why hasn’t these guys bothered to try and hide their link profile – even a little? It’s as if they’ve sat back and patted themselves on the back for getting, to be fair, excellent link drops.

The only problem is that these links are right at the top of Yahoo site explorer! I am going to go in and pick off these links with no work at all using nothing more that site explorer (which conveniently sort of  lists pages by the number of links pointing to them ie perhaps stronger pages).

It’s virtually impossible to not leave a footprint when linkbuilding but what you don’t want to do is have your good links sticking out like sore thumbs especially if they are ninja link drops that any sod can recreate.

While you won’t stop a dedicated link hound with a passion to take you out of the top spot at Google, you will make it harder for the inexperienced linkbuilder to pick of your good links by muddying your link profile.

The easiest way I know how to do this is by commenting on popular blog posts. Either comment, or via trackbacks if you want to be lazy and do it en-mass. Comment on 50 popular blog posts – nofollow links will do – (you’ll know how stong they will be by the number of comments on the post) and hey presto.

You just made it that bit harder for the average joe to find your links in 10 seconds using Yahoo site explorer.

If people are farming your links and using old hat competitor research tools, you at least want to make it as difficult and time consuming as possible to identify those links, no matter what tool they use.

I don’t do that much blog commenting these days, and I certainly don’t do dofollow list commenting anymore.  I spent nearly 2 hours making one comment on a VERY TRUSTED (PR 8 ) site for a client a couple of months ago because I knew the link I would get would be GOLD – and it was.

I’d already determined the site was passing anchor text value, but there seemed to be heavy moderation going on so the comment itself would need to be stellar for them to leave my links intact and not look like some blog commenting scumbag.

The comment I left was actually as much as a full blog post as a comment. I researched the topic, tested out the actual blog platform (the blog platform was unfamiliar to me and I needed to see how it handled HTML formated links) and in the end pulled together some really valuable advice and dropped a link to my client site with spot on anchor text.

It took two hours to make that comment, but now one of the most trusted sites in the world links to my client with the exact anchor text we need to get to the top of Google and I didn’t piss anybody off (even Google!).

Spot the difference between that type of comment and the no-mark dofollow link-droppers that leave “great site!” in your blog comments.

Yes, they might do 100 comments in the time I did one comment, but mine is 100 times better.

If you have a good opportunity to get a link – take all the time in the world – all night if necessary – in fact, come back next week. Don’t screw up a perfectly good chance to drop a top quality link just because you can’t be arsed to create a useful comment.

Some free link building tips to market your website (for beginners) in a way that won’t get your site into trouble with Google and will help your rankings improve and should deliver very targeted traffic. I’ve also re-published some linkbuilding tips from the Hobo SEO Blog archives that are still valid.

A Basic Quick Linkbuilding Intro

• If a low quality site wants to link to you from a page with 100 links on it you can basically forget it as the strength of the link is shared by, well, 100 others!
• You should try to get your website into the good ‘neighbourhoods’ of your industry. Try and get links from the neighbourhoods at the top of Google for your key phrases after all Google likes these sites enough to rank them! Find that circle of sites where all the big boys in your industry link to and are linked from and get involved. Don’t worry too much about “theme” of websites linking to you though – as this is well, a bit, unproven. Good for traffic though!
• See who links to your competitors and try and get a link as well (or ask to have those links replaced with yours) 
• Use Yahoo and type “link:yourcompetitors.com” and see who links to them. Yahoo is kind enough to rank pages virtually by the number of back-links sites have in site explorer – making it one of my most used seo tools.
• Join Social Networks, not for the links themselves, but to get your content noticed so real sites link to you!
• A link is a link. If someone, anyone wants to link to you accept, just don’t always reciprocate with a link back to them (may negate the value of the link ) and could see your site lose trust. Remember Google says it is impossible for a site to hurt your site by simply linking to your site, but you can hurt your site if you link to another site with a ‘shady’ backlink profile.
• It doesn’t hurt to get a link from a low or high Google Page Rank page. Today’s No-PR page might be a PR 5 page in reality, as Google Toolbar Pagerank is out of date.
• So if you have a site about Dogs you might want to link out to Crufts or the Kennel Club or Wiki a good one. Naturally, you should also get relevant sites to link to you. If you have a costume website, find a costume website you can add your url to for free. Again though, this is a bit unproven – and hard to prove! Good for user satisfaction though!
• Good Google rankings is not all about who you get a link from (although it manly is!) it’s who you link to – this is thought to be the measure of the trust of a site and seems fairly reasonable to me. Link to authority sites in your industry as well as other sites that look like quality upcoming sites, and stay clear of suspect sites.

Obviously I assume you have a blog with original content on it! And remember it’s quality of links not quantity. If I was to sum it up, i’d say – get links from real sites.

I’ve got some articles that might illustrate how to get links, and how to make links, but in a responsible way. I’m not about to give other sites headaches because in the end, the more people know about certain links, the faster their worth evaporates.

Remember to subscribe and you’ll get a free seo ebook of our Google SEO for beginners primer.

Linkbuilding Strategies & Opinion

1. Should You Buy Links To Improve Rankings In Google? Short answer – it’s against Google TOS – so watch out!
2. Link Building Is Easy When You Have Content Worth Linking To It’s all about content these days – on your sites and others!
3. Link Pages Suck! Google hates links pages!
4. Stop Building Crap Links Content! Content! Content! Don’t build links to crap sites
5. Get Links From Universities Easy way to get authority links if you are a real company
6. Tell The World About Your Site But Dont Ask For Links Read between the lines when Google gives advice about linkbuilding!
7. Limit Anchor Text Links To 55 Characters In Length? There might be a limit on the actual amount of words you can use in a link – keep it short.
8. Get Quality Back Links The Top Competition Has A simple strategy to get decent links the competition has already
9. How I Got 500 Real Backlinks Quickly A quick tip illustrating a strategy I used.
10. Finding Suspended Websites & Link Opportunities With Google
11. Reciprocal Links – Good Or Bad – One way links might be better, but reciprocal linking between websites is often natural
12. Syndicate Your Content Via RSS! Ensure your site is syndicating your content properly.
13. Buying Old Domains & Redirect Them to keep good google rankings
14. Links From Unrelated Sites Are’nt All Bad
15. Getting Links From Directories – pretty low quality if you ask me
16. Do Article Submissions & Press Releases Still Work? Depends largely where you submit to….
17. Links That Effect Ranking Change In Google SERPS A list of the type of links you should be aiming for….
18. Online Press Release Advice For Your Business – V Cool if you can get them syndicated to Google News
19. Commenting On Dofollow Blogs For Beginners – Don’t be a moron spammer
20. Ranking No1 In Google For Various Terms
21. 1 Blog Comment, 2 Hours Work to get one link but it was a quality link)
22. Hide Your Links & Muddy That Link Profile to stop the casual competitor cherry picking your best links!
23. Get Links From REAL Sites (IE Sites That ae not Just THERE To link to other sites)
24. What Is The Best Linking Strategy? It’s…..

Reminder: I’ve also had to be careful obviously – the more people know about actualy WHERE to get quality links, the less value they quickly become!

Yes – we are a dofollow blog (though you need to comment fast before we close the posts heh heh).

Sorry. If you’re looking for a list or directory of dofollow blogs so you can waste your time linkbuilding, you’ve came to the wrong place. I thought I’d give you some free advice and call you an amateur link builder, a pain in the arse, a timewasting human pondscum, and you look very stupid leaving those moron comments on people’s blogs.But as it’s linkbuilding month on the Hobo site, and I wanted to briefly discuss blog commenting, I will give you that free advice as one time long ago I played the dofollow links game – and they worked a bit – a couple of years ago. Andy Beard enlightened me some years ago and instead of being a dofollow blog hunter, I became a blogger.

I’m not 100% sure, but I don’t think blog comments pass that much, if any Pagerank. They may pass anchor text (I think they do), but I would have thought some smart guy at Google has worked a way to identify and reduce the weight of these links.

But, even if dofollow links pass some semblance of ranking ability, because of dofollow list spammers, most blogs dump dofollow after a while, and you’re hard earned dofollow blog comments get nofollowed. The very nature of blogs too means pages themselves usually get sucked deep into a poor architecture, and the links seem to reduce in value, and that’s only on posts!

If dofollow blogs are your only way of getting links, you might have a lot to learn – have a read of our free link building guide. A few links from a real site is much more value, even on this site, than a link in the comments.

Blog commenting is great way to introduce your site to others in your nice – don’t waste the opportunity to impress aiming for such a low quality temporal link such is a dofollow link….

EDIT – For beginners – What is a dofollow link? It’s a poor made up term that means the opposite of nofollow – ie, it is a search engine friendly link. It’s just a very low quality type of link.

PS – We use the free to download Hobo Custom Link Love to control spam and nuke human pondscum dofollow link builders, and sometimes we out idiot ninja link building commenters.

PPS – I intend to test everything I have claimed here, too.

Addition – Phil from Search Engine Optimisation (Dot) Org left the following comment I thought was worthy of a link:

I also hate the human people who feel the need to fill the “name” box with multiple keywords. On my blogs, if its not what is on your birth certificate, or something very close, then its getting removed.

Several times I’ve had to check my own sites to make sure it didn’t actually say “spam your keywords here”, and every time its not been that. I pity the fools whose “seo” tactics revolve around these tactics.

(See what you get from actually commenting on other blogs and taking part in real conversation instead of chasing dofollow links ONLY…. sometimes you get real links with decent anchor text anyway)

Any link that sends you traffic could be seen as a good link, but what are quality links, what are good links and what are crap links, when it comes to improving the actual ranking of your own pages in Google SERPS?

First, you need to be aware that the quality of a link (that effects a ranking improvement for your own site in Google) is dependant on the page and site it is on. Is the site trusted, is the page trusted, is the page in Google’s index at all, how many links point to the actual page your link is on, are people actually going to click this link (that in itself is a good measure of the quality of a link!)?

Most importantly, it’s all about the page the link is on. Just because you get a link on a high PR domain does not automatically make that a good link. It’s the page you need to be interested in.

You should have a mixture of focused anchor text links, unfocused anchor text links and URL citations (www.hobo-web.co.uk etc) in your link profile to ensure long standing rankings (ie a natural link profile).

What follows is my general rule of thumb:

1. Your internal links! Not THE most important links, but the best place to start. Get your site in order before you get links. Google loves a good site structure with plenty of text links pointing to each page on your site. I prefer a minimal sitewide navigation and a lot of in content links if you have a lot of useful content, and I consider all the time if Google is only counting the first link on a page. Don’t forget to link to your important pages often – ENSURE your get them into Google’s index in the first place.
2. Links on mainstream news sites, and other types of authority sites – or in short, links from Brands – the holy grail in my opinion – promotion, old style. Purely because they are trusted and have a lot of links to them.
3. Related industry site (the aim of seo, and excellent quality, but depends on the site, niche and the type of link – can be very useful) – usually, they too have a lot of links.
4. Link on a high PR old style aged trusted page – like a university resource page – excellent if you can get the webmaster to link to you
5. Links from unrelated sites (depends on the site and the type of link – can be very useful for improving your Google ranking & PR)
6. Link on a blog post (good, dependant on the site, but easily deteriorates over time as a post is gobbled up in sometimes very crap site architecture – a link (in the actual post, not the comments) on the Hobo blog however is a decent link, I’ve tested it, and can be as valuable as 2-3 TPR points.
7. Dofollow Blog Comments (low quality in terms of PR and trust transference, decent anchor text transference if you can get it)
8. Social media site links (opinion, I think these are pretty low quality, but they do get your page out there and of course, it depends on wether it’s a popular piece or not – at any rate, it’s a very temporal effect and it looks like what you end up with is nothing less than a directory style and weighted link from the actual social media site)
9. Site wide links & blogrolls (generally low quality in terms of anchor text transferrance – used to be good for PR transference but not nearly as effective as it used to be)
10. Article submission sites – dependant on the quality and syndication exposure of the site in question, can be useful but usually low quality. Syndicating to these sites can have some cool effects, for now.
11. Directory Links (low quality, perhaps useful when you have a weight of links – depends on the quality of  the directory)
12. Forum Signatures (generally low quality, dependant on page and forum, perhaps dependant on number of links too)
13. Link on a useful links page (very low quality)
14. Reciprocal link on a links page (very very low quality)
15. Nofollowed links (like those on most blog comments – useless (though can be used to generate traffic if you link to a popular blog post or comment on one)

Tha above is a general rule of thumb I think and of course based on my experience – some people will obviously agree or disagree based on their experiences. As with a lot of seo, identifying good links is a very time consuming task – Google is always moving the goalposts.

Remember too though links need to be complimented by well structured title tags, good content, and a good site architecture.

For me, another rule of thumb is the easier a link is to get, the LESS quality it is and you won’t get a better links than from a REAL site.

Part of Free Linkbuilding Tips month at Hobo

The answer is yes, suprememly well in terms of promoting your site rather than improving your website ranking in Google. The question is, where you syndicate your articles to, and in turn, which news and press outlets pick those articles up for maximum exposure, and also if those articles on the submission site have a chance of ranking themselves.

I avoid article submision sites these days, although they can still be useful. The problem is the competiton is so intense in these places, why bother if you can cut them out altogether?

The first place for your articles is your own blog, next, it’s getting those article noticed via social media sites and your articles syndicated to other sites. I’ve done that a lot in the past on this blog, but shortly, I’m going to spend a bit of time away from the blog, and add articles to other sites and do a few guest posts I have lined up to get more traffic ultimately, to this blog.

I don’t do mass article spinning, each article is unique. I want the actual article to rank and the links to my client website to count for something, every time, so I minimise duplicate content issues by rewriting everything. I prefer to do HOW TO articles, or Press releases that point out USEFUL CONTENT on a particular site. I also limit the number of articles on one PR release site before I move on to another to maximise ranking ability for individual articles.

One thing to note about article syndication is your capturing traffic for another site, which does it’s best to nick the attention of your hard earned visitor to it’s own content. So 500 people might read your article and only 10 people might actually click through to your website. If you’re seeking attention and mindshare, that might be useful for people to be reading your content, but the point of the article and the call to action need to be thought out extremely carefully.

In summary, I’d rather create articles than chase directory linkbuilding strategies.

This post was part of link building strategies month at Hobo.

UPDATE: See this.

Directory Submissions – Are Directory Links Still Worth It? The problem with trying to answer such a generic question is that not all directory sites are treated equally. Some are good sites, and some are spam. Inbetween the vast majority of directories are just so wide in depth and so narrow in keyword diversity and so strung out in terms of pagerank (or ranking ability) and full of pages Google doesn’t want to list in search results to make them very low quality links to your site.

From my experience (and I’ve tested recently) I’ve never seen a site penalised by MANUAL directory submissions to any directory site nor by building these links over time. On the other hand, I’ve never seen a site really benefit from having a lot of directory links in the last couple of years. Perhaps there’s a massive grey area between these two that means spammy tactics actually would give you a better result, but i don’t know, I’ve not pushed in this direction for years.

The time spent manually submitting to directories is often better spent elsewhere like adding a page to your blog and hoping you get somebody to link to it.

Niche Local business directories are another matter though. If there’s a local business directory for your area, you should be in it especially if it’s unpaid.

If you have an exact match domain, that might be another reason for you to consider directory link building strategies.

One thing’s for sure, most directories send you little or no traffic and on their own in little numbers have little impact in SERPS.

The only directory I use (every now and again) at the moment is Yahoo, and generally, that’s for brand new sites or sites with low quality or no incoming links. Results can vary dependent on of course the levels of competition in your niche.

• I don’t pay any directory, other than Yahoo, to be listed (and for brand new sites and even then, I question the actual cost/roi more and more) – Hobo does not have a link in it as I knew I was going to actively add content / linkuild to pick up links and I wouldn’t expect any ranking imporvement by getting it listed now (20,000 links later)
• Dmoz is worth considering in a long term strategy – submit to Dmoz and forget it – but one other tip if you want to become an editor if you are a SEO – LIE THORUGH YOUR TEETH ON THE SUBMISION FORM AT EVERY STEP if you want listed!

In summary – I wouldn’t bother with directory links at all if you’re actively linkbuilding. Better to get those links elsewhere.

Directory link building can be good for muddying your link profile in a long term strategy.

This post was part of Hobo link building strategies month.

Update – Eric Ward knows a thing or two about link building and I found this recent article of his a good read and it’s largely about buidling links via directory submissions – What If Everything You Knew About Linkbuilding Was Wrong (I think about this a couple of times a day lol)

You do not always need to get links from related sites (in your niche, subject area) to rank better in Google.

I’ve engineered better rankings for sites getting links from unrelated sites so I would say getting links from unrelated sites is not a bad thing in itself.

It really depends on the sites in question, what you’re linking to, and the intent.

It’s a bit of a band-aid though. I’ve only used that method for clients who seem incapable or unwilling to add content to their site and to be honest I am moving away from those kind of clients all the time.

For maximum impact, it’s far more important to try and aim for links from related pages at least – ie a page with a good page title etc with your desired keywords in it.

A link on a page on an unrelated website with a measure of domain trust / authority discussing your subject area is worth it’s weight in Gold. I’ve actually increased rankings from unrelated pages too, though.

I am not saying don’t get links from related sites – the audience and traffic possibilities alone make links from related sites worth it. I’m just saying links from unrelated sites work just as well sometimes.

The same goes for linking to unrelated sites.

And I’m not advising getting links from unrelated sites or to use this strategy as the only linkbuilding strategy you employ, in case I upset the white hat shock troops.

I just think a link from any real site is a decent link.

It’s easy for seo to advise “get links from related sites….” – it’s safe, it’s what Google wants to see, it seems to compliment some of Google’s ranking algorithms – that’s why they do it.

Just don’t discount links from unrelated sites as useless – they are clearly not.

Someone asked me why should they vary anchor texts in linkbuilding.

Imagine you could see Googlebot record your links as it finds them by spidering sites in real time.

Even, consider, that’s your link profile recently generated.

Hmmm. I wonder how hard it is for the brainiest people in search to pick out your natural links and ignore / devalue the rest -but can you spot the worthwhile manufactured link that might slip past?

Unatural mass link aquisition might well be discounted or be totally ignored. I think it totally depends on the site you are getting the links from though. 5 trusted sites? Hell, don’t bother mixing that anchor text up at all.

Most times you need a gun at a gun fight, but you have to do it smarter than the above in 2009.

Note – This is a visualisation I use. I don’t know if this is the way it actually works of course, nobody does. (Check out our beginner’s guide to search engine optimisation for more).

Originally Published on: Jan 15, 2009 @ 13:00
Republished as part of Hobo Link Building For Beginners Month

While looking at your competitors backlinks can give you an idea of the content that attracts backlinks, and the type of sites that will link to you, if you’re actively adding content to your site, and building links in an intelligent manner over time, you don’t need to know a thing about your competitors backlinks to compete with them.

And you don’t ever need to get the same backlinks as your competitors.

If you’re adding content to your site or supplying a particular service, somebody out there will link to your site, or you can manufacture links yourself.

It might even serve you better to go outwith your niche and get better backlinks from trusted sites.

One of my friends from the social networks I participate in, Wiep Knol, has collated an excellent article on link building techniques.

You might want to check it and the others he mentions;

1. 69 Link Building Tactics For 2009
2. 101 link building tips to market your website 2006
3. 131 legitimate link building strategies 2002

All worth a read, especially for beginners, as the key to good stable rankings in Google’s organic listings is still solid linkbuilding strategies.

Meanwhile, visit Weip’s link building blog or subscribe to his blog here for more juicy articles like his linkbuilding or link value factors articles.

Originally Published on: Dec 3, 2008 @ 20:35
Republished as part of Hobo Linkbuilding Tips and Tactics Month