Building Links, Buying Links and Social Bookmarks for Better SERPs

Its been awhile since I gave some good juice away, and I've gotten a few PM's regarding the SBM test I ran a few months back, so here you go;

Social bookmarks are a quick way to get a short term boost in the SERP's. In my experience Yahoo and MSN show the impact in 2-3 weeks and Google takes a week more. The boost last anywhere between 3 to 6 weeks.

It's been about 5 months since I tested this so if you implement it watch it closely.

Internet Explorer, Firefox and most other browsers have an "add a tab" option, but I use Firefox because I can bookmark the login pages in one file, then "open all tabs" in one click. I also use roboform to fill everything in automatically when the window is opened. From here I click on each tab and in most cases, if you set it up right, Roboform will have already logged you in. Otherwise you're on the login page and by clicking on the Roboform button everything is prefilled, all you need to do is click submit. (Some of the bookmark sites will allow you to add their button into your browser bar, or you can get an extension from Firefox like the Digg add-on to make things quicker).

Install the Google Toolbar. It has a bookmark function as well, and you can import all your bookmarks from Firefox directly into it. Google looks at many different things when assigning rank and trust. For instance, when you search for something and go into a website, Google will remember how long you stayed, how deep you went, and if you came back out into the search to select another site, which means you didn't find what you were looking for. This is all part of the Privacy Issues that have been in the news.

Here's what Google actually says! "The Google Toolbar automatically sends only standard, limited information to Google, which may be retained in Google's server logs. It does not send any information about the web pages you visit (e.g., the URL), unless you use Toolbar's advanced features." - They practically spell it out for you. Use their bookmark feature just like you were doing the social bookmarking I outlined above. This is just one more click.

Some of the elements that Google looks at when grading a website are;
• How much time did the average visitor spend on the site?
• What is the bounce rate on the landing page?
• How many end-users bookmarked the page?
• How many users returned to the search query and then on to a different site?

Each time you publish an article put a Google Alert on a unique phrase. Each time Google sends you an alert, bookmark it on every bookmark site. This will take some getting used to, but will eventually become second-nature.

When you start seeing traffic coming in and your SERPs getting better you will use the heck out of this. I'm waiting for someone to come out with software that will automate this process completely, but by the time that hits nofollows may come into play. But for the time being it works and it works well.

(Update: Found one - Bookmark Demon and Blog Comment Demon. It automates the process.)

The use of NoFollows and DoFollows has been highly debated recently. So until I can test theories I use a mix of both when I do social bookmarking as well as link building of any kind.

Until tested I have been using a 60/40 split. 60% DoFollow and 40% NoFollow.

Here is a list of SBM sites and whether they NoFollow;
(Stupi formatting - the 'x' means they have DoFollow's)

DoFollow Website
x A1 Webmarks
x Backflip.com
x Bibsonomy.org
x Blinklist.com
x Bookmark Tracker
x Buddy Marks
x Connectedy
Connotea.org
Danogo.com
Del.icio.us
Digg.com
x Diigo.com
Fark.com
Faves.com
Fetch
Folkd.com
x Furl.net
Google Bookmarks
x Health Ranker
x Mister-wong.com
Mixx.com
x Myjeeves.ask.com
x MyLinkVault
x myVmarks
Netvouz.com
Newsvine.com
x OYAX
Plugim.com
Propeller.com
x Rawsugar.com
Reddit.com
Slashdot.org
Sphinn.com
x Spurl.net
Stumbleupon.com
swik.net
Symbaloo
Tagza.com
Technorati.com
Twitter.com
Wirefan.com
Ximmy



Blogs - When looking for blogs to post on I use Comment Sniper. It takes your chosen keyword and will search through MSN and Google blogs (Wordpress too!) for your keyword and come back with a long list of blogs that it found your keyword on. You can then sign up to monitor it and every 15 minutes or so it will update you on any posts that have been made the forums that you selected. You can then find out if it is a post that you can reply to and maybe get a link to one of your sites. This generally works great because these are aged pages that have earned page rank so you immediately reap the benefits on a back link on a relevant page. Many have said that with some blogs, they have a nofollow, but that doesn't take away the fact that you have a link to your site, just that the sender (blog/page) doesn't endorse your site.

One more thing regarding posting to blogs and forums. When I create an account I sign up and use a very unique member name (eg. GaryTheScubaGuy). This is because many blogs and forums have a no-follow, which means the link in your signature or on your member name won't show up. So I also sign, or add my member name to the bottom of my post, then add a Google Alert on my signature so that when Google finds the post, it will alert me, and I will then start bookmarking the forum page.
Hot Tip - Comment Sniper can be used to find aged blogs that have been abandoned but have great PR. Posting on these is a quick way to get a boost in the SERP's. Many of these older blogs were created before the addition of the nofollow tag and were not updated when this (blogger) update was released so you get 100% of the benefit rather than just the link. You can also filter the results that it returns by PR so you spend your time posting on pages with PR. Be gentle with this technique as Google has a filter in their algo that looks for spammy posts on old blogs. Be sure to post different content each time - this may or may not help.

Forums - I use the search engines 'allinurl' feature and "my keywords" to locate these forums. This will take a bit more time to establish as you need to sign up and become a member in good standing before posting any links. Some will allow you to have a screen name that you can link back to your website from, so I'll use my keywords or just a unique name (Like GaryTheScubaGuy) so that I can identify the links as they become indexed. I recommend spending the time to find a few good forums and regularly post good recommendations or advice. I've done this on SEO forums (like SEO Chat) for a long time and I have 1000's that link to my websites and forum.

Press Releases – Press releases are a fantastic viral tool that also builds links and will then increase rankings. PRWeb, and SourceWire are two that I use that will syndicate the article and redistribute it through their network that will then republish it on their websites. I’ve had one article published over 2000 times, translated and published 200+ times, made into a .doc and a .pdf which then show up in Google and MSN’s Universal or blended search. The key here is to publish the article with keyword linking on your website first (then do some bookmarking so it’s crawled by the spiders and indexed) this way you get the credit for the originator of the content and do not get penalised for duplicate content.

Sponsorship – This is a great idea if you have a local audience or international, but if your demographic is a local market you can dominate Google Local by submitting the site through local search (be sure to use very descriptive directions when submitted such as: Tom’s live bait near the Royal Armouries in South Leeds, UK, as well as putting your phone number everywhere).

In either instance; Local or International, offering a sponsorship in lieu of a dedicated page or homepage link is completely within Google’s terms of service, and will generate traffic as well as back links.

Link Buying – There are many ways to buy links, most of them are risky at best. I have found a few places to buy links and depending on client expectations and sector could be a safe bet. Professionally Stickyeyes does not participate or even condone this activity. We have spent a couple years building exclusive networks of blogs, forums, and related websites that link naturally to our clients.

There are however many organisations that do it safely enough to consider this tactic. Below is a short list of websites that do this and the type of link that they offer, as well as the risk factor from low to high. First though, let me define a few terms;
Sitewide Links – Keyword links place in the header, footer or navigation of a site that shows up on every page
InLinks or Text Links – Your hyperlinked keyword/s are inserted into existing or bespoke text.
RSS Feeds – Code placed into various websites that pull in rotating your keyword/s links
WordPress Plugin – Plug in that will replace existing keywords in existing content with your anchored keyword/s
That covers 98% of them. Now, here are a few companies that utilise these and their risk factor* ;

(*I do not condone these methods or endorse these companies! – Strictly an FYI source)
LinkXL (Risk - Low to Medium) Wordpress plug-in and Sitewide links
Text Link Ads (Risk - Medium to High) Sitewide, Inlinks and RSS feeds
Adsnu (Risk - Low) Unique Wordpress plugins and Inlinks
LinkWorth (Risk - Low to Medium) Sitewide and Inlinks
LinkedURL – (Risk - Low) Inlinks

The key to link acquisition using any of the above methods that is not done naturally through viral channels is timing. Don’t go out and throw up 10k links overnight unless they are from a great article you wrote or tool that you built. This will eliminate the need for this type of self-promotion. If you aren’t lucky enough to have access to an exclusive network or develop something virally to earn the links, be sure to do it slow and steady. Google and the rest of the search engines don’t index every page of every website in one run anyhow, so they won’t see all of them right away, but Google for instance is indexing very quickly and within days will see most of links.

I'll end this post by saying once again, I do not condone or advise anyone to employ any of these techniques from a professional standpoint, but if you have a sacrificial lamb hanging about to try them on then so-be-it.

GaryTheScubaGuy

Are you sure you wouldnt even if the client asked you to? I thought meccabingo was penalized for this?

Spose it proves dont buy, link naturally... google will hurt you if you dont. hehe

You mean to say some organization is selling link and I know Google penalize this kind of website please correct to me if I am wrong I know you are respective and very informative member of this forum.
If some thing wrong in this post then sorry..........

He means that they do it descreetly enough that google struggles to catch them out... The one thing i would think is it wouldnt suprise me if these websites, once found by google are then flagged (their IP etc) and if a website gets links on other websites from that IP they could just devalue them instantly. Kind of thing google could think up.

I have 7 directories in same ip I did interlinking each of them before this updating I have PR4 to PR2 in home page but now all directory have PR0 it means Google devalue of my directories.

Yes, this could be for various reasons.

It has been known google has devalued directories completely, unless they are strictly human edited. Or it could be because google sees them all as the same owner and so has devalued them for trying to manipulate the serps by interlinking them.

I always try to keep my websites as unrelated as possible. I have no evidence to prove this but i feel being cautious means you wont get any suprises like this later on.

Then what i should I have to remove interlink to each other or I have change my ip address?? or hosting company???

I use seperate hosting companies but it might not even be your issue, i just do it as a rule.

As a rule...no

Mecca was told that if they wanted to take this route something bad would happen. They still did it and were banned thanks to Greenlight and a loose tongue at SES in London, not Stickyeyes.

For nominal cost difference it doesn't make sense to not be on dedicated servers.

Depending on your geographic targets you may want to select individual hosting company locations as well.

They used greenlight and abandoned you guys? (or just used them for that service?) Sounds like gambling... go for the easy option instead of the hard work option.

Its only Thursday.

No we already did all the hard work for the past couple of years...white hat...and that's why they were all over the top 1-3 for that time period, and not having to spend the off line money that gala, sun and foxy were, or buying dodgy links.

sure, you guys were doing very well. Taught them a lesson though.

Well, I will be the first to thank you for the post Gary. Even though some of the info here is recycled there are always a few top points added that make it well worth reading.

It is always very difficult to talk about buying links without someone voicing their opinion on the subject. Eveybody feels different about this form of link building, so I think it was wise to raise it without giving your own.

Apologies to other posters in this thread, I miss read their posts and have re-edited mine as a consequence