How to Link Build in Google

Lately there has been plenty of ranking changes in Google attributed to the change of value given to certain links. What many SEOs have long prepared for is finally come to fruition in Google.

Here are some fundamental keys to linking and ranking victory in Google. It's a quick version but nonetheless accurate to my observations and those in the field.

The following items have significantly reduced values in terms of link weight (and by link weight I mean how much PR juice is sent to the recipient.)

1) Directory submissions. Completely irrelevant. Have you ever seen your links from directories in the GOogle webmaster consoles? I have, a handful; not 500 like some promise to get. Drop $15 for an offshore directory submitter to submit to 500 directories and leave it be.

DO however, focus on local directories and niche market directories. They tend to have slightly higher values, but again, it's a directory.

DO purchase paid for directories if you have an extensive budget. DON'T bother otherwise. YOu can get buy just fine without paying 1000/year on directory links in business.com, botw, and Yahoo.

Summary: Directories can be ignored regarding their value to pass PR juice. Tiny niche market web sites may benefit more than medium sized web sites from directory links. Major corporate web sites who have the budget should acquire the links from paid directories since the competition is also participating in those locations.

2) Writing Articles for ezines. It's come to pass in the past 3 years that ezine directories are going in the same direction as regular directories. Web sites with extensive ezine links are being canned to the bottom of the SERP barrel because these links are slowly becoming USELESS.

Small market niche's will benefit from the brief boost of one way links. One article that's the same across 50 ezines will be placed in the supplementals thereby removing PR relevance. Changing the article and article title between each ezine will increase the value of the PR passed to your site.

Summary: Still a bare minimum method of getting one way links for sm. to medium web sites. Big sites can steer clear. In total maybe 2-5 total articles to be submitted over 4 months.

3) Commenting for links: Commenting on blogs for links is moot since nofollow. Bloggin on your own blog very class and very worthy, more on this later.

You could search for .edu or .gov blogs that don't have no follow. Typically if they are popular enough to not have old posts in the SERPS they will have Nofollow on blog links. You can also look for those who participate in 'ifollow'--the mvmt against nofollow.

4) Forum links. Again no worthy since nofollow. Some forums permit one-four links in the signature without nofollow. Value to your rankings is almost zero (but slightly higher than a directory link). Good way to expose yourself to likeminded industries and customers.

Summary: Forums are useful not for the links, but to expose yourself to your clients, learn what they think and what they want.

5) Email marketing: a targeted email list is a great resource, however, value to link building is minimal.

6) Guestbook: gone the way of the dodo, don't invest.

7) Press Release. Press releases are here to stay, but the thing is, the release eventually is put in the supplementals because there are 1000s being released daily. It's still a great way to get exposure and promotion. It is quite valuable in small market niche's where you do'nt have much information about products/services.

Approach the PR release in a similar way to ezines: don't submit the same thing with the same title to everyone. Mix it up to increase chances of not getting into the supplemental results.

8) Reciprocal links. Valuable if they are worthy to your consumers/visitors. More valuable with web sites with higher PR (but harder to get).

9) banner ads, ads. Not a great way for links but good way to expose yourself and your brand to targeted audiences.

10) Purchasing links. If Google devalues all the methods of getting links quick and easy that means there are two methods left to get links that won't be devalued:

1. Buy them
2. Write for them

Purchasing links still remains a viable method of getting ranks faster than the competition with a smaller links building budget. Quite simply, corporations with marketing dollars can rank easily over competition that doesn't have the cash. It used to be a fact that SEO broke down positional advantages online, but now, more money (which is not accessible to small firms) will mean buying more links = better ranks, period. Thanks a bunch google.

11)edu and gov links. These are tied with my conclusion.

*Note* TLD DOES NOT HAVE AN IMPACT ON PR JUICE PASSED TO YOUR WEB SITE. .com .net or .anything will have the same value of PR juice passed if all things are equal. It just so happens that .edu and .gov links have great content not found elsewhere and hence many links. Any dot com like that would reap the EXACT benefits.

Any SEO who believes otherwise is confused.


12) Social media - great way to target specific audiences, get one way links, and get lots of traffic quick (but brief.) this method is tied with the conclusion.

Conclusion:

All of our old methods are pretty much gone. There are some other ways of getting links not mentioned here, but for the most part I've covered it. What does that leave us? Buying links and WRITING FOR THEM.


Super, great, relevant, unique, valuable CONTENT is the single best way to get links. PROMOTING that content is also equally crucial.

What do you need to do? Before heading into the foray invest time to discover WHERE your market hangs out. If it's techies, then Digg is the place. If it's newshounds, perhaps newsvine,.... there are countless social media outlets out there with a specific audience. Find your audience (maybe it's connected to an active forum you participate in).

When you find your audience, where they hang, and what they want, you can write content for them and market them that content. Don't write about llamas and submit it to digg. No matter how great your article is nobody will care cause it's in the wrong location.

Great links related to great content is the wave of the future. Get on that train, if you don't know where your markets are then you need to quit now or find someone who can identify markets and where they are so you can get links.

Any 'SEO' that still exclusively favours the above techniques (1-11) is behind the game. Period.

And now it's time for lunch, perhaps I'll blog about it.

This is one cool stuff...Very informative and lots of ideas given.. thanks for sharing!

Great, I can learn a lot from the post. Thank you

Good Compilation DJ..



Well Ummm Perhaps, Not exclusively, But I still favor a few of them..

1. Reciprocal, If I get some, I do accept after a prior checkup of the neighbourhoods, quality, content, IP etc.

2. Forum postings, not for backlinks, but sometimes nice content is available

3. Guestbooks hehehethey are out, but some crazy BH dudes still do it for PR. I dont do it, though I have tried that one.

4. E-mail marketing.. hmmm Response rate and links conversion rate is quiet low, Yes, most of the time is waste, still if 30-40 quality links drop down to our list per month, then aint big loss either..

5. Article writting is good, only if artilce stays on your own site. it can act as a nice link bait if done properly.

Well Like I said, Not exclusively, but they still take a little time out of my schedule till I am getting something reasonable in return.

Without any doubts, all the points u mentioned will be extinct in the long run, so its a nice call for alerting everyone out there to move on and adapt to the next gen of SEO coming ahead.

I'll too shift the strategies, once the juice from those methods gets completely drid out..

Regards
LKS

Wow, a very useful post, many many good link exchange advices. Thank you !!!

Great stuff !!! thanks a lot for sharing.

Great post... I have been screaming content and the marketing of that content for years... People, due to Google moves, are finally starting to listen.

I have one caveat on your post in the area of SERP placement:

"11)edu and gov links. These are tied with my conclusion.

*Note* TLD DOES NOT HAVE AN IMPACT ON PR JUICE PASSED TO YOUR WEB SITE. .com .net or .anything will have the same value of PR juice passed if all things are equal. It just so happens that .edu and .gov links have great content not found elsewhere and hence many links. Any dot com like that would reap the EXACT benefits.

Any SEO who believes otherwise is confused."

I would add to #11: Although PR juice being passed will be the same, it is likely that the "trust rank" of a .edu or .gov will be higher, on average, in the Google SERP algo than any other tld. This will likely add to higher relevancy scores in the SERP placement calculation only because of that trust.

Right, but IMHO that trust rank would be acquired by the quality of links pointing to it.

I believe that if a .com or .net has more quality authority links pointing to it then it might have a higher trust rank than that of an .org or .gov

After all it's the links that matter and it's just that .gov and .org sites tend to have higher quality content that attracts more links naturally. IMO TLD alone doesn't matter much.

Let me know if I am right or wrong.

You will have to read my post more closely:

"...it is likely that the "trust rank" of a .edu or .gov will be higher, on average, in the Google SERP algo than any other tld."

There are always exceptions... but "on average" a .gov or .edu will carry more trust.

Got you...thanks

Never said they were bad, just don't build campaigns aroudn them. I reciprocal link when it's good content.



Waste of time, not worthy.



Like I said, good tool to convert sales, not a method of link building.



That's what I said, ezine submissions is going away though.



They have been nearly dried out. All those above consist of maybe 10% of the overall strategy for medium to competitive web sites/industries. (We can debate on the percentage).

90% is writing great content and getting your users to notice and link to it. Yes friends, SEO is getting harder.

BUt honestly, for tiny mom and pops and local markets, some basic tactics will push you ahead nicely.

This is definitely true. In less competitive niches, especially local service providers and products the old tactics can still be very effective.

Not completely, But yes upto some extent, Umm depends on competition actually, If it gets harder harder and harder, then IMHO everything needs a trial atleast along with some bombastic content, and quality links...

Well no arguement at the point, coz its for sure, those methods will go extinct quiet soon..

Hence, overall a nice compilation and a brief time travel to the future thanks DJ

thanks for the update. The next big thing to write is a summary on all the social bookmarking site sand their target audiences.

I am a firm believer that sometime in the future the social tags will play a much larger role in the SERPs. If the Search Engines are looking for what people feel are relevent, this would be the next logical step.

But we will see.....

Great Post! Thanks.... Content + Conversion is KING!