Link Building

[cc976a]

Thought it would be really useful if perhaps collectively we could share a tip or two on building good (quality) backlinks.

It is becoming harder and harder for us all to build good quality links (or to rephrase market our sites) making sure G doesn't penalize and to ensure the links we're getting will be seen by our target audience (not just a directory where the only visitors are tumbleweeds and the GBot)

Yes building backlinks should be about awareness, social signals, PR, marketing and promotion......but what type of things would you do for a newer less established site?

First tip from me would be to use a tool such as Market Samurai, Majestic SEO or even G and Y to look at who's linking to your competitors or those in top 3 positions - run checks on those URLs for social signals, PageRank, how reputable those sites are......and then see if there are ways you can also become listed or shown

 

[vizzo]

Well here's an idea from the blackhat department:
Build another related site with some decent related content. On a different ip address etc. Get loads of links spammy or not to point to your second site and then link from that to your main site.

 

[Murray]

Expired domains Id say are the best way currently.

Not cheap If you're buying instead of catching, but being able to manage and control a number of sites in a niche that have legitimate history and quality links from .gov, ac.uk, national news papers etc is a pretty handy/powerful tool

 

[xstu74]

Don't is the best answer at present or at least for the next few months, concentrating on content and social signals is the safest method for the time being. All areas of known link building is going to be tested with the new generation of updates being rolled out this summer. I'm in test mode on a few sites that have performed extremely well since November but in a few weeks time they maybe no were to be seen.

 

[Blossom]

Lol social signals.

 

[xstu74]

Lol social signals.

Agreed, but they play there part now and definitely will more as time goes on.

Id concentrate on your cleaning up existing back link profiles and by removing shitty links were possible looks like they have away to take down clean Tier 1 links backed up by spammy 2nd and 3rd tiers.

 

[boxfish]

I've ranked crappy sites and legit sites and one of the main difference that gets results imo is:

Business Name
Address
Contact email (not just a form)
Telephone number

Not only on the site you are trying to rank but on any directories/profiles/social media accounts.

Obviously just putting those on isn't going to instantly transfer you to #1 but you can have a much worse backlink profile with them than without them and still rank.

With regards to expired domains and buffer sites above - they aren't 'quality links' they are just something that currently work, like web 2.0, profile and blog comments used to.

 

[cc976a]

I've ranked crappy sites and legit sites and one of the main difference that gets results imo is:

Business Name
Address
Contact email (not just a form)
Telephone number

Not only on the site you are trying to rank but on any directories/profiles/social media accounts.

Obviously just putting those on isn't going to instantly transfer you to #1 but you can have a much worse backlink profile with them than without them and still rank.

With regards to expired domains and buffer sites above - they aren't 'quality links' they are just something that currently work, like web 2.0, profile and blog comments used to.

Interesting.

On contact page ok, or preferably home page (e.g. Site-wide footer)?

 

[Murray]

I've ranked crappy sites and legit sites and one of the main difference that gets results imo is:

Business Name
Address
Contact email (not just a form)
Telephone number

That sounds a lot like a superstition rather than anything tangible.

With regards to expired domains and buffer sites above - they aren't 'quality links' they are just something that currently work, like web 2.0, profile and blog comments used to.

It's a different because the expired domains have quality behind them.

What I like to think about SEO is that it should be a way of getting the ball rolling.. a kick start.

One you start ranking hopefully the quality/usefulless/appeal of your site will be that once you get start getting visitors it will snowball into be shared and linked to and you wont have to need to game it anymore.

 

[Blossom]

One you start ranking hopefully the quality/usefulless/appeal of your site will be that once you get start getting visitors it will snowball into be shared and linked to and you wont have to need to game it anymore.

Unless you're working in a competitive niche.

 

[Murray]

Unless you're working in a competitive niche.

Well yeah, but to be honest I try not to bite off more than I can chew.

In context though I thought this discussion was based around diy seo.

 

[boxfish]

Interesting.

On contact page ok, or preferably home page (e.g. Site-wide footer)?

Wherever it suits the site/copy.

That sounds a lot like a superstition rather than anything tangible.

Just my experience but the presumed theory behind it makes sense to me.

I'm obviously not saying you need it to rank but looking more like an 'actual' business can't hurt - maybe it's just more noticeable in the areas I work in.

 

[roydovaston]

When you talk about social signals do you mean one of the factors is the amount of likes/follows? I also presume you mean shares. A simple Likes campaign on Facebook generates lots of new Likes and then the possibility of shares too. Surely this cannot be a ranking factor? If so just stop buying links and start buying Facebook Likes!!!

Maybe i've misunderstood social signals?

 

[Blossom]

When you talk about social signals do you mean one of the factors is the amount of likes/follows? I also presume you mean shares. A simple Likes campaign on Facebook generates lots of new Likes and then the possibility of shares too. Surely this cannot be a ranking factor? If so just stop buying links and start buying Facebook Likes!!!

Maybe i've misunderstood social signals?

'Social signals' are mostly a myth. Many of the tests surrounding things like tweets are misleading. A popular test is to tweet a link to a page and ask people to RT it - they then find that the page improves its rankings temporarily. But what isn't taken into consideration is external factors - for example that lots of people have their most recent tweets displayed on their websites with dofollow links to any URLs. So the benefits often come from links on people's sites, not the tweets themselves. Not to mention that RTs mean more people see the content, which mean more people are likely to link to it organically (you might consider that an indirect social advantage, but not a social signal to search engines in and of itself).

Google+ is good if you have a following - the more people in your circles, the more people will be shown personalised Google results favouring your URL and your shares (particularly if they only have a limited number of circled pages and people themselves). But this is direct manipulation and relies on users being logged into their Google accounts when searching.

I'd say Facebook is amongst the most useless - tweets tend to get indexed a lot more, and Facebook's partnership with Bing means that Google is not really going to get that involved. If you're interested in optimising for Bing it might be worth keeping an eye on, but Bing's technology and algorithms are much less sophisticated than Google's and exact match domains give you a much bigger advantage - you don't need to waste time with social.

I agree it will be more useful in future, but at the moment it's all just too easy to fake.

 

[roydovaston]

Thanks blossom, very informative! It seems that there is some value in retweet competitions then in your opinion?

 

[Blossom]

Thanks blossom, very informative! It seems that there is some value in retweet competitions then in your opinion?

For SEO purposes I would prioritise on-page stuff and link building before anything social.

If you're focusing on branding and PR though, a social competition is a good idea (but only after your on-page work is done).

 

[xstu74]

Since the beginning of the year i do no new linking to existing sites which has paid off as my sites have all gained significant gains in rankings with the anticipated major updates coming along i decided to leave them alone. All i have done is concentrate on page that's it.

Some things work for some that don't work for others, whether i lose or gain in the next round of updates is anyone's guess.

The reason i mentioned social media is for me it worked but maybe not for everyone

 

[martin-s]

It's important to remember..

Links are a means for generating rankings
Which are a means for generating traffic
Which is a means for generating enquiries or other relationships
Which are a means for generating business

Facebook and Twitter engagement are a means for generating traffic and relationships in their own right. (E.g. mentioning competitions to drive traffic where entries help grow an email newsletter list.)

It doesn't always have to come back to links and Google

 

[Murray]

and Twitter engagement are a means for generating traffic and relationships in their own right. (E.g. mentioning competitions to drive traffic where entries help grow an email newsletter list.)

It doesn't always have to come back to links and Google

The only thing about social media is it's people that "might" be interested in your site and it's products/services.

Whereas people searching google are looking for your products and services.

It's good for brand promotion and awareness though obviously.

But for traffic converting into sales you can't beat big G.

 

[xstu74]

The only thing about social media is it's people that "might" be interested in your site and it's products/services.

Whereas people searching google are looking for your products and services.

It's good for brand promotion and awareness though obviously.

But for traffic converting into sales you can't beat big G.

Social is a great and safe way of generating additional business, were as at this point in time there is no guaranteed safe way of link building. if you can retain rankings on existing sites without building new links at this point its the safest way forward until we have a better understanding of were we are in a few weeks time.