Blog SEO Tips: SEO Link Building
It’s time once again for a SEO Sunday special, dedicated to links, link building, tips and good practices of linking. It is a known fact that links pointing to your blog are meant to increase its value, not only in the eyes of search engines but also when it comes to authority measuring services like Technorati.
Links are a great tool to increase you search engine ranking and your blog’s visibility, but only when the link building is done smart. Sometimes, people that heard about the importance of link building are willing to do whatever it takes to gather as many links to their websites and blogs as possible, and this is potentially damaging their rankings. So, before going any further, I’ll tell you some things that you should stay away from.
Bad link building practices
More and more link building services are promoted on forums these days. I’m sure that many of you have come across those “1000 directory links for $10″ topics. Well, some people have to make a living, and that’s not to blame, but before paying for such services you should consider a few things.
Most sellers state that links are placed in directories with page rank varying from 2 to 6/7. In most cases, this is only partially true, as that page rank value is only met on the directory’s home page and not on the actual page where your link will be placed.
Further more, these service provider will most likely submit your blog using the same title and description or at most with 2 small variations. Why is this bad? Because out of nowhere, 1000 links to your site, all containing the same information will pop up in search results. How does that sound? That sounds a bit like spam to me, so be careful with it. Link farms don’t work!
Another thing to avoid is buying or selling links through link market websites. These websites have a bad record with Google and have been penalized since their services are seen as a threat to Google’s policy about natural, relevant backlinks. So, if you care about being in Google’s grace, search engine rankings and page rank, think twice before using them.
Whenever you want to buy a link, make sure it stays between you and that website’s owner and also learn as much as you can about his website’s history and previous practices. Also, if you’re going to buy directory links, make sure you study the offer well. No serious provider will offer a good service for such a low fee. Link building through directory submissions can have positive results if managed well.
Link building: Reciprocal links
Reciprocal links are a common practice between start-up bloggers. These have less value than one way links but still can be very helpful under some circumstances. Reciprocal links ease the spider’s circulation and the page rank transfer when encountered between blogs that activate in the same niche, approach the same topics.
Link building: One way links
One way links have a stronger SEO value because they are considered more natural. Getting one way links to your blog from pages that display relevant content and also have high page rank are certain to give you a boost in search engine rankings.
If we’re talking about 100% natural links, there’s basically no way that you could control where these non-reciprocal links come from. You cannot pick the page rank or the anchor text, but still, there’s one thing you can do.
Write good quality posts as they are more likely to attract the interest of higher authority blogs and websites and so, pass some of their search engine trust to you.
Link building: Deep linking
Deep linking is one highly important factor when it comes to link building. It does not only add to the total number of link backs to your blog, but also contributes to traffic levels and increases spiders’ interest in your content, making it more likely for them to index it faster, give it more importance and check back more often to rebuild their cache.
Link building without considering deep linking is meant to fail. Again, great content is one powerful tool to attract such links.
More good linking practices
Consider building a strong internal linking system. Make sure you use relevant anchor text whenever linking to you own post. Do so to ease up spiders’ discovery and navigation through your blog.
Also, if you’re one of those link-love givers, at least do it right. Take 5 more seconds to add at least a relevant title to that external link if not a good anchor text. It costs you nothing but helps the receiver a lot. After all, that’s what link love is supposed to be about, a way to show appreciation.
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I have to say, these services offering the world for a few cents do annoy me. They are offered for most fields, from SEO to PR and Marketing and many more. The quality is almost inexistent and still, when faced with normal prices, clients feel the urge to go for the cheap magical solution.
Great collection of link building tips! I hope you get to expand all these topics in the Sundays to come
You are totaly right as usual. I allways enjoy reading your blog. I have a question for you, if a plugin is created that erases the nofollow rel from the link of a comment authour would that help the author and if yes, would that help the site that has this plugin? I have my seo tricks, but mostly in web developing, not in linkage and stuff.
@Alina: Thanks, the series will continue.
@stfalx: My opinion on do follow link for comment authors is not favorable. Although, the goal of doing it is noble, it encourages spam and worthless comments. I don’t like that, but I know that my best commentators deserve some rewards. If you leave a good comment, you’ll notice by the fact that it gets me into conversation. Also, some commentators are rewarded through links in certain posts, wherever they fit the topic. I sincerely believe that a natural in-text link is much more powerful and keeps the comment quality higher.
Alex,
Thanks so much for these SEO tips. I’m in a niche where I myself don’t want to recognized as much as the content of my blog. I want people to find good teaching on the topic, not recognize me.
So at first it was hard for me to dive into wanting to optimize my blog, but your posts convinced me of the importance and I just wanted to say thanks, because in about four days after starting to optimize (I’ve always written good, thorough content, using the all-in-one SEO pack, writing a good desciription, etc) my blog has now climbed from Google search page 9 to page 6 and is still climbing. So thanks so much for your tips, they work!
Scratch that – I’ve now moved to page 2. Your tips really work. Thanks very much!
Ryan, I am really glad that these posts have been of help to you. While these are not “out of this world” tips, they still are basic things that many people ignore and can make the difference between success and failure. Congratulations on your “SEO achievement”!
“Deep Linking” is an excellent way to shine a little new light on an older post that never quite seemed to get its due share of exposure. Sometimes the very blog entries that you’re most proud of are the ones that seem to go unnoticed…
I like to use “deep linking” in the “website” box when posting comments on blogs. Linking directly to an individual post on your blog (rather than the home page) is a great way to direct visitors to an article that’s specifically related to the topic on which you’re commenting.
You should “deep link” back to your own older posts from within newer posts whenever appropriate. Not only does this give search engines another path to dig into, but, more importantly, it prompts your readers to explore your older posts.
Provided that you don’t go overboard with this, it’s also a good idea to update older blog posts to provide a link forward from them to newer, related posts. I’m not talking about doing a major overhaul a la George Lucas, just a minor tweak. I don’t do this often, but on posts where I have done so, I’ve indicated it with a little red “Update” notation. (You can take a look at my FiveFingers For Your Ten Toes article for an example. Oooh, see that? I just “deep linked!”)
Thanks for sharing. Search engine optimization is indeed one of the most crucial areas in Internet marketing, it is a perfect bridge between technology and business.
I like the article but it would be nice to go a little more indepth. I dont know what deep linking is.. be sweet if ya made a new blog about it and linked it on this page
I agree with blogs seem the way to go. It seems as if some SEO stay away from blogs. I have seen a lot of websites rank better with a blog, especially those using your blog.
Your link to the SEO blog we should keep our eye on doesn’t seem to be there as of 2/8/09.
I thought I would let you know. Nice and informative site by the way.
Unknown Nobody Thanks for letting me know. Link removed.
Everyone, thanks for your comments.
I have been experimenting with this very same thing on multiple different fronts. Link building I think has taken a back burner to google lately but only time will tell. Thanks for the good read.
I only recently discovered blog comment linking. If and if only done properly, it can’t generate quite some valuable inbound links. And it’s cheap.
how about exchange link? because I had many bloggers newbie do that. and some times they offer me to exchange too, how I receive that?
@Hanif: Link building works best when you get natural links (links that you don’t pay for or are not exchanged) If Google finds out that you have participated in a link exchange or link farm, your site may get banned. Matt Cutts explains in this video how you can build natural links: http://blog.directorymaximizer.....-building/