Looking at Link Building Tips

By Michael Gray
In Link Development, SEO  

I’ve been busy tearing down, ripping apart, fixing, and rebuilding some of my own sites and some clients sites quite a bit lately. I’ve been neglecting my linkbuilding and decided it’s time to get back on track here are few tips you might find useful in helping you build some links.

The majority of my sites happen to be commercial in nature and unless you happen to be Amazon or Walmart you’re going to have a harder time getting links so you need to make it look like your a legitimate long term business, and not a fly-by-night thin affiliate.

Turn off or Tone Down the Ads
I know lots of people disagree with me on this and feel it’s some sort of bait and switch convincving someone your an informational site when in reality you’re an advertising site. I’ll leave them to debate the issue while I’m off building links. First turn off the Adsense, if you built your site the right way you have some way to disable it in your template or in your code. Secondly turn down the level of affiliate banner advertisements.You don’t need to eliminate them just try to look more like Main Steet than the Las Vegas Strip.

Use the Right Email
If you have more than 50 domains chances are you are forwarding all of your emails for all of your domains into a catch all account. When link building you need to get personal and go back (at least temporarily) to an individual account. You can get away with a GMail account in a pinch but it’s too big brotherish when link building for my tastes. I get much better response when using an email that’s from the domain I’m working with. You can use generic accounts like webmaster@example.com, contact@example.com, or info@example.com but I’ve found Joe@example.com, SusanSmith@example.com, and TJones@example.com get the best results.

Get Your Foot in The Door
You’re trying to establish a dialog, not blast out 10,000 “link exchanges are good for your Google page rank” type emails. I wouldn’t even mention that you are looking for a link until later on. Ask a question, point something out, or otherwise say something meaningful in your email, remember everyone is busy so be concise. Of course you will have had to actually look at the site and read a page or two, and remeber the person you are talking to may not be a check the email every 5 minutes type of person, so keep the pace a little slower.

Getting Past First Base
If you’ve gotten a response back from the person and things are going well, and “feel right” make your move asking for a link. Point out some relevant parts of your site (not your homepage) ask politely for a link. Don’t demand one, don’t write back in 2 weeks asking where your link is, or otherwise make a ding-nut of yourself. (see The Art of Writing a Good Link Request)

Moving Past Article Directories
Used properly article directories are still somewhat effective, however you need to start preparing for the day when they aren’t. I know lot’s of folks favor the blast them out over a bazillion article directories and see what sticks. I prefer cherry picking 8 or 10 who are of the right quality or in are in a specialized vertical market (look at me using big words and all). If you’re really going to work the article submission thing check out these tips from Tony Hill!

Trust by Association
As Todd recently noted Google’s Trust Knob is WAY too High. Now you can go find your mates and cry into your pint about it or you can roll up your sleeves and start working it. Find the places Google’s giving the love to like Criagslist subdomains and start spamming working it. Next start laying some of the foundation and building your own trust. Write to any colleges with pages on your subject and try to get a link to your stuff included.

Another way is to find people who are new and look like they are going to be trustworthy and get in with them on the ground floor. Just remeber choose the right Link Neighborhood.

Interviews
Give interviews, get links … get interviews, get links … interviews = links, any questions?

Related Information

• » The Art of Writing a Good Link Request – Stuntdubl – SEO Consultant
• Tony Hill’s Blog » A couple of article directory tips
• » The Trust Knob is WAY too High – Google Trustbox – Stuntdubl – SEO Consultant
• Picture of Link Neighborhoods – Jim Boykin’s Internet Marketing Blog

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