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5 Important Link Building Strategies to Kickstart your Website
Link building is a very important strategy in your search engine optimizing campaign. In the first part of my search engine optimizing tutorial, I gave you 8 SEO tips that you can implant on your website or blog. Today, we will talk about how to get quality links pointing to your website.
General Knowledge
One thing that is most important to link building is this: a few high-quality links favors numerous links of a low caliber. That means you have to search for the best links that fit the topic of your website or blog.
1. Reciprocal Links
Explaining reciprocal links is simple: you exchange links with other websites. You link to them, they link to you.
Those websites or blogs have already build a reputation in the search engine’s eyes. The SE’s trust them. When you start a new site, your site is not yet trusted. However, if you have that website linking to you, the engine know that you offer something good too. Generally, because you have good content or if you are their friends. They will easier trust you too and list you faster and better in their results. You build on the reputation of the popular website.
However, don’t think you can scream at a few of these sites and ask them for a link. You have to build a site with a good layout and content first, before they might feel about linking to you.
Here are a few pointers that you have to remember when asking for a reciprocal link exchange:
- Place a link to their website before you ask them to put a link on their website to your website.
- Be gentle.
- Make it as easy as possible for the webmaster to add the link. Provide the URL and the anchor text.
- Give them all the information they will ever need: links page, place of link, pagerank etc.
So, where to find these sites?
Be creative, that’s the keyword. Here are a few spots to get you going:
- Look around in your niche, what blogs or websites are you reading that covers the same subjects?
- Become friends with those webmasters and bloggers. Friends will help friends, right?
- Look on the sites of your competitors: who are linking to them? Find them and contact them.
- Look for sites that have already linked to a page on your website and ask them for a reciprocal link.
2. Social Media
This is the time of Social Media and I am sure many of you have an account on Digg, Delicious, Facebook or Twitter. Great. It’s time to make use of this social media to attract loads of visitors, but it also can be used to attract a number of great one-way links.
So, how does it work?
Hundreds, if not thousands of people in your niche are interested in your articles and content. The larger the number of people that read your article, the larger the number of influential bloggers and webmasters are amongst them. Those people might enjoy your article that much, that they start linking to them. Simply because your article is interesting to their visitors. That is social media.
How can I get that number of visitors from Social Media?
- If you run a company site: start a blog.
- Start writing articles about subjects in your niche.
- Try to fill up gabs that your ‘competitors’ didn’t fill.
- Write great headlines.
- Submit your content to the major social media sites and the ones that are in your niche.
Just remember, to get on the front page of the large social media sites is very hard. With submitting your article to the social media sites in your niche, you will reach the people that are interested in your article. The people that are looking for your content. If your article is good, they will vote for it and a few of them will link to you.
3. Directory Submission
In the past, directory submission was a great and important way to get a number of links pointing to your site. However, in this media age, the search engines are much more sophisticated. They won’t fall for that.
Adding your website to a number of high-quality directories however, can help you get better rankings. Make sure you search for the correct category that your website should fit in. Here are a number of directories that I feel are from a high-quality.
Adding your website to any of these directories makes your website more important in the eyes of the SE’s. Those directories are known for only publishing the best websites. If you get listed, you build your website on the reputation of that directories.
4. Guest Post on Popular Blogs
A popular blog in your niche has a large number of followers and visitors. You would like to reach this people because they are interested in your articles.
One way to reach those people is to write an article on that popular blog. When your request is honoured, you let the people out there know you exists and that you have value to provide. In return, a link and a description of your website or blog is posted above or under the article. When that articles gets a PageRank (and with popular blogs, that usually happens pretty fast), you will get a quality one-way link to your website.
Also, don’t forget the number of visitors that will click your link when your article was interesting enough. It’ll get your name out.
So, anyone wants to write for DivitoDesign?
5. Forum Signatures
If you are very passionate about your niche or subject, you already know that there are a number of great forums out there that discuss everything in your niche.
In many of these forums, you can use signature links. Sometimes these link are no-follow (which means the SE’s don’t value them for the search results), but sometimes they are normal do-follow links. If you are active in that forum and post in many conversations, more and more links from different conversations are pointing to your website. This is a good thing.
Where to find those Do-Follow forums?
Here is a small number of forums related to webdesign and media that allow do-follow links in forum signatures:
You can get more do-follow forums in this niche by visiting reading the “forums with link juice“-article.
If you are in a different niche and you wish to find do-follow forums, make sure you become active in a few forums and try it!
Any Suggestions?
As I am not the best Search Engine Optimizer there is, I am sure many of you have a lot more tips that work. I would be happy to hear them, because it will improve my own SEO-campaign, but it’ll also help the other readers.
Please leave a reply in the comment box.
Another good source of backlinks are press release submissions. Bloggers will often scan press release sites and write about them.
Nice post, but do not abuse of forum and blog comment postings. The search engines (and specially the one that counts…) can detect ‘blog or forum spamming’ and sandbox your site for that.
Yes, use it to your advantage, but keep it interesting.
I have visited many blogs and participated in blog posts but forum signatures is something I have not yet done. I will look more into this. Thank you for sharing a nice and simple strategy that I am sure would provide good results.
Did you have any results?
[...] Originally posted at DivitoDesign [...]
I hit a link in google and read
a blog on this site about the economic
strain we are taking in SA. I tried to
find it once I registered, unfortunately
to no avail. Perhaps somebody could be
so kind as to show me the way? Anyway,
I’m here and waiting!
————–
Rockstarbabu
—————-
Thanks for such excellent post. Really informative blog. Keep the good work here and i wish you all the best and success.
I great post, I’m busy marketing my new design portfolio website so found the post very insightful.
Good job in there, nice site!
Thanks stephan, I really liked your 5 steps article to bookmark site. I will surely follow your advices. Thanks again
Hi Stephan your article is very helpful; I almost use similar strategies to boost my links such as: http://www.narutoship.com. Thanks again, great article.
It is indeed very good resources, thanks for sharing this.
I used some of the directories on your page which of course led to other directories which then led to other directories… anyways does anyone know what day it is?
good tips for a SEO strategy.
thank you for sharing
Good description of strategy. But if the link wrapped in nofollow? Do SE’s skip these links?
You’ve got very good articles in here. Thanks for sharing of your knowledge!
Nice Article. This is exactly what I am doing now. Link building really needs to take a long time.
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Very useful SEO strategies, I think guest posts and forum signatures work best.
Just wanted to point out that directory submissions only work if the links come from quality directories. Unfortunately, there are only 20-40 quality directories out there.
Correct, don’t really think they works in this state of the web.
Great article with great tips!
Will keep those in mind!
Thanks for sharing!
Always important to know when to stop. Before you know it, your comment is spam.
Thanks for the information.
Yes that’s tricky. Doesn’t really work in the current time though.
[...] Tags: link building, seo, seo strategies Originally posted at DivitoDesign.com [...]
#4 and #5 are what i usually do and my favorite and i think is the most effective. I’m not a fan of directory submission and i don’t usually do it.
True, same goes for me. Although it is a way that might work!
some cool tips here. thank you for sharing.
What is better than guest posting is actual blog commenting. Its quicker and you can gain more links.
You also forgot article marketing which is an essentail part!
Oh yes, you’re right! hehe thanks for the heads up.
Great list, I think you’ve caught most of the white hat SEO strategies!
For the lazy amongst us, there’s always Traffic Bug!
Useful post for new site builders to improve their site backlinks.
Those are the basics. One important point is missing imho. Drop a email to your webmaster friends and partners. This is the best link resource I think.
Important for sure, especially when you have friends with large sites hehe
Very useful post,, Many thanks for your efforts.
Others ways to build links may be:
Article Submission for sites like ezineArticles, comenting blogs, create downloading stuff that could be included on the target site which can create backlinks for the post, answner to questions asked in Yahoo Anwsners with the source link to the website. etc
Thanks for the insight, smart!
Very helpful information. Link building is my top interest at the time. Thanks!
great list, very insightful I do, or have done, most of these before and they seem to be working great but I have heard of people buying links before, it might get you in trouble… not sure, but its another one to add to the list.
l think cool and will help alot of new beginers. l need to start a blog soon
good work and helpful information which can help us to improve our knowlge .
Good Information.
Thanks for sharing.
Nice tips you have provided, you can also do press release submission either the free or paid one.
True, the right press releases can be very helpful.
Great blog right here! Additionally your site loads up very fast! What host are you using? Can I get your associate hyperlink in your host? I desire my site loaded up as fast as yours lol
WPWebhost takes care of hosting DivitoDesign. It cost only 5$ a month and you runs smooth.
1 thing is very important according to my view… That is article marketing.. It is a very effective way to boost up your serp.
Easy, yet effective.
press release also helps in link building.
really enjoyed what that you posted actually. it just is not that easy to discover good posts toactually read (you know READ and not simply browsing through it like a zombie before moving on), so cheers mate for not wasting my time on the god forsaken internet.
Good to hear that
I enjoyed the photographs on your website, I look forward to the summerrrrrr.
Great article with nice tips , 1 more way to get good link is Press release ,you get Quality Back link’s through Press Release
Hey this is a great post.
Nice u have provide but u can also use press release submission either free or paid one.