Link Building

The links to your website are one of the most important factors for high search engine rankings. Many search engine optimizer are sure that backlinks (links that point to your site) are the most important factor. If you want to get high search engine rankings on Google, Bing/Yahoo and other major search engines, then your website must have many good backlinks.

The link building basics

It is not possible to get high rankings on Google, Bing/Yahoo or other major search engines without good links. Google will only list your website in their search results if they find at least one other website that links to your site. The more other websites link to your website, the higher your search engine rankings will be. The idea behind this concept is simple: if many other websites link to your website then your website must be important. In addition to the sheer number of the links, the quality of the links is also important.

How links influence the success of your website

There are two main types of links:

links from other websites to your website ( backlinks)
links from your website to other websites (outbound links) Both can influence the success of your website.

How backlinks influence the success of your website

Backlinks influence your website in many ways:

1. All major search engines use backlinks to rank websites. If your site has many good backlinks then you’ll have high rankings on the search engines.

2. Other websites send you new visitors through the links. If you have just 500 links pointing to your site and each site sends you in average only 3 visitors per day, then you’ll get 1,500 targeted visitors per day.

3. Exchanging reciprocal links with other sites will build a great link directory. Your visitors will bookmark your site and visit your site again and again because you can offer them a valuable resource: your link directory. The links to your website should be high quality links.

How outbound links influence your search engine rankings

While most webmasters are aware that backlinks are important to the success of a website, many site owners don’t know that outgoing links also have an impact on their websites.

1. The positive side of outbound links

Links to other websites show your website visitors that your website can be trusted. You wouldn’t send visitors to other pages if they could find negative information about your products or services on other sites. Links add value to your website; they show your visitors that you have nothing to hide and that you have confidence in your site. The websites to which you link help your website visitors to put your website into a larger context. If you link to high quality sites with useful content, web surfers will associate your website with these high quality sites. If you don’t have outgoing links or if you hide your links, then you send your visitors back to search engines. If you offer your website visitors links, you can send leaving visitors to other websites that can send you their visitors in return. Carefully chosen links to outside resources can improve the experience of visitors who visit your website. Don’t be afraid that you drive people away by offering links on your website. You either have interesting content on your website or you have not. People eventually will leave your website, no matter how interesting your website is. Even you don’t visit your own website all the time.

2. The negative side of outbound links

Links to other websites can also have a negative effect. If you link to websites that are obviously spammers then search engines might ban your website from their search results. Just use common sense, if a website looks shady or if the techniques on that website look to good to be true (for example: “Get 500 links per day with our automated system”) then don’t link to that website.

Note: The websites to which you link contribute to the image that web surfers get about your site. Offer your visitors links to good websites with interesting and related content. Don’t be afraid that you drive visitors away. Give and you shall receive. This is true for many aspects of life and it also works for website promotion.

High quality links and low quality links

As soon as it was clear that backlinks are extremely important to get high rankings on Google, webmasters tried to manipulate the number of links that pointed to their websites. Webmasters created automated linking schemes to artificially increase the number of backlinks.

For that reason, search engines improved the way they evaluated links. Nowadays, it’s not enough to have many backlinks. The quality of the links is also important. Some links will help you to increase your search engine rankings, others don’t.

High quality inbound links

High quality backlinks are links that will help you to get higher search engine rankings and targeted visitors. If you have 20 good backlinks then you’ll get better rankings than with 100 bad backlinks. So what makes a high quality backlink? There are several points that can make a link better than other links:

1. The link should use the keyword in the anchor text.

If you want to get high rankings for a search term like “buy brown shoes” then the links to your website should contain that text. The text that is used to link to your site (the “anchor text”) influences the words for which your website will get high rankings. Make sure that the texts that are used to link to your website contain words for which you want to get high rankings on search engines.

2. The link should be from a relevant page.

Links from related web pages usually work better than links from unrelated pages. Links from unrelated pages won’t hurt your rankings but Google likes links from websites that are related to yours better. A related page is a web page that has loosely to do with the topic of your website. If you have reason to believe that the visitors of the web page might be interested in what you have to offer then the other page is a related web page.

3. The link should go to a relevant page on your site.

While it’s okay to get links to your home page it is better to get links to the page that is most relevant to the chosen anchor text. If the anchor text is “buy brown shoes” then you should make sure that the link goes to a page that deals with brown shoes. If the anchor text matches the content of the linked pages then it’s more likely that your web page is really relevant to that term and it’s more likely that you’ll get high rankings for that search term. In addition, you increase the user experience. If a surfer clicks on a “buy brown shoes” link it’s much more likely that he’ll buy on your site if he gets the correct page.

4. It’s good if the link is from an authority site.

Links from pages with high authority will help to increase the PageRank of your website. Links from websites with high PageRank have a positive effect on the rankings of your own site. Unfortunately, the Google PageRank that is displayed in the green bar in Google’s toolbar is not the PageRank that Google uses for its ranking algorithm. The PageRank displayed in the toolbar is outdated, often wrong and more a gimmick than a real help (details can be found here and here). You’ll often find websites with low PageRank that rank higher than pages with high PageRank in the search results. Don’t trust the green pixels and use common sense. If a website is well known and if the site has good search engine rankings then it’s likely that it is also an authority website.

5. The link must not have a nofollow attribute.

The nofollow attribute tells search engines that they should not follow a link. Links with that attribute don’t help your search engine rankings. Unfortunately, you have to check the HTML code of your link partners to find out if they use a nofollow attribute to link to your site. IBP offers a link checker that will automatically check if the links to your website use the nofollow attribute or not.

Low quality inbound links

Low quality backlinks are link that won’t increase your search engine rankings. In the best case, low quality links won’t have any effect at all on your rankings. In the worst case, low quality links can cause search engines to ban your website from their search results.

When is a link a low quality link? Several points make a link a low quality link:

1. The link uses the nofollow attribute.

Links that contain the nofollow attribute might help you to get direct traffic from the website with the link but they are totally useless for your search engine rankings. The nofollow attribute is a HTML attribute that has been introduced by Google, Yahoo and Bing. It allows webmasters to mark links that should not be followed by search engine spiders. The attribute can be added to link tags in the HTML code of web pages:

If Google finds a link with the rel=”nofollow” attribute, Google will not follow through to that page, they will not count the link in calculating PageRank scores and they will not count the anchor text in determining what terms the page being linked to is relevant for.

2. The link is from an unrelated website

If the link to your website is on a web page that links to every Tom, Dick and Harry then it’s likely that it won’t have a positive effect on your search engine rankings. Try to get links from web pages that are related (even loosely) to your website..

3. The link is from an automated linking scheme

Some years ago, webmasters could blast their website URL to thousands of FFA (freefor-all) pages to quickly get hundreds of links. Search engines quickly discovered that and nowadays, links from FFA pages won’t help your rankings at all. Shortly after that, webmasters developed automated linking schemes. Automated linking schemes usually promise hundreds of links in a very short time with very little work. As these linking schemes have been created for the sole purpose of cheating search engines, search engines don’t like them at all.

For example, some services automatically create blog comments, other create profiles on social media sites with a backlink, others post your link in online forums, others automatically create forum accounts. These backlinks can get your website into trouble.

All major search engines have employees who actively seek for these linking schemes. Search engines know all linking schemes and links from these schemes don’t have a positive effect on your search engine rankings. Worse than that, many search engines will ban your website if you participate in a linking scheme website because they consider it spam.

4. The link doesn’t go directly to your website.

Some websites do not link directly to your website. They link to a page on their own website that redirects to your website, for example “http://www.example.com/ redirect.php?3152”.

You might get direct traffic through these links but they won’t help your search engine rankings.

5. The link cannot be parsed by search engine spiders.

Search engine spiders are very simple programs. If the link to your website cannot be found easily, chances are that the spiders will ignore the link to your site. Most search engine spiders have difficulty with links in JavaScript code. If the link to your website is hidden with a scripting language then search engine spiders won’t parse it.

The effect of co-citation on your rankings

The effect of co-citation is often overlooked by search engine optimizers. The other websites to which your link partners link can influence your search engine rankings. Here’s an example: websites 1, 2, 3 and 4 all link to websites A, B, C and D. Although A, B, C and D don’t link to each other, search engines think that A, B, C and D are related to each other because the same websites link to them:

If A, B, C and D are all linked by 1, 2, 3 and 4 they might be related to one another, even though they don’t directly link to each other. If A, B, C and D are all linked by many other websites, they have a strong relationship. The more websites they are linked by, the stronger the relationship.

If your website is website A, you should make sure that websites B, C and D are related to your site.

1. Co-citation and bad link pages

If you are listed on a website that links to gambling sites, viagra sites and your shoe store then search engines might think that your website is related to gambling and viagra. The search engines look at the link pages and check to which other websites the pages link. If the other pages are gambling and viagra sites then search engines think that your website is also related to gambling and viagra.

That means that it might be difficult to get high rankings for search terms that are about shoes.

Co-citation and good link pages. It’s important that the other links on the web page that links to you are related to your site. If you’re listed in the “Shoes” category of a link directory then all websites in the same category are usually also about shoes. When search engines look at this page and check the links to other sites they will think that your website is related to shoes. That means that it will be much easier to get high rankings for search terms that are about shoes.

What does this mean to your link campaigns?

When you exchange links with other websites, make sure that your link is on a page that lists related links. It’s not necessary that the complete other website is about your topic. It’s ok if the other website has a single category page that deals with the topic of your website. The link to your website should be listed on that page then. The more pages of the other site are about your topic, the better. Make sure that the link to your site is in a good neighborhood and that the other links are related to yours.

Tip: If you want to find out which websites Google considers related to your website, go to Google and enter related: http://www.your-domain.com in the search box. Replace your-domain.com with your own domain name and make sure that there is no space after the colon.

One-way links, reciprocal links and three-way-links

There are a lot of rumors about one-way links, reciprocal links and three-way links on the Internet. Which of these links work best for your business and which links do you need to get higher search engine rankings?

What are one-way links?

A one way link is a simple link from one website to the other. For example, if you link to c and that page doesn’t link back to your website then it’s a one-way link from your site to their site.

What are reciprocal links?

A link is a reciprocal link if you link to a website and that website links back to your website. You send visitors to the other site and the other website sends visitors back to you. That makes sense because all visitors leave a website sooner or later. You can send your visitors back to search engines or you can send them to partner websites that send you traffic in return.

What are three-way links?

Some webmasters believe that reciprocal links don’t help web pages to get higher search engine rankings. That’s why they invented three way links: Website A links to website B, website B links to website C, website C links to website A.

Which links will help you to get higher search engine rankings?

Good backlinks will help you to get higher search engine rankings. None of the link types above is worth more than the other. The reason why some people think that reciprocal links don’t work is that many webmasters who engage in reciprocal linking don’t care about theming but only about the number of links. Unsolicited one-way links are usually from topic-related sites. It’s important that the links to your website are from related sites and on-topic. If a reciprocal link is on a low quality page with links to every Tom, Dick and Harry then it won’t count much. However, that’s also true if the same page carries a one-way link or a three-way link. It doesn’t matter if a link is one-way, reciprocal or three-way. It does matter if a link is on a related website. Links from high quality websites will help your rankings, links from garbage sites won’t.

Build links effectively with following techniques

One of the best ways to get links is to

Participating in community

Don’t spam after signing up into communities and not to spam blogs in forums. The best way is to show up in the communities and answering questions by adding some values to it. You will get 301 redirect links from communities. Participate in Answers by asking and answering relevant questions and placing a link to your website in the source section if necessary. If you don’t spam, this is another great way to increase your link popularity (Yahoo Answers, Cha-Cha, Answer Bag, etc.)

Newsletter

If you have already people coming to your blog. Make sure that your new article or post available to their inbox. This will drive traffic to your website or even improve your rankings.

Social Media

Participate yourself in Google+, Facebook, twitter and linkdin so that your rankings will go higher. It’s known as Social Media Optimization.

More ways to build Back-links

1. Affiliate program directories

Many people like to earn more money by promoting other people product. It is an awesome way to get traffic. There are thousands of internet marketers who are looking for other people products to promote. Submit your website to affiliate program directories like AffiliatesDirectory, AffiliateFirst, AffiliatePrograms, AffiliateScout, etc. According to recent stats new websites are getting more traffic through affiliates.

2. Articles sites

Write articles of your own and submit them to popular article sites like Ezine, Articlebase, selfgrowth, articlecity, articlebiz, etc. This will help you to attain some deep links for your website (though it’s usually a slower process).

3. Award sites

If you have website that rich set of contents, resources then it is likely to get listed in one of the award sites. Just like avatar getting an Oscar award. You will get increasing traffic to your website as an award. Submit your websites to coolhomepages, coolpic, designbombs, goldenwebaward, etc.

4. Blog directories

There are many paths to build links and one of the most effective ways to build links is to submit your blogs to various blog directories. Many people may say that blog directory submission is dead. As far as I’m concerned it is still alive. It is purely based on how effectively we are selecting those directories and how efficiently we are choosing the category for submission. Of course, I agree that it gives quite delayed results, but it is worth doing it. Submit your blogs to the topmost blog directories like Bloggeries, Fuelmyblog, On-Toplist, Technorati, etc.

5. Content sites

Everybody loves content. Cutout is enough if you have content (it’s an old saying).

How to Create Content:

You need content that you can submit to other websites. Start with a well written article that contains 300-500 words. Focus on a single topic and target a specific keyword in the article.

Here are some tips for writing good articles:

Make the article headline as catchy as possible. Articles that contain “How to” or numbers (“10 things that…”) usually work well.
Start with a short introduction. Explain the problem that you will discuss in your article.
Discuss several solutions to the problem in the body of the article. Keep the paragraphs short. If possible, use bullets and sub-headings.
At the End of your article write a brief summary and with a call to action.

Submit your rich contents to content sites like yahoo voices, about, break studio, wise geek, etc.

6. Internet directories

It is purely based on how effectively we are selecting the directories and how efficiently we are choosing the category for submission. Of course, I agree that it gives quite delayed results, but it is worth doing it. Submit your websites to the topmost quality directories like DMOZ, Yahoo Directory, ZoomInfo, One Mission, etc. Nowadays many web directories may offer paid listings but don’t go for it.

7. EBook directories

Convert your article into pdf. If your pdf has enough pages, you can submit it to eBook directories like eBook directory, eBook jungle, eBooks directory; get free books, my eBook, etc.

8. Free resources sites

Your website contains rich resource. It’s a well rich asset. Throughout the web people are finding website that has well good resource in it. Submit your website to free resources sites like Coupon Mountain, The free site, free snatcher, Ultimate coupons, etc.

9. Infographic sites

Let’s say suppose your website has some complex information. For ex: your website explains everything step by step about making money then it is likely said that your website has rich set of infographs ( it’s all about quality). Submit your site to Infographic sites like Submiteinfographics, pureinfographics, videoinforgraphics, dailyinfographics, etc.

10. Job offer sites

If you want to post some job on behalf of your company. It’s not offering job, it’s about getting traffic to your website. There are millions of people who are searching on the internet to find jobs. Just imagine if you have millions of people visiting your website, it will boost up your traffic rate. Submit your site to job offer site like CareerBuilder, Carrierone, job-searchengine, etc.

11. Podcast directories

Converting your article into a podcast is easy. Just read your article aloud and record your voice with an audio tool. Then submit the file to podcast directories like Mirpod, Podbean, Podcastblaster, Podcastdirectory, etc.

12. Press release sites

If your article focuses on a single topic, it is relatively easy to rework it as a press release. Press releases have a specific format. If you want to get maximum distribution, your press release should have the correct format. When you have a press release, submit your press release to press release sites like 1888pressrelease, 24-hpressrelease, newswire, emailwire, cnet, etc.

13. Question & answer sites

Lots of people are searching to find answers about some topics. If you have expertise in any of those topics then it will be easy for those who are searching to find answers. It will boost up your website traffic. Join into question & answer sites like allexperts, aolanswers, quora, etc.

14. Shopping sites

If your website is based on products shopping then it’s mandatory to submit your website to some shopping sites like groupon, fatwallet, shopstyle, googleshop, etc.

15. Slide directories

Convert your article into PowerPoint presentation. It’s not difficult to convert a how-to article into a PowerPoint presentation. Describe the problem on the first presentation slide and different solutions on the following slides. Submit your slides to slideshare, scribd, issuu, etc.

16. Social news sites

Lots of people want to know about the buzz around the whole world. They have time to gossip about many things. People are much interested to see what’s going on around the world and they what’s new happening. If your website found to be a hot topic for them then traffic will boost up. Submit your site to social news sites like boingboing, voices.Yahoo, buzz.Yahoo, techdirt, readwriteweb, etc.

17. Tutorial sites

Convert the article into a step-by-step tutorial, your article should offer a solution to a problem. If you article isn’t already a “How to” article, rewrite it so that you can submit it to tutorial sites like pixel2life, tubetorial, tutoriallounge, worth1000, etc.

18. Video sites

Use a screen recording tool and record the screen as you talk and click through your presentation, expert opinions, and reviews. Submit the recorded video to video directories like YouTube, yahoovideos, Dailymotion, etc.

19. White paper sites

Lot of people fancies their morning with a newspaper in their hand. If they find your website with useful information then website traffic increases and automatically sales will increase. Submit to informationweek, knowledgestrom, physorg, etc.

20. Yellow page directories

Instead of going global and facing huge competition, make your website local so that search engines can easily view your website and fetch the content. This will help you to reach a targeted audience. Submit your website to YahooLocal, YellowPages, Supermedia, Hotfrog, etc.

And not to mention another important to get quality links is from

Guest Blogging

One of most effective ways to get links is to use guest blogging. You have to originally do some research and submit your guest post which has qualitative value so that you can get lot of traffic and your rankings will go higher. Remember not to write duplicate posts and don’t spam much!

I guess I have outlined every strategy about link building. Just follow everything and I bet your website will be ranked on the first page of search engine within 90 days.