Quality Link Strategy for your site’s SEO health
Posted on | January 3, 2009
Content is King. But external links are the loyal subjects that keep the king on the throne. OK, kind of corny but its true. On-page factors will only do so much for your site in terms of search engine optimization. Links are the votes of confidence your site needs for Google and the other major Search Engines to take notice of your site and give it some props in the SE Result pages.
In the good old days, you simply paid for some directory listings and banner ads and link farms. These techniques are for the most part dead. There are some directories that are still worth their weight in gold (Yahoo, DMOZ, BOTW, STPT) but we now live in a Web 2.0 world and you’re going to have to get out and earn quality links if you want to rank highly in the search engines.
Link building is nothing new. What is new is that now you’re forced to look for quality links, not just any old links. We know the best kind of links are one way links that use proper anchor text and are located in the body content of a web page, as opposed to the footer or margins or simply on the links page of a website. But most established websites and webmasters are not going to give you the time of day, much a less a coveted link on their site. What we have begun doing with some success is finding smaller blog owners and simply asking for a link on their blog.
Most blog owners are very active online and thus are accessible. Many of them are approachable. And, if you offer them $25 or 50 for a quality link in a blog post, using anchor text you specify, this could get you some very high quality links. So how do you find them? Let Google show you the way.
Hopefully by now you have been exposed to (or using actively) the search tools AllInText, AllInAnchor and AllInTitle. If not Google them now and learn about these invaluable tools for your SEO toolbox. What I recommend is starting at http://blogsearch.google.com and type in allintext:”Your Keyword Phrase”. This will bring back all the blog posts in the Google index that contain your keyphrase. Next try it with allintitle for a smaller more pinpointed list of blogs. Try some advanced search options within the google tool itself, or cross reference the lists to get a list of high quality blogs for your keyphrase.
Next, spend a couple of weeks posting some comments. Nothing spammy, nothing over the top and maybe only a couple of posts per blog each week should be enough. Then email the author and let them know you have been enjoying their blog. And by the way, would they be willing to link to you. Then let the conversation unfold. If you have a quality site that is relative to one of their posts, they may not even want payment, but you could offer if they seem hesitant. A link on a quality blog will be worth any small amount you need to pay.
My only caution with this technique is not to be too agressive. Approach only 5 to 10 bloggers a day with a unique email, not one copy and pasted over and over. When you have success with an email, note it. Note the tone and wording of the email. Use it as a control for your next round of emails and continue to test, perfecting your introduction and approach to the bloggers.
One last piece of advice. If the blogger you approach does not respond and its a blog you really want, find a phone number and call them. Ask for the link. Its the only way you’ll get it! Too often today, in this world of wi-fi, facebook, blackberry’s and all the technology, we sometimes overlook the most effective tool of all, the telephone. Don’t let that happen to you.
When looking for links, I approach it like I do everything in life:
You don’t get what you need in life.
You don’t get what you want in life.
You only get what you ask for in life.
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