Five Link Building Strategies That Work

Five Link Building Strategies That Work

Reader Comments (202)

  1. Another link-worthy post! Great advice: “Creating compelling content and beneficial relationships are strategies that won’t get you banned or penalized, and add value to your overall goal of converting site visits into revenue.”

  2. Thanks for the list! It’s great that you point things like a byline; where I might have blown past creating a correct byline on a busy day, you’re suggestion helps put it’s importance in perspective.

  3. Have you found much success Brian in article directories?

    I’ve tried on occassion but I rarely get anything rewarding back in the whole deal.

  4. David, I used to use article directories a lot, before you could depend on the blogosphere for links in areas such as real estate, and it worked really well in Yahoo and MSN. The thing is, it takes a lot of articles… you can’t just write one or two or even five.

    I included article directories because some subject matter is not going to get enough traction with blogs and other social media outlets yet. As some point I think we will see business blogs and topical social sites for more and more verticals, but for now, article marketing can help.

  5. Re: Article Directories —

    I heard its not uncommon for the unscrupulous to republish your articles without any creditation to the original author as well.

    t

  6. >1. Social Media Sites
    Putting different titles on different social sites does a few things. It gives you backlinks from pages with different titles. It also spreads those different titles around if you’re story gets dogdugg, doggdotted, furlicioused, redscaped or whatever else they call it.

    >4 Guest Appearances
    If you ever want to be contacted to write on someone elses blog put up a contact form and “about you” page. Put up your email an in human non machine readable format in case your programming breaks (oops). If you blog under the nickname schmoopie tell me what your real name is someplace easy to to find. I’m never going to contact you and write “Hi schmoopie”

    >5. Article Directories
    Taking the time to write different headlines for different services is worth the time and energy. Taking the time to write a different byline link, anchor text and surrounding text is worth the effort. Use the article directories to point the spiders deep into your site. use the article directories to point the spiders at your relevant non spammy subdomains, myspace pages, youtube vidoes, press releases, googlebase listings, technorati profile, or other top ten reputation management properties you can think of.

  7. These are great tips.

    I’d add that online press releases can also be very effective at getting back links and even top rankings for minor search terms.

    Having a blog helps a lot too – but then you know that.

    Kindest regards,
    Andrew Cavanagh

  8. Hi Brian

    With linking out, you discover over time which sources you link to are interested in “conversation” – there are authority bloggers who are quite happy for you to link to them, but don’t offer trackback, and rarely link out to others.

    Article Marketing – I would use a different strategy by posting the articles on your site first, and then link to the original article in the resource box as one of the 2 links you can normally use.
    By giving Google an original source to reference, the syndication process has more credibility.

    Guest Appearances – unique bylines are possible if you are writing something specific for one site, but some writing gigs are just a particular site offering to pick up your content. If they are just picking up your content, you quite often have to supply them with a default byline to use.

  9. Nice work, Brian. While article syndication does present an opportunity (with a ton of effort, a la GrayWolf), it’s worth noting that the most value out of that technique is to be had by driving links to those often-overlooked locations, where just a few links can go a long way. Mentioning Googlebase listings & technorati profiles was dead-on.

  10. Andy, does that brute force article marketing with affiliate program stuff still work? Haven’t done any of that in ages.

  11. Another practical, strategic post. I always love reading (skimming) your posts for great content…and always mention you when others ask me about resources for getting started in blogging. We even included a screenshot of your blog in our blogging video that I used for my presentation in Florida earlier this month. Hope you don’t mind the extra exposure! You can see it on my blog at Lessons from the Scrapbook Page.

  12. I am going to copy most of what you said and change it for the market we help for free – the church.

    Awesome Awesome – keep up the great work –

  13. Brian, should I submit my own content to Digg, other sites? I’ve gotten some negative comments from the Digg community for doing this in the past. Apparently, they hate when people submit their own content.

  14. The social media link strategies described in this thread are definitely very effective. The challenge is that it takes a lot of time and many businesses don’t have the time or patience for it. Good old fashion one-way link building from relevant website pages (who display advertising and welcome the content) is still very effective.

  15. I am doing a website for the third world churches, like teachings, sermons, articles + and will start a leadership section. Thank you for the information Brian. Also some of the commentaries are very good. Some I knew about ages ago, but had forgot. This refreshes my mind +++ gave me new input.

    Any comment for my site? I take any critic!
    God bless!

  16. I dont think that submitting articles to a lot of directories works any more. Did before but not any longer, just my experience.

  17. SEO that works is not about getting a lot of links to your website. It`s more what kind of websites that have the links. You just need a few links to get a top Page Rank, if it from top Page Rank web sites.

  18. Your comment on submitting to Ezinearticles and having your articles duplicated interests me. I know that duplicate articles sometimes get overlooked by the search spider right? I’m fairly new to this, but thanks for your insights and advice.

  19. I really like how you emphasize at the end that there’s no point in trying to fool the search engines since in the end they want something very different than you do.. to simply provide the best selection of content to searchers. So it all boils down to two things:

    1. Really focusing on quality writing
    2. Aggressively promoting that content through the various Web 2.0 tools we all now love

    Thanks for the great read! 🙂

    John Clinebell

  20. Have you seen Ward’s article, Are You a Link Whore?

    http://www.ericward.com/articles/linkwhore.html

    He seems to suggest that some of the things that you advise is “link whoring”. I don’t intend to offend you, I would just like to hear your opinion on the matter and get your help defining a clear line that distinguishes good strategy from whoring.

    I’m working on my own blog post to discuss this issue.

    Stan Faryna

  21. Hi all,

    Well i can add up some points here. The post gives valuable points however do check this

    To get BACKLINKS

    # Target Social Marketing
    # Get users who are basically from US and go for CA, NY users (active users)
    # Users are the Traffic so concentrate on users 1st priority
    # First things to do for Link building : Submissions to deep link sub-category (Manual submission)
    – Social Bookmarking
    – Social Networking
    – Social news, Videos, Articles
    Target SOCIAL specially
    Articles, Forums, Groups, Blogging

    # Target only relevant users in Social Marketing
    # Give ur users only what they need

    That’s it, if u complete the above steps then ur almost done.

    Thanx
    Pravish Analyst

  22. Good tips. As others have stated though i have a feeling that the typical “ezine” article is dead and people are quickly migrating to more “wiki” style SME websites that have user generated content.

  23. Thank you for this great tips, I really appreciate it and surely will work on it to improve my link development.

  24. I especially appreciated your thoughts on writing articles, then submitting them to every article directory in the world vs the challenge of duplicate content. Sometimes all the links lead to more traffic without adding to PR. Sometimes, it’s worth it for the traffic without concern of PR. As you said, it gives you exposure that could lead to organic backlinks- good point.

  25. The brass ring is to get the blogs you admire and the sites that complement your offerings to cross-link with you. Dumb question though: How often do you need to post? If you’re a one-person operation when do you get the time to do all of this?

  26. excellent tips. Nothing works best then quality writing and new content being regularly added to the site.

  27. Getting backlinks is easy. There are several ways you can do so

    1) article submissions
    2) Directory submissions
    3) Social Site bookmarks
    4) Forums postings
    5) Great sites like this site

    Best of all keep adding great content to your site !

    Thanks

  28. A great article with lots of ideas for entrepreneurs who do not think of business cards as an effective way to build links.

  29. Getting back links from sites , article submissions , Blog submissions etc is good but i think Viral Marketing is best these days , What you guys think

    Regards
    Sandy

  30. Great post and I’d like to mention with all the cool social media/networking platforms coming out these days there are almost and unlimited number of places to build one way links.

    Most large niches should have an abundance of social sites with places to get links either through bookmarking or your user profile.

  31. Your post is right on the money. I would highly recommend anyone starting to build links and earn their mark in the internet real estate to go through your post.

  32. nice article, though one important thing which is most important is commenting, Commenting is the best way to increase the link and traffic to your page, and its very important what you are commenting and where are you commenting, if you simply end up commenting thanx and nice instead of adding up any good point there is no way you will get a single click via your comment.!!!
    regards
    VirginTech!!
    Its all About US!!!

  33. Thanks Brian,

    Couldn’t of put it better, by following these tips they will also increase the relevancy of the links they building.

    Mike Kelly

  34. Building links for a site/ blog is essential. The question is can you do it without paying for links to get ahead? Or can organic and natural link building work as well. The answer I always get is paid will get you there faster.

  35. Obviously there are a log more than 5 ways to go about this (Lord knows I have tried them all) but these are some solid tips.

    Of course directories, paid links and some article marketing have not held up their value, but for the most part getting links today takes the same effort it took 2 or 3 years ago.

    One thing I have noticed over the years is that SEOs really are starting to specialize. There are a few who can do it all, but I think there are even personality differences to consider. We wrote about that very issue on our blog. Maybe your readers would be interested: SEO or Link Builder

  36. I am struggling with this very problem on my new site, I add links, the recirpocals never get added, it’s a nightmare for a new site with no ranking, and then you have to be careful not to use the wrong steps or one of the search engines will get offended, and ban you.

  37. These post may be now nearly two years old, but still offers incredible value. It ‘s very easy to start a blog believing people will just magically appear and comment.

    The reality is the blogsphere is a community, and if you want to get people to come to you, you need to go out and introduce them to you first, and these are five great ways that show that.

  38. Great words of wisdom! The bottom line is to work on content and then promote it. I guess I have to spend more time on my net blog!

  39. Great article. Link building is very helpful especially with the way the economy is right now, it can help get your sites traffic and result in sales.

    Keep up the great work and if anyone has any ques on link building feel free to ask us.

  40. These 5 strategies stand for basic and low cost link building. Brian, do you have any plan to write something on advanced link building strategies?

    We see a lot tips on basic, but not for advance level.

  41. I would take a look at how to create to viral content strategies and domaining (building microsites and linking back to your main property via optimal anchor text) for more advanced link building strategies.

  42. Hmmm, well i use three of these on a regular basis, and the other 2 not so much anymore.

    Thanks for such a good article, learnt a little from comments, but sure most will learn more.

  43. This is a great list of how to build your backlinks.

    Another good technique is to comment on DoFollow blogs. Please don’t just spam them, rather contribute to the post content and discussion.

    Regards,
    Arnold

  44. I appreciate the clarity in the mist of so much complexity and predatory chaos. I desire to use your system on my website as the cornerstone for future writing.

    My intention is to complete “Emerge-N-SEE It’s a Wonderful Life” by October 1, 2009 as a Holiday Christmas Story this year.

    I invite professionals in the noble arts of writing, music, performers, to join me in a creative supporting circle to assist in sculpting a Global Social Clarion Call as a history-making event in creating a mood of joyful concern in designing a future world together.
    Cordially
    Patric Roberts

  45. I was finding the best link building strategies on Google and finally came to your article. I think you are telling the best techniques we require to get back links to our websites.

    I can see the proof that your article is a wonder resource because you are already gettin many trackbacks from other blogs.

    Great info here,
    Thanks,
    Sandeep

  46. These are called the pillar articles of the blog and no matter how many I read, everyone sounds the best.

    Hmm, where to start and where to go down from here!!

  47. Submitting articles can work well, but stay with the top 10 of the best. There are plenty of article directories out there only set up to catch your personal data to send you spam or , even worse, scam and phishing emails.

  48. Great tips! It is important to look at link building from all aspects before you start your campaign, so that you can identify which places are valuable links and which are not.

  49. While article syndication does present an opportunity (with a ton of effort, a la GrayWolf), it’s worth noting that the most value out of that technique is to be had by driving links to those often-overlooked locations, where just a few links can go a long way. Mentioning Googlebase listings & technorati profiles was dead-on.

  50. …link building is fundamental but successful execution is a process mixed with evolving ideas, techniques and sources. Great information seems to retain its relevance.

  51. well i use three of these on a regular basis, and the other 2 not so much anymore.

    Thanks for such a good article, learnt a little from comments, but sure most will learn more.

  52. Yet another great article from copyblogger. I love that everybody goes to johnchow.com or shoemoney, but this really is the best site for resources like linkbuilding how-to’s. I wrote some information on link building as well. I hope you guys find it interesting, I try to match the caliber of copyblogger!

  53. Hey Brian,
    Thanks for this article. I am sure it will help me alot, I am a regular reader of Copyblogger and found very useful article here.

  54. Very basic but works. Thank you for the reminder…Funny, sometimes how we look for mega solutions yet the answer is just there. Under our (sorry, my )nose . 🙂

  55. I think many people are doing article marketing all wrong as far as doing it just for SEO. There are hundreds of article sites out there with some being niche specific and not accepting as many articles which means search engines value it higher because of higher editorial standards. It seems Google has become very smart in the way they give value to links and are passing more link juice to links that have been through moderation or editing.

  56. Brian, could you add a date to your articles? Even though the article still contains still some valid information it is written almost 3 years ago according to the first blog entries.
    Especially posting to article directories gets declining results and it all shifts towards posting content on individual, niche-related authority sites/blogs.

  57. Brian, thanks for the good info. I had no link building was so involved…Pretty in depth stuff! Oh well, I am sure the work that goes in is worth the benefit that comes out. I just startedMy blogand thus just started to build some links as well…obviously, haha. I was getting bored of the process but my newly found information from your post will keep me rolling! Happy blogging to all…

  58. Thanks for the info brian, Ill take some time to think about the best way of doing it all. Ive just started out so im finding im doing lots of different things but not see any results

  59. Hey Brian, I just wanted to say your posts on here have really helped me in my quest to build up a reputable blog and get some links. I also read a post of yours on writing and grammar and I am impressed at some of the tips I discovered. Thank you for being a good presence on the web and thanks for helping people like me try to reach their goals!

  60. Creating compelling content is the best way to get the best link juice to your site.

    The days of spray and pray of mass canned emails for backlinks are becoming useless.

  61. Excellent list of ways to increase backlink count. Now I have used article marketing and link baiting quite a bit for my blogs, but still don’t seem to be getting the amount of links I need to be at the top of my niche. Perhaps guest posting would be another good option.

  62. I am not surprised that after 2 years of witting this post, we continue to see feedback in the comments.

    A lot has changed in two years but some things remain the same. Content will always be crucial to great rankings and getting people to link to it will be a close second.

    No matter if it’s article distribution, rss feeds, social marketing, you still have to be involved in all of it.

    Scott

  63. Very useful words of wisdom! Because links are still the basic connector, the basic relationship on the Web, These classic strategies will still work for decades. Maybe some are not useful nowadays. Thanks for sharing.

  64. Very nice help for getting Backlinksm very helpfull for me. Writing good Content is still great for search Engines and for getting Backlinks from other Sites.

  65. Hi brain

    i think nowadays content is the king.. even high pr sites with old content doesnt mean much as compared to regular updated content websites.. what i want to know from guys here is if a seo company has 10-20 keywords to optimize , how much time should he devote and how because as it seems all over , the main thing is to write good genuine content and get links..also, what i think is whats NEXT..whats next to content???

  66. Google tells us that great original content on it’s own is enough to eventually bring a site to the top of it’s desired SERPs, unfortunately this just isn’t true as I discovered from my first site released a couple of years ago.

    So much of what we do still requires not only links from as many wide and varied places as possible, but we find what is really happening is the SEs are making us work hard for our places on a SERP, which is fair enough, it quickly sorts the serious and most committed from the not so serious sites. Which is why we all found our way here, to work to learn how to progress our passions properly.

  67. I agree content is king, the idea in my opinion is to make your website the authority for a particular subject, this could be by adding loads of good content. Building links to your website also helps show that you are the authority for that subject.

  68. Thanks for the info… I found it very useful. Got a couple of sites that i can put this to use. I still want to know how effective are directory links…

  69. Classic advice, but I’ve found that submitting too many articles for some keywords can sometimes ruin any chance of your main site ranking for those key words because the articles themselves continually outrank the site in the SERPS while some directory links are simply useless.

  70. I am now a believer. I have been reading this website for the last three days. My mind is working. And I am sure that even my writing will soon be different.

    Thank you very much.

    jef menguin
    inspirational speaker
    Philippines

  71. I think its all about your online reputation. When you are giving your community good unique content, useful information and proper support you need not to worry much about links, the community will automatically provide it. But then also the blog consists of a very useful info which should be not only kept in mind but should be implemented well to achieve best results..thanks..

  72. I agree much about guest blogging. I think this is the most effective way of link building aside from blog commenting. Nice post here, no wonder why this post receives so much traffic.

  73. Do you think backlinking still has the power that it had when this article was originally written? It’s possible Google’s formula has changed somewhat since then.

    • There are certainly other “signals” that have been factored in – usage data and social media sharing for sure. But from what I understand, links still dominate the algorithm (based on things people much smarter than me are saying).

      Also, this old article is updated in our SEO copywriting report. I haven’t gone back to the original posts for that though.

  74. Thinking about spending my life staring at a screen full of pixels building links is not the kind of life I imagined for myself as a child . .. .

  75. I find all these to be time consuming, but any good research and SEO is. I know that they have been around a while now, I think the worst part is the work it entails. But you really have to do these things because back-linking is very important in search engine ranking.

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