Build Link Popularity Link Building

Improve Link Popularity Quickly For Maximum Traffic!

noreply@blogger.com (SEO Mafia) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 07:31:00 +0000

Improve link popularity of your website with some of the tips many successful webmasters are employing today to rank high in the search engines. Ever since the evolution of search engines to focus more on content and link popularity, two key components of good SEO practices, webmasters who are not paying attention to produce good and unique content and improve link popularity are lagging behind those who are.

Here are some helpful SEO tips to help you improve link popularity of your website quickly.

1. Provide Good Informational Content On Your Website To Improve Link Popularity

No one wants to link to a website with lousy content. Pack your website with unique and interesting reads so that a potential link partner would not hesitate to link to you. Another advantage of doing so is to establish your website as an authority or at the bare minimum a good source of information. Webmasters understand the value of linking to similar-themed websites that offers relevant useful content to their readers.

2. Submit Articles

Article submission should be part of your SEO strategy to improve link popularity. There are tons of benefits in submitting articles to article directories. Most of the article directories have high Google Page Rank (PR), and when your article is listed in these directories, your website gets a boost due to the transference of PR since your website link is found in the author resource box. An article indexed in the search engine is an extra link to you. Just envisage having many article directories displaying your articles and of course web links, which would mean many one-way backlinks with the exact anchor text containing your targeted keywords. It is difficult not to improve link popularity. And the best part is article submission is free.

3. Submit URL to Web Directories

Web directories are great places to submit your URLs to. Consider them as huge online directories. There are free or paid web directories. Free directories normally expect a reciprocal link to them as a way to compensate them for their services. Paid web directories normally either charges a flat one-time fee or monthly or even yearly fees. The benefit of listing your website here is you get to post your website under any specific category you want. This is important as search engines pay attention to the relevancy and quality of the link neighborhood. A good directory with high PR and proper categorization would significantly improve link popularity.

4. Link Exchanges

Webmasters in the infancy stage of the internet have gotten used to email fellow webmasters to trade links. Many still do so today because of the value in it. Nowadays, there are many free link exchange services with a paid option that facilitate the process between webmasters. Their membership interface can be pretty simple to use. Very often, in the paid version of these link services, the process of obtaining links for your website is automated, making it hands-free for webmasters. Simultaneously, they do not require you to trade links with other websites. So it can be an efficient way to improve link popularity. The only catch is these services run on a monthly subscription payment model for a limited number of websites, perhaps one or two so it can be a financial burden to webmasters who own many websites.

These are the most common techniques webmasters employ to improve link popularity. Visit my blog to get a free ebook on effective SEO strategies, and how you can improve link popularity with some of the best and most affordable automated software.

Why Link Building Is Tough, Slow And Perilous

noreply@blogger.com (SEO Mafia) — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 03:30:00 +0000

It's a shame the internet is full of junk info about linking practices. Most of this info is either too slow for minimal gain, or it's the same old stuff doing the rounds. I just checked about 20 articles about link development from About (a resource I usually find respectable) and wasn't surprised to find the same link advice doing the rounds - justlike the rest of the web. These articles are written by non-experts in marketing, pr, communications, advertising etc, and are still believed, and labelled as experts when quite clearly their not.

These articles are full of damaging, unproductive and overused 'techniques' which will outgrow their usefulness once they've served the very basic purpose -and that's a fact.

(I've read them and that's why I can say this.)

I've thought about this quite a lot, and think the main reasons why anyone would use these time consuming methods are because they don't know how else to do this, or they don't have money or resources to make the techniques work. It's just wrong to fool people into thinking the link building process is that simple, and I think we all secretly know it's not.

Building links is real hard, time consuming work, and the successful ones (the few) aren't going to tell the world how 'they' managed to secure eg: 10'000 links - they just aren't. I certainly wouldn't share with people I've never met in the flesh before - and I'm pretty sure I still wouldn't let them know even then. A lot of these link development articles are purely written so writers can add their link, the article is merely a 'tool' for people to click links, quality isn't a priority.

I've seen too many articles with the very familiar titles such as:

Promotion is the Key

Boost your web profits with Links

Submit using links and 10 New ways to get a traffic Rush etc . . . (the above article headings are made up by me)

The disturbing thing about this Linking info/advice is why is it being repeated, when there's ample supply of it easily accessible - times up on that guess hehe.

Most of this advice on Linking has been done to death by most by now, and the writers only want to give readers the bare minimum knowledge as it's my theory they don't want competitors catching them up, equalling their efforts or stealing their hard won traffic. That's helpful to the writer as his/her link gets another visitor, but the content is too basic to help the reader to get to that next stage in Link development.

The information/advice seems to be based on common categories:

How To Articles Basic Linking Strategy

but hardly any mention on advanced techniques or proof of existence of what they say works. I've seen a lot of linking hints and tips and advice on the basics but little else to make me think the writers are Link Strategy experts, infact the more basic stuff they write, the more convinced I'll be to not accept them as experts - and I'm sure others take me point on this.

These link advice promoters say things like "Well you need to do this, and write articles regularly and submit to directories" But they don't tell you how to go about it step by step, or give thorough detailed explanation about why it works, or doesn't if that's the case. There's too much of this - yeah, do this as I've done and you'll get success. But what they advise is so basic and general it can't possibly fit in with everyone's web site plans or strategy - and thus must be pretty useless - 'it's a one size fits all' thing, and is why it will fail.

But they won't tell you how THEY got to where they are, and the problem with the web and link advice in particular, is that so many desperately want to make a million that they buy into anything that might make that tiny bit of difference. The site owner hopes it'll propel them closer to the desired level of traffic and the link advice promoter gets his/her recognition - plus a valuable weblink back to their site (I wonder which one is the most useful hmmmm). Because linking is one of the few options that is genuinely FREE, everyone seeks this advice with a vengence, hopefully finding that 'Gold', the gold doesn't exist, and if it does the owners of the gold aren't telling. People know these basics by now and have used many of them and (I'm guessing as this info has been utilised), due to the basic nature of the techniques involved they must become obsolete at some point and reach a certain success rate or form of usefulness eg:

recommend us forms - The form has served it's purpose and that's reached it's 'life', okay, this is just one technique.

Others are:

Link swap forms Auto submit programs email swap mailings viral

But they are all basic and have their limits to what can be achieved by using them. For instance email letters only have a 4% success rate and depends on the size of each list held. Most webmasters cannot afford £20'000 agency fees, or afford to rent lists to aid them or have the amount of contacts needed to make link emailing the success it needs to be.

The problem with most of these non-costly methods is once these are been placed on a site, the techniques alone aren't enough to give the advantage needed to get a surge of traffic to the site, and each method needs another method to promote that). I bet they don't tell you that when writing their advice.

People want fast results and major traffic, all the techniques I've mentioned (apart from viral) won't give that unless money is available to roll out what works on a larger scale. So naturally, people seek free options, but they are uncertain about what to use and all there is to go on at present is the very basic advice floating around the web. The reason why nobody's written some massive guide about these 'secrets' is either they don't know or their simply protecting themselves from theft and nearest competition etc.

Another thing I've noticed is that to give the correct advice, one must know a lot about the advice seeker's website - so the advice can be tailored, but that's impossible to do in an article or forum, and is why these articles are so general. Link building is so very personal and has to be tailored to an individual's requirements or it'll fail - er not deliver the precise results. It's the results that count, and so much lack of 'what is' the result exists, and will be different for many and impossible to advise on this without the full details of each case.

I think that's why these link development mail shots fail - as I cannot see anyone replying back to an untargeted mailing. Most webmasters that engage in this mailing practise probably haven't even checked out the sites in question, and have extracted a bunch of mail addresses, in the hope the site gets a load of traffic that may be of benefit to them. I always prefer to view a site before linking, it helps me get a feel for who and what I'm linking to.

In short there's way too much rehashed info about linking, but little to help really make that level of difference many seek from the web. Not surprisingly, the web can't deliever as the info doesn't exist.

I can't say this is fact - as the web is too big a place to be researched, but from what I've seen so far - it's disappointing. I'm saying don't hold on to the hope that maybe one day someone will release the secrets that made them rich and successful - I doubt it.

Importance of Keyword Research in Link Building

noreply@blogger.com (SEO Mafia) — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 10:34:00 +0000

Keyword Research is the building block for search engine optimization. Search engines utilize keywords or key phrases to identify web pages which are relevant to these terms. Finding keywords/ phrases which are relevant to your website and implementing them in your pages will help a search engine identify your webpage when a search is conducted for that particular keyword/ phrase. Keywords have to be implemented on-page as well as off-page for higher ranking.

Building links is essential to gain more traffic and obtain a high ranking on search engines. But building links which are effectively optimized can score you extra points. Search engines analyze a link based on several factors, one being the text of the link itself. If your linking text, commonly referred to as anchor text, contains relevant keywords it indicates clearly what the link is connecting to. Likewise, your title text for each page should be clearly defined with relevant keywords.

Keyword research is not as simple as putting down a bunch of words which users may search for. Today people commonly use advanced tools to find appropriate keywords. Wordtracker, Overture Search Suggestion Tool and Keyword Discovery are some of the more commonly used tools. These tools will not only help you find keywords but will also help you determine the competition these keywords attract.

Using generic terms to optimize your website and links is not a smart idea. Keywords which are most commonly searched for will be used by several thousands websites; competing with these already established websites may not improve your ranking at all. It is important that you select keywords which are not overused. Include keywords which receive a fair number of searches but have minimal competition. Optimize your website with these keywords and once you have established yourself, you will have the liberty to include more general keywords.

These tools will help you determine synonyms or other similar words which fall into your category. When selecting less searched terms, one may always run the risk of less traffic. But this may be better than no traffic at all if the keywords used are highly competed for. One way to solve this problem is to go as specific as possible with your keywords. Instead of general terms such as ‘baby clothing’, you narrow it down by specifying location or age range or any other factor which clearly demarcates what you cater to. Today’s web searchers are a lot smarter and are capable of conducting searches with specific terms.

Any successful business runs by targeting a niche segment today. Catering to the general market may not reveal the same results. If one can identify their niche segment, then there is the opportunity of increasing the quality of your marketing efforts. Likewise when finding relevant keywords, select terms or phrases that target a niche segment. Use the advanced tools available to create a list of relevant keywords which do not attract too much competition in your niche segment.

Finding the right keywords is not as easy as it may seem. The success of your website may depend on traffic directed from search engines; and to figure on a search engine you will have to optimize your site with relevant keywords. It also does not end with optimizing your site once; one has to continually analyze the popularity of keywords and make appropriate changes to your website.

Keyword research plays a major role when building links. Instead of a ‘click here’, relevant keywords can be used to make the link more user-friendly as well as help the search engine detect what the link is connecting to. This can help you get a higher ranking for those specific keywords included in your link. It carries extra weight as another site is recommending your page for a particular keyword. Including relevant keywords in your title text and anchor text can improve your search engine placement tremendously.

LINK SWAP

noreply@blogger.com (SEO Mafia) — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 11:34:00 +0000

If you want to make money on the web, you must get traffic to your website. If you want to get traffic to your website, you must have a high rank in google's search results. Google ranks websites based upon the number of links that point to the site.

Many novice webmasters believe they can trick Google into giving their website a high rank by swapping links with other webmasters. One reason they believe this, is because "wanna-be" web marketing "experts" keep spouting that trash.

It's only partially true that Google ranks websites based upon the number of links that point to the site. Google uses a highly sophisticated page ranking formula that keeps changing and evolving all the time. Google caught onto the link swapping trick years ago.

Novice webmasters put all their link swaps on one gigantically long page referred to as a "link farm". When Google's robot finds a link farm, their ranking formula penalizes the websites listed in the link farm. If Google finds the same site listed in many link farms, they remove that site from their search engine.

Every webmaster that wants to do link swap has a website with zero traffic. Even if Google didn't penalize websites for being listed in a link farm, why would I want to send traffic away from my website to a website that can't return any traffic?

Not only are these novice webmasters not experienced in the way of the web, they seem inexperienced in the way of the world. The first rule of the universe is "you never get a
free lunch". If you want your website to rank high in Google, you have to pay them. If you can't afford to pay them, you have to do the work.

It's hard work to get traffic to your website. There is only one method I know that works: put valuable, original content on your website. Other websites, blogs, and forums will post links to the valuable content on your website, not with a link swap, but as a resource to their audience.

When someone places a legitimate link to valuable content on their webpage, the webpage has low link density. Google's page ranking formula gives the page a high score. If a link to your webpage is found on a high scoring webpage, that raises the rank of your webpage.

On the other hand, a page with a high link density, with hundreds of links and little other content, gets a negative score from Google. If a link to your webpage is found on a
webpage with a negative score, that lowers the rank of your webpage.

Don't try to scam Google by swapping links, and don't cooperate with foolish webmasters who think there is a "free lunch". If you want to get a higher ranking in Google, resulting in more traffic to your website, there is only one way - good old fashion hard work.

Link exchange has to be managed wisely!

links swap management is not an easy task, but if done properly, it might significantly boost your website's ranking.

First, you should build a link exchange page for your website. If you swap links heavily, you should consider links categorization, and you should create a separate page for each sub-category. It is very annoying for surfers to see huge links pages, with hundreds of non-categorized links, even if they are theme-related. ANY category can be sub-categorized, and you should do that.

Second, you should include your link exchange information in a very clear manner. Some webmasters give the HTML code to be included for the link, and this is a great idea! Anyway, you should provide at least you URL, your link text (your keyphrases to be included!) and a short description of your website (again, your keyphrases to be included!). If you want, you can provide a small image or banner, but keep in mind that text links are more valuable than graphical links. If you provide an image for linking, don't forget to provide also the "alt" text for that image! An email address for link swap is also needed. If you actively do link swap, it is a good idea to have a special email address just for this purpose.

Third, you may want to take a closer look at the website you are swapping links with. If they use a third-party service for link exchange management, then you will get a link back from the website of the third-party service, NOT from the website you are trading links with! Those links are not very precious, because the third-party website, by managing the links of hundreds of different websites, might look to the search engines like a "link farm". Basically, you are "giving" a link to somebody's website, but "receiving back" a link from somebody else's website. To check that, just visit their links page, and watch for an URL change in the address bar of your browser. If the URL does not begin with their domain name, they are using a third party service for links management, and the link you are getting in exchange for yours does not worth too much in terms of page ranking. Many webmasters avoid to trade links with websites that do not host their links page in the same place with their website, but on third-party sites. Anyway, the link that you are getting back might still generate direct traffic for your website. If you need a better understanding of all of the above, you should try a closer look on how the PageRank algorithm works.

Finally, it is a good idea to visit some forums dedicated to links swap and/or link popularity. Many good things can be learned from other people involved in this activity. Knowledge is power, and practical experience is valuable knowledge! Keep that in mind...

How Do I Swap Links?

There is no standard procedure, but a logical recipe for links swapwould look like:

Find a link exchange partner

Send an email and ask for a link swap

If you get a positive reply, add a link from your website to the partner's website

Send an email to let them know, and to ask for a feed-back when they will add the link to your website

A shorter recipe for link swapwould be:

Convert Your Web Traffic into Customers - See below for helpful tips!

noreply@blogger.com (SEO Mafia) — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 10:35:00 +0000

Costly Website Mistakes That Drive Prospects Away
You have traffic coming to your website, but you notice that not enough of your traffic is converting to actual sales. What is driving this prospect away?

According to the Internet Marketing Report, 31% of Web users say the biggest obstacle when trying to make a purchase on a shopping website is insufficient or confusing info on the site. So, how do you effectively avoid the most common pit falls when converting internet traffic?

Here are some tips on how to convert more prospects into clients:

Know your customer - Don't just think you know, do the research. It is equally important to know what your potential and existing customers DO like as it is to know what they DON'T like. When prospects can't find what they are looking for, they leave. Knowing what the customer wants and how they look for it are critical elements to any good website conversion!
Keep it Simple - creating navigation bars with heavy menus, that are usually designed around optimization, end up confusing the potential client and make it difficult for them to find what they need. Making forms complicated with too many fields and requiring unnecessary information will turn a good prospect away. You must define the ultimate priority for the site (sales, generating leads, informational) and use that guidance to remove any obstacles that get in the way.
Keep an eye on your competition - It can be hard to find the time to research our competitor's site on a regular basis, but your potential clients are reviewing the information daily. If you don't keep an eye on how they are attracting your potential clients, then your business will suffer the consequences.

FAQ Page - Converting Prospects through Education
FAQ's do more than just answer questions! If you can effectively help prospects find answers to the most common questions, these prospects will end up clients without having to call and get the information they need. This means you will obtain a higher number of sales that converted without the assistance of an actual employee. The fact is if a prospect finds an answer to a question on your website, they will most likely take the next step. It is when a prospect cannot find answers that they get lost to competition. Another great way to simplify the prospects visit is to provide links to areas of the website that can take an action (order form, sign-up form or contact us form).

Because the FAQ page is rich in text, using keyword phrases in this area of the website is a great way to direct targeted traffic to your site.

Shopping Cart Loss - Why They Check In and Never Check Out!
In some markets, 75% of online shoppers are abandoning the purchase before it has been completed. Here are some useful tips to help keep that customer moving through the checkout stand!

Use large buttons for navigating the checkout area and place them in places that make sense and don't confuse the shopper. For example, don't place the "Remove Item" button any where near the "Next Step" button.
Handle order errors with care and not confusion - If form fields are left blank, a prominent reminder should politely tell the shopper what is missing.
Make editing your shopping list easy and don't require the customer to go back to the product page to change size, color, etc. A cart review page should offer editing options to keep the sale going smoothly.

Make contact information available to the shopper if they need assistance in finishing the shopping experience. If they are ready to check out but have a question or two before completing the sale, they should be able to reach a live person to assist them. If they can't get the answer before checking out, you are likely to lose that sale!

Landing Pages - A Way to Convert More Prospects
The theme of this newsletter is to keep the traffic you get and convert more of them into customers. The process of turning a customer into a client can happen at almost any point. As we have seen, there are many avenues that drive the prospect to your site. But, the experts say it's the landing page that will determine the prospects next step.

With landing pages being so critical to conversion, it's surprising how often they are undervalued in the marketing campaign.

A landing page should make a clear connection between the original message and the information prospects see on the landing page. Provide prospect with path to follow, don't make anything on the landing page unclear or difficult to navigate. This will ensure more conversions.

One common mistake is to make a landing page one of your existing website pages. This is a conversion killer, yet most marketers are doing just that. The best landing pages are stripped down, isolated pages from the rest of the site and focus only on a single goal.

The proof is in the pudding, so to speak. Recently a company tested out its landing page campaign. One version closely resembled the website, navigation and all; while the other was a self contained page all about the offer. Through banner ads and e-mail campaigns, prospects traveled to the two landing pages. The one that was a stand alone page converted TWICE as many prospects as the one that mirrored the website!

Topic Sensitive Links, PageRank & Optimization

noreply@blogger.com (SEO Mafia) — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 11:13:00 +0000

Theming & semantic connectivity have become big issues in search technology. Google & Yahoo! have each purchased smaller companies whose focus is on the relationships between words & concepts. In the modern algorithms, relatedness plays a large role when determining which inbound and outbound links are valuable in ranking a site.

Three primary factors of search engine rankings are presumed to be influenced by topic-sensitivity - PR, links & site/page theme. PageRank is supposedly a measure of the general importance of a page, but many speculate that PR is now being passed and measured based on an analysis of relevance to the general or specific subject matter. The value of a specific link and the theme of a site/page is also estimated to be calculated based on the relativity of the subject matter.

The best evidence for a themed set of factors is Google's development of the "Site-Flavored Search". This unique tool enables site owners to select the theme that best fits their website, then offer Google's search functions slanted towards their specific industry/market. At the very least, the existence of this technology indicates that Google is using a system of recognition to theme websites into groups. An extreme use of this technology would allow Google to discount irrelevant links from "un-themed" sites, thereby reducing the value of non-targeted link building. Google could also use this technology to categorize websites and eliminate non-relevant pages from the SERPs. Clearly, this isn't taking place yet...

Topic-sensitivity, however, is something that needs to be planned for. Prior knowledge of this phenomenon should make it clear that by using Google's own flavoring system, SEOs can pick out logically which websites will provide the greatest relevance and links. This filtering does bring up some important points which are still open to debate:

Could search engines in the future filter out directories or non-targeted sites as being less relevant?

In planning for the growing dominance of topic-sensitivity, should sites be targeted at single, specific subjects?

When creating pages for current websites, should content remain segmented to a strict interpretation of the website's primary topic, or is it OK to branch out?

For all of these questions, I would predict that search engines will not swing the pendulum too far, or they risk severly crippling current results. The penalties or devluations for even large swings away from primary topics will probably never become a big factor in SEO. The goal of the search engines is to provide relevancy, and damaging thousands of sites who don't fit a rigid structure is very unlikely.

That said, there are many steps that should be taken in order to benefit as much as possible from growth in topic-sensitivity. A list of important and somewhat obvious steps follows:

Use Google's site flavored search to look for links using searches like intitle:"submit url" OR "add url", etc.
When considering the purchase of links, check to see if the site fits into your specific niche, or at least the category one level above you.
Search for your primary keyword phrases and see what category/categories the top 20-30 results fit into. This can give you a good idea of what the current usage of topic-sensitivity is for your terms.
Google's site-flavored search can also tell you who is "themed" in your category - try conducting a wide variety of keyword searches after customizing a search to your theme and see who is listed with the Google "bubble" logo next to their link - these sites have been "themed" in Google's index.

The last subject is PageRank, which is becoming a less critical piece in Google's algorithm, with probably credit going to increased theming. Topic sensitive sites are less likely to have the exceptionally high PageRank of the Internet industry's giants, but these pages are more 'relevant' to the search query. However, for sites whose business model may rely on PR, or whose competition is so fierce that high PageRank is neccessary, it may be important to note that some SEOs have predicted that PR will no longer represent 'absolute' importance in the future, but may use some measure of theming to make the calculations. Luckily, the advice above still holds - continue to link build from important sites that are in your category and you can't go wrong.

Topic-sensitivity is one among many tools in the search engines' arsenal for providing more relevant results and weeding out unrelated and spam sites & pages. In order to be competitive, stay on top of theories and practices like theming, and you'll be able to stay ahead of the curve.

Advanced Link Building Tactics

noreply@blogger.com (SEO Mafia) — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 10:49:00 +0000

Link building requires dedication and consistent effort. It is the most difficult, time-consuming and important task an SEO performs to get a website ranked well. Certain strategies are well known to SEOs, while others are in the realm of the experts or forward-thinkers who puzzle them out. I have attempted to list here many of the link building tactics used by the SEO community.

Directories
Top Competition
Link Searches
Usurping Competitors' Links
Article Writing & Submission
Forums & Online Communities
Blogging & Comments
Renting Pages from Authority Sites
Purchasing Online Advertising
Text Link Brokers
Unique Tools & Services
Automated Link Building Programs
Donations & Charity
Press Releases

Directories

Although it may seem an obvious and tired way to build links, directory use is still valuable and valid. I have compiled an exhaustive list of directories including PR, pages that have been spidered, and submission requirements for directories - see List of SEO Directories. When submitting to directories, make sure to vary anchor text and try to use your keywords in the description and title fields as naturally as possible. A good SEO should be able to obtain between 75-150 unique backlinks just from directories.
Top Competition

This tactic can help you generate the most visitors to your site. Search Yahoo, Google, MSN and the other search engines for each of your important keyword phrases and make a point of attempting to get a link from each page. Oftentimes a direct phone call to site owners or a very tactful email can go a long way. I've even used handwritten letters to attempt to cajole site owners into giving me a link. Use whatever resources you have help persuade - links from other sites you own, money (if you have it), free SEO services, contributions of articles or content, etc.

When I use this technique, I'll typically make a spreadsheet listing all of the sites I have a shot at getting a link from (i.e. excluding direct, obvious competitors). I then get as much contact information as I can about each one and run down the list. This can be very time-consuming, but also exceptionally worthwhile. Even if your site doesn't get ranked much higher, each link from a site that ranks in the top 20 will bring direct, targeted traffic.
Link Searches

This old technique has been honed to a science by many SEOs, but there is always room to improve. The goal is to use Google/Yahoo to search for pages that let you add a link (reciprocal, paid, etc.) that already have your keyword or some closely related content on them. Often these searches turn up smalltime site operators with reciprocal link directories managed by 3rd party software. Don't overlook these, and make sure you submit. But the real prize is pages that give free links or offer paid links to sites they feel are important - many of the highest PR links can be obtained through this method, especially if you conduct the search at SEOChat's PR Search Tool.

The following searches are worthy of being tried, but feel free to experiment:
1. intitle:add+url "keyword phrase"
2. intitle:submit+site "keyword phrase"
3. intitle:submit+url "keyword phrase"
4. intitle:add+site "keyword phrase"
5. intitle:add+your+site "keyword phrase"
6. intitle:directory "keyword phrase"
7. intitle:list "keyword phrase"
8. intitle:sites "keyword phrase"
All of the above searches can be used without the intitle to give even more results. As with other link building processes, these are tedious and time-consuming, but it is critical to stay focused on finding quality, relevant links. When using this method, make sure you note to which other sites the page is linking and what text content is listed. If it fits well with your content, don't worry if the page is PR0.
Usurping Competitors' Links

Although this may sound unseemly, it is one of the most effective ways to build links, and is commonly practiced. The goal is to find as many domains and pages as possible that link to your competitors' sites and get those sites to link to you as well. This is often easier than it sounds, because the site is already linking out to people in your industry. Money, services, links or simple requests are all used to get the job done.

The most effective ways to find your competitors' links are listed below:
1. At Yahoo! type linkdomain:url.com -site:url.com
2. At MSN's techpreview type link:url.com -site:url.com
3. At Yahoo! type link:http://www.url.com
4. At Google type "url.com" -site:url.com
These are typically the most reliable way to find the sites and pages that link to your competitors and, incidentally, those sites which link to you. Remember to be as courteous, direct and friendly as possible. Don't forget how effective non-electronic methods of communication can be - phone, letters, etc.
Article Writing & Submission

Writing unique, valuable content about your subject matter for your own site is the most critical piece of on-site SEO. But it can also be a fantastic way to generate quality links from other sites. Many existing websites are designed around hosting the content of others and providing links back to them. I have listed some of the biggest 3rd-party article hosting sites below.

General Articles - These cover a wide range of subjects and will accept submission on many topics:
- Idea Marketers - http://www.ideamarketers.com/writers.cfm
- Buzzle.com - http://www.buzzle.com/secure/become-editor.asp
- EBooksnBytes - http://www.ebooksnbytes.com/articles/submit.shtml
- Article Central - http://thewhir.com/find/articlecentral/suggest.asp
- Go Articles - http://www.goarticles.com/ulogin.html
- EzineArticles - http://ezinearticles.com/submit/
- AMAzines - http://amazines.com/
- Article City - http://www.articlecity.com/article_submission.shtml
- BPubs.com - http://www.bpubs.com/cgi/add.cgi
- Business Know-How - businessknowhow.com/newsletter/articleguidelines.htm
- WWIO - http://www.certificate.net/wwio/ideas.shtml
- About.com - http://sbinformation.about.com/library/blsubmission.htm (note, this is just of many places on the site where you can submit articles - choose the subject that best matches your site)
- NetterWeb.com - http://www.netterweb.com/articles/
- Simply Search 4it - http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/addart.php
- Vector Central Marketing - http://www.vectorcentral.com/articles-form.html
- Learning Folder - http://www.learningfolder.com/SubmitArticle.aspx
- Knowledge Bed - http://www.knowledgebed.com/submission.html
- Article Insider - http://www.articleinsider.com/start.php
- Articles that Sell - http://www.articlesthatsell.com/submityourarticle.htm
- Smart Ads - http://www.smartads.info/articles/
- Writing Career - http://www.writingcareer.com/freearticles-submit.html
These are just some of the thousands of sites that offer the ability to spread your content around the web. Additional sites on your specific topics can be found using the search engines. Especially prevalent are sites offering content in website marketing & technology - there are hundreds of sites that deal in content on these issues.
Forums & Online Communities

Generating links through forums is often considered spam, but forums are valuable tools for link builders as long as the proper methods are employed. The forum signature of a member is certainly a fair place to promote your site, and while doing so may not provide a worthy backlink in the search engines' eyes, it does offer visitors on the forum a chance to see your site.

The primary goal of joining a forum should be to contribute and learn from the community, but promotion certainly isn't out of place, as long as it remains on-topic. In SEO forums, people constantly plug their new directories, tools, articles, etc. These are all appropriate as long as they are subtle, relevant and not overdone.

When a specific page, tool or link would provide a great resource or answer to a question in a community, don't hesitate to provide it. Much of the information used to write this article and the SEO Survey tool was provided in forums through links. Just remember to carefully read the terms of use for the forums you post in - many are harsh if they feel someone is there to spam or advertise.
Blogging & Comments

Blogging is a very effective way to get natural inbound links, and by having a personal blog at your site, you can more easily make commentary at other sites that link back to you. DO NOT spam blog comments with advertisements; your goal is to create an online reputation you can be proud of. Blog owners and visitors will not take kindly to blog spam. The key to effective blogging for links is to make sure you comment relevantly & intelligently about the specific subject in the blog. A well thought-out response to a relevant blog or article can bring not only search engines, but more importantly other readers of the blog to your site through the link. If your content proves interesting, you could build much more than just a single link through your comments.

Another important thing to remember is that your link in blog comments may not count at all in the search engines. Many blogs prevent access to these comments or don't provide direct, spiderable links for blog visitors. This, combined with the fact that these comments are buried at least 2-3 links deep from the main page means that you should keep your focus on the visitors you might generate, rather than the search engine optimization you might get.

However, you should still be as SE friendly as possible. If the subject matter deals directly with your keyword phrases, you're in fine shape, but if they are on related subjects, it can't hurt to use your keyword phrase(s) once or twice in a longer comment/entry. You should also try to make your 'name' - which is typically the anchor text for your link contain at least one of your kw phrases, but remember to keep it varied and never let it overtake the importance of getting visitors, i.e. if your site is about Orange County T-Shirts, having a 'name' of OC-Tshirt-Man can't hurt you, but Orange-County-T-Shirts is probably not as wise.
Renting Pages from Authority Sites

This tactic is not often mentioned, but can be extremely valuable. The premise is to rent, for a monthly fee, a page hosted on a larger or more authoritative site in your industry. You then add content & links on the page to your own site(s) with the anchor text you choose and in the format you select. These are almost like 'advertorials' in magazines, where you provide content that the site links to (hopefully not more than 2 links from the homepage) and then link back to your own site.

The fundamental difference between this tactic and simple article hosting is that you approach a site or company that doesn't normally host other people's content about having your information. Although rejection is often likely, the benefits can be phenomenal, as the page itself may rank well for your search terms very quickly.
Purchasing Online Advertising

Link building through advertising is exceptionally expensive, but it can bring in good returns if properly managed. Make sure as you buy links that you get the click-through rate from the seller for the past 6 months. You should get a lot of other statistics to review as well - make sure to avoid advertising in places where the seller doesn't have good information on click-through rates, visitors, etc. You'll also have to work around re-direct scripts, links sent through ad networks (like DoubleClick), etc. As long as you are up front and friendly, you'll be able to have some success in this arena as long as you have the funding.
Text Link Brokers

Although initial thoughts about link brokers can give a bad impression, this new industry can actually have a positive value on your link building efforts. I recommend against purchasing sitewide links unless your only goal is to build PR (i.e. directories or SEO related sites, etc.). Sitewide links have come to be associated with "manipulation" of the SERPs by search engines and should be largely avoided. However, purchasing text links on specific, related sites surrounded by the content of your choice can be beneficial, if difficult to find.

The key to a successful text link is that all the components of natural SEO are there:
- Is the page closely related to your site's topic?
- Is the link placed in a strategic position - i.e. not in an obvious advertising space or footer?
- Is the site related to the topic of your site and the topic of the page?
- Is the site spidered frequently by the search engines and do the pages have visible PR?
If the link meets these criteria, it could be very worthwhile. However, be careful to avoid paying high prices for a particular page or site, simply because of its PR. It is more likely that multiple low PR (3,4 & 5) pages are worth more to you than a single PR7 or 8.

Several lists of text links sellers are available online:
1. Link Sellers - List of Text Link Ad Sellers
2. Text Link Brokers - Discussion and some links at SearchEngineWatch Forums
Be wary and always do some search research and asking at the major SEO forums prior to buying from text link brokers. The industry is, sadly, rife with scammers & companies that don't deliver as promised.
Unique Tools & Services

By offering specific, relevant free Internet tools/services at your site, you can generate naturally built links. My recommendation is to find a tool or service that isn't currently offered or that you believe you can improve upon. For some industries, this will be much harder than others, but creativity is your best tool. Imagine what automated web service, list of resources or submission-type tool would best benefit you and then build it and offer it on your site.

Some excellent examples are listed below (these come straight from my imagination):

For a site about animals, a tool that visually diagrams the phylum/genus/species relationships
For a site about travel, a tool that creates a pre-planned itinerary based on a selection of interests
For a site about real estate, a tool that estimates property value or gives a % chance of selling for a based on time, region & price.

The possibilities are endless, and there is little doubt that the web can automate and make easier hundreds of tasks in any industry. The key, after you have built your tool, is to promote it with industry leaders - send it to bloggers who discuss your subject matter, ask people to use and evaluate it on forums, etc. You can even try to promote it by writing an article about your findings, development or the simple existence of the tool and submitting it across the newswires.

Automated Link Building Programs

Many SEOs feel that automated link building is a surefire way to get banned/penalized by the search engines. If you are caught practicing this tactic, I would certainly agree. However, for those willing to take risks, the rewards can be substantial. Well-built and well hidden link networks often bring higher rankings in a short amount of time. The key is to select a provider who will offer the following:
1. A vastly distributed network that is not interlinked and doesn't share any C-Block IP addresses
2. Linking pages that contain some relevant content that has been well-linked through a sitemap system
3. Pages that are as close to naturally-designed and built as possible
4. A company that can speak at an expert level about SEO and the tactics they use to avoid detection - call them and talk to them first; their knowledge and competence should be instantly apparent.
5. Someone you trust and have researched thoroughly - I DO NOT recommend posting on forums about these companies, as you could damage your chances for success. Just ask for recommendations from trusted members of the SEO community.
6. Pages that link not only to your site(s) but to other relevant, related sites as well - even if they are your composition. That way, if you get penalized, at least your competition is suffering as well.
This is one of the riskiest strategies that can be pursued in link building and I recommend it only with extreme caution. You are breaking the search engine's printed rules by "intentionally manipulating the search results" and you should have a contingency plan in the event of disaster.
Donations & Charity

Many high PR websites are run by charity organizations, open-source technology groups & the like. Contributions of time, money or resources in exchange for links are commonplace and very worthwhile. For this type of link building, relevancy is still important, but you may not be able to find any link partners in this segment if you focus solely on topic-sensitive sites & pages. It may be very worthwhile to donate regardless and see if the links from PR7 & 8 pages can help to boost your importance.

In order to find sites like these, I use the PR Search tool at SEOChat to search for terms/phrases like donate, contribute, give, etc. Appending your broadest search terms to these types of words can help you find the sites most likely to pass you a good link. Remember that even if non-profits, charities, etc. don't have a link program in place, they may be more than happy to provide a special link for you if you request it when contributing. If nothing else, these links and the time/money you spend getting them are a great way to sleep better at night.
Press Releases

Press releases written by an SEO firm can contain a carefully worded title, well placed keywords and a link to the site that is the subject of the article. SEOs have been using press release services for some time, and as with many other things, the more you spend, the better distribution is. Press releases can also rank well on their own, particularly in the first few days/weeks of release as they receive the 'fresh content' boost in the SERPs. A particularly interesting or well-written press release may even garner the attention of some larger players in the new market, and if your article is picked up by one or several good sources, it can serve as a great boon to traffic and exposure.

Success relies on the careful crafting of the article itself - providing excellent, factual information in a way that is interesting to read and relevant to the industry. Hiring a journalism student for $100-$200 an article or a more experienced professional for more may well be worth the money. In any case, the press release needs to be sent through a distribution site. The following are popular in the SEO industry because they offer links, serve to a large variety of sites and provide enough flexibility to let an SEO perform well.
The top two sites listed are the largest, with the greatest distribution networks, but each site offers its own unique benefits and some are less expensive than others. It is worthwhile, especially if you have the money and are in a competitive arena, to opt for the maximum spend at PRWeb - somewhere around $250 per article. The distribution that is achieved will determine the value of the links and the article. It's also important to keep in mind that duplicate content penalties may hurt you - DO NOT re-publish the press release on your own site.
Natural Link Building

Although undoubtedly a difficult and time consuming method, as well as one of the more unreliable ones, natural link building is what powers most of the top sites on the Internet. This method involves developing the most useful, relevant content that provides the best resources, tools, services, prices, etc. in the industry. By offering the web community the best possible site, you can gain natural links through the power of having others on the web link to you.

Sadly, this tactic is somewhat usurped by the search engines, as newer sites often fair exceptionally poorly in the search results, especially for popular terms. In order to build natural links, people must be exposed to your site. At one time natural link building was the very best method to get traffic and links, but in the current state of search and traffic, it is more of a boost that you use to help convert some of the webmasters & bloggers who might visit your site into link builders.

Building valuable content is no easy task, and building an industry-leading resource is even more challenging. However, the long-term benefits can be spectacular, assuming you have the money and time to maintain your resource without proportional income. Remember to ask yourself what someone who comes to your site might want and try to provide the absolute best service/information in your industry in the cleanest, most usable site possible.

One Way Link Building Secures Long Term Ranking Results

noreply@blogger.com (SEO Mafia) — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 09:54:00 +0000

One-way link building is a great way to improve your link popularity and ranking in the search engines. One-way links are more difficult to obtain than traditional reciprocal links, but pay off in securing solid long-term search engine ranking results.

Why Are One-Way Links Helpful?
Link building in general is an important part of making sure your site ranks well in the search engines. Google and many of the other search engines include link popularity as part of the way they evaluate the web pages they include in the search engine databases. Links are seen as a positive "vote" towards the quality of the web page. Each individual page acquires link popularity based on the pages that link to it. Google and Yahoo both have toolbars showing the page rank of pages you visit, so you can use these tools to get a good estimate of your pages' link popularity. It is not necessary to get totally caught up in the minutia of which types of links from which types of pages are the most important. The bottom line is this: acquiring links pointing back to your website, particularly links from sites covering the same or related topics as your site, is helpful in the overall scheme of search engine ranking.

The big "plus" of one-way links is that you don't have to worry about linking back to a "bad neighborhood". If your site has links pointing back to sites that serve as "link farms" or "free-for-all" sites, you may not gain, and could actually lose page rank. These sites are rarely focused, and tend to have links to and from all different sorts of sites. Since there is no particular topical emphasis here, it is clear to Google and the other search engines that the sole purpose of these sites is to artificially increase the number of links pointing to your site. Since there is no value added for the search engine's users, they in turn give no value to these links.

Another advantage to these focused, one-way links is that they will tend to stay in place. A website that features a link to your site probably does so because that site's owner thinks that their visitors will benefit from the content your site has to offer. Rather than simply trying to manipulate search results, they want to add to the experience of their visitors; you benefit from having a long term link in place. Sites featuring reciprocal links may simply drop your link when it no longer suits their linking strategy.

How Do I Obtain Natural Links?
Building good content helps interest your visitors and keeps them on your website. By becoming an authority on your topic, you will attract more visitors. When another website in essence "votes" for the quality of your website by placing a link pointing back to it, you are obtaining natural linking. The more you can build upon helpful articles, FAQs and white papers, etc., the better reason for visitors to link back to your website because of the quality content.

One-Way Linking Sources
There are a number of ways to get links from other sites back to yours. The most important principle to keep in mind is that you will get the most links when you offer something significant to link to. Think of what you can provide that people will want to link to:

* Natural links given from topic-related websites that like your website
* Providing free content, such as access to articles, e-books, FAQ's and white papers
* Directory links, listed under the category related to your topic
* Business directory links, listed under the category related to your topic
* Blogs, submitted to a blog directory and archived online
* Business associations, listed under the category related to your topic
* Newsletter text ads promoting your business, archived online at topic-related websites
* Original articles, submitted to and archived online at topic-related websites
* Original press releases, submitted to and archived online at topic-related websites
* Original newsletters, submitted to and archived online at topic-related websites
* White papers, submitted to and archived online at topic-related websites
* E-books, submitted to and archived online at topic-related websites
* Free software tools provided with required link back to website

For each of these types of content, you will want to have an active link pointing back to your site. Of course, when creating your own original content, always archive your own work on your website to build your content and increase your own link popularity by growing the number of pages on your website.

The extra value of one-way links is the fact that you are also promoting your website from the listing as well as the active link. Articles, newsletters, white papers, directory and business association links may bring in traffic from visitors who are interested in the description of your website listing.

How Do I Know The Links Are Valid?
To gain the most benefit from your links, the link back to your web page should be one that can be followed by the search engine robots. Plain old text links and image links usually can be followed by the search engine robots. More exotic types of links, like JavaScript links, cannot typically be followed by the search engine robots. When you provide suggested linking code, the simpler the better. Don't be afraid to suggest linking formats to owners of sites that link to you. The types of links that serve your purposes best will generally provide their visitors with the best experience as well.

Check to see if the page where the link will be located can be found in the search engine results. You can search via the entire website or by individual page. Different search engines use different syntax in looking for individual pages and links; refer to the advanced search function for each search engine for details.

Google Search Example:

Shows indexing of all pages listed in website site:www.websitedomainname.com Shows indexing of a specific web page in website info:www.websitedomainname.com/pagename.html If the page is listed in the search engine results, this means the page has been indexed by the search engine robots. This means the web page is valid for indexing and that your link will be picked up as well.

Research And Quality Content Equal Success One-way link building means hard work and long term determination to achieve good link popularity. By improving the quality of your website, you improve the chance to obtain good quality natural links. Spend a set amount of time each week to seek out quality one-way links to achieve your goal. By using this long-term game plan you will be able to safely build links for optimum link popularity success.