A Look At Balanced Link Building
By Stephen Pitts
Expert Author
Article Date: 2007-08-13
A link is not just a link, they are much more than just a simple way to move from one page to another. Rather, Links are the glue of the Internet!
Yeah, yeah, yeah… you've heard this before, haven't you?
Then, in the next breathe, you will hear, "content is king!" Right?
Really, links are the glue that binds pages on a single domain together to become a website. Links are the indicators that build a network. Content just tells the search engine algorithms what a page is about, but it is links to that page that shows why it is valuable. Search engines are there to provide their users valuable results, relevance is much easier to determine than value, isn't it?
Link building starts with the development of you website architecture. Text based without scripting is the best way to let your user and search engine crawlers know what the page is about. My best advice, make your links descriptive (call the page what it is) but don't over do it.
Link building continues with links that point away from your domain to others. This is an extremely important step. Linking to authorities in your vertical does not mean that your visitors will be escaping your website for your competitors' site, unless you have given them a reason. Link building is as important as developing relationships with suppliers of products for a retail business.
Step 3 is all about making yourself know in the areas that people traditionally look for valuable information. Directories are these places. If you are launching a website today, don't expect to be listed in wikipedia or dmoz just because you graced everyone with your presence. Are these valuable authorities? Of course, but much work will need to be done to gain that kind of attention. Start with important directories and move on to directories that are valuable in your vertical.
Next, start working to build links to your website from social networks like blogs, forums, bookmarking sites and communities that are active in providing feedback and content in your vertical. Start with comments, even if they are "no_follow" links. If you are providing something relevant and valuable to the conversation, you can get traffic from visitors of these blogs and may give others researching similar topics to possibly site you in their research (usually a link).
The final step, keep at it! It isn't a thankless job, I swear!
Link and content building are the fuel of SEO, like vitamins and food to our bodies. So watch your diet of links and make sure you are creating enough content that will sustain your rankings.
Here are some tips that I subscribe to:
1. Who you link to says more about you than those that link to you, so be careful to link to websites that are valuable… and value is not determined by PageRank!
2. If you only link to those that link back to you, you aren't doing for your visitors!
3. If you are afraid that linking to others will cause you to lose your visitors, you already have!
4. Just like content, if you link to a website that is not related to the subject matter of your website it's value is lost.
5. No website is an island, link out already!
Share your link building techniques, questions, comments and myths, won't you?
Comments
About the Author:
In-house SEO for a private travel company with great success. Has been influential in developing and building a niche travel directory and search engine. I enjoy learning and sharing information on my blog, SEOPittfall.com to others in an effort to build relevant, content driven websites with the user in mind.
Submit Your Article
Public Relations
Networking
Techniques