When building links through any medium, there are a few things to keep in mind to ensure that you are not wasting your time on a particular site. First, make sure that anywhere you submit to does not use the “no-follow” attribute. Not very many places use this but if they do then you are wasting your time because your link on these types of websites will count for nothing. Another thing to look for is PageRank; the higher the PageRank of any given website the higher your link will be weighted by the search engines. They use the theory that if someone of high importance is linking to you, then you are probably of some importance yourself. However, don’t use PageRank as a decision maker alone because there are definitely some good websites with low PageRank and there are definitely some bad websites with high PageRank. Also, look for content; search engines like to see original content so if your link is on a page with text on it then it will be viewed in higher regard compared to a site with nothing but a list of links.
DirectoriesSubmitting your website to different directories is probably the easiest and most common way to get links to your website. Most directories are either free directories, paid directories or reciprocal directories or any combination of these. Any of these can be quality directories so deciding where to submit to is up to what kind of campaign you are doing and how many quality links you are trying to get.
One thing to look for when submitting to directories, other than what I described above, is whether the directory is a general directory or a niche directory. General directories are much easier to find and there are thousands of them out there; however, because they are so general, your link will not be heavily weighted from a general directory compared to a niche directory. Niche directories are specifically about one topic, or a small amount of topics. Because these directories are so focused, if your content matches the topics of one of these directories then your link will be weighted higher.
Below is a small list of free and paid directories that I have found to be very good directories. This is only a quick, small list; I will save the full directory list for another article, another time.
Free Directories with PageRank
- DMOZ - PR8
- MasterMOZ - PR6
- Free Website Directory - PR5
- Prolink Directory - PR5
- Bee Directory - PR5
- Jayde - PR4
Paid Directories with PageRank
- Yahoo - PR8
- Business.com - PR7
- Best of the Web (BOTW) - PR6
- Gimpsy - PR6
- Galaxy - PR6
- World Links Directory - PR6
Link Exchange Programs
Link exchange programs are usually fairly easy to find; whether it be through a mass exchange program between a lot of different companies and websites or just one of your business’ clients or other local businesses that you can exchange each other’s links. You can usually find a lot of link exchange requests in forums. These links are considered reciprocal links which are not bad for your website but they don’t really do a whole lot so I would only recommend spending time exchanging links with companies that are related content to your website.
Article writingWriting articles is probably one of the best but most time-consuming way to get links. Google and other search engines really like to see unique content and when you write an article that consists of a lot of unique and original content, the search engines give a lot of weight to links attached to these. There are a lot of article directories out there that you can submit articles to and these will usually bring you pretty good article placement and traffic depending on the quality of your article. Again, the more your article is related to the content on your website, the high weight the search engine will attribute to that link. Unfortunately, this is a somewhat time consuming process because you are really only getting one link per article (articles are usually a few hundred words or more).
Below is a small list of a few article directories that you can submit articles to:
Leaving comments on other peoples blogs is a great way to get links and traffic, especially if their blog uses the “do-follow” attribute. Please make sure that when you are commenting on other people’s blogs, that you are providing some useful information or a useful comment because no one likes a spammer. They are providing you with an opportunity to generate links and traffic so the least you can do is have something useful to say. Besides, a lot of do-follow blogs usually moderate comments, so if you have a pointless post or it’s just an obvious link-drop then the moderator will probably just deny your comment and you just wasted your time.
Here is a list of some do-follow blogs: Dofollow Blog List
Or here a do-follow blog search engine: Dofollow Blog Search
Signature links are usually specific to forums, chat rooms and emails. This is where you set a signature in your profile with you link in it; every time you make a post or send an email it attaches your link to the bottom of your post. With emails, the link does not help you with search engines but it can potentially increase traffic to your website. With forums however, your signature links are seen by search engines and do count as a link to your website. Forums are a great way to communicate with other people in your industry and it is a great place to ask and answer questions while getting a free link every time you make a post. Keep in mind, just like with any other links, the more the forum topics relate to your website’s content, the more value your signature links will be given by the search engines.
Social Media NetworksSocial media has exploded with popularity on the internet within the past few years and while the topic of social media can be saved for another article, you can build links through social media networks. Most social media networks like MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. usually allow you to add a company website to your profile. These links are usually weighted pretty high by Google and other search engines, which makes it well worth doing but don’t expect to get a lot of links this way.
Below is a list of popular social media networks:
Labels: article submission, blog comments, directories, forum links, link building, linking, linking campaign, social media