An Introduction to Link Building

Author Brian Turner of Britecorp.

 

Success on modern search engines demands attention to link popularity. With Google it's absolutely essential.

 

One of the biggest drawbacks with Content SEO is that, in creating content for others to link to, you are effectively waiting for others to slowly build up some kind of linking architecture to promote your site. It's a slow and even painful process. Not only are you unlikely to rank for target keywords with real traffic anytime soon, but you can also bet that if your content is really that good, that there's someone out there who will try to rip your site.

 

Link Building SEO gets around that by giving a website a special advantage with an accelerated link building program. It aims to give sites and their pages maximum exposure as required. Even if someone then tries to rip your site, you have a firmly established presence on the internet. More than that, you can still invite people to link to your content...presuming it's worth linking to. :)

 

But how can you actually build up links to you site?

 

There are particular ways in which you can do this:

 

1. Directory listings

2. Link exchange program

3. Independent Back-Link Networks

 

Directory listings

 

Some of the most solid, stable, links you can get for your site are from directories. This is especially the case where an expert system may be employed.

 

DMOZ is the supreme emperor of directories, for multiple reasons. The first is that it's a very high PR site, so listings gain a specific advantage in that sense. The second is that the directory database is downloaded and used by hundreds of other directories, not least the Google Directory itself. The third – and perhaps most overlooked aspect of DMOZ – is that if your site content justifies it, you can have multiple links from DMOZ to multiple sections - even pages - of your website.

 

There are lots of other free directories that are spiderable – there's a very good starter list of free directories listed here.

 

Of course, not all directories can be spidered. Many use modified URLs so that you will gain no SEO benefit from such a listing anyway.

 

However, never underestimate the human traffic advantages of your being listed in free directories that use modified URLs.

 

After all, Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation often outrageously flirt with each other, like a pair of raunchy over-sexed lesbians – one blonde, one brunette. The blonde is the Internet Marketing component: she only has to look good and attract. The brunette, on the other hand, knows how to go out and get what she wants.

 

Since Florida, certain directory listings now have exaggerated worth, and multiple links from DMOZ have become real gold. It's all free – don't pass up the opportunity.

 

Link Exchange Programs

 

 

As part of a wider link-building program, setting up a link exchange either through a single page or an installed directory can be a good idea.

 

However, of all the link-building tactics this is possibly the weakest.

 

On the one hand, you can build up a wide linkage with other sites. In terms of theme or topic-associated ranking, this can have clear advantages – presuming that the sites you exchange links with are of a related nature by topic.

 

The big weakness is that the primary aim of a link-building program is to build a greater number of In Bound Links (IBL's). And with a link exchange program you are offsetting the number of links coming in with an equal number of links going out.

 

Of course, you can always try and sabotage the OutBound Links (OBL's) with a robots.txt file, javascript, sessions IDs or modifying the URLs. However, that hardly going to encourage people to link to you – and thus the entire reason for the policy in the first place becomes flawed.

 

There is another insidious weakness, though.

 

Link exchange programs lead to a very unnatural pattern of linkage. It should be well within the capabilities of modern search engines to spot this unnatural pattern, and deal with it accordingly. Perhaps some do, but if not, like the Sword of Damocles, the very real threat of devaluation of link exchange programs could be hanging just above.

 

The point is (excuse the pun) not to put too much faith in link exchange programs in themselves, and most certainly do not put too much emphasis on automated link exchange programs such as Link Builder. Although these programs can be a great way to exchange links quickly and effortlessly, you can be pretty sure that they are also quickly creating a very noticeable anomaly in the pattern of how sites link.

 

Search Engines are fussy architects – you really don't want them viewing your site as a carbuncle.

 

Link-exchange programs do have advantages in terms of gaining links from related themed sites, which may be especially relevant with an expert system. However, you shouldn't put too much emphasis on link exchanges alone precisely because of its weaknesses.

 

There are some good tips for webmasters on building a links-exhange page here.

 

However, at the end of the day, remember that links are the currency of SEO. If you link exchange, you give away as much as you earn. You need to concentrate on ways to amass that currency so that you can keep hold on to it.

 

You need to look at building your own Independent Back Linking Network.

 

 

Independent Back Linking Networks (IBLN's)

 

The previous two methods decribed – Directory Listings and the Link Exchange Program – are free. Unless paying for automated submissions software (a bad idea) or automated Link Exchange software (see previous page for the weaknesses here) then your main investment is time.

 

With an Independent Back-Linking Network (IBLN), not only will you have to invest a considerable amount of time, you will also have to invest a significant amount of money.

 

What is an Independent Back-Linking Network?

 

In simple terms, it's a network of sites that all directly or indirectly link back to your site in such as a way as to promote it through the search engine rankings.

 

The complex side of it is that Google at least has multiple ways of devaluing back-links from the same IP subnet (think: xx.xx.xx.different as actually being xx.xx.xx.same). So for SEO purposes, if you want to get real serious with an IBLN, then you are going to have to pay for a lot of webhosting.

 

If fact, you are effectively going to need a completely different web-hosting plan for every site you want to link back directly to you.

 

Of course, it's not all gloomy. After all, you wouldn't want every site you create to link directly to your own site. Oh, no. You need to create a network of sites that is as organic in construction as the internet itself – a microcosm within a macrocosm.

 

Search Engines are built to work upon networks, to investigate the way that the vast network of the internet inter-links. That's why you need your IBLNs to look as natural as possible.

 

Otherwise, if one of your back-linking sites is flagged, the extent of your manipulation of links to your site can be very quickly uncovered. And do you think that search engines are really going to be so forgiving of you for that?

 

At best they'll maybe just wipe all the direct referrers from their index (the sites they find flagrantly built simply to link to your main site). At worse, they'll drop your entire IBLN - including the main site your were trying to optimising for.

 

The risks of a poorly constructed Independent Back-Linking Network are considerable – but the rewards of a well constructed IBLN are also considerable: especially in the commerical environment.

 

Of course, there are greater considerations at hand than mere natural linking. With the face of the search engine world moving in a constantly dynamic manner, it's important to know what some may have in store for future – and potentially devastating – updates.

 

For a start your IBLN should try and stay on topic as much as possible – but don't be afraid to let it drift into one or two off-topic domains. After all, that happens on the net. You could even take that opportunity to promote a complete separately site that you run.

 

You should also be aware that in an "expert system", a page full of links to already recognised quality sites – that may just include a few of your own pages – is going to be of particular importance.

 

You should also seek, where you can, to build your very own "authority sites" within your IBLN, and ensure that authority site links well with your main site. Not only do self-created authority sites help you rise in the rankings - but they also knock the competition downwards.

 

And, if you're prepared to take a little extra time to build small but coherent on-topic sites in your IBLN, you should certainly submit them to free directories to help strengthen their legitimacy.

 

Don't think that the people at DMOZ are going to be easily fooled by a site filled with Doorway Pages, though. And don't imagine that you don't risk the possibility of having your site removed from DMOZ and other directories, if you submit a site with real content, only to fill it with redirects after acceptance.

 

At the end of the day, an Independent Back Linking Network should look very natural in most ways - ideally, people should not be able to distinguish most of your IBLN sites from any other average site in the topic area.

 

And that is precisely why they can be so good at supporting your main website.

 

 

 

Nalin.

 

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