Believe it or not, all SEO’s were newbies at one time or another. Launching a website can be a very exciting event for an individual or new business owner. However, that excitement can quickly turn to disappointment when the site owner finds out that they are getting little or no traffic. If they are getting traffic, it is most likely coming from family members or friends who they notified through an email or Facebook.
Being involved in SEO and marketing in general, I am usually bombarded by family members and friends with questions about marketing their website or their future website on the Internet. Because of this and my willingness to help just about anyone I know, you can usually find me in a small dark corner at a family party (it has to be small and dark because my wife gets ticked when I’m not up and socializing with everyone), on the phone in the car, or answering an email, Facebook message, or Twitter message about SEO and other internet marketing tactics.
I was on a call yesterday with one of my best friends from high school. Our conversation was focused on general search engine optimization principles and link building tactics that could provide a good foundation and hopefully, if he does them right, some strong rankings in the search engines. One thing I emphasized is the fact that what ever he does, he needs to build links naturally. A natural link building campaign is crucial for success in SEO.
A natural link building campaign is one that is just that, natural! Getting 50,000 links within the first twenty days of your website’s existence is definitely not natural. Getting a slow trickle of links coming into your website and then building up looks much more natural. Also, getting 50,000 links pointing to your home page with the same anchor text is not natural. Vary your anchor text and include long tail versions of your keywords. You should also build links to other pages of your site in addition to your home page. All of these things help with building a natural link campaign.
In terms of links, there are two types of links you can get for your websites, external and internal links. Both are very important and can make a huge difference in your search engine rankings. I want to discuss in detail, ten ways to effectively jump-start your link building campaign.
Friends & Family Members
When beginning a link building campaign, one very natural way of obtaining links is from friends and family members. I just opened up our family blog and counted all of the friends and family who we have added in our blogroll. The grand total… 41. How hard is it to simply call up (recommended – it’s more personal) or email your family and friends who have blogs or other sites, and ask them for a link to your new website? Not hard at all! In fact, because they are your friends or family members, they will probably do it without hesitation. You can do the same thing with Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.
Add A Blog To Your Domain
Google loves blogs! Google loves fresh content! Google loves internal links! Internal links from other pages of your website are a guaranteed way to help you increase your rankings in the search engines. Adding a blog to your domain is a great way for you to easily add new content to your website on a regular basis. In most cases, adding a blog to your main domain is rather simple and can be done in as little as three clicks of your mouse. Web hosting companies like myhosting.com, Hostmonster, & Bluehost offer one click installations of blog platforms like Wordpress or b2evolution.
Adding a blog, posting to it at least once daily, and linking back to your home page and other important pages of your website with keyword anchor text is a great way to gain a lot of internal links. When blogging, you should also link out to other websites that interest you and websites that are in similar industries. You might also consider adding images, videos, polls, etc. Mix things up! Make it look natural! Most important, have fun!
Local Organizations
Just about every city in the country has a local chamber of commerce; mine would be the Lehi Area Chamber of Commerce. Joining a chamber of commerce will not only get you a very good link back to your website, but also provides networking opportunities with other local businesses. Most times, depending on your business, you can generate new leads rather easily by getting to know other individuals and businesses in your area.
Local News
Developing relationships with local newspaper writers and always making yourself available for comments on news stories that involve your industry is a great way to build awareness about your company and get links back to your website (if the newspaper is published online).
Help A Non Profit Organization
You would be surprised how many non-profit organizations are operating in your city and your state. Every one of us has been given talents and certain things that we are good at. I guarantee that there is a non-profit organization that could use your help, whether it is with designing their website or painting the conference room of their new office building. If you offer of yourself and your services freely, you can most likely ask for, and get a link to your website from theirs.
Submit Your Site To Local & Industry Specific Online Business Directories
Anyone studying SEO can usually find a blog post about submitting your website to directories on the Internet. Yes, this is a valuable link building tactic, but before you go crazy and start submitting to thousands of directories, seek out local directories and directories that are specific to your business. Submit to these first and take your time filling out all of the information that they ask for. These will be some of your most valuable links since they are so relevant to your website and business.
Social Bookmarking
You have probably heard the term social bookmarking. You have probably heard that social bookmarking is a great way to build links. Well, it is and it isn’t… You can waste a lot of time social bookmarking if you are submitting to the wrong sites. I limit my social bookmarking to Mixx, Propeller and sometimes Kirtsy. The trick to social bookmarking is to not only bookmark your website, your blog posts, and other things related to your website, but bookmarking lots of different things that interest you. This will make your bookmarking profiles look much more natural to both viewers and the search engines.
Write An Article And Submit To Article Directories
Writing articles and submitting them to sites like Ezine Articles, Article City, and Go Articles, also known as article marketing, is a great way to get links back to your website. Take time to write a very detailed article about your industry and submit it to a few article directories like the ones I listed above. You will get links back to your website by properly using the author resource or bio box at the end of the article. You should tell a little about yourself and your company, while adding keyword rich anchor text links pointing back to your website.
Write And Submit A Press Release
Writing press releases and submitting them to places like PR Web or Web Wire is a great way to generate interest and buzz about your business and also to get links back to your website. This method of link building is a little more difficult than other links that you can get for your website. Writing a press release takes skill… a skill, which the average person, like me, does not have. Press releases have certain requirements that must be met, a certain format that must be followed, and in most cases, need to be super interesting. Not having any of these elements can almost guarantee that your press release will either be outright rejected or not distributed to other news related websites.
Build A Hub Page Or Squidoo Lens
Building a Hub Page or Squidoo Lens is a fun way to get links back to your website. To date, I have built 73 Hubs and 25 Lenses for my own personal websites and hundreds for clients that I have managed. The most effective Hub Pages and Squidoo Lenses are those that have at least 450 words of text about a certain topic or subject, videos, pictures, polls, and other gadgets that are easy to add. You want to make the page as interactive as possible so it provides value for anyone who happens to read it. You are allowed two links to other websites from your Hubs and a handful of links (be conservative, don’t spam) from your Lenses.
Building links isn’t pretty. But, in order to rank well in the search engines, it is absolutely necessary. These are ten excellent ways for new companies or new website owners to start building links to their websites. There are many others and I encourage any of our readers to add to this list by commenting on this post.
Very comprehensive list, nicely done. Commenting on other industry blogs can also help build links, if they allow backlinks (a Do Follow blog).
I really think quality over quantity applies to link building. Quality links that have a purpose, like the ones you listed above, do much better than a random listing in some off-the-wall directory.
Thanks.
Are lenses really worth the bother? I would like it if you showed some of them, as I really don’t believe they can help much. Prove me wrong.
Great article, Good tips. Thanks!
That’s what i call a really written article. @Jason you’re right commenting on other blogs related to your niche will help you increase your rankings.You’re wrong when you say that only DoFollow ones help,a backlink is a backlink,indeed DoFollow links gives “PR juice” but even nofollow ones help your search engine rankings.
If i am not wrong Matt Cutts explained in a video that if the link quality is high,even is NoFollow,some credit will be given.
Greg keep up the good work is a really great article!
Thank you. Very helpful and well written. Just added this page to Stumble.
Excellent SEO 101 package. Thanks for summing it up.
Thanks! I’ll take all the tips I can get!
Great article – twittered it for you too! The strategies here would be enough for most sites to start getting rankings though probably would not be so effective in more competitive fields.
I’ve found hubpages and squidoo to be useful for links (you get follow links after you build up a few articles and history at those places).
Agree entirely on the no follow thing – they are not useless links – Google only says they don’t pass PR or Anchor text, that diminishes their power but does not kill it!
If we dont make stable pr links then there will be less value I guess.
Great topic. I shared it with my Linkedin group and my website blog http://www.naperville-webdesign.net.
Keep good work!
-John Li
I am new to SEO but the information you provided is exceptional. I have bookmarked all links.
It is very informative. Thanks for sharing it.
I’m new to the blogging business and looking forwards to learning how to conduct marketing research on different social media like Twitter.
What you’ve offered in your post is very helpful. I’d love to learn more about this topic. I’ve bookmarked your blog. Looking forwards for your new posts.
Keep working.
You obviously put a lot of work into that post and its very interesting to see the thought process that you went through to come up with those conclusion. Thanks for sharing your deep thoughts. I must admit that I think you nailed it on this one.
I’m new to the blogging business. I’d love to learn more about this topic. I’ve bookmarked your blog. Looking forwards for your new posts.
These days, increasing amount of businesses pay more and more attention to the potential of online marketing on social network as it is becoming increasingly influential.
SEO link building is imporant work.
Great article, very informative. Thank you for the great tips.
I also believe that commenting is a good way of building links in a qualitative way. Most comment sections ask for your URL, like this one. But don’t just comment for comments sake, you need something you have to say. Add tips to tip-lists, add your know-how to a thread.
Greg, this is an excellent checklist to follow for anyone wanting to start building links to their website. I have just started getting into the social bookmarking area so I appreciate the links you gave.
link building is the best way to enhance your online sales in a perfect way.
How effective are directories? Is Google still giving as much credit to them as before. I have noticed that it is a sometimes dangerous tool to play with. I think that directories are on their way out.
Thanks for the great advice. I find myself trying to get as many links as I can from any blog, forum, ect. I am going to try your approach and see how it goes. As the old saying goes “Quality over Quantity”
I can’t understand the idea of hub pages site.
Great link building tips!
Good article.
These 2 tips alone were a great help! “Building a Hub Page or Squidoo Lens is a fun way to get links back to your website.” and “I limit my social bookmarking to Mixx, Propeller and sometimes Kirtsy.” Those are two things I overlooked in my own blog about photography SEO.
Does this means directory submission is not a good if not no value at all nowadays for a new websites or in seo in general?
Great info about social bookmarking. I thought you should only bookmark blogs related to your industry. Thanks
It’s Good News for me becoz i am also Link Building Services provider..thanks
Really well put…I wish alot of people would take their time and not cheat and spam the internet and find this article and read it…READ THIS
I have got very informative and valuable information from this blog really i have impressed after reading it i woulld like to say thanks for sharing it to every one please keep it up
Your comment sound like a SPAM comment. A lot of other commentators are sending comments like this one without even reading the post …
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