Link Building can definitely be an extremely difficult task if you want to take it on based on purely human labor to go out and request for links, whether they are one way or reciprocal. Do you actually have to spend large amounts of human resources on this? Well, from my own personal experience I can say “yes” and “no”. This is one of the topics I enjoy the most, aside from search engine marketing to the Hispanic market and Internet strategy of course. Web links is what makes the web. Without these links . . . . well, let’s better not think about that, as it would be a very sad present for all us of that love this industry we are in.

The great attraction about SearchEngineWatch Forums thanks to our editors Danny Sullivan (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/member.php?u=8), Chris Sherman (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/member.php?u=564) and of course our BIG Chief Elisabeth Osmeloski (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/member.php?u=4) is not only meant to bring together search engine marketers from all levels of experience together to learn from one another openly, but also have allowed us to link to useful resources on the web to help other members find additional useful and relevant information that would add or support a point discussed to the thread’s topic. This goes exactly in link to the purpose of the web. I have never been able to understand why most forums don’t allow it. I’m sure they have their reasons, but I sure love SEW Forums for being different!!!

When I first did the Search Engine Marketing 101 (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=2086) thread I wanted to take FULL advantage of that, because there are so many intelligent people here and out there that deserve credit for such incredible knowledge that has helped me understand our industry a lot better. I was also hoping that someone would have seen the example of the “101” style posting that knows a lot more about link building than me would have started this thread, but I’ve been out of luck. Therefore, my hopes now are that those experts see this post and help me share with all readers and participants the very best and most useful resources on the web to understand and effectively take on a Link Building campaigns.

Where to begin??? There are so many resources out there that I’m sure might be missed, but I’ll try my best. They are listed in random order and rather not say one is better than another, because they are all recommended reading. However I would like to begin with a few things to keep in mind:

1) Links should be used only for ethical purposes to point web users to useful and relevant information and not to deceive the search engines.
2) Links can be bought, sold, traded or received/given away for free. Being creative and thinking outside the box will most likely get you very many of them no matter which of the hundreds of strategies you choose, just do it or your competitors will do it before you.
3) Don't only think about link building only for the purposes of search engine algorithms or metrics such as PageRank. Same rule applies: Think what is best for your users first, the search engines will adapt.
4) Stay up to date, search engines change, users change, businesses can change for the better or worse if not up to date. Like my friend Brett Tabke says, “read, read, read until your eyes hurt”.
5) My Golden Rule for Link Building: FOCUS ON PERMANENT LINKS.


First I would like you to start on some basic reading from experts:

If I could pick out just one article to provide a great list of some of the best tips, it has to be 131 (Legitimate) Link Building Strategies (http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/2160301) since it combines some of the top experts in the industry: Robin Nobles, Eric Ward, and John Alexander, and other highly reputable search marketers interviewed by them.
A much newer version of this style of article and probably the best resource today (fall 2006) on the web is Aaron Wall's and Andy Hagan's 101 Ways to Build Link Popularity in 2006 (http://www.seobook.com/archives/001792.shtml)
Danny Sullivan made a very good article review of “Measuring Link Popularity (http://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/article.php/2167951)” (October 26, 2001) and more recent “The Golden Rules Of Link Building (http://searchenginewatch.com/sereport/article.php/3422121)”. SEW Members have access to an outstanding coverage in my opinion of what Link Building 101 (http://searchenginewatch.com/_subscribers/more/article.php/2153201) really is with the article called “Link Analysis And Link Building” last updated on June 10, 2003.
Elisabeth Osmeloski wrote a great piece called “The Art of Advanced Link Building (http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3100291)” summarizing a session from SES San Jose 2003.
Barry Schwartz from RustyBrick just put together a very simple reading material that you can read faster than a coffee break, he named this article “Web Links from the Search Engine's Perspective (http://www.rustybrick.com/seo_articles_10.php)”.
And the latest published on SEW by guest writers Greg Jarboe and Jamie O’Donnell did a very good recap of a SES New York 2004 session titled “The Art and Science of an Effective Link Building Campaign (http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3362781)”
Jill Whalen has updated her outstanding explanation of what is link popularity (http://www.highrankings.com/linkpopularity.htm) last August 2004 and has some really good tips as well.
Google PageRank Lunacy (http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3319461) :eek: is a superb article by Mike Grehan, March 4, 2004, which opens the eyes to many people to focus on other more important topics in link building.
Can't tell who is the author to this Link Building Strategies (http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/resources/article.php?mcid=6&scid=35&aid=1200) article, but it's written by Yahoo! Small Business: Search Engine Editorial Team (http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/resources/subCat.php?mcid=6&scid=35).
Patrick Gavin and Andy Hagans from Text Link Ads (http://www.text-link-ads.com/) have now their own Link Building Blog (http://www.linkbuildingblog.com/). By far a worth daily read for those of you with RSS readers. Patrick also has The Definitive Guide to Link Buying (http://www.text-link-ads.com/link-buying-guide.pdf) which is a very good 11 page document (on PDF) that guides readers through the importance of links, tips, tricks, glossary and a lot more.
10 Tips to Train a Link Developer (http://www.stuntdubl.com/2005/08/31/link-training/) is a great blog by Stuntdubl (thanks (http://www.linkbuildingblog.com/2005/05/about_andy_haga.html) Andy)
Link Building Guide (http://www.jimwestergren.com/link-building-guide/) by Jim Westergren has great tips for 2006 (thanks again (http://www.linkbuildingblog.com/2005/05/about_andy_haga.html) Andy)

Link Building and Popularity Tools

Quick survey: Which of you have used Marketleap’s Link Popularity Check (http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/default.htm)? Don't raise your hands, I thought so :p . . . Noel McMichael and his team did an incredible job with this quick and easy to use web tool.
MarketPosition.com with http://www.linkpopularitycheck.com/ and http://www.linkpopularity.com/ where the other pioneers to provide a useful tool.
Arelis Link Builder (http://www.wilsonweb.com/afd/arelis.htm) - reciprocal links solution from Axandra/Voget Selbach Enterprises GmbH
Zeus Internet Robot (http://www.wilsonweb.com/afd/zeus.htm) automatic reciprocal link generator and link directory creator from Cyber-robotics.
One free tool you can use is Tilman Hausherr's Xenu's Link Sleuth (http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html), which analyzes and reports on your links to for proper functionality and internal backlinks. A great tool to build a site map by the way.
OptiLink Software (http://www.optilinksoftware.com/) is a link analysis program that reveals how top ranked pages achieved their search engine rankings. Here is a good review (http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/optilink.html) you can read.
The guys at RustyBrick continue building great websites and tools, on of their latest was the Google Link Popularity Analysis Tool (http://www.rustybrick.com/link_analysis.php) and a paid version (http://www.seocount.com/link-tool.php) which really rocks! I use it every week for all my sites.
Danny cought a blog (http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/041017-150240) on the Deep Link Ratio tool (http://www.text-link-ads.co.uk/deep-link-ratio.shtml) that will calculate your "deep link ratio." It tells you of all the links pointing at a domain what percentage of them point at the home page.
More and more I find myself using the PRSearch.net (http://www.prsearch.net/inbx.php) and this new tool (http://www.webuildpages.com/cclass/index.php) that checks the different number of links from C Blocks.
Tired of doing research for reciprocal links? Try LinkExplore (http://www.linkexplore.com/) and it will solve your nightmare. Here is an outstanding product review (http://www.e-marketing-news.co.uk/Mar05/linkexplore.html) by my good friend Christine Churchill.

I had to split the post in two parts because the software will only allow a limit of 10,000 characters.

Books

Unfortunately, there are not that many books that talk about link building because it requires the author to have knowledge much more in depth than just useful tips about link strategies.

Ahh, but there is ONE. The very best literature that I have read that really goes in depth into understanding what “linking” is all about from the very basics of the web to the search engines views on links and to expert thoughts on the topic comes from my good friend Mike Grehan, author of “Search Engine Marketing: The essential best practice guide (http://www.search-engine-book.co.uk/)”. By far, some of the best reading you can get not only for link analysis, but search engine marketing in its entirety.

Forums and Threads

SearchEngineWatch Forums (These are my favorite threads, but there are many that get added every day in the Link Building forum (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/forumdisplay.php?f=44&daysprune=-1&order=desc&sort=views))

One-Way Link Building (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=22)
Reciprocal Linking (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=63)
Slickest Link Building Tricks (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=1131)
Link Building Services - How much $$ per link? (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=343)
White Hats don't build links? (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=518)
Effective 3rd Party Services for Link Building (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=1577)
Namebombing: Linking To Influence Results For A Name (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=2111)
Link building with affiliate programs -- does it work? (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=1915)
A Positive Step Forward in Link Strategies (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=530)
How Fair is the Link Popularity Algorithm? (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=1779)
Oh yes, and since its popular these days, let’s not forget our interesting Sandbox Theory Resource Guide (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?p=15679#post15679)
The New Nofollow Link Attribute (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=3797) will make records in history.
What is the Value in Links - OLD vs. NEW? (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?threadid=4654)

And these are the ADVANCED threads thanks to our Moderator Dr. E Garcia (Orion (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/member.php?u=25)):
On-Topic Analysis (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=2031)
Block Analysis 101 (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=2119)
Temporal Link Analysis (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=2317)
HighRankings

I Am Kinda Sick of Link Exchange Requests (http://www.highrankings.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=10591) and Phoenix’ review (http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/001103.html) and this similar thread (http://www.highrankings.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=8464) is also good too.
How About Purchasing Text Links?, Is it legitimate to purchase inbounds? (http://www.highrankings.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=8750)
Checking Inbound Links To A Site (http://www.highrankings.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=11818) - or why doesn't Google show all links
SEO Chat

My main competitor is scamming their link partners! (http://forums.seochat.com/showthread.php?t=17215)
Outbound Links - Authority Site Linking (http://forums.seochat.com/t3785/s.html)
WebmasterWorld

Current Academic Link Analysis Research (http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/26173.htm)
Should I still be collecting incoming/reciprocal links? (http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/22836.htm)
The Dark Side of Exchanging Reciprocal Links (http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum12/2036.htm) - Some of the tricks Webmasters sometimes use to get around linking back to you.
And Notredamekid started probably the best thread I've ever seen on the WebmasterWorld Supporters Forum . . . Guide to Beating the Sandbox (http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum78/8695.htm) (paid subscribers only). ***** FIVE STARS
How to Find Thousands of Quality Backlinks (http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum12/2505.htm)
Cre8site Forums

One-way links? (http://www.cre8asiteforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=15982)
Backlinks in Yahoo (http://www.cre8asiteforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=8564)
DigitalPoint

The lazy man's way to get links... (http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=3)
Do Signature Links in Forums ?Count?? (http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=250)
And can not leave out one of my favorite blogs: Search Engine Roundtable

The Devaluation of Links: IP C Class or Domain Name? (http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/000708.html)
Pyramid Linking Strategies (http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/000487.html)

Couldn't find the information on link building in this thread? No problem, I give you two more recommendations:

Don't forget stay up to date with the Link Building Forum (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/forumdisplay.php?f=44) here in SearchEngineWatch.com
I highly recommend you to visit Andy Hagans' outstanding site called The Link Building Knowledge Base (http://www.linkbuilding.info/). He updates it very often.

Now it’s your turn folks, please add any useful resources for helping each other understand and be more experienced with link building.

Saludos!

Nacho

GREAT post! So much fantastic information in one place. Thanks.

Link building is such a large topic. One thing, though, I often see people forget is how different things work in different languages and target regions. For example, much of the applied semantics we see coming in English hardly ever seem to hit us here in Denmark using Danish.

Hi Nacho:
I have never been able to understand why most forums don’t allow it. I’m sure they have their reasons, but I sure love SEW Forums for being different!!!
Really? Which ones? The only one I know of that does not allow links to resources is WMW. Maybe I am not aware of all of these forums that don't allow links?

All the forums you posted are certainly good resources, but the premise of your post is that link building must be an all-important part of SEO? I disagree completely with that assessment. This link exchange stuff has actually ruined the internet. This is why you are now seeing a "De-emphasis" on links coming in from Google, and from Yahoo, and you will see that the new MSN will not be putting much stock on linking as well. The link stuff has been ruined by SEO's, and by some of those software programs you posted.

I also disagree that those auto link type programs are a necessity or good or even should be considered. Knowing that ALL engines state in their TOS's that they don't want or allow auto programs to hog up their server resources, I'm not sure it's a good thing to show those link type programs as being good resources.

Of course, this is simply my opinion, and you all know how much that's worth..... in here. :)

I'l bypass dougs post as words fail me :eek: :)


1) Links should be used only for ethical purposes to point web users to useful and relevant information and not to deceive the search engines.


...and then i woke up and it was all just a dream lol! 'nuff said.

Nacho, thanks for a great post, again! Neat links. In my 'really good stuff' bookmarks folder i now have 2 of your posts heh! :)

One from SEW you missed:
The right way to count links (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=2296)
Not just count them, but find them and cover your tracks too. I keep finding myself refering back to that thread, it's a corker..


Nick

Nice job putting all that together Nacho, Thanks

All the forums you posted are certainly good resources, but the premise of your post is that link building must be an all-important part of SEO? I disagree completely with that assessment.
we could ignore links and think of other ways to rank pages. mix up and repeat words in a contenty SEO manner.
seo

seo services offered without link spam.
seo posted on a page in many many ways.
seo posted in bold, seo in italics, seo underlined, seo (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=2616) linking to itself, all in a bulleted list.

spam
links
links posted on a page in many many ways.
links posted in bold, links in italics, links underlined, links (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=2616) linking to itself, all in a bulleted list.

This is why you are now seeing a "De-emphasis" on links coming in from Google, and from Yahoo, and you will see that the new MSN will not be putting much stock on linking as well.
I'm not really seeing that.
I also disagree that those auto link type programs are a necessity or good or even should be considered. Knowing that ALL engines state in their TOS's that they don't want or allow auto programs to hog up their server resources, I'm not sure it's a good thing to show those link type programs as being good resources.
could be worse, we could be showing people "educational" forum spamming scripts or teaching ineffective seo techniques that ignore link popularity.

I'm not really seeing that.
That's fine that you are not, but many of us are. Those who look after many client sites anyway.
could be worse, we could be showing people "educational" forum spamming scripts or teaching ineffective seo techniques that ignore link popularity.
That's very true. However, posting things that are not good resources should be pointed out if it happens and others just happen to disagree with those resources.

I don't see anyone actually disproving any of my points either.

I don't see anyone actually disproving any of my points either.
That's fine that you are not, but many of us are. Those who look after many client sites anyway.

Yes, some of us are the "link building crowd", and some of us are the "SEO" crowd.

I agree with you.

Let's just agree to disagree. The two groups will never come into being "one", so it's pointless to discuss. It's not just the link stuff that the two groups disagree with. It's over many different things.

There are, among others, 2 very influencial things that effect the way we all practice SEO

* Disinformation
* and the Power of Belief

>>2 groups

I would not say that there are 2 groups. I would say there are many groups, with a very, very small percentage of people that are outside of all groups.

Nacho,

Once again you have created a thread which in itself is a lesson (and, of course, thank you for your compliment my friend).

This past year I have been looking at my earlier research and re-evaluating some of the main reasons why information retrieval on the web is always going to be different to classic information retrieval, and by that I mean in true Salton vector space model style.

When a page stands alone in isolation then all you can tell about that page is what it says about itself. In a homogenous environment such as a digital library or a CD-ROM where it's most likely that dedication to the science is more important than the sound of a cash register it works beautifully.

But in an uncontrolled, heterogeneous and commercially motivated environment such as the business sector of the web, it falls flat on its face. Why? Because we lie. And why do we do that? Because there are commercial gains.

So, it has been an important step by researchers and scientists to look beyond what a page says about itself and look at what it is that other people say about it. And that's why "link voting" which is a very superficial explanation of what's really happening is so important.

Once the ability, by search engines, to take away the power of a SEO to mess around with a page to make it look more popular because of the number of times a term appeared on it was gone, then link hunting had to become the next sport.

The two issues which worry me for the future from my own personal perspective are:

1) The filthy linking rich (http://www.e-marketing-news.co.uk/Oct04/RichLinking.html) are being aided and abetted by the search marketing community, so we are actually creating the artificially inflated linking environment of the commercial web to its detriment.

2) Just as search engines looked for a way to remove the basic ability to manipulate rankings as they did by changing the importance and parameters of "on page" optimisation, the same applies with linkage.

So why will personalisation become so important to the search engines?

First, you have to remember it's not really about customisation, i.e. for one specific person, it's about the preferences of a peer group.

Now, and for the future, we must begin to think about true linkage and not artificially inflated linkage as that won't count any more, simply because a peer group (and that peer group could be as huge as an entire religion) will be the judge of what is and what isn't relevant in PURE information retrieval terms.

Text on a page was the first step... Search engines took those basic ranking principles away from the developing community as it was far too open to... Abuse?

Links as an indicator of human value judgment was second... Now that is slowly eroding as search engines take away another method to be able to manipulate a ranking by giving you less and less information about links.

Now, text matching and relevancy is coming back big time, but only when communities agree between themselves what is and what isn't relevant to specific keywords and phrases. Vector support machines (learning machines) are playing a more and more important role in what really counts to the most important people to a search engine: The end user.

So we either have to really do it, be good I mean, or fake it a lot better than we do now.

And you know, some fakes can be spotted a mile away.

Text matching, linkage data and peer group opinion, for me, leads back to an ideal way of reminding me to do what I've always done...

And that's to be a professional marketer of quality products and services to a deliverable and expectant audience.

I basically agree with much of what you say, Mike, except when it comes to websites that are not in English. I very much agree that engines will gain a much better understanding of the "quality" and contextual relationship in English but I also believe it will take a very long time before that technology, and not the least the lingustic data it requires, will cover all languages. The largest languages comes first and the smallest ones will not come very soon - if ever. It's basically the same reason we see no sandboxing and such in Danish at all.

Mikkel,

And the fact that the Porter stemming algorithm only works in English ;-)

Now, text matching and relevancy is coming back big time, but only when communities agree between themselves what is and what isn't relevant to specific keywords and phrases.


This really intrigues me.


The search engines will be assigning value to sites based on user interaction and community factors. Techniques, in terms of code, will have little or no bearing on your ranking, and rankings will differ depending on personalisation factors on the client side.

The future lies in publishing content that people read. The past lies in code tweaking.


Im still not certain whether he was joking when he wrote that but the basic concept seems to tie in with some of what mike is saying.

Comments Mikkel/Mike/Anyone?

I hope im not reading it all wrong and it means what I think it does, it would make search very, very exciting :)

One thing, though, I often see people forget is how different things work in different languages and target regions.
Mikkel, that’s an excellent observation! It used to be one of my trade secrets, but I guess now its not. ;) Requesting for links or most link strategies mentioned in those threads need to done in the country of origin’s native language. You can’t just say “Me da un link por favor?” It takes translation into an entire degree of complexity if you don’t really know the language. In many countries out there where English is not the 1st language, the website owner/webmaster could either not respond because it can be thought as a spam email or be taken as an rude to come do business in another person’s language. I know this is very true in Brazil and France for example, but it’s not a rule engraved in stone, so anything can happen. However, limiting your skills will most likely a limiting result to your link building performance. This is one more reason why it’s better to outsource to the local professionals and why niches do exist in SEM/SEO. I know I would definitely come to you if I need help in Denmark, rather than trying to figure it out for myself.:)

the premise of your post is that link building must be an all-important part of SEO
IMO, until the search engines completely ignore links into their algorithms, YES link building as well as many other elements of an SEM strategy is one of the very important parts to SEO.

This link exchange stuff has actually ruined the internet.
This is exactly the reason why I recommended two forums mentioned above:

A Positive Step Forward in Link Strategies
How Fair is the Link Popularity Algorithm?

To not repeat myself to much from what I say in those forums, I will summarize to say that I agree with you in part with that. I discourage my teams to get links from these typical “links.html” or “www.domain.com/links/resources.html” (and many other example) pages out there. A link should be given on the page(s) that are most useful to site owner’s website and not among a grocery list isolated on a deep “links” page. I’ll give you example that does this very well: SearchEngineWatch.com (http://www.searchenginewatch.com).

I also disagree that those auto link type programs are a necessity or good or even should be considered.
Doug, you are welcome to use whatever you like, as well as anyone out there. I am just listing a few tools that might be useful for one way or the other. Each of us is capable of making our own informed decisions. Like just about anything, abusing any one tool will most likely to be hurtful.

One from SEW you missed:
The right way to count links (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=2296)
Not just count them, but find them and cover your tracks too. I keep finding myself refering back to that thread, it's a corker..
I very glad you pointed it out Nick. Yes, that is an outstanding thread and I have a subscription in my favorites. Thank you for your compliments. :)


1) The filthy linking rich are being aided and abetted by the search marketing community, so we are actually creating the artificially inflated linking environment of the commercial web to its detriment.
I have added a link on your post to your article as it is more than useful for link building. I completely agree with you! Additional to that, here is the discussion (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=2063) at SEW.

Now, and for the future, we must begin to think about true linkage and not artificially inflated linkage as that won't count any more, simply because a peer group (and that peer group could be as huge as an entire religion) will be the judge of what is and what isn't relevant in PURE information retrieval terms.
Words of wisdom! Great post Mike!

Excellent thread Nacho!

A great resource for the long haul.

Yes, some of us are the "link building crowd", and some of us are the "SEO" crowd.

Actually, I think it is more of some of us are SEO's and some of you are copywriters. An SEO makes sure that he ranks his clients well. To do that today, it takes relevant links, sometimes lots of them. If link building is not a major part of your SEO campaign, then you are doing a major disservice to your clients.

Nacho: Excellant topic.

We've got another forum thread that lists a bunch more link popularity articles (http://www.highrankings.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5941), which may also be of use to the folks reading this thread. :)

There is no doubt linking is and will continue to be an important strategy in SEO.

I think the future holds that RELEVANT links will rule and irrelevant links will fall by the wayside, knocking a lot of the current wholesale linking into the dustbin.

Thanks for the excellent post Nacho. Great resources in the post Jill linked to as well.

We've got another forum thread that lists a bunch more link popularity articles (http://www.highrankings.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5941), which may also be of use to the folks reading this thread. :)
Thank you Jill, we appreciate you sharing the outstanding resources at HighRankings and your own works. :)

This is a 5 star thread. I'm going to go rate it now. Great post Nacho!

Now it’s your turn folks, please add any useful resources for helping each other understand and be more experienced with link building
Hey, great thread, Nacho :D

Here's a couple of other references that may be useful:
Linking Strategies - Cre8asite Forums (http://www.cre8asiteforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=2126)
The Real Meaning of Links - Cre8ive Flow (http://blog.cre8asite.net/more.php?id=65_0_1_0_M)

Here are a collection of threads from around the boards:
SEO Techniques - Threadwatch (http://www.threadwatch.org/techniques) - 70% of it is about linking at a rough guess

Getting back to the issue of link building resources, here's a couple more articles for the less advanced in SEO on developing relevant linkage:

Webmaster's Guide to Link Exchange (http://www.platinax.co.uk/webmasters/articles/8/)
Independent Back-Linking Networks (http://www.platinax.co.uk/seo/articles/5/)

I forgot about The Real Meaning of Links - Cre8ive Flow (http://blog.cre8asite.net/more.php?id=65_0_1_0_M) until now. Thanx Ammon, that article is fantastic.

I think people forget that links are an important part of the web, irrespective of PageRank et al. That article really puts into persepctive that links are more than just ways to boost Search Engine traffic: they are a businesses reputation on the line for sending people to specific external sites. Being helpful can and does have long term benefits, and linking is just one such example.

When it comes to strategies, I have my own list of methods, but I find that the most effective is to try and get links from as many of the top 100 results pages for all of your keywords at each of the search engines. You can beg, steal, cajole, bargain - but I generally find that a phone call works, and that if it doesn't, a phone call to a higher-up will work, or, if it's a smaller company, a check and letter in the mail works...

Here's the rest of my list - http://www.socengine.com/seo/guide/advanced-link-building.html

There is no doubt linking is and will continue to be an important strategy in SEO.

I think the future holds that RELEVANT links will rule and irrelevant links will fall by the wayside, knocking a lot of the current wholesale linking into the dustbin.

Thanks for the excellent post Nacho. Great resources in the post Jill linked to as well.

No doubt the future of SEO will be based around the relevance of the links you get. I really cant see anything more being done "on-site" any more for search engine rankings. For search engines to better fine tune search results they will take closer looks at who is really linking to you, why and the content meaning around your link.

Shari Thurow just wrote a good article yesterday titled Link Development: The Key to Successful SEO (http://www.clickz.com/experts/search/results/article.php/3431741) (November 8, 2004)

Thank you Danny for blogging (http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/041109-935a) it. :)

Actually, I think it is more of some of us are SEO's and some of you are copywriters. An SEO makes sure that he ranks his clients well. To do that today, it takes relevant links, sometimes lots of them. If link building is not a major part of your SEO campaign, then you are doing a major disservice to your clients.

Nacho: Excellant topic.

It is a symbiotic relationship. A "link" is merely an extension of content "to another page" and it matters not whether that is within a website or external to it.

A SEO that doesn't invest in some form of copywriting and a copywriter that doesn't invest in link development are inferior to those that incorporate both.

Also to note Google (at least their idea of a SEO) invests in both.

It is a symbiotic relationship. A "link" is merely an extension of content "to another page" and it matters not whether that is within a website or external to it.

A SEO that doesn't invest in some form of copywriting and a copywriter that doesn't invest in link development are inferior to those that incorporate both.

Also to note Google (at least their idea of a SEO) invests in both.

I agree that copywriting/on-page is also a good part of it, same as links. I used the links part because that is what Doug seemed to like putting down as the "link building crowd".

I agree that copywriting/on-page is also a good part of it, same as links. I used the links part because that is what Doug seemed to like putting down as the "link building crowd".

Actually I quoted you in support! ;)

Here is one more interesting website with great links to more resources:

http://www.linkbuilding.info/

Thanks for the link! :) I worked hard on the link building knowledge base, simply because I needed a web-based bookmark list for link building (aka present day SEO). If other people find it helpful, even better!

Links are without doubt both the most exciting and contentious area of SEO.
With the apparent demise of the "Rolls Royce" of link/anchor text generation, and the seeming worthlessness of most new "directories", it's going to be an interesting MMV!

For those subscribed to this thread, I've updated (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=2616) my original posts to add more sources. I specially like a few new ones from the WMW forums about the sandbox and "How to Find Thousands of Quality Backlinks". Enjoy!

Nacho, thank you for such an excellent thread!

Just want to add one more tool in a list of your "Link Building and Popularity Tools" - its LinkAssistant (http://www.link-assistant.com). I use it instead of Arelis, which you already mentioned, and instead of SEOElite - because it allows looking for RELEVANT links - and I absolutely agree with donut who said
I think the future holds that RELEVANT links will rule and irrelevant links will fall by the wayside

No doubt the future of SEO will be based around the relevance of the links you get. I really cant see anything more being done "on-site" any more for search engine rankings. For search engines to better fine tune search results they will take closer looks at who is really linking to you, why and the content meaning around your link.

I should expand upon what I meant in this statement. Relevant links WILLl matter, but more of the website theme, website locallity, text on the page of the link, etc.

I'd like to point out from this blog (http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/002444.html), which talks about a very interesting seminar by industry experts covering on topics about:

Linking For Rank
Linking for Publicity
Finding Authority Sites
Linking Myths & Mistakes
Buying Links
One Way and Reciprocal Linking
Key link Influencers
Holistic Linking
Links and Audio/Video, RSS Feeds, Podcasts, PDFs.
301 Redirects
Affiliate Programs
Identifying Link Farms
Linking Tools
Let me just to point out that even by reading the topics it already tells you A LOT on what you need to focus when doing linking building tactics. Now, if you can go to the seminar and learn more in detail about each topic, and I'm positive you will find yourself in a good position for know-how on link building.

Good luck!

When Money Can't Buy You Link Love (http://www.seomoz.org/blogdetail.php?ID=407) offers some great tips on increasing your likelyhood of achieving a link. I encourage you to read it, it's amazing how you always find new ideas!

Thanks Randfish! :)

GREAT post! So much fantastic information in one place. Thanks.

Link building is such a large topic. One thing, though, I often see people forget is how different things work in different languages and target regions. For example, much of the applied semantics we see coming in English hardly ever seem to hit us here in Denmark using Danish.

I am definitely sure that i am agree with you. Really are a good information for a startup/beginner web guide. As i am new in this and infact, i really happy and glad to know this forum, and i did learn alot from here too.

Good Job to all moderator here and member as well.

Thanks Nacho;

I will use

Great resource Nacho, thanks heaps for compiling this, it's great!! :D

i write glowing letters of recommendation to all of my vendors. I usually send the html version also, "just in case" they want to post it on their website. works almost everytime. You won't get hundreds of links, but you will get a few with very little work.

Hi Nacho:

Really? Which ones? The only one I know of that does not allow links to resources is WMW. Maybe I am not aware of all of these forums that don't allow links?

All the forums you posted are certainly good resources, but the premise of your post is that link building must be an all-important part of SEO? I disagree completely with that assessment. This link exchange stuff has actually ruined the internet. This is why you are now seeing a "De-emphasis" on links coming in from Google, and from Yahoo, and you will see that the new MSN will not be putting much stock on linking as well. The link stuff has been ruined by SEO's, and by some of those software programs you posted.

I also disagree that those auto link type programs are a necessity or good or even should be considered. Knowing that ALL engines state in their TOS's that they don't want or allow auto programs to hog up their server resources, I'm not sure it's a good thing to show those link type programs as being good resources.

Of course, this is simply my opinion, and you all know how much that's worth..... in here. :)

Hi...helpyou! (Sorry!)

I am quite new to this business and do not understand the importance of links for the search engines. I tend to agree with you. Let me add my dout about the link importance search engine policy.

Let's suppose a beginner puts together a good site. He does not have a single link at all for months and years independantly how good his site is. He will not get any in a natural way because he is not visible. In order to be visible he would have to have ranking which in turn requires links and here the catch 22 is closed.

The only chance remains to build unnatural link structure, which is deception of SEs and users and distortion of the relationship of sites and the link structure of the Internet as well. This way, the link requirement makes the webmasters to manipulate a lot.

Since I am really a newebie, I am not insisting on this just thinking public.

What do you think?

Vilipa

The only chance remains to build unnatural link structure, which is deception of SEs and users and distortion of the relationship of sites and the link structure of the Internet as well. This way, the link requirement makes the webmasters to manipulate a lot.


Yes, this is Google's major flaw.

Yes, this is Google's major flaw.

You mentioned Google. Doesn't Yahoo do the same? I am not suggesting but simply asking.

With pages in sites being Supplemental because of lack of link strength, this thread is definitely worth bumping for another read.

What would this mean in English? Please be more specific for dummies like me. :)

Vilipa

What would this mean in English? Please be more specific for dummies like me. :)

Vilipa

In english, make sure yor internal navigation system is solid and flows evenly around the entire website. Get solid external inbound links to the site, preferably in to different parts of your website so the flow moves around all areas at different times during spider crawls.

I need one desperately!

I'm brand new here but have been told by many about the value of this forum. It looks like I've found a great resource!

Exactly what I was looking for. Excellent post!

So is the list at the front of this post still good for link building today? I've been out of the loop for 2 years. Has anything changed?

excellent thread thanks everybody

wonderful info giving by Nacho
thanks!

great post something that caught my eye was find relevant links that are user friendly. Don't just try to get links for search engine sakes. i feel this is very important to try to get relevant sites to link you not just any old site that has a high page rank.

how many links can be included in one resource page of our site

excellent thread thanks everybody

How many sites in one resource page should be thre

hi renjithkumar
I think maximum 50 links if enough in a resources page

if we have 50 link backs,then what will my site pr after 3 months

I like the comprehensive and useful posts here. I myself believe in the power of link building services (http://www.seobuilders.com) to gain popularity for my site. I remember reading someone said link building entails passion and should be part of the routine of website owners.

if we have 50 link backs,then what will my site pr after 3 months

renjithkumar,

This all depends on the quality of your backlinks. You must understand the basic principals the relationship between backlinks and PR.

Your PR is scored by (1) quality and (2) quantity of your sites backlinks. See below for an explanation:

If you have a site about travel (content site) and you have a 1000 backlinks from sites like link linkfarms, fruitless directories (PR 1), & very non-relevant (adult) sites your PR may be much less than if you have "only" 15 links from extremely relevant sites like (hotwire/travelocity/expedia/DMOZ/Yahoo/tripadvisor)

Going back to your question, I cannot answer it, because I have no idea how beneficial or relevant those (50 backlinks) are to your site. Make sense?

Hi Nacho,

Thanks for all of the resources, very helpful. I have a couple of questions about buying links:

1. I have bought two links so far with sites that rank very high for very relevant keywords to my business. I paid them $100 and $40 per month. Having very little knowledge of what is appropriate in terms of payment, am I in the ballpark with these rates?
2. Each site put my link live about two weeks ago, but when I log into to Google's Webmaster Tools I don't see them showing up in the list of pages linking to my site. How long does this usually take to show up?
3. I haven't verified my site yet with Google's Webmaster Tools, is the data that results from verifying a site very valuable?

Thanks for your help!

Jeff

1. I have bought two links so far with sites that rank very high for very relevant keywords to my business. I paid them $100 and $40 per month. Having very little knowledge of what is appropriate in terms of payment, am I in the ballpark with these rates?
2. Each site put my link live about two weeks ago, but when I log into to Google's Webmaster Tools I don't see them showing up in the list of pages linking to my site. How long does this usually take to show up?
3. I haven't verified my site yet with Google's Webmaster Tools, is the data that results from verifying a site very valuable?

Reporting from the south shore....

Buying links from a directory or site, can range anywhere from $100 to $1000 per year. It all depends on what page they are sending the link from, and how they decorate the link, i.e. using keywords. The benefits of paying for a link is placement on a relevance site, potential traffic, leveraging relevant keywords, up time, and consistency. IMO, I would only "purchase links" if the referral Page Rank was high, the link was situated above the fold, if they utilized one of my TOP keywords in the linking URL. By that I mean, my site is about hot dogs, the text links should say hot dogs see Hot Dogs (http://www.excessvoice.com/web-copywriting-tip14.htm)

However, I don't buy text links. Some SEO's do, and they make it work. I do submit to some free directories, but I limit this and stagger my submissions. I concentrate on creating rich content, and optimizing the site. I find in the long run it's cheaper and more effective, however the results (traffic) comes over time. Whereas, text links can provide you with immediate traffic.

Therefore, in answering your question about how do pay, it all varies; trust your judgment but 50-500 is a common ground. It all depends on the site.

In answering your question about not seeing the backlinks in Google, that’s normal, I find that Yahoo registers most of my backlinks.
Go to Yahoo the type link:http://www.your-site.com/ in the search box, you will see you backlinks, and you should see your purchased links.

I hope this helps.

Thanks Caugas, very helpful!

Nacho!

Great post...what an excellent amount of resources on one page! I have already spent a few hours at this thread and I'm still barely begun...looks like this thread is going to have a constant visitor parked during this weekend!

Especially liked the 131 Steps to Link Building article by Eric Ward et al - you could call it the classical way to build quality inbound links. Yes, these take time, but it appears to me that these will probably be the only types of links that will count to search engines now and in the near future.

I have been researching resources for a weg page I run for inbound links - LinxJinx - The Link-building Encyclopedia (http://www.billdoll.com/dir/r/ci/internet/marketing/linxjinx/linxjinx.html) - and somehow I had missed this thread...Now I have included it at LinxJinx...I would also request you to give me your opinion of LinxJinx which I started a month ago...would like it to become a truly useful resource for inbound link building.

Thanks once again for a great post, have a nice day

GREAT post! So much fantastic information in one place. Thanks.

Link building is such a large topic. One thing, though, I often see people forget is how different things work in different languages and target regions. For example, much of the applied semantics we see coming in English hardly ever seem to hit us here in Denmark using Danish.

Yes. It Is really a larger topic to discuss on!! but It Is one of the best way to get fast traffic. Now a days people who want to drive fast traffic they just follow Link Building tactic.

I was just out looking for some basic link building info for my blog and searched "link building 101" which of course brought me here. It's just over three years since this thread was started... and guess what... the recommendations as still spot on!

In english, make sure yor internal navigation system is solid and flows evenly around the entire website. Get solid external inbound links to the site, preferably in to different parts of your website so the flow moves around all areas at different times during spider crawls.

Thank you for that. Sounds useful although I need again a bit more clarification. The first part I think I understand. I think if the site navigation is a tree starting from the index page with no broken branches then this preriquisite is satisfied. Correct me if I got it wrong.
The second is not clear because I am lacking some knowledge about crawling policies. Will the crawler depend on my navigation? Does it matter for the crawler how many in-links I have? (I am not talking about the evaluation algorithm.) Does the crawler come in via external links?
Ther is a second problem with the second advise which points back to my initial concern. How to get links if I am not visible? Are there guys out there engaged in "charity" looking for insignificant sites and link to them? Shall I buy the links for money? Shall I try to exchange links? I read somewhere that link exchange is not goood because the crawler is smart enough to smell this.

Sorry for the numerous questions. If it is a burden just tell me but you look not only like a pro but also ready to help.

vilipa

I think if the site navigation is a tree starting from the index page with no broken branches then this preriquisite is satisfied. Correct me if I got it wrong.
This is a good way to think about you site architecture.

Will the crawler depend on my navigation?
Like users crawlers try to follow your internal navigation. You can help crawlers by providing a site map.

Does it matter for the crawler how many in-links I have? (I am not talking about the evaluation algorithm.)
Like users crawlers may also follow inbound links.

Does the crawler come in via external links?
Yes, it can.

How to get links if I am not visible?
Make great content that is of use to users and tell others about your site.

Are there guys out there engaged in "charity" looking for insignificant sites and link to them?
Yes

Shall I buy the links for money?
No buying links that pass PageRank is against Google's policy.

Shall I try to exchange links?
If they are relevant to content on your site.

I've just learn about link building then... but of the things you have stated... I learned more... :) you do have an intelligent post... :)

Of course,it is true and Great post!
thank you very much

Renjith Kumar

No one know this fact. The reason is that there are so many factors which influence the PR of website e.g. link from a scrap site, uncrawlable site, authority of the site, PR of the site and many more so we need to make assure that links have more quality instead of quantity since I have seen various examples in due course that even though a website have very few back links, it gets top while other websites which have thousands of backlinks does not get any PR.

I think there is a thin line between legitimate link building and spam.

Even though this article is really starting to show its age in some respects, the emphasis on helpful, permanent links makes this document stay relevant as the search engines continue to evolve. We believe in the same practices for real estate marketing. Because it's not like the search engines are going to stop trying to find manipulations of their algorithms, so why bother tricking them? Especially when it's really not necessary... although it does take a lot of work. Guess that's what keeps all of us busy :)

you must make sure you link to relevent websites and mostly in your country

wow nice post nacho.... it's very great information....

That's was awesome.. Thanks for posting that excellent information... +rep

I think what will happen (is happening?) is that the value placed on the link will be generated by some formula that includes these and other factors:

Relevance of the text on the page compared with link text
Relevance of the text on the page compared with link destination page text

A link from here to my page about <snip> won't get me as much juice as the links on this page to other SEO related pages. Links to link building pages will get even more juice.

Irrelevant should still pass some value though since sometimes these links are of value to the reader.

I wonder do links from videos with relevant tags carry more weight than regular pages of similar relevancy?

Are there any types of links besides those that have high PR that have more juice?

Thanks

I don't know for sure but my guess is that a text link from a page with related text would have more weight than a link from an empty page with a video.

If the video page has lots of related text then the video link might contribute the same or more.

Nacho, great post. This is great because the initial post happened so long ago and the thread still generates great, useful content. This definitely receives an outstanding rating.

I do have a question for link builders though, how do you manage an link building campaign in terms of results. Do you track progress by the SERPs and if so, can you differentiate link building from other SEO practices? Just a few thoughts.

Thanks for the info and great discussion guys.

I'm new to Link Building so If someone wants to help I appreciate that.

I have a web site <snip> and I want to improve my Google web site ranking.

Should I use Link building?

Hi Nacho,

Thanks for such nice contents at a single place.

I'm new to Link Building so If someone wants to help I appreciate that.

I have a web site <snip> and I want to improve my Google web site ranking.

Should I use Link building?

Link building is of primary importance for pushing you up the organic listings - this article should give you an insight into the seo process (www.e-marketing.org.uk/articles/seo-process.aspx) and where link building fits in.

I run a few websites for a small travel agency and I'm having a hell of a time getting qualified links to my sites. I tried link directory submission tools and my rankings seem to have gotten even worse. Does anyone have any ideas of how I can right this ship with some valuable links? The problem is it seems anyone worth linking to could potentially be a competitor for many of the same services and resorts.. HELP!!!!

I run a few websites for a small travel agency and I'm having a hell of a time getting qualified links to my sites. I tried link directory submission tools and my rankings seem to have gotten even worse. Does anyone have any ideas of how I can right this ship with some valuable links? The problem is it seems anyone worth linking to could potentially be a competitor for many of the same services and resorts.. HELP!!!!

If your site is in dmoz.org you could find where it is located and then go up a level. For example you could link to travel blogs, travel products etc

Hi, I have one site so I want to know about link building.

Thank you for posting and condensing a lot of great info. This is very very helpful

The article was too long but it was interesting and provided with lot of information.:)

Your information is very interesting.It will definitely help online marketers.I would like to thank you for sharing this information.

Wonderful thread nacho, It is a very nice information ...............

You can start with another direction setting up a blog and participate with other blog and post useful comments with do follow. There are many. In due course you will start seeing the changes

Best


I run a few websites for a small travel agency and I'm having a hell of a time getting qualified links to my sites. I tried link directory submission tools and my rankings seem to have gotten even worse. Does anyone have any ideas of how I can right this ship with some valuable links? The problem is it seems anyone worth linking to could potentially be a competitor for many of the same services and resorts.. HELP!!!!

I got one article about link building read this very good article>>
http://forums.seochat.com/link-popularity-43/link-building-101t-124545.html

Much more explained in this thread

Best,

Guys is this a valid link building strategy?

I believe and I am sure you would agree that a link to a website from MSN’s Encarta website (for example) would be a high authority link.



Scenario

If you do a search on MSN Encarta for ‘keysilver jewellery’

This not surprisingly returns no Encarta entries but Encarta displays related msn search results which appear to be clean links to the keysilver website.



If I link to the Encarta page from somewhere using the following link. (the Encarta search page)



http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/search.aspx?q=keysilver+jewellery



have I effectively got a link from the Encarta website to the jewellery store?



I looks like it to me.



This technique is also true of many other High authority sites.

Links from Encarta in this way do show up in Google backlinks both form the Link operator and in webmaster tools, so it appears to count.



Is this a valid and 'safe' link opportunity

If it is safe. has anybody compiled a list of sites that this strategy can be used upon?



Your thoughts would be both highly regarded and appreciated.

great post with many valuable resource on seo .thanks very much

great post shared, it provided a lot of useful resources for SEO.

Really thiese things need to keep in mind:


1) Links should be used only for ethical purposes to point web users to useful and relevant information and not to deceive the search engines.
2) Links can be bought, sold, traded or received/given away for free. Being creative and thinking outside the box will most likely get you very many of them no matter which of the hundreds of strategies you choose, just do it or your competitors will do it before you.
3) Don't only think about link building only for the purposes of search engine algorithms or metrics such as PageRank. Same rule applies: Think what is best for your users first, the search engines will adapt.
4) Stay up to date, search engines change, users change, businesses can change for the better or worse if not up to date. Like my friend Brett Tabke says, “read, read, read until your eyes hurt”.
5) My Golden Rule for Link Building: FOCUS ON PERMANENT LINKS.

Thanks for the valuable post Nacho and I will try these for my site

GREAT post Pal,

Nice and comprehensive information on link building thanks for it.

Link building and creating links which points toward your website is very important and significant factor to improve the visibility of your website in search engines. Sometimes it looks like SEO is all about backlinks, backlinks and backlinks

Really very informative thread