Cut the Bull.. How do you get a Newer Domain to Rank?

[Relevancy]

Ok, you have a domain/site that is about one year old. It is clean and completely relevant. It has some relevant links pointing to it, plenty of relevant original content and relevant page clarification for it's targeted keyword market. You know what not to do with spam, bad linking, dup content, poor internal linking, etc. The question is what can a relevant site do to gain some respect in Google without having to uncover the holy grail of "trusted link building"? Is there no way for a good newer site to rank without getting lucky with links or creating something cute(boob job effect) for others to link too?

If you are a rookie in sports and you are the best at your position (or better then most the crap that is playing) you will play. Good rookie sites want and deserve to play. If there isn't a sandbox then the filters are way too tough for new sites. If there is a timed sandbox then it is way too long.

[sootledir]

Without any link building at all, it will be very tough to rank. Links aren't that hard to get, so it might be worth putting some effort in on that.

[bhartzer]

If you are a rookie in sports and you are the best at your position
Even rookies have to prove themselves out there. New domains are listed in the index. They have a chance.

To rank well, a rookie site has to prove that it's worthy of ranking well in the index. If the site is worthy enough (or good enough) there will be traffic to it and as a result other sites will naturally link to it.

Some ideas:
Write a press release about the new site and let the media find out about it. If that rookie site is worthy enough they'll mention it and you'll get traffic and links.

Advertise. Buy some ads on related sites or use PPC. Get traffic to your site, get it known, and you'll get traffic and links if it's good enough.

Use offline means of getting the site known. I once heard of someone writing down the site's URL on yellow sticky notes and putting them on the walls of restrooms. The site got noticed and soon word-of-mouth got it out of the sandbox.

Don't worry about getting out of the sandbox. Focus on getting quality visitors to your site through other means and you'll soon be out of the sandbox anyway.

[Relevancy]

Without any link building at all, it will be very tough to rank. Links aren't that hard to get, so it might be worth putting some effort in on that.

Getting free directory links and other one way links don't seem to be doing much now-a-days.

Sure they help the site getting indexed faster and more often. Using different anchor text and even linking to different pages on the site don't seem to do much.

What else can I do. Ask for crap links page to links page reciprocal links?!?!

Write a press release about the new site and let the media find out about it. If that rookie site is worthy enough they'll mention it and you'll get traffic and links.

What is the best press release sites out there? And are they free?

[DarkMatter]

Getting free directory links and other one way links don't seem to be doing much now-a-days.

Sure they help the site getting indexed faster and more often. Using different anchor text and even linking to different pages on the site don't seem to do much.

What else can I do. Ask for crap links page to links page reciprocal links?!?!



What is the best press release sites out there? And are they free?

#1 you need to get links from authority sites in your industry/niche

#2 prweb.com has paid and free options.....having used both i would recommend dropping some $$ on the package that includes you in google news....its less than $100 and is much more effective...the free option doesnt get you much distribution

[kid disco]

Getting free directory links and other one way links don't seem to be doing much now-a-days.

False. I have clients who have practically no unique content on their site who rank very well after spending about $1200 on 25 or so links from authority sites and getting about 120 reciprocal links from directories and relevant sites.

[Relevancy]

Ok so lets get down to what google wants us to do. Link building is frowned upon except for getting listed in a few key directories to help with indexing. IE they want you to try to get in dmoz and yahoo dir.

Are we saying google wants us to get free link directory links? They devalue them dont they?!?! In other words they want you to get directory links to help THEM find pages, but it does little for rankings.

So besides spreading the word with press releases and spending money with PPC, can we do anything else? We all know about good content and clean pages.

[PhilC]

Google doesn't frown on link building. In fact, Matt Cutts occasionally suggests ways of doing it. They (wrongly) frown on buying links without condoms in place, and participating in link farms, but not on link building.

[Relevancy]

Google doesn't frown on link building. In fact, Matt Cutts occasionally suggests ways of doing it. They (wrongly) frown on buying links without condoms in place, and participating in link farms, but not on link building.

To help their indexing yes, but they want the world to happen naturally. Which I do too, but what would be another purpose they would want us to do link building?

Matt might suggest ways to do it right, but not that they actually want us to do it for anything more then better indexing for finding more pages.

[Jill Whalen]

Link building is frowned upon except for getting listed in a few key directories to help with indexing.

Where do people come up with these ideas?

[sootledir]

I'd like to dispell the idea that link building is frowned on. There's nothing illegal or immoral about getting links.

You're confusing a "delay" in your link building efforts with the idea that link building doesn't work. It still works, but it takes time.

But you shouldn't focus on just one way. Here's several:

1) Recip links with related sites
2) Paid directories for one ways
3) Recip trades with directories
4) Free-reprint articles for one way links
5) One way natural links from impressed webmasters

If your site has great content, you can always run a PPC campaign to get the site more exposure, so that natural links will come a bit quicker.

[PhilC]

To help their indexing yes, but they want the world to happen naturally. Which I do too, but what would be another purpose they would want us to do link building?

Matt might suggest ways to do it right, but not that they actually want us to do it for anything more then better indexing for finding more pages.
You are mistaken. Matt makes those suggestions for ranking purposes.

[Relevancy]

He is making sure we are not spamming. That is all he is telling us. He is not helping you get better rankings. He is making sure link farms and bad linking go away. He is not telling you how to get better rankings.. that is for sure.

[JohnW]

Relevancy, you might want to check out Matts blog. He gives some good ideas for link building in his link-baiting post. It is about ranking.

[Relevancy]

Can you please point me to where it specifically says its for "rankings" and not for increased traffic from referrals. Where does he say "do this to get better rankings"?

If I am wrong then I am wrong.

[mcanerin]

Actually, I find that if you do link building for traffic, the rankings usually come along naturally.

It's doing it the other way around that tends to cause problems.

Although there are exceptions to every rule, you are best off getting links that are likely to send real traffic almost every time. And I would argue for removing the "almost" qualifier nowadays....

Ian

[PhilC]

That's your personal interpretation, Relevancy, but it isn't mine.

Can you please point me to where it specifically says its for "rankings" and not for increased traffic from referrals. Where does he say "do this to get better rankings"?Can you point me to where he says that his ideas a specifically about traffic? IBLs improve rankings, and Matt is a Google employee, so it makes sense to me that when talks about link building, he isn't just talking about traffic. Anyone who is only talking about traffic from links wouldn't suggest submitting to DMOZ.

[JohnW]

>Can you please point me to where it specifically says its for "rankings"

Filed under Google/SEO.

I think you need to read his post, follow some of the links he offers, and take it in context.