SEO Information

Link Building: To Link, or Not to Link, That is the Question


Lately, there have been a lot of heated discussions regarding link building. Is it ethical to create a link building campaign? Does Google or any other search engine penalize for "link farms" (a bunch of non-related links created for the SOLE purpose of increasing search engine ratings)? Is the "link building era" over?

Link Farms

Many webmasters claim that Google penalizes websites for link farms. If this is so, why are a link farm sites that have a page rank of 5 on their link farm page? Let me give you an example, go to Google.com, type in any popular keyword(s) and append the word "links" to it. For example, "ABCD Links." Notice you'll get tones of websites that are linking to unrelated sites, but still have a great PR. I do not encourage link farming in any way or form, but building valuable partnerships is something I do encourage. If you're a jewelry site and you're exchanging links with an antiques site, I think this is a great thing. It's very possible that someone searching for jewelry may have an interest in antiques. I own a few sites and the hits I receive from partially related sites are phenomenal. Most of my websites are targeted towards webmasters so I receive hits from all sorts of sites. Remember, many webmasters claim to know the truth regarding search engine algorithms, but no one knows the EXACT TRUTH except the programmers at the search engines. Webmasters may have been penalized in the past for link farms and doorway pages (pages created around certain keywords for the sole purpose of redirecting surfers to the main page), but who's to say why some HAVEN'T been penalized.

Who Should I Create Link Partnerships With?

1. Create link partnerships with sites related to your site.

2. Create link partnerships with sites that have an audience that may be interested in your products

3. Exchange homepage links with websites that fit in your genre. You'll receive a link on a page with a good ranking and you'll get quality, targeted hits.

How Do You Find Link Partners?

1. Signup with an automated links management provider that organizes your links and helps find link partners. Automated tools are the best because they help you save time. Uploading and downloading your pages for every link exchange can be a huge pain and very time consuming. Automated tools are NOT link farms because they give you complete control of who you exchange links with. If a member exchanges links with every website, he/she might be abusing the tool. If a member uses the tool responsibly, it can be very effective.

2. This is a great little exercise I would recommend to anyone.

a. Write down 20 search terms pertaining to your website

b. Go to http://www.google.com and type in a search term written in step A

c. Contact as many websites as possible listed under that search term and ask them to exchange inner page or homepage links with you. If they're NOT interested, ask whether they would be interested in selling advertising space. If your website is fairly new, you may want to ask sites for advertising prices. Free hits are the best hits but sometimes you might have to go the extra lap and pay for service. I wouldn't recommend spending over $100 / month for advertising UNLESS it's a high traffic site with your site audience. The best deals are the ones that offer $10-25 / month. There are sites out there that will sell SUPER cheap advertising, and others that charge an arm and a leg.

EVERYONE gets rejected sometime or another so keep your head up and keep moving along! The internet is comprised of Billions of websites. If you're rejected 500 times, you still have MANY business opportunities left! This is a continuous job so set aside time every week to do this. If you don't have time for this, then you don't have time to make money.

3. Hire a link building firm (this can be quite expensive but if you have money, its minimal work for you)

PageRank

Pagerank is a great tool but don't use it as your ONLY measurement for success. I can't explain everything about pagerank but a good explanation is given at http://www.google-watch.org/pagerank.html.

Conclusion

In conclusion, link building is not only for increasing link partners and search engine rankings, it's also used to create partnerships and establish profitable relationships with other webmasters. Link building is a tedious process, but one of the best for getting free (sometimes not), targeted hits from other websites.

Vik Tailor is the owner of http://www.linkexchanged.com and http://www.buyadvertisingonline.com. He has been in the online advertising industry for over 4-5 years and has extensive online marketing knowledge.


MORE RESOURCES:

Search Engine Watch

Bruce Clay, Inc. Releases New Free SEO Tools
MSNBC - 7 hours ago
Both tools compile select data from Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! and put only the most useful SEO information within easy reach. ...
Ecommerce Know-How: Information Architecture to Improve SEO and ... Practical Ecommerce (subscription)
Two New Free SEO Tools Released by Bruce Clay Search Engine Watch
The Role of Contextual Links In SEO Is Immense Promotion World (press release)
BigNews.biz (press release) - MSNBC
all 61 news articles


Search Engine Land

Considering In-house SEO? How to ease into in-house SEO Smoothly
Search Engine Land, CT - 16 hours ago
In-house SEO can be more cost efficient, but it can also be very costly because in-house SEO has many unique challenges. If you are planning to bring SEO ...
How PPC and SEO Can Benefit Companies In A Struggling Economy Promotion World (press release)
all 2 news articles


BizAtomic Launches Version 5.1 of its SEO Optimized E3 Ecommerce ...
Emediawire (press release), WA - 12 hours ago
St Augustine, FL (PRWEB) January 7, 2009 -- BizAtomic.com, a leading provide of Ecommerce Websites and SEO services, today announced the launch of version ...


Indianapolis SEO, IndianapolisSeo.com, an SEO and Web Design Firm ...
PR Web (press release), WA - 17 hours ago
Indianapolis SEO, www.IndianapolisSeo.com, a Web design and search engine optimization firm is launching the new website for PJ's College of Cosmetology ...


IndiaBook Indian SEO Company Launches Search Marketing Outsourcing ...
PowerHomeBiz.com (press release) - 10 hours ago
January 7, 2009 ( PowerHomeBiz ) - India -- India SEO a Professional Internet marketing Firm located in Chandigarh, northern part of India, since 1999 has ...


Search Engine Journal

Search for SEO eBooks and PDF Tutorials
Search Engine Journal - 9 hours ago
There are several really cool groups there found for [SEO] search each containing really good books. 2. Google offers a nifty advanced operator allowing to ...


Increase Traffic Using Article marketing, Article Submission and ...
Meadow Free Press, ID - Jan 6, 2009
If you are a business person and have a website, you may have heard the term SEO or search engine optimization. Article marketing is a very effective way to ...
New Free One-Stop Website Providing Expert Resources Launched ... 1888 Press Release (press release)
all 2 news articles


This Time, SEO Gets Personal
Mediapost.com, NY - Jan 6, 2009
Tom Pick reminds us that CEOs and other executives need to appreciate the importance of their personal brand, but he doesn't mention that employees need to ...


How to use Google Analytics to Track SEO Rankings
Marketing Pilgrim, NC - Jan 6, 2009
With Google and other search engines continuing to roll out personalization updates, it is becoming increasingly difficult for SEOs to get an idea of their ...


Chart of the Week: SEM/SEO Most Important Marketing Tactic
Practical Ecommerce (subscription), Grand Junction - Jan 5, 2009
Search engine marketing and optimization, which embodies both SEO and pay-per-click efforts, were clearly the most important marketing tools in the survey ...

SEO - Google News

home | site map
© 2006