I made my choice...
There’s something really comforting in creating lists as far as I am concerned - they give you purpose, keep you on track, and even make you feel guilty when you mess up.
Perfect for my type of personality.
I’ve been thinking a lot about link building recently, like since about 10 am this morning, and it suddenly dawned on me: why not take my link building to a whole new level and see where it takes me?
There is a lot of talk about the quality and relevancy of links.
Some think a link is a link and it’s the quantity that matters. Yet others believe that it’s all about the kind of links you get, not necessarily the number of them, unless you are talking about a number of quality links of course.
We can sit and argue the merits of each point until we are blue in the face, but this is my blog, so I can take whatever point of view I wish to take and it’s up to you to take it or leave it.
I am already looking forward to the comments on this one…
My Link Building Theory
Not all links are created equal.
Larger quantity of whatever links doesn’t equal higher PageRank or higher search engine rankings.
I’ve been watching a lot of websites making it to the top spot in Google that had very few links vs many websites with thousands of links ranked much lower.
Also, one site could have only 3 backlinks with one of them being PR6.
The second site has 500 backlinks total with one of them being PR6.
The first site ends up with PR5.
The second site ends up with PR2.
The only possible conclusion is that Google heavily favors the quality of links over their quantity. Additionally, it almost looks like the pagerank flowing in is evenly distributed among the number of incoming links.
Now, mind you this is a theory, but it’s based upon close observation, experience, and similar opinions from bloggers I look up to and respect in the field.
Here’s another observation: a few month ago I decided to try out Unique Article Wizard on one of my sites.
For those of you who are not familiar with UAW, it’s an article spinning and automatic submission software. My objective was to build links to one of my websites and push it up the Google ladder; at that time the website was ranked #10 for my main keyword. Besides taking up all my time spinning the articles until my head was spinning, UAW did the exact opposite of what I expected: it pushed my site further down, all the way to the third page as a matter of fact.
Since back then I didn’t have enough experience to analyze why my website went down like a torpedo, I kept spinning and submitting article until one kind soul who knew a thing or two about SEO told me to stop. Within that week, my site was back on the first page. Soon after it was in the top 3.
One might certainly might argue it was a coincidence or there must’ve been other factors that came into play.
But remember, my blog - my story - my conclusions. 🙂
So if my observations hold water, it might mean that Google has finally come up with a way to deal with link spammers.
Let’s get back to my love for lists now and see what kind of lists I can come up with for naughty and nice links (I know, I know, Christmas is over, but hey, it’s catchy and nothing else comes to mind…)
Which Links Are Naughty?
In my book, these are the ones I am not going to waste my time getting.
Inclusion in this list doesn’t necessarily constitute that there is anything wrong with these links per se. (sounds like a bad disclaimer)
- Article directories. I will continue submitting to EzineArticles, for no good reason really, just because I feel like I need to pay my dues to the article mogul. However, I will stop wasting time submitting to a thousand and one directories.
- Directory listings. Some directories rock. I would definitely love to have a link from DMOZ, for instance - what blogger wouldn’t! However, I am not going to waste my time submitting my blog to a thousand and one directories.
- Forums. I know, I know, many of you are still fond of forums, BUT it’s extremely hard to get a decent link from a decent page with your keywords in it. My time is simply better spent doing other things.
- Social Media/Forum Profiles. Many SEOs still believe that getting useless links from deep no PR pages of well-ranked websites is a good thing and that the home page PR will somehow rub off your teeny-tiny profile, hidden amongst millions of others. I’ve seen all kinds of “research” on the matter; however, most of the times they target very obscure keywords that I can probably rank for without a single link.
- .EDU/.GOV Links. Don’t get me wrong: I won’t turn one down if it comes my way, but I won’t waste my time intentionally searching them out. It’s getting increasingly difficult to get your comments approved on both .edu and .gov blogs. Creating profiles on those sites just doesn’t work too well - see my point above. Too much work and doubtful results.
- Automated Submission Software of any kind. Self-explanatory, assuming you read the first part of this post.
- Reciprocal/Paid Linking of any kind. I can’t believe I still get those questions: do you think it’s OK for me to do some paid linking? Let’s put it to rest once and for all: DON’T do it. PERIOD.
Which Links Are Nice?
Let me define my perfect link, first of all.
My perfect link comes from within content (as opposed to comments, for instance), PR4 +, DoFollow, from a relevant website (for instance, a blog on traffic generation or SEO) or at least, a relevant page for sure.
Now, this almost never happens.
So what link building strategies do I plan to focus on this year?
- Guest Posting. This is the single best way to get great DoFollow one way links from some of the best blogs around, PLUS “borrow” their traffic. The possibilities for this strategy are endless; they are only limited by your “I don’t really have time for this” excuse. I used to have it, but no more. I am writing this post on January 1 and I’ve already written and submitted (and got accepted) a blog post to a PR6 blog with 20K Alexa traffic ranking.
- Selective Blog Commenting. Now there is blog commenting for the sake of networking and just getting your name out there and there’s blog commenting geared specifically towards link building. My goal here is to build 10 quality links to each post I am working on ranking for with my keywords as anchor text. Ideally, I’ll be looking for DoFollow blogs with PR4+ for THAT PAGE (not just overall blog PR) that allow keywords in name field. It goes without saying, I NEVER spam. Link building or not, I leave thoughtful comments.
- Link Bait Posts. There’s plenty of info written on the subject; however, I know there are many new bloggers reading this, so let me tell you what it means one more time. Link bait posts are very well-researched one of a kind posts that readers would naturally want to link to since they are SO good. The trick here is not to sit and wait for people to find those posts and link to them.
My very first link bait post was actually one of the first ones I ever wrote for this blog: 202 Bite-Sized Tips to Insanely Increase Your Blog Traffic. It is a great post indeed.
However, I decided to take “natural” link building (meaning, readers naturally linking to you because of good content) into my own hands and contacted Kristi Hines of Kikolani.com, letting her know of my post and why I think it would be so great to be included in her Friday Mashups.
My post showed up in her next Friday Mashup and many other posts after that.
Marketing Takeaway:
Let me stress one more time that there is nothing wrong with these links in their own.
My list is simply based on the fact that:
- I am too busy to waste my time building low-quality links
- I don’t believe those links have positive effect on your optimization efforts
- They might actually have negative effect on your SEO
- I’d rather have 10 quality links than 100 junk ones
Love it or hate it? Comment to show me that you’re alive!
Hi Ana I’ve been building backlinks for a while now and while I have seen come and go many strategies I can confirm that link building using your method remains the only sane method left to us. I think there is a lot of disinformation floating around and finding the truth has always been challenging to all SEO’s. One place that I’ve been studying is social media. I know that some redirect the url you leave behind in social media web sites are believed to not have any value but I’m starting to believe otherwise. What do you think are no follows and redirected urls ignored by Google?
I think when it comes down to social media, Google is interested in more than just links, Claude.
Even if your brand is simply mentioned by someone without even a link, it counts. Being talked about is definitely in.
Greetings from the UK. Thanks very much Ana, I think you have saved me a huge amount of wasted time getting links from the wrong sites. I did suspect that our position on Google got more value from one good PR 7 link than all the others we had slaved over. Thanks to you my days will be spent more productively.
You are very welcome, Mike.
You are so welcome; thanks for coming by.
Great advice as always Ana, I stupidly bought some ‘Article Spinning’ software and though the spinning part worked well, the submission part didn’t because it got caught out by CAPTCHAs.
In the end I was glad it didn’t work anyway because I was never comfortable with the idea, nor convinced that even if I was really careful about the grammar and wording of all of the possible permutations, it didn’t feel genuine to put multiple versions of what is basically the same article out there (even though some very reputable a-list bloggers have defended this as OK and not ‘cheating’ in any way).
I still don’t feel right with the idea. In the end, doing what you feel is right, having integrity, leaving genuine comments, building genuine relationships… all of these things are what should contribute to your success not quick wins and tactics,
and I have to say that above everything else is what keeps me coming back to a blog like yours - quality and integrity really counts,
take care & best wishes,
Alan
Thanks, Alan.
What I’ve learned in the past few months though that to compete in more desirable niches, you do need the quantity of links as well as quality.
Hmmmmm … you now have me wondering what a ‘more desirable’ niche is…
In any case I like quality and integrity and I forgot to mention I particularly like efficiency (it’s what I’ve been paid a lot of money for a long time to teach people so very inefficient of me to forget that one) - quantity sounds like a lot of work to me … don’t like that … though presumably over time the numbers will grow through natural progression and that I’m totally cool with 😉
My niche is very broad - How To Enjoy Life More For Less + Coaching - not sure if that qualifies as desirable and it doesn’t even feel very ‘Niche’ but it’s what I’m passionate about so that matters a great deal to me too (otherwise what’s the point),
thanks again for the informative post Ana,
take care,
Alan
If you are having hard time narrowing down your niche, Alan, then so will search engines.
If that’s the case, most of your traffic would have to come from networking, which is a lot of constant work.
Anna,
In case you’re tracking such matters as I suspect you are, I found your site after adding someone to a G+ Circle and I did that coz G said we had 58 people in common so I fig we run in the same circles, so to speak. I subbed to your list coz you entice the right way. Did a quickie Evelyn Wood speed read and low and behold, I found a mini-snafu that maybe you know about and maybe you don’t? Either way, nice Thesis site and all the best. Cya round campus — Neil
Thanks for coming by, Neil!
This post is a bit older; what snafu are you referring to?
Look forward to seeing you around.
Hi Ana, yes it’s true, when lots of people are going wild with forum posting and commenting, it’s really really hard to get a decent authority backlink.
So I kind of avoid this strategy too. In addition I do once in a while few directory submissions but only as an add-on, it’s really useless to depend on those.
I will have to follow you on twitter again once I return home, since you got a new account 🙂
Happy Friday,
Joanna
I think those links are great in terms of adding diversity, but in the end, they most likely don’t add my quality, Jo.
Thanks for coming by!
Fantastic post! Link building is one of those things that I’ve been struggling with, simply because people are constantly arguing about what works and what doesn’t.
I’ve hired people to build links for me twice, and was sorely disappointed with the results. One of the services left links on bizarre sites (think cooking blogs and blogs with names that made me worry they were porn-related) and wrote me a PR that was talking about my 20+ years experience in internet marketing. (Apparently I started when I was 5 . . . that’s a good one.)
The other service just wrote a few articles, spun the crap out of them, and posted them all over the place using a pen name. I was left wondering exactly how that helped the ranking of the website in question.
So I’m still trying to figure out the best methods for me and my sites, but I’m slowly knocking some out of the running because I don’t like/trust them. (I won’t even touch backlinking software. It just screams “bad” to me.)
Thanks for the pointer on UAW, Ana. I was thinking about signing up, but was really going back and forth about it. Your comments make me think I wouldn’t be at all pleased with the results. : )
I am all for link building quality, Lindsey.
HOWEVER, since I wrote this post I realized that link quantity does have its place in SEO - it all depends on your niche and how competitive it is.
If my competitor has thousands of links and I have a few quality ones, Google will still most likely rank them above me. That’s the truth.
Excellent post,
I know everyone is wanting more and more links, but I one hundred percent agree that 10 quality links is better than 100 poor quality links. The main issue I come across is clients wanting instant results, Building good quality links is time consuming but the rewards are worth the hard work.
Finding good blogs with do follow links can take sometime but worth the weight in gold, constructive comments blogging is a good link builder, What do you think?
Wayne
I certainly agree, Wayne - quality is worth searching for.
Hi Ana,
i am not agree with you Sorry !
Yes, its true that getting link from .gov and .edu is too hard .But Why you are saying this is wast of time ?
Consider same PR for both .com and .gov/.edu , Getting link from .gov/.edu sites is more than 100 times valuable from getting link from .com site.
By the way,Great Post.
Enjoying myself your Blog,Really.
Sayed
I love it when my readers disagree with me, Sayed; makes it more interesting.
If all other things equal, of course I’d go for .edu link over .com link.
However, I think their importance is GREATLY overrated.
Agree to disagree?
Hi Ana,
I think you give some very sound advice. I agree with the comments about forums however I think they still can be useful in terms of getting an article indexed (ezinearticles) and in having additional anchor text.
Neil
Hi Ana,
I have an online retail business, and I have started a blog, but its separate from my retail website. Do you have specific help for someone like me? My current e-commerce website provider does not have the option to add a blog to the retail website, so I started my blog on blogger. How do I get the blog going so that the traffic ultimately ends up on my retail site?? My gut tells me if I write good content that ultimately visitors will check out my retail site as a result?
As a rule, it’s always best to have your main website and blog combined - that way you increase the chances of other people checking it out, Jenn, and it’s great for SEO.
I don’t have any specific tutorials to help you; you need more of one-one-one kind of help.
Writing good content is never enough in and of its own. You still need to drive traffic to it and you still need to encourage people to click over to your site.
Thanks for the reply, Ana. Do you know of any articles that suggest ways to get people to click over to a retail site from a blog, without being overly “sales pitchy”?
I don’t think this is the kind of thing where “one size fits all”, Jenn.
Most bloggers will tell you that you need a call to action. What does that look like? You’ll have to see what works for you and your readers.
Hi Ana,
Just found your blog and find it interesting. Although, you post this several months ago, i noticed that up to now, a lot still find it interesting including myself.
I agree with you on your link building plan (maybe you are still doing it). Most of it are all effective in link building since i am doing it as well.
I agree with you also on .edu/.gov links, its such a waste of time since its really difficult to get your comments approve. I like your appropriate phrase - “Too much work and doubtful results.”
Great post by the way!
-Gary-
Thanks for the kind words, Gary.
Yes, I believe in working smart, not hard!
Hey Ana I really enjoyed reading about your link building strategy and I came to this article
through your guide that I got from this page Get Free Report
again thanks for the report Ana I really enjoyed reading it
Hey Ana, got a question. Not sure if I’m doing this right and I THINK I read it in this article. In any case, I was doing a google search to try and find high PR blog posts to comment on. I have the SEOQuake plugin which tells me the PR of each result so I was hoping to just scan the results and make a list of the pages I want to post on. I set my default results to 50, did a search for my keyword and then switched it to blogs. Google keeps thinking I’m sending automated queries and is either blocking me or making it so the plugins are not pulling PR. So it’s not really working - is there a better way to do this? I even turned off every component of SEOQuake that it returns except the PR thinking that might be fewer queries and it still happens.
There’s a simple explanation for this, Bethany.
Google recently change the URL that fed all the tools. So everyone’s tools stopped working last week and had a lot of us scrambling because it looked like PageRank had disappeared.
From what I can see, SEOQuake still hasn’t fixed theirs.
Hey Ana,
Actually I had already fixed that problem by changing the retrieval URL within the settings of the plugin, though I can say it was pretty annoying that they did that! Both of the plugins I use were affected but I had fixed them both last week.
The issue yesterday was actually affecting both SEOQuake and the SEO Status Pagerank/Alexa toolbar that I use. After about an hour, I’d start seeing PR again. It’s really bizarre. I’ve switched it back to only 10 results at a time and tested it this morning and it’s still reporting PR so the only thing I can think of is that having it set to 50 results at a time was too much. I’d read somewhere, can’t remember if it was here or somewhere else, to set the default to 100 results which makes sense if you are going to re-sort the results by PR but I think that’s what got me blocked.
You got me intrigued, Bethany.
I had no idea you can change retrieval URL - I thought this was something that had to be fixed on their end.
How did you do it?
Yeah all they did was change the URL by a tiny tiny bit, so you have to go into the SEOQuake settings and fix it.
Thanks to you, mine is working again, Bethany!
I’m alive. Great article Ana. Guest posting is something I haven’t yet started doing, and I think I will spend some time doing so in future.
It’s one of the best tactics for both link building and traffic generation, Haroun.
I know lots of people who used to play clean while others used to play dirty when it comes to link building process. Either way, an individual must be ready for any consequences he/she might face in the future. Anyway, effective strategies may differ from individuals so there’s no standard format for any link building strategies.
I agree with you that spun articles are total crap. Interesting article, considering it was written pre-Panda… you make a lot of great points that are still valid even after the update.
I’d love to see any kind of ‘form’ letter you usually send out when asking for a guest spot in someone’s blog. I know you probably tailor such an inquiry to each different website, but I’m curious to know how you go about approaching people in general, without looking spammy.
Most blogs have guest posting forms on their blogs, Aurelia, which makes it very easy to submit a post.
If a blog doesn’t post guidelines for guest posting, but you can see that they accept posts from other bloggers, then simply use the contact form to inquire about the guidelines.
Guest posting is something entirely acceptable these days, so you shouldn’t have a problem finding blogs to guest post for.
I really enjoy reading your posts and also the comments to it. I’m currently working on a program of back linking for several of my sites and tried the UAW $67.00 a month program, plus the cost of a copy writer who was experienced in writing the 3 articles in their format. I was in for 3 months and by accident one evening, I found a link to one of their spun articles. It was so bad I had a problem understanding the topic of the article. YUK! I logged in to UAW and immediately cancelled the subscription. I’ve been leery of any type of spun articles since then. I’m working on a Yahoo Pipe for RSS today and need to figure that out. I wonder how long it will be until Google decides these methods are done and wants something else???
I have seen those articles - they are all over the web! Spun articles are terrible unless they are all edited properly. It is best to use a copy writer who can “manually” spin the articles and it will also work out cheaper than the monthly subscription.
Let us know how it goes.
Great site Ana. I started a site recently and thought I was doing what everyone did when I subscribed to an up-sell for a link building service. After 2 weeks I canceled that service because I started to learn more about link building and the idea didn’t sit right with me, nor did the fee. So it was reassuring to read your post on link building and wish I had found your site sooner.
One thing though, by having used a link building service for only a few weeks, do search engines blacklist people who use these services, and is the blacklisting permanent? I’m paranoid about stuff like that and think that their gonna get me.
Cheers. Mike
No, don’t worry about it, Mike.
You might’ve had a little spike in your link building, but nothing will most likely ever come out of it.
I used all sorts of link building, but my site is mature and it can take many links coming for different directions. Smaller or newer sites might have to be much more careful with their link building.
Focus on quality and you have nothing to worry about.
Awesome. Thanks for putting my mind at ease.
I tend to agree with you on not wasting your time on low quality links. At my previous job, whom I will keep anonymous, we used every SEO software known to man from SEnuke to all the edwinsoft software. To be honest it really worked for their niche. They are ranking in the top spots for high search volume keywords. I’m keeping an eye out on their rankings to see when google catches on, and im sure they will. I do what you say at my current job focusing on guest posts and getting relevant links through a social network called linkdip. Thanks for the post!
Since for us, bloggers, time is of the essence, we definitely need to focus on what has the most impact.
I’m not here building links, Ana, but it never hurts. 🙂 I really love your site. Your writing has a fine polish, warmth, and real depth of content. Are you sure you are from the former Soviet Union? Your command of the English language is impressive. In any case, my blog below today acknowledges a tip I found here. It has a picture of a cow! Sincerely appreciative of your work here.
Much appreciated, Astro.
Hi Ana,
I stumbled upon your site and it is really obvious that you know your stuff. I have learned alot from your site. This is an amazing source of information. I also agree that it is quality over quantity when it comes to links. I was debating this with someone else the other day also so it is interesting that I came across this article.
Well, thanks and I look forward to reading much more of your information.
Bob
Thanks, Bob. I hope my article helps your debate and welcome.
Ana, so what would you say about strategy for example I will be guest blogging on some authority sites and I will then promote these guest blog posts through systems like UAW or with Article Marketing Robot, what do you say?
Regards, Adam
I’d say that if you can’t rank your own site using those tools, you won’t be able to rank your guest post either. That’s the only point of using auto spinning tools like that, since they really don’t bring a cinch of traffic.
Plus spamming the blog that published your guest post with a bunch of useless links might not be the greatest way to build relationships with the said bloggers.
Nice article, I noticed how you get to the point where a blogger told you to stop spinning articles and then your page went up? Are you saying it went up as a result of just stopping spinning articles or it went up because you switched to using the ‘What Links Are Nice’ approach? As I don’t wish to fall into similar pitfalls, but that particular part isn’t completely clear on what you did to then get back to Page 1?
Are you also saying that if Google starts seeing you as a spammer there is potential to change that around? As I figured if you were seen as taking a black hat approach you would be ‘blacklisted’ to some extent?
Insightful article though
AH
Skeleton Productions
In this particular case, all I did was stop spinning and my page went back up.
Since I wrote this post, I had some of my blogger friends stop spinning articles as well for the same reasons.
Going down in rankings is not the same as being blacklisted in any way. It’s definitely possible to go back up without a problem after changing your linking strategy.
Wow, one more brand new thing I have learned from you today. You mentioned that you are commenting to get quality links to individual posts. I have always thought that it makes much more sense to create many links to the main site or blog page. Don’t you spread your efforts thin if you link back to many blog posts?
And sorry for violating your comment policy earlier.
Hi Tom. I don’t link back to all the posts at once. I will choose one of two to focus on for a week or a month at a time. In that way, I concentrate my efforts only on those particular posts which I wish to drive traffic too.
Thank you Ana, it is a great idea! I appreciate your quick response.
Hello Tom,
I was recently watching a white board friday that Rand from seomoz did back in March and he was saying that you shouldn’t really pay much attention to the home page PR. It is really more about overall domain authority.
What Ana is doing by linking back to her individual posts, she is more evenly raising her overall domain authority and not just the PR of her home page.
We like to say my site is a pr3 or pr4, but that is really not true. What we should be saying is my home page is a pr4. I would rather have a do follow link from a pr2 page with a site that has a pr3 home page, than a link on a page with no pr from a site that has a pr5 home page.
I think linking directly to posts that are optimized for your key words are a great way to get to the top of google because most people don’t do it and sometimes, five or 10 good links pointing directly to an individual post with your anchor text is all you need to get to the top.
I really appreciate your input as I’ve debated this topic many times (and still do). I just keep playing the scenarios in my head about quality vs. quantity. I’m mostly a “quality” type of guy.
I’m with you John Lee. After working a full 40 hour/week day job and then doing SEO for your own website on the side can be a daunting task. I’m glad to have Ana’s awesome articles to help me out.
You’re most welcome, Chris. It is a daunting task and quality is certainly very important.
We have a niche that is so highly specialized, I am not really sure how to get to the blogs or anything. We do electrical testing, working with electrical engineers and such. It sounds like it would be easy, just find all the electrical blogs but I am having a very difficult time with this. Any ideas, I would appreciate it. Thanks for your great article.
Have you tried Google Alerts? You can set up an alert for “electrical” and other related topics. Also, don’t only stick to your main niche, but with related topics. I can imagine it is a field with not that many blogs, but you should think about your clients’ fields, such as hardware, DIY and such. Hope this helps.
Hi Ana, and thanks for the article.
I just wanted to comment on the part where you stopped using UAW.
You said that when you stopped submitting the articles, your site climbed back up? That is most probably the Google dance as Garen said, because the links are/were still there and Google most probably kept finding them after you stopped submitting? How much time did you invest, and how many links did you get from UAW? How old is that particular domain name and what was its link profile before the UAW blasts?
Hi, Jean-Marie - as I answered to Garen, we all have our own opinions on this. My “experiment” lasted over 3 months and the evidence speaks volumes to me.
On the other hand, my friend Alex Whalley just did a 30-day challenge testing UAW; I am publishing a link to his finding in today’s post. He is optimistic, but I don’t see any great results yet.
Ana
I agree with you Ana.. I know I have wasted my time by submitting spun articles to many directories and blogs.. Finally I stop doing that and focus on commenting, links between my owns blogs or friends..
Best way to go!
Hi Ana
What a fantastic blog! I find mysel coming back here everytime you send me an email. Leaning a lot.
Ana
You are so welcome, Ana, and thanks for coming by!
Ana
Great post Ana! Just stumbled onto your blog and can’t wait to read more!
Larry
Welcome, Larry.
I agree that the way to go is spending time on a few high quality links and then a lot of time on writing linkable content.
Diversity is an important factor in creating a natural link building pattern. you cannot control the quality or quantity of links to great content, but it’s not that important as long as people link. You write that you try to get 10 links for each important post, but I think it will look suspicious to Google if noone else links, and all your posts have more or less the same number of ingoing links.
I am currently co-owner of two webshops that we are closing down. But, boy do you learn a lot from running a shop. Instead of our current shops we will be starting a new shop in a more competitive segment where the competitors have between 100,000 and 700,000 links. Even with this big difference in links they seem to have equal popularity with Google on a number of keywords, so quantity is definitely not the primary goal. So, I guess getting high quality links manually and setting up some link bait for quantity will be my goal for the new shop. I know for sure that I am not going to try to get x00,000 links manually 🙂
Quality will definitely trump quality any day, Johnny.
And no, it won’t look suspicious to Google if you start building links steadily on a daily basis, whatever the reasonable number might be for you.
All the best to your new endeavor!
Hey Ana,
Do you think that the test with UAW could have been a Google dance. Maybe, discrediting the links for a bit just to see if they stick. Then when you quit and Google gave you the green light, because the links were still there.
I always build my links in so many ways there is no footprint at all. I also think that slow and steady will bring you to the tops of Google. Maybe Google has combated spam However, if you build to quickly I have noticed a drop in rankings for awhile, too.
Lastly, I focus on the most unique content and use forums just to find out what people want to know, along with Yahoo Answers. I use IBP to make sure my content is about the same size as the top 10 in Google. But, I make it better 🙂
Garen
All very good points, Garen.
I don’t think that was the case though. I do my link building similar to yours and when I do it by hand, I always focus on quality links from quality sites and build them slowly, but steadily.
UAW was the only exception to the rule and to be quite honest with you, the problem was not so much in the quantity, but rather quality of links.
So when push comes to shove, I am still not convinced that UAW is worth its salt and would stay away from it.
Personally, I never tried UAW and honestly if I am going to do it; I just pay people who use the software. That way I don’t pay monthly.
I think what a lot of people don’t quite understand when starting SEO is your links get stronger the longer they link to you. Nothing is instant and their isn’t any majic system that will take you to the op of Google without a substantial amount of work.
Garen, you are absolutely right. It takes work (smart, not too hard) and there are many free ways to do this.
Hi Ana,
So, you say that you stopped doing UAW and the site came back NOT to spot 10 where it was initially b4 the test BUT to spot 3? That seems to be the UAW’s merit - it promoted you eventually, no?
I was doing UAW campains back in 2010, when Panda was a regular anonymous indian and UAW was credited by everyone and G wasn’t that angry at text spinning. And always I saw same pattern - fall in SERP (dance actually, not penalty) then stop campain -> climb the SERP ladder.
That said, I think that currently dumb spinning is not the way to go. Text must be spun more cleverly, more work to do.
As to the common advices that you (and bunch of other johnchows) provide - to make linkbaits… Think it just doesn’t work in micro niches where ppl just enter the article -> read how to cure their back pain (for example) -> leave the page to do it. They have no time engaging and socializing.
Engaging, linkbaiting, socializing is the stuff that ONLY you (marketers) do with each other. There is no chance one can bait links on other niche blogs - only heavy self promo.
BTW, can you tell me the difference between backlink in epic guestpost and paid editorial backlink in epic post?
I see your point, Peter, and of course, we can debate the issue till we are blue in the face, and we’ll still end up holding on to our original opinions.
So we are not going to do that, right?
I agree with your take on micro niche sites, assuming we are talking about the ones that are built to rank and collect AdSense cash or some affiliate sales. I don’t build those kinds of site and neither do I offer any advice on how to milk them for all their worth.
However, engaging, linkbaiting, etc. DOES work on niche blogs. Say a cooking blog, short story blog, gardening blog - all these are examples of blogs my readers run and were able to increase their readership and sales by using the same techniques as I use for my blog.
The difference between a link in a guest post and a paid link in the same post is “nofollow” attribute. Google requires us to add “nofollow” to all paid links or else. And most bloggers who are worth their salt know that and would never jeopardize their blogs in exchange for a few bucks for a paid link.
Hi Ana - I’m wondering how this works with micro niche sites? Makes perfect sense on a big blog about blogging, but not so much on a 20 page site that presents information on (fill in the blank) a rare foot fungus. Thanks!
Kent
You are right, Kent - niche sites are a bit more difficult to get relevant links to.
However, it’s MUCH easier to rank a site for a rare foot fungus vs something like “traffic generation”. With that in mind, you will most likely need much fewer links and the quality factor is not as important.
Hey Ana 🙂 First comment on here, really love the blog from what I’ve seen so far!
I have to take a little bit of the controversial view to the post. I am a huge fan of UAW personally, and have used it on other sites to get ranked. And I have friends who’ve done the same strategy to get to the top on tons of keywords.
I think one of the big things for success with UAW is simply creating linkwheels. So instead of UAW pointing back just to your blog post, it instead points back to say an article on ezinearticles.com
Ezine has tons of links going in already, so by you posting all those articles linking to an ezine article that links to your website, Google will accept that and make that link carry more relevancy. And then you do the same process on other high PR sites, like a free blogger site or other content sharing sites.
It’s worked for me somewhat, and the people I learned it from definitely use it as the mainstay of their business.
Wanted to add in my 2 cents 🙂
But I DO agree with you on guest posting. Guest posting has been the BIGGEST eye opener for me since I start my new greginmotion blog, I had no idea how powerful it was till I did my first one haha.
Thanks for disagreeing with me, Gregory; it’s refreshing sometimes. Don’t get into the habit of it though. 🙂
You would be the first who says that all the work you have to put into article spinning was worth it and you got results out of it. I truly think there are many easier ways to get junk links though.
Once again, welcome to my blog and hope to see more of you around!
Ana
Ana:
One of the best things I like about linking from Ezine Articles is that you can find out what people in your niche are linking to by searching out the top 10 articles in Ezine and then writing on close or similar topics of which you have knowledge. That keeos you articles relevant in the eyes of Mother Google and positions you in the expert mode for other readers. I am glad you still post to Ezine Articles.
Interesting idea, Rob, although I’ve never seen it in action.
One problem with EzineArticles is that it’s possible to buy “article views”, so you can’t really rely on their popularity measurement.
I’ve never had any of my articles make it to the first page for any keywords - of course, I’ve never built any links to any of them.
A great post Ana, I really enjoyed reading it. 8)
Your analysis of good and bad links confirms my own ‘quality wins’ theory. Anything that’s a bit dodgy like article spinning won’t work, because it doesn’t give the reader good content.
With my theory you also don’t have to delve too deeply into SEO, just produce quality with everything you do, and Google will reward you with good page rankings.
I also like the quality of your post layout and design. The cup of coffee logo is really cool, (though I expect it’s HOT coffee). I might pinch this idea, but my logo will be a lovely pint of real ale. 😆
John
Leamington spa, England
You said it very well, John - make it all about quality and rankings will follow.
No iced coffee around here - Americans are the only ones I know to drink iced coffee and tea; crazy people… 🙂
Um…yeah. Whitehatter. 🙂
I’m gray hatter. I read your blog because I think you’re totally right (in that: these are the best links to get, won’t get you penalized, are quality).
I don’t spam comments and forums, at least - the irony in my case is that somehow means I pat myself on my back…when really what we’re talking about is a strip of HTML code that is at worst virtual litter.
I see your point, though - you’re not going to penalized by these linking methods - it’s the safer strategy.
Still, I wear the gray cap.
Can we still be peeps?
Yeah, you are right, James, you are not THAT bad of a spammer… 🙂
With you lack of time, I am surprised you find some to spin articles for instance - such a time-consuming tedious task!
Fine, I still like you…
Ana,
This is a great article … for people who blog. However it doesn’t apply for most B2B sites that don’t. For these types of websites, directory (generic and article), link exchange, social profiles and other “low end of the scale of greatness of link generation” are still the best ways to get the ball rolling.
I do agree that guest-blogging can be implemented as well, but it will be a lot harder to get published if you don’t already have some posts to “show your skills”.
The emphasis on PageRank is also a bit misleading as PR hasn’t been updated for 8-9 months and even if it had been, PR is not what it use to be - although I’d be more than happy if you shared your PR4+ blog list 🙂
I must admit, I can only theorize when it comes down to B2B sites since I don’t have one, so I’ll take your word for it, Leo (had no idea if “theorize” was a real word, but my spell checker seems to think it is 🙂 )
I don’t think guest blogging is hard at all; I know of many quality blogs that are dying to have more guest authors, since it relieves the pressure of constantly writing content.
And no, I am not sharing my list. 🙂
Bumped into you Ana through Twitter and I’ve enjoyed what I’ve been reading so far. I am one of those very new to all this linking/ seo etc. stuff.
My business partner and I work 50+ hours a week at our regular jobs and by the time we get to doing much with our website we are pretty brain dead! So deep thought and learning new stuff is a slow go. The company that has our website is SEO “ing” our site for us. But I still want to learn it my self. Your site is where I will start to “park” myself and learn.. Thanks for putting the Lord first! John
Thanks for finding time to come by my blog, John. It must be incredibly hard to have a full-time job and build a successful business at the same time. Good thing you at least can afford to hire someone - at least that should take some pressure off.
I agree with you though: when you have your own online business, you’d better know how things work.
I am more than happy to help you with that. 🙂
Blessings!
Very interesting stuff Ana
I am 100% with you on this so let’s see what we can do in 2011 with great content, no spamming, no spinning and no BS 🙂
Peter
I like that, Peter - plus, that will free up some time to actually build a better business. How’s that for the goal for 2011? 🙂
Hey Ana,
Totally agree with you on those naughty links. I think a lot of newbies coming online will be influenced to create tons of social or forum profiles, submit websites to directories, submit to a 101 article directories etc. Of all those I think I only focus on one and that is article directories. I still believe it works but I’m not a big fan of submitting to tons of it. I have a top ten list and that’s it and that also includes Ezinearticles.
I used to be one of them, Bryan. Then, as I grew savvier, I learned the difference between being busy and being successful. 🙂
Turned out they are not one and the same.
So this post is meant to teach people how to be more efficient AND get better results. Imagine that! 🙂
Hey Ana,
Thanks for sharing the effective link building recipe! This year I’m focusing on taking my blog to a whole new level, so I won’t have the time for naughty links 😉
You’re awesome!
Mavis
Precisely the point, Mavis - let’s spend our time doing what really counts!
Hi Ana
Great post, it can be really confusing when you are working on your own site. I was working on the blog post commenting on my lingerie site and it was working well, however I didn’t realise it until I stopped! I dropped from top of Google down about 5 spots. You are right when you talk about the time issue. I struggle to balance the time spent blogging and the time I need to spend getting people to read it :o)
I know what you mean, Katherine - I think all bloggers struggle with balancing issue.
However, both content creation and marketing that content are the main keys to blogging, so we have no choice but to figure out how to handle them. 🙂
Thanks for coming by!
By the way, did you site go back up in Google rankings? Sometimes, those kinds of drops are just temporary and nothing to worry about.
No rather worryingly still dropping, reckon a bit of application and I can sort it out.
Ana - your information is always precise and worth while the read. Even though I don’t need all of the information you put out I feel it enriches my approach and knowledge. Good to have found you girl 🙂
Happy New Year
Frieke
Happy New Year to you as well, Frieke, and good to see you back.
Knowledge is power; you never know when you might need it. 🙂
Ana
I feel like you wrote this especially for me, Ana. You must have been inside my head when you wrote it! lol I am going to be focusing on guest posting and link building this year now that my blog is established and I feel like I have an actual recipe to follow. In fact, I may print it off and tape it to the back cover of my date book so that I am reminded of it every time I see it on my desk.
Thank you for the blueprint to follow!
Heather
Anytime, Heather! The great things about this new strategy of mine, besides quality, is how stress-free it is.
I think you will do great and I am always here to hold your hand when needed. 🙂
Some people truly believe they benefit from such software and yet others just want to make money off it. That simple.
It might’ve worked in the past when quantity of links did matter, but no more.
Thanks, Oliver!
It has been a long time since there has been a pagerank update, a really long time. Any site that has been built in the last 9 months will be listed as pagerank 0, even if it is one of the top sites on the web and favored by search engines in their rankings. Google is clearly sending a signal that visible pagerank is over as a useful metric - its time to move on, but where too?
I am sure we’ll know soon enough… or maybe not so soon, but we will, Bob. I am with you though; I’d love to know one way or another.
Hi Ana,
This is why I put much more time and effort into keyword research because link building has too many negative consequences. Just like your theory on going for less high quality links than lots of low quality links.
I follow the same theory on chasing less competitive keywords that are getting gradual search trends rather then focusing on highly competitive ones and be continually in a battle to maintain position.
Have a nice day!
Dan
You are so right, Dan - without thorough keyword research, all link building is futile.
On the other hand, if your keyword research is done properly and you choose keywords in low-competition high-demand markets, you’re much more likely to succeed without much link building.
Good point.
Super awesome post ana. You’ve made some awesome points.
I’m working on building backlinks from last 2 months. I’ve done many things
-Article Marketing - This is something where i need to work. I even brought a spinner software but never got time to do it.
-Web 2.0 sites - works awesome and one of my great source to build high quality backlinks
-Guest posting - I rarely do guest posting these days but if i do guest posting, i try to get on big blogs like Problogger, MaxBlogPress.
-Forums - Just created an list of dofollow forums and will start working on getting backlinks from forums
Thanks for sharing this super awesome post on link building. Keep Rocking ;).
You are very welcome, Dev. Just focus on the quality and don’t kill yourself - you’ve got enough on your plate as it is!
Hey Ana, I loved this post - for a few reasons. First of all, to be perfectly honest, links and link building was never a huge focus for me until these last 12 months. Still not the brightest bulb in the box on it either. funny though, I decided not to ‘worry’ about it so much (just the other day). One of my old websites has a Pr5 on a few pages and seems to do ‘ok’ in the way of traffic. This proved to me that since any backlinks I do have were unknown to me… a few pages have managed to do quite well for chosen keywords with decent demand. I feel so much better not stressing about thousands of links to be found. Second… I have been tempted to purchase the Article Spinning software in the past… I actually enjoy Article marketing, however I could never get my head around how it could work as well ‘automatically’ as it would having a human enter all the info. (summary, intro, etc)…. besides many Article Directories are getting quite stringent now to cut back on ‘spamming’. - so I am not surprised that it has lost it’s supposed effectiveness.
I love the “repurposing” old posts idea… btw, it is a great way to get more mileage, infact I read a similar post (yet to comment on) on Lisa’s post (friendlyblogger)….
This was a real ‘meaty’ post.. something not too technical… hence allowed me to really get my head around! Thanks for the great read.
It’s always a pleasure to see you on my blog, Jayne.
I like the idea of not stressing out about links, and that’s exactly what this post is all about.
I used to want to do it all: article marketing, videos, etc - the more links, the better, right? Wrong. It exhausted me and didn’t do much good.
So here to the new year of better link building!
Oh, sure, anytime…
The way to not come off pushy is to get acquainted before asking for favors, that’s all.
What I did first is read many of her posts and posted good comments. When a post came up that was on the same topic as my blog post, I left a comment mentioning my post as an additional resource.
It’s always about making it a win-win and building a relationship first is the key.
Welcome to my blog!
Thanks, Rick. Sounds like you are of the same mindset on backlinks.
I’ve seen it all as well and that’s one of the reasons I came to my conclusions. And amazingly, it made me breathe much easier. No more hunting down the quantity, just a few quality ones will do.
Pleasure to see you back, Rick.
Ana - This is great advice. Your suggested efforts include a lot of link diversity, which is probably very beneficial. As recently as a couple of years ago, quantity of links was the number one correlation factor with high ranking. Checking the backlinks of some sites with 100’s of legacy spammy reciprocal links shows that they still rank well. But as your link spinning efforts seem to demonstrate, obtaining new spammy links seems to hurt. The Google algorithm is definitely evolving, but it takes a lot of testing to figure out what works with no updates to PageRank since April 2.
Indeed, Randy.
I don’t think the links that were acquired before certain changes to algorithms will be discounted; rather, our present and future link acquisitions will be in question.
I’d rather stick to things that I know will definitely work vs waste my time on strategies that might actually hurt.
Ana - It is definitely good to see your insights on this subject. My view on this is that it’s good to get a mixture of both quality links and quantity.
Just my 2 cents, but following this belief has done well for me. It’s funny that the links you have under your Naughty list are still being talked about highly by many people in the blogging world.
I am guessing that saturation is one of the reasons you are not fond of these type of links. Once again, thank you for sharing your insights on this topic.
Thanks, John.
I believe that many talk about those types of links without necessarily using the tactics themselves.
I’ve done a lot of research on link value and I never saw any evidence that those types of links carrying any of it.
Agree to disagree? 🙂
Hi Ana,
You’ve made a great argument and I feel obliged to agree with you. I remember with my first site, I was OBSESSED with link building, backlinking, link bait … you name it! Well a couple years later and somewhat wiser 😉 I learned two things:
1. It’s only important up to a point and you really have little control of it so why lose sleep over it.
2. You can have just as much success with getting your site ranked well and increasing your PR if you focus on getting traffic via using tactics such as social networking and guest blogging as well as producing great stuff!
Thoroughly enjoyed your post Ana. 😉
I absolutely agree with you, Michele.
Link building is very important, but most SEO can be easily taken care of by simply doing the things you mentioned: posting great content, guest posting, networking.
I am not as obsessed with it as I used to be; don’t have time even if I wanted to be 🙂 That’s alright though; my blog seems to be doing just fine.
Thanks for coming by.
Oh Ana,
It is like you are reading my mind (which is probably not something one would really ever want to read). This is near exactly what I have been thinking about lately for a project I am about to start.
For icebluebanana, I do comment regularly, or at least read, a few blogs written by people I like and who I think will be around a while to build their site up. I like to think of it as “long tail link building”.
Anyway, I also do some bookmarking and occasionally submit an article to either ezinearticles or goarticles (what can I say, I like variety:)). But, it is the time it takes to get all of these less-helpful links that really keeps me from going after them. Plus, services like UAW are too expensive IMO. Even if you work out a strategy that is successful, $70/month could be better spent elsewhere. You could hire a VA to go after quality links, for example (not that I do that).
Just my 2 cents.
Have a nice day!
No, I absolutely agree, Mark, on all your points actually.
I like your term “long term link building”. That’s exactly what it is as long as you can reasonably figure out what those sites are. I hope you are here because you think mine is one of them. 🙂
You are so right about the cost: I can outsource quality link building for much less than the cost of a service like UAW.
Have a great night as well; look forward to seeing you back here soon.
Ana
I generally don’t worry too much about PR. First of all, what’s shown on the toolbar is old and outdated, so we really don’t know what the true PR of the page is at that time. Plus, today’s 0 or 1 might be tomorrow’s 5 or 6. I think overall quality, as I perceive quality as a human reader, as well as relevance to whatever I’m linking to, are more important than any other consideration.
One thing I’ve been swishing around in my head for the last few days is the concept of sharing guest posts with trusted bloggers, in which they would be allowed to link directly within the article content, rather than doing an author bio. Because I’d be letting people I know and trust participate, I wouldn’t be worried about the spam factor (though I’d reserve the right to deny any that crop up). I think if groups of connected friends would participate in these trust circles, we would all benefit. Not sure how best to organize it, but that’s what’s been floating in my head lately.
Definitely a good point about visible and actual PR, Donna. I had to direct several of my commentators to a post I wrote on that, since not everybody is aware of the fact that PageRank information is so unreliable because it’s never up to date.
I like your guest posting idea.
I have actually been doing it on my blog for a while now. There are several bloggers who I know and respect and who recently submitted their guest posts to TGC. I ended up doing just that: added a link or two back to their blogs with good anchor text. I think this is definitely something we should consider doing.
Here’s another idea I’ve been playing with; I’d love to know what you think about it. This will only work with solid blogs that provide exceptional information. We all have so many great posts decomposing in our archives; why not find a way to reuse them? Instead of posting them to useless article directories, why not republish them on the blog within that same “trust circle”. We all will benefit from links and great content, plus our readers will get new fresh (to them) content they otherwise would never know existed.
Since you and I both know that this is not a question of duplicated content, what would stop us from doing something like that?
Thanks for your input, Donna!
Repurposing content that way could be another good option for the trust circles, yes. I think the hardest part about the circle idea is dealing with niches. I mean, if someone is in a niche about puppy care, and no one he knows and trusts has a blog that would benefit from having content about puppy care, he’s out in the cold. Sure some people have blogs that are general enough to take on most any topic, but many don’t. Likewise, it would look strange to the puppy care guy’s visitors if suddenly they saw a post on his blog about diesel engine repair, ya know? So, that’s the biggest sticking point I can see with the trust circle idea - other than just the normal logistics of getting it together.
OK, no puppy training websites in our circle of trust. 🙂
Good point.
What I have in mind is more like a commenting tribe I’ve created in the past: a small circle of hand-picked blogs that are all in the same general niche.
That would work the best I think.
Hey Ana, love this line: Love it or hate it? Comment to show me that you’re alive!
Just wanted to mention I’m enjoy reading all your posts (okay, almost all of them lol) so keep up with the good work you’re doing.
On topic: I love commenting on other blogs and I try to add up to the discussion, I guess it’s a way to socialize and get a link back so it’s a win win. Some of the blog owners I comment on do visit my blog and leave comments which is always a big plus for me. On the other hand, I hate other types of link building so I guess I’ll just stick to what I like doing. Btw, the box I have to think should say “Confirm you are NOT a bot” instead of spammer lol.
Hey, Chris - glad you found your way to my blog. I love that line as well. 🙂
Commenting on active blogs is always the best way to network and get some traffic, hands down. I do also try to visit my commentators’s sites as well when I can, so you are right, it’s a win-win for us all.
Look forward to seeing you back soon.
Ana
Hey Ana, thanks for checking my blog out and leaving a comment. Thanks to your blog I now have all three plugins you’re using: CommentLuv, Confirm you are NOT a spammer and Notify me of follow up comments via e-mail (these weren’t there when you visited). Thank you.
All great plugins to use, Chris - and I did like your site!
Good information, very interesting about the UAW results, I did spinning for a short time but hated it, now I know it may not even be a good thing, which, to me, makes sense
I dreaded it… Good thing someone talked some sense into me back then! 🙂
Hi again Ana,
Switzerland is cold and snowy…fancy coming to visit and ski with me soon?
Two interesting links about Social Signals in search engines.
1- Interesting article about “What Social Signals Do Google & Bing Really Count?”
http://searchengineland.com/what-social-signals-do-google-bing-really-count-55389
2-Video from our friend Matt Cutts “Does Google use data from social sites in ranking?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofhwPC-5Ub4&feature=player_embedded#!
CommNation is my Public Relations Company, I specialize in PR 2.0
Cat
I think I’ll stick with skiing in Colorado this year. 🙂
Thanks for the links; curious to see what opinions are out there.
Read a great post on CommNation - you should send that author over to my blog to guest post and build some links/recognition for your company.
Ana
Hey Ana,
You nailed it once again! As always new and useful information. I honestly am far from good when it comes to SEO and link building. Although I have a basic idea of which link building strategies are worth their time, the guide came in more than handy. Something I was especially bothered about were those Edu/Gov backlinks. Although I found an interesting theory on why they have so much weight, the time required to get your hands on them is not really justified in my opinion. Too much research and a low chance to get a comment approved as well. On the other hand I believe that backlinks from Ezine can be of a good use. That is if you find a way to give the article page a higher pagerank. I’ve heard that link building on the Ezine submission itself can have a great positive effect on your blog. Seems to have a grain of truth to me. Either way great work! Keep it going!
I found exactly the same as far as .edu and .gov links are concerned, Daniel. Too much time and dubious results.
I do think there is a good point behind building links to your Ezine articles, etc to boost their rank, so in turn they will send you better quality link back.
I think I will explore that theory in a future post.
Ana
Very true, Ryan, and ideally you want both link building comments and simply networking.
In the end, just avoiding “mass produced” links is a good enough idea in my SEO book!
Always love it when you visit - your networking abilities never go unnoticed. That’s why you made it as far as you did and will keep going.
Thanks, Ryan!
…and Ana, let’s not forget that now the search engines are giving weight to the number of “Like”‘s from Facebook…so are “Likes” the new links?!
Good point, Catherine…
Truth is I haven’t done any research on that whatsoever. A topic for a new post? 🙂
How’s the weather in Switzerland these day? Snowy and magestic?
Ana
By the way, remind me what your relationship with CommNation is, Catherine?
This is a great post and mini “guide” for people who are actively link building or looking for solid tips for their upcoming campaign. I’m a big fan of guest blogging/posting, but I can say it’s getting tougher to find blogs to post on, a lot of people are getting wary and think it’s some type of “scam” or is somehow going to negatively effect them. Usually I get them to “bite” when I remind them to monetize my entries with Adsense or whatever they prefer.
Overall I try to keep a nice diverse link profile, I have a pie chart I developed and have been tweaking the last 6-12 months based on performance of different sites.
Wow, very scientific approach, Dan - pie chart and all. 🙂
I am surprised to hear you are having hard time finding sites to guest post for. I would suggest you check out http://myblogguest.com/ - forum-type environment for guest post authors and blog that want to have them. I am one of the moderators there, so it’s a good place to start.
Wow Anna, you’ve pretty much summed up all of my link-building methods within your naughty links! 😀
I’m trying to do my best on ‘selective blog commenting’ though, although its extremely hard to find a post having a PR that isn’t spammed with at least 50 comments. I rarely ever find 1 or 2 posts a day that are worth commenting on because of the backlink juice..
Some naughty link builder you are, Amr! 🙂
I know what you mean about finding quality blogs to comment on.
As an alternative, I always try not to ignore blogs like mine (a very modest plug here. 🙂 )
What I mean by that is: DoFollow blogs with good SEO practices in place and a vast audience, which almost guarantees good backlinks - all these factor most likely mean that although a particular page doesn’t show a green bar yet, it still might have true Google rank or might acquire in the near future.
Check out my post on Google visible and true PR:
Mistery of Google PageRank Solved?
Ana
Sooner or later, Google WILL find a way, Cindy; otherwise, they are not worth their salt and they know it.
I am just not sure if that time is NOW.
I am not aware of Blogger Lin UP; thanks for the resource, will check it out. I use http://myblogguest.com/ for my guest blogging needs - great site!
Pleasure to see you here this morning; hope you’ll make TGC your regular stop.
Ana
I agree with both of you here, however, are we talking about our blog posts submitted to Ezine after publication or brand new articles?
Lisa
Definitely published posts; I would never waste my time writing brand new articles for Ezine or any other article directory.
Ana:
When you talk about the quality of a link….let’s say you have a link from a PR5 site and a PR3 site. The PR5 site has over 100 OBL and the PR3 only has 40. IS the PR5 site still more valuable in Google’s eyes?
Like how I used abbreviations like I am a smarty pants??!
Lisa
You ARE a smarty pants, Lisa - look at the kind of question you are asking!
No easy answer to this one, but you knew that already.
It’s not just about the outgoing links, but whether the site is Do or NoFollow, what kind of outgoing links they are (some blogs allow all kinds of spam comments, which in my book makes them bad neighborhood-associated in Google eyes, but it’s just yet another theory), etc.
So, to answer your question, only Google really knows.
Use your judgment, that’s all.
From my personal experience I can say, 2 high quality links are sufficient to get you a good PR in google. I didn’t have a clue (probably still haven’t) about SEO, but my site made it PR4 instantly after getting two (more or less only) high quality links.
As a matter of fact I expect to drop once my site gets more incoming links.
Unless I get my article quality to a higher level of course.
Paul
Good illustration of my point, Paul.
Sometimes, all SEO is is using your common sense and serving your readers; the rest will come naturally - with a little help here and there of course. 🙂
I am cancelling the plans to buy UAW. I had read several reviews of it and most of them were, well, preaching it. But then which product does not have such reviews with affiliate links in them?
Back to link building, you have hit the nail on the head with this post. It is extremely painful to post 100 one line comments on blogs and then realize that there was no effect on rankings.
I learned the “less is better” lesson some time ago when my blog got PR 3 with only around 30 links. Most of those 30 links came from the single best way to get links, yep, guest posts. Around 5 were above PR 3 and 1 link was from my guest post on Daily Blog Tips. Too bad I decided to sell some links resulting in a big penalty from Google. I got PR 0 which has still not improved.
Hmm…. Now that’s a mistake I have been doing. I hesitated to contact other bloggers thinking “What if they do not link?” Actually, this is still a question that I have in mind. How to overcome that “what will others think” syndrome? I guess every blogger gets it once in a while. So, how to overcome it? Any tips?
Great to see the points I make in the post being proved in action, Ishan.
Definitely keep your money when it comes down to UAW or any other article submission software.
As far as finding the guts to do something you haven’t done before, I know the feeling. That’s my gut reaction as well.
And here’s what I do in those kinds of situations: add it to your priority things to do for today and DO IT. No one likes rejection, but don’t let that fear hold you back.
If your content is truly worthy, bloggers WILL link to it.
Loved having you this morning; you should come by more often!
Ana
Hi Ana,
Thanks for the advice. I’ll definitely contact some bloggers today and let you know how it works!
Thanks again for your time.
Anytime, Ishan - would love to hear back from you!
It works.
I sent a request to Kristi @ Kikolani and moments later, she comment on the post and retweeted it resulting in 4-5 more RTs. Guess she liked the post and it is going to be in next Fetching Friday.
Yay!!!
So glad you tried it and got such a quick response back - I bet that build you up quite a bit!
Ask and you shall receive…
How big will link building be if Google PR is not coming back? 9 months and counting.
We shall see, Dave. I’ll miss it though, if that ever happens - there’s something comforting and desirable about that green bar. 🙂
Ana