Link Building
Posted by Pixelhead
Link building is an integral part of my job as an SEO Technician(one of my many jobs), and the ability to do it correctly is a skill that is can be easily learned, but does take quite a lot of time to do correctly. There are many resources readily available on the Internet about this very topic. So any knowledge that I may have is already out there. So in a series of posts, I shall, with the help of Lizzie Bean, give instructions on the proper way to conduct manual link building, as opposed to using an automated link building program that submits your site to numerous other sites, such as directories, blogs, FFA pages, and link farms automatically.
Manual Link building does take time, but it is well worth the effort. Web masters or site owners should be weary of Link building deals which promise 100’s of links for a package deal. Often times these link packages will submit your site to numerous directories, using one or two variations of the link text or anchor text(the words that when clicked on take you to another site, page, or location on the same page)as well as limited site descriptions. Anyway the worst thing that can happen is your site is it gets banned or dropped to oblivion in the SERP’s, so enough with the warnings here is….
Link Building Part 1
by Lizzie Bean,PixelHead
Link building instructions
The purpose of link building (obtaining links that point to a website) is to increase search engine rankings for specific keyword phrases. You should get links in directories that link to yours or your client’s sites using a variety of keyword phrases that the client wants to rank for in Google as the anchor text of the link.
Definitions:
Directories – websites that are organized by categories. Each category has links to websites that are relevant to the subject of the category.
Anchor text – this is the text that is linked. When submitting sites to directories the Title that is submitted is usually the anchor text for the link.
Submitting a site -the process of filling out the form on a directory that allows the editors of the directory to review the site being submitted to the directory. To submit a site you will need to find a “Submit Site”, “Add URL” or a similar link/button.
Page Rank (PR) – this is a rating system that Google uses to determine the link popularity of a website. PR ranges from 1 10. The higher the PR on a site – the better. To see the PR – you must install the Google toolbar. PixelHead recommends downloading Firefox with the Google toolbar, which can be done by clicking on the icon in the left side bar. PixelHead gets 1 dollar for every sign up. If you have never used Firefox, give it a try, many unique features make it a great resource, all while being much less prone to viruses than Explorer.
SERP- search engine results page.
SEO- Search Engine Optimization deals with making a site so that it will rank well in the SERP’s. Broken down into two basic parts- on page optimization and off page optimization(link building)
SEM-Search Engine Marketing deals with a variety of methods to get your site out there using the search engines via natural search and paid search.
Stop Words-Words that the Search Engines(Google) ignores. Read this Search Engine Watch post about Stop Words for more info about them, and here is a nice list of Stop words.
What you will need to get started:
1. a list of keyword phrases that you want your site to rank for(future post)
2. a list of description text that will correspond to each keyword phrase
3. a list of sub-pages of the site that each keyword phrase can link to WHEN sub-pages are allowed for submissions.
4. a list of directories to submit your site(Google “directory list”) or visit these two resources below.
A great directory resource, DirectoryCritic has an ever growing list of directories. Voting on directories by those who submit allows for the better directories to place higher on the list, which kind of makes it a web 2.0 site for directory owners/submitters.
Another great site for link building resources is Info Vilesilencer, which to quote the DirectoryCritic, is “The original SEO friendly directory list. Dan has played a key role in the SEO directory revolution and the development of the “search engine friendly” directory standards that we all use today”. And according to the Info.Vilesilencer blog, the biggest update to the sites directory list was just made.
Read Link Building Part 2
Written by Pixelhead on February 21st, 2007 with
14 comments.
Read more articles on Directories and Directory Submissions and Google and Internet Tools and Marketing and Mybloglog.com and SEM and SEO and Uncategorized and Web 2.0.
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#1. September 8th, 2007, at 8:41 PM.
The directory lists are proving very useful for me, thanks again Adam