Backlink profile

[avgjoe007]

Hi there

Thanks for everyone here for their posts.

As a newbie (with dozens of SEO providers asking me to pay them!), I was wondering if there's a preferred / better backlink profile to target in light of Panda/Penguin.

I get a lot of companies offering 1000's of profile creations, which seems worthless to me! Surely certain types of links (local vs international), blogs, articles etc, have more value just through the fact that they offer something to the user who sees it (and hopefully that something is sticky, high quality content!)

I understand that there is no magic formula, but at least want to know whats not worth doing and working backwards from there.

Any opinions from users who have ranked well recently? I've got a mailbox full of sales pitches, so would be good to see this from an expert's eyes!

Thanks in advance

Regards

[anthonydnelson]

You definitely seem to understand what you type of links you need. Also understand, link building is difficult and you get what you pay for. Choose a company that doesn't BS you. Don't look for guaranteed # of links or things like that. Ask them what techniques and ideas they have. Go from there.

There are no result guarantees in this field, but you can guarantee honest hard work and the creation of a good plan. Sometimes, one good link can be better than a ton of low-quality ones. Not to mention bad links can actually get you in trouble.

[avgjoe007]

Thanks for that - it helps a lot!

Do you have any opinions on articles or posting articles to directories?

Again, to me it would seem that a more relevant directory (i.e. a finance one for finance related stuff) is more appropriate is your site is in that niche. You would'nt post an article on dating in one of those niches I think!

Google presumably categorises all of this in a very clever way, I presume the lesson is to stay as 'natural' as possible? E.g. an article on a Kenyan site about a service only available for UK users will get picked up by their algo?

So, how does one control that up front? Is that even possible?

[anthonydnelson]

Shoot for a company that will help you get links on blog posts with editorial standards. You want links on websites that meet some of these basics:

• Visible author profile
• Consistent topic/focus for the website is similar to your niche
• Visible social proof on posts (comments, likes, tweets)

Ask yourself: Does my link belong there? Will it help anyone on that page? Will people on that page visit my site and find what I offer interesting?

Meeting those criteria above will ensure you are getting great links. I'm a realist though, and understand not every link you get will be fantastic. Nor does it have to be. Those are just the types of links you should be putting effort towards.

You are absolutely correct that creating profiles by the 1,000s is not valuable.