Link Building: Just Great Content, Blog Comments, and Guest Blog Posts?
-
I love SEOMoz. It has motivated me to dive way more into SEO.
I know all the shoulds. But what fascinates me about SEO is that shoulds don't always match up to what works.
I'm looking at Open Site Explorer, specifically my site. I see a lot of links I got naturally. By having awesome content.
So is there any point in emailing people asking htem to add my link? Or do I spend my time writing awesome content, sharing it on social media, and hoping someone comes across it and shares it?
I know blog commenting, when relevant, can bring me new visitors. I'm sure it helps SEO too.
Maybe I just need to reach out and write guest blog posts for grabbing some links?
Its just as Google wants it! OMG, how white hat. Is that it? or should I be even more active? I.E. emailing people and saying "hey, I have this awesome website, your readers would find it useful" sort of thing?
Love to hear your opinion!
-
Woot! Way to go!
-
Soooo... First off, thanks for your advice!
Second, maybe I'm lucky, but I wrote to a .edu site (a university), a professor built the site, and I wrote him saying I loved his resources, and that maybe he should add my site.
Well, he did! Wow, this morning! So that was cool. Let's see if a .edu helps rankings!
I may do some cold call emails, but I think in the long run you are right, reach out to people I know already.
Thank you for the responses! I will be using Q & A more... may do more Q than A at first though
-
Hi Don. And it works. Here's a thumbs up to get you one step towards that t-shirt
-
Hi Hilary, Dana gave some great advice. Thumbs up for her.
Great content will generate links, but there is nothing wrong with taking extra steps to get them. You may find that including a little closing statement at the end of your blog post will go a long way in the amount of links you get. In fact I do this regularly when helping people on the forums to entice them for a thumbs up (I want a t-shirt).
Hope this helps,
Don -
Hi Endlessrange, I love SEOMoz too! Pretty much I agree with everything you just said. Is cold-emailing people to try to get them to link to your site worth your time? No. But I'm willing to bet there are tons of people who you haven't emailed already, who you have some kind of connection with. Those people are definitely worth emailing. But, if you email, maybe a better approach would be to have something specific in mind. Maybe you want to announce something. Maybe you just want to share some information. If you email them, make sure something's in it for them, maybe something more than just a link back. Maybe you offer them a guest blog spot. Maybe you interview them. Maybe you send them a gift. I don't know, be creative.
I personally discard all emails from people who don't have an "in" with me. By "in" I mean, they know enough about me to use my first name, perhaps know someone I know, or know enough about me to know what I'm really interested in. They have to talk to me in my language, and they better not start their email with "Greetings dear friend."
That being said, just today I contacted 4 editors of industry-related Web publications with whom I have had prior business relationships with. I had a press release I thought they might be willing to post on their sites. All four of them said yes. All four said yes because they know if I say it's a press release it's really a press release, not a badly disguised piece of marketing drivel. I also never presume anything. I don't contact them expecting them to do anything for me. I ask them really really really nicely, and I accept the fact that they just might say no.
Do everything you mentioned and always be on the lookout for an opportunity to contact with someone new. Then, do some research and find out how you might already be connected to them (6 degrees of Kevin Bacon right?). Figure out where the connection is and then email them.
Good luck and make the most of Q & A. It's awesome!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Should I build internal links to my homepage?
Ive done a lot of internal linking before but its always been for other inner pages but now I need to do it for a websites homepage but this got me thinking if its even worth doing and should I be doing it at all? For the first question I was thinking that surely the homepage has more authority than any of my inner pages so how would internal links from inner pages help and for the second question Ive read a few posts like this Kissmetrics one here where it says you shouldnt do it. There are two types of links you should avoid using in your content: Homepage. Most sites have too many links to the homepage as it is. You would rather strengthen internal pages to boost the overall SEO of your site, rather than simply point more links at the homepage. https://blog.kissmetrics.com/commandments-of-internal-linking/ thoughts?
Link Building | | linklander0 -
Internal Link Building and Link Juice Quality
Hi There! I manage the website for a law office that covers many geographical locations. For very specific niche content, we would prefer to create one piece of content and link to the various geographic locations where we would handle that topic instead of posting multiple variations of the same content for each specific geographical area. If we put a button on these pages that has links to each location, will that have the same "link juice" effect to the pages we're linking that linking directly in the text would? (example: the Where can we help you? button on this page : http://www.zdfirm.com/volkswagen-recall/) Thank you!
Link Building | | ZDAdmin0 -
Link Building
Hi Mozzers, I work for an IT company specialising in outsourcing Cisco Engineers worldwide. Due to being involved heavily in outsourcing, I'm finding it impossible to generate genuine and organic links to our website. My question is that is it essential to have back links back to our website to achieve high search engine rankings? I'm unable to get clients and other partners to provide links as we're the outsourced company,but I can get backlinks from unrelated c ompanies. For example we're running a CSR initiative with a National Gym relating to health & fitness, also links from our web designers etc... Do these links have any type of value? Any help and feedback would be greatly appreciated. Jason 🙂
Link Building | | 4Cornernetworks0 -
Most significant link building factor
Am I right in thinking the most important link building factor is the number of unique linking root domains? Multiple links from a domain won't help me so much?
Link Building | | SamCUK0 -
Guest posts on sites you buy advertising with?
What are your thoughts about the following scenarios. Scenario 1: You purchased a banner ad on a site for $50. Then you notice that the site accepts guest posts and you contribute a guest article which has a followed link. Scenario 2: You pitch a guest post to a blog and they say sure but first pay us $50. You say, I can't pay for links but how about I buy an ad spot for $50 instead in appreciation of you reviewing by submission. Scenario 3: You pitch a guest post to a blog and they say sure but it will cost $50 to be published. You say sure and pay them. Which of these would go against Google's guidelines and be considered a paid link? It seems like they are all buying links to a different degree, but they would all be indistinguishable to Google.
Link Building | | ProjectLabs1 -
Blog commenting
Is this still a good way of getting backlinks? I do not plan on making it my only method. Most of my backlinking is done through content creation, press releases, and guest blogging. But looking for some variety in there that can be done quicker. Is it even worth the time or are the links too spammy now? If I did I would actually hand build the links and comment to the article.
Link Building | | webfeatseo1 -
Link Building Strategy Advice
Hi, I was wondering what everyone's general strategy is for link building. We're doing it all ourselves manually (i.e. not paying $5 for 100,000 links) and are using the Site Explorer tool to find links to competitors and related websites. The majority of sites are blogs and directories which ask for payment ($50 per month for example). We're obviously looking for free links as well but we're finding that pretty much every site wants something in return (cash or reciprocal link) - unless the content is amazing, why would anyone link to another site without an incentive? We're focussing heavily on content and writing articles, blogs, press releases every week but the subject matter isn't always exciting enough for someone to really want to link to it naturally. Thoughts?
Link Building | | AndyMediaLounge0