Link building? I really dont get it is there an easy way

[WillFrank]

I Have been using a link exchange website called linkmarket. I have been told that these kind of website dont really do you many favours but i have signed up for a year so i am currently still using it. What does everyone think?

Also is there a proven way to get high quality links with out spending hours traling other websites and asking if they want to exchange links because the normall answer i get is NO!

[jcontraros]

If there was an "easy way" then everyone and anyone would be ranking #1 in Google...and eventually competition would be so saturated there would be no point in having a website at all! Good things come to those who work hard, stay committed to their vision, and can learn and adapt to change!

[TheGrid]

http://searchengineland.com/new-york-times-exposes-j-c-penney-link-scheme-that-causes-plummeting-rankings-in-google-64529

WOOPS

[kbloemendaal]

I am a little surprised I didn't see any comments that mentioned making sure the content is actually link worthy on your site in question. If you start there it will make the rest of your job much easier.....

Link building is like all other aspects of SEO, no easy way, no fast track. Slow and steady wins the race.

[JHSpecialty]

Agreed

[Uramark]

I read a post on seomoz about http://ontolo.com/campaign-manager#link-building.

I'm giving it a try right away.

[Domaining]

Great post and so true! Many people think that link-building means adding to paid directories and commenting on a zillion blogs. I have many times had to break the bad news to someone and let them know that they would actually have to email and interact with people in their niche.

[newtraffic]

Just checked out SoloSEO, like it Luke. Thxz for sharing. Makes the lb job a little easier.

[tylerfraser]

The goal is not to exchange links. The goal is to get links.

Link exchange websites are not good; stop using them.

Start producing content that people want to link to.

Advertise and don't link back.

Guest blog posts.

[KrisRoadruck]

Easy

Cheap

Safe

Pick any 2.

[robotseo]

I have always stayed away from sites like link market however in doing some competitor research one of our main competitors seems to have a number of links from linkmarket so maybe it does work, but for how long it works with Googles war on spam is another question!

I'm afraid the only way to get high quality backlinks is hard work

[IPINGlobal54]

I have seen/used/tried several tools over the years, and as many have said, the vast majority have not made life that much easier or have been full of spam.

I have used Adgooroo "link insight" with success (no, I am not an affiliate) but it is a bit pricey IMO. Once you have it running the quality of links it will find are impressive (it only pulls back the top 10% of links it finds), but it still requires the leg work to gain the links themselves.

[Hallam]

I use the Whitesprk Tool quite a bit - I also find the Local Search toolkit super helpful:

http://www.localsearchtoolkit.com/

[markwrightseo]

Hi Mozzers! First post here! One thing that I've found great for link building is blogger outreach. Identify a list of blogs in your niche, and see what they can do for you. I work on an e-commerce site so we look for blogs to do unbiased product reviews with a few backlinks in exchange for the product. Now that I've built a relationship with some of them, I've worked out regular, monthly reviews to keep the links flowing. Hope this is helpful.

[Hallam]

Ryan hit it on the head there. Getting links is all about the legwork - and organisation is the key. Make your site and the content on it linkworthy or you will be abnging your head against a brick wall!

[tylerfraser]

Guest posts are really good.

[LabadieAuto]

How much could we all benefit if everyone in this thread traded a link for with each other?  That would be powerful and make link building a little easier!

[Marcus_Miller]

Variety is key and we tend to use the following as a starter:

• local, business and niche directories
• google discussion search (as above, find problems, get client to help with answers + a link)
• article marketing across a few sites but with a few quality articles
• content on the site itself that we find discussions relevant to the content and then link to it from the blog/forum etc
• competitor research (opensiteexplorer) to identify potentials linking to our competitors

It's different for each job, usually requires assistance from the client to do social stuff (forums, blogs etc) and always, always, always take a good bit of time and needs a structured approach.

Half the time, if the links easy to get, it aint worth having! So, think not in volume, but in quality. Get 10 links a week and you have 500 by the time the year is out and you are in a much better position.

Cheers
Marcus

[copykatrecipes]

I began to note, whose blogs had follow V nofollow links, and I would spend more time on the blogs that had the follow links.  I would spend more time on comments with blogs that had a link that would pass juice.  Blogs that use CommentLuv are follow links.

[BrianFL]

It's always best to have direct control of the sources you purposefully build links from. Anything else just doesn't work out as effectively.

[krishrun]

Perhaps you could use service Like BuildMyRank.com ,,, though I am new to SEO and not sure how useful it may be

[PrivateNameAM]

2 things seem to work very well:

The first is to use BOOKMARK pages.

The second is to use MORE of these BOOKMARK pages.

The great complex issue of link building is actually simple!

Example > http:// url. (REMOVE) org/bookmarks/

or  www(REMOVE) buzzster DOT com

[tomcraig86]

Amazing answer. Put in the groundwork, and soon you'll be unstoppable!!

[eyepaq]

I've used linkmarket for about one year - the results were great at that time (2008). It stared to fade as far as results and I've stop using it since it's on the gray area with a lot of dark tones. In today market / SEO i don't advise using it due to the current in place procedures.  Everything that is working great and gets abused will eventually move fast or slow to the dark edge and cross the border...

Now it's the social network session that is looking good. This will also move across the border and become a so called black tactic soon (as soon as to many people are using this and abuse of those signals).

Just my opinion on this matter.

[SteveOllington]

One of our tactics is to try to be really helpful about stuff on topically relevant forums and blogs. i.e.

1. We have a client who sells a product to combat penetrating damp.
2. We find forums and blogs where people are having problems with penetrating damp.
3. We research a proper answer for them ourselves.
4. We answer their questions and recommend the product via a keyworded anchor text link.

As long as the post or comment we've made is a valuable contribution and provides a solid, well researched answer (so not spam), then the forum mods don't seem to mind the link staying there

[blackrino]

The best thing that I have done so far is article building. Than again they do say now that it's not "good" to share your content across the web and that google will only use the first article. So sometimes I change the article around a little bit. The trick is to actually put GOOD content up! Don't put crap out there that no one wants to read. If you put good stuff out there people will link to you. I have over 10,000 links to my site and most of it is from people reposting my blogs! I also get a lot of traffic from this.

I'm not a big fan of the link farm (you post of mine and I'll post on yours) type deal. I think it's cheesy and it can actually get you in trouble.

About linkmarket, that's a site that does definitely look like it can get you in more trouble than help you. Put it this way, I've got 10,000 links (and a lot of them are high quality) and I didn't pay for one single link. Granted I agree that when you do the article building way there is potential to get some low end links, but it's better than nothing.

[Thos003]

I agree. Being able to track links you've aquired and monitor links you may be working on is a big plus to Raven's tool belt.

[shandaman]

Hey My Friend,

What the others are saying is true there is no easy way. But depending on the competition for the keywords your after it can be easier then some are stating. Just remember slow and steady wins the race.

[SoFlaWeb]

I have not seen Raven Tools mentioned here.

I am not affiliated with them in any way (other than a satisified customer). And I acutally use their toolset more for reporting than actually tracking links. But I find it easier to utilize their system (and their toolbar) to add an track links than an excel spread sheet. You can always export to excel if you want to do some more indepth analysis.

There is some learning curve to get everthing setup, but the additional features are well worth (just the reporting alone was worth it for me, saves me lots of time every month)

[SoFlaWeb]

LOL

[tomcraig86]

Definitely stop using this service! Simple as that.

Look to get guest blogs, some profile, comments and forum links, (but concentrate your time in other areas). PR and relationships with high authority sites such as newspapers is an absolute must!

[Gyi]

Solid advice. Spend the majority of time focusing on your content. Spend the rest of your time getting in front of an audience who is ready, willing, able to link to and further publicize it.

[voitenkos]

Why not use seomoz Juicy link finder tool and email all of the site owners on the result page? For 10 "No" answers you should get 1 "Yes".

[therealmarkhall]

Nice little tool* *This comment is not personal!

[Pavlicko]

oldie but a goodie, been using it for years. I also really really like Whitespark Citation finder: http://www.whitespark.ca/local-citation-finder/ for local directory links - critical for ranking local sites. Though they've limited the free access a bit since they first started...

[Luke22]

Glad you like it! Hope you will enjoy using it. They did really good job creating that tool... I'm sure with time you will like it even more!

[rhutchings]

nice tool Luke.  I have never seen that one before.  Takes the whole search query finding one step further.

[Luke22]

Well, there is nothing else to add, guys said everything. I just want to add one tool you may use with success... http://soloseo.com/tools/linkSearch.html play with it and you can be shocked with results.

[HiveDigitalInc]

Paid, targeted, individually prospected links. Sorry, but it ain't cheap.

[Getz.pro]

No easy way, but through time and effort, things do look up as you get more proficient in obtaining links. Social Media might be a quicker way if you very social and well received.

[Blargh123]

Link building is work, there isnt quite a get rich quick scheme to game the search engines!  You would be better off contacting webmasters and building your own high value link exchange, if recriprocial links are your thing.  Publish informative blogs, spread link bait!! dont rely on link markets

[saibose]

Dont use linking scripts. Thats what I would suggest. Try getting contextual backlinks from content sources such as wkipedia. Sadly, there is no short cut to link building, but its what that will give you the mileage. Link building today is useless.

[rhutchings]

FIrst off, let me answer your most burning question- is there an easier way to get high quality links without hours of work on the backend? No.  A handful of directories (business, web, local) are still worthwhile to pay/submit to, but thats where the easy part stops.

I am not familiar with linkmarket, but i did take a look at thier website- doesnt look fantastic. Sounds like too much reciprocal linking going on.  May be useful for a handful of links, but i wouldnt use that as your primary link building source.

Although it takes hours on your own, here is a good way to organize your effort to make it a little less sporadic:

1. Get an entire potential link list together before you begin.  I create a spreadsheet for each site, and then start hitting a mixture of tools; SEOmoz link finding tools, i use a product called Web CEO that has an ok link/partner finding tool that spits out a long list of potential websites to get links from.  Then you manually start searching, I really liked this link finding parameter post on Search Engine Land post that gives some good search operators to use.  Take a bunch of these combined tools with your own searching, and compile the list together in excel.  Hopefully you get at least a couple hundred options.
2. Craft a link request email template- but MAKE SURE YOU CUSTOMIZE/PERSONALIZE it!! Ask for specific pages to get a link from, know the website, make sure you sound like a real person.
3. Dedicate 1 afternoon a week (a few hours at least) to start going down your list.  Without dedicating a specific time, it wont happen.  I know from experience.
4. Track contacts/responses.  In your excel sheet, track the date that you requested a link, track any response, and finally the date you got a link.
5. Be willing to reciprocate.  Its only fair to provide a link back.  Not as useful, but you should take them all.
6. Participate in online communities.  Even when some places "no follow" links (blogs, forums, news sites) I have found that those links still play into your recognized "domain authority" in an intagable way.  Dont ignore those.

Hope that gives you a start!

[StalkerB]

And you're probably going to hear it again, sorry.

I'm unfamiliar with linkmarket but it sounds like the sort of thing that could actually get you penalised instead of just not doing you favours. I'd be very careful of continuing to use it, but as I say, I don't know enough about it.

The best way to get links if you don't want to actively engage people to get them is to write viral and linkbait content, which is again easier said than done.

The other alternative is to pay someone else to do it for you, but that can get pricey even if you're not using the budget to buy paid links.

I'm afraid building links does involve a lot of leg work.

[RyanOD]

No, I have never used Linkmarket. That being said, have you been monitoring the traffic / conversion data associated with the keywords Linkmarket is targeting? That should give you a really good sense of whether you are getting what you are paying for. Also, have you been auditing where these new links are coming from? I would want to be certain any link building partner wasn't linking in from dubious sites.

Rather than asking people to link to your site, have you considered focusing on the content you are offering on your site(s)? Are you offering content people would want to link to in the first place? There are many approaches to generating this type of content. Consider the following...

• Publish editorial content to a blog
• Create forums for your visitors to create discussions
• Q&A for visitors to ask questions (like this)
• Potentially viral content such as videos, infographics, published research, etc.

I also strongly recommend you watch Tom Critchlow's whiteboard Friday video that focused on Outreach for Linkbuilding - very informative.