Link building - am I too cautious?
-
The only backlink building I am doing is guest blogging as it seems most other methods have potential to harm rankings in the post panda/penguin era. As mentioned in another post I'm trying to get a strategy for social media that works as I believe social likes/shares are important. What other link building methods can I use that are totally safe? Is it okay to 'buy' a link on botw r examleas theyre editorally reviewed? I'm asking myself 2 questions when acquiring limks. 1. Would I want this link if google didn't exist and 2. Will it bring me relevant traffic. I'm almost scared of link building in case google punishes me. Are there any legitimate methods I'm missing?
-
Thanks for the links - very helpful!
-
Hey Sam
I would certainly look to keep it varied as well. Guest Posting is okay but you should keep an eye on the quality of these posts but if you put all of your links in one basket and then Google decides to depreciate or devalue those in some way well... you are playing a risky game.
Content and outreach is a good way but again we come to the quality issue, it has to be good, really good to be worthwhile and to get people to link to it.
Really, there is no limit to the way you can build links, but the metrics that matter are quality and relevance.
Maybe give these a look over:
-
Sam, you can definitely use the list on SEOMoz. However you can also have a look at the directories' PageRank, Alexa Rank (yes this helps sometimes), number of indexed pages related to your subject from the directory in Google and the list can go on..
Best regards,
Devanur Rafi.
-
Hi, Thanks for your reply. I notice seo moz have a list of article directories with high domain authorities. Is it a good idea to submit to a few of these? Can they be trusted as quality links? I'm guessing they're not editorialy given links so possibly don't carry much weight?
-
Hi Sam,
To be frank, you do not need to do deliberate link building activities to be able to rank in SERPs. However, the above statement greatly depends on the quality of the content that a page has and other on-page SEO factors. Pages with great content acquire links in a natural way as good content will be syndicated by active bloggers and webmasters all over the Internet.
So to answer your question, you can try to earn links by giving out (posting) quality content in the form of articles.. You can post these articles to the top article directories. Stick to top 5 and you should be good. Please be careful not to submit the same article to multiple article directories. This is how to can squeeze the most out of your article marketing effort.
You can also submit unique articles to top document sharing sites. Another method to expedite the process of acquiring links by contributing some quality work is, to join forums that operate in your niche and actively participate in them by doing some legit postings. Though most of the forums incorporate nofollow on the external links, this should not stop you in anyway from doing forum posting. Please never look at if a link is followed or not followed as long as you are adding some real value. Legit, highly relevant and informative content automatically becomes a links magnet.
There are other legit ways of acquiring legit links but the above should keep you busy enough. Hope these help.
Best regards,
Devanur Rafi.
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
-
Link Building Issue
Hi, While prospecting for backlinks target do you guys filter links less than a specific DA or PA? for instance - if PA<5 then remove
Link Building | | Janki99
My VA accidentally selected a PA 3 link where the site owner eventually gave us a backlink.
Due to that link the traffic jumped 14X!!!
Had it been my filtering process would never got the backlink and traffic. What do you guys suggest?0 -
Would it be a valid "link building' strategy to pay youtube video owners, to link to our company website in the decription of a certain video. ( For popular video's that are relevant )
I was wondering if it would it be a valid "link building' strategy to pay / work out a deal with youtube video owners, to link to our company website in the decription of a certain video they posted? ( For popular video's that are relevant to our business. ) Anyone have any thoughts on this? Thanks in advance! Steven
Link Building | | RockyMountainFlyboard0 -
Can I include "commissioned" posts in my link building strategy?
Ok "Commissioned Posts" meaning industry influencers/bloggers etc writing about your brand, products or services and possibly "linking" to your website (in exchange for money, or not) a) I'm contacted by a blogger who wants to write a piece about our product and naturally links back. b) A blogger says, yes, we can write a fantastic article about your brand and link to you for $$$..$ - is this ok if not at scale? What is deemed as ethical? I want to make sure our link building campaign is done within Google's guidelines. Here is currently what we are doing, or intending to do; 1. We're producing unique content on our site and sharing this with key influencers organically on Twitter, Facebook and G+ communities. This so far is working well for a new start up. 2. Writing guest posts on authoritative sites (with only our author bio at the bottom, branded link to our site, social links) sharing knowledge or interesting content which readers will want to read. Sites like HuffPost, The Guardian would be great although we're starting on authoritative well maintained blogger sites within the industry to begin. 3. Reaching out to industry influencers who may like to review our products. Many of them have got back to me stating that they "can" run commissioned posts (normally requires a large fee) which carries a followed link, branded or unbranded. Although we may have initially contacted them, and money could be exchanged, in the eyes of Google wouldn't this appear as a natural post? Please let me know your thoughts on this? It would be great to gain more of an understanding exactly what I can or cannot do when it comes to developing high quality links for our business! Your feedback (sharing any examples if possible) would be truly appreciated. Thanks Gary
Link Building | | GaryVictory0 -
Link Building Cost
Can anyone share typically what a US Based SEO Agency should or would charge for creating good quality backlinks? All of the pages we are targeting have been optimized with quality content and are ranking half decent. The keywords we are targeting are med-high competition keywords. We've located a few offshore agencies with prices in the 100$ range for 10 keywords but are leery of moving forward, currently it's the cost we are paying for 1 Keyword here in the US. Thank You!
Link Building | | TP_Marketing1 -
Is Back Link Building still Good Practice
Since all the updates from Google I'm unsure as to whether I should be pursuing good quality back links and how many per month?for my website www.polesandblinds.com . We don't have a very large back link profile and its at least half of some of our competitors, we are currently active on blogging and the 4 main social sites. Many Thanks I look forward to your suggestions/advice/criticism.
Link Building | | JonnytheB0 -
Best way to build inbound links?
Recently I learned that there are links that are nofollow that google doesn't consider part of SEO. I was curious to know and also to help other new users what the community thinks the best practices are in growing your inbound links. Thank you for all the responses. I hope this link has served to help new users recently introduced to SEO and link building.
Link Building | | johnmoon61 -
Building links to reviews: Movies, Restaurants, etc
My site has lots of reviews: Movies, TV, Music, Restaurants, etc. I'm looking for sites that take critic reviews and link back to the critic's site. We're already on Metacritic.com and Rottentomatoes.com, which seems to be the two biggies for movies & tv. But I'm sure there are more out there. Also, I'd love to find sites for restaurant reviews (specifically in the Boston area). Are there any lists out there of sites like these? I'm NOT looking for UGC sites that allow user reviews. I'm looking for sites that accept professional critic reviews, preferably via some sort of automated feed. Thanks Mozzers!
Link Building | | BostonWright0 -
Which is the best link building method after Google penguin update & why?
We are currently offering our client pre penguin these activities for link building: Local listing Directory submission bookmarking article submission blog comment guest post business review squidoo lens Forum posting infograhics My questions is which is the best link building method and is there any activity that is redundant now. thanks
Link Building | | conversiontactics0