Am I doing the correct thing?

[WillBlackburn]

Hi,

I am trying to increase our sites number of backlinks. It has been badly managed in the past so I am trying to fix it.

What I am doing is using Google, Twitter, Facebook and competitor sites to find a whole load of fashion blogs (we sell mens clothing). I am then making contact with the relevant site people to ask them if we can get one of our articles published on their site.

In return we will offer to promote their blog through our facebook/twitter pages and include the blog link as a recommended link within our weekly newsletters. We have over 2800+ friends on Facebook/Twitter and a newsletter that goes out to over 3000+ customers.

Some have accepted and published an article that I wrote around 1-2 brands (eg. their background, their products etc..) Within that article was maybe 300-400 words and about 3-4 links to products on our site. Each article is unique, so no duplicate content is being published by us.

Would it be worth putting their link on our site from a SEO point of view? Or is the link on their site only the best way to do it?

Also as alot of our customer is men, would it be worth moving from the fashion blogs and maybe getting our articles in some football (soccer) blogs, as they are a big part of our fan base and as such are relevant to us.

Let me know your thoughts and any help.

Thanks

Will

[APICDA]

While there are generally a number of different ways to do the same thing, you are definitely doing things right.  Its a lot of hard work as I am sure you know, but in the long run and over time you will see benefits from your efforts.

Regarding having links of others on your site.  You bet, there is definitely some benefit to having some  outgoing links.  Keep up the good work!

[PeterAlexLeigh]

Hi Will,

You're doing the right thing my getting guest posts on blogs that are relevant to your topic. Regarding your last question, it would make sense to diversify across soccer blogs and other areas that you can contribute good and relevant posts. It's probably quite easy to relate fashion to a wide range of different areas and as long as you're creating content that seems relevant to your topic and the blog you're posting on, then go for it!

Regarding putting the blogs' link on your site.. You may want to do this occassionally if you find something really good and relevant to you that you want to link to, but I wouldn't do it very much; every external link you add on your site is reducing the amount of link juice that flows internally around your site. Also if you do it to blogs here and there, google might see this as some sort of link exchange scheme, which is not something you want.