Link Building Strategies that Look Natural

Finding the Balance Between Building Links But Looking Natural

[thecleaner]

Ive been reading webmasterworld posts all night. My girlfriend is going to kill me for staying up this late!

I just cant seem to form the right strategy for link building!

I was hiring an assistant to help me with link building. After reading info from this forum I may be changing my strategy a bit.

I got a big list of everything with a pr 3-10 and decided I would try and contact these sites for an exchange.

However from what I have been reading, having links from just these sites with a high PR wouldn't appear natural.

It also wouldn't appear natural to aim for a certain amount of links every month.

Furthermore, It wouldn't appear natural if I link back to all these guys either.

So my question is this..

What would appear to be natural and at what rate?

How should I attack this?

Also, If I submit my site to all the major directories within one weeks time, is this going to appear unnatural as well?

This is all so overwhelming to me! At this point, I am lost as to where I should start.

thank you

[dq335514]

It's not necessarily a question how many links should I do each month so it doesn't look spammy, but a question of keeping your link building consistent. It will only raise flags if you build 200 links one month then 20 the next. Don't just aim for high PR links build up a level link profile for example mostly PR0 then 1,2 and so on. As its unnatural to have 3 PR7 incoming links but 0 PR1 links coming in. Avoid link exchange. Just some more food for thought ;)

[PowerUp]

Avoid link exchange

My site PR is 0. Nobody wants to link to me. What else can I do if I don't link exchange? :(

I've tried to come up with an idea for linkbait but can't seem to think of any relating to my subject.

I've tried approaching webmasters via personalized emails. Most do no respond. Those who respond asked me to buy a link from their websites. I can't afford this because my site is non-commercial.

[suntzu]

You can start with the free directory submissions. Add something exciting that will get people in your industry to link to you: great content, an industry tool, industry resource or video that will get people digging your site.

[PowerUp]

You can start with the free directory submissions. Add something exciting that will get people in your industry to link to you: great content, an industry tool, industry resource or video that will get people digging your site.

I've done all the free submission despite the advice from experts saying not to submit to free-for-all websites. I'm desperate.

I think my content is great though there are better content on other sites.

All the industry tools I can think of are already being provided free by competing websites.

It's not appropriate for my subject area to come up with a video. If it has to be a video, then the only video I can think of is tutorial.

I'm thinking to write an eBook and distribute is for free download from other sites. There'll be links back to my page from the eBook. Problem is... how do I get people to put up all the content + links from the eBook onto their website.

[Shimrit]

If you know what you're doing, any industry can have linkbait.

[edited by: martinibuster at 5:04 pm (utc) on April 28, 2007]
[edit reason] Removed Off Topic Comment [/edit]

[Nuttakorn]

I have posted many of press release, but for those release it is new page and new pagerank. Do you have any idea to obtain one-way link which is free?

[Frida]

I've done all the free submission despite the advice from experts saying not to submit to free-for-all websites. I'm desperate.

I think my content is great though there are better content on other sites.

All the industry tools I can think of are already being provided free by competing websites.

It's not appropriate for my subject area to come up with a video. If it has to be a video, then the only video I can think of is tutorial.

I'm thinking to write an eBook and distribute is for free download from other sites. There'll be links back to my page from the eBook. Problem is... how do I get people to put up all the content + links from the eBook onto their website.

Hi,

The state of your project is not so desperate, indeed, for you have at least two options that you have already thought of - linkbait by a video tutorial (if this is your only one possibility, why don't you do it anyway? It won't hurt definitely, it might only help you...)and the second - writing an eBook. Don't worry about the second alternative so much - if it is a quality book, then why people would not love to have it on their site? I suggest you try both these alternatives and see what will come out of it.

Good luck!

[ftwb05]

Build a link directory that is a resource for your visitors by being organised by topic and category. Link to quality sites first without worrying about back links.
Then visit your top competitors links pages and visit the sites that link to them (and would be useful for your visitors) and start asking for reciprocals, but don't worry if they don't link back.
Keep this up, making sure that each site on your link pages stays on topic (for that page).
Don't worry about PR. Sites that are most ready to swap links are often just starting out, so as they mature the value of their links will rise, like yours will.
Make sure you sprinkle some deep links to your site when asking for reciprocals.
Don't worry if the other site is off-topic to yours, as long as the category of link page they put your link on is complimentary, and your link will be surrounded by similair, quality sites.
Keep going.
Eventually you wil catch the eye of someone who organises reciprocal links professionally, they will make a note of your details and start sending you link requests on a regular basis and you won't have to search so hard.
Don't let your links pages become too big, split them up.
A well organised link directory will therefore have lots of quality out-going links, with a fairly low level of reciprocal links coming back to the site. Naturally.
(These aren't my ideas, I'm just an amateur inspired by reciprocal linking professionals.)

[suntzu]

You need to get creative and come up with some kind of viral marketing plan that will generate buzz in your industry.

Maybe a Top 13 list of Worst such and such in your industry.

Research your competition and see what they're doing right/wrong, find the weakness in their site and make yours better, brainstorm from ideas you get researching your competiton and come up with something that will be useful or funny that would get the buzz going about your website. It does not have to be directly related to your products but maybe the best/worst clients/customers.

Is your competiton using social media to market their services?
There may be some good ideas in the new Social Media Tagging and Bookmarking Optimization forum [webmasterworld.com].

[alexey9]

People are talking a lot about viral marketing here. Could you tell me in simple words what is viral marketing and what does it include?

[Drag_Racer]

don't get too blinded by PR, spend more focus on finding sites that come under the same search term as the term you want to rank for.

a link from a high PR way off topic is worthless in this sense, not to mention junk traffic as well from that link

[suntzu]

I haven't had my morning coffee yet so here's a definition of Viral marketing From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia-Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness, through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet. [1]

Viral promotions may take the form of funny video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, images, or even SMS text messages.

The term "viral marketing" is also sometimes used pejoratively, to refer to stealth marketing campaigns[2]--the use of varied kinds of astroturfing both online and offline [3] to create the impression of spontaneous word of mouth enthusiasm.

[alexey9]

Thanks Suntzu. Now it's clear to me. :)