Hitting a wall getting links

[dickbaker]

My site's been online since 2004, and I've been actively seeking links the whole time. In the last year or two, though, it's become much harder. I'm trying to get links to interior pages to help their rankings, but I feel like I've hit a wall.

I have links in my signature on forums, but I've reached the limit on the forums for the number of links.

I have links on all sorts of quality sites in my niche, but they're not willing to list my site twice.

I've done all sorts of articles, but the payback from that is decreasing, as many here already know.

I've done blog posts where I can, but the link value to me would seem short-lived.

The niche I'm in doesn't lend itself to the younger audiences found on Digg or Stumbleupon, nor does the content of my site.

Mine is an informational site in a sports-related niche. The information is pages of photos and spec's on models of niche-related widgets. I also have a small online store selling related widgets.

I've been reading the Link Development forum for years, and it seems to me I've exhausted the ideas I've seen here that would work for my site.

Have any of you hit a wall with links? Do you just keep getting more from small sites, blogs, etc, or do you do something radically different?

[londrum]

you should try something a bit different if you've exhausted that. maybe try your hand at making some widgets for wordpress, or whatever, and get them uploaded to the wordpress directory. that's what i do. they are easy to do. just do one which pulls stuff from your rss feeds. and include a little link back to your site. if you've got a sports site then anyone with a sports blog might end up installing it -- giving you links on all those.

[dickbaker]

When you say "widgets," are you talking videos and things like that?

I was thinking about doing some videos on the types of widgets shown on my site. Things such as how to use them, or what features they have or things like that. I don't know if videos can go viral.

[wheel]

Agree with londrum. If you get tapped out on link building, step back and spend some time on developing some new content/link bait, then go after new links to the new linkbait.

[piatkow]

In any niche you are going to hit a plateau eventually. You need to keep your eyes open to pick up links from new sites as they appear.

[JS_Harris]

Can't get more links? Focus on maximizing the value existing links already provide. 3 words, internal link structure.

[Mark_A]

Hi dickbaker,

Surely there can be only two reasons for promoting inward linking, 1) to get pagerank and 2) to drive traffic via the links.

It sounds as if you have gotten plenty of links already, are you not yet satisfied with the PR or traffic?

[dickbaker]

It sounds as if you have gotten plenty of links already, are you not yet satisfied with the PR or traffic?

I'm trying to boost the rankings for interior pages and also boost traffic, although usually the two go hand in hand. Page rank isn't my biggest concern.

[YouDontKnowMe]

Think of link-bait worthy content. If it goes viral, you get tons of free backlinks. Your site is about sports. Just think and get your creative juices flowing and you will come up with something.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Nobody here has gotten "tons of free backlinks" that amounted to squat.

If you hit a wall in your link building campaign, which as you well know has been all about scratching out a link here and there as slow as molasses, switch to article writing and linking out to authority sites. When you're refreshed show off the new content to new eyes.

[dickbaker]

I've done many articles before on a variety of topics. I don't think they've ever really helped me, and it seems to be the majority opinion here that the SE's have downgraded articles for link value.

Aside from that, it seems that well over half the sites that pick up the articles "forget" to include the links, don't use anchor tags, or find some other way to not pass on the link value.

I've been trying to think of videos that would be appropriate for certain pages. I don't know how well those work for link value.

[tangor]

How much reading does one do on youtube? If video is what the visitor seeks, then once seen will take off. (And probably download it and ship it off to all their buddies)...

Links are falling off everywhere. Recently discussed at: [webmasterworld.com...]

[dickbaker]

How much reading does one do on youtube? If video is what the visitor seeks, then once seen will take off. (And probably download it and ship it off to all their buddies)...

I seem to recall someone suggesting posting videos with embedded links back to your site and offering them to other sites via feeds.

[Mark_A]

I have just been working away trying to get new quality links for a B2B B&M business and having some success.

However this morning I had a very nice email from someone who I requested a link from who said, thank you for your email, we have linked to you on xyz page (TBPR3/10) and also as a what's new on our homepage (TBPR5/10). How very nice of them and I expect they will drive some traffic also.

So, if you don't ask, you don't get!