How do you find relevant sites to get links from?

[hulahoop]

I have been hearing a lot about linking relevancy and a huge deal.
So can links from non-relevant sites hurt you?

Also I am having difficulty finding out what are relevant sites to mine? I certainly am not going to get any links from competitors. Example, if my site is a site about photos, would G be able to relate that cameras, even video sites, slideshow sites, design sites are relevant sites?

How do you find relevant sites to get links from?

One other question.
So Edu and Gov links are big right?
I can't think of them as relevant to a photo site. Or is it the onpage content of the gov or edu site is where you want to get your links in? Or are these categories (gov and edu) generally valueble by any metric.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

I would say that there probably is no such thing as a non-relevant site. It could be valid for any site to link to any other site in the context of something that is being discussed randomly within the page content. I think the point may be that some sites and links are more relevant than others.

I would also say that links from gov and edu sites are valuable in most circumstances but a link to a photo site from a page on a gov site that is discussing photography may carry more value.

^ Opinion ^

[hulahoop]

Thanks BeeDeeDubbleU. That really makes sense.

[engine]

I always like to start the very first search from something such ad DMOZ. It helps narrow down the most relevant sections, and topics. I wouldn't necessarily assume a site that's in DMOZ in a section of interest is going to provide a link, but it indicates the type of sites I should be looking for.
HTH

[wheel]

would say that there probably is no such thing as a non-relevant site.

I would absolutely say there's such a thing as a non-relevant site. General directories are a good example.

One or two links won't make a difference, but links from non-relevant sites, I don't see that as a good long term link building strategy (might work in the short term).

It's hard to define relevant, but it's pretty easy to tell what it is when you look at it.

[hulahoop]

Engine: If I search out using DMOZ, I would basically see all my competitors listed there. This is especially so with ecommerce sites. Maybe I am not understanding how to do it? Can you give an example perhaps?

Wheel: Thanks. Yes I now can see what you mean by irrelevant sites like general directories. However does that mean link from a directory say in the photography section is more targeted?

Another question is would it hurt me on the long term to have irrelevant links?

[engine]

hulahoop, let me try to give an example.
I sell apples. Searching for apples brings up all the other companies selling apples.

Now, as I drill down the hierarchy of the directory, I see that there are sections on other fruit, such as pears, or bananas. I also see that there are other sections of generic fruit sellers, and then, further up, there are fruit and vegetable sellers, then there are growers, then there are fruit processing companies. There are also, country and local versions of these.

Does that help?

[hulahoop]

Ok I get what you are saying Engine.
I guess I think in my industry it is a little more complex (well that is what I think). But I get what you mean. Thanks. This is very helpful.
Appreciate it!

[wheel]

I guess I think in my industry it is a little more complex

Everyone thinks that. They're wrong :). It just takes some thinking about it is all.

Engine's suggestion of using dmoz to go up and down the ladder to find related niches is a great one.

[hulahoop]

ok will try that out wheel. got it dmoz. thanks.

[zabalex]

Another question is would it hurt me on the long term to have irrelevant links?

If you have a non adult (po*n) site and all the links from the other non adult site irrespective of the relevancy, it is not going to harm you. But if your website is non adult and the most of the links from adult one then it may harm you.

In case of po*n it will not harm in either way. Also please let me know your website specific category to tell you about the relevant websites for you and that will not be your competitors.

regards
zabalex

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

If you have a non adult (po*n) site

A what?

[wheel]

, it is not going to harm you.

You know that Google itself has specifically stated the exact opposite of what you just said right?

So who's right, you? Or Google?

[canadafred]

Never listen to carefully to 'Google'. It's a bunch of 'cockameemee' have the time anyway (for foreign visitors and translaters, that's an actual word meaning BS).

Link building schemes are a waste of energy. Off-site ranking influence will never be anything nearly as powerful as a web page's own content. Forget about link building strategies. Pay no attention to a little oozing green pump-up bar.

Just build powerful web pages and let the off-page lunacy take care of itself. Those nerdy little webpages you deploy are the ones that rank in the results pages; regardless of linking competitions. Look in the search engine results pages - that's where puny PR0's outrank and outclass the rest of the fluff.

[wheel]

Don't believe everything you read on the internet. Start practicing that with the post just prior to this one.