SBIer Karen shared a creative link-building tip in the forums recently, exemplifying at the same time the "help and be helped" nature of the SBI! Forums! She used Search It! to find links coming into sites with a similar theme to hers. After identifying the best of those links, Karin e-mailed the site owners and politely suggested that they add her site to their list of trusted resources.
Karen had a good idea and then just ran with it. Some people never quite get around to the link-building side of things, but what a difference it can make.
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For those who aren't familiar with the Back Links section
of Search It!, go to...
And use this search to find who links to the Top 10 URLs
in Google's search results page for your Site Concept
Keyword...
(Step 1) Back Links > (Step 2) To (sub)DOMAIN From All Other Sites
The Back Links section of Search It! has an incredibly
useful set of 4 searches. Try them all.
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In the old days, inbound links generated direct traffic on their own. Now they are more important to "float your boat." In other words...
The more links you have that are 1) quality and 2) from a variety of sources and 3) related in some way to the topic, the better your overall search results across all pages.
After a certain point, you can start decreasing your efforts as your traffic itself will tend to generate links on its own... and those are the purest, most real links of all (i.e., true, unrequested votes of confidence).
That said, though, do continue to put some effort into "deep-linking" (i.e., getting an inbound link to a valuable content page on your site). This is often the extra bit of oomph that will push an important page over the top, well I should say, "into the top" 10 positions on the Search Engine Results pages.
For example, let's say that "low-fat dressings" is your Specific Keyword on one of your content pages. You would like to improve the performance of that particular page, so you find a forum or a blog that discusses salad recipes. Then you integrate an anchored text link (that contains "low-fat dressings") into the body of your post to deep-link your visitor. That way when the reader clicks on the link, s/he goes directly to that content page rather than your home page!
We can even give Karin's strategy (from above in the intro) a deep-linking twist...
Go to Google and search on the term "low-fat dressings." Note the URLs that rank in the Top 10.
Next go to Search It! and find out who links to the Top 10 URLs...
Back Links > To Page From All Other Sites
Ask sites linking to those pages that look the most credible and approachable for a link to your low-fat dressings page. (Ideally "low-fat dressings" is in the text link, but it can be awkward to ask for that.)
Key lessons from these two examples?
Develop inbound links ethically and with diversification. It's really all about building your site's reputation so that you get found at the Search Engines for more and more words.
Diversification should also include links to specific TIER 2s and 3s that are particularly important.
Remember that, eventually, the weight of good content drives tons of off-page criteria, all of which Search Engines use to rank your site.
All the best,
Follow Ken at Twitter
Wonderful post Ken.
Posted by: Elizabeth | August 02, 2009 at 04:04 PM
The ethical method of getting more inbound links is right on.
Quality articles on legitimate sites are a great white hat way to get more inbound links. Great way
for "building your site's reputation".
Posted by: Elizabeth Crane | October 03, 2009 at 05:22 PM