Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Morning, Yep, the first step I would take is suppliers, contractors, partners etc etc. Basically anyone you have a business connection with that has a website. A lot of these will simply be happy to do this as a favour, some will want something in return such a reciprocal link (if it makes sense, go for it). Some you might need to be a little smarter with and play a bit of hustle to get. One great way we got in with a couple of software companies we were using was to offer a glowing testimonal for their website. It was win/win, they got a great review, we got a great link. When it comes to thinking of suppliers and partners, really be creative. Think about every aspect of your business, right down to the cleaners/caterers. If they have a website you want to be on there. In terms of directories, I would generally say avoid, however there are a few big national ones that pass value, and depending on your resource there are usually a few websites and directories that curate lists of local businesses. For me, the big key when decided whether to use a directory or not is down to whether their results are indexed and ranking. Follow the directory through to an obscure business page (e.g outdoor supplies > gardening > landscape gardening > turf suppliers) pick on of the business on their and search for their name. If the directory isn't showing up in the first few pages, it's really not worth being on. Regarding competitions; one benefit is the competition websites themselves, however the real win comes from the entrants. The blogging community are very active with competitions, and if you can think of a campaign that is particularly fun, engaging or has a kick ass prize, then you will see a lot of links coming from the blogosphere. The other option (and in my opinion the quickest way of getting quality links) is through Blogger and Webmaster outreach. Make a list of 100 target sites and approach them. The good old days of simply asking for a link a sadly gone, but there are plenty of ways you can reach out that will result in a link (offer a guest post, offer an interview, form a partnership etc etc). It can be time consuming, although you can make this scalable and see lots of high quality links flying in fast. Like you mentioned the answer you're going to get from a lot of people is 'make great content' which is pretty vague in itself. The logic behind it is if your site hosts great content, then it will naturally attract links and social shares across the web. There are many ways of doing this, from writing consistently good posts around your industry, to making infographics or videos with the intention of going viral. As a long term strategy, it's a great approach, but it is something that will need a lot of thought, time and often investment. Best of luck. David

I have identicall problem Where I can list of strongest UK web directories ? Please help me

Hi Jon, I do freelance link building for a dozen UK companies, as well as the white label link building for several digital agencies. Naturally, I'd recommend myself, however if you are shopping around the market then here are some points that I think it's essential to check prior to outsourcing any link building. Firstly, the company should be willing to disclose exactly how they go about obtaining the links, including showing examples of outreach and results. If they aren't willing to disclose this, then I would stay clear (would you really trust someone to represent your business without telling you how they intend on doing it) Also, as simple as it sounds, ask to see some example links they have built. I have found that a few outsourced link builders who preach the white hat quality links spiel, but then send you a list of footer links they've added to their own blog network. Again, if they are not willing to provide examples then I would avoid. Find out what metrics they use to determine a quality link. A worrying number of link builders still base link value solely on the score showing in the PageRank toolbar, which can deliver mixed results at best. Make sure they are using metrics you trust, or ask them to provide a few examples of sites they would target for your business, with an explanation as to why. Find out exactly who will be doing the link building. Many companies outsource their link building, so if you're arranging a contract with an incredibly knowledgeable and pleasant SEO, don't make the assumption that it will be them doing the link building for you. If it will be someone else in the company (or a sub-contractor) building the links, ask to see specific examples of their work. When you're agreeing on a contract, be very specific about what you expect in terms of quality and quantity of links. Ideally, pick a specific minimum number at a specific minimum quality (for example; they will build 15 links a calendar month at a minimum Domain Authority of 45) Ask them to take a look at your backlink profile and recommend the type of links you need, and the kind of sources they should be from. This will give you a great insight into their knowledge and philosophy of link building, and will hopefully give you some great ideas too. This might all sound a lot to ask from a company, but remember they are going to be representing you and your brand, and to many Webmasters and Bloggers they will become the face of your business. You want to show the same level of thoroughness as if you were making a full time hire, and any link building company worth their salt will understand why and be happy to co-operate. Best of luck with your search, and let me know if you'd like to see any of my work David

Encourage your users to engage with you by leaving comments or publishing on their own blog. Social buzz generally gives some authority to rankings only because people are interacting with the content. And when users/readers interact, the content is usually good or engaging. Thus this will usually get more attractiveness to the webmasters that wish to link back to your article to give you more authority as well. Social sharing is one metric but the effects of social media is another thing.

Thanks EGOL Very useful information there, exactly along the lines of my thinking (disproved my idea mind you hehe). I guess i'll have to find a 'level' for my domain and keywords which match that

I have to agree with Heather SEO begins waaaay before the SEO phase.  Here's a link to a post that we wrote on our blog, that might help you out. http://www.theedesign.com/blog/2012/web-design-for-seo. Basically like Heather said, you need to be thinking about SEO every step of the way.  I have no problem building a a blog before hand to help build your audience, but make sure that they are aware that you have a website and you are building towards it.  It sounds like that you're going to be using the blog of "Blog.com" as a blog until it turns into the ecommerce site you want it too, if so make sure you let your audience know what's going on.  Maybe create an email newsletter, so they can get updates every step of the way. Remember if you get links to your website, to pages and articles that arn't going to be there in the final design you can 301 them to keep the link juice, BUT YOU WILL NEED TO 301 THEM. Maybe for the time being also consider directing your fans to a Facebook page or a Twitter account to help build your community. Hope these thoughts help.

This is Megan from the SEOmoz Help Team.  Unfortunately, we don't have a list of sites with the highest DA.  Sorry about that!  I've passed your suggestion over to our engineering team, though, so hopefully we'll add something down the line!

There are no pros of using article directories.   Short term gains might look like a pro, but they aren't. Value in these sources of links has gone down over the years, and they'll continue to slide.  A better use of your time might be with publishing a few selective guest posts on related sites.  With regards to your question, use links wherever it feels natural.  If the link is forced or looks out of place, you probably shouldn't be doing it. ...and remember the links you use, don't all have to be pointing to your site alone. I did a guest post recently which was later re-published on Forbes.  In addition to my own, I linked to two other sites which I was not affiliated with.  One of them emailed me to say thanks and I took the opportunity to ask for a link from his PR6 site which I got.  I emailed the other one, and after several exchanges it was clear that the only thing that moves him to link out is money.  So there ya go.

His main company will only allow 4 pages on his site. Huh?  Who are these guys?  They need a kick in the pants.

The post at http://searchengineland.com/google-now-shows-you-your-most-recent-links-127903 gives you a screenshot and explains where to find things.

If you're going to redirect it, then take it down and set up a 301 redirect in its place. I may have misunderstood but that's what it sounded like you were planning to do.

The best bet is to start playing around in Photoshop! Perhaps you have a contact that you could call in a favour from?

Honestly, I would not do either one, unless my business can take the risk. If it can, then a 301 is better here, but then with a substantial risk. Not recommended.

Is there anyway around the Exact keyword usage in the url? EX- Searching for "jason aldean tickets" this site www.jasonaldeantickets.org shows up on page #1 among very high ranking sites that have been around a number of years. if you click on a link on the .org site to purchase inventory there is a 301 back to the main site, you can see the url/name changes. Is there anyway for google to eventually filter these out? Thanks

Very interesting...I will take a closer look and thanks so much for the link.

In that case I would suggest changing a couple and reviewing any changes in rankings as a result. This is one to approach slowly. Not sure how you have access (are they paid?), but by changing a large amount of links at the same time it may alert Google to some suspicious activity. Large changes in anchor text can be a sign of changes to bought links. Personally, I wouldn't change them all either. Even though the year is wrong, there's still going to be benefits. e.g. if you are trying to rank for "holiday in new york 2013", your rankings will still benefit from keywords saying "holiday in new york 2012". Take it steady and keep reviewing the results, but bear in mind you may be better focusing your efforts on building new links with new anchor text. Hope that helps, Ben

EGOL You could become my new religion. Your answer is as profound and as moving as scripture, it makes me believe i could almost aspire to Heaven...then i look at the ground beneath my feet and wonder which foot first and where!

Hi, The keyword closer to the root has a slight better impact but in some cases the subdomain can be considered by Google as separate items / domains so all teh DOmain authority from the main domain won't be passed. That is only in some cases when the domain has a totally different content, score, user flow etc. However since you can not control if Google will consider your subdomain as a separate item it is somehow risky. Personally I am always going with the folder - always. (just to be safe and to get the maximum out of any links to the domain) Hope it helps.