Category: Link Building
Chat through link building best practices and outreach techniques.
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Google Webmaster Tools - assessing inbound links
Thanks for getting back to me, I'll try using a couple of tools to see what results I get. Thanks, Sophy
| sophycolbert0 -
301 Redirect Domains with old links
Will i get the majority of the link juice from the domains? Yes I want to know the best way to utilize them without any type of penalty. Your actions are perfect. You are redirecting them to relative pages on your site. As long as the pages are truly relevant, then you should be in great shape. The basic test is, will a visitor be happy they found the page you are directing them to? Or will they have more of a "what the heck is this" reaction? If you have re-directed the pages well, you will retain 90%+ of the link juice. How long that juice will last is dependent on several factors, some of which dignan shared. A SEOmoz staff member recently answered this same question: http://www.seomoz.org/qa/view/45944/redirecting-link-juice-from-purchased-domain-to-existing-domain
| RyanKent0 -
Value of paid for directories
It's not worth spending money on anything that'll increase your toolbar PR unless you're planning on selling links, but I'm sure this is just semantics and you're meaning to help you rank Big 'paid' directories like YDIR, JoeAnt, BOTW can help a new site gain a little authority quickly, however if you're some weird niche and on a page far down them the link juice power of them isn't going to be particularly strong. Remember you're not actually paying to be in the directory for these sites but for somebody to review the site and see if it's worth including. Don't get links from directories who say they will sell you an entry! For the price I'd recommend sinking it into some sharable content (good infographics, a few videos to populate a youtube channel etc) and/or invest it in something else that will add value to your brand. The directories aren't bad as such, just maybe not the best way to spend the money.
| StalkerB0 -
I'm interested in knowing link building strategies for regional businesses.
I agree with Dignan99's initial thoughts about the ability of SE's to connect the dots. I've also found the on-page targeting of the geographic terms to be crucial. I've found a lot of value in getting a link for, say, "IT Services" and pointing it deeper into the site to a page that targets "IT Services Boston". In terms of actual places to get links, I've always felt that getting links that are not only topically relevant, but also geographically relevant is important in that sort of campaign. I tend to go for good quality regional or local sites.
| BedeFahey0 -
Article Submission Best Practices
Hey... Unless these articles are going to extremely reputable sources, I would not bother with any article submissions. I would concentrate on adding content to the website and/blog, and consider doing guest blogging on other sites you may be networked with. Article submission for the sake of SEO is not the best idea following the drop in rank of many of the large article databases. Also, every article submitted to these places should be unique if you were still choose to use them. Often times the sites will check for dupe material. While I have read that there will be no punishment for the dupe content by the search engines, it may not help your cause. It would just be a waste of time an resources. If you were to publish an article that goes viral, or possibly a higher end press release, I could see how this might be more powerful and well worth it.
| dignan990 -
Site content creation
I would go to that meeting with some examples.... Joe Schmoe dentist has articles about this and this and this on his site. Ask what are his specialties? What expertise does she want to share? Pet peeves? This is your dentist's opportunity to improve the dental health of every person who visits his/her website.
| EGOL0 -
Paying for DoFolow Directories
Matt Cutts once said that "A" link can not hurt your ranking. What he didn't say was your link profile, or a bunch of links can not hurt your ranking. Here is a good older discussion on this from Q.A. http://www.seomoz.org/qa/view/37193/are-paid-links-from-prsites-and-directories-bad There are valuable directories. You have to be pretty picky. There are a lot of posts and training on this in the site. Picking up a DMOZ listing and Yahoo directory are great (as noted). I think one thing you want to watch is the c-blocks they are on. One directory company may have 100's of sites on a c-clock, and this can harm your trust ranking. Long story short, make your link profile as natural as you can. Paid directories can fit into that, as well as blogs, forums, press releases, no follow and follow links. But do try and go for quality at all times.
| MBayes0 -
Question about forwarding domains and link juice
Option 2 would be the best possible solution, with a 301 redirect. You maintain MOST of your linkjuice this way and users get an easy redirect, no extra clicking required. Read here for more information.
| GeorgeDavis0 -
Strong pages and subpages: Building exact anchor again and again, or mix up?
Perhaps my question is to difficult without showing the Url. I don't want to post it here, but I think it will be helpful to refine my question that you can answer it on a general level. Can you give me some best practice tips how to optimize strong subpages which are still ranking on top 3-4 if you consider, that these pages already have 50-60 incoming links from different sources and exact anchors / anchor variations which is much more than the pages from competitors. Is it too much at some time for one single subpage? Or should I keep going with optimization for this keyphrase until I'm on top 1-2 or in the filter? What is best practise to avoid those filters?
| Whipeout770 -
Doing Local Directories for Online Stores?
We have lot's of clients with in home businesses. We either list the home address, and then in the places account request that it is not shown, or we encourage an executive office location if in fact they will use it as a place to do business. Having real contact information is not just important to Google , its important to their customers. Our company has been using executive offices for 10 years. They are a great cost savings, and give us a nice environment to meet clients or hold meetings. Most executive or virtually offices also give you an option of renting an individual office on a short term basis, which we have used many times. Millions of businesses are home based. Google doesn't care if your address is residential or commercial, I think they care that it's listed. Your client must have an address for contact for customers that includes email, phone and address on their site. They should also have it registered with the correct government agencies (the address ) and any valuable business associations in town, like a Better business bureau or Chamber.
| MBayes0 -
Ranking for various keyword versions
Brant, I agree with John and would even take it a step further; Create landing pages with your desired phrase in the text, alt tag behind the image AND Link to newly created internal pages with phrases 2 OR 3 (not both on each page) to create a further, in-depth, trail for Google to rank you for.
| DaveGerecht0 -
Reciprocal Links Or One Way Links?
I believe that if Website A links to Website B and at the same time Website B links to Website A that the links can still be valuable. Great websites link to other great websites all of the time. I don't think that Google will discriminate against those links unless....... A) the websites are entirely unrelated to one another (about very different topics B) the links are in a dumb location such as on a "link exchange" page or footer C) the links are highly optimized anchor text So, as long as the links are placed in a context that is valuable for the visitor these links still have a chance to carry value. As for guest blog posting... if you have a local history site in the United States and guest blog on a site about hydraulic jacks in Germany then I think you are wasting your time. But if both of these sites are about the local history of the same area then, in my opinion, these webmasters could very legitimately be colleagues who refer to each others work and enthusiastically share ideas with one another's visitors.
| EGOL0 -
Non-Affiliate Links from Distributors
I believe that these will be valuable links. I would go after them and that job would be priority on my list.
| EGOL0 -
Types of links for 2011?
Great questions. I am sure many of us are watching how the Panda update is changing linking. Here is the answer everybody hates (including me at times) I think the big change in 2011, and 2012 in SEO has to be in building better content on sites, and building better social signals to sites. And for most of us that's a real change in course. Adding calculators, tips, Forums, FAQ, and funny stuff along with Quality promotion for links. We still use Directories and Articles, but only when we we do it because it makes promotional sense, not just SEO.
| MBayes0