Which link building method is most effective?

[inhouseseo]

I have been looking at different seo companies for link building. I found a ranked list on Topseos.com. Many of them offer the same services as offshore SEOs, namely:

• Article marketing

• blog comments

• forum comments/profiles

• bookmarking

• PR

• directories

• Link acquisition by contacting relevants sites and negotiating a fee for a link

I know that custom link acquisition is the most effective, but it gets very expensive. And, you don't know what each link is going to cost you.

Here are my questions:

1. Of the other methods (other thank custom link acquisition), how would you rank their effectiveness?

2. The other methods seem kinda gimmicky, is it worth the time/money?

3. Have you seen sites rank well for competitve keywords using articles/bookmarking/blog comments/directories etc?

4. How do you know i a company is going to them manually as they claim? as opposed to using some automated software.

Thanks

[ChaseFleming]

The majority of these tactics are outdated link building methods that will only get your site penalized or do nothing while wasting your money. After Panda, article marketing sites are dead. Blog and forum comments are typically nofollow so they will do little for your rankings. PR (I'm assuming your talking about press releases) can be done easy enough on your own through sites like PR Web, but they are not always that effective in gaining links unless you have a catchy release that others will want to write about. Directories are useful if you choose the right ones. I rarely use more than a few high quality/respected directories. So to answer your questions here I go:

1) Of the other methods (other thank custom link acquisition), how would you rank their effectiveness?
Outreach (I can't endorse paid links though) and quality directories would be the best methods mentioned. Like I said, there are only a handful of directories I would recommend and you'll probably get the complete opposite with a company promoting this option (meaning you'll be added to hundreds of spam directories that may penalize your site).

2) The other methods seem kinda gimmicky, is it worth the time/money? Most of the options you mentioned are gimmicky and a waste of money. You should instead focus on guest posting, outreach, and other methods that take hard work but produce more results.

3) Have you seen sites rank well for competitve keywords using articles/bookmarking/blog comments/directories etc?
I have seen sites rank well that have these, but there are typically a number of other factors earning them those ranks.

4) How do you know i a company is going to them manually as they claim? as opposed to using some automated software. This would have to be judged on a case by case basis from talking with the company. See if they'll share some of their other work, testimonials, results, etc.

[SuperlativB]

I would agree on guestblogging, great content and PR in a good mix. If you do that well links will keep rolling in by the time you get good positions in the SERP.

Look at you competition, what do they do? Are your content better then theirs? Or could you present it better?

It's pretty simple to get links as long as your content, brand, presentation is the best out there.

[inhouseseo]

We have good content, but we don't have the resources as some of our larger competitors. Also, I have looked at some of the top ranking sites for some of the keywords we are targeting. I see sites that do well with the articles/bookmarks/directories etc. They seem like really crappy links, but they seem to work.

Either that or there is something else I am not seeing.

[KeriMorgret]

You may want to look at companies other than just those listed on Topseos, or at least search this forum and the internet for commentary about the companies that are on that list and how they get there. It's not necessarily a representative sample of what SEO companies have to offer, so you may want to broaden your search to see what other types of companies offer.

[inhouseseo]

Any SEO recommendations for link building?

[onlinemediadirect]

Guest Blogging is the future for sure a great way forward and a win , win situation for everyone. The key to that however is finding like minded people.

Myguestblog is a great source.

[AnnSmarty]

Thanks for promoting it, just wanted to drop a correction that it's really MyBlogGuest.com