Need advice for Link Building (tech website)

[EG0CENTRIX]

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[KevinBudzynski]

I would pretty much rule out the article/directory submission, I would focus on creating great link baiting content (such as useful white papers, faq's and etc.) aimed at your target customers and promote these through your social media channels.

[mrdavidingram]

Hi there,

In terms of some personalised link building suggesting:

Clients/partners/customers

I always recommend the first step in any link building campaigns is getting the quick wins. Sit down with the people in your company and list any companies and individuals who you have worked with, used their product/service, or had use your services.

These are often the easiest links to get as there is already a relationship built, so get the Project Manager or Account Manager who had the closest relationship with the partner to simply make the call or send an email asking if they will link to you.

If the relationship is good, they are nearly always happy to.

In regards to products and services your company has used, you can often get a link by offer a testimonial to go on their website. It's win win as they get a real customer review and you get a nice link. List every company you've spent money with, be it software, products, or even your catering firm. These are great links to get.

Also, if you have any execs or senior staff members, leverage their contacts. Book in 30 minutes with them and ask them to go through their major business contacts (or even better, their LinkedIn account) and find out which business contacts would be likely to link to your business. You can earn some really valuable links just by approaching your Chief Execs golf buddies.

Guest posting

This is the bread and butter link building for a lot of companies nowadays. It's a great and scalable way of building links, creating relationships and adding value to the web. Find powerful websites and blogs in your industry, and simply approach them offering to provide a piece of content for their site. Have some of the experts from your company write great articles and guides to their niche (you'll be surprised how happy people are to knock up an article about something they care about).

This can be done on scale, and is a effective and positive way to earn yourself some very strong editorial links.

Broken site fixing

This isn't my idea, in fact it only came about this week through this excellent post by Eugene Krall:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/php-errors-as-a-means-of-getting-links

If you have some PHP boffs in your company, get them to go out there and fix some website errors in their spare time. People will be delighted with the help and happy to give you a link. You never know, it might drum up some new business too.

Inbound Content

Of course, the most scalable way of getting links is through the viral effect, and this can be achieved by adding outstanding and eye-catching content to your own site. This isn't just a case of posting an interesting article though, you have to think outside the box to come up with content that is going to blow people away (or at least impressive them enough to hit the 'share' button). This way is a longer game, but once you've built up a fan base you can be receiving tons of new links every time you press the 'publish' button.

In regards to the link building methods you proposed (directories, article submission, social bookmarking etc etc)...

I'm not one for playing the black/white hat game, but what I am passionate about is SEO that works against SEO that doesn't, and the fact of the matter is that in most instances these tactics whil be ineffectual at best, and actually damaging at worst.

There are some good directories out there, and some article submission sites that might send some benefit, but these are few and far between and the effort it takes to find them will be the same as using a safe and effective tactic such as those above.

You've got to remember that if a link is as simple to acquire as submitting an automated form, then it's unlikely to carry any SEO value at all. If SEO were that easy I'd be retired and sipping cocktails on a beach!

Good luck, let me know if you want to discuss any further link building tactics or if you need any help with your campaigns.

Thanks,

David