I have created 5 model specific blog sites which deliver links to my core site.

[SEOQuest72]

I post about 500 words of unique relevant content weekly to each model blog site. Each week, seo smartlinks delivers keyword anchor text links to my core site with a 3% keyword density.  I have been doing this for 3 months and my core site traffic is stagnant or slightly down. Is this a good practice since its relevant content, or am I writing for nothing? Also, am I in danger of over optimized anchor text?

[David_ODonnell]

It'll likely be/get flagged as a link network, it's not a good SEO practice.

You'll be better off spending the time writing awesome content for your core site and looking into guest posting opportunities.

Good luck.

[Mark.RedGiant]

Like David says,

What you're creating is a link network, which is a rather dated method of going about your link building. After the recent algorithm updates that sort of tactic really got hit hard.

High quality guest posting, press releases and other brand building exercises are going to put you in far better stead as far as your link building and SEO goes.

I've tried to change my focus with SEO this year. I now concentrate almost exclusively on establishing myself as an authority/expert and almost ignore "mechanical" link building methods. I believe that while I'm providing good quality stuff to a wide range of people, the links will come.

I also think that if you're still concentrating on keyword density then you're doing something wrong.

Write naturally. Show people why they should like you. Profit.

[SEOQuest72]

Thank you, I will be changing my strategy. The content is accurate and unique on the sites, is it advisable to just remove the links or shut down the sites?

[SEOQuest72]

Thank you, I will be changing my strategy. The content is accurate and unique on the sites, is it advisable to just remove the links or shut down the sites?

[SEOQuest72]

Thank you for your advise. Are my model blogs worthless, or should I just remove the links and keep posting? My content is accurate and unique.

I also post press releases on prlog and freepressrelease and I submit slideshare.

Do you have any other ideas for placement of my content in addition to my core site?

[Mark.RedGiant]

Do your model blogs have any traction of their own? What's the traffic and domain authority like? If they don't have any traction of their own, they're probably not worth much at all.

I'd argue that a single, well thought out guest post on a high authority website (e.g. SEOMoz, Sitepoint.com, etc. but something relevant to your niche) will be worth more than 10 posts on your "blog network".

Are your mini-blogs all hosted on the same C-block as the main site?

P.S. When you say "unique" I really hope you mean unique, and not spun!

[MattJanaway]

As stated already by other comments a few times, this method is very dated and will more than likely see your sites flagged as a spam network built purely for the purpose of link building (which is exactly what you have built it for)...

I would recommend removing ALL links to and from each site. Every single one.

However, there is probably no need to take the sites down, that's a little hasty.

If they are hosted on the same server then run them all separately as individual websites, write content on each and allow some nice guest posts on them. You can throw a couple of adverts on them and earn a little bit of £ if that is your ultimate goal.

If they aren't on the same server then you can use them as link bait. Write articles (good quality is the key here, as always!)  for other websites and include a natural link back to your main website. If the website you want to host your article want something in return - for essentially giving you a link, offer them a guest posting opportunity on any of your other 5 websites. That way you both benefit from a backlink...

On a side note... SEO Smartlinks? Come onnnn.... you can do better than that! That is pretty much spam in its highest form! Maybe you should read up on Penguin and Panda and understand the clear goals of the algo updates of the past couple of years. Google's war on spam is a big deal!

Good luck

[SEOQuest72]

Thank you. Finding seomoz has been humbling, but having such good feedback is exactly what I needed. Other than press releases posting on other blogs, is there anything offsite that I should be doing?

Thanks again.

[SEOQuest72]

Thank you. The sites are new, and traffic and domain authority is low. Page rank is great for my target keywords but the only reason I wrote them was to try to reach a new market that my core site hasn't been able to reach.

They are hosted separately from the main site.

My content is good, but I'm not sure if very many people are interested in knowing all the details I write about.

Thanks again.

[MattJanaway]

There are many ways of building links. The only limit is your creativity. I wrote an answer a couple of weeks back to a similar question, it might help...

http://www.seomoz.org/q/first-links-for-a-new-site

Glad you are finding SEOMoz useful - there's a great community here and staying ontop of things is easy because there are so many people doing their own testing and sharing results.

By the way, don't do too many press releases. Try one every couple of months maximum.

Matt