Link building? I really dont get it is there an easy way

[rhutchings]

FIrst off, let me answer your most burning question- is there an easier way to get high quality links without hours of work on the backend? No.  A handful of directories (business, web, local) are still worthwhile to pay/submit to, but thats where the easy part stops.

I am not familiar with linkmarket, but i did take a look at thier website- doesnt look fantastic. Sounds like too much reciprocal linking going on.  May be useful for a handful of links, but i wouldnt use that as your primary link building source.

Although it takes hours on your own, here is a good way to organize your effort to make it a little less sporadic:

1. Get an entire potential link list together before you begin.  I create a spreadsheet for each site, and then start hitting a mixture of tools; SEOmoz link finding tools, i use a product called Web CEO that has an ok link/partner finding tool that spits out a long list of potential websites to get links from.  Then you manually start searching, I really liked this link finding parameter post on Search Engine Land post that gives some good search operators to use.  Take a bunch of these combined tools with your own searching, and compile the list together in excel.  Hopefully you get at least a couple hundred options.
2. Craft a link request email template- but MAKE SURE YOU CUSTOMIZE/PERSONALIZE it!! Ask for specific pages to get a link from, know the website, make sure you sound like a real person.
3. Dedicate 1 afternoon a week (a few hours at least) to start going down your list.  Without dedicating a specific time, it wont happen.  I know from experience.
4. Track contacts/responses.  In your excel sheet, track the date that you requested a link, track any response, and finally the date you got a link.
5. Be willing to reciprocate.  Its only fair to provide a link back.  Not as useful, but you should take them all.
6. Participate in online communities.  Even when some places "no follow" links (blogs, forums, news sites) I have found that those links still play into your recognized "domain authority" in an intagable way.  Dont ignore those.

Hope that gives you a start!

[saibose]

Dont use linking scripts. Thats what I would suggest. Try getting contextual backlinks from content sources such as wkipedia. Sadly, there is no short cut to link building, but its what that will give you the mileage. Link building today is useless.

[Blargh123]

Link building is work, there isnt quite a get rich quick scheme to game the search engines!  You would be better off contacting webmasters and building your own high value link exchange, if recriprocial links are your thing.  Publish informative blogs, spread link bait!! dont rely on link markets

[Getz.pro]

No easy way, but through time and effort, things do look up as you get more proficient in obtaining links. Social Media might be a quicker way if you very social and well received.

[HiveDigitalInc]

Paid, targeted, individually prospected links. Sorry, but it ain't cheap.

[Luke22]

Well, there is nothing else to add, guys said everything. I just want to add one tool you may use with success... http://soloseo.com/tools/linkSearch.html play with it and you can be shocked with results.

[rhutchings]

nice tool Luke.  I have never seen that one before.  Takes the whole search query finding one step further.

[Luke22]

Glad you like it! Hope you will enjoy using it. They did really good job creating that tool... I'm sure with time you will like it even more!

[Pavlicko]

oldie but a goodie, been using it for years. I also really really like Whitespark Citation finder: http://www.whitespark.ca/local-citation-finder/ for local directory links - critical for ranking local sites. Though they've limited the free access a bit since they first started...

[therealmarkhall]

Nice little tool* *This comment is not personal!

[voitenkos]

Why not use seomoz Juicy link finder tool and email all of the site owners on the result page? For 10 "No" answers you should get 1 "Yes".

[Gyi]

Solid advice. Spend the majority of time focusing on your content. Spend the rest of your time getting in front of an audience who is ready, willing, able to link to and further publicize it.

[tomcraig86]

Definitely stop using this service! Simple as that.

Look to get guest blogs, some profile, comments and forum links, (but concentrate your time in other areas). PR and relationships with high authority sites such as newspapers is an absolute must!

[SoFlaWeb]

LOL

[SoFlaWeb]

I have not seen Raven Tools mentioned here.

I am not affiliated with them in any way (other than a satisified customer). And I acutally use their toolset more for reporting than actually tracking links. But I find it easier to utilize their system (and their toolbar) to add an track links than an excel spread sheet. You can always export to excel if you want to do some more indepth analysis.

There is some learning curve to get everthing setup, but the additional features are well worth (just the reporting alone was worth it for me, saves me lots of time every month)

[shandaman]

Hey My Friend,

What the others are saying is true there is no easy way. But depending on the competition for the keywords your after it can be easier then some are stating. Just remember slow and steady wins the race.

[Thos003]

I agree. Being able to track links you've aquired and monitor links you may be working on is a big plus to Raven's tool belt.

[blackrino]

The best thing that I have done so far is article building. Than again they do say now that it's not "good" to share your content across the web and that google will only use the first article. So sometimes I change the article around a little bit. The trick is to actually put GOOD content up! Don't put crap out there that no one wants to read. If you put good stuff out there people will link to you. I have over 10,000 links to my site and most of it is from people reposting my blogs! I also get a lot of traffic from this.

I'm not a big fan of the link farm (you post of mine and I'll post on yours) type deal. I think it's cheesy and it can actually get you in trouble.

About linkmarket, that's a site that does definitely look like it can get you in more trouble than help you. Put it this way, I've got 10,000 links (and a lot of them are high quality) and I didn't pay for one single link. Granted I agree that when you do the article building way there is potential to get some low end links, but it's better than nothing.

[SteveOllington]

One of our tactics is to try to be really helpful about stuff on topically relevant forums and blogs. i.e.

1. We have a client who sells a product to combat penetrating damp.
2. We find forums and blogs where people are having problems with penetrating damp.
3. We research a proper answer for them ourselves.
4. We answer their questions and recommend the product via a keyworded anchor text link.

As long as the post or comment we've made is a valuable contribution and provides a solid, well researched answer (so not spam), then the forum mods don't seem to mind the link staying there

[eyepaq]

I've used linkmarket for about one year - the results were great at that time (2008). It stared to fade as far as results and I've stop using it since it's on the gray area with a lot of dark tones. In today market / SEO i don't advise using it due to the current in place procedures.  Everything that is working great and gets abused will eventually move fast or slow to the dark edge and cross the border...

Now it's the social network session that is looking good. This will also move across the border and become a so called black tactic soon (as soon as to many people are using this and abuse of those signals).

Just my opinion on this matter.