Link Building

[RobSchofield]

We have just recently launched a new website in Australia and as l am new to the SEO community, l was looking for a little advice on link building.

Where is best to start? There are not many authorative websites for our industry. Are there specific websites that are good to link to? Are there any good tools to assist with this?

Any help would be great. Thank you.

[julianhearn]

Link building is changing / has changed. Google is getting tougher, so make sure you read recent advice as old advice could get you in trouble with google.

This is a good recent guide: http://moz.com/blog/link-building-101-the-almost-complete-link-guide-updated-for-post-penguin

[Johnny4B]

Hi Robert,

Firstly and most importantly ,do not get some automated tool to do this for you ,as tempting as it might be ..  as reassuring as some of these software's sales pitch is, do not use them !!!!

Second thing, one good link (from an authority) is worth 20 low level links ... So focus on quality as opposed to quantity,

Build links that are related to your community, for example if you resell a service or products ,ask your supplier to link your website, try and get linked off any authorities within your industry (I know you mentioned there aren't that many but they would be worth a lot more than any low level links.)

Have quality content on your website (you never mentioned what type of website you built), have content that people would want to share, make it interesting, relevant, make it content people would want to share.

List your business on Google places, this will help immensely with local searches.

There are some high quality directories you can list your website on, they mostly charge, its really down to what you're budget is. It really depends on your business, but I and plenty have ranked websites well without having to pay a fortune out.

Start building your social presence, really important now, get people liking your content, get them building your links for you, try and build a community around your website ....

That should help you for a start, its not easy so don't expect it to be, but if you do it correctly at the beginning ... you should reap the rewards in the future (yes cliche but true).

Regards

John

[TomRayner]

Hi Robert

Are there any broader fields that your industry could fall under?

It's perfectly fine to offer content on topics partially related to your site if they offer some great user value.  For instance, your website may offer horse trailers (it just came into my head) - but your expertise may include small business management and how to manage accounts, logistics and how to ensure multiple deliveries reach their destination on time and so on.  If you can write on these topics and offer a unique take on things, you could get other websites to link to you.

So you can think outside the box, as it were.  Also, if you haven't claimed your local listings, that's a good place to start.  Enter your URL to getlisted.org.

And I thoroughly recommend having a look at Jon Cooper's link building tactics.  There's a great compendium here that you can filter on things like time and resource, as well as this series on the most creative link building examples you will find.

[RobSchofield]

Thank you Julian.

[RobSchofield]

Thank you for that John. I've noticed that some of our competitors that rank high in the organic searches link with sites that have a high DA but low PA and visa versa. Which is better to target and what is classed as high?

[RobSchofield]

Thank you Tom