Link Building

[azguy]

I've been hearing about going after niche directories, and my question is most of them have a ton of links on any given page. Is it even worth taking the time to approach these sites knowing they won't pass a lot of link juice?

[EGOL]

If you have an established site with good linkpower these sites will add such a miniscule amount of boost that they probably are not worth your time.

If you have a brand new site that has close to zero power then the miniscule contribution from these sites might give a tiny amount of help.

If you are in the second situation above there is something else to consider... if you want to have a serious website that ranks well and pulls in nice traffic at some point you must figure out how to pull in some genuine links and on that basis it is probably better to get straight to that work than spend valuable time chasing directory links.

The only exception to the above are the few directories that are associated with successful websites (that are not directories) but that simply have a page of links for a topic like... places to play golf in Upstate New York.

[azguy]

That's what I thought. It seems there are only really maybe a half dozen to a dozen effective link building methods and strategies.

[EGOL]

Only one works for me and that is producing good content.  I spend 100% of my time on that and 0% on linkbuilding.  Every minute that you spend on content creation is spent creating a traffic-pulling asset.

I could spend time begging people to link to my content... but if you have good content people will like, tweet, share, digg, stumble.. .and that generates traffic and with that traffic a few links.  So just make more content and make it very easy for people to share.  The key is to make content that people want to share.

[RyanKent]

I wholeheartedly agree with EGOL.

When you spend time chasing directories, filling out forms, etc. it feels so completely fake. You recognize the sole purpose of the activity is to get a link for search engines, not to benefit users.

If you found a great site that talked about golf or whatever your interests are, and they had a page which listed the best golf courses by area, then I would surely recommend trying to list your site on that page. Real people interested in your topic will see it and learn about your site. That has value.

If you launch a website often you have a lot of specific knowledge about the topic or know others who do. Share that knowledge! You probably know all sorts of tidbits about the best golf courses, players, rules you like or don't like, where to buy clubs or clothes, discussions about sponsors and so many other topics. Those articles need to be shared in a high quality way.

If you run short of content, then you can look to your users. Many would jump at the opportunity to provide great content if you give them the opportunity. Adding a forums and/or blog to your site can generate great ideas and capture a lot of long tail traffic. You can emulate what SEOmoz does and promote great forum articles (the Q&A section is basically a forum) to your blog.

It's all about the content.

[azguy]

The only issue with producing good content is when you have an ecommerce site, and it's mostly product pages. Then what?

[KeriMorgret]

Product reviews are a great source of content. If you're not the manufacturer, rewrite the description and enhance what the manufacturer provided. Make your product page the ultimate source of information on that particular product.

Why would I choose this product over another one? What's the best use for this particular product? What type of people use it? Is it for beginners or for advanced people? What is the product made of? Is it made in the USA? Has it won awards? etc. etc. etc. All the stuff that's a lot easier to sit here and write about doing than actually taking the time to sit down and do (which is why there are product pages on my site that are nearly empty ).

[azguy]

I have changed all my product descriptions from all the other retail sites in my niche, for that exact reason. To not have duplicate content, or at worse, the same content as all my competitors. But you gave me some good ideas Do you want to right these for me

[KeriMorgret]

If it's the topic you've talked about before, I know nothing about that, so I would not be the one to write about it. For ecommerce, check out Rob Snell. His site is at http://www.robsnell.com/, and I've seen him speak at Pubcon, and listened to him on an interview at Webmaster Radio (probably in their ecommerce experts show). He talks about how he gets content for his brother's product pages. IIRC, he sits down with a tape recorder and has his brother tell him all about why you would want this particular product for your hunting dog, what makes it great, what are some of the questions that they get on the phone all the time, and then goes and writes all that up for the site.

[azguy]

Thanks, I've heard of him before.

[azguy]

Thanks, I've heard of him before.