Link Building – How To Do It Right

I wouldn’t be an “SEO Professional” without having some information posted somewhere about Link Building.  Why?  Because inbound links to your site, from other relevant/related sites, make up about 1/2 of the optimization value of your site.  That’s just an estimation because no one knows the true value of links except the brains behind Google/Yahoo/MSN search engines, but if there’s anything you can do outside of on-site optimization, it’s work at building inbound links from quality, related, relevant websites.  I started my SEO career with link building and there are definitely right and very wrong ways to do it.

Here are a few pointers since I see a LOT of developers crying out “why won’t my super-optimized site rank better than my competitor!!!” (wah, wah wah, cry me a river) – so here goes it:

1. Have a well developed site.   Nobody wants to link to – or be associated with – crap.  That’s right, good inbound links start with a good site.  Ask yourself this: is your site’s content unique?  helpful?  worth revisiting?  current?  well-written?  Start answering those questions and you’re BEGINNING the link-building process.
2. Look around. Literally.  Chances are there are brick and mortar buildings for companies and organizations that would be great places to get links.  Just today, a guy in a forum I patrol was looking for SEO tips to push his site for a Tai restaurant (Yum!).  He had zero (0) inbound links, but he knew friends in the restaurant business that had well-performing sites, he lived in a city with a Chamber of Commerce, and his city had a Local Businesses section on their website.  Think about it, if you can get links from 2 government resources and a handful of other restaurants, wouldn’t that seem like your site is a quality resource?  Guess what, Google and Yahoo and MSN will too.  Then you’re off to the races.  Make a few phone calls, send a few emails, rub some elbows, and you’ll pick up some great links.
3. Directories can help  (I don’t care what some people say otherwise). Not all directories were created equal, and in fact, most are worthless, but a very select few are valuable.  DMOZ used to be the king, but since it’s got its share of bogus “editors” the value of the ODP has declined in recent years, however it is still a credible directory to some extent.  The Yahoo! directory charges you $, but if you’ve got 300 bucks laying around, you can get a human reviewed link and get included in a quality directory.  The last one I really recommend is the Business.com directory.  It’s another one where you pay for inclusion, but it’s a positive check mark in favor of your site.  You can also get some traffic from these directories in addition to the link value.
4. Don’t link to just anyone. Many believe that some outbound links to really important sites in your industry can kind of “get you in the hub” so to speak, which makes sense.  It sort of tells the engines “hey, next time you’re over at that industry leading site, check me out, I’m related.”  But if your site is about car tires and you’re linking to a site about red roses, does that make sense?  Again, just watch who you link to because the search engines surely are too.
5. Be creative. If you’ve got a great idea, get it to the web and show it off.  With BILLIONS of Internet users now, you can tap into an audience of hundreds and thousands and so on in a matter of minutes.  Some people call it “link-baiting” while I call it being creative.  Develop something helpful, handy, neato, flashy and show it off.  If it’s as handy to others as it seems to you, they’ll dig what you’ve got and link to it.  The handier your do-dad, the better your idea, the more creative and appealing you seem to be, the more attractive you’ll be to someone who might link to you.

Last thing to think about: links pass value to your site AND traffic.  Don’t simply focus on link building for SEO purpuses because you’ll miss 1/2 the point.  Remember the idea of optimizing a site is to find users and repeat users and a steady flow of those users, and traffic building links are truly key to a site’s success.  You want users and link love, don’t ever, ever forget that.  Ever.

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