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Link popularity has been written
about ad nausea, but most articles address the subject
from a perspective circa 2001. The available information
usually focuses on topics such as reciprocal linking or
the current price of a PR6 link. But following outdated
link building advice is more likely to get your Web site
penalized than it is to help you gain top rankings.
Google's increasingly sophisticated algorithm has largely
caught on to PageRank brokers and has successfully
filtered out the benefits of many bought links, as well as
those of reciprocal links. The risk of obtaining these
types of links is even greater for a new site, as
detection of an "unnatural" link structure has
recently gotten many sites "sandboxed" to the
bottom of the SERPs. For this reason, a link popularity
campaign must be conducted carefully and yield relevant,
"natural" links.
The methods described in this article will give your Web
site backlinks that fit the following criteria, which are
important for keeping a site out of the
"sandbox":
1) The link is on a Web page that is hosted on a unique IP
address.
2) The link is on a Web page that
itself has a unique, wholly independent set of backlinks.
3) The link is on a Web page that is
at least loosely relevant to your Web site's topic.
4) The link is created within a
week.
Numbers 1-3 are important so that your Web site's new
backlinks are independent and natural, and do not trip a
filter in the search engine algorithm; number 4 ensures
that you can move on to more advanced link building
tactics before your competition gets further ahead.
Directories have always been cited as a basic
starting point for a link popularity campaign. Listings in
the Open Directory Project and the Yahoo! Directory ensure
that a site will be spidered and indexed quickly and also
provide a reputable backlink. In the past few years
however many general and niche directories have sprung up,
most charging a yearly or one-time fee to be listed.
Webmasters have questioned the ROI from being listed in
these second-tier directories, as most provide little
traffic and charge 10-50 USD per listing.
But listings in these directories provide important link
popularity benefits for a Web site. A link from a
directory fits the four criteria we laid out above-each of
these directories has a unique set of backlinks and is
hosted on a unique IP, the site's URL will be placed on a
topical page, and all of the directories review and add
new submissions within a week. With directory listings
alone, a new Web site can gain a few dozen quality
backlinks for under 1000 USD (not counting Yahoo!). Aaron
Wall of SEO Book has provided a good list of directories
at http://www.seobook.com/archives/000166.shtml.
Press Releases provide an opportunity to announce
your Web site, and just as importantly, provide a backlink
to your Web site from a relevant page (it had better be
relevant-after all, it's an article about your Web site!).
A press release should be well-written and submitted to
multiple newswires. In less than a week, it will be
published on its own Web page by each newswire and
possibly by the newswires' syndication partners as well.
The writer should be sure to include a link in the body of
the press release in http://www.mysite.com format. Again,
these backlinks meet the four criteria we laid out above.
Newswires usually charge a fee to publish a press release,
although a few offer this service for free. You can view
the Open Directory Project's category of press release
services at http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/Pro
motion/Press_Release_Services/
Articles: Another great method for gaining quality
backlinks, as well as publicity, is to write and publish a
helpful article. The author can write a relevant,
informative piece on your Web site's subject, which of
course includes a link to your Web site in http://www.mysite.com
format. General "how-to" sites (and often, news
sites in your particular niche) accept article submissions
and will often reprint a relevant, well-written piece.
It's free content for them, and a backlink for you-a
win-win situation. The author of THIS article swears by
this method, and once again notes that it fits all four of
our criteria for a timely and quality backlink. Aaron Wall
of SEO Book has provided a list of Web sites that accept
article submissions at http://www.seobook.com/archives/000099.shtml.
Just Say 'No': Although it may be tempting, you
should stay away from reciprocal linking, except in the
rare case where the link is relevant and helpful to your
visitors. Likewise, you should avoid renting links from
link brokers or networks; the links they sell are usually
filtered by Google. These two types of links will have a
minimal impact on your search engine rankings anyway and
may even get your Web site "sandboxed."
Instead, seek quality one-way inbound links by the methods
described in this article; if you have exhausted these
tactics, or if you have run out of money, you can always
beg for links from relevant Web sites. If your site
contains quality, original content, you may not even need
to beg!
Conclusion: The success of a search engine
optimization campaign depends greatly upon link
popularity. Getting a Web site listed in directories,
distributing press releases and submitting articles for
syndication are three ways to gain a slew of legitimate
backlinks from unique IP's relatively quickly. This will
keep the site out of the "sandbox" and give any
SEO campaign a sound link structure to build upon.
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