October 9, 2007
Mastering Both Kinds Of Link Building - Authority & Reputation
My wife and I still get a giggle out of that bit from the Blues Brothers movie:
Elwood: What kind of music do you usually have here?
Claire: Oh, we got both kinds. We got country *and* western.
What does this have to do with link building? Well, for starters, there are two kinds of link building that everyone needs to do. Not country and western link building, of course… I'm talking about authority (PageRank) and anchor text (reputation).
Why do you need to know the difference? I see people making the same mistakes over and over, wasting time and money on ineffective strategies. The economics of the text link ad "industry" at the moment seem to be driven by people who think that there's only one kind of link building.
How does this help you? Well, if you're promoting a real business and not some kind of made-for-adsense type of site, it means that you can better focus your link building efforts on the stuff that makes the needle move on your rankings and traffic.
The bottom line? To get good SEO results, you need two types of links… and how you go about getting those links can be very different.
Link Building For Authority & PageRank
PageRank and other link-based measurements of a web site or page's "importance" serve two purposes for search engines.
First and foremost, they allow the search engine to reduce the number of pages that they need to consider when trying to produce 1000 search results from potentially millions of pages that match the text of a searcher's query. This helps the search engines solve the huge problems posed by the large scale of the web, especially when handling queries that return millions of potential results based on on-page factors alone.
Secondly, link-based measurements of authority, trust, or importance can be helpful in ranking web pages for presentation to a searcher. Depending on how sophisticated the search engine is, and how well their link approach can scale up to handle the web, they may be able to apply a certain amount of topical or semantic sensitivity - most likely very little.
The big concern for search engine optimizers is that first factor - selection of pages for ranking. If your pages aren't important enough, they won't even be considered, and all the fancy work you did on tweaking your title tags and "keyword density" won't mean a thing. Therefore, a substantial portion of your link building effort needs to go toward creating more links, more authority, more PageRank… but this is actually the easiest part of the job.
Why is it easier? It's easier because any old links will do. It doesn't matter what the text of the link is, as long as you get more links. That means that the entire spectrum of online (and to some extent offline) marketing strategies and tactics are at your disposal. The obvious SEO-focused stuff, like directory submissions, and the not-so-obvious stuff, like actually doing marketing and promotions aimed at your target audience.
If, for example, you carry out a blogger relations campaign targeting those who speak to your potential customers, you may see real bottom line benefits. If a marketing campaign brings in some good traffic and a few links, you can evaluate that campaign based on its profitability, and consider SEO benefits as icing on the cake. As Mike Grehan said once upon a podium, presence builds presence - simply being present in more channels will lead to you getting more links, more authority, more PageRank.
Link building for authority is easier, because you can do just about anything you please. Link bait, public relations, press releases, viral marketing… It all works to get you more links. If you can find any ways to promote your business profitably, and also get links, you've got the "authority thing" more or less solved, because at the moment, relatively few of your SEO competitors are bothering with real marketing.
To build authority, you just need more links. Should you focus some attention on trying to get links from real authority sites in your market or niche? Of course. Should you buy a Yahoo directory listing? Of course. But you can get most of the job done just by promoting your business… and at the end of this article, I'll explain why this pays off more than you might think.
Link Building For Anchor Text & Link Reputation
The hard part of the SEO's job is getting the right anchor text pointing to the right pages… and it's made even harder when you try to combine this type of linking building with the first kind. People trying to do two different jobs with the same tool are the reason why the price of a "PR7 text link" is so high.
Once you liberate yourself from this kind of thinking, "getting anchor text" gets a lot easier.
Once you stop worrying about "PageRank" in your anchor text & reputation, now you're only worried about getting links with the right text pointing to the right pages. As long as the search engines are indexing the page and finding the link, any anchor text link is a good one.
In terms of getting a page ranked higher for a specific search term, give me 10 "PR4" pages with the right text over one "PR7" page any day… and "give" is a whole lot more likely when your only standard for the linking page is that the search engines are going to index it.
I get text links given to me for free all the time, simply by providing unique content to webmasters - call it article marketing, content distribution, or whatever else you like.
When I say "free," I don't mean that this activity has no cost. In fact, it does cost real money to create good unique content that will be attractive to content publishers… but there is no monthly rent for the link, and it's easy to ensure that the content is going to get indexed. Slap links on a couple search keywords in the author's bio on the article, and you've got yourself a nice long term link.
The main difference here is that our options for building "anchor text" links are considerably more limited. It's no surprise to me, therefore, that so many people are hung up on using paid (or rented) links for building anchor text. It sure sounds tempting… but if you think you just need one more PR7 text link ad to get you over the hump, good luck, and enjoy your ever-increasing link rental bills.
Fortunately, in most markets, you probably don't need nearly as much anchor text link building as you think.
When It Comes To Anchor Text, Don't Forget Your Own Site
It's not unusual to examine a search results page and see that the largest site is ranked #1. There's a reason for that.
Naturally, for a large site to get all of its pages indexed, it needs to have more authority (PageRank, whatever) to make that happen. But the other advantage that a large site gains, as more pages are indexed, is that they have more opportunities to create their own anchor text and link reputation within their own pages.
I've seen countless examples, where my students are able to take control of a huge share of search engine referrals in their own markets, simply by making better use of internal linking. In fact, some of our greatest success stories involve students who put almost no emphasis on anchor text in their link building campaigns, and focused instead on creating more unique content within their own sites.
It's Up To You - Laugh, Cry, or Take Action
Some SEOs will applaud this article, others may disagree with me. If it doesn't make sense to you, feel free to ignore it. This article, like the rest of the site, is primarily for the benefit of my "SEO Fast Start" readers. Any interest from the larger SEO community is definitely welcome, but that must be a secondary consideration if I am to serve my audience.
If you want to get out of the link rental rat race… if you're interested in getting an education in creative link building that goes beyond "just buy 'em," then I encourage you to register, download my free book, and watch the free link building clinic that all of my newsletter subscribers receive.
Thanks for reading, and we'll talk more soon.
Filed under Blog, Step 4: Links by Dan Thies
Comments on Mastering Both Kinds Of Link Building - Authority & Reputation »
Hey Dan!
Nice to see you back.
I personally think that sites that focus on building authority (PageRank) have more stable rankings. It is easier to get competitive rankings with external anchor text alone, but it is also riskier.
Hi Dan:
Hat's off to you for being honest enough to let people know it's ok to remove the blinders when it's time to build some links. One way permanent links, high page rank links, unique c-class IP links, I agree, it's just doesn't matter all gets stripped for what they are, just another way to find your website…and build authority.
With the (Country or Western) mentality at the top of the list for most SEO's. It's nice to find a refreshing new perspective about link building. I will definitely be reading more of your posts, and keeping an eye out for every bit of knowledge you select to share with the community.
Thanks again…
Hi there Dan!
Is it still the case that by having (hyphen-seperated?) keyphrases within your domain name, all links displaying your domain name, eg:
http://www.cheap-widgets.com
will have the included keyphrases (ie. cheap widgets) counting towards your reputation?
I remember it being the conventional wisdom that search engines wouldn't penalise for over-repetition of this (as it was your domain name), and that it was a way of including your primary keyphrase on sites not displaying "customised" linktext…
Is this still true as far as you know?
I agree Dan. ca-seo.com was indexed and pulling rank in under 6 weeks on a brand new domain purchase. I followed several of your tips from 2004, Seattle HR Conf,) coupled with some of your new ideas.
Great concepts and implmentation "logic" on top of "strategy"!! Read on people; read on.
The best way to build authority is to get top 4 Google rankings for keyword phrases related to your niche.
Content that ranks well will get noticed and linked to naturally. Content that doesn't get noticed won't get linked to at all.
To get noticed, do these 3 things:
1 - Make your content "remarkable"
2 - Use the correct on-page SEO format
3 - Use keyword rich anchor text links on your site
For some reason, step 2 always gets overlooked…
@ Dom, as far as I know, yes.
@ Jeff, Hamlet, & Jason: Thanks!
Dan, I was telling my wife this morning how learning SEO is a lot like trying to learn a new language; at first you get a few words and phrases down and it seems like, "Hey, this isn't so hard!"
Then you start digging into grammar, vocab, pronunciations, rules, exceptions to the rules, slang, idioms, etc., and before too long you feel like there is no way anyone could ever learn this stuff or make sense of it.
Thanks for organizing "the chaos" so I can start making sense of it and feel hope that this is both 'learnable' and 'doable.'
You are performing an incredibly valuable service for us.
Thank you!
I regularly link my posts from to another. Unfortunately can't always use the anchor text that I would like.
I only start my blog a few weeks ago and only made the decision about which keyword I would go after to start with. But even in that short time my posts are being indexed and my keyword is slowly moving up in the rankings.
An excellent article and gives a different take to authority linking. Now I know you're not a believer in ThemeZooms LSI principles but do you think that their method of building directories containing similar related articles and linking them from one to the next one is a good way to go about internal linking? With the last article linking to the top of the next directory? I've just built a site with that structure and its been indexed quickly (within a few days) with some useful key phrases appearing on Google first page in about 100,000 page results. I'd appreciate your opinion.
Sorry Dan I didn't put my website details in my last post. May get me link?
Hi Dan,
I am new to SEO and have found your fast start book excellent reading. I only wish I had read it before we set up our site. How important do you think that keyword rich domain names are? For example, our domain is perfectfloridavillas.com will this not rank as well as perfect-florida-villa.com. If it was really worth it we may change it. However, keep up the good work and I have implemented many of your recommendations.
Steve
Hi Dan. Thanks for your article. This reply might be slightly "off-topic" - I have found for some very competitive keywords, pages that are ranking on the first page of Google have 60 - 70 % of anchor text as the keyword, 50% + of their links are from "off-topic", non-related sites, and 60% + of all links have an average PR of 2.1 - 2.8.
[...] through social bookmarks, or to Sphinn it, or Digg it, an in kind, here is the latest article by Dan Thies at SEO FastStart on link building. This one really it a fire for me, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. if you [...]
Hello Dan,
I decided on your "Take Action" option (quite a while ago). Your advice has been working out well.
Thanks,
Jeff
P.S. Blues Brothers: I'll have 2 fried chickens and a coke (I love that)
That's four fried chickens, Jeff.
And some dry white toast, please.
@John, the site structure sounds fine. I did have a recent post on structure, and Halfdeck's spider should confirm the soundness of your structure if you can work out how to use it.
@Steve, I think having keywords as part of the business name or domain name makes sense, because people will use that business or site name frequently… but people can also spell it out just fine. I don't like hyphenated domain names for a lot of reasons, none really related to SEO as such.
So does having the theme name in the domain count for nothing?
Does it make just as much sense to use a nonsense name such as xanga.com?
What don't you like about the hyphenated url? The look of it?
Do you always have to be right
“It's 106 miles to Chicago. We got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses!………………..HIT IT!!!”
Hi, Dan
I would just like to say that I read your awesome book, and started implementing some of the techniques you mentioned, and is working very well for me. Also, I liked this article.
Thanks for sharing.
Dirt Bike Games Master
Hey Dan,
I just launched my hammock store in August and I've done about 100 directory submissions and I've been submitting about 1 article a week through iSnare.com for distribution. Building links are tough! I had an idea of doing a hammock give-away and submitting a press release about it. I think that might build a lot of links and it wouldn't cost me too much. What do you think about this idea?
-Adam
Hey Dan,
Great post. I am often torn between buying links and actually doing the work of creating new useful content. Buying links does seem like an easier way out, but also more of a hit or miss or even temporary solution.
But I guess with any good marketing plan you need to cater to both. My problem is finding the good paid links that aren't an arm and a leg.
Hi Dan,
Great book and article. I am in the process of doing some SEO for a client. I'm new to SEO even though I've been reading on it for 2 years. What I'm running into is this site doesn't really seem like a candidate for article writing. The site itself is the owners way of promoting a development they own in which they are trying to sell the lots. Maybe I'm being a short-sited on this but what do you do to build links for a site that isn't around for delivering content or e-commerce?
Michelle
@Adam, if it works as marketing, then it's great. But if it were going to happen in my company, I'd expect to see more of a marketing plan than "we're going to do a press release." A little extra time and effort could make a huge difference in the outcome.
What makes your hammock giveaway contest compelling? Could it go viral? Let me sit down in my marketing beanbag for a minute and get the brainstorming started…
Maybe you sponsor a "Gilligan's Island Lookalike" contest, tell people to put their best shots on Flickr with a "Gilligan Lookalike Contest" tag, and all you have on your site are the contest rules & instructions.
Are there fan sites and ancient-TV blogs that might be interested? Should you write the first post about it on your own blog? Do you have a blog?
OK, your turn - how can you make it work? What other ideas come to mind when you sit down in your marketing beanbag and fire up a bowl of whatever marketing majors smoke?
@Drew, there are different types of paid links. Putting any of the white-black-purple hat stuff aside, in general, you probably don't want to RENT links.
If I'm ever going to pay someone for a link, I'd rather pay them to put some content on their site, or pay to get a link from the phrase that's already there on some existing content… and I'd rather pay once. Jim Boykin has offered some thoughts on this as well.
@Michelle, I assume that's a lead generation site, and that it's got a limited lifespan. Aside from the name of the development, there are probably only a small number of search terms worth even pursuing from an SEO standpoint, most likely with fairly low competition.
For real estate, there are zillions of vertical directories, there should be local directories, there are a few general-purpose directories like Yahoo that are worth investing in. There's a good chance that the "competition" are also lead generators, and they may be open to partnerships - I assume your clients are able to share revenue in the form of commissions, spiffs, etc.
If you think about what can be done to promote the business - the development - the website, a lot of those things will also generate links.
Hey Dan,
Thanks for another informative article. I have one question about Anchor Text Links. I just read today that the anchor text that you use in an external post or article should be the same as the Title of the page to which it's pointing. What do you think?
Diane, that makes no sense - maybe you only got half of the story?
i will pass this on to anyone who is interested in optimizing. question there was a page where there was paid and free submission sites.i can not seem to locate them i believe these are the ones you suggested.also using microsoft html checker realizing these individuals were pseudo programmers apparrently there were a lot of errors.if you look at my site it was costly i am trying to generate some revenue. i am following your advice maybe oneday i can be a poster child on how valuable your info is. thanks for generosity for what others charge for something they have minimal knowledge.
Well, here's the quote from Paul Forcey from CommentHut: "it's also very important that your anchor text is the same as the page title of your web page." Sometimes I use quotations like "I don't have time to waste…I need to learn German quickly!" as my page titles, so it would be awkward to use that entire quote as anchor text. I've been posting external blog entries with only "learn German." I look forward to your insight, Dan.
Great articles. Thank you Dan!
Dan wrote…
When It Comes To Anchor Text, Don't Forget Your Own Site
Amen! This single bit of advice is so remarkably powerful I wish more people realized it. Nice Dan!
-Eric
Our friends at Amazon know that very well, no?
@Diane, he must be talking about his "commenting" software.
I must admit that I thought that a good way to use Anchor Text was to use the page title. What should you use as the Anchor Text?
There's nothing "wrong" about using page titles in links, but that's not the only way to write a link. Writing links as calls to action, or for navigation, I can't say that using the page title would be so great.
What Paul Forcey is talking about is his opinion on how to improve the odds that your blog comments won't be deleted. But he also thinks that posting comments on blogs is a great way to build links, so, um, grain of salt on anything else he has to say.
Thanks, Dan!
Thanks for the advice Dan. You have essentially confirmed what I was thinking - marketing the business is the key not ranking high in the SERPs.
I did explain that to the client at the beginning but they are focused on ranking well in the search engines not looking at the total marketing of the development so it will be interesting to see how this works out.
Again, thank you for the excellent information you provide!
Michelle
Dan, great post.
The distinction between link types is invaluable. We've been doing that for ages now - since we started it's made work a lot easier.
And as Eric points out, the internal link suggestion (handled properly) is a very good tool in the box.
But the Gilligan's Isle hammock example is the picture worth a thousand words. Thanks for that.
[...] Thies explains the difference between Link Building for Authority and Link Building for Reputation. Never thought of it this way, but it is so very much true. Like Dan points out, "presence [...]
Regarding that advice about using the destination title as the anchor - surely this makes sense, it just depends how long or appropriate your title is as the anchor. Just another SEO/usability trade-off.
IMO the balance should be toward the usability/appropriateness, otherwise you wander into spam territory and wind-up just annoying users and potentially reducing the click-throughs to your site. Plus I think the more words used in the anchor of a link, the less weight is given to each.
(I've no evidence of this last point, perhaps this is already general knowledge - what's your view Dan?)
Oh and keep up the good work
Ad
@Alec, thanks. A lot of people have been working that way for a long time. My next post will explain why bean bag chairs and hookahs are vital SEO tools.
@Ad, thanks! I don't really buy the idea that you need to trade off usability for SEO. There's always another way.
If you write your titles as good clickable calls to action, then using the title in a link would make sense more often… and that just might do something good for your click-through rate from search results too.
(That's a hint about my next article/post, BTW)
Whether more or less words would make a difference in the value of anchor text, sort of, but it's not that simple, and not worth losing conversions over.
Ron, that's a great analogy! On the surface it all looks so simple, but once you start digging - it's a 24/7/365 job. I just wish my clients would get it!
Thanks Dan, it's an interesting view about link building, never thought about it before, it makes a lot of sense.
Dan,
I enjoyed reading your articles. I am a newbie at this type of business and trying to learn how to be successful, I am trying to learn the best way to build my links for my site as I want to try to do this the right way the first time. I am sure you could help to direct me in the right direction, truthfully i don't understand a lot of this info or how to utilize it in the right way.
Any help would be greatfully appreciated. Thanks,
Richard Wallace
Two Types of Links…
The World Wide Web is nothing without links; it's how we browse-link to link to link and it's how Google rates webpages. As a result we all want more links. A link is a kind of vote and we all want to be popular. On the web this means that …
dan i used to buy leads for insurance and mortgage any suggestions how to get this going. any input would be helpful.i am a person who likes to see everyone be sucessful. also how do i spread the word of your service i am not a computer genious.i am not a hater a congratulater
Hi Dan,
Thank you for the article.
Recently, i put up a set of new pages on our site : http://www.vkinfotek.com
I followed the seo format and within 3 days of upload and a few incoming links - to my astonishment, the main page for the new set of pages is coming up within 15 results in google.
The keyphrase is 'create web service' - which is a competitive keyphrase.
I wish i had done this for our site ….. back in 2003.
If one wishes to see, visit :
http://www.vkinfotek.com/webservice/createwebservice.aspx
Thank you Dan.
Dan
Excellent work and excellent Website.
Your free book is very good but do you sell a home study course about link building? I know the general theory, but I would like some step by step action plan in order to implement this as a process.
Andres, if you subscribed to the newsletter, you should have access to my 6-week video course on link building. If not, just reply to any of the newsletter emails or subscription confirmations and we'll get you a link.
[...] Dan/SEO Fast Start: Mastering Both Kinds Of Link Building - Authority & Reputation [...]
Dear Dan
Please can you help me.
I have 2 questions:
a)Who would pay me to write / blog various articles for them on a flat fee content basis?
b)Which companies would publish and pay me for writing an ebook…maybe they would sell the ebook on my behalf too?
I already with Lulu, but would greatly appreciate your expertise on any other ebook publisher and Writing source to contribute to.
Thank you Dan for your time and wisdom.
Yours appreciatively
Bernard Levine
wordstotreasure@yahoo.com
Bernard,
a) I don't know, but perhaps your comment will help you find some customers.
b) Why not self-publish?
Bernard,
Go to: http://www.payperpost.com Also, you can advertise your services for a 1.00 on sitepoint.com or try posting your info on guru.com or elance.
I have linked to sites such as Search Engine Land, Search Engine Guide, Techmeme, Small Business SEM, Search Engine Watch, and the list goes on. I have done so because I either found something resourceful to my readers, something that helped to support what I was writing about or simply due to the fact that the site I linked to was the original source of my own writing. These same sites have in turn linked back to our site for the very same reasons. That is true reciprocal linking. So is this a bad thing? Is Google, or any other search engine going to devalue those links because they are not true "one-way" links? I don't think so. This is a natural process of the web and search engines are smart enough to understand that.
Agreed, Alfred - that's a very different type of linking than the "link exchange" that's done purely for SEO reasons.
Hi Dan,
I'm using Wordpress for my blog, and every time that I create a new post with a contextual link back to an old post within my blog, I receive a comment email which shows the link in the comments section. Should I delete these links or are they good for pagerank?
Thanks!
[...] by Jonathan Fields - The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Link Builders, by Debra Mastaler - Building Links for Authority and Reputation, by Dan Thies - What Makes a Good Directory, by Rand Fishkin - 11 Guidelines for Attracting [...]
Interesting article Dan, I didn't download your free ebook yet, but you definitively need to get links from multiple sources.
As for page rank (I came to your blog through Andy Beard's blog post about PR), it's really my LAST concern when it comes to building websites and getting traffic with SEO.
I have a simple system that work. The key is consistency.
Btw, your seo blog is nice. Thanks for the great articles, I am browsing right now…
Franck.
The Body Guard Marketer.
[...] Mastering Both Kinds Of Link Building - Authority & Reputation Dan Thies, SEO Fast Start | 10/9/07 [...]
Hi Dan,
I had such an accelerated learning just by reading your blog and your faststart ebook and videos. Thanks.
btw, I noticed that your blog is 'nofollow'. So i guess it will not benefit even if i put my anchor text in the 'Name' field in this blog
Actually rel="nofollow" is a discount not an absolute. Nobody knows the exact value of that discount but from my (and Dan's) experience, it's not that high (50% or less).
So you are a better ranked Timothy now.
And have one more small vote for your site. Weblog comments are actually better for generating foot traffic than SEO rankings.
Huh??? As far as I know, a link with nofollow is not followed or counted by any search engines.
I don't publish an RSS feed for comments, so Timothy isn't going to get any help from RSS-driven sploggers either.
Dan, I promise you nofollow links count for quite a bit. I thought you did know that.
I know of several top-ranked sites whose rankings are built nearly entirely on nofollow links.
They are good websites with serious onsite SEO and quality content so they aren't being demoted as spam as a lot of other sites with a lot of nofollow links.
I know I am new to SEO but to me a rel "nofollow" attribute, should do just that. If the search engines obey it how can the link be of any SEO value?
There are a couple ways, Steve.
First, RSS feeds and screen scraping mean that nothing is guaranteed to stay inside the box, or on the site where the link first appeared.
Comment spammers and sploggers know that a nofollow here doesn't mean the link won't end up somewhere else.
If search engines index RSS feeds nofollow may not translate there, so those links might have some juice as a result.
Even if the link on a blog is completely ignored, a link in the RSS feed for that blog's comments could be counted.
Second, the interpretation of nofollow isn't enshrined in law.
Search engines could ignore it selectively, and they probably wouldn't tell us.
If, for example, they decide that my blog is well-moderated and trustworthy, they might count some or all of my nofollowed links in spite of the public definition.
Or, BTW, as Alec suggests… if a site is seen as trustworthy, search engines might decide to ignore nofollow on links pointing to that site.
If we keep in mind that their goal is to reduce webspam, and not to "carve up the web," it's perfectly plausible.
I don't know how you could do a controlled test for any of these scenarios, since it's probably impossible to construct a site and prevent it from collecting regular (followed) links.
But just because we can't test for it, that doesn't mean it's out of the question.
Dan - my two cents.
I have often thought that strategiclly placed links with nofollow tell the engines you know what is of value and what is a password protected directory or memember login.
so in my honest opinion i believe that nofollow helps your ranking and can control where your pages pass pageRank.
(this has been on my desktop for several hours. My apologies if there is duplication.
JASE
Dan, you've hit the nail on the head.
The converse is true.
These days one must careful where your incoming links are coming from.
By accidentally participating in unmoderated discussion (a legitimate site but overwhelmed by spam), one of my sites was penalised within days on that term.
As you point out, an absolutely controlled experiment would be time-consuming and inconclusive. Those who have attempted it came back with my own field-proven conclusions.
Of course, the search engines reserve the right to change and vary their nofollow policy as and when they see fit.
As good old Jill has been harping since the beginning of time, quality original content (on a well-organised and attractive website) is always trump.
Cordial regards, Alec
Whatever the value or no value of rel="nofollow", let test anyway. I am putting my anchor text to cover all grounds. It the SEs ignores it - thats fine. But seems rather confusing to me at this moment. I still think that SEs will obey the rel="nofollow" and not give any value to it. But lets just say that i like to cover all grounds
No harm anyway….
But i am definitely staying in the SEOFASTStart community!
Thanks Dan and everyone in the conversation!
p/s: Hi Dan, i will just put this one anchor text..i promise not to spam this discussion page…i value all your sharing too much to be banned from it all
Timothy
Timothy, you're a contributor here, so don't worry 'bout the link.
No followed links are picked up by yahoo aren't they? I've got links picked up from this page on Yahoo site explorer.
Have a look for yourself ^
Google shows nofollowed links in Webmaster Tools, too, but that doesn't mean they're counting for anything.
Hello again Dan,
I've done tests. Nofollow links count. I can't show you the results as they are on live sites.
I dont have time for separate tests - why do tests for free when you can make money and increase site rankings while running them live. The only exception I can see is for tests which might have a negative impact on a site. I run those live too, but on experimental sites.
If somebody has the time to waste (or the spare employees) to run a close box test, I'd welcome it. Maybe you could put some of the Stompernet millions to work.
Cordial regards,
Alec
It's perfectly plausible, Alec. If I ran a search engine, I'd want to be more selective about it, and I don't think I'd tell anyone about it.
Hi Dan,
I have read and looove your book. It's amazing!
I'd like to ask you a question on link building strategies.
I plan on creating a website on party ideas.
I know I need to get other webmasters to link to my site. I feel kind of awkward asking for this even if I do have quality content and great reasons for them to link to me.
Do you think that offering a webmaster that has a high pr on their site some exclusive article or something like that will motivate them to link to me?
Or maybe a free report for them to offer their visitors- or printables that I create with my royalty free images(that I have already purchased)
Do you know of any strategies to approach other webmasters that might work—and not scare them off?
thanks for any help:-)
Eren
Eren,
It's easier to promote a free report or something like that, and you don't have to spend all that time begging for links. Have you watched my free link building video course already?
hi dan - I actually haven't seen that video. can you post the link to it here?
in relation to the begging for links part — I'm just brainstorming ways to get anchor text backlinks that have value. thinking of a strategy that would work for my specific niche.
I'm the analytical type- think before acting so I don't make bad decisions.:0)
thanks for your help,
Eren
Eren, that's a subscriber bonus, so I'll make sure to include the links in the next newsletter.
Okay- I've been subscribed for a while now- I'll be looking forward to the next newsletter:-)
Eren
Wonderful article, i will sure take these tips into consideration.
Thankyou Dan for your seo pdf it's helped me understand seo a great deal more.
Becks x.
HI friends,
I have a question,my site houseboatskahsmir.com is showing very good numbers in google.com but when seen in google.co.in it does not show any good result.
I have submitted to various regfional directories and search engines but the rankings are no where.Can anybody help me .
Thanks
houseboatskashmir.com
Link building can be done in some effective ways
Firstly submitting sites to blog directories
Free general directories
Seo friendly directories
Submitting in high pr non reciprocal directories
Do massive link exchange
Leave comments on others blogs
Last but not the least is CONTENT
IT IS SAID CONTENT IS THE KING,therefore good content will gain importamnce and good quality back links
I would love to get more in debth testing on this, as it appears that it is the fine balance. I had a high ranking site on the first page of google and yahoo. I remain on yahoo and dropped off google. I looked back at some of my linking and it appears that it may have a large reason as the I had a large amount of in bound links. Speculation…however I think that played a large part on google although it didn't effect yahoo. Oh well back to the drawing board.
Always enjoy your blogs and wisdom
Megan