I've seen several questions on here regarding link building, and as most of you know I'm pretty against it - because in its most common form its just pure spam.

Anyway, I thought I'd share a technique with you that I've had some success with recently that isnt worth a post on my blog, but may be of some help to people wanting to build up link equity.

 

So, I hate link building in general because 99% of people think that link building is spamming your link across as many places as possible, and that it 'helps your rankings'

 

And the answer is..

No. It doesnt.

(highlight the black box to reveal the answer)

Lets take it back to basics,

Why do we build links?

Because it helps build Page Rank

 

What does Page Rank do?

Increases Google's "trust" in a site

 

How does Google's "trust" benefit me?

If your site is adequately coded, then you will be more likely to rank highly.

 

This is crucial, it will not gain you rankings and it will not improve your rankings - but it will make your site more likely to rank highly for a larger number of key phrases.

If you're wondering what the difference, think of it like this

 

I am a baker (bear with me) and I bake cakes, every day, I take my cakes to sell to the local bakery

- at first the bakery arent really sure if people will like my cakes, so they put them towards the back of the shop, but as they get positive feedback from other people - they begin to trust me more. So when I bring in new cakes, they are more likely to place them in the shop window.

 

They don't move my cakes around specifically based on what people say (inbound links), but they trust my cooking abilities more, and as such as less likely to scrutinise over a questionable looking chocolate tart.

 

So, if you followed any of that cake crap - the higher your PR the more Google trusts your content to be of high quality, and as such worthy of ranking highly. If that makes sense?

So, the next question is - How can I get Google to trust me?

 

Well, lets go back to the cake analogy (very, very briefly because even I'm beginning to think that it was a bad idea now)

 

On Monday, a thief, a spam artist, a child, and a prostitute recommend my cakes to the baker.

He laughs.

 

On Tuesday, a local bakery magazine recommend my cakes to the baker.

He instantly takes notice, and trusts me much more.

Google is very much the same,

Spam your links around to 300 directories, and Google laughs.

Get a feature on smashingmagazine, and Google is impressed.

Google's trust in you (PR) is then updated accordingly.

The problem with PR is finding a starting point, its a bit of a Catch22, you can't get high-PR sites to link to you unless you have high-PR, and you can't get high-PR unless high-PR sites link to you. (and if that wasnt a mouthful of cake then nothing is)

 

A solution that I've used to good effect (that's right, we're actually getting to the point now) is to build your own external sites to generate PR, and then pass it on to your primary site.

 

Wordpress.com - incase you're wondering.

 

I set up 3 wordpress.com subdomains 3 months ago, and posted for the most part at least 3 times a week on all of them. I didn't limit myself to a niche, I stuck with current events to write about, and I tagged all my blogs properly (the most important part).

As a result my 3 little blogs started appearing in 'popular searches' on the wordpress.com homepage (linked in through the tags).

Now these links from the homepage results are PR6, which was passed down to my little blogs on the last update, which are now PR3, PR3, and PR2.

 

So not only can I now pass on permanent 'power' or 'trust' to my own site, I can also utilise future blog posts for relevant external link building for my clients, and link to them when writing an article relevant to their industry.

In closing,

 

Before you start directory hunting - try building something yourself and using it. Its more work, but its worth a lot more in the long run.

Thanks, great informative post.

 

Mind sharing the url's to the blogs?

 

Greetz R-J

I would mind actually.

SEO is a very closed industry, you will rarely see direct examples of work because its simply an invitation for your competition to steal/abuse your work.

Nice post there my eggy friend!

I like the idea but like a lot of people I imagine, would soon run out of ideas for new posts on the 3? other blogs.

Do you not find it all very time consuming?

Understandable was just wondering what you write about 3 times a week I would run out of stuff to say very soon. And does it matter if the content is related to the sites your linking to.

I love this idea and am actually doing it myself, obvioulsy alot more work but I feel it will benfit me alot in the future.

Well I run about 15 wordpress blogs, but only 3 entice me enough to write on them regularly - and they are the ones working best.

The key is to keep it open, if you like web design then dont have a web design blog, have a tech blog. Write a short post every day about design / development / hardware / software / rants / office gripes / games / time saving tips / tech industry news / funny tech stories

 

Keep it really wide and light hearted.

 

RE contextual links - they're always better, but not always possible. The majority of my links from these types of blogs are what I refer to as 'half contextual', the link is directly related to the sentence/paragraph its in, but not directly related to the overall article.

 

For example

 

I write an article about lindsay lohan,

 

In the third paragraph I speculate that she's an alcoholic, and drop in a link to a local vineyard. The link fits in with whats around it, but isnt directly related to the article, which is about good ol' Linsay.

 

I find that this works best because it gives me enough freedome to write about whatever I want, but still keep the link relevant.

In the third paragraph I speculate that she's an alcoholic, and drop in a link to a local vineyard. The link fits in with whats around it, but isnt directly related to the article, which is about good ol' Linsay.

 

Thanks again, great resource this.

I'm not sure this is the most efficient way of working. You're saying for every blog you run, you need to create and run three others to help promote it.

 

Why not focus your time on making your original blog even better and then do link swaps with other related blogs. When you run out of related blogs to link swap with, then spend your time extending your blog so you can link swap with a new batch of blogs that are related to the new content. Create content that other blogs/sites want to link to. This is the approach I take with a blog of mine.

 

I'm not sure how relevant a UK vineyard is to Lohan's alcohol problems, or the linkage you get is worth the effort.

 

I agree, submitting to 10,000 directories is a waste of time/money but I don't think creating 15 supporting blogs per main blog is that much better.

"fruit and veg" where did I say that I do this 'for every blog I run' ?

 

Riciprocal linking stopped being effective in 2004, as did 3 and 4 way linking.

 

As for the rest (made up parts and all) you're entitled to your opinion.

Riciprocal linking stopped being effective in 2004, as did 3 and 4 way linking.

 

So if a popular site like Engadget offered you a link in return for a link back, you'd refuse?

 

If a link from one site is totally ineffective then why the vineyard link from your Lohan post?

 

And if you don't do this for every blog, why is that? Too time consuming?

 

Not being an arse, just trying to understand what exactly you mean.

You say that, but you don't read what I type.

I didn't say linking was ineffective, I said reciprocal linking was ineffective - because you can't control sites that aren't yours. And while a poor site linking to you does no harm at all, linking TO a poor site does a fair amount of damage.

 

As for your second question, no, because 15 blogs can easily drive power to 150 sites, you don't need 15 blogs for every site, that would just be stupid.

 

I think you are missing the point here.

 

I did not write this to show people how to game the system, or to show them the number 1 most effective link building that exists. It is, as the title say, link building that works.

Its legitimate, and its very effective.

I build backlinks for two main reasons:

 

1. To help in boosting for our sites' SERP ranking - this is where SE traffic comes from

2. To draw direct targeted traffic from these links - I build them and relevant and similar niche sites

 

PR would be the number 3 for me

I might as well just start copying and pasting now, building links does not boost 'SERP ranking'

 

read this

 

http://www.eggrage.co.uk/real-seo-is-not-spam/

From an absolutely non-SEO point of view...

 

This strategy that Eggman proposes is a good idea.

Forget about SERPs, PRs and everything else for a second...

 

If you have a site that is focussed around a particular subject, let's say boats - you might not want to wander too far off that subject on your main site and main blog. But people who have boats like to fish too - they might drive 4x4's and go duck-hunting too.

It might be more beneficial to you to run several other blogs or just one more general blog away from your main site. You'll want that blog to be somewhere good so it's likely to have built-up trust and you get the 'trickle-down' effect Eggman was talking about.

More time-consuming? Not if you were going to fill your main blog with content less relevant (but still related) to your 'core' readership. Worth any extra time? Yes... as a business decision it's good because you get more exposure to more markets without losing the focus of your primary market and, at the same time, it's 'recognised' by the search engines as an implication that your main content is worthwhile and comes from a trusted source.

 

I just think 'SEO' isn't a series of tricks - it's the way search engines try to model good business practice and customer behaviour. So the 'secret' is to make good business decisions and ensure that they're carried-out in a way that search engines will recognise.

 

Well that's the way I look at things anyway!

Thanks for the good article. Very informative.

Excellent information Eggman! I have been toying with starting my own blog for ages - I think its now time to start!