Andy Hagans - Jump-start SEO with Link Building
Link popularity has become the critical success factor in search engine optimization for both Google and Yahoo. SEO consultant Andy Hagans explains how to jump-start a link building campaign without getting “sandboxed".
(PRWEB) November 2, 2004 -- Search engine optimization consultant Andy Hagans
( http://www.andyhagans.com/ ) explains how to utilize link
popularity to achieve high rankings in Google and Yahoo!, without risking a
penalty against your Web site.
Link popularity has been written about ad
nauseum, 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 But following outdated link building advice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
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
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/Promotion/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
IPs relatively quickly. This will keep the site out of the “sandbox” and give
any SEO campaign a sound link structure to build upon.
You may read the
original, full-length article at http://www.andyhagans.com/articles/Jump-start_Your_Link_Building.html
. Andy Hagans is a search engine optimization consultant who specializes in link
building and risk management. Visit http://www.andyhagans.com/ for more information.
# #
#
Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/11/prweb173203.htm