Ultimate Guide to Link Building

April 27, 2010 // Author: Jacob Stoops // 1,598 views // View Comments
Ultimate Guide to Link Building
Link Building is probably the most underrated, but most important aspect of SEO these days. How well (or poorly) you build links can have long-term effects on your traffic and rankings. Image courtesy of RankedHard & BigOakInc.com.

In Search Engine Optimization, things that are happening OFF of your site can be just as important (if not more so) than things happening ON your website. As I’ve said before, there are many things that go into an SEO campaign. However, most campaigns boil down to two areas – “Off-Site SEO” and “On-Site SEO”.

“On-Site SEO” refers to anything happening directly ON your website, including (but not limited to) Page Titles, Meta Tags, HTML Content, and so on and so forth. “Off-Site SEO” refers to things happening away from your website that directly influence how well your website may or may not rank. There are several things that can influence your website’s overall trust and authority within the search engines, but none are more important than inbound links.

This article is pretty flippin long, so here are some jump anchors:

  1. What Is Link Building?
  2. So What Is Google PageRank?
  3. Okay, So Links Are Important. How Do I Build Them?
  4. Building Links Naturally
  5. Website Submission
  6. Social Media as a Link Building Tool
  7. Other Ways

#1: What Is Link Building?

Link Building is the process of creating and/or facilitating inbound links to a given website. To search engines, inbound links are like “votes” for a website. The more “votes” you get, the more a search engine will trust your website, which increases the likelihood that your site will rank higher in the search results.

In SEO-speak, link building can be described as building relevant links to a website in an effort to rank that site for specific terms while also building trust, value and equity to that website.

Search engines utilize various information about inbound links to your website in order to make certain assumptions about your website – what your website is about and how much to trust it. Some of the things they look at:

  • Total Volume of Inbound Links. To a search engine, the more people that link to a page, the more noteworthy it must be. Therefore, more links equal more trust over time.
  • Overall Quality of Inbound Links. It’s not enough just to get a high volume of links to your website, you’re going to need links from highly reputable sources (i.e. high PageRank, etc) if you want to solidify your trust within the search engines.
  • Anchor Text People Link to You With. Think about it. If your website has absolutely no text, titles, or any other information, how will a search engine be able to make any assumptions as to what your website is about? Anchor text. They keywords that people use to link to your website will help search engines understand your site’s themes and can be a valuable way to establish high rankings for certain phrases.

Extra Note: Not only do inbound links help you create more trust within the search engines, but they are also a great way to create a good base of referral traffic to your website which will serve to supplement traffic from search engines and direct sources.

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#2: So What Is Google PageRank

Google has built an entire link analysis algorithm called PageRank around inbound links, which is in essence a total measure of the number and quality of inbound links pointing to a domain.

From SEOMoz:

“In 1997, Google’s founders created an algorithmic method to determine importance and popularity based on several key principles:

  • Links on the web can be interpreted as votes that are cast by the source for the target
  • All votes are, initially, considered equal
  • Over the course of executing the algorithm on a link graph, pages which receive more votes become more important
  • More important pages cast more important votes
  • The votes a page can cast are a function of that page’s importance, divided by the number of votes/links it casts

That algorithm, of course, was PageRank, and it changed the course of web search, providing tremendous value to Google’s early efforts around quality and relevancy in results. As knowledge of PageRank spread, those with a vested interest in influencing the search rankings (SEOs) found ways to leverage this information for their websites and pages.”

Google assigns a numeric weighting from 0-10 for each webpage on the Internet; this PageRank denotes a site’s importance in the eyes of Google. The PageRank is derived from a theoretical probability value on a logarithmic scale like the Richter Scale. The PageRank of a particular page is roughly based upon the quantity of inbound links as well as the PageRank of the pages providing the links.

PageRank according to Google:

“

PageRank is a link analysis algorithm, named after Larry Page,[1] used by the Google Internet search engine that assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of “measuring” its relative importance within the set.

PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B.

But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important”.

 ”

In other words, a PageRank results from a “ballot” among all the other pages on the World Wide Web about how important a page is. A hyperlink to a page counts as a vote of support. The PageRank of a page is defined recursively and depends on the number and PageRank metric of all pages that link to it (“incoming links”). A page that is linked to by many pages with high PageRank receives a high rank itself. If there are no links to a web page there is no support for that page.

Some good link analysis and inbound link tools are:

  • Open Site Explorer – This tool, created by SEOMoz helps you examine the total quantity and quality of inbound links pointing to your website. Probably the most robust tool I’ve seen in regards to analyzing backlinks and link popularity.
  • Linkscape – Another backlink analysis tool from SEOMoz that allows you to analyze backlinks for your URL’s as well as your competition. Fairly robust, but not quite as good as Open Site Explorer in my mind.
  • Backlink Analyzer – Tool from SEOBook that allows you to analyze your site’s backlinks. Very simplistic tool that gets straight to the meat; not well designed IMO for all those design guru’s out there.

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#3: Okay, So Links Are Important. How Do I Build Them?

There are several avenues that you can follow to build high quality backlinks to your website.

  • The All-Natural Way. This is probably the best way to get high-quality links, but the most difficult and takes the most time. Patience is a virtue.
  • Website Submission. This is by far the easiest way to generate links, but can be very tedious and time consuming. May be the place to let a grunt do the work?
  • Social Media. There are many myths about how social media and SEO sync up. I’ll help you understand the role social media plays in the world of SEO below.
  • Other Ways. In addition to the ways above, there are many other ways to build links.

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#4: Building Links Naturally

Natural links are just that, links that occur naturally over time. Natural links don’t all come in one big burst, they develop slowly over time as the sites authority grows. These links can come in a variety of ways, whether it be from having great content, being link-worthy, or from personal interaction with other webmasters and website owners. In the end, these links can be the hardest to develop, can take the most time, but are usually the most rewarding and high value links you’ll have.

A few types of natural links:

  • One-Way Links – Simple enough. These are links from Site A back to Site B. These are far more valuable from an SEO perspective. The way search engines see it, if someone links to you without receiving anything in return, then the web page or content MUST be of some value.
  • Reciprocal Links – This is when website A and website B agree to link to each other. Many natural links occur this way, and it can be mutually beneficial to both parties when the websites are related in some way (same topic, etc).

A few short tips for building natural links:

  • Be Link-worthy. Develop content that people like, develop content that people trust, make it easy to link to. Give people a reason to “buzz” around your website/brand, and give them a reason to link to you. I believe this is called “link-baiting”.
  • Ask for them. You’d be surprised how many people will link to you if you simply ask them to, but don’t be an ass about it!
  • Do Link Exchanges. Reciprocal links can be good ways to get high-quality backlinks to your website. Don’t discount the value of a good old link exchange. However, keep in mind that it is better if you’re linking to websites that are similar in topic, and that are also of high-authority.
  • Comment on blogs and in forums. Although some blogs still utilize “nofollow” tags on outbound comment links, it is not a trend that I foresee continuing as long as comment spam protection keeps improving. Therefore, I recommend leaving high-quality insightful comments on other blogs, which will create a backlink and could entice blog owners to link back to your site in the future. Also, you have a far better chance of acquiring a back link if you’ve contributed something to someone else’s blog first.
  • Link Out. Don’t be afraid to link out, and don’t hoard links. If linking out helps your website’s visitors, then search engines will trust you more. In addition, linking out to somebody may increase the likelihood that they’ll link back to you.
  • Write a Guest Post. Writing guest posts can be a great way to build quality backlinks, especially if you’re guest posting on a popular blog. It’s a really great way to gain some valuable exposure and backlink opportunities.
  • Take Advantage of Your Associations. If you’re a small-business owner, then it is highly likely that you’re involved within your local community in some way, shape, or form. This means that you probably belong to several associations, which may prove to be valuable links to have depending on your local community. Dublin, Ohio is a great example of a local community with lots of great things going on that could serve as valuable backlinks for a webmaster. Another great example might be if you belong to the Better Business Bureau or a similar organization.

Now these aren’t the only methods of building links naturally, but they’re a good start. I’ll detail some other people’s ideas below.

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#5: Website Submission

Submitting your website to various niche, local, and general directories can be a great way to accumulate high-quality backlinks, and some great sources for referral traffic. In addition, taking advantage of several content syndication services can also serve to help build additional high-quality backlinks.

Local Directories
If you’re a business/website that services a specific area, then the best place to start your link building efforts might be with the local search directories. In the case of Google, Yahoo, and Bing, these directory listings are often injected above the natural search listings for locality-based search queries (and now for some non-locality based searches – based on IP).

Here are the submission links to several local search directories:

General Directories
These directories (again) can serve as another group high-quality backlinks (“vote”) that will create more trust for your website over time. I recommend have a nice presence in these more general directories if possible.

  • DMOZ. One the the web’s oldest human-edited directories.
  • Craigslist. Not a directory, but you can post information and links which can lead to lots of traffic.
  • IPL2. Another very old and respected general directory.
  • Rate It All. Social ratings and review directory for consumers.
  • JoeAnt. Well respected general directory.
  • The Good Web Guide. A UK consumer review directory.

Niche Direcories
Niche directories are valuable as they may be more closely related to your site’s theme, while still maintaining the trust of a high-authority website (if you pick them right). Some examples of niche directories include:

For Blogs
If you have a blog, there are some additional directories and options that may be open to you from a link building perspective. Here are a few that I’ve found useful:

  • AllTop. Aggregator of blogs from many different sources; covers a wide variety of topics.
  • Blog Catalog. A high-quality blog directory.
  • MakeZine. Aggregator of technology-related blogs.
  • BlogTopList. Another directory specific to blogs.
  • Today. User-generated blog directory.
  • Technorati. One of the most highly-trusted blog directory.

Content Syndication & Hubs
If you have a blog with lots of articles or Whitepapers or PDF’s that aren’t online, content syndication and/or hubs may be a good way to build high-quality backlinks to your website. Here are some common places where people can submit their articles or unpublished content to acquire backlinks:

  • Digg. User submitted content from around the web.
  • Ezine Articles. Article submission and archival.
  • Mixx. Popular aggregator of user-submitted content.
  • Reddit. Another aggregator of user-submitted content.
  • Sphinn. Aggregator of content related to the technology industry.
  • Squidoo. Create lense hubs to publish content.
  • Hubpages. Another hub in which to publish content.

Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking sites offer another great chance to gain high-quality backlinks, and takes it a step further with the ability to generate buzz. This is similar to what can be seen within the social media world, which is often an effective way for backlinks to happen more naturally (but quickly).

Some popular social bookmarking websites include:

  • Delicious. Simple but effective site for managing your bookmarks.
  • StumbleUpon. Social bookmarking site in which users stumble through various websites.

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#6: Social Media as a Link Building Tool

Many people claim that social media links hold no value because they are usually accompanied by the “nofollow” link attribute. While this may be true, certain aspecs of social media can bring a TON of value to your link building campaign.

  • Social Media Profiles. Having profiles on websites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn can be among some of the most high-quality backlinks you’ll be able to acquire. These websites are very trustworthy, therefore they are prime real estate for you to add a link back to your website.
  • Buzz. In a nutshell, social media can create buzz around your brand, which in turn can make your brand go viral, which typically leads to backlinks. Simple enough.
  • Recurring traffic and exposure. Just like all of the other sources, whether some of the links are “nofollow” or not, they are a good source of recurring traffic. If this recurring traffic based likes your content – then they’re likely to link to it. More exposure usually equals more links, which is a good thing.

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#7: Other Ways

Now I don’t (and won’t) pretend to know everything there is to know about link building and Off-Site SEO, so I’ve decided to compile a nice list of awesome articles related to Link Building. Hopefully, these articles can cover anything I didn’t hit on above:

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I’ll try to add some more gems that people have written in the near future. Anyhow, hope this helps you in your quest to attain more high-end backlinks!

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  • Rohitshelwante
    this information was really helpful
  • amzing content....
    keep sharing in the same way :)
  • Nice article.

    However, your description of PageRank is incorrect. Specifically, your statement that:

    "Google assigns a numeric weighting from 0-10 for each webpage on the Internet; this PageRank denotes a site’s importance in the eyes of Google. The PageRank is derived from a theoretical probability value on a logarithmic scale like the Richter Scale."

    You appear to be confusing INTERNAL PageRank (which is the # actually used by Google to help calculate your site's rankings), and the Google Toolbar's Displayed PageRank 0-10 value. These are two completely different things!

    The reason this caught my eye is because I just wrote a detailed technical article on this very topic! The article was written primarily for the benefit of professional SEO's like yourself, to help clear-up the mass of confusion caused by the way Google implemented all of this. You can find the article here -

    http://arlingtonseo.wordpress.com/2010/05/25/pagerank-secrets-and-the-google-toolbar/

    You may wish to review that info, and then perhaps alter your article appropriately, as you see fit.

    Also, while I applaud and agree with your position that:

    "Although some blogs still utilize “nofollow” tags on outbound comment links, it is not a trend that I foresee continuing"

    I could also not help but noticing from the sea of pink boxes on your page (FireFox search plug-in) that your OWN blog is still utilizing "nofollow" tags as well!

    I'm not sure if you are limited by the design of the 3rd-party comment service you are currently using? If not, you might want to think about following your own suggestion, and perhaps removing these NOFOLLOW tags from your own site?

    On this point, it is also worth noting the change revealed by Matt Cutts of Google in the way that Google now handles the NOFOLLOW attribute. PageRank is now divided-up among ALL of the links on a page (even the NOFOLLOW ones), and the PageRank to those links is then DESTROYED. So rather than retaining it (or passing it on to their contributing commenters), a site using NOFOLLOWs is now TRASHING a portion of their PageRank - Ouch! :(
  • jacobstoops
    P.S. @Dave I actually posted a link to your article in the resources section of my site.
  • jacobstoops
    Dave,

    I really like your article and you bring up some very valid points. My explanation of PageRank was to try to provide basic users a little bit of background information so that they can have a solid understanding of the overall principle of PageRank while not having to get too far down into the nitty gritty. For a basic internet user, this explanation may go over their head - but for advanced SEO's like yourself, you know that there's always more to it.

    Like I said before, I really liked your article and you bring up some great points. What I would like to see from it would be some outbound links to external resources to correspond with your article.

    As for my comments, it's controlled by a third party comment system to help me manage my comments a little bit easier. I had designed, coded, and applied CSS to many other iterations of my site, but found it to be very cumbersome which is why I went with a 3rd party provider. The fact that they do the nofollow stuff is something I'm don't agree with as I want ALL links on my site to be dofollow. However, it is kind of out of my control as far as I can tell.

    Anyhow, happy optimizing! Thanks for a very insightful comment :-)

    Jake
  • A very complete article. I know some already, but some others are new information to me.
    "think of your users" -> I strongly agree..thanks for sharing..

    Adit
  • Very nice article just think it needs a bit more on Social Media, and using Press Releases and paid articles.
  • Robert Edmonds
    The article is very helpful. Although, I disagree with reciprocal links. But who doesn't have a difference in opinions? Reciprocal links do spread your inbound links, but I feel that they are looked down on and are not valuable anymore. Trinacle brings up a good point, social media. I feel that you should put more emphasis on Social Media. We all know that SM will only grow and become more valuable than any link building will ever be. In fact, I work for the company who did the Twitter study, Pear Analytics. Check out our site and see if anything catches your eye. SiteJuice 2.0
  • jacobstoops
    As far as reciprocal links go, sure they aren't as good as plain-old one-way links. However, if you get reciprocal links from the right sources, they can be a good way to get referral traffic. In addition, some of my highest quality inbound links come from reciprocal links with other SEO bloggers. I like to utilize SEOMOZ's OpenSiteExplorer tool to verify link equity.
  • But I have found that the Press Releases put on the PR Directories rarely get picked-up. Why do you like them?
  • PR directories give small value in the links, however submitting through a service like PRweb.com gives you the opportunity to have your press release picked up by a major new outlet. A inbound link from CNN can be a huge boost to your SEO efforts. For example the owner of "milliondollarhomepage.com" talks about on his blog that all he did was submit a good press release and it got him several articles published on CNN. The trick is having a creative press releases that talks about a unique product or service. Having PR campaign can helps signify to Google that you are indeed a real company and your product / service is news worthy and fresh
  • jacobstoops
    The way I see it, it is just another outlet or potential avenue from which to gather a link. Obviously, it probably isn't the highest quality link you'll get - but as long as you ensure that it is put on non-spam directories, then I don't think it's bad.
  • jacobstoops
    You're right. I tried to cover everything I could think of. I'll have to add those in there when I get some more time. Thanks for the suggestions :-)
  • Jacob,
    What do you think about article submissions - it seems that they almost never can picked-up, reused, and link back. Waste of time right?

    Also, what do you think about services like MyArticleNetwork and SEOLinkvine that get your articles put right into blogs?
  • I thought it was very insightful. It's interesting to see that good old fashioned face-to-face networking also does the trick too. Thank you for the post.
  • Is it true that through linking out "..then search engines will trust you more."
    Is that really tracked? Also, does it matter if the outbound link is to a respected site like a .gov or 1st page google ranked site? Or do out bound links not matter which site it goes to.

    PS - Thanks for the link building post - its great!
  • jacobstoops
    If the site that you're linking out to is somehow relevant and helpful to your users, then it is usually perceived as a positive thing by search engines. As far as tracking, you can review your outbound links here: http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/site-link-analyzer/ but the data isn't as robust as an Open Site Explorer for instance.

    From everything I understand, pointing people to .gov or .edu sites is a good thing IF it's helpful to your users. In the end, think of your users. If it's helpful for them, then it's good for you as well in most cases.
  • Thanks for a great post. This is going into my save file. Love the Cartoon at the top. :-)
  • jacobstoops
    Thanks John. Thank Big Oak Inc for that awesome cartoon! :-)
  • That was a bit of a marathon post, but well worth it. That's a great primer for anyone starting a linkbuilding campaign. Thanks for putting it together.
  • jacobstoops
    Agreed. I nearly passed out from exhaustion several times while writing it!
  • rajande
    Wow wonderful stuff, don't forget http://searchengineland.com/21-link-builders-share-advanced-link-building-queries-29848 (Danny rocks)
    and http://www.directtrafficmedia.co.uk/one_way_links_no_exchange.htm (How to get one way link without exchange)
    My experience says:
    1) Think campaigns and promoting campaigns (non commercial)
    2) press release (recently we generated 214 links from one PR)
    Thanks,
  • Really agree with you about naturally reaching out to site and/or bloggers about linking. It's also productive to seek out guest post opportunities and to build out long term relationships where you can contribute content. By building relationships with key influencers you can increase exposure and thus open up more linking opportunities. It's a bit cyclical but once in it, it can create solid traffic.
  • jacobstoops
    Ahh. Totally agree with you on the guest posting bit. It's a great way to get people to link back to your site.
  • lol. you need gatorade to write posts like these.
  • jacobstoops
    Yes, I should have bought a whole pack.
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