106 Ways To Get Backlinks:

1.Create viral linkbait.
2.Write and give away a free ebook.
3.Write a pillar (authority) article.
4.Create a numbers list (10 ways to xxx, 20 different xxxx).
5.Hold a contest, and require that they link back to you for an entry.
6.Send off interview templates to big bloggers, and post up completed interviews.
7.Create a Wordpress plugin.
8.Design a hot Wordpress theme, and distribute it for free, requiring they keep your link in the footer.
9.Create controversy (be careful and don’t get into something you can’t handle)
10.Find a scammer/shady website or blogger, and make the world known about it.
11.Join Sindiket Forum for free Internet Marketing Learning Forum Sindiket
12.Submit a press release about your new product or news.
13.Submit your site to free directories (careful, only SEO friendly ones)
14.Submit your site to paid directories (dmoz(kidding!), yahoo, alive)
15.Submit articles to article directories.
16.Submit posts to blog carnivals.
17.Email a webmaster, and ask for a link.
18.Offer to buy a one way link from another relevant website (keep this on the DL)
19.Send unsolicited, yet awesome articles to other bloggers to reference or post
20.Let your networked friends know that you’ll do reviews and testimonials.
21.Buy reviews on pay-per-post or a similar service.
22.Get on the Digg front page (and watch your server melt).
23.Exchange Stumbles on popular webmaster forums.
24.Submit to Del.icio.us
25.Answer a question on Yahoo Answers and reference your site.
26.Pick a hot ebook or software program and review it for free.
27.If you get paid for a review – make it a great one, and you’ll get a link back.
28.Don’t be afraid to link out – share the link love (just don’t get too spammy)
29.Be the first to report breaking news (hard, but very effective)
30.Review a semi-popular tech gadget.
31.Review stuff on Amazon, and put your link in your profile
32.Create a Linked-In page, and make sure to put your link on it.
33.Speaking of that, do the same for Facebook, Myspace, and others..
34.Hire good writers to pump out quality content.
35.Join all applicable Chamber of Commerce’s’ in your area for free links
36.Join the BBB (Better Business Bureau) for a free link.
37.Post a bulletin in your Myspace account about your new site.
38.Throw a relevant link in a Craigslist ad.
39.Create your own SEO tool.
40.Buy TV air time on a small station flashing your URL.
41.Buy Radio time for a short commercial spamming your URL.
42.Put bumper stickers on your car with your link on it.
43.Look for older, higher PR sites with Guestbooks, and sign them! Easy links.
44.Comment on Do-Follow blogs (meaning the link in your comment will be followed by a spider)
45.Post your link in forums, and your forum signature.
46.Don’t forget to link from some of your older, more established sites.
47.Buy post level links from other bloggers/webmasters. (usually cheap)
48.Don’t be afraid to ask for links, you just never know!
49.Do pro-bono work for a non-profit, and they may link to you.
50.Offer to be a guest blogger or regular contributor on a bigger blog.
51.Apply to about.com for a topic that you can write about.
52.Sell items on ebay and agree to donate proceeds to charity – they will link to you.
53.Hire someone from a webmaster forum to submit links for you.
54.Trade articles with industry related webmasters
55.Rewrite old content they may have been buried to fast…breath new life.
56.Find out about getting a link on your local libraries website.
57.Launch an affiliate program for your site, ebook, or product.
58.Technorati tag all of your posts for good Technorati exposure.
59.Take advantage of “old world media” (newspapers, magazines)
60.Rent links from Text-Link-Ads or similar service (careful with this one!)
61.If you have the ability, create a Firefox extension and release it.
62.Answer questions on Google Groups and link if necessary.
63.Call in to a radio show and shamelessly plug your site!
64.A good PPC campaign can draw exposure which could = links.
65.Head over to the slums (chat rooms) and mention your site if appropriate.
66.Create a controversial political cartoon and get it some attention.
67.Most local Fox sites have a blogging community you can tap into.
68.Hire someone to do everything in this list. Outsourcing is cheap and fun.
69.Get business cards, and distribute the hell out of them for exposure.
70.Drop your link on Xbox live.
71.Mention your link when you’re playing online PC games.
72.Donate a larger sum of money to a small charity in exchange for a link.
73.If you’re in school, put your link on your college website (even sneak it in for a free .edu backlink – lol)
74.If you have family friendly content, get a link from your Church’s website.
75.Set up a Squidoo lens with good content, and link to your site from it.
76.Sponsor an event or a big contest – trust me, lots of link love there.
77.Enter all the group writing projects you can find – good links.
78.Start a community helpful website, and get on the local news – they love it.
79.Submit to RSS feed sites – hopefully they’ll link back.
80.Make sure to take advantage of trackbacks when linking out to other blogs.
81.Set up an award system on your site, and have readers vote on best site.
82.Speaking of that, enter all the award sites you can.
83.Make a super crazy viral type video, and get it on Youtube.
84.Start a podcasting series, and build an audience, they’ll link to you.
85.Write a heavily opinionated piece to get people talking.
86.Retain a real linkbaiting service. (There are a few out there, but $$$)
87.Hire an actual real life publicist for your site (if you can justify it)
88.Help with an up and coming web 2.0 project for more exposure.
89.Start a content writing service website, and have clients link to you for a discount.
90.Crack the top 100 in Technorati, or create the largest MyBlogLog community.
91.Go old school and trade links with other relevant sites.
92.Check who links to your competitors, and get links from them!
93.Provide a sexy “link to me” button or banner, and people will use it, for real.
94.Create a good Facebook app, and if it’s really good, the links will pour in.
95.Review bands, local restaurants, and small shops and get links on their sites in return for the exposure.
96.Speaking of that, sponsor a hot local band’s show one night with big flashy banners with your link on it (in the background)
97.When Hannah Montana comes to town, buy up some tickets, offer them on your site as prizes. Local news stations and papers will eat it up alive.
98.Sue Yahoo, Google, or whoever, and you’ll get plenty of publicity – lol
99.Answer all of your emails promptly and professionally. People love that, and will link to you and let everyone know how swell you are.
100.Create a thorough walk through on a game or even an electronic device. People love that stuff!
101.Network with like-minded individuals offline. Talk to them about tossing your link up on their site.
102.Write about the hottest celebrities, and make it unique. People love Hollywood.
103.Submit to Link Sindiket for Free Link Directory
104.Create your own Wiki page (it’s nofollow, but could lead to natural links)
105.Create your own training program for your field of interest.
106.Offer an on-page language translator to reach out to other countries, which can lead to new links

106 Ways to Get Back Links to Your Site is a post from: Seo Backlinks

Google Webmaster Tools says that in order to gain Page Rank (a way of gaging website authority, PR is gaged from 0-10, 10 being highest) you should have high quality sites linking to yours, which is termed a backlink. A backlink is simply a link to your website from another website.

There are several types of link building strategies and all of them should be utilized to optimize your sites for the search engines which in turn will increase our traffic, so build links everyday

1. Relevant/Reciprocal Link Exchange

Reciprocal links are where you exchange links with sites that are relevant to yours. AS far as Google is concerned relevance equals quality as far as a backlink is concerned.

There are some webmasters who exchange links with any and all sites. But if you have a website about weight loss, how helpful is it for your visitors to see a link to a car auction site? This is a weak link and a useless waste of time and looks lame on your website! Build links for your visitors and not for ranks and your site will be rewarded.

The two most important factors in finding reciprocal link exchange partners are relevance and Page Rank, relevance being first important and page rank second. If you can get both then that’s great. If you’re site is new higher rank pages are hard to get, so don’t worry about it and just look for relevance.

Where you place links on your site is important and can be done in several ways. While many still use a links page, this method is not the best option. These days search engines place less value on links pages and when you think about it, how good is a links page for your site and its visitors?

A better option is to place your links and get the reciprocal site to place links as hyperlinks within the content on your site with relevant anchor keywords. This method looks better, provides a natural flow of links and gets more link juice from the search engines and especially Google.

The key to link building on your sites is to make the link look like a side effect and not the end goal.

2. One Way Links

A one-way link is where you get a link to your site from another site without having to place a link back. Of course, one-way links hold the most juice with search engines.

When your site is new it is unlikely that you will get relevant high PR sites to give you a one-way link, unless of course you provide great content or a link bait (explained below).

Natural One-Way Link Building through Content

One of the best ways to get one way links is the natural link method which can be obtained by posting fresh original content on your sites that is so good it makes other websites want to link to it. Good content, which should all ready be a first priority for your visitors and visitor retention, will facilitate natural one-way links.

Link Bait

Another great way to build one way backlinks is to use a link bait on your site. This is the method of choice to get get higher page rank sites to link to lower page rank sites. Link Bait is basically any content or feature within a website that somehow baits viewers to place links to it from other websites. These link baits could be, information hooks, news hooks, humor hooks, tools hooks like a widget or some helpful tool that other sites can use.

Article Marketing and submitting your sites to Internet Directories are very effective ways to get one-way links.

3. 3-Way Links

3-ways: Site A points to Site B and Site B points to Site C and Site C points back to Site A. The point is to try to make reciprocals look like one-ways, this method really doesn’t have much value and I don’t recommend it.

4. Outbound Links

Outbound links are the websites you link to or site as references within content. Whatever your niche there authority and other helpful sites for your visitors and and those are the sites that you want to link to.

Some webmasters are so afraid of losing traffic or giving up their link juice that you hardly ever see outbound links on their sites, this is a big mistake.

Outbound links are a necessary part of establishing your authority within your niche and a vital part of your Internet Marketing efforts. They are a vital part of any website/blog and their existence or non-existence can determine whether high-authority, high page rank sites would ever link to you, mainly because if you are not consistently seeking out new information and intelligence within your niche and citing those sources they will view your website as stale and out of date.

Take a look at the authority sites within your niche, they all have outbound links and references. It is impossible to provide really useful information without offering other sites that can benefit your visitors.

In conclusion, it is crucial for any Internet Marketing Campaign to build links everyday. This is the main way that Google can establish authority, relevance and importance to your websites and is at the center of the search engine optimization strategy.

The Missing Link – 4 Crucial Types of Backlinks is a post from: Seo Backlinks

In the decade or so since the search engine was first invented, the field of Search Engine Optimization has evolved. Some obsolete information and old wives’ tales still persist, and these can damage your standings.

The myths and obsolete techniques fall into a few broad categories:

- Keyword density: There are many number of magic formulas touted on the internet, claiming that if you reach the perfect number of keyword instances per page, your rankings will go up. While you do need to have the keyword somewhere in your text in order to have your stated keywords considered relevant, artificially inflating the number of instances is a bad plan. First, it simply decreases the quality of your content. Second, the search engines may begin classifying your site as too spammy, and actually downgrade your rating.

- Tags and META: Loading keywords into your page headers and the meta data of your site is also an old trick that’s now likely to get you classified as spammy. Only keywords that are relevant to your content and specific to what your users are searching for should be included.

- Links: Some fraudulent SEO services, and some outdated pieces of advice, will associate your website with link exchange systems and link farms. Since the search engines keep track of these farms and exchanges, and using them is considered trickery, being part of them can actually significantly downgrade your rating.

- Submission to search engines: Once upon a time, submitting your site to search engines was a long and arduous process, which was nonetheless necessary to get a good place in the rankings. These days, search engine submission is generally not needed at all, since the engines automatically search for new sites. If they don’t find yours quickly, manual submission is quite easy and there are a few top search engines that have most of the market share.

Conversely, there are a few relevant and current strategies for climbing the ranks of search results. (It should come as no surprise that these are broader and more difficult or time-consuming to implement than the myths would suggest.)

- Unique content: Consistently offering high quality content that is valuable to your users, unique on the web, and from original sources is by far the best way to attract users – and search engines – to your site. If your site consists of copy, providing a unique value in information filtering, commentary and analysis, or other user-friendly services.

- Voice of authority: Along with unique content, offering an authoritative voice is a good way to increase your links and therefore your page ranking. Either become an authority yourself or offer interviews, quotes, or guest content by noted authorities in your field. If well-respected people and organizations recommend or reference your site, your popularity will rise.

- Professional networking for link sharing: As a web master, blogger, marketer, or business owner, professional contacts matter for a wide range of activities. Additionally, you may ask these people to link their sites with yours, or to provide expert and authoritative content for your site.

- Crawler files: Having a robots.txt file that is updated, accurate, and properly configured can make your site easier to catalogue correctly. Building the site’s architecture in a crawler-friendly manner can give your site a slight edge that may be worth pursuing. Do remember that search engine developers are concerned with their users and serving them appropriate content. They’re smart enough to outwit most technical tricks.

SEO Myths and Facts is a post from: Seo Backlinks

Search engines are the gateway to the Internet; they are the first tool that potential customers use to find the products and services they need. This is why link popularity is so imperative. If the customers do not find your website, you have no possibilities of making any sales.

You’re probably wondering what the blazes is popular about a link! Well, in a word – plenty! Link popularity refers to the ranking assigned to your website by the search engines, and it determines the ranking your page gets when keywords are entered into a search engine. So, you’re probably wondering, how do I make my link popular?

Search engines are discretionary, giving status and ranking to sites that have links to their pages from related, quality sites. It’s a simple formula, but a very important one. Google created the system, and now virtually all the most popular search engines employ it to rank your web pages in their indexes.

The more commonly used your keyword is, the harder it will be to achieve link popularity, but without achieving this step, it is almost certain your site will never rank highly on any search engine. But don’t be discouraged; there are tried and true ways of achieving link popularity using the most competitive keywords.

There are a few things you should be aware of. The first is that just linking up with a large number of other websites will not achieve link popularity. In fact, it may have quite the opposite effect. This is particularly true when pertaining to websites that are nothing more than “link farms” – pages containing line after line of indiscriminate links. Search engines may aggressively discriminate against your website if you are associated with a link farm, so steer clear of them!

The next thing to bear in mind is the quality of the site you are linking to. Never link to a page you have reservations about your visitors seeing. The last thing you want your website to appear as is indiscriminate and cheap. Linking to sites of poor quality will only lessen your link popularity, if not completely destroy it.

So let’s get to what you need to do to achieve supreme link popularity and improve your rankings to stellar status on all the popular search engines.

The first step, and the fastest way to get your foot in the door, is to get a listing in a popular directory, such as Open Directory Project and Yahoo. If your site is business-related, you will want to be listed on Yahoo, and despite the fact that it will cost you around 0 a year, it will be money well spent. If your site is non-commercial, the listing will be free, but it will take time and follow-up to actually get it listed. Open Directory is gives you a free listing whether you are business-related or non-commercial, but be prepared to make a lot of follow-up inquiries before you see your site listed.

You are aiming to get listed in the highest level of appropriate category, and this just takes some common sense. For example, if your company ships Alpaca wool from an Alpaca farm located in the middle of Nowhere, Tiny State, do NOT submit your listing to “Retailers from Nowhere, Tiny State.” BIG MISTAKE! All you have to do is look a little deeper – and submit your listing to the “Fine Alpaca Wool” category. You will not only associate yourself with culture and quality, but you will be listed in a national category.

The next step after you have attained directory listings is to locate other quality sites that will increase your link popularity. Try to find sites that are in some way related to yours, so not only will your link popularity increase, but your customer base may also be expanded. You want to avoid your competitors and look for sites that are useful to your site’s visitors. Let’s look at the Alpaca Wool site example. Linking up to a site that sells knitting supplies would be helpful to your visitors, and the chances of the knitting supply site wanting to link up to your site are also greater. By linking to a related site that will be relevant to your website’s traffic, you are increasing both of your site’s business prospects – and both of your sites’ link popularity.

Not all sites want to link to other sites, so you will have to do some research when you are looking for possible linking partners. Google is an excellent starting place for your search. Make sure you enter keywords that you think quality customers will also enter to find your own site. Remember, your criteria are quality, highly ranked, non-competing websites that have a links or resources page. Go to these sites and objectively assess them. Look at the quality of the product, the graphics, and the ease of use. Then check out the other sites they are linked to, and determine if your own site would fit in with the crowd.

When you decide you have found a good prospect, you must set out to woo them. The first thing to do is to add a link on your own links page to their site. This is an essential first step; it shows good faith, and ups your chances significantly of their reciprocity. After you have added their link, you must contact the webmaster of their site. Since this is almost always done by email, you want to make sure it is immediately clear that your message is not junk mail. This requires that you tell them right off the bat that you have added a link to their page on your site. A hook like this almost always insures the reader will read on.

Next, be sure to be flattering and let them know how much you appreciate their website. Make sure you emphasize that you have actually visited their site, and that their site is not just a random pick. Give them the address of your links page, and ask them to check out the link for themselves. It’s a good idea to mention that they will not only benefit from the increased traffic your website will direct their way, but you will also increase their link popularity. Briefly, explain why link popularity is so essential, but do this in a sentence or two so you don’t sound like a professor! Finally, tell them you would greatly appreciate if they would reciprocally add a link on their own links page to your website.

Go through this process with as many appropriate sites as you can find, bearing in mind the criteria of quality and non-competitiveness. After you have emailed all relevant sites, be sure to check these website frequently to see if they have added a link to your page. Give it about a month, and if no link appears, try another charming email. Then give it another month, and if your site is still absent from their links page, it’s time to remove their link from your own links page. The only time you want to pursue a link further than this is if you believe a site is crucial to your link popularity and your business needs. Just remember to keep all your communications complimentary and cordial.

Then set up a schedule to check your ranking in search engines frequently to see if your link popularity has improved. This is not achievable in the blink of an eye. It will take some time and a good deal of work. There is no way around the labor-intensive quality of improving your link popularity, which is why search engines regard it with such importance.

By the way – make sure you have a beautiful, streamlined site or you will never persuade anyone to link up to you. Be prepared to keep plugging away at this process, as long as it takes, until you achieve link popularity stardom!

Increasing Link Popularity is a post from: Seo Backlinks

In the decade or so since the search engine was first invented, the field of Search Engine Optimization has evolved. Some obsolete information and old wives’ tales still persist, and these can damage your standings.

The myths and obsolete techniques fall into a few broad categories:

- Keyword density: There are many number of magic formulas touted on the internet, claiming that if you reach the perfect number of keyword instances per page, your rankings will go up. While you do need to have the keyword somewhere in your text in order to have your stated keywords considered relevant, artificially inflating the number of instances is a bad plan. First, it simply decreases the quality of your content. Second, the search engines may begin classifying your site as too spammy, and actually downgrade your rating.

- Tags and META: Loading keywords into your page headers and the meta data of your site is also an old trick that’s now likely to get you classified as spammy. Only keywords that are relevant to your content and specific to what your users are searching for should be included.

- Links: Some fraudulent SEO services, and some outdated pieces of advice, will associate your website with link exchange systems and link farms. Since the search engines keep track of these farms and exchanges, and using them is considered trickery, being part of them can actually significantly downgrade your rating.

- Submission to search engines: Once upon a time, submitting your site to search engines was a long and arduous process, which was nonetheless necessary to get a good place in the rankings. These days, search engine submission is generally not needed at all, since the engines automatically search for new sites. If they don’t find yours quickly, manual submission is quite easy and there are a few top search engines that have most of the market share.

Conversely, there are a few relevant and current strategies for climbing the ranks of search results. (It should come as no surprise that these are broader and more difficult or time-consuming to implement than the myths would suggest.)

- Unique content: Consistently offering high quality content that is valuable to your users, unique on the web, and from original sources is by far the best way to attract users – and search engines – to your site. If your site consists of copy, providing a unique value in information filtering, commentary and analysis, or other user-friendly services.

- Voice of authority: Along with unique content, offering an authoritative voice is a good way to increase your links and therefore your page ranking. Either become an authority yourself or offer interviews, quotes, or guest content by noted authorities in your field. If well-respected people and organizations recommend or reference your site, your popularity will rise.

- Professional networking for link sharing: As a web master, blogger, marketer, or business owner, professional contacts matter for a wide range of activities. Additionally, you may ask these people to link their sites with yours, or to provide expert and authoritative content for your site.

- Crawler files: Having a robots.txt file that is updated, accurate, and properly configured can make your site easier to catalogue correctly. Building the site’s architecture in a crawler-friendly manner can give your site a slight edge that may be worth pursuing. Do remember that search engine developers are concerned with their users and serving them appropriate content. They’re smart enough to outwit most technical tricks.

SEO Myths and Facts is a post from: Seo Backlinks

SEO consultants will tell you that you need to be in the Top 30
or you can pretty much give up any hope of getting a visitor to
your web site.

Yes, there is truth in that Top 30 goal. Occasionally, a
potential customer will make his or her way to the #30 position
in search of a particular product or service. The odds just
aren’t that high.

Yet, industry research and ongoing search engine user behavior
analysis shows that most people will focus on the first few
results. Who can blame them? It takes a great deal of patience
to wade through the rest of the options.

It’s going to mean a great deal more if you can get that prized
search term in the Top 10 (first screen) or even the Top 3 or
Top 5 with the right SEO
marketing strategies.

With so much competition, is that even possible? Yes – if you’re
realistic. Here’s the key: don’t spend an inordinate amount of
time in the single keyword “cars” if you offer something more
specific, such as “automotive accessories.” You stand a much
better chance of getting that coveted top spot with a more
reasonable search phrase.

Don’t ignore those single words if they really represent what
you do. Generally, single words have a fighting chance if other
SEO factors are rooting for you along the way, including pages
with lots of content, options to include content up high, other
pages featuring the same keyword, a domain name with the
keyword, a page name with the keyword and plenty of link
popularity built around the keyword. You just have to tie it all
together.

Obviously, fewer people search for “automotive accessories” than
“cars.” But you’ll be able to reach more search engine users -
and prospective customers – if you frame most of your SEO
strategy around specific search engine phrases that adequately
reflect what you do. Join the Top 10 Club and reap the benefits

Don’t Make the Top 30 SEO Mistake is a post from: Seo Backlinks

Google I/O 2010 – SEO site advice from the experts Tech Talks Matt Cutts, Greg Grothaus, Evan Roseman A perfect opportunity to get your website reviewed by the experts in the Google Search Quality team. Attendees can get concrete search engine optimization (SEO) feedback on their own sites. We’ll also answer real-life questions that affect developers when it comes to optimizing their websites for search. For all I/O 2010 sessions, please go to code.google.com

Google I/O 2010 – SEO site advice from the experts is a post from: Seo Backlinks

This weekend, google changed it’s webmaster guidelines to remove the line ‘Have other relevant sites link to yours.’ – does this mean that the google axe is about to fall on link exchanges?

There has been a lot of speculation in the SEO industry and online forums regarding two very specific changes in the Google webmaster guidelines . The guidelines have been changed to remove two key bullet points. these are:

1. Have other relevant sites link to yours.
2. Submit your site to relevant directories such as the Open Directory Project and Yahoo!, as well as to other industry-specific expert sites.

The SEO experts have known for quite some time that Google’s policy on paying for links on high ranking pages meant that both the page containing the link and the page which is linked to may be penalised in some way (this could mean that there is the possiblity that you could pay for links to your competitors websites in order to downgrade their ranking, but this supposition has yet to be proved.). Now it appears that just having a links directory on  your website could be bad news.

The official line from google is:

some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. This is in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact your site’s ranking in search results. Examples of link schemes can include:

Links intended to manipulate PageRank Links to web spammers or bad neighborhoods on the web Excessive reciprocal links or excessive link exchanging (“Link to me and I’ll link to you.”) Buying or selling links that pass PageRank

source: google webmaster guidelines – 5/10/2008

In the current guidelines above, the main points to note are ‘links intended to manupulate pagerank’ – which means that if you have a links page that is just there to increase page rank, then you are in violation of the guidelines. The second point regarding link farms and bad neighbourhoods has long been understood to be bad for business and just about and search enginer optimiser (be it person or software) will be sure to avoid such dodgy ground.

The third point ‘excessive reciprocal links or link exchanging’ poses an interesting question – how do you define ‘excessive’ – it this more than 100 links on a single page? is it based on a ratio of outgoing to incoming links? is it X links per site divided by the number of pages in that site? I have yet to discover a definitive answer.

the relevency of clause 3 (as it shall hitherto be referred in this article) means that directories such as DMOZ which is purely used by webmasters to improve trustrank and pagerank – how many referrals from DMOZ have you ever had? In 5 years of SEO and millions of google referrals, I can count the number of DMOZ referrals on two hands. Therefore, perhaps google is reflecting this fact in its ranking changes, and DMOZ is no longer as important to them. Similarly Yahoo directory, which is a paid for link exchange facility violates the 4th clause – but has yet to be penalised in google’s index.

A response to the issue from google appears on the google forums :

“This line was removed because we feel that you should not “force” other sites to link to yours. Obviously it’s good that sites link to each other, it’s fine to encourage that on your sites to link out and to make it easy for them to link to yours. However, I don’t think we need to make it a part of the guidelines that you should “have other sites link to yours” — they should be willing to do that on their own, it should be their decision not yours. “

Does this mask the position that google would rather links were made for the sake of enhancing user experience of the web rather than to manipulate search engine positions? Possibly, but in a world where the difference between being on page 1 and page 2 of google can mean a difference in millions of dollars worth of online sales, then there will always be the need to scrabble to the top of the rankings using any means necessary.

There is also the position that having link directories, expecially niche or regional ones actually helps people find information more easily than they can in google. Human edited directories will always have better quality links that google because each entry is vetted by people to make sure the content ‘does exactly what it says on the tin’ and that misleading metatags, cloaked content, manipulated links and other measures designed to fool the algorithm will not work on an actual person. It some people’s opinion that human edited directories have more power and relevency (although are much smaller and focussed) than the google index, and penalising such efforts is just another attempt by google to be top dog in the online searching world and trample on the little guys if they get too big for their boots.

Is this the end of link exchanges then? probably not, but you should try to do the following:

you should not explicitly state that your links pages can only accept reciprocated links, allow any good website or online resource to be included in the links pages - remember your links pages should be a useful resource of related pages which enhances user experience. you should keep your links directory small of focused, and have editor approval of each link -not just automatically add them using an online form and you should review your links regularly to make sure the domain has not been taken over by link spammers. if you are using link exchange websites, make sure you are selective in which links you include and don’t whack 2000 links on your website if very few of them are relevant or useful.

Read the full article here…

Google Signals the End of Link Exchanges? is a post from: Seo Backlinks

From a SEO’s perspective once you have identified winning keywords, and your content strategy is in place to target those keywords (while ensuring that the optimized content is easily accessible to search crawlers with no error pages, broken links, redirect and 404 errors), the next and most important step to higher rankings is building quality links to that content.

Link building is probably the most time consuming and difficult task at hand for the seo expert. Little wonder there is so much attention, hype, mystery and stigmata that is surrounding link building strategies.

Now there are many link building companies who make promises of 1000 links in 1 hour, or link exchange programs that assert to miraculously pass link juice to your website. We also know that search engines frown at such behavior, and yet they may not be actually penalizing such manipulative sites for now.

I have seen many sites that blatantly ignore search engines on-page guidelines, and having links from sites that are obviously manipulating for links, but we are not here to evaluate these exception cases or judge the search engines.

In addition, search algorithms have a lot more variables in place now to evaluate a link from being worthy of passing on the link juice or not.

All this adds to the general confusion for companies planning their link building strategy, budgets and what constitutes a bad link, a good link and a great link.

A bad link, is bad link building …

Now we don’t know if the search engines actually wean out certain links as bad links or if they penalize a site which is getting a link back from such a website, but we do know that search engines value those links that come from popular and credible sources.

The advice I give to clients who are in a hurry to get linked-up is – why play hide and seek with the search engines when sooner or later you will be found. Why take a chance to be penalized, or worse, banned from a search engine?

So what is a bad link? A bad link can be defined as a link that comes from a source that has little or no content, is not popular, is involved in black hat seo, link exchanges, and is basically trying to deceive the search engines and the users into believing it to be of some value.

Good link building can take time and patience …

Good links can come from social, web and user communities the seo expert targets by specifically submitting the website/ content to these websites manually. If a website which are popular (have a good page rank) and a good link reputation gives a link to your website/content pages then it can be counted as a good link.

One can submit to web directories (make sure they are managed by human editors and not automated), article submissions sites, social bookmarking sites, Google knoll, Yahoo answers, Wikipedia (in some cases), and relevant blogs (and by commenting on the blogs) that have a high page rank.

Good links can also be earned by taking the effort to find other sites that have relevant content to yours and painstakingly requesting them to link back to your website. Try not to participate in reciprocal linking (one way links are the best, as search engines assume that you have gotten the link purely on credit and not favor).

You can also see your competitions links, and then try and attract some of those good ones for yourself. The bad news is that you are playing “follow the leader” with your competition.

Many impatient link builders prefer buying links from websites by offering the owners some money in exchange for a link. I leave this one to you!

Give me Great link building anytime…

So what makes a link great?

Is it the fact that the link comes from a website that’s popular, has a high page rank and an active user community? This could very well be categorized in the good links section so what constitutes a “great link” to a search engine.

A link is counted as a great link if a website (even with a decent page rank) links back to your content because they found your content on their own, and found it valuable enough (for their users) to link back to it. This is also called as link baiting i.e. your great content is the bait to get other websites to link back.

While a lot of time, effort and money can go into creating good links, once you stop your link building campaign, your links stop too! This does not mean that you don’t need to focus on getting those good links, but rather build a link matrix that balances both the worlds.

The thing about great links is that it needs great content! And if you can focus on delivering and promoting your unique, compelling and engaging content you are already on your way to higher rankings.

SEO Bad Links, Good Links and Great Links is a post from: Seo Backlinks

If you’re serious about SEO, you need to know how to analyze
the information you uncover.

A decade ago, businesses were wondering whether they need to be
part of the Internet. By the late 1990s, plenty signed up and
did the basics like placing keywords in the META data.

Unfortunately, that’s all some companies do – pick out keywords
that may or may not be appropriate and pack them into the META
keyword data set that search engines pretty much ignore.

Proper analysis requires sound thinking and judgment in many
areas. We’ll focus on two major ones – Top 300 and page caching.

Top 300 What’s the Top 300? It doesn’t sound too valuable unless
your biggest customer of the last 10 years actually traveled
that deep into the depths of search engine information overload.

Actually, any number will do depending on your interest. Start
with your 10 favorite search terms (or carefully targeted search
terms). To track your growth, think big. If you’re ranking No.
292 one week and then a week later, you’re No. 154, you know
you’re on the right track.

Too many SEO managers
make the mistake of tracking the Top 30 results and miss out on
the wonderful fact that they’re already No. 31. Don’t be poorly
informed.

Page Caching Google is the best for this because of how fast it
continues to reindex pages. Create your own Google Cache
Calendar – a Word or Excel document will do. List your strategic
pages – say about 10 for starters. Apply the Top 300 rule, check
your rankings and record the cache dates. Over time, those dates
form patterns that can help you determine when Google will
return next – enabling you to time your next set of SEO updates.

If you’re not in the Top 300, you can still get some perspective
from the page cache analysis if you’re still planning to
optimize a given page. It’s easy to find the page – if it’s in
Google’s index. Just enter the URL as your search phrase or find
some unique text from the page and search for that string of
words with quotes on each end. Either will result in a top SEO
ranking and you can grab the cache date.

The bottom line is that you need to track you’re progress before
making changes to the strategic SEO pages

How Real SEO Analysis Works is a post from: Seo Backlinks