Link Building the Right Way

Search engines, especially Google do not like spammy techniques that are used in an effort to rank higher in the SERPs.

Contrary to popular belief, doing link exchanges with other sites can be considered a spammy technique unless it is done correctly. The point of this article is to teach you how to do it right so that you don’t end up getting de-indexed or penalized.

According to Google’s Patent they will reward “a high and probable rate of back link growth from other websites”.

According to Google’s Patent they will penalize “a high but improbable rate of back link growth” & “New documents with a spike in inbound links.

What this means is that you better not try to get a massive amount of backlinks in a short period of time. You need to pace yourself because desperation could very well lead to a penalty.

Let’s use a case study to help you better understand what I am talking about…

In the interest of automating as much as I can without coming across as a spammer (in the eyes of Google) I have been using a piece of software that will seek out potential link partners based on keywords that I enter into it. This piece of software also automates the process of sending an email out to potential link exchange partners & then it automates the process of adding their link to my website.

This is a great tool and a great time saver but, like any other tool, it can be used incorrectly and cause penalty to be placed upon you. The very company that sells this software has used it incorrectly by gaining too many inbound links from other sites in too short of a period of time & they went from #3 in Google for the competitive keyword “seo software” to being completely de-indexed. Google dropped them from their SERPs all together.

This company currently ranks #1 in Yahoo for the same search term. This is a testament to the power of automating tasks that can be automated. It is also a testament to the fact that the tool can be used too aggressively to one’s own detriment.

As soon as Yahoo decides to change their algorithm then they may face the same penalty with Yahoo if they continue to gain backlinks too quickly.

The website I speak of is http://www.seoelite.com. They have used their own tool to get very impressive ranking by building backlinks. Their only problem was that they got too aggressive and ended up getting de-indexed from Google.

(UPDATE: They have recently been re-indexed by Google on or about 5/15/2006)

In order to use a tool like this effectively and assure long-term growth you should stick to a safe schedule when acquiring new links to your website.

To build my personal backlinks, I do not acquire more than 10 new backlinks per day. Stick to that number and you will be fine. If you go over that number then you could tip a penalty flag. Over the course of the 1 year plan (The Backlink Report “The Plan”), to build one site a week for 48 weeks, you would gain 300 new backlinks per month, per website.

At the end of the year you will have 48 websites with the first site having over 2000 backlinks. Your second website will be 1 week behind the 1st having 50 less backlinks and so on. (10 backlinks a day 5 days a week for 48 weeks)

You need to develop a system that will allow you to keep track of all of your backlinks and check on them periodically to ensure that they still exist. SEO Elite is a perfect system to keep track of all of your backlink activities. If you choose to do it yourself I would recommend using a spreadsheet to keep track of your backlink activities. Keep one spreadsheet for each web site.

You Need to Build Your Own Directory

A directory coming off of your main website that links to other websites that are similar to yours is crucial to your success. Your directory should be designed just like any of the popular web directories like the Yahoo Directory or DMOZ. The only difference is that your directory will only have outbound links that are directly related to your site.

If you have a site about golf then you can link to thousands of other sites about everything from golf shoes to golf instruction. Do not link to sites outside of your niche. Don’t have a link from a golf site to a site about auto financing. This is a direct violation of Google’s proposed rules & will land you some ranking penalties at best and get you de-indexed at worst.

You should manually review every site that you link to and make sure that they are in compliance with Google’s proposed rules. You should also manually review websites that you request a link from to ensure that they comply with Google’s proposed rules.

The main 3 things that you need to check on the sites you link to and sites that link to you are:
 

If you review a site for a link exchange you must bear these 3 questions in mind before requesting a link.

You will build a directory page that links from your main home page in the footer section of your website. You will build this directory for the purpose of hosting links back to websites that you request a link from (commonly known as reciprocal linking).

Break your directory down into categories. Using golf as an example, I would have categories like this:

Golf Shoes
Golf Courses
Golf Clubs
Golf Instruction
Golf Balls
Etc, etc…

Each category will then have sub-categories. For example, Golf Courses would have sub categories like this:

Las Vegas
Myrtle Beach
Houston

Building a directory of related websites will also prove to be a valuable resource to your website visitors and will be seen as a valuable resource by the search engines and you will be rewarded for it (per Google’s proposed rules).

You want to avoid looking like a link farm and that is why you will only link to relevant sites. Do not deviate from this.

There are some great tools out there for developing your directory efficiently and effortlessly. SEO Elite has this function built into it as well. It will automatically create your directory and maintain your reciprocal linking relationships for all your websites in one place.

How to Find Link Partners

One way to find link partners is to do a search on Google using your industry related keywords to find good quality sites (based on the 3 questions above) and then email the webmaster and request a link exchange. Go ahead and add their link using good keyword anchor text and a good description , to your directory. When you email them, tell them that you have already placed a link from your site to theirs and give them the exact URL of where their listing appears. Then ask them if they are happy with the anchor text and description you gave them. Then ask that they provide a link back to you and give them the exact HTML code that they should place on their site to link to you with.

This is by far the most effective method I have used to get link partners. If the webmaster does not respond or refuses the relationship then simply remove their link.

There are tools that can automate all of this for you and I highly suggest that you use these tools to stay on schedule with the plan. If you don’t use time-saving tools then you will not meet your 1 year goal. SEO Elite also includes a function to automate and keep tabs on reciprocal linking relationships for all of your sites in one place.

About SEO Elite

If you don’t already have this tool you should highly consider investing in it. It will literally save you hundreds of hours of time. In keeping with the outline of “The Plan”, it is necessary to outsource as much work as possible to meet your weekly goal of setting up one website and maintaining all the websites you have already built. This tool is an easy reference point to keep you on top of all of your websites’ link building necessities in one place.

With SEO Elite, you can quickly and easily find all the link partners you could ever want in on easy place based on keywords that you enter. It will also find places where you can add your link immediately without requesting a link exchange. You can use it to spy on your competitors to see exactly how they got the search engine positioning they have & then clone it. It allows you to send “personalized” emails to potential link partners quickly and easily. You can monitor your search engine rankings for an unlimited number of websites in one interface. You can quickly monitor your existing backlinks to make sure they are still active. You can quicly see your backlink growth for all of your sites in one place. There are quite a few other benefits to this software as well.

If you decide to invest in this software, send me your ClickBank Receipt and I will give you a free copy of my guide “The Master SEO Plan” when it is complete in just a few months. “The Master SEO Plan” is an expansion of “The Plan”. “The Master SEO Plan” will cover everything in extreme detail covering every safe, long-term, strategy I use to clear massive profits from my websites year after year including: