Gaining Incoming Links from Other Sites
Leverage Personal and Business Relationships for SEO
In the normal course of business, the vast majority of websites do gain some links over time. This is due to day-to-day activities such as press releases, various other public relations activities, magazine ads, online advertisements, and more. However, there is a multitude of ways to speed up the process of link building.
One of the easiest methods is to register with search directories such as the Open Directory Project and other specialized directories related to the business in question.
Businesses should network as much as possible in regard to SEO. Contacting colleagues and personal acquaintances that control their own websites and/or blogs to request a mention with a link can go a long way. The SEO professional can make the process easier for those colleagues/acquaintances that are providing a link by simply providing some text copy that they could use. This also has the added benefit that one can ensure that the appropriate keywords are used.
Employees using the web for company business (on forums, support sites, etc.) should employ a link to the company home page whenever possible.
Companies that are a member of professional and/or business associations should contact those organizations and request a link. Additionally, the websites of manufacturers and suppliers can provide valuable links as well. SEO managers should regularly check to see what sites link to the competition. In many cases, sites linking to competitors in the same line of business can offer a link of some value.
Finding High-PageRank Links
SEO professionals know that the very best incoming links come from pages that have both a high PageRank and are related in subject matter to their own site (see What is PageRank?). These are the most worthwhile links to pursue. Next in line would be sites that simply have related subject matter (but lower PageRank), or sites that have high page rank, but are unrelated topically. However, every incoming link does have some value in terms of both PageRank and the ability of search engines to find the site through those links, even those that are at once unrelated and have a lower PageRank.
To find pages with high PageRank, businesses sometimes observe competitor’s sites or other prominent sites in their own vein of business and find out which high PageRank sites link into them. To determine the PageRank of the linking pages, some companies employ a professional SEO link-analysis application. Such programs report on the PageRank of linking pages. Another method is to simply look up sites that link to the pages of competitors in the Google Directory. Here, the PageRank of listed sites are indicated by a green and gray bar to the left of the page, with the green bar being longer for higher PageRank sites. Yet another way is to install the Google Toolbar and use the “Backward Links” command, or issue the links:domainname.com search syntax on the Google search page.
Web Syndication for Blogs and Articles
When online content (such as a blog or an article) is made available to many other sites, it is called “web syndication”. For blogs, web syndication often refers to the web feeds that interested parties may subscribe to in order to receive a summary of a sites’ most recent content on a regular basis. In the case of articles, web syndication very often refers to the licensing of online content so that other sites can display/utilize it.
Syndication is an excellent way for various online partners to offer greater depth and breadth of content for their audience by offering the most up-to-date and relevant blogs/articles. An individual or business sending content to syndication partners receives much greater coverage on many, varied web channels.
Blogs may be written to target chosen keywords, and community participation in the blog can raise its standing even higher in PageRank. Interesting blogs entice potential customers to subscribe to feeds that deliver blog content directly to them on a regular basis. This can bring prospects back to a website again and again to learn about products and services.
Much as with blogs, online article marketing offers several advantages from a SEO standpoint. Articles can be written to target specific keywords and distributed to syndication partners who are focused on the market of the authoring business. This can provide numerous incoming links to the website of the authoring company.
Blogs and articles that are of very good quality and of interest to a wide audience may even enjoy ‘viral’ propagation on the web. The emergence of social networking offers even more venues for this kind of distribution. When well executed, these methods represent an opportunity for SEO benefits and are also a competitive advertising channel.
Recently, web syndication is of special interest to those that have traditionally marketed online via email. Prospects on the web have become cautious of providing personal information (such as an email address) in order to obtain content such as newsletters and other marketing materials. Being able to subscribe to a feed is an excellent, modern alternative.
Blogs
A blog is a kind of website that functions as an online journal or diary that is regularly updated by the author. Blogs are normally interactive, enabling readers to provide commentary on published entries.
Creating and maintaining a blog is an excellent way to produce and publish fresh content. Search engines can readily index such content, and there are even search engines that are specifically created to index blogs. Naturally, it’s very important to write relevant, interesting material that readers will appreciate, and publish it on a regular basis. This may be a bigger commitment that it first appears, but the results can truly be worth the effort. These days, blogging has become much easier for both businesses and individuals as there are many blogging applications to choose from. These applications have become more flexible and easier to use than ever before. One of the greatest advantages of blogs in terms of content is that readers often add their own content through their responses and discussions on the blog. Additionally, RSS (Real Simple Syndication) or ATOM feeds bring your content directly to those whom subscribe to the blog.
While keeping web content fresh though regular updates and community participation, blogs can also establish and maintain an organization’s reputation as an authority in their sector of business. Most blogs are textual, but may include other types of media as well. Micro-blogging that consists of very short entries is becoming very popular also.
Article Marketing
Businesses that wish to increase their credibility and attract new clients within their marketplace often produce articles that relate to their industry. Such articles are made available for free distribution and publication in the marketplace. Each article typically contains a bio box, byline, hypertext links and other contact information for the authoring business. This is called ‘article marketing’. Much like blogs, article marketing enables companies to better attain a reputation as a voice in the industry and gain additional search-engine rankings.
Articles are frequently distributed to interested parties through “syndication partners”. Online, a syndication partner is usually one of many “syndication directories” or “article directories” on the web that can be utilized by the author to publish his/her article. The choice of an article directory may be based on specific goals such as subject matter, audience volume, or audience quality. The author may choose to allow directories or users to sign up in order to receive the content through an automated system. Although automated, most of these systems still enable the author to verify that the directory in question meets their criteria in order to best ensure that the content is published on the most suitable sites. As a directory makes more and more articles available, it will rise in search engine standing. This increases readership, which is to the advantage of both the author and the directory. Various syndication partners commonly make use of advertising to earn revenue from their site and this makes it possible for them to offer their services free of charge to authors. Most article directories now offer readers the ability to opt-in to receive content via web feeds as well (see below).
Using Web Feeds to Deliver Syndicated Content
 A web feed (also called a news feed, or syndicated feed) is a data format used by authors and syndication partners to supply users with their latest content automatically. News organizations, marketing professionals, bloggers, schools, podcasters and other persons/organizations that publish frequently updated works often use web feeds with great success. In order to disseminate materials, an author or syndication partner “syndicates” or “publishes” a feed, and online users that are interested in receiving the content as (well as future updates) can subscribe to it. The content of web feeds may also be shared with and republished on other independent websites as well. Web feeds may deliver merely a summary of the latest postings, full text, or even entire multimedia files as a part of the shared content to those whom subscribe.
People wishing to subscribe to feeds and receive content employ a feed reader (or aggregator). A feed reader reviews the web pages containing feeds that the user has subscribed to, and presents any new and/or updated articles that it discovers. A feed reader can be instructed to check for new content and download it from subscribed feeds, or it can be scheduled to do so automatically on a periodic basis. Feed readers may be web-based (which require no application installation), client-side stand alone programs, or program extensions to web browsers. However, some web browsers are now beginning to incorporate the functions of dedicated feed readers. There are several search engines dedicated to indexing syndicated content such as blogs, thereby making it easy for people to find material of interest to them.
Two of the most common web syndication formats are RSS (Really Simple Syndication), and ATOM. Each is a XML language variant used for web feeds that employ a standardized format designed to allow content to be published once and viewed by many different applications. Most applications can understand both formats. The actual content of both RSS and ATOM feeds can consist of a combination of text entries (which may be full articles, summaries, or excerpts), audio/video, links to content on a website, along with other metadata such as publishing dates and information about the author. Thankfully, bloggers and syndicators needn’t be programmers in order to publish web feeds in RSS or ATOM, as blogging software makes the task of publishing easy.
Using Existing Content to Create Blogs and Articles
Aside from creating articles and content specifically for blogs or articles, companies that already have a large amount of materials (whether online, offline, or a combination of these) may be at an advantage. Their existing content could be leveraged in another way. The material could be edited for an external audience, and then syndicated. This builds credibility, brand recognition, and SEO benefits for the company by providing links back to the authoring site from other web properties that are directly related to the subject matter. See also: Promote Useful Free Online Content.
Quality Content Matters Most
The surge in the popularity of blogs and article marketing has created a decrease in the quality of content in some cases for some of the following reasons:
- Companies and individuals sometimes produce lesser-quality materials as a means of gaining fast exposure in an effort to create a large number of incoming links.
- A large quantity of duplicate content occurs on the web due to the nature of distributing articles freely via syndication.
- Content of low value may be presented simply for marketing purposes.
Effective blogging and article marketing often involves a considerable amount of effort in order to produce high quality, meaningful material that entices prospects to both read the article and click through to the website of the authoring business. The ultimate goal is to achieve a win-win situation for both the reader and those authoring the content.
Promote Useful Free Online Content
Online professionals should seriously consider the promotion of unique free online content as a way to build links. It’s a good idea to promote content that is unique and cannot be found elsewhere. The content should be of value to the intended audience of the site, thereby gaining the most relevant links in the process. Often, the content may already exist within the company, and need only be formatted for an external audience. The content should be something of value, and depending upon the industry, might include: recipes, tutorials, glossaries, factoids, presentations, white papers, and other resources. Excellent content will create some word of mouth and the link building process may continue in a viral fashion.
Issue Press Releases
Most organizations send out press releases from time to time as a normal part of their public relations/ marketing activities. This is a productive way to build links to increase ranking, as other content providers frequently utilize news releases as fodder for their own content. Most content providers who use news releases in this manner also provide a link back to the originating website. Content aggregators that collect syndicated web content such as news headlines and blogs usually keep in place any text links placed into the body of the document. There are both free and “for pay” press release distribution services that can disseminate content very widely. Industry publications may also place particularly interesting/relevant releases for free or a modest fee. These days, it’s expected that a company will want its website URL displayed prominently, and press release service providers know this. However, it is still important to ensure that content intended for online publication contains the link in actual HTML (clickable) format such as (<a href=” http://www.yourdomainname.com”>Your link text </a>).
Pursue Inclusion in Newsletters
Many organizations such as industry journals and associations publish newsletters by email, which are also posted and archived on their respective websites. It’s often worthwhile for companies to seek out such organizations that are related to their own vein of business. The approach may be as simple as asking the editors to announce the website in their newsletter. Editors are more likely to be accommodating if the site in question is rich in content and a good resource with the industry. Newsletter editors often welcome relevant, valuable contributions from other colleagues in the industry.
Use Offline PR to Best Advantage
When engaging in offline PR activities, it is good practice to ensure that those activities (such as a print article for a magazine) will appear on the website of the publication as well. Not only will the content reach a very broad audience, but a link appearing on the web will bring both visitors and search engines to the site of the authoring business. Some entities charge extra for the content to also appear on the web, however.
Linking Activities that Tend to Be Less Productive from a SEO Standpoint:
The following are methods that search engines largely disregard or even penalize websites for when used for SEO. Search engines have long ago recognized that these techniques were used mostly to increase PageRank, but offered inferior value in terms of leading searchers to what they were seeking:
Links pages – for the most part, links pages do not generate a large amount of traffic to websites. Additionally, search engines likely downgrade the value of links coming from such pages, so they don’t offer companies much of a boost in PageRank. Also, SEO managers should keep in mind that the value of each link coming from such a page becomes less and less as the number of links on the page increases.
Guest books – early SEO strategists employed a link building technique that included placing links to their sites in as many Internet guest books as they could find. This method now has little value in terms of SEO.
FFA pages – these days, Free For All pages aren’t of much use in terms of SEO, and many are created simply to collect email addresses when users register.
Link Farms – these automated systems can generate thousands of links in short order, but they don’t help at all in terms of SEO, and search engines will often penalize a site in terms of PageRank that hosts a link farm or links to one.
Responding to blog postings - search engines index blogs thoroughly, and people responding to blogs that share a common subject as their site should ensure that a link to their site is included in the response. However, it should be noted that responding to blogs has become much less effective in terms of SEO recently due to “blog spamming” This is the practice of responding to blogs with the sole purpose of placing a link on it.
Internet Forums (also called discussion groups or message boards) - the effectiveness of Internet forum participation for SEO efforts has become less effective as search engines have downgraded the value of links placed there by users for much the same reasons as mentioned in “Responding to blog postings”, above.
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