The main purpose of this blog is to present link building best practices so that others can learn from our experiences – good and bad.  We have written many posts giving tips and advice, but we would really like to hear from our faithful readers. 

We realize most of us in the business do not want to give away our "very best secrets", but surely some of you have had one or two nice successes that you can provide that will help others and still not reveal any strategic concepts you may have developed. 

As always we will certainly give you credit and link juice if you add your story below.  Feel free to change the name of your client to protect them. We will get things started with this success story…

We have a major client that has many related websites, all different domains, most on unique class C IP addresses.  For this example we will say they are flower shops.  There are 15 franchises, all with their own unique names and locations around the United States.  They have outsourced their link building to us, asking us to get as many contextual links on quality sites as possible, using a mix of their business name and some important keyword phrases for the anchor text.

We are tasked with getting them about 5 – 8 new links each month for each store.  We look for links in a variety of places, including niche directories, appropriate bloggers, some articles, etc.  But we also do some very basic approaches to link building that many often over look.   Some webmasters think link builders cheat or use some magic to get the job done, but really it just boils down to working hard, smart  and efficiently.

In this example, we just conducted a Google search for something like "flower shop links", which is about as simple as it gets.   We went through the results and quickly found a few sites where we could add links to links pages on their site.  The pageranks were decent, but these were link pages, so not the best link juice (although later some of them showed in Google’s backlinks). 

But then we hit on a nice success.  Down on page 2 or 3 of our search results, we came across a site that was all about the flower industry.  It had a few pages that were categorized by "flower types", "flower wholesalers", "flower growers", etc., but no "flower shops".  These pages were perfect.  Nice descriptions for the sites listed and only 10-20 sites in each category.   So we wrote to them asking if they would be interested in adding a page called "flower shops", we would provide all the content for 15 different flower stores across the US.  They would get fresh, unique content, and we would be willing to compensate them for their time to add the page.

They responded with an offer to add the content for $150 which we quickly accepted.  We sent over our page of content which included 15 paragraphs of great, highly relevant text and our text links back to our client’s 15 flower shops.  The best part is, this would be considered an authority site, as it was old, had a PR6 home page and many PR4 & PR5 inner pages.   All of their "category link pages" were PR4 and we are certain this new page will provide plenty of link juice to all 15 of our client’s stores in no time (we also sent a few links to the new page as insurance).  Not bad!

Vertical Measures

You may have tried link building campaigns in the past and been disappointed in the results. Perhaps you got barely a blip in the major search engines or you saw your rank rise only to fall a few months later. Whatever the reasons for your disappointment, it’s a good bet that the main reason you were disappointed in the results is that whatever link building tactics you used or paid for lacked two important qualities: balance and consistency.

The Importance of Balance in Link Building

Some people advocate the importance of content-rich websites, others focus on blogs and still others will insist that directories are the most important link building campaign features. The truth is never as simple as some people try to make it. It can seem like blogs are the place to link one month, and then be out of fashion just a few months later, with forums replacing them as the Holy Grail for link building.

The truth is, all of the many places you can link to and from (with the exception of unsavory linking sites that are tantamount to spam) are important to provide you a balance of coverage in your link building campaigns. Search engines are constantly changing, growing and evolving. They become more complex, develop new algorithms and morph so that you can’t ever keep up with how they are weighing the relative importance of any one kind of link, so you shouldn’t even try.

The solution is to balance your link building strategies for the greatest possible coverage over a multitude of formats. If you do this, you’ll find that you are always hitting on multiple cylinders. Although you might not be getting great results from every single link strategy, you’ll be getting pretty good ranking from several of them. It’s like playing a good point spread – coverage is key.

A good link building campaign with optimal coverage will include all of these:
• Directories with real editors. Well-known directories that are always updating and actually review the links are a hot destination for many industries.
• Forums. Links to your site from various forums provide dynamic attention for you – forums are the equivalent of the water cooler – the site where the latest and most interesting topics come up. Be present at the virtual water cooler and you’ll be talked about – and linked to.
• Article directories. Submit relevant, informative articles to directories to easily multiply your links. These article directories are used by others to provide content for everything from newsletters to special reports – if your content is good, you’ll quickly become a recognized expert.
• Reciprocal links. Provide links to sites that compliment what you are offering and ask that they link to you. Similar sites that aren’t direct competitors are powerful link partners.
• Contextual links in blogs and reviews. Another instance of the power of the people – reviewers drive people to sites because they are recognized as experts, so try and get reviewed and be sure a link to your site is included. Some people won’t even know they need you until they read a great blog about you –and then they will hot-foot it to your site for more information.

If you use a good mix of link building techniques, you’ll be balancing your exposure over all of the many kinds of linking that the major search engines use so that you’re always noticed without the risk of falling down in the ranks because one particular link strategy is out of favor.

Why Consistency is Key

Many individuals start out in overdrive when they start a linking campaign. They submit to dozens of industry directories, pack their website and article directories with great content, get noticed on blogs and in reviews, set up links on complimentary sites and enjoy the fruits of their labor – top rankings.

Then something happens; they find that they just don’t have the time to continue writing articles, they stop visiting blogs because they are overwhelmed with new customers….and they stop building links or slow down considerably. Unfortunately, they discover that they are now dropping in the search engine rankings and they can’t understand it. After all, nothing’s changed, right?

Actually, that’s precisely the point – nothing is changing. If you stop actively creating links and building a following, you will fall in the rankings because your competitors are actively building links, adding content and quietly passing you in popularity. The search engines are dynamic, so you can’t afford not being dynamic yourself – you have to consistently build on what you started in order to stay ahead of the pack. It’s a long-term commitment that you have to make if you don’t want to lose in the long run.

The perfect link building campaign is a combination of balance and consistency. If you continue to spread your links out over many venues and keep the content and information flowing every month, you’ll be successful in building a valuable network of links that will send you to the top of the pages.

[tags] link building, link popularity, directories, article marketing, contextual links, forums [/tags]

Vertical Measures