Do You Still Link Like Its 2005?
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009
You come across a site promising 500 do-follow links for $50. Wow what a good deal you tell yourself. You’ll be number one on Google in no time. Ha! If only this were true. You’re still building links like its 2005, and need to reevaluate your game plan.
As we’ve said before, king content demands devotion. While directories and traditional ways of link building still "work", the truth is: content focused efforts work better.
So how can you refocus your efforts towards content? Many ways!
Make It Linkable
Set your content apart from the rest. Unique ideas, creative writing, controversial subjects, and amusing content are all ways to accomplish this. Content that answers an industry question is always great, but doing it in an unconventional way gives it "linkability".
Blogs
Develop an onsite blog. Not only is this a chance to showcase your own writing skills and your expertise (and that of your staff), you can also build internal links to the pages within your site. Look for guest blogging opportunities as well. Sites like TheSocialRobot.com, and iHostGreen.co.uk offer guest blogging opportunities. Search on Google’s blog search, find a blog you think you could write a guest post for, and just e-mail them. You’ll find that many people are excited to have experts likes yourself provide guest posts on their blogs, and might include a nice little bio about you with a few links to your site.
Get The Word Out
Don’t forget to publicize your content. The easiest way? Through Twitter of course! There are also sites like Facebook and PitchEngine that let you get the word out. It’s a little more than just posting a link and hoping people click on it, however. What many people don’t realize is this: if you interact in the community and actually build relationships your efforts will be more focused. Give information to those that want it. Don’t talk at them, talk with them.
Don’t just try to build up your followers/fans/friends because that’s what you hear you are supposed to do. Find those that will actually benefit from your content. Find them through directory sites, group pages, discussion boards, friends of friends, etc… Shaun Anderson’s post "Stop Building S*&t Links" gives some great advice on the subject of building links the right way and publicizing your content.
E-mail
Hit up your friends, family, and connections….just don’t wear out your welcome. Let them know about your great pieces of content, and personalize the e-mail with specifics on why they might benefit from reading. You’ll find that you receive natural links back to your site, and you didn’t even have to ask outright.
While traditional link building may still work for some, the trend has been and will continue to lean toward content. Good content, when publicized correctly, will naturally receive traffic, links, and translate into better rankings for your site overall.
