Mike Standing asked:


The real intention behind all of the search engine optimization and link building campaigns is to have better website rankings. You as the webmaster have already set up your online presence through your own domain name and internet address but after taking a look at the millions of websites listed and competing with each other on Google and other search engines, you might feel a bit confused.

You might wonder what you actually are going to do to be among the top ranking websites and since you have heard from another webmaster that links are the real factor behind the search engines success today, so begin your link building programs.

But do you have any idea of the number of links to be named as perfect and enough? Are you going to add the links to your website homepage based on a flashing and rushing method, creating tens and hundreds of new links per week? Who are you going to ask for learning the optimal number of links needed for your web pages?

Well, these and so many other questions might come across your mind because no one actually knows the exact answers to the questions mentioned.

So what is the solution, you might ask? In fact all of the professionals in the search engine optimization world suggest that the hurried methods will lead to some problems and failures on the web and the link building pace too is one of the steps to be taken with considerations, study and patience.

Please note that the successful websites are the ones having patient webmasters and owners, because the search engines in general and Google in particular is very wise when it comes to adding some links to websites and by establishing too many links in a short period of time, you might actually damage your site raking on the web.

Please do not get yourself confused with the number of the links needed for having a top ranking site. It is not that easy to mention whether 5 or 25 links are enough to push your website among the top ten websites on Google, because if it was that easy, no website could be at the top of the listings for a long time as others would outperform it by adding more links.

But in reality you can see that many of the top ranking websites in every niche are able to remain there for a long time, and some of them might be there for years, and without any fears from other colleagues and competitors getting to the top of them.

But one thing about these powerful websites is always true and that is the pace of adding the new links.

Nearly all of the high ranking websites have been involved in link building programs using an assured way of adding the new inbound links regularly and not too hurriedly.

Please note that it might take a long time to get high rankings this way but it is very helpful in practice.

All of the search engines love to see the progress of websites achieved through a constant, regular approach and this is why Google for example never likes to see thousands of instant links added to a very newly built website overnight.

One other important point to be mentioned in this regard is that the newer a website is, the harder it is to have better search engine rankings and so the more caution it needs when it comes to add some new inbound links to it.

The older websites, especially the ones having domain names registered some years ago, have already passed some obstacles in their link building campaigns and they might be adding some new links faster and nothing happens to their rankings and this confirms the point that after several years of a website launching, gradually the website will be getting more powerful regularly.

By reviewing the points mentioned, we come into the conclusion that the matter of search engine optimization and the hot discussion of link building, are the real factors behind the success of every website on the web and you can achieve both of them through patience and a constant campaign and approach.

Robert Toth asked:


At first I want to tell you something about link building basics. Link building is about getting inbound links to your website /link popularity building/ and it is one of the most important aspects when evaluating the quality of a website. Our intention is always to get more visibility and traffic to our website through these links. It is a part offpage search engine optimization /SEO/ and you have to do it, when onpage optimization is done correctly.

With link building you will improve your link popularity and that is important because every search engine /Google, MSN, Yahoo …/ now consider them as a part of their ranking algorithms. It is inevitable part for achievement TOP 10 position in search engines and for the good Google Page Rank as well.

For those who don’t now what the page rank is, here’s the explanation. Google is measuring the importance of the websites with the scale for ranking called pagerank /it is from 1-10/. When you install the Google bar, there you see the pagerank of your website, the higher is the better.

But now, let’s start with link building process. We know 2 types of link building in term of linking:

1. One-way link building

2. Reciprocal link building

The first one gives more importance but it’s harder to get. Here are some simple but effective tips.

1. Getting one-way link is not so easy, because your website must provide some useful and quality information for your visitors so they will link to your site without asking them. Be sure to always create on your website an important page and name it “Links to us”. It helps your visitors to copy and paste the HTML code to their websites; you can also create a small banner ad. If your information on your well designed website is interesting, useful and up-to-date people will certainly link to you without asking. These sort of inbound links are natural and valuable, but this is not the only method to get one-way links. Here is the next:

A, Submitting to the popular and niche directories /the most important free directory is DMOZ.org and paid Yahoo directory/.

Find for your website suitable directories and pages accepting your site. Put into Google, Yahoo and MSN the following word and keyword combination:

“add url” “your keyword” “no backlink required” ,

“submit url” “your keyword” “no backlink required” ,

“submit link” “your keyword” “no backlink required”

By typing these queries to Google you will directly find thousands of one-way links.

B, Submit your website to the article directories

Write an interesting article about your business or interests, but never trade in your article. Try to provide interesting information. If you don’t have time write or you don’t know how to do it you can hire some freelance writer who will do it for few bucks.

Search for article directories, simply type a query to Google:

“submit your article”,

“submit article”,

“add your article”,

“add article”

With these queries you will find hundreds of free article directory sites!

Don’t forget to promote your articles and website at digg.com, del.icio.us, technorati.com, furl.net, rawsugar.com, simpy.com, shadows.com, blinklist.com, my.yahoo.com, google.com/reader, my.msn.com, bloglines.com/help/share.

C, Submit your website to the forum sites

Another way to generate one way links is by participating in forum debates. There is also the possibility to leave your signature and URL. Many forums allow you to register, add a relevant comment or thread and sign your comment with a website. Some forums are so popular and visited that search engines visit them often and can generate a free traffic for you.

D, Leave a comment on other blog sites.

Search for the blog sites related to yours where you can leave a comment.

Type a query to Google:

“Leave a comment” intitle:”your keyword”

“Leave a response” intitle:”your keyword”

“Leave a comment” “your keyword”

“Leave a response” “your keyword”

Always read the corresponding article /blog/, make only on-topic and useful comment, but be careful not to spam.

If you have a blog site, be sure to submit it to blog directories.

E. Press release distribution

Next possibility to get one-way links and visibility is to submit a press release about your site to PRWeb, PRLeap. These sites distribute press releases to major news outlets and syndicates.

F, Email newsletter directory submission

Find email newsletter directories you can get the value from advertising in the newsletter and then benefit from the link in the website archive.

Some newsletter directories:

Ezine-Universe.com, Zinos.com, BestEzines.com, InfoBot.net, LifestylesPub.com, …

G, Buy one-way links

You can also buy links from high ranking sites. It can bring you some traffic and increase your page rank but have to pay for linking back from $10 – $200 monthly depending of the pagerank and position of your link on the website. Quality text links ads you can get from textlinkbrokers.com

There are lots of link brokers out there waiting to sell you a link from a high ranking site. These may have value but I like to look for well established, relevant newsletters that sell ads AND archive past issues on their website

H. Beware of Link Farms you may often heard about getting thousands links but it is not effective and that’s not the way to go.

2. Reciprocal Link Building

The easier way to getting links is asking website owners or webmasters for link back to your website for their link. Always put their link to your website before you asking for a links exchange. It’s harder to say no when you link them back.

To find your competitors backlinks in Goggle, MSN and Yahoo type the following:

Link:www.yourcompetitorwebsite.com try to get backlinks from these sites

Let’s see how to find another link partners in search engines:

“add url” “your keyword”

“submit url” “your keyword”

“submit link” “your keyword”

“your keyword” “link exchange”

Quality reciprocal links you can find by typing the previously mentioned queries in directory.yahoo.com and dmoz.org.

Link popularity building is not an overnight process; it has to be doing properly, continuously, day by day or week by week. You may use some link building software, but when you build links always vary the link building techniques and after 3 6 months you will see how your link popularity and traffic are increasing. You can check your link popularity at http://searchengineoptimization-submission.com/link_populariry.php

Jeff Alan asked:


Strategic link building can be referred as a way of creating your competitive position in the “online market world”. When potential customers need a solution to their problem, the first step that they will take is to do a search on Google. They may even scan directories; look out for articles and product reviews. Your linking strategy must get you on to those websites where the potential customers normally visit which finally makes up a market place. One of the best ways to begin any link strategy is with web directories. The two best of which I can think of is “yahoo” and the “open directory” (used by Google). You can generate huge amount of traffic, if you list your website in the above mentioned directories. There are many more directories in which you can get the website listed too. Just run a search for the words “web directory” on your favorite search engine and you will notice a list of directories. However, the directory that is the highest in the search rankings should be considered as the best since it is likely to generate the most traffic. You can also get your website listed in forums. Here, the webmaster forum, allows you to enter your URL in order to get feedback from other webmasters.

A good link building strategy is one where you look for many links from those websites which are considered as most important information based websites and also from those websites which customers and potential customers regularly use. If your website has good content then your website will have a good search engine ranking and also this will encourage other sites to link to yours too. See that your content is well written and is accessible to search engines. In other words, you must be aware of the kind of words that you write with the intention of attracting potential customers who are looking out for similar products as yours. You can also employ someone else to write for you if you are having short of time.

Another way of building links is by looking at media websites. The people looking for information in media websites, is large. If you seek coverage and a link to your website from media website, you will then get a significant out burst of traffic to your website. A particular group of people who had visited the media website is likely to link to your website. There are also other types of websites which are more likely to link to your websites, only if you have been referred by a respected editorial website which the people are aware of. Such websites can give you one way links. There are others who may ask for reciprocal link. You may also include them in your content or write a brief article about them. You may even go to the extent of recommending them to your visitors, if it is useful to your visitors.

You can apply the above mentioned Link Building strategies in order to get relevant traffic. However, it is up to you to decide which one works the best. You must do your own research towards link building strategy.