In this tutorial, my aim is to cover everything you need to know about SEO link building, including ways to build backlinks and common questions you may have.
Before I begin, let’s me quickly go through some fundamentals.
– Link building is about building links FROM other websites to YOUR website, not from YOUR website to OTHER websites. You may laugh, but many newbies can’t even get this idea right.
– Next fundamental. In the SEO world, we often use the word backlink, which refers to links from OTHER websites TO your website. If you link to other websites, that’s NOT a backlink to you.
– Last fundamental. SEO link building is not just about building backlinks. It’s about building SEO backlinks. (Read this article on the difference between a backlink and an SEO backlink.)
Once you are clear on the fundamentals, let’s move on to the exciting part……
Ways To Build Backlinks
1) Google’s answer to link building
Officially, Google wants you to create great contents and/or services in your website, so that people can see the value in your website and link to you.
If you strictly follow this strategy, it may take you a long time before you can see any result.
But there are ways to accelerate the process and I shall list them below:
– Create link bait. For example, write an article on 101 ways to do something or a long list of resources. This kind of article will usually arouse people’s interest within your niche and thus link to that article. If you have a blog, put your link bait article in the Popular Article listing. The idea is to get more people to read that article and link to it.
– Provide a useful online application on your website, so that people will naturally link to you in their blogs or forums.
– Distribute free templates or scripts of any kind, such as WordPress theme, website template, free script, free plugin etc, with a backlink to website. When people use them, they will have to link to you.
The rest of the methods are not recommended by Google. But they are proven to work and are very likely to continue working for many years to come.
2) Effective textbook ways to build backlinks
Just pick up any SEO ebook and you’ll see these link building strategies:
– Distribute articles to article directories, aka article marketing.
– Post comments in blogs.
– Post in forums.
– Create pages in Blogspot, Squidoo, Hubpages and other social networking sites.
– Adding stories to Digg, Propeller and other social bookmarking sites.
– Press release.
– Submit your link to non-reciprocal link directories.
– Exchange links with friends or other webmasters, through article exchange or blogroll exchange. Though Google doesn’t like reciprocal links, reciprocal links still count. Just don’t over do it. What Google frowns is EXCESSIVE reciprocal links.
3) Other seldom-mentioned but effective ways to build backlinks
– Create accounts in social networking sites and membership sites that show your profile in public (there are thousands of them out there, with high PR) and include backlinks in your profile. You can create as many accounts as you like. (This method is extremely spammy, but it works.)
– Create your own linking network within your domains. This is applicable to those with lots of domains. You can divide your domains into groups and cross link them. Just make sure that they are not reciprocal links. (This method can be very powerful!)
– Create a simple software and submit it to hundreds of software directories, with a backlink to your website. Most software directories have high PR. These are great backlinks for you.
4) Buy links
Although Google says “do not buy links”, buying links still work. If you want backlinks from high PR web pages (not website), buying links seems to be the only option for most people.
But use it at your own risk. I doubt Google has an algorithm to catch you. In most cases, websites are caught because someone reports it to Google.
5) Participate in link building systems
– Link exchange networks
This is the earliest form of link building system, where webmasters create a link directory on their websites and link to one another. Such links are categorized under reciprocal links (i.e. I link to you, you link to me).
This kind of link building system is infamous and Google hates it because it doesn’t provide any value other than boosting search engine ranking.
There are rumours that Google ignores exchanged links (or reciprocal links). I doubt it. Google may discount reciprocal links, but it doesn’t ignore such links.
Honestly, I am not a fan of link exchange and have never tried any. My advice is stay away from such networks because there are better and safer linking systems out there.
– 3-way link networks
Instead of “I link to you, you link to me”, 3-way link networks work by linking A to B, B to C and C back to A. To Google, these are not reciprocal links.
This is my preferred link building network and I have used it for years. The only downside is such a linking network can only build backlinks to the homepage. If you want to build backlinks to internal pages, aka deep linking, you’ll have to resort to the 3rd option.
– Content syndication system
In such a system, you will post articles to a network of blogs or websites within the system. You can view this as another form of article marketing, except that the submission process is much simplified since you are doing it through a centralized system. This is my favorite link building strategies because I can build unlimited backlinks to unlimited web pages.
Common Questions About Link Building
1) Do nofollow links count?
No. Here’s what Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam team, wrote “The essential thing you need to know is that nofollow links don’t help sites rank higher in Google’s search results.”
So when you build links, make sure that that link is not a nofollow link. You can easily identify nofollow links using Firefox plugins such as SearchStatus.
2) Do links from PR 0 sites count?
Yes. There is a myth going around saying that links from PR 0 sites don’t count. It’s a myth. What doesn’t count is if that link is from a web page that is NOT indexed by Google. If a web page is indexed by Google, it doesn’t matter whether the web page has PR 0 or PR 10. They will all help in your search engine ranking, but to different degrees of course.
Some experts say you should only post articles to popular article directories. I say NO. Distribute your articles to as many article directories as possible. I’ve gotten websites into top search results solely through article marketing alone. All links count, even if they have no PR.
3) Do links from unrelated contents count?
Yes. This is another common myth. Links from related content MAY score better, but links from unrelated links definitely counts.
4) Do links from duplicated contents count?
Yes. Links from unique contents MAY score better, but links from duplicated contents definitely count.
The only concern here is because the content is duplicated, Google may not index that the web page. As I said, links from un-indexed pages do not count.
“Kenneth, are you trying to say Google penalizes duplicated contents?”
I wouldn’t say Google penalize duplicated contents. What happen is when Google indexes many web pages with the same content, it will only show some of the web pages and keep the rest in its sandbox. The priority usually goes to those websites with high PR. So let’s say you distribute an article to 300 article directories, probably only 200 of them are indexed. The other 100 may not be indexed and thus those links are not counted.
5) What is the relationship between PageRank and link building?
Technically, PageRank (PR) is like a vote. If a web page with high PR links to your web page, that link will carry more votes and thus add more to the PR of your web page. 0 PR doesn’t mean that web page carries no vote, it just carries lesser votes.
One thing to note is PageRank is web page specific. A PR 8 website doesn’t mean all its web pages have PR 8. So if you happen to buy links, make sure you pay for links from web pages with high PR, not just websites with high PR.
6) When submitting to link directories, can I go for reciprocal link option?
If you have done submissions to link directories, you will know that there are 3 options, free, reciprocal and paid. Don’t go for the reciprocal option. This is because over time, some of these directories may close down and you may end up having lots of bad links on your website, which can harm you SEO ranking and even get your website delisted.
I think I have more or less covered all you need to know about SEO link building. If you have other question about link building, just post your question below.
This was a clear and concise explanation of a topic that is pretty hot right now. Thanks for a great article which shines a light on an interesting subject. I’ll be staying tuned for more articles just like this one in the future. Check out our site also SEO Consultants we do Search Engine Optimization
There are so many variables that encompass SEO that it is not even funny. One may focus to make sure they have H1 keyword place, some may ensure to optimize images, one may focus on trying to outrank their competitors for a particular keyword. One of the key things has to be consistency and persistence in building your web pages and doing proper SEO.
I don’t think that h1 matters that much nowadays mate :)
I think this SEO Tutorial was really good. And I will also check out your website too Jimmy.
Learning a lot at this valuable Blog. Link building is a time consuming process where quality is as important as quantity. Article marketing has been the most favorite way of almost all Gurus to get more back links over a period of time.
Unique quality niche content + onpage and offpage SEO + backlinks = Organic Traffic :)
Thanks for the tips, I’m always looking for new and better ways to build links and boost my search engine rank.
Great post…
I’ve learn a lot about SEO in the past, and some things seems to be a myth nowadays. There are people that says Google is going to penalize you if you this or you do that.
Unique content + Honest backlinks = front page of Google
Good questions and answers about some grey areas in Google seo, very useful cheers.
Kenneth, thank you again for another fantastic post. I really appreciate how much you are willing to share. I will have to say that a high PR webpage, not just site, does seem to help with your PR in my experience. I also feel that .edu and .gov probably have more value than others.
Kim
I always feel link building is a pain and wish this were really not necessary(!). Thanks for your enlightening article; it takes a lot of that pain away.
Thanks Kenneth for this post. I am trying out the linking methods that you have recommended and I hope they are working. So far, so goood!
Kenneth, thanks for your tips again.
I fully agree with you on the following.
“What happen is when Google indexes many web pages with the same content, it will only show some of the web pages and keep the rest in its sandbox. The priority usually goes to those websites with high PR.”
Hence if we have a new website, I would usually prepare another set of unique articles for article marketing.
What’s always in my mind is, how does search engine consider a web page as “unique”? 10% 50% or 70% uniqueness?
Keith
Kenneth,
Wow, it is apparent you spent some quality time putting that article together. Your efforts are much appreciated, and although I have been using a number of your methods for years, I always seem to learn something new from your articles.
You are appreciated!
Kenneth,
Another excellent knowledge on SEO.
Thanks
Love the name, buddy!
GReat post, thanks a lot for the informations !
Hi Ken,
I’m a newbie as you call it. I really hope that you read this comment. I didn’t know that linking from the other website was better than the other way around because the way the net is NOBODY told me until just now. I doesn’t mean that i am stupid just ignorant. There is a difference. The way you framed what you said made me that way”stupid” I think that there is a better way of saying it than the way you did. Remember when you started did you know? I am sure that you didn’t. I noticed this type of attitude before in some of your other articles. I personally don’t like it. I understand that sometimes you need to repeat yourself many times but maybe its good to put a link or a faq where common question like this one can be answered in detail so that no one has to be ignorant anymore. We all learn at different rates and different ways, visual, written so you need to make allowances for that. Other than that your articles was written well it covered the material and was tightly focused.
Dave
Thanks for the info, this can be used for new and better ways to build links and increase my online rank.
Great quality of information on such a well designed blog.
I will highly reccomend this blog to anyone.
Mark McCulloch
Excellent clarification of what backlinks are. You’re right about people getting this wrong. I often educate my clients about the importance of seo backlinks. I am still amazed at how much bad information about page rank exists. Thanks for an informative post.
Thank you Ken for the in depth explanation. It really does help to have someone in the know explain in detail what does and what does not work when it comes to link building.
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hi
These are really very nice tutorial for beginner.I knew each and every thing still i enjoyed reading your articles.I like the way you represent the knowledge is awesome ..
I found some of the easiest ways of getting backlinks are free,
e.g. Google Blog and linking back to your main site or using
Free Traffic System
in any case the main objective is to take action.
Thank you for the tutorial, I gathered so many data that I’m sure is necessary to me as a beginner. I’m waiting to check on your next tutorial.
The SEO subject is a real hard one to get right. there is always something new in every article I read. I will certainly re-read the articles you are preparing to reap better benefits. Thanks.
Thanks for sharing the nice blog.Its really informative.
Good post thanks for this info I’m sure your visitor find your site useful as I did.
Hello EveryOne,
I am not sure if this happens to everyone here as well as Kenneth.
My adsense earnings have tremendously gone down for the past 3-4 days.
I am now making only 10% of the amount I usually made.
So sad about this. Does this happen to you people?
December is typically my worst month every year. Income drop by 10-20% (not to 10%). I reckon that’s because most of my sites are health related and when it comes to holiday season, people are not interested in their health. But interestingly, there will usually be a surge in January. That’s when people drink and eat too much and start getting lots of problem again. LOL.
Yes, you are right. December is usually a good niche for presents and gifts due to XMas season.
I read some articles on the net which says about smart pricing. That big G is rather particular about sites with low CTR (which consequently affect the entire account). Another saying about smart pricing is that big G expects the clicks in their ads to convert well (to prevent social traffic and click frauds). Which means they expect the clicks to lead to sales so that the advertisers will come back for more in long terms.
Kenneth, how is your views on this? I understand this thing can get very long hence I hope you can cover in future topics if possible.
Smart Pricing is something I learnt today after a year in adsense. Hence I hope it can be educated to others so that they can learn it the soonest.
hi I always say it is really help full tips on part 2 and you add more in it in part 3.There is realy help full question in this part that many webmasters might not knowing
Hi,
Thanks for the interesting post. There is so much to learn with SEO, which is made more difficult by the fact that the guidelines often shift on us.
Your article explains the current situation very well.
All the best,
Laurie
This tutorial contains some basic SEO info as well as some more advanced tips and tricks.
good informative article… Thanks
like always, very useful information. setting up your domains in categories to use them as link machines is an idea i’ve thought of.
I don’t have enough domains to pursue that yet however.
I think blog commenting and writing articles are the best ways to get the best one way links to your websites. Blogroll links are really good too.
Link building is a must. And finding good information like this one is always useful.
Thanks
useful tips about link building
This is some of the best SEO advice I’ve seen. There is so much mis-information out there, especially in forums. Thanks for a good post.
Good job on that post. Very nice tips for beginners in the IM arena on link building for SEO.
Hi great post on link building, I have found all your posts to be truthful and minus bull, can I ask where to get the code to have a floating footer ad banner like you have.
You can get it in your members area. It’s called Slidesense.
In regards to the nofollow link, I think it still count as a link. I am saying this because I do see links that are nofollow on my google webmaster tool. But I guess it doesn’t have much weight as a dofollow link.
Very useful informations you giving away here!
Great Blog and high quality content!
There is only one way to build Links you don´t mentioned here :
You can use RSS feeds to build backlinks to your website. Just submit them to several SS directories!
Great post of various ways to increase your backlinks.
Great article. Thanks for the tutorial, I’ll be working to get more backlinks.
Great post and a great tutorial :)
Very Useful information for maintaining back links.
Hi,
Search engines have always been the primary way of finding information on the internet.Furthermore, these engines all worked very similarly, listing their results based mostly on website content and keyword use.A new search engine arose, one with the curious name of Google. Google decided that the current way of finding the best results was lacking.
http://www.topsearchengineoptimization.net
Nice read, seo link building is key for ranking we have found that internal linking is very important as well.
Now it is very difficult to find a really good blog, which is written the truth, not rumors. I really liked your blog and I completely share your thoughts. seo tips
Hiya,
You are definitely a skilled writer. You definitely know how to write to keep the audience engaged.
Cheers
Very Important points are given for maintaining back links.
very informative post to read i was in two minds whether to get backlinks from PR0 sites or not before, bt now on i will surely go for them
This is very good information SEO point of view.by this way we grow our business and strategies.
Very solid information for those that haven’t yet experienced the ups and downs in this game, that is the learning by doing method.
Submit your link to non-reciprocal link directories.
And what happens with reciprocal directories? They don’t worth it?
Always remember to mix and match the techniques you use – too much of a good thing and all that!
In SEO competitive domains, you can’t obtain “natural” links, practically.
Great tips Kenneth, thanks. I tried signing up to ezarticlelink but you mentioned that my web hosting servers doesn’t support .php any chance you’ll develop the software for multiple servers platform? I kinda like my hosting company.
Thanks.
Get 6 Free Movers Quote
Nice post man, I like the way you tell it straight, keep up the good work.
———
Seo trends
This is a great post. Full of excellent ideas…not all ones I would recommend but you can tell they come from experience! Thanks.
This is a great post. Full of excellent ideas
Great post. Thanks for the advice.
Hello Kenneth, so do you suggest distribute articles without spinning them to 1000s of directories? Does it make a difference?
It’s better to spin them. I don’t have proof but I got a feeling that links received from the same content are devalued.
Excellent information. It’s nice to have some of my assumptions on backlinking confirmed and others dispelled. Thanks!
I’m enjoiyng and learning a lot of this SEO course, Thank you a lot!
great ideas…i will try them out within the next few days!
Learning everyday, read as much as, but it is hard to get this right. however this is good article.
Thanks.
Great post and thanks for sharing dude. Can you envision what SEO will be like 15 years down the line? It’s already getting trickier now I wouldn’t want to even guess…
Luxury Beach Hotels
Wonderful information. It’s nice to have some of my assumptions on backlinking confirmed and others dispelled. Thanks!
Put up is nicely written and it contains many good things for me. I’m glad to search out your impressive manner of writing the post. Now it turn out to be straightforward for me to grasp and implement the concept. Wonderful post. Keep it up and thanks on your share! Thank you very much.
Thanks for your information, your question and answer section helped me a lot and I also get my question’s answer. However I also know that link building is one of the great ways to attract search engine. But you provided some more information about link building.
Thanks for the article.
Excellent information.
It’s nice to have some of my assumptions on backlinking confirmed and others dispelled.
Thanks!
This is really good information for new SEO.
if you need more information please see my site
http://www.can-oninfotech.com/
Thanks…
Link building is a time consuming process where quality is as important as quantity. Article marketing has been the most favorite way of almost all Gurus to get more back links over a period of time.
That’s awesome. I was wondering how to get a huge site like that indexed so fast. Can’t wait to read more about these kind of site strategies.
Thanks! Wonderful information. It’s nice to have some of my assumptions on backlinking confirmed and others dispelled.
Thanks for detailing the step on how to get rank higher on Big-G..The information is very helpful to me as I am learning SEO. Thanks again..
Nice tutorial. Thanks for the tips on link bait. Apart from link bait forum commenting, forum posting and blog commenting are most effective in link building.
An excellent tutorial here guys and some great points for newbies.
Thanks for the article.
Excellent information.
It’s nice to have some of my assumptions on backlinking confirmed and others dispelled.
Thanks!
I will take all your tips to my linkbuilding. Thanks!
These tutorials are great for the SEO beginner, keep them coming.
Once again a great little tutorial, thanks guys.
Link building is a long hard slog. You need plenty of time and lots of discipline to ensure you only acquire the greatest quality links.
Thanks for the article.
Excellent information.
Thanks for the article.
Excellent information
Thanks for your information, your question and answer section helped me a lot and I also get my question’s answer. However I also know that link building is one of the great ways to attract search engine. But you provided some more information about link building.
Thanks! Wonderful information. It’s nice to have some of my assumptions on backlinking confirmed and others dispelled.
That’s awesome. I was wondering how to get a huge site like that indexed so fast. Can’t wait to read more about these kind of site strategies.
Link building is a time consuming process where quality is as important as quantity. Article marketing has been the most favorite way of almost all Gurus to get more back links over a period of time.
Thank you for another cracking little guide here, there are some valuable lessons to be learnt about link building and this is a great intro.
thanks for the info and for the first 2 parts of seo tutorial!
Awesome tutorial! Thanks for sharing! I’ve learned a lot
Thanks very much sir…. for posting such an informative post on SEO link Building.
it is a nice tutorial. I will try to use your advice on my future seo campaigns.
Very informative tutorial for businesses looking to dominate the search results for their niche.
Great tutorial on link building! Thanks!
Thanks! it is nice!
This is a useful tutorial and essential for the beginner.
My opinion is high pr and linking to sites that are the same topic will help you get very quick results
The link building will definitely help your website’s PR and increase the traffic and increase the keyword ranking. Sometimes it will take time for the search engines to index your site. The effect of good article, directory submissions and Forum posting are better to create the link building.
Thanks for sharing such an important blog.
hey, i am new to this SEO business. Does anyone have any Newbie links, articles or websites i could read? My site is http://www.emergencylocum.co.uk or click here locum pharmacist
With the new penguin update do you think any of these tips are affected?
For SEO after Penguin update, please read http://www.leadsleap.com/blog/seo-after-penguin-update/
I think this is a great tutorial for those who don’t have the deep pockets to employ seo agencies, great work Kenneth.
Thank you for the tutorial, Nice share information very useful.. Have a nice day ! thanks so much
This are some great tips to link building. One of the main things I have found that is important is relevence of link
Thanks for sharing your thoughts about seo link building.
Regards
Hi Ken,
Thanks for this training information atleast now I have to watch my sources of backlink as I have been told to buy lots of programme that will boost my backlink, if that will get me into trouble with google then am better off doing it my own way.
Good write-up. I absolutely appreciate this website. Continue the good work!
Great post… I am always looking for new ways to get some backlinks…
Thanks for the great post. This helps in understanding what is the main keys to get max backlinks to new websites.
Getting quality backlinks is the toughest part for new blogs. Thanks for the article.
Do-follow back-links is major factor for ranking higher in search engines. This Article helped a lot. Thanks
Amazing Article!! I was looking for some information on seo and backlink process that can throw some light on my knowledge. I wanted to know how to get backlinks and how can it be beneficial. thanks for the post!!
I have the same question that how to grow backlinks for the blog? Does backlinks also have negative SEO impact?
Google have many update, How can it working ?
Undoubtedly your each article is very informative but the more impotent thing is the way of writing you follow.
I have read so many articles on link building so for even yet this one is unique.
many thanks for sharing!
I have only one question how come google knows that this link is buy one or not,
They don’t. They can only guess by analyzing your link pattern and whether you get links from link farms.