Natural linking through blogging

When it comes to natural link building strategies, you shouldn’t look beyond a simple blog. Blogs help to build links both internally and externally. Even better, the links you can build through your blog activity are the types of links that search engines are looking for.

Organic links should be the ultimate goal of smart link building strategies. Not only are they often the sort of links that search engines like, they’re links that will last. Putting links within blogs is one of the best and easiest ways to foster organic links. Link building through blogging couldn’t be easier and you can discuss this with us at Linkbuilding.co.uk.

There are a couple of habits that will place you in good stead:

Referencing. You’ll notice a lot of referencing going on in the most popular blogs. These links within text help pull traffic deeper into the site and to distribute link juice throughout the site. They also keep readers entertained and informed.

Referencing others. How can linking to other blogs help you, you may ask? This strategy works because of the co-operation usually found in the blogging community. Linking to other sites can help to net you some great return links.

Sneaky linking on other blogs. Once you’re established in the blogging community, sneak links into comments.

Use the wider web. Plenty of sites fail to use their blog efficiently because they forget to promote it. Social media sites are a bonus for natural linking. While many social media sites now follow links, there is also the knock-on effect as social media followers frequently repost links elsewhere.

How quality content = quality links

Content isn’t necessarily the first thing that comes to mind when you think of SEO link building. Companies providing link building services usually talk about investigating fresh angles like new directory submissions, or contrast the benefits of jumping into paid links versus a more bespoke link building campaign. Links within text can get overlooked.

This is possibly because link strategies involving content are more for the long term. They require a bit of patience, and a bit of work. The difference between these strategies and others, however, is that they pay off in long-term, high quality links. Instead of involving a contract which will expire, or a site that isn’t particularly relevant to your keywords, content strategies tend to attract organic, lasting links from topically related sites.

There are numerous strategies to consider, and you can discuss this with us at Linkbuilding.co.uk. Some of the content strategies to implement include:
*Content exchanges, such as guest posting – these are a good way to arrange high-quality link exchanges in an organic way
*Social media tie-ins – using new content to attract links by promoting it in the social media
*Link bait content – tapping into linking trends with specially written content.

The thing to keep in mind is that such link strategies need not only good-quality content, which you’re likely to already have on your site, but some linking know-how. Great content may attract some links, but it’s unlikely to pay real linking dividends unless it’s incorporated as part of your linking strategy.

Competitors’ links: why research?

Competitor link research is one of the vital first steps when link building. Not only will a knowledge of your competitors’ links help you to establish just how much work you have to do to get ahead, but it can also provide you with some excellent leads for your own SEO link building plan.

1. Analyse your competition

A major reason to investigate the links of your competitors is to see what they are up to. To do this, you need to be able to analyse their link profiles, separating out important, high-quality links from the background of lesser links. A link building company is helpful when you want to analyse competitor profiles, and you can discuss this with us at Linkbuilding.co.uk.

2. A build-your-own-link kit

The second, and just as important, thing you will gain from your competitor link profiles is an idea of links you can seek out yourself. Your competitors’ link profiles act as a build-your-own-link kit, providing you with a list of sites that are open to providing links to businesses in your industry. This list provides you with your first leads for organic, high quality link building.

Another benefit of this part of the process is finding out where you can get exposure around the net. A competitor link comparison across a couple of competitors should reveal a number of sites in common. These sites are likely to be gathering places for your market, and therefore a good idea to approach for your internet marketing plan.

Finding the right web directories

On excellent method for developing high search engine rankings is to submit to relevant, industry focused web directories. However it can be a challenge to website owners to determine which website directories will be beneficial to their link building strategies and which are better to avoid. As with all aspects of SEO link building when choosing web directories it is much more advantageous to opt for quality over and above large volumes of submissions.

There are some pointers that can help a website owner assess which website directories should be bypassed. Although individually the point may not be a great worry when several can be identified it can have a negative impact on your search engine rankings.

Reciprocal links – if you are required to link back to a directory then question whether this is a good use of resource. If the directory is reliant on this form of SEO link building then it could be a sign that the site lacks authority.

Enhanced positions – gaining an enhanced position will ensure that your submission is seen first but you’ll find that directories that use that form of submission are not highly rated by Google. For this reason it can adversely affect your search rankings so avoid them

General submissions – if the directory accepts submissions from anyone again question its validity. Seek out those that are more specific to a service, product or market as this will boost rankings.

At www.linkbuilding.co.uk we provide help developing link building strategies to achieve ranking success.

5 best link sources for small sites

Not everyone interested in SEO has got a huge site. If you’re trying to push your small blog forward for attention, or if you’re just trying to get your boutique retail site on the first page of the SERPs, your link building tactics have to be different to those of larger sites. Link building in the UK is hard enough for mainstream sites. For small sites, it can seem impossible.

Here are five of the best places to look for links for your small site.

1. Go social. Tweeting every post is a classic way to draw links.

2. Share your content. As a small site, high-quality content is your strongest asset. Share the love a little and you’ll find links coming in to tap into your resources.

3. Niche directories. If you’re running a small site, the big paid directories aren’t necessarily going to be of much use. You’re going to be better served by investing in a few niche paid directory listings, ones that focus on your industry. Do a search on ‘[industry] directory’ or ‘[niche] blog directory’ to get started, or talk to us at Linkbuilding.co.uk.

4. Other blogs. One of the major advantages of running a blog is access to the blogging community. No matter what sort of blog you write, you will be able to make solid, meaningful connections with other bloggers. Take advantage of these connections by organising guest posts and link swaps.

5. Online forums. These are incredibly easy links to get. Just check whether the forum nofollows before investing too much time.

Link building through relationships

Within the SEO world the terms link and relationships seem completely polarised, yet their definitions are very synonymous. Link building is arguably one of the most dreaded elements of SEO. It has to be done and the search engines attach great value to link building but most of us groan at the thought of doing it.

Forcing yourself to do something even though you hate it is likely to bring great success. If you look at a sportsman just going through the motions is similar. It’s unlikely that they’ll bring home a gold medal when their heart just isn’t in it.
This means you need to look at SEO link building in a new way. Look upon it as relationship building instead – not the superficial relationship building of article publishing, social book marking and directory submission – but the real relationship building required to get high quality links.

Building relationships on the internet is about building connections with other webmasters. This will in turn build a relationship between the websites which can be beneficial to both. The best place to start is by looking at any existing relationships.

These are what will grow into new relationship opportunities. Use networking to find new relationships that will benefit your site. You can also look out for guest blog opportunities. Search on Google for sites that publish these types of posts in your industry. Bloggers are generally open to new relationships and connections so identify blog sites in your industry and influencers you can connect to. You can also try searching Twitter using the keywords to find people also.

At www.linkbuilding.co.uk we offer link building strategies that can help to support your other SEO campaigning.

Using competitor link building effectively

Competitor link building can often be avoided by website owners as they simply don’t understand how to make it work for them. However through using a structured approach competitor link building can not only help you develop high quality links but will also build your business intelligence helping you to grow. Once you have a sound understanding of who your competitors are, then the next stage is to analyse exactly what type of link your website needs.
Using competitor link analysis data drop into a graph the types of links seen on competitor sites compared to the types of links seen on your own. Often this type of analysis will reveal that there is a need to widen the focus and look for other sources of links. Looking at the competition will provide ideas and give your one way link building strategy direction.
This data can also be used to create a baseline for measuring your link building efforts and those of the competition. Take your top three competitors alongside your own data and update periodically. This will provide a great overview of what is happening with your backlinks ongoing. Once this type of data is added to excel you can create visual graphs making tracking easy.
In addition to looking at backlinks it’s important to keep a check on homepage Page Authority and Domain Authority. This ensures that link building isn’t happening at the expense of other important authority metrics.
At www.linkbuilding.co.uk we are experts in one way link building and can support all your internet marketing strategies.

Driving value from link building strategies – part 2

Not all forms of link building are created equally. Depending on the different type of link there will be a variance on value for your website optimization. Here are more ways to determine the effectiveness of links for your website:

3. Bronze Standard Links

Using article marketing can help achieve good rankings if you manage to get an article submitted to a high profile site. This can achieve targeted traffic and boost your SEO efforts considerably. However, the issue arises when your article get duplicated everywhere and it can sometime be difficult to find a site where your author’s box stays complete with your links. With all SEO link building the more varied you are and the wider your portfolio of links the more natural your link building will appear. This will ensure you escape the spam filters.

4. Blog comment links

You can see the benefits from blog comments directly affecting your rankings. You will see direct traffic coming in and can monitor the effects on rankings easily. Google sees blog comments now as a useful feature and therefore these types of link have value. Spam commenting, however, will cause problems for you so avoid it at all costs.

5. Social bookmark links

Bookmarking sites such as Twitter will get you do follow anchor text links. It is lower value link building than some of the other methods because so many sites do this. However it is a useful approach when broadening the types of links you have.

At www.linkbuilding.co.uk we are a link building company offering a wealth of experience and skill in SEO link building.

Driving value from link building strategies – Part One

It is well known in link building circles that links are not all of the same value. When developing link building strategies just where should you focus your time?

1. Gold standard links

These are anchor text links created within the content of an article. They offer great flexibility as they can come from a variety of sources. There are two main ways of link building to get them. The first method is to research industry magazines and submit articles to the appropriate ones hoping they will publish them using the links you have inserted. Another method is to approach blog writers within your market and ask them to publish a unique article created by you which also include plenty of anchor text links. You’ll find there are many blog writers out there that will be happy to receive high quality content as this is how they make their money. Although the process of finding sources for the gold standard link is time consuming the payback will be considerable.

2. Silver standard links

These are anchor text links inserted into a resource page or a blog. You can easily source these types of links. Many bloggers out there will do a three-way trade. You can also search for websites that have resources that are appropriate to your market or niche. The skill comes in approaching these websites and getting a positive response as they often stipulate a link back to their own site. Reciprocal link building is only beneficial if the site is relevant to you.

At www.linkbuilding.co.uk we can help with all your link building issues.

Using Keywords as Backlink Builders

There are all kinds of linking building strategies that your link building company will try when building your profile. One great way to build a solid foundation for your profile is something that another aspect of your search engine optimisation can help with – your keywords.

Keywords are often used for link research, but developing a systematic approach is important. Here are a few steps to follow to build up a strong list of linking possibilities. The results should form the backbone of your link profile.

1. Choose a keyword – it’s usually a good idea to start with your main list.

2. Google it – use link-focussed phrases like ‘submit site’ and ‘add website.’ These phrases will turn up sites that are open to giving links.

3. Take note of the top – as you’re high quality link building, it’s best to stay with the top 10 or 20 results.

4. Filter for quality – sift through your list to remove any low-quality sites. Although things like directory submissions can be good when you’re trying to build up your links, it’s a good idea to look for submission possibilities with sites that have high ranks. You can talk to us about this at LinkBuilding.co.uk.

Using simple Google searches for link leads isn’t going to make link building news. However, many site owners overlook the strategic side of this approach. It is just as important to set out a plan for this kind of approach as it is for more sophisticated link building research.