Linking back to your site via a blog comment may not seem like the most high quality link building idea, but it can pay off in links to high-ranking, relevant blogs. The trouble is so many companies are using comments links for link building in the UK, bloggers have become cautious.

To ensure your link will deliver the SEO impact you want:

1. Pick the right site. Any blog comment can help your SEO through reputation-building. If you want your link building campaign to benefit however, you need to pick a site that will send on link juice. Check to see if the blog follows comments links.

2. Don’t look like spam. Just because bloggers allow links in comments doesn’t mean that they will. If your comment is just a link, without any context, it’s likely the blogger will delete it. Contextual linking is important for comments links.

3. Add value. The best way to safeguard any free link is to make it valuable to the page. This means that you shouldn’t link unless the page you’re linking to is relevant and helpful to anyone reading. The good news is, this helps your natural traffic as well.

We have years of experience helping companies with high quality link building. You can discuss contextual and other forms of linking with us at Linkbuilding.co.uk.

Some industries naturally attract sharers. They’re lucky. For the rest of us, a significant amount of planning lies behind every piece of content shared. As with any area of SEO link building, content planning needs to concentrate as much on audience as it does on the substance of the piece.

Find the sharers

The usual strategy to get readers to share is to make content irresistible and you can talk to us at Linkbuilding.co.uk about this strategy. It can be too costly and time-consuming to create irresistible content all of the time and you may need a supporting strategy.

The answer lies in your audience. Although your site’s main audience will be your customers, your audience for link-building content needs to be different. To target your content to this highly specific group, you first need to identify them.

There are generally three levels of people reading your site:

1. Everyone interested in your topic
2. Highly interested users who may share unusual finds
3. Sharers: users who are extremely active in social media, who are driven to share

Obviously, it’s the third group you want to target. Content is important for attracting these users, but targeting is even more important. Find them on social sites and target them specifically. The result is a beautifully tailored link building campaign.

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.

Linking within blogs is easier than most forms of link building but it’s still hard work. When targeting blogs for your link building campaign, you need a specific plan of attack. Although any link building campaign requires a plan, many site owners just slip blogs in with all of their other targets. Blogs are a different kind of site and need a different approach. This means a separate plan for your blog targets.

The first thing to do is review your assets. Blogs run on content and their owners are more likely to give you a link if you can help with their content load. See what you have that you can offer or draw up a list of proposed guest blogs that may interest blog owners.

Second, you need to find the right blogs. Assemble a list of your pages and the key phrases you want placed with the link. Then you can begin to match up links with the right blogs. After that, tailor your approach to each blog individually.

With the right approach, blogs can be a linking gold mine – just take the time to plan.

Direct links from social media aren’t usually that valuable for SEO but the links posted by users on their own sites can be highly valuable. Targeting popular users with your campaign is the way to access these links.

It’s not simply a case of ‘identify the most popular people on Twitter and Facebook and target them for link building’. The most influential people on individual sites may not have an interest in your field or may not attract users that fit into your target market.

The first thing you need to do, with your social media campaign in general, is identify where your target users are. Once you have done this, review the most influential users within that niche. Different sites have different ways of measuring popularity but the basic rule is the more people a user interacts with, the more influence they’re likely to have.

Once you’ve found the sources of influence, use normal tailored link building. Contact users directly for links as you would with a website, or work your way in via interaction. Talk with us at Linkbuilding.co.uk for more information about your needs for link building.

Product pages

With their static content, it can be difficult to get product pages linked to. A classic method is to sell a few products that are a little unusual. This can pay off even if the product itself doesn’t sell, as the unusual nature of the item will draw links and traffic.

The value of category page links

Category pages are particularly difficult for PR link building but are valuable if ranking well. As pages pass on link juice as well as traffic, having a high-ranking category page will make it easier to attract customers to a new product page within that category. Talk to us at Linkbuilding.co.uk about the value of category page links.

To build up your category pages, stop treating them as indexes. Start posting articles that examine something new or interesting within that category and work them into your social media campaign.

Some classic techniques

If you’re struggling with link building strategies for your product and category pages, there are some classic techniques to fall back on. One source is making a product donation in return for a link to the relevant page. Another source is reviews which can attract links from general interest and also from the review writer. Allowing customers to post reviews also gives you a constant stream of fresh content.

So what does an ideal link look like? First of all, it’s free. The best links are those that look as natural as possible and the ideal link will be a high authority link that appears on your link profile without you having to do anything. When link building, it’s good to employ as many non-paying tactics as you can.

The second aspect of an ideal link is its authority. A dream link will be from the central authority on your industry, a site that the search engines rate highly. The difficulty with this, of course, is that such sites are usually reluctant to give away links to competitors. Information and content exchanges are usually the way to organise such links, although it’s good to get a link building company on board to strategise methods. Talk to us at Linkbuilding.co.uk for advice.

Finally, the best kind of link is one that’s in diverse company. Link profiles need to have a diversity of links to impress the search engines. It’s best to seek out links from a wide range of sites, making sure to include .edu and .gov links as well as industry links on your target list.

Here are some tricks you can perform to make that work just a little bit easier:

Look charitable

Donations are the way to buy links without actually buying links. Using your charitable donations strategically can net you some worthwhile links while you support your community. It’s a win-win situation.

Keep your content up

High-quality content does so many things for SEO, and one way link building is one of them. Talk to us about this at Linkbuilding.co.uk. Content plans should have a mix of content types, to attract the right sort of links. A mix of informational, entertaining and thought-provoking content should convince other sites you’re a good resource.

Check old links

One of the best things you can do for your link profile is to make sure that your old links are still working. Thinks like older directory submissions and negotiated links can easily go astray. Make it a part of your SEO maintenance to check back over your profile for broken links. When you spot one, regaining that link should be a simple matter of contacting the site owner. They’ll probably be grateful that you’ve picked up the fault for them.

Thinking about how your links benefit you can help direct your efforts. Most links are sought after because they boost profiles, but this shouldn’t be the only benefit. Link building through blogs, for example, should get you highly specific traffic flow. Links from local directories bring you local customers. The social links you pursue don’t just give you a timely link boost – they help get you known around the net.

The question link building experts often ask is ‘what would happen if Google disappeared tomorrow?’ This is a good question to ask yourself and your link building company when assessing your position. If search engines stopped being a rich source of traffic, would you be able to survive? More importantly, is all the hard work you’re putting into your link building efforts paying off in more than one way?

Taking these questions into account can help to direct a link building plan toward more long-term links, and you can discuss this with our team at Linkbuilding.co.uk. Generally, these kinds of links provide a healthy boost for your link profile.

No SEO strategy works in the long term if it’s solely to please the search engines. In your link building campaign, take real-world benefits into account.

Whether it’s your SEO agency building links as part of your campaign, or a dedicated staff member building your profile in-house, it’s wise to have someone looking after your links. With a little careful planning, their efforts can pay off even before your rankings start to rise.

*Social media rankings – Some links, such as your social media profiles, can rise in rankings before your own pages do. This is a good reason to get your profiles up to scratch.

*Social media traffic – Direct traffic is another reason to look to social media links. Social media sites are now competing with search engines in terms of traffic. Many companies find social media worth pursuing independently as a traffic source.

*Industry resources – Another source of direct traffic is your average industry blog. Most businesses target popular blogs because they work well for high quality link building such as we provide at Linkbuilding.co.uk. Traffic is an equally good reason to do some contextual linking here with guest posts or comments. Traffic from these blogs tends to be extremely well-targeted, meaning that conversion percentages rise.

For most businesses, none of these avenues are likely to outstrip the search engines in terms of traffic levels. This doesn’t mean that they’re not worth pursuing. When looking at link building, think about what your links can do for your site, not just your rankings.