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Home » The Famous Blog » Link Building Strategies for Higher Search Engine Ranking

Link Building Strategies for Higher Search Engine Ranking

November 3, 2010 - Last Modified: November 5, 2010 by satrap

Link Building Strategies

Link building is one of the most important parts of any good SEO plan. Your success in optimizing your blog for search engines as well as generating traffic to it depends almost exclusively on link building. But, where do you start? How do you go about building links to your blog?… its pretty simple really, you just have to build links that point to your blog from a variety of places.

Here are 11 link building strategies that will help you achieve a higher search engine ranking while increasing targeted traffic to your blog:

1- Web directories

This is one of the oldest and most popular ways of link building. There are hundreds of web directories out there. A simple search for web directories on Google will give you a massive numbers of directories to submit your links to. There are two kinds of directories, free and paid ones. Although it is nearly impossible (well, maybe not impossible, but very hard and time consuming!) for search engines to differentiate between paid links and links acquired for free, it has been said that it is best to stay away from paid directories.

2- Article directories

A simple yet effective method for link building. Write and submit as many articles as you can to as many article directories as you can. This takes a lot of time and effort, but its well worth it. Search engines like Google hold many article directories like ezine to be an authoritative site. A link back from such a site can greatly increase your ranking and help you in SEO. If you don’t have time to write unique articles to submit, go ahead and use the same articles from your own blog. I simply developed a style of writing where I write my blog posts as if they were articles intended to be published on article directories. That way, I don’t have to change anything and I can quickly use the same articles to submit to article sites and build backlinks.

3- Link bait content

Link-bait refers to content that readers find so compelling that they go to any length to link to it and share it with other people. Its by far the easiest way to get thousands of quality backlinks that will grow on their own without you doing any work.

4- Citation-based licensing agreement content

If you’ve ever used a free WP theme, then you know what I am talking about. Its the link in the bottom of the theme that upon downloading it you agree to keep intact. Now imagine how many other people in the world might download that same theme, and you can begin to see the huge amounts of backlinks that could be created by that one theme.

This method is very powerful, as it has the potential to keep building links for you for years and years to come. You can do the same with articles, e-books, software, website templates, photos, videos, graphics and etc. To ensure that people leave your link intact, you can use Creative Commons Attribution system to license your product. It will make it illegal for other people to use your product without leaving your link intact.

5- Online forums

Almost all online forums allow members to place links in their profile and also as signatures which will be shown alongside every thread you start or reply to. Although a link is a link, try to use forums related to your niche, as search engines tend to put more weight on links from relevant high authority sites.

6- Guest posting

By guest posting on other related blogs and websites not only do you build links to your own site, your blog might also enjoy an increase in traffic, especially if the site you guest post on receives a great amount of traffic itself.

7- Commenting On blogs

While it’s been said that links from comment sections of blogs don’t carry much weight with the search engines, none-the-less they can effect both your SEO and traffic. So, it is not a bad idea to build links by making relevant and genuine comments on related blogs whenever you can.

8- RSS submission

There are many RSS directories out there that you can submit your links to. When it comes to links, usually quality matters more than quantity, meaning a link from a high authority site matters more than 20 links from other lower ranking sites. But, since it takes only a few seconds to submit your links to hundreds of RSS directories using an RSS aggregator, it is ok to sacrifice quality for quantity.

9- Social bookmarking

While link building with social bookmarking sites is almost like RSS directories, there are a few powerful social bookmarking sites that search engines tend to put a lot of weight on. Take Digg as an example, there are many stories where a link back from digg has moved a blogger’s blog from few pages down the search results to the first page of Google for the related keyword it was bookmarked for. There are many social bookmarking sites out there that submitting a link to each one would probably take you a whole day, thankfully, there are many good social bookmarker tools and plug-ins out there that will automate the process for you. Although, I would suggest to bookmark your links manually to at least the few top social bookmarking sites such as Dig and Stumble upon.

10- Yahoo Answers

Getting backlinks from Yahoo Answers can be a little tricky. Because of all the spamming, it is now harder to get links stick on Yahoo Answers. However, if you do manage to get a link or two from YA, almost instantly you will see a rise in your traffic and eventually your ranking. The best way to use YahooAnswers is to genuinely contribute and help as much as you can. Don’t answer questions just so you can place your link in it. Also, while no one knows this for sure, it is believed that backlinks from Yahoo Answers will only be counted if the question gets at least 10 or more answers. Regardless, a link or two from Yahoo Answers is definitely worth the hassle.

11- Craigslist and other classifieds

Ok, you are right! Backlinks from craigslist won’t help with SEO since links placed on CL are not dofollow. But, Craigslist is one of the most visited sites in the world, a well placed ad can bring you an extremely high amounts of traffic. Unfortunately, as with Yahoo Answers, spammers have almost killed CL for the rest of us. But, you can still take advantage of it if you play by the rules.

Another good classified site worth using is BackPage.com, which does give dofollow links. BackPage receives a fair amount of traffic and while it may not beat CL, it can certainly give you some traffic and SEO value.

There are many ways you can build links

These are only a few link building methods that most bloggers tend to use and have more success rate with. Believe me, I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface yet. Look around you, be creative, there are many ways you can build links. The only thing I would strongly advise against is spamming. I know sometimes the temptation to use spam tactics to get a lot of links, quickly, can be overwhelming, but spamming will never work and even if you do mange to get a few links here and there, it wont last for long. Sooner or later, they will find and delete your links. Not only that, in some case they might report you to the search engines or what not, and not only you will lose your links, you might lose your search engine ranking, your site will be delisted and all of your hard work will be gone in a matter of seconds.

Link building is a powerful tool, not only is it amongst some of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your blog, it is also the most vital part of any good SEO plan. Use it wisely and you will see an increase in your search engine ranking, along with a surge of good quality targeted traffic.

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About satrap

Follow @blogstashdotcom

Satrap is a personal finance blogger who writes at BlogStash, covering various ways of making money., saving and investing money, along with establishing and improving credit, small business tips and ideas and more. You can also find him on SurveySatrap.com, where he reviews various online surveys for money sites.

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{ 95 Responses }

  1. TriNi says:
    I never knew Backpage gave dofollow links. Thanks for that bit of info. Do you think that posting on these kind of "advertising" sites eg Craigslist and Backpage can cause any harm to your blog. For example, can you get banned from things like Google Adsense because of using these sites to bring in traffic?
  2. Ritesh says:
    Thanks for gr8 post, I am new in blogging, This helped a lot.....
  3. meka says:
    Those are all great linkbuilding strategies. I have and currently use a lot of the ones mentioned. I'm just curious as to how effective links from directories are. It seems like they have lost value over time but maybe I'm wrong.
  4. Darren Scott Monroe says:
    Good list. I agree you havens scratched the surface i.e. interlink building strategies
    • Satrap says:
      Hey Darren, Yes, there is much more to link building than what I described in this article. But its a good way to get started specially for beginners. Thanks for your comment.
      • Darren Scott Monroe says:
        Agreed. Your welcome Satrap :)
  5. Sreejesh says:
    Good list! But its pretty hard job to get some quality back links from high authority sites in short time.
    • satrap says:
      That s true sreejesh, but no pain no gain. And the fact that it is hard to get quality backlinks from high authority sites makes it all the more interesting.
  6. Olusegun says:
    Thanks for the reminder. Sometimes, we need to read these things over and over so that they can become a habit.
    • satrap says:
      Your welcome Olusegun, Arslan and Alex. Its best to make a habit of doing these things, considering that they are basic things and not very complicated.
  7. Arslan says:
    Awesome a really nice post.....i found a few new things here thanks man!!
    • Alex says:
      Me too. This is a great list - I try to mix up my link building for a more natural look. It's really helpful to have a list of strategies to work from.
  8. Long Exposure Photography says:
    Some fantastic tips there that I haven't considered before. Will try to incorporate them into my SEO workflow. Thanks :)
  9. TJ McDowell says:
    From all the SEO techniques that I've tried, I think the directory submissions was the biggest waste of time. Hit the big directories, then move on to content creation. Your time will pay off with a better SEO return in the long run.
    • satrap says:
      I actually agree with your comment TJ. I think the best thing is to submit to top directories manually and then use a software to automatically submit to smaller ones quickly and use the saved time to work on other aspects of your site. Thanks for commenting.
  10. Icechen1 says:
    Very clear & concise tips! If you write goos quality content, social media is the best out of everything else in the list.
    • satrap says:
      I think it really depends on the individual. For me social media hasn't been that big yet, I just didn't get into it that much yet, but I know for many its their number on priority when it comes to promoting their blog. Thank you for you comments.
  11. Ahmad says:
    Those are very basic strategy my favorite is blog commenting
    • satrap says:
      Hey Ahmad, the truth is basic or not, those are almost all we have got to work with. There are no complicated ways to build links. Most link building methods come down to to one of the strategies outlined above. Thanks for your comment.
  12. Daisy says:
    Excellent tips. I do most of these (diversity is the key I believe) I just don't use Craigslist as I always saw that as a very spammy place with very little SEO benefit. I have done some article submitting in the past, but I want my article to be too perfect, so it takes a lot of time for me to write an article that passes my own review, lol! I should probably outsource that!
    • satrap says:
      Hey Daisy, Yeah, that is kind of sad that spammer have made craigslist a place filed with spam. However, as I said, if you can learn the art of writing ads for craigslist, you can still pull in a lot of benefits, including free traffic. Thanks for the comment.
  13. Prabhu says:
    I've never tried(known) link bait,citation based content,yahoo answers, craigslist classifieds...yet to try all that...Excellent list !
    • satrap says:
      Hey Prabhu, now that you know them, start working on your link building campaign and put these methods to good use.
  14. ZK says:
    If you are looking for Social Bookmarking than guys you should try these people - http://www.submissionwork.com/social-bookmarking-service/ They are affordable and they provide 100% manual service.
    • satrap says:
      No trying to down play using a quality paid submission service, but, but for me, the many free social bookmarking tools and plug-ins that are available out there, do a fairly decent job and in some cases better than most paid services.
  15. element321 says:
    Great list. All those are great ways to build links. For me I mostly use social bookmarking sites. I also like to use Digg, StumbleUpon as well. Some of my favorites places to create accounts on sites like posterous, tumblr, amplify, and community new submission sites. most are dofollow and can help build links and get you extra referral traffic if you spend the time building your networks. Another way is to use sites like website graders. Some of the more popular site graders will build a web page with y our stats when you submit your domain to them to grade. They then keep those pages so they can compare your results to other sites. Some of these sites are even DoFollow and have good Page Rank.
    • satrap says:
      Thanks for the tip. Th only thing about website graders is that backlinks from only a few of them actually counts. However, website graders are an excellent source for getting your new blog or new pages indexed. Google crawls them frequently, so you can get indexed very quickly.
  16. Sid says:
    Wow. I never knew Yahoo Answers could be used to get back links. Now that I think about it, it makes perfect sense. I think as far as blog comments are concerned, those carry weight only because people will see your link and will click on it. Most blogs are "no-follow" by default.
    • ZK says:
      Yes now a days maximum blogs are no follow and thanks to spammers.
  17. jhon says:
    From all these methods blog commenting is the fastest way of link building.
  18. Kimi says:
    I used to love participating in yahoo answers. It was not a lot traffic, but it is ok. The problem is, yahoo answers sux LOL. You will be reported, and not even spamming links. I stop using yahoo answers, and still do your tips above, Thanks Satrap
    • satrap says:
      Tell me about it Kimi. They have really bad moderators, who ban people left and right for reasons unbeknown to the rest of us. It really is hard to get by those moderators, even if you are not spamming and are genuinely contributing. But, if you do get lucky and get to stay there, it can really help on the traffic front, plus, YahooAnswers links get ranked very well on Google sometimes.
      • ZK says:
        For Yahoo Answers ... thanks to all those spammers who spammed this and as a result moderators are now blind and simply using banning hammer on every one. This one is also no follow.
  19. Alex says:
    With web 2.0 link building is a bit easier then it used to be. Also articles and forums are a great way to gain backlinks from relevant content that will help way more then a link from something totally different. Backlinks from themes you designed is cool because some of the blogs that might use your theme can increase in popularity very much but there is a second side to this. After a couple of years your theme may become obsolete and most of the bloggers that had it will change it that will make those links go *poof*.
    • satrap says:
      Alex, I never looked that far into the future regarding links in themes, but I think you make a very strong point. That really can happen and you are right, once a blog becomes popular, your theme might just get all the love. Though, many blogs (at least when they become successful) would use a paid custom made theme rather than a free one.
      • ZK says:
        I would suggest with theme you should create niche based theme ... so that you will be able to get the backlinks from your relevant niche and can get maximum benefit as well.
        • satrap says:
          Excellent tip!I think that is the best and most effective way to do this, especially considering that the backlinks will be from relevant sites giving them more weight for seo purposes. Thanks for the comment.
  20. Karan Labra says:
    Can you please list some directories which offer free submission.
    • satrap says:
      Here are some of the top ranking free directories of the top of my head: (Perhaps if Hesham approves, I could make a big list of free website directories and submit as a guest post :) ): Dir.Yahoo.com Vlib.org DMOZ.org Jayde.com Good luck Karan.
      • Karan Labra says:
        Thanks for these Satrap..
        • ZK says:
          Just search on Google and you will get tonnes of ... When we have google than you do not need any thing else.
          • Karan Labra says:
            Well I did but most of them didn't work out for me. Appears that I have do some more research.
          • satrap says:
            With all due respect, I completely disagree with the statement you made "When we have Google than you do not need any thing else". If that is the case, then why do you blog? or better yet, why do we all blog?... A simple search on Google reveals thousands of blogs and web pages about the topic you blog about!?... Does that mean you should stop writing about that topic?... Plus, not everything Google shows you is the end of it!
  21. Rahul says:
    Very Nice tips , i appreciate putting this cause i loved many new points , these great link building strategies will indeed give higher search engine ranking !! loved the points you mentioned and my best was how you included online forums , this is new to me and i found it very smart good idea :))) thank You :)
    • satrap says:
      Thanks for the kind words Rahul and you are very welcome. I am glad you find these tips useful. Best of luck o you.
  22. Ana says:
    That's precisely why I recommend my readers don't use sponsored WP themes - why give someone backlinks? :) Ana http://www.TrafficGenerationCafe.com PS Satrap - I tried to leave a couple of comments on your blog, but they keep going into spam; disappointing. :)
    • satrap says:
      A little link love won't hurt anyone Ana, especially if the theme is a good one! Thanks for taking the time to comment Ana. By the way, I am so sorry about the commenting issue. I have been having trouble with the spam plug-in. Though, I remember you leaving comment a while back and I had approved it, so I don't know why it identified it as a spam. I'll look into it. Sorry again and thanks for your efforts.
  23. Andreas says:
    From all tips above I especially like the guest posting option as it delivers not only targeted traffic directly from the source but also valuable in-content links from niche-related blogs.
    • satrap says:
      Great point Andreas, "valuable in-content links from niche-related blogs", that's the key! Thanks for commenting.
  24. Peter from Blogging Mechanics says:
    Excellent post. It combines all the main link building techniques that every website owner should use in order to get decent traffic and rankings in search engines. The other method how to build backlinks is with document sharing sites. Just create PDF document from the same blog post or article and submit to document sharing sites. It works very good if combined with RSS submissions.
    • satrap says:
      Peter, great point you make, thank you for that. Document sharing is really a great way to build quality backlinks, especially these days that Google is showing a lot of love for document sharing sites such as Scribed, SlideShare and DocStoc and paces a lot of weight on outbound links coming from them.
  25. Lennart Heleander says:
    Hi satrap, Very good article, my point is ONLY put links in blogs comments, forums, catalog directories, article directories, ect. who have dofollow. You can check it very easy by using this tool: http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/site-link-analyzer/
    • satrap says:
      Lennart, I agree and disagree. I understand that only links from dofollow sites count towards your backlinks. However, building links only on dofollow sites is quite dangerous, as it can raise the flag. Remember, one of the most important rules of link building and SEO in general (refer to Google's webmaster guidelines) is that it should be natural. Having all your backlinks coming from dofollow sites doesn't seem very natural! I think its best to use a mix of dofollow and nofollow sites to build links. Plus, many nofollow sites can be used to drive a lot of targeted traffic to your blog. Thank you for your input Lennart.
      • Lennart Heleander says:
        Hi Satrap, I have never heard of that Google could devalue or flag a site that only has do-follow. Do you have any examples on a page that has been affected???
  26. Isabel Rodrigues - Pro Blogger Journey says:
    Hello, I do almost everything you mentioned in your post. I am still to try craiglist posting though. Thanks for bringing up these link building strategies.
    • satrap says:
      Thanks for your comment Isabel. I would suggest you consider using craigslist and other classified sites. You will be surprised by the result. Aside from getting a backlink from such an authoritative site, you will enjoy a lot of traffic as well. After all, CL is the number one (or 2, not sure) most visited site on the internet. But, before you attempt to post any ads, I would suggest you do some research to learn how to write ads for CL that would not get flagged as spam. Ads that can stick and stay there forever, while driving some traffic to your blog are the kinds you want, not just the normal "visit my blog to learn this or that". Good luck.
  27. Alex says:
    Quite an Informative post Satrap, I think blog commenting and guest posting are the best strategies from the list which can help one in getting good amount of traffic to his blog or site.
    • satrap says:
      Alex, I think with most of these methods, it really depends on each person's ability to get the most out of them. Take blog commenting, spammers do blog commenting, and then you and I do blog commenting as well! So, any of these methods can help, if you know how to use them the right way. Thanks for the comment Alex.
  28. Murray says:
    Would also add that commenting can be really great when you have a system setup - say, comment on 10 - 15 blogs a day which is usually really easy seeing that most bloggers have a group of fellow blogging friends.
    • satrap says:
      That's exactly how I do it. It makes it much easier and organized. Its an easy way to build links across many different blogs while at the same time focusing on a few communities commenting Murray.
  29. Devesh - Blokube.com says:
    Hi Satrap, Great Post. These are awesome ways to build backlinks. web 2.0 sites and guest posting are the best ways to build backlinks. Thanks for sharing this awesome stuff.
    • satrap says:
      You are very welcome Devesh. I am glad you find it useful.
  30. Patricia says:
    Hi Satrap You seem to have covered most of it in this informative article. Being relatively new to blogging I like to visit lots of blogs and learn how to be a more effective and better blogger. I have found in my small niche that I have gained a lot of traffic and valuable comments from other bloggers by being part of the commentluv community. Notice that often people stay and look around at other articles which I know is good for my site. Also while building community it means the word is getting out there that my blog is around and I get new visitors to my site. Thanks for sharing. Patricia Perth Australia
    • satrap says:
      Thanks for the comment Patricia. That is exactly right, not only in ComLUV but in any other place, its all about being a contributing part of the community. That is what will get you noticed and get the words out about your blog. Commenting here and there doesn't really work much for the long term.
    • Jarret says:
      Actually, Patricia does great with posting thoughtful and insightful comments. I've noticed that she's almost always on the most commented list at Commentluv which looks like it gets her a site wide link from the PR 6 Comluv site which should help out big time in terms of link building.
      • satrap says:
        I have noticed the same about Patricia. It shows her commitment and her work attic. Those are some of the qualities that will lead to a successful blog.
  31. Murlu says:
    Forums are definitely under used by a lot of people and frankly I think it's better than blog commenting because forums are very more active in discussion which can go on for days unlike blogs which pretty much dip out once a new post is up.
    • satrap says:
      Murlu, I agree 100%. Forums are much better resources in terms of being more vibrant and active. And I think the traffic from forums are a little bit more targeted, though most would disagree with that.
  32. Mani Viswanathan says:
    Yup, I WP Themes, plugins get lots of linkbacks. Also the link baiting technique you've mentioned works well. The only thing a blogger must focus on is the quality, because every method needs some quality in work.
    • satrap says:
      Thanks for the comment Moni. Only if we would focus more on quality rather than just quantity (i.e spam).
  33. Bilal Ahmad says:
    I would like to mention a few other ways through which you can get quality dofollow links. 1. Hubpages 2. Squidoo 3. Links in Forum Profiles 4. Submitting Powerpoint Presentation to Online Websites. These are unique and working ways that can give you free extra solid backlinks.
    • satrap says:
      Thanks for the reminder, though I kind of categorize web 2.0 sites as article directories, a different kinds of article directoires.
      • Mike says:
        I think we should categorize it as another separate category, Satrap, since it's has instant approval and many modules to customize your page. For instance, you can insert images, links, and a lot more in these web 2.0 sites. Your article serves as a very good reminding guide to attract traffic. Well done!
        • satrap says:
          Mike, I don't really look at web 2.0 sites as article directories, just for my own reference I look at them as a "kind of" article directories ("kind of" being the emphasis here). Web 2.0 sites have given me great benefits especially on the link wheel building front. And I also think, if done right, web 2.0 properties can deliver far better results than article directories. Thanks for the comment Mike.
  34. Hunter says:
    Great strategies, I think commenting will give you the fastest results.
    • satrap says:
      Commenting is one of the fastest ways to build backlinks, only if you can leave comments that truly add value to the blog and are genuine. Otherwise, we all know that those links won't last long.
      • ZK says:
        This is not applicable only to blog comments but in forum as well ... you should keep the quality posts to get recognition in forum.
  35. Barbara Ling says:
    And don't forget good 'ole Comment Luv enabled blogs for deep linking too!
    • satrap says:
      Of course Barbara, Comment Luv has truly changed the way we build backlinks especially building deep links by commenting on blogs. Thank you for the comment Barbara.
      • Murray says:
        Also, I'd add, is to register with CommentLuv so you can get a larger list of posts to link to instead of the default one.
        • satrap says:
          Good reminder Murray. I think you can set to fetch up to 10 posts, which is a great way to build backlinks to your new posts and get some exposure.
          • ZK says:
            Yes comment luv is also helpful but more and more people are removing this plugin.
            • James Johnston says:
              I am starting to see that. Either their site takes off and they remove it or they just remove it for some other reason. I would love to know why people removing it. Its a great plugin in...
  36. Kharim says:
    I have been following some of these tips that you have mentioned in this article. I am going to try the others and see how much more the benefits will be :) Thanks for the post :)
    • satrap says:
      Kharim, I wish you you good luck with your link building campaign. Keep in mind to build backlinks as naturally as you can. Don't go too fast, but rather try to build slowly but steadily.
      • ZK says:
        Simply build links for your all posts ... if you have been added any new post than do top 20 or top 40 social bookmarking. Raise few controversy questions about your post on forums ... and good blog comments on your niche based blogs.
  37. Ryan Biddulph says:
    Hi Satrap, I like your tips :) Commentating on other blogs, article marketing and forum marketing have helped with my SEO. No matter the technique used always try to include value in some way, share or form. Write helpful articles, leave thoughtful comment and share others people's stuff. You won't have a problem generating traffic by sticking to these techniques. Thanks for sharing! Ryan
    • satrap says:
      Thanks for the comment Ryan. You touched on a very important point that most of us tend to overlook. And the funny thing is, valuable content don't need that much promotion, they promote themselves.
    • ZK says:
      Yes this kind of technique just need time and with that honesty as well. If you can have than this can provide you long term benefit.

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