The Lazy Man’s Way to Link Building
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Search engine optimization is no longer a big secret. In fact, even the search engines release public information about SEO. There are two components that you need to take note of for your SEO campaign to be successful. The first component involves being a good webmaster. The second component, which is what most marketers don’t do well, is link building. And this is the secret that will help push your rankings to the top. But before that happens, you need to set yourself up for success. Make sure that your website is ready for the search engines. That is the role of the webmaster.
 
So what does a good webmaster do?
 
Use static text links. – A good webmaster makes sure that your website is search engine friendly. That happens when the content can easily be found by the search bots. To make it easier for search bots to find and index the content, try as much as you can to use static text links. Avoid using Javascript links or Image links whenever possible.
 
Use a proper sitemap. – A sitemap is not always necessary. But if you have many pages of content, including a sitemap with links to all the web pages can be useful. That will ensure that nothing is missed out when the bots make a visit to your site. Keep the number of links for each sitemap to about 100 links or so. If there are more than a hundred links, generate a second page for the sitemap.
Avoid posting duplicate content. – Many webmasters are concerned about duplicate content. It is true that the search engines do penalize websites with excessive duplicate content. But if your main intention is to publish quality information for your readers, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. The kind of sites that need to worry about duplicate content are those that scrap texts off other websites using some kind of automated tools.
 
Some websites have a print friendly version of the articles on their websites. The search engines are smart enough to figure out that there is a need for this feature. So it is completely acceptable for sites to have print friendly articles that have exactly the same content as the original article.
 
Avoid linking out to unrelated websites. – One of the main goals of the search engines is to determine the overall theme of your website. If you link to a bunch of unrelated sites, the search engines many find it hard to learn more about the theme of your website.
 
In addition, if you add a ton of unrelated links on your homepage, you may be penalized for selling links. It doesn’t matter if you really did sell links. If there is no reason for an external link to be present, search engines may come to the conclusion that the only reason the links are there is because someone paid money for them to be there.
 
So far, the discussion has been about on-site optimization. This is the easy part because you have full control over the site, the link structure, and the content. But there is another part to SEO, and that is link building. That is where most marketers fail.
 
The Right Way to Build Links.
 
As mentioned earlier, the search bots want to learn more about the content on your site. Besides having good title and Meta tags, you should also make it a habit to build back links to your site. What are back links?
 
Back links are links pointing to your website from external sites. Do note that not all back links are created equal. Some will be more valuable than others. What is important here is that you need to know the difference between a desirable back link, and a non-desirable back link.
 
A desirable back link. – A desirable back link is a link from a relevant site. It has your target keyword phrase as the anchor texts. For example, if you are targeting the keyword phrase “article marketing”, your back links will have these words in them. So instead of saying something like “Click Here”, your links will show “article marketing”.
 
Search bots use anchor texts as a way to determine the type of content on your website. A back link is similar to a vote for your site. So if enough websites “vote” for your site with the anchor texts “article marketing”, your site will eventually rank well in the search results for those keywords.
 
Non-desirable back links. – In your attempt to acquire links, avoid going to link farms and posting your links on non-related websites. You want quality and authoritative sites to link to your website.
How to Acquire Desirable Back Links.
 
There are many ways you can acquire desirable back links. One of the most effective methods of building back links quickly is to use article marketing. Article marketing is the process of writing and distributing high quality content to article directories.
There are literally hundreds (perhaps even thousands) of article directories on the Internet. Some have been around for years, and are well established with a solid reader base. For sure, a back link from such well established sites would be most welcome.
 
However, I can almost hear you groan because the thought of writing articles can be painful for some people. Besides, distributing articles to hundreds of article directories can be a rather time consuming process. Fortunately, there are ways to help you overcome these problems.
 
Use semi-automated software. – Semi-automated article submission software is a great way to save time. The only drawback for such software is that you need to sit at your computer and select the categories manually.
 
Fully automated software. – With the evolution of technology, innovative developers have come up with fully automated software. You will be able to launch the software and let it run by itself for a few hours while the submission takes place.
 
Outsource article submission and writing. – Software can never write quality articles for you. Only human beings can do that. If you don’t have the time to write articles or sit around to wait for the articles to be distributed, you can always outsource all your article marketing activities. When you outsource, everything goes on autopilot. Unique and exclusive articles are written on your behalf, and your articles are being distributed as you sleep.
 
What Comes After Link Building?
 
If your website is brand new, you will have to be patient. Wait for the articles to be approved and published. The search engines will pick up the articles and start counting all the links that point to your site. For new sites, be prepared to wait a couple of months before seeing results from the search engines. Existing sites can expect movements in the search rankings within 4 to 6 weeks.
 
Remember, the more desirable back links you get to your website, the higher your rankings will be. Once you get to the top 5 spots of the search results for your desired keyword, you will be enjoying a steady stream of traffic.
 
