For some odd reason here lately I have been getting a lot of clients asking us if .edu and .gov links are as powerful as what people say they are and to be honest no there not. Which granted don’t take me wrong there not bad links to have at all. The main reason .GOV and .EDU links are so highly looked upon for is because they generally come from old sites that are very established and of course higher page rank.

A lot of people try to sell people on them saying hey its a .gov link yea which is cool its probably not a bad link, but is it worth the price (most of the time you’ll be renting them)? No not really why would you want to rent links out when you can focus on a more organic approach that will make your links last for a lifetime.

Basically when you purchase a .gov or .edu link your renting it its not permanent unless you earned it naturally through content because most of the time thats how links like this are priced.

Your probably asking your self now how could I earn these type of links through content well the process is simple. Create viral content that is relevant to your industry on your site then conduct a search for edu sites then start e-mailing all the webmasters or who ever is in charge of that site. Ask them politely if they will link to your content you never know they might find it interesting and give you some link love.

Believe me it happens we’ve obtained links like that for client sites in the pass which this is a very time consuming process, but it can work if you work it. There is a lot of people that love to link to great content which granted you might not think the same way, but believe it or not people will link to it, it’s a natural process to some people.

Also don’t expect the 1st person to link to you right off the bat, so in other words after setting there for 2 hours e-mailing and communicating with people don’t just give up and walk away because you’ll never get anywhere. If your someone that don’t like to do this type of work or you are not famaliar with it hire an SEO consultant to do it for you.

Conclusion
So in other words try to get links that have a high editorial status, I mean think of it why would you want to pay for it when you can earn it naturally, but there again depends on what your after. Anyways tomorrow I’ll explain to you how to create a list of sites to e-mail and how to leverage your self into getting a link from them for free!

Building link equity takes time, skill, patience, and practice. There is a lot of things you should look for when trying to capture / build links such as quality, editorial status, and many other similar aspects. I’m going to get into details today about the things you should really pay attention to when building links.

Relevancy: You want to try to keep your links coming from relevant sites as possible. Specially from content areas, for example have you ever obtained blog links, article links or directory links?

If so then make sure there in relevant categories or the content written around them is relevant. I mean think about it would want your link embedded into a paragraph that is about real estate services when your in the car insurance business now would you? Nope I don’t think so. Instead you want your link placed inside of a relevant car insurance article therefore it keeps the equity up.

Page Rank: Don’t base links on page rank if your basing them on page rank then I would say your heading the wrong direction with your link building techniques. Which granted don’t take me the wrong way generally links from higher PR sites can be better at times. Just focus on obtaining editorial links from relevant sites.

Content Creation: Build link worthy content that will obtain links. Nothing can out beat high quality content that will spread all around the web and capture 1000’s of high quality editorial links.

Link Equity is about keeping your mind in the direction of building editorial links. If your trying to get links your self always keep the editorial idea in your head. If you keep that in mind you’ll build a site that will last for a life time and Google will always love you.

Getting, Grabbing, Obtaining, Finding, Building, Or Fetching links is quite easy. When I first got involved with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) I use to think getting links was a challenge, but not no more. Today its like 2nd nature, but let me give you some ideas on how to get links, so make sure you focus in.

1. Web Directories
   You can still obtain links from web directories I don’t care what any one has to say about web directories don’t pass value any more. The truth is almost every Search Engine Optimization company out there including my company uses web directories today still as part of our strategy to building search rankings. Which don’t take me wrong there is a lot of directories out there that got penalized by Google for who knows what, but also keep in mind there is still a lot of good web directories out there you just have to use SEO judgment.
2. Contextual Links
   Blogs links are very effective, I have seen some of our clients go from having zero visibility in the search engines to ranking for some of the most competitive keywords in there particular vertical.
3. Content Creation with Blogs
   Creating viral content with blogs will get you links that’s for damn sure. If you set down or at least hire a content writer to craft you up some valuable content people will link to it you just have to take the time out to write it up.
4. Pre-sell Pages
   This is Jim Boykin favorite approach and yes they are very effective. Most generally presell pages coming from old established domains well good presell pages do you anyways, but you get one dedicated page to you about your business with your link inside a content area or wherever you want your link at anyways.
5. Create A Widget
   Create a widget and get people to use it on there website rather it being a certification that your company offers or a certification that you offer personally just be creative ; ).
6. Submit Press Releases
   You can obtain links from PR sites and most generally these are from older sites, but the good thing about getting links from PR sites is that it might viral out there speaking you write something up that journalist will find interesting if so they might just link to it, but at the same time linking to your site.
7. Article Submissions
   You can obtain links through article distribution, and these links can contain some pretty good value (submit to quality article directories).
8. Create Contests
   Creating contests or some type of free give away can capture you links just depends on what it is. For example why not hold a SEO contest and the winner will get 1k you would probably definitely drive some links by doing that.
9. Share Your Experiences
   Share your experiences on what you have been successful with or maybe you figured something out that will help other people out if so share it which of course as long as its something that your comfortable with sharing you don’t want to give out to many tips ;).

Building links takes time it won’t happen over night. Now you can build a profitable website with then 3-6 months, but you have to be pretty famaliar with your area. Its better to try to build them slowly over time therefore it looks more “natural” to Google.

Link building is vital process of optimization as we all know, so in other words link building is the most important factor when ranking in search engines. It can be a time consuming task specially when your trying to get permanent links that have value and that will keep value. The thing is link building takes time, but persistency pays of anyways I’ve have listed some tips below that will help with your link building campaigns.

Directory Submissions: Since big G penalized all the directories out there a lot of people are hesitate of submitting to directory, but quite honestly there is nothing to worry about there is a lot of web directories out there that carry major bang and value just try to submit to the ones that have been more organically grown.

Article Links: Article submissions are great to get links from just make sure when your submitting you write up unique content you can get massive links like this if you submit to enough article sites. Most generally if you don’t want to write your content hire a content writer to write you up maybe 50 unique articles a week and start submitting them.

Presell Pages: Presell pages are known as the perfect links because you get a one way unique link to your website. Its a page dedicated strictly to you and no one else there great links, but if there rentals stay away from them try to find permanent presell pages.

Link Brokers: This is the best way to go generally link brokers got large inventories of links if not they have access to them one way or another. Try to choose a broker company that doesn’t show there inventory because most generally brokers that show there inventory have a bunch of penalized blogs if you see blogs that are old and have a bunch of incoming links, but have a page rank 0 then stay away from them they probably carry no value what so ever.

Blogs: Blogs can be very effective, but the down fall is it takes a ton of work to build a blog subscriber list up, but the outcome of it is amazing. You can use blogs to leverage your brand into direction you never imagined.

E-Books: Write unique e-books up and place them on your site people love online e-books its very effective if done properly. The purpose of this is to get people to link to you one way or another.

Link Exchanges: You can do link exchanges, but be careful with this its not effective as what it use to be. Try to get one way unique links if possible. Only time I would really suggest doing a link exchange is maybe if your friend wants to link to you and you’ll link back such as a higher authority site.

Conclusion
There is a ton of ways of getting links just see what works for you, but the most effective fastest way of getting them with your desired anchor text is to contact a broker company. Directories can be very effective to, but the bottom line is don’t get carry away and buying a ton of links right away let them build slowly therefore it looks more natural also if your going to buy links I would suggest installing a blog or start creating viral content on your website to give the users something and have links going to the content.

You know there is several great ways of getting links of course whether buying them, e-mailing a webmaster, or even calling someone, but let me give you just a few ideas on what you can do to accomplish links. Which some of these techniques can be time consuming, but are worth while time does pay off believe that.

Call The Webmasters: Don’t be afraid to call a webmaster, sometimes this is the best way of getting links from high quality websites. When you call your more direct with them and you got there attention and most generally you can find there phone number located somewhere on the website this is typically better then e-mailing the webmaster. Whats so great about this method is that you can actually get .edu links or links from high quality resource pages for example say you have written online article on your website about PHP, HTML or just something educational well find college websites that are linking to websites like this and make sure your piece is better then any one elses and then call the webmaster up and say hey could you link to our article we just wrote up on PHP and if they say yes bingo you scored. Think about it if you have a good piece why wouldn’t they link to you, I mean if there linking out to people such as educational resources and etc. You can obtain some highly quality links like this specially from high page rank websites that have a very good domain age.

If you don’t get links from them don’t get upset just move onto other websites or just keep trying new tactics sooner or later you’ll score some high quality unique one way links.

Viral Link Bait Content: If you read the last paragraph then this is something that will come into play by doing the above. I hope before you go calling someone you at least have some link worthy content you can use as bait. See the idea in marketing for links to use stuff as bait and then start making the sales, but if you stick around the blog you’ll learn more about that, but back to what I was saying focus on building bait content that will catch your viewers, and get them to link to you. You might not get links right off the content, but its still on your website and is building the value of your website. The idea behind link baiting it to just stay focused and keep practicing at promoting viral content and then sooner or later you will start to figure out what working and whats not working.

Buying Links (very effective): Buying links can be very effective by all means, and you can get a great ROI from it and reward. Which granted don’t take me wrong the above methods are great ways of getting links to and I would highly suggest using all these techniques, but if your someone out to get quick links fast with your desired anchor text buying them would be the most effective and time free way because generally when you hire a SEO company or a link broker to acquire you some links you can get them fast and get desired results such as ranking for keywords that you want to rank for.

Conclusion

There are several ways of obtaining links through articles, press releases, directory submissions, link baiting, and etc. These are just to create some ideas for you to help you out and I would recommend you trying all these techniques or hiring a SEO company to do it for you. Building links is something that takes time and very time consuming thats the whole reason SEO companies charge so much for what the do because the strategies that we have developed over the years are effective and we know how tough it can be getting links, but like I said the easier way to get them is through buying them now if you become a link bait master then you got it made, but overall buying links you’ll get your desired anchor text, and etc.

Building links like a pro is something that takes skill. Which granted almost any link will give you some value as long as its relevant or from some type of relevant source, so in other words don’t go acquiring links from non-relevant sites which they probably won’t hurt you right off the bat, but if Google sees you have casino links, adult links, and yadi yadi yadi then that is going to raise some flag for sure.

Now why don’t you build links like a pro or better yet keep a mind set of building links like a pro thats what it takes. When building links like a pro you must keep several things in mind. Read the following below to get some more insight on what you should look for.

Old Websites Carry Value: Old websites carry more value, try to gain links from websites that are old. Getting links from good old websites looks more natural and specially if you can get them in a content area if you can get a website from a 1992 website inside of a content area thats major bang towards your website. It gives your website more authority. I have had clients in the pass that have had websites dated back to 1996 that hardly had any links, but was getting pounded with traffic actually one client was the largest reseller for Hallmark Ornaments, and this guy was making a fortune, but yet had hardly had any links what so ever.

There is several ways to get old links you can use the yahoo link commands on older domains and then go through there and see what sites you can find that are old and then try to acquire a link from them. And if you haven’t yet I would suggest installing the SEO Tool from Aaron Wall to give you an idea of how old the websites are this is a direct plug in that will allow you to check the Domain Age, Yahoo Backlinks, Edu Links, and etc. The plug in shows directly under the search results when you are searching through Google or Yahoo.

Check it out and you’ll learn a little bit more about it. It only works in Firefox for the time being.

Relevancy of Domain Does Matter: Relevancy of the domain does matter to a degree. Which granted relevancy is not always a key factor if you ask me which don’t take me wrong try to get links from the most relevant websites as possible and stay away from link farms, porn sites, gambling sites and etc. Stay away from these type of neighborhoods they will get you hit quick. I see a lot of web development firms and etc ranking on very competitive keywords and more then half there links are not relevant they just plug there link into the website they built and etc which there nothing wrong with that, but I wouldn’t suggest by any means trying to get links from adult sites and etc cause when Google sees this you’ll get slapped.

The idea is to get links with then content that are coming from relevant sources, such as contextual links these are the best to have and are sometimes claimed to the the perfect links or presell pages. Regardless both of them are the best links you can get if you ask me and not to many SEO companies offer these in bulk orders unless you pay a fortune for each link.

Unique Links, that means links from unique websites: Get Links from unique websites. Some people get confused they see a website that has over 100k links, but probably more then half of them are site wide links that give you no more value then just having one link from that website, so basically links from unique websites are what make you rank. Its better to have 1000 unique links from 1000 different websites then to have 1000 links from 1000 pages on one website if that makes any sense.

Permanent Links are the best: Buying, Building, or Link Baiting permanent links are the best. When links age they get better and you don’ t want to have a bunch of rentals, and just keep renting more links out why not just buy a bunch of permanent links that actually make you rank over renting a link that “supposedly” carries major value thats one thing that always catches me off guard which granted a few yearly links or rentals might be ok, but I have seen link rentals go for high as 10k just because someone trys to claim it as an authority link or some type of link that will bring you major traffic I think its pretty silly to pay that much for a link, but not get no traffic from it. Which don’t take me wrong there is links that will bring kick ass traffic for that much, but I have seen some SEOS thinking that links like this are high quality and something different about them, but I betcha you anything if you register a new domain rent a 3k link out for a month that “supposedly” has major bang it will not do anything for your website, now buy a package of maybe 300 permanent links for the same price and watch what you get back out of it you’ll actually be ranking for certain keywords.

E-mail Webmasters: Sometimes the best links are gained by e-mailing webmasters which this is the most time consuming process when building links, but I’ll tell you what you can find some great links if you do it properly. The idea behind this is to write a unique e-mail to each webmaster asking them if you can place your link on there website or better yet if they have contact phone contact them and then you can talk your way in. Calling people is very effective specially if your a person that likes to laugh and get people to like you or you have something in trade if so and the person is happy most generally you’ll score the link you’ll find out calling people is much more effective and a lot of people don’t mind giving out links if you have something valuable to offer like I stated above :).

Conclusion

These are just a few tips that I have went over, but keep in mind there is numerous ways of building links, but the best links are links with then content such as contextual links, and pre sell pages. Directories do help and yes they will increase your SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages) thats for sure, but the idea on getting good old links is to e-mail webmasters and ask for a link on there page whether buying it or doing something else to get it in trade.

Building links is something that takes time and won’t happen over night. If you work really hard at it you might start seeing results with then 6 months, but most generally if you have a new domain that you just  registered and you just started acquiring links into your new domain don’t expect to see any real results for a year or so unless your someone that is really experienced with link building and maybe you can get that site ranking high and that meter turning with then 6 months to a year.

Which granted it is possible to make your traffic meter turn really quick, but the idea behind getting that meter to turn and more visitors is to stay persistent and better yet if you have an old domain use an old domain. Old domains always rank better and value links better.  We have a quite of few clients that have really old domains that rank extremely well on hardly any links and I’m quite surprised sometimes it makes me wonder about other peoples sites if they have any ranking ability at all, but the facts is because the domains that are ranking very easily with hardly no work are aged websites such as 4 plus years old, so therefore new websites vs old websites have a hard time ranking.

Old websites always have the tendency to rank better because of the trust rank so therefore you don’t need as many as links. Thats why you should buy an old domain and start building links into it now if your someone wanting a particular domain name such as www.yourbrandname.com thats fine, but keep in mind its not going to rank over night or even with then a few months I don’t care what anyone says the facts are that new sites just don’t rank nor do they carry any authority.

So when you put that new site up what you need to really focus on is building some great links into it and just staying persistent then sooner or later you’ll start to see results it will take some time, but if you stay on it the results will be outstanding and then you’ll understand a little bit more why you did all that work ;). Just takes time thats all.

Getting search engine traffic from Google takes for ever and even worse takes longer on other search engines - sad to say, but the value of having search traffic through organic search engines is great nothing can beat it. Once you establish organic rankings nothing else can out beat it.  Pay Per Click and etc is very costly and I quite honestly sometimes I see no need for it which don’t take me wrong you can create large profit streams through PPC, but when you have organic search that is free tell me which one you much whether use.

(more…)

You know I have had clients in the pass or even people that have purchased our contextual links and thought the link was not good just because of the design on the website. Which of course only very self few have though this, but there is way more to link value then looking at a design or actually the design has nothing to do with the link value of course.

I have seen numerous websites on the web that offer some major link value specially older websites that have been setting around for a long time, and generally believe it or not them old ugly sites carry more value then any one of these super nice looking new websites. When determining link value there is several things you should look for such as the age and etc.

For example take a look at some of the tips below on what to look for when getting a quality link

Age before Design

Just like I have mentioned in the last few paragraphs, age is a plus by every means, and page rank is not everything. You should judge the link by its trust and authority. For example if you get a link from a site that is dated back to 1996 your going to gain some trust from that website with enough of these links built to your website the better of you will be with rankings.

If at all possible try to get these type of links they will fire your site up and hand you some authority and thats what every new site needs.

Link Placements

A lot of people believe links with then content are the best such as contextual links and I would have to agree. When you get links from resources that are with then the content the link looks more natural to search engines and even human editors. Better yet if the link draws direct traffic your really in good hands, if you are getting links from resources pages or etc try to write up at least 250 word paragraph and then have the link placed inside the paragraph. Make sure the site owner places the link somewhere that looks natural such as on a spam free page.

Gain Links From High Ranking Sites

You know I haven’t always been so fond of this as what other SEO’s have, but try to get links from sites that are ranking on highly competitive keywords or at least get links from sites that are linking to them (such as old websites). The reason I say I have never been to fond on this is because I know of a lot of old websites that are ranking on smaller keywords or websites that are just told, but still carry some great value just because there not ranking on a highly competitive key term does not mean anything (just something to keep in mind).

How to Tell if a Link is Passing Value

Ever seen them sites that have Viagra links on them, casino and numerous other unrelated links, but the website is a page rank 8. I know I have and people continue to buy them, but I bet it passes no link value what so ever it could, but why not test it. To test a link from a high page rank or old authority site to test if its passing link love just buy the link and use bogus anchor text preferably something that will rank very easy. If the website starts ranking for the non competitive anchor text you used then its probably carries some value, but if you never see any changes in your rankings for the keyword then you might as well get rid of it because chances are it don’t carry no link value.

Don’t get tricked with Edu, and Gov Links.

When building links don’t always get tricked into buying a link just because is has a .edu and .gov extension this is just a sales pitch someone says hey I got an edu link and people think its a great link right off the bat which generally edu links are higher quality websites, but not always. The reason edu links and gov links are highly looked upon on is because they generally do come from high authority sites, but not always I have seen several edu links that carry no more value then a brand new page rank 0 website pratically, so don’t get all caught up on the .edu, or .gov.

Just because it has a .edu or .gov domain extension makes it no different from a .com, .net, or .org. Its just generally edu links are better because they come from college websites and etc. Always do extra research when obtaining links from sites like this.

Web Directory Links

There has been a lot of controversy about web directories here lately and if they still carry any value and the answer is yes. There is still a lot of quality web directories out there even the ones that got penalized still carry some value maybe not as much, but I’m sure they do. Honestly if it was me I would submit to directories such as DMOZ, Business.com, Yahoo Directory and any old web directories that have been around since the internet has started these are the best directories by far.

There is several factors to look at when building links and it would take me a day and age to write that up, but in short words the idea is to use sense when building links. I think the main concentration you should have when building links is to try to get them organically as possible through quality content and content links such as contextual links or of course links from old websites.

Building links is a vital factor of online optimization of course, but what a lot of people fail to realize well or don’t realize is that obtaining links from certain sites won’t give you any credit. I see on the forums all the time people selling links that contain no value, but then 100 people buy them which granted its only a $5 dollar link, but there just things you need to look for and I’m going to cover some of them tips below.

1. Unique Content, Take a look at the content and make sure its unique. If your wanting to find out if the content is unique just copy a few paragraphs off the site and the paste it into the Google search if a result comes back totally identically to what you pasted in the search box then its junk and a spammy website that carries no value what so ever.
2. Outbound Links, Check the page for outbound links is there 500 outbound links, or 5 outbound links. The less outbounds the more value you will obtain for your website. Also if a websites got to many outbounds on it this is a sign of spam and no value on the site because generally when a site is identified as selling links it don’t contain any value, so move on.
3. Relevant Content, Getting links from relevant content is powerful which granted links from non-relevant sites won’t hurt you but they probably will help (not as much), but if you can get links from websites that are 200 percent relevant then these are the links you want to get. I should say these are the links you should be chasing after, and links with then content are always the best, thats why contextual links are so powerful for because there place in a relevant paragraph thats related to you.
4. Links Pages, Try to stay away from links pages if at all possible which granted you can get some bang from these if you get some links from valuable pages. For example if your offered a link on a links pages that has 100 outbounds and the whole website looks like a spam fest then stay away from it.
5. Resources Pages, This goes for the same as above.
6. Don’t Get Confused, Do not get confused when someone tells you they have a edu link keep in mind just because it has .edu on the end of it makes it no more special then a .com, .biz, .net, or any other domain extension. The only reason .edu and .gov links are talked about so highly is because they generally do carry more value because they come from sites such as colleges, and government sites that are high authority websites, but not all of them are.
7. Reciprocal Linking, Stay away from recriprocal linking, obtain only one way unique links they are the best.
8. Vary Anchor Text, You should always vary your anchor text and switch on and off between achor texts for example if your trying to rank fo real estate use long tails such as real estate services, Ohio real estate, more information on real estate, and etc. This keeps your link profile looking clean.
9. Submit To Directories, Google even suggest this in there webmaster guidelines submit to quality directories.
10. Avoid Automated Spam Programs, Avoid programs that are made to submit your website to directories automatically this will spam your site out and devalue your links.

The ideal behind link building is to obtain quality one way unique links. Nothing less, the better your links the better you will be with ranking. Theres not much to it, but you just want to make sure you keep that link profile clean so your ranking weight sticks.