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Link building tips for search engine results

Link building is one of those time consuming things that all webmasters need to do. It does take a lot of time and resources however given the results that can be achieved through link building then it will be worth it. Link building is one of the most important elements of SEO

Link building is the best method of obtaining search engine results.

  1. Submit to well establish quality directories – Try to go for the best – some don’t offer the ability to use your anchor text, however they do carry great value.
  2. Article submission – Don’t just use article directories; get your article published in other sites. Don’t just write one article and promote it everywhere – Googles duplicate content filter will place multiple copies in the supplemental index.
  3. Buy links – ‘Yes’ Google say they can detect these links but in reality it is very difficult for them to do this. Google may be able to detect some paid links but most should go undetected. Try to get links placed within the content. These have a better chance of getting through Googles ability to detect paid links.
  4. Link baiting – This is the process of creating content so that people will link to your pages naturally. This requires a bit of skill and obviously you need to provide something link worthy. Promote your article through social networking sites like digg.com. Remember that most people who use these social networking sites are web savvy and can spot spam a mile off.
  5. Link exchange – many people say it does not work any more – they are wrong! There was a day a few years back when you could run hundreds of link exchanges and get a great ranking however those days are gone. Be more selective and don’t just go for a conventional exchange between two link pages – what about content exchange, article exchange or exchange with links being placed within the content? Remember link pages do not carry the same value as they did a few years back.
  6. Write testimonial’s for products/services that you have used – Although you may not get to use your anchor text in these links many of these links carry value in Google.
  7. Ask for links! Do not be afraid to contact others and ask for them. This is a tactic better used when/if you become an authority within your genre. Be polite and give them reasons why they should link to you. Even if you get 1 link out of every 50 requests it still will be worth the effort.
  8. Offer to write content/blog posts as long as you get to add links within your content. Provide quality examples of the content you have written and maybe suggest some topics you could write on for the site you are contacting.

Google Supplemental Results go mainstream

Google Supplemental Results Labels trashMany Blog owners and webmasters have been continuously upset about their new website and pages ending up in the Supplemental Index. Nothing to worry about now, as Google has removed the ‘supplemental result’ labels from the search results.

Google originally introduced Supplemental Results in 2003 so they could separate unimportant pages, and pages with duplicate content from their main index. The Supplemental Results were displayed as a result to queries made by searchers if no substantial results could be fetched from the main index. The whole idea was to make the search results more relevant and not to show old pages with little or no content in the Search Results. Learn more about Google Supplemental Results at ABCSEO.

Now, Google has extensively changed the way pages are indexed and added to the main index, which is why they are making the supplemental results go mainstream. Many blog owners, webmasters and website owners have given positive feedback about Google doing this, as they can put their efforts on new things and stop worrying about the Supplemental Index Results. Other searchers have shown their criticism as they will have to visit the Supplemental Pages when doing a search which might affect the quality of the Search Results displayed.

Check the official Google Blog where they announced this, and also the article at Search Engine Journal.

On first page of Google in less than 6 hours!

I launched a new section for SEO Jokes on my SEO Blog today and to my surprise, I was checking my website stats, when I found someone had visited my site by searching for ‘seo jokes‘ on Google! I quickly checked the SERPs and my blog was on the first page of Google for this not so competitive keyword 🙂 This happened in less than 6 hours since I added the posts on the blog!

My website is coming on the first page of Google and also on the regional Google Search Engine. See the results yourself in the screenshot below!

SEO Jokes Google SERPs

Google and Digital Millennium Copyright Act

I was doing a search for the KW ‘SEO’ today to see where my SEO Blog ranks on Google for the keyword 😉 However, when I reached the 4th or 5th page of the SERPS (my settings were set to show 100 results per page), I got the following error at the end of Google’s Search Results:

In response to a complaint we received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed 1 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read the DMCA complaint that caused the removal(s) at ChillingEffects.org.

Here’s a screenshot of what I’m talking about:

Google DMCA

Some of you might already be aware of this, but this was really surprising for me as I hadn’t come across such a thing before.

You can read Google’s policies regarding the Digital Milennium Copyright Act by following the link.

Using Keywords in Anchor Texts

Before you start a links campaign for your website, or directory submissions, you need to decide the Keywords you will be targeting and the Anchor Texts which you will use for your links campaign. These anchor texts will use your important keywords in them which will help you in Search Engine Rankings for these Keywords.

Here are a few tips which will help you make your anchor texts.

1. Only use the most important Keywords in your Anchor Text

It is a good idea to do some Keyword Research using a Keyword Tool like Wordtracker to decide the most important Keywords related to the theme of your website. You should be using the popular search terms in your Anchor Texts which show up in the Search when you use the Keyword Tool.

You can find a very good Keyword Suggestion Tool at Digital Point.

2. Do not make the Anchor Texts too long

Long, rambling, keyword stuffed Anchor Texts make no sense and might actually harm you in Search Rankings. Search Engines might penalize your site for using a long keyword stuffed or spammy Anchor Text. Remember, your Anchor Texts should be short and to-the-point and should make sense.

3. Make your Anchor Text Useful

Don’t simply paste Keywords in the Anchor Text, separated by commas, like Keyword 1, Keyword 2, Keyword 3. This looks completely absurd and users won’t be interested to click on it. Your Anchor Text should be a coherent sentence or a short phrase which makes sense. Make your Anchor Texts natural.

4. Use Anchor Text variations

If you are targeting 5 or 6 important keywords, it is always a good idea to make 5 or 6 different Anchor Texts, each focusing on the targeted Keyword. You should use these variations when submitting your site to link directories.

5. Make different Anchor Texts for different Landing Pages

If you have several important landing pages in your site, which you want to promote using link building, make different Anchor Texts for each of these landing pages. Use a Keyword Tool and research for the Keywords for each of these landing pages. Then create 3 or 4 variations of Anchor Texts for each of these landing pages. You can then use these Anchor Texts to submit your site to Directories and Link Forms.

6. Relevance is most important

This might seem obvious, but relevance is the most important thing in Anchor Texts. If you are making Anchor Texts for a page for Blue Widgets, make sure you use Blue Widgets in the Anchor Text, instead of using keywords like Green Widgets, Cheap Widgets etc.

Remember, Search Engines also give importance to Relevance. If your anchor text has Blue Widgets in it, and your page also used the Keyword Blue Widgets in the Title, Content and Body of that page, the anchor text will work perfectly with that page.

These tips are useful for all sort of anchor texts, whether internal or from other websites. When you link to an internal page of your site, always use some meaningful anchor text like ‘Find more details for Blue Widgets‘, where Blue Widgets should be the link, instead of ‘Find more details for Blue Widgets here‘.

You can also find more tips for Anchor Texts by following these links:

Better Anchor Texts by John Chow

Anchor Text Optimization Tips

Too many Blog Comment Links can be Harmful

Many webmasters and website owners today have changed their focus from reciprocal links to non-reciprocal / one-way links due to the importance Search Engines give to one-way non-reciprocal links. There are a number of strategies that can be adopted to increase the number of one way, incoming links to a website. One of these, which you’ll come across, while reading many link building and development guides, is Blog Comments.

Leaving Useful Comments on blogs related to your niche is no doubt a very good idea to get links and users to your website. It is the easiest and most targeted method through which people will find you and will link to you if you provide useful comments and are a regular visitor to those blogs.

However, there is a very fine line in using Blog Commenting the ‘Ethical Way‘ and the ‘Unethical Way‘. If most of the incoming links to a website are from Blogs, and specifically from Blog Comments, Search Engines might end up penalizing your website.

Search Engines now consider websites that have a high percentage of links from Blogs as ‘Bad Neighborhood‘ sites. Domains that have a high occurrence of links that appear to be from blogs may be penalized by Search Engines. It may be normal for blogs and forums to have lots of incoming links from blogs, but for many commercial websites, a large percentage of links from blogs could indicate an attempt to increase search engine rankings through blog comment spamming.

So if you have a new website, and you plan to promote it and bring traffic and users to it through blog comments, make sure you have some other methods of attracting links to your website also, to even it all out. Incoming links from Blogs only can be harmful for your website.