Post Google Penguin update, webmasters were in a frenzy. Weeks went by until enough people reported back what they had in common to justify a traffic drop and it took months before we started to hear stories of recovery. The new words of wisdom being preached were to improve your website content, eliminate all manually built back links and completely stop building links. Every type of manually built link was being deemed spam. But, the truth of the matter is that link building services still works. If you were to get all dressed up to go out and then just sit in your house, how would anyone see you? Your website needs to make an effort to get noticed in the endless sea of websites. You just shouldn’t walk down dangerous alleys at night.
What’s Safe?
What’s safe today may not be tomorrow, so the answer to this question will always change. We’ve been talking about links from related websites for years, but now they are more important than before. But, keep in mind that social media websites are not related to our niches. In all your link building, the key is diversity, not building links too quickly and adding quality content to the web.
Publishing guest blog posts is one of the best link building methods. But, no one wants content that’s already on your website and duplicating your current content only hurts you. Write content as though your reputation is attached to it; its goal should be to make readers want to learn more from you.
Submitting to article directories still works. There are low quality article directories you should just skip, but the picky ones are only allowing quality content. Treat these directories the same way you would treat a guest blog post.
While forum spamming and signature links don’t hold the value they once did, forums are still places where people with common interests meet. Find forums related to your niche where you can answer questions you know the answers to. Don’t bother to comment if all you’re going to do is say “great post.” That’s worthless and that’s what the moderators consider spamming. If you help people, they’ll have a reason to visit your website and there’s value in that.
I still love press releases. No, Google doesn’t count the links, but they create a buzz, they get republished in related blogs and they bring you traffic anyway. Link building is all about the traffic, isn’t it? So, if you do things that bring people to your site and get them excited about your content, those same people will share your content and help your site improve its ranking anyway.
And, of course, you know I’m not going to leave out social media. Just don’t bang people over the head with link after link to your website. People will stay and your fan base will grow if you say something funny or intelligent.
Your Content
I’m certainly not advising against improving your content. In fact, I recommend your content be on point before you move on to link building. Get your site dressed up. Make it inviting and give people a reason to share it. Just don’t show it off in dark alleys. Try to stick to well lit, public places.
Theresa Happe works with NameFind.com where businesses can find their ideal domain names and their corresponding available social handles.