Tips for a Successful Link Building Campaign - Dos & Don'ts

Tips, Successful Link Building Campaign, Search Engine Marketing, Backlinks, Increase Ranking

Effective link building can be a complex, time-consuming project. While the major search engines like Google, Yahoo! and MSN rate relevant links highly, the process can negatively affect your ranking if not executed properly.

Most small and mid-sized businesses cannot afford to hire a qualified full-time employee dedicated to building a solid link structure. DRIVE offers professional link building strategies as part of a complete Search Engine Marketing (SEM) program.

To illustrate the time and complexity involved in developing a successful link building campaign, we present a few of the hundreds of aspects that need to be considered, both positive and negative.

Link Building: Tips for a Successful Campaign

To ensure the success of a link building program, the majority of backlinks acquired should:

Have varied anchor tags - target specific keywords but vary the anchor tag text, i.e. "learn more about...," "read more," even a few “click here”
Come from related pages - probably the most important factor; links from related pages carries more “weight”
Come from different locations on the linking pages - place links on top of the page, inside the body of text, navigation structure, header, footer etc.
Post new links in a reasonable fashion, with a gradual natural increase
- Gradually place links based on how many links the site normally receives
- If a site usually gets 10 new links per week, don’t place 100 in a single day
Link from pages with varied PageRank values - 75-80% of backlinks to your site should be from PR 1 - 4 pages
Link from both old trusted web sites as well as newer sites
Use reciprocal linking judiciously - limited, relevant reciprocal links can be an effective, economical tool
- Do not have reciprocal links as a majority of your backlinks
- Three-way-linking is a good option
Point to internal pages as well as your home page - backlinks to internal pages increase overall site strength
Develop links from non-directories:
- A few directories such as the ThomasNet.com and Yahoo Directory are considered trustworthy by Google
- Many directories do not rate the same levels of trust; backlinks from 200 free, non-relevant general directories can do harm to your link profile
- Directories should be used on a limited basis as additions to the links you already have
Get permanent links - the age of backlinks is important; a factor of the Google Sandbox filter
When renting links, rent for as long as possible
Come from pages with the same language - very important to show up properly in the Google country specific searches

Link Building: Things to Avoid

When a link building campaign is designed, it is as important to understand and avoid practices that can negatively affect your web site's strength and page ranking, such as:

Do not place all backlinks in footers or other specific page location
Do not place hundreds of links to a new site at one time - this can get the site banned in Google
Do not have backlinks from adult, pharmacy, or gambling sites
- These types of sites are known to spam
- Negatively ranked by Google and other search engines
Do not have paid link footprints
- Words like sponsors, advertisement, etc. can devalue the link
- May even hurt rankings if the majority of backlinks come from such links
Do not place links on sites that link themselves to bad "neighborhoods" - Google uses advanced relation and co-citation systems in their algorithms that could "blacklist" your site

DRIVE can help you use your marketing budget most effectively. We can develop a complete Search Engine Marketing program from the ground up, redesign and reformat an existing web site for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), or create a natural link building program for an existing optimized site. Give us a call today and learn how effective the power of the internet can be for your business.

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DRIVE provides specialized on-line and off-line search engine / internet marketing services and collateral to small businesses, mid-size companies, manufacturers, and creative agencies in Indianapolis, Central Indiana and throughout the Midwest.

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