**How To Build HUGE Links The Right Way - Your Doing It all Wrong!**

What I am about to say will not be to everyone's liking...

Especially those that continue to build adsense related MFA sites by the dozen.

If, however, you are following your passion and want to build a business that you can be proud of, this is for you...

I used to be a huge black hat user of "Traffic Equalizer" and "Cloaking Master" back in 2004 and had a lot of success with those tools.

...however, I'm glad I made the transition into building white hat Wordpress sites around my passions. I have more clarity now in my business and I have extreme focus on what I'm doing and what I want to achieve.

Here is what I live by now:

Success = Clarity, Passion, Focus, Determination and a solid plan of action to reach your goals.

With that out of the way... Here is my link building rant;

It’s a sad fact that most of us have been conditioned to building backlinks completely the wrong way.

Most people look at link building strategies, such as;

Article Directories
Directory Submissions
Press Releases
Blog Commenting
Forum Commenting
Classified Ads
Video Marketing
Web 2.0 Content Sharing Sites (Squidoo, Hubpages)
Parasite Blogs (Blogspot, Wordpress, Blog.com)
RSS Directory Submission

...and these strategies in themselves are great ways to get links, but it's the mindset that people have when they attack their link building that reduces their effect.

...Let me explain.


**Article Directories**

How you’re probably doing it now:

The mis-conception here is that submitting your article to 100's of article directories is going to get you a good influx of backlinks in Google, and if you spin them and use mass article submission software that your going to keep the article indexed in Google and get even more backlink juice from them all...

The problem:

The problem here is that you are putting huge time and effort into spinning crap articles that are going to get you little to no benefit in Google at all. These are low quality links and one link from a PR4, related site will outweight the benefit of 200 low quality article directories..

Here is how it should be done:

Article directories should be seen as a form of leverage in order to gain *natural* links back to your site..

How?

By submitting your best work.. End of!

Submit your best quality articles to the top 5 article directories and let the power of syndication take its toll. 1000's of webmasters and bloggers browse EzineArticles on a daily basis looking for content they can use. You just need to be able to write titles that get attention and peak their interest in your work.



**Directory Submissions**

How you’re probably doing it now:

Most people will outsource this for $15-$20 and gain maybe 200 directories listings for a small fee.

The problem:

It dilutes your linking profile on a new site. If 80% of your links are coming from low quality directories then your linking profile is not diverse at all.

The Sandbox Anyone? Yep, not ensuring link diversity on a new site will trip Google's filters… Not always, but it happens!

Again, one high quality link from a solid directory will outweigh the benefit you get from tons of low quality ones...

Here is how it should be done:

Submit your site to a handful of *editorially* credited directories... Yahoo, Dmoz, GoGuides, JoeAnt, Skaffe etc..

If it’s editorially awarded on the basis that you have a good site, Google will know. Most directories are just interested in cash and will list junk in their directory. Google knows this! Avoid them!



**Blog Commenting**

How you’re probably doing it now:

Most people will get hold of some software that will highlight potential blogs that don't use the nofollow tag and then dump an un-interesting comment in return for a backlink to their site by spamming their keywords in the name field...

The problem:

The problem with this is that you are sharing your comment with 100's of other spammers and the page will often link out to 100's of other sites, diluting the PageRank you receive... Not only that, but your building ZERO credibility and will be labeled as a spammer and oftentimes will not even get your comment approved.

...this becomes boring and labourous, like a job!

Here is how it should be done:

You want to find related blogs in your market, regardless of NOFOLLOW. Go to Google Blog Search and search for intitle: “Your Main Keyword”.

This will highlight tons of blogs that are discussing your topic. Grab the RSS feed and input it into your Google Reader. Set this as your homepage and then make a point of every morning leaving a couple comments on related blogs..

Interact with thoughtful, useful blog comments. Add to the conversation going on. Use ‘your name’ linking back to your site, include an avatar too. Don’t spam your keywords. Instead build trust and credibility, and you’ll *Naturally* gain traffic and links in abundance if your site is link-worthy.

..the thing is, this is fun - if your following your passion.



**Forum Posting**

How you’re probably doing it now:

Similarly to above, most people will have the mindset of link getting, when attacking forums. You'll go to Big-Boards.com and find forums in your market.. You'll first read the restrictions and note that you need to make 10 posts before your allowed a signature.. So, you reply to simple posts and leave a boring one line sentence to get you over this threshold.

The problem:

You'll be sniffed out as soon as you insert your signature with your keywords in full view.. like;

Keyword 1 | Keyword 2 | Keyword 3

Forum moderators are not stupid, and this damages your reputation and credibility...

Here is how it should be done:

Go to Google and search for intitle: “Your Main Keyword” - then click on the link to the left called ‘Discussions'. You'll find 1000's of forums with threads discussing your exact topic..

It goes without saying.. Add value!! Again if your following your passions, then this is actually fun, it really is…

Add value to the forum, leave your comments, help others. Have a link to your site in your signature after you add significant value to the forum, make the link go to a good blog post of yours or something of value.. A free report perhaps!!

However, don't see this as a place to get link juice.. View it as a traffic generator to get eyeballs to your site.. If you provide value on your site people will reward you by bookmarking it, linking to it, etc..

----

...ok, my fingers are hurting and this post is getting a little long.

I'll leave it there for now, let me know your thoughts!

Conclusion!! - Manually building links is tiresome and long term it will not get solid results in Google. Google are on a constant quest to improve their algorithm and backlinking the way we are conditioned to do it, will see diminishing returns in Google going forward.

…I guarantee it.

…and most people on this forum are already starting to see their site slipping with the latest update!

…You need to think outside the box and use the power of;

...LEVERAGE.

"Leveraging the backlink power of others will drive good quality links to your site as apposed to spamming your anchor text and building up your link count manually.."

 

Great tips in there but your conclusion somehow contradicts them.

I have the impression that your suggestions on how link building should be properly done is building quality links MANUALLY.

 

Thanks for the reminder. I think many top webmasters are aware of what you written so well. The reason many of the "DON'Ts" are so popular is because people are looking for a shortcut in link building. The bottom line is that quality link building is hard work and can't be rushed.

 

But you can also get your links on high ranking site would be better off than the one without good ranking. Using the SEO tools to see how they are getting their links, and learn from it.

 

Link building the free way: Extremely hard
Link building the paid way: too easy

 

Thanks for posting this thread..It is very beneficial information.

 

You mis-understood that statement..

You need to use the leverage of others in your marketplace, not just build links yourself by forcing them upon your site.

...You do this by providing value and obtaining natural links. Those that are credited on merit.

 

Nice article, Wesley. Unfortunately, too many people are looking for the fast and easy route. Most of them will not succeed online over the long haul. It takes time and energy, but if you've got a methodical approach and focus on quality content (both on your site and in your link building [forums, blog commenting, etc]) you'll find all the success you want. Patience is definitely key. Rushing things and taking chances is a fast way to get yourself in trouble with the serps.

 

regarding articles, until now only automatic blogs grabbed my articles

 

Excellent post Wesley. I don't entirely agree with your Article submission section, but thats just me

I do however wish more people took your advice on the blog commenting. The value of contributing to a blog with meaningful comments is far more important to build relationships in your niche than any back link you might obtain from the comment.

 

HUGE Links, just found the title funny so I had to read it, would love to have some huge links to my sites, hehe. Anyways, took time to read through it and it is actually a good post, lots of good information. I try to do that at least, provide good content and not just spam around for links, I hate spam on my blogs after all so why would I spam others.

 

It is quite a useful information.

 

Great post! Thanks for sharing!

 

Good information but your conclusion is the opposite of what you wrote in the articles core.

 

Very comprehensive indeed. Even though its a common thought still you have it all right and good information.

 

This is a great post. It really helps me out a lot after months of trying to find some way to automate backlinking, you've really hit the nail on the head and changed my whole perspective with this post.

 

Thanks for the advice sir , but my question is how to keep your site on 1st page of Google ones u r their,do you steel have to work as hard to maintain it,your advice is appreciated.
Karim

 

Great tips - and also include a link to your site in "Location" and "Homepage" on various forums that you're apart of. It's called promotion as well, plaster your link everywhere without spamming.

 

thank your for your post, it helps many newbies whose don't know how to start.

 

Blog commenting and forum postings are the great tools for backlinks. Article are not much useful for this purpose.