Archive of Link Building Posts

Last week Laura Lippay wrote a post for the Yahoo Search Marketing Blog detailing how marketers can use Yahoo! Site Explorer for checking backlinks to their website(s).

I bookmarked the article because it’s a great tutorial on how to use Yahoo! Site Explorer (YSE) and identifies some of the not-so-visible benefits of registering your site with the search engine.

There is no question that YSE link reporting functions can be of tremendous value for marketers and site owners. However it is important to realize not all links listed will directly benefit a search engine optimization strategy.  ... Read the full post

As should be the case this time of year, many online marketing sites are publishing their list of the best posts for 2009. Here is a round up of these “Best of 2009″ posts, organized by Internet Marketing theme.

There is a lot of great information, concepts and writing to read through. If I’ve missed your list, please feel free to send me a message directly or through the comments below. Happy New Year and wishing everyone the best in 2010 and beyond!

Internet Marketing  ... Read the full post

Last week I attended a Business Wire event on green technology; geared towards entrepreneurs, ad agencies and PR folks. Among the four panelists were two reporters, an editor of an industry site, and an analyst covering the space. As the session turned to Q/A, the obligatory question on how members of the audience should pitch them was asked.

Interestingly enough, all four panelists indicated that email was the preferred method for receiving a pitch.  ... Read the full post

Over the past ten years we have seen link building strategies come and go but they never really disappear.   There is always something that can still be done.

I have listed three such tactics below that not only can be used but should be used.

1. Reciprocal Linking

I can’t tell you how many emails I sent and received asking for links when I first started in this industry (and trust me when I say they weren’t very good emails).  Links were links and it really didn’t matter whether the site had anything to do with your own, as long as they placed a link on their site, you’d do the same.  ... Read the full post

With a new year upon us, new challenges are certain to arise for search engine optimization, especially link building. Toward the end of last year, notable SEO’s had already begun indicating how link building tactics were changing.

Jim Boykin of Web Build Pages publicly announced the company would no longer be buying links and Michael Gray’s post a few weeks ago ponders how Google may start further refining the algorithm for links acquired through social media.

Google will continue to analyze trends & patterns in search in an attempt to find complementary ways to rank web pages for keyword queries, relying less on link popularity. It’s already underway with personalized search, SearchWiki and preferred sites.  ... Read the full post

The other day a client e-mailed and asked:

“We will be purchasing banner ads and sending the traffic directly to our site.  Do the links on these publishing websites provide any SEO value?”

Here is how I answered (actually, I added a few of things here):

Hi John,

As usual, the answer is “complex”.

If the URL you are using in the banner is static, without tracking codes, then the link itself COULD have value.  ... Read the full post

With all of the talk lately about paid-links, PageRank reductions and nofollows I have started to wonder “what is the REAL value of a link?”. I spend countless hours finding linking opportunities for clients, instilling in them the importance of backlinks and when it comes right down to it, I honestly don’t know the definitive answer to that question.

• Is a nofollowed link that drives traffic more or less valuable than a search friendly link that doesn’t?

• Is a link from a large trusted website better than a link from a smaller more relevant one?
 ... Read the full post