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Building A Well Rounded Backlink Portfolio

Building A Well Rounded Backlink Portfolio

Everyone in the SEO industry knows and understands that most websites cannot live by on-site optimizations alone. After you perform your keyword research, complete your analysis of competitors who rank well for the terms and phrases you want to rank for, and highly optimize your site for optimal search engine placement, you are left with the mundane task of building links that point back to your website.

If there is one thing that I have learned over the past few years that I could share with newbies to the SEO world, it is that you have to build a well-rounded backlink portfolio in order to get long-term results.

Building just one or two types of links may work for a while, but what if all you have been doing is article marketing and some directories and Google all of the sudden discounts all of the directories that you had been building? You can surely expect to see a dramatic change in your search engine ranking positions. This is why it is crucial for you to build different kinds of links and make sure to vary the anchor text you are using for your links.

Here are some of the different link building tactics you and leverage for solidifying and adding diversity to your overall link building strategy.

Articles

Article marketing is an excellent way to increase the number of backlinks to your website and also build your brand awareness. Writing quality content and distributing it to sites like Ezine Articles, Go Articles, and other high quality article sites is a great way to get links. Leveraging the author bio section, you can tell a little bit about your self and usually provide two or three links back to your website. These links are high quality and pass a lot of link juice back to your site.

Directories

Submitting your website to directories is a great way to get some very easy links pointing back to your website. These links are of lesser quality, but adding your site to directories can help round out your link profile and help it look more natural. Another great feature of directory submissions is the fact that some directories only allow you to use your website name as the anchor text for the link coming back to your site. This definitely ensures that you get some diversity when it comes to anchor text.

Local Links

Acquiring local links like in the Google Local, Yahoo Local, and Bing Local listings can help build your credibility with those search engines. Even if you are not targeting local phrases in your SEO campaign, it is always wise to set up these listings and show the search engines that you are a legitimate business or website.

Industry/Keyword Specific

Locating websites, blogs, and forums that are specific to your keyword or industry are going to be some of the most powerful links you can acquire. A quick way to find some of these sites is through competitive backlink analysis. Find sites that are linking to two or three of your competitors and go out and obtain those links. They are vital to your success in competing and overtaking your competitors.

Blog Links

Links from related blogs are powerful links as well. It seems as though there are dozens of blog networks sprouting up all over the place these days. Finding those blogs and requesting links is a great way to get some leverage over your competition. Also, guest blogging is a great way to not only build relationships with bloggers, but in getting your content out there and links pointing back to your website. Using a service like MyBlogGuest, you can easily find blogs that are willing to let you submit content for their readers. I highly suggest you check it out today.

Social Links

Social links can be categorized in three different areas. One… social bookmarking, two… social profiles, and three… social blogging. Building your presence in the social world is going to be crucial in 2010 and going forward. It will not only be important for SEO purposes, but building brand awareness, and driving more traffic to your website.

Finding new communities to share your thoughts, opinions, and content are great ways to increase the number of backlinks to your websites. Using services like Knowem to find new social profiles and communities is a great way to get started. You can also submit content to sites like HubPages and Squidoo to get backlinks and share your knowledge with people in those communities.

There are other ways to get backlinks on different types of sites. I can’t go into all areas or detail out every way, but it is vital to understand that in order to secure top search engine placement and keep that placement, you need to diversify your link portfolio and always be looking for new link opportunities.

Greg Shuey is the Director of Off Page Optimization for SEO.com, a Utah based SEO Firm. Greg has many years of experience in developing and executing SEO strategies for small and large websites. You can read more about Greg Shuey and SEO.com by visiting their website.

Category SEO
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VIP CONTRIBUTOR Greg Shuey CEO at Stryde

As CEO of Stryde, Greg is responsible for overseeing company growth through sales and marketing as well as maintaining profitable ...

Building A Well Rounded Backlink Portfolio

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