Unclank: About Link Building

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Was teaching about Link building this week to a new batch of linkbuilders and I figured I should make an About Link Building post for any new linkbuilders out there who wants a one-stop resource to guide them. I’ll be focusing on the different linkbuilding factors, linkbuilding methods and linkbuilding results.

Linkbuilding Factors

There are certain things that I look for when checking a link out – and you should too. Here are the factors that count when you’re looking for links

PageRank

This is a metric used by Google to rate the quality and quantity of backlinks of a specific page. When you’re checking a link out, make sure to know what the PageRank of that webpage where your link is coming from. The higher the PageRank, the more PageRank juice it can give you.

Relevance

Read the content of the webpage and you’ll see what it’s about. If you’re trying to get a link from that page, make sure that the content surrounding your desired link is relevant to the page you’re getting it for. If the page is about dog training and you’re going to point it to a plumbing website, things just won’t work out – and your link will most probably get minimal value.

Quality of Articles

There is what we now call “thin content” – which rose to popularity since the Google Panda update. Consequently, there is also what we call “thick content”. The difference between the two is not the quantity of words as if it’s a book. The difference is the quality – which can be enumerated down to at least three nitty-gritty factors:

Usefulness: Are people really getting something valuable out of your content? Are they linking to it because it’s great?

Time on site: Are people really reading the content?Are they bouncing off?

Social Engagement: Are people Retweeting/Liking/+1′ing (if there is such a term) the content?

Anchor Text

Are you looking for anchor text with exact match? Or are you already going to settle for a relevant one? Remember, Anchor text is the biggest signal to a search engine about what the link is about. Having the right anchor text still proves to be one of the best factors around when it comes to links.

Anchor Title

Whenever you mouse-over a link, the anchor title appears in the form of a tool-tip text. Usually, this is left blank. An anchor title helps the search engines too, in regards with what the link is about.

Dofollow/Nofollow

You can check if a link is a nofollow link by using plugins such as SEO Toolbar (for Firefox users) and SEOQuake (for Chrome users). A dofollow links is ALWAYS better because it passes on PageRank which helps your rankings directly. A nofollow link, on the other hand, influences your TrustRank – which does not directly help you but has its SEO perks in some other way.

Number of Outbound Links

If the webpage has too many outbound links inside it, then you’ll probably be just another face in the crowd. The PageRank juice being passed on to you has been minimized by all the other links going out of the page. You should be mindful of the number of outbound links (AKA external links) when looking for webpages/websites to get a link from.

Link Placement

Where your link is placed definitely affects the link. The Click-through-rate (CTR) is almost always higher when a link is in the header or in the upper body of the content – which increases its value as a link. I have a resource about link placements and where you should put your links which you should check out.

Click-through-rate (CTR)

The number of people clicking your link tells Google that your link probably has good relevance, proper anchor text, and perfect placement. High Click-through-rate (CTR) links passes more PageRank juice because of its value to the end-users (if you didn’t know, end-users mean human beings).

Traffic

Is the website drawing in a good amount of traffic? The link that you’re going to get can only have so much visitors as the page it’s on. Knowing if the site has a good amount of traffic can influence your link’s Click-through-rate (CTR).

Linkbuilding Methods

Knowing these factors, let’s move on on how to apply them and what the different link building methods are. There are basically two kinds of methods/approach to linkbuilding: Artificial and Organic

Artificial/Manipulative

These methods deal with processes that can instantly get you links without having to go through much or any human interaction. An artificial linkbuilding approach can fetch you links almost anytime you want it.

Blog Commenting

I think this is the most common way to build links artificially. There are millions and millions of blogs out there with millions of specific niches. Some of those blogs are dofollow, while most of them are nofollow. Leaving a comment in a blog should be a mutual act – the blog owner benefits because of a direct interaction / user engagement that occurred, and the commenter gets a link and some recognition. Unfortunately, it’s no longer the case for most people.

Blog commenting is a simple act of leaving your name, email address (usually for Gravatar purposes), and website to leave a ‘Sean was Here!’ kind of footprint – and getting a link to the website you specified for the blog owner to check out. Most SEOs however, use blog commenting for the website backlink alone.

Directory Listing

This used to be the popular way of getting more visitors. I would compare it to Yellow Pages (which I think it was modeled after) in the offline world. Most directories give out links like no tomorrow. If you’re a website and they have a category for you, you get a link as soon as you sign up. Again, not all directories are like this – but most of them are. There are very few directories left still hold good reputation with the search engines.

Some people still swear that they get rankings through directory listing but I don’t quite believe it. I once read that directories are now considered link farms – and it makes sense considering how directories have no real content except for lots and lots of links and their brief descriptions.