Back Link Building Checklist/Cheatsheet/Guide ’07/’08
I was cleaning out some files on my computer and came across my (old) link building checklist that I used late last year and for much of this year. I currently use a revised version, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to publish this versus deleting it from my computer. It’s not meant to be published. These are just notes. It’s pretty random, but I guess so is the rest of my blog.
PageRank, Trust Rank, Inbound Link Quality:
- How will you acquire Page Rank?
- What is trust rank? How will you acquire trust rank?
- Can you figure out the PR totals of all the pages linking to you?
- Can you figure out the total traffic (Alexa rank) of the sites linking to you?
- What kind of sites are linking to you?
- Search Operator: Link:site.com -site.com
Different Domain Links:
- Incoming links from different domains?
- How many links do you have in MSN, Yahoo & Google?
- How many different types of domains?
Links from differing class C IP address:
- Make sure own websites linking are on a different server.
Percentage of deep links:
- How to check how many links are pointing to other pages on your site.
- Any software recommendation for this one would be awesome. Site Explorer & Web CEO can only do so much.
Directory Submit:
- Submit to directories before submitting to search engines. So site has relevance before getting crawled by spiders.
- Submit to search engines. Not recommended by SEO’s but recommended by the Search Engines. Your choice.
- Yahoo!Directory & DMOZ are as always a must!
Blogs, WordPress & BlogSpot Links:
- Find Blogspots with high PR’s.
- Find WordPress blogs with high PR’s.
- Get on Blogrolls – Whose Blog?
- Get mentioned by blog with high amount of RSS readers.
- Links from blogs with similar titles and content.
- Blog Commenting, MyBlogLog Following
Sitemaps:
-
Can be a content rich page with keyword-rich links pointing to rightful pages within own site.
Webring:
- Linking with other sites in community/industry.
- Usually large link exchange or require banner on site.
Link Exchange:
- Create link exchange page and find links… email. Still works!
- Something like linkmetro.com InfoWizards FreeRelevantLinks.com rankready.com Linkmarket.com. Good way to find willing link exchangers and to start link building.
- Check to make sure links are reciprocated. SEO Tools
- Create a “link to us page” and if possible an automated script to allow fast link building.
- Sending trackbacks (for blogs)
Ways to Find Links:
Relevant Links:
-
Placing your link on pages with matching page titles and proper title and description usage.
PDF eBook Directory:
-
Submit pdf to ebook directories and give to people for PR, branding and linking building.
Anchor Text Tunneling:
- Create page with link partners info with a link pointing to his site. & Vise Versa.
- Link tunneling through giant sites.
Article directories:
- Write keyword-rich article with keyword-rich link pointing back to site and submit to all article directories. (Especially EzineArticles).
- Submit to Yahoo News (Must have amazing Press Release).
Signature Links:
- Join Forums and comment good and valuable information with sig-link back to site. If you have a blog, you could answer the question on it and mention it in the forum using your back link as a reference.
- Link in Email Signatures for bookmark/other stats.
Wiki Links:
- Add links to wikis and other education and dictionary sites.
Deep Linking:
- Make sure every page has at least 1 Google indexed inlink and try to build page rank from bottom up.
- Deep, deep linking (inbound and internally)
Surrounding Content:
-
Check the title tags, META’s and surrounding text of links pointing to site. The more relevant, the better.
Local Links & Local Business Listings:
- Links from other websites registered in the same area code, zip code, city, county, state, etc.
- Local Business Listings List
30 Minute Backlinks:
- Create Software, submit software to software directories with links to your site.
- 30 Minute Backlinks Review
Web 2.0 Tagging:
- Every tag creates a page with a link back to page tagged. (Internal)
LINKS:
- Are any links buried too deeply in your site, not linked to from a primary page?
- All pages/links must be at most 3 pages away from home page.
Enter Site to Win Awards:
- momsnetwork.com/aemporium.shtml awardsites.com websiteawards.xe.net projectcool.com/sightings netguide.com coolsiteoftheday.com http://www.incrediblyuseful.com/
Banner & Logo Links:
- Create a banner or submit your logo to directories in exchange for links.
- Or purchase placement. clicksor, banner exchanges, blogs, Adbrite, etc.
Templates css galleries:
-
Create a CSS stylesheet or wordpress theme. Author it your company and submit it to directories.
Query Topic Links:
- Anchor text links with query (targeted) words from sites about query topic.
Target smaller sites willing to link to you for content in the early stages. They are easier to get links from. But aim for big authority sites and NO linking to weak sites.
.edu, .gov, and city services are the best links…
I’m in the process of creating a link building manual/checklist that I plan to release at turn of the year. So far it’s 49 pages long and I’m not even halfway. I’m pretty sure I am going to sell it through Clickbank. But, it’d be free for all my subscribers, twitter followers and friend feeders.
List provided by Expert Link Building SEO Specialist
I would like to thank you for taking the time to read my SEO blog. I really do appreciate it. You can read another related post (found below) or subscribe here. Once again, thank you for visiting James’ SEO blog.
Read More13 Search Operators for Ultimate Link Building
Every once in a while and depending on what website I’m working on, I’ll use different search operators to find easy links relevant to the keywords I’m targeting on the SERP’s. There are many search engine query cheat sheets and SEO Blogs that give huge list of search operators to use when doing link building. So I’ve composed a list of all the search queries I could find to help you build a nice list of relevant sites to get backlinks from.
(You can copy this list to an excel spreadsheet or edit pad text editor and replace “keyword” with your targeted phrase)
- add comment “keyword”
- allinanchor:keyword
- allintext:keyword
- allintitle:keyword
- allinurl:keyword
- directory keyword
- favorite links keyword
- favorite sites keyword
- intext:keyword
- intitle:blog keyword
- intitle:directory “keyword”
- intitle:forum keyword
- intitle:group keyword
- intitle:keyword
- intitle:post keyword
- intitle:tag keyword
- inurl:add-link
- inurl:submit-link
- inurl:blog)s)
- inurl:blog keyword
- inurl:directory “keyword”
- inurl:forum(s)
- inurl:forum keyword
- inurl:tag(s)
- keyword “add a url”
- keyword “add site”
- keyword “add url”
- keyword “add website”
- keyword “add your site”
- keyword “advertiser testimonials”
- keyword “favorite links”
- keyword “favorite sites”
- keyword “leave a comment” / “leave comment”
- keyword “no comments”
- keyword “notify me of follow-up comments”
- keyword “powered by wordpress”
- keyword “recommended links”
- keyword “recommended resources “
- keyword “recommended sites”
- keyword “related sites”
- keyword “related URLs”
- keyword “submit a url”
- keyword “submit site”
- keyword “submit url”
- keyword “submit website”
- keyword “submit your site”
- keyword “suggest a url”
- keyword “suggest site”
- keyword “suggest url”
- keyword “suggest website”
- keyword “suggest your site”
- keyword “wiki” (site:.edu)
- keyword blog
- keyword bookmarks
- keyword directory
- keyword discussion boards
- keyword donate
- keyword donations
- keyword donors
- keyword forum
- keyword group
- keyword join
- keyword members
- keyword resources
- keyword sites
- keyword sponsor charity
- keyword sponsors
- keyword sponsorship
- keyword tag
- keyword websites
- list keyword
- list keyword sites
- list of keyword sites
- post comment keyword
- post comment keyword
- recommended links keyword
- site:edu
- site:gov
- site:org
But check this out, all of these search operators can be used together. You can mix them up. You can use 2 of them, 5 of them or even all of them (for keywords like web, site, page etc. ;).
Imagine you are a webmaster for a hotel in New York city and you’re looking for more ways to obtain links from sites relevant to yours. Here are a few examples and explanations of how link building search queries would look if you mixed them up and played around with them.
allintext:keyword site:.edu – allintext:new york hotel site:.edu
- This will bring up all the .edu sites that have “new york hotel” anywhere in the site’s text.
allintitle:keyword “links” – allintitle:new york hotel “links”
- This will bring up all the pages with “new york hotel” and “links” in the title tags.
directory intitle:keyword – directory intitle:new york hotel
- This will bring up all the directories with a page that has “new york hotel” in the title tag.
intitle:keyword “favorite links” – intitle:new york hotel “favorite links”
- This will bring up all the “favorite links” pages with “new york hotel” in the title tag.
intext:keyword site:.edu – intitle:new york hotel site:.edu
- This will bring up all the .edu pages with “new york hotel” in the title tag.
intitle:keyword inurl:keyword inbody:keyword – intitle:new york hotel inurl:hotel inbody:new york hotel
- This will show all the the web pages with “new york hotel” in the title tag, “hotel” in the url and “new york hotel” somewhere in the body content.
inurl:keyword site:.edu – inurl:hotel site:.edu
- This shows all the .edu webpages with “hotel” in the url
keyword “favorite sites” site:.gov – new york hotel “favorite sites” site:.gov
- This will display all the government sites with “favorite links” pages and “new york hotel” somewhere within them.
keyword “suggest url” intitle:keyword – new york hotel “suggest url” intitle:new york hotel
- This will display all the pages with the phrase “suggest url” somewhere on the page and with “new york hotel” in the title tag.
links “keyword” intitle:blog – links “new york hotel” intitle:blog
- This will show all the pages with “blog” somewhere in the title tag and the phrases “links” & “new york hotel” somewhere within the site.
intitle:keyword “forums” site:.edu – intitle:new york hotel “forums” site:.edu
- This will dislpay all the forums on educational sites with new york hotel in the title tag.
keyword “sponsors” site:.edu – new york hotel “sponsors” site:.edu
- This will show all the .edu pages with ‘sponsors’ and ‘new york hotel’ somewhere in it.
keyword “links” intitle:keyword site:.gov – new york hotel “links” intitle:new york hotel site:.gov
- This will show all the government sites with “new york hotel” in the title tag and with the phrases ‘links’ and ‘new york hotel’ somewhere on that page.
I wish I could tell you guys about some other good ones. But I’m afraid I have to keep some to give me that edge when competing with other link building experts. But, I’m sure some of y’all could come up with some good ones yourself. Maybe even ones I’ve never thought of. So mix those up, change them around and create ones of your own. Feel free to comment some other good SE operator combos if you have or made any.
Some operator combos can be a gold mine. You’ll see.
I would like to thank you for taking the time to read my SEO blog. I really do appreciate it. You can read another related post (found below) or subscribe here. Once again, thank you for visiting James’ SEO blog.
Read MoreA Few Backlink Factors I Tend to Think About
We all can agree that it’s not who has the most links that wins the race, it’s who has best variety of links. Who gave you those links, when did they give you those links and what do those links say about you are factors that really matter when building links to your site.
Who: The link provider should be authority and top ranking sites (.govs, .edu, alexa top 50′s, etc.)
When: let’s just say the older the link, the better.
What: What they have to say about you is arguably the deciding factor.
However, when building links, I like to think that each link has 100′s and 1,000′s of factors. Since I don’t know all of these factors I start to make up ones in my head or try to tie them together. Here are some things I like to consider when building links:
How old is the page your link is on? How old is your link on that Page? How old is that link compared to page’s age? Was that link there as an originally reference since the page’s creation or was this link added later on? Has the anchor text of that link changed from its original text? Does that link move around on the page? Was that link placed there around the same time your web site was created? What’s the value (PR & Trust) of that site?
These factors are some of the reasons why SEO’s buy aged domains. Besides having a domain that is aged, it’s awesome to have an aged domain with links as old as the domain. The oldest SEO trick for this situation is to find expired or inactive domains in DMOZ. They’re already in the directory and have old links. You can also participate in an aged domain auction.
OLD LINKS ARE GOOD! Especially if the anchor text and placement has never changed and that page linking to you does well in the SERP’s or still accumulates links.
Example: My buddy bought a .ws domain 4 years ago and created a blogspot (before it was Google’s) to go with it. He wrote a few posts in that blog and linked back to his site. The site has been inactive since. However to this day, his site is still on the 1st page of Google for ‘learn guitar quick’ this is all because he created a ‘learn guitar quick’ backlink on his learn guitar quick blog, 4 years ago! We also found out that when he bought that site it was just after the previous webmaster stopped paying for that domain. That webmaster also had a link 2 years prior from a friend’s blog doing the same thing. Besides that, the site has been steadily picking up links since its original creation. My buddy lucked out on that domain (I just wish he would do something with it). Based on experimenting and comparing 2 other guitar sites with that one, I can honestly say that I feel age of domain, age of links and age of the page your backlink is on plays a far more important role in ranking than the amount of links you have.
More Backlink Factors…
Is the web site linking to you relevant to your site? Do they have a similar title tag? Does their meta’s match their link pointing you? Does your title tag agree with that backlink? Is that site already ranking for the term in the anchor text of that backlink? Are there any sites linking to that page similar to yours? Is that site linking to other sites competing with you? Here’s a way to address this;
- Go to Google and search related:yoursite.com. Google will display all the sites they feel relate to your site.
- Try to get a link from all those sites.
- Go back to Google, and see who is #1 for your targeted term.
- Now search related:competitorsite.com. Google will display all the sites they feel relates to your competitors. (guaranteed they are different than your relationships)
- Now search link:competitorsite.com in Google then Yahoo! and you’ll see why Google feels they have a different relationship with your targeted terms than you.
How many other backlinks are they sharing that pagerank and traffic with?
That’s just another factor I try to think about. Most of the time, the only time I want to share pages with other links is if the competitor is already on that page or if I can get higher placement to get crawled first by the spiders. That brings us to another factor. Is that link there for traffic purposes of for PR? If it’s not for the 1st reason, then your priorities aren’t straight. What kind of traffic is that link sending? Is it traffic than can possibly convert? Or is it traffic that could actually hurt your overall site stats?
We know Google is smart right? The spiders can read code, right? Right. They can read how many links share a <div> (divider section), they know based on css and line #’s how big and where your link is located on the page .The bots know the difference between sidebars, footers, and areas of the page filled with relevant content. They can tell how the webmaster feels about your link compared to other links on that site. They can tell if your link is there to add value and draw visitors or not.
Another factor I always think about is sitewide links. Do they all matter? But, I’ll have to discuss that another time, that’s a whole other story. Just consider sitewide links individually, as a whole and if they represent authority, affiliation and/or relevance.
Well, that’s all my link rambling for now. I just gave myself some other ideas I’m about to go practice elsewhere. Hope this information sparked some ideas for your link building campaign.
Just remember; Content is King. Good content will develop links you couldn’t even imagine. Press Releasers, creative writers and article copywriters are probably far better link builders than most SEO’s. But sometimes a professional link builder is what you need to get that content found. (or in seriously competitive industries)
Read MoreLocal SEO Tips Pt. 2 of 3 – Off-profile SEO Linking
So now that you have a completed Google Local Business profile. The next thing to do is to associate that profile with your city and keyword. Just like your website, your profile needs links from relevant websites. Therefore if you are trying to show up in the business results for “san diego dentist“, I recommend getting a few back links to your new profile from sites relating to dentistry and San Diego. Look for websites with “dentist” or “san diego” in their title tags, keywords and descriptions. Add your new business profile to local sites and industry related business directories. If possible or necessary, change a few back links pointing to your website to point to your business profile.
Here’s another approach, create more business listings like the new one you created in other business directories such as yellowpages, citysearch, mojopages, local yahoo, etc. and link all of those pages to your website as well. This will show Google that other major directories agree with them. Make those profiles keyword rich and fill out every section. The more pages you have describing your business and location, linking to your profile, the better.
Or you can go a little deeper… Create (if you don’t already have one) a ‘contact us’, ‘locations’ or ‘directions/map’ page within your website. Make this page almost match your Google business listings with all the keywords you are targeting spread throughout the header and body. Now, from that new location page, link to your Google profile. This is even a good time to insert Google’s map of your location. Google likes it when you use their services. Now, instead of building local links to your homepage, link to the page that is linking back to your profile (the directions/locations/contact us page) to create a relevant local link tunnel. Here are some things to keep in mind when creating a page that will help your local business listing rank better.
- Make sure city and state (New York, NY) are in the title tag.
- Physical address with city, zip and phone number should be present (preferably site-wide &/or VERY prominent)
- List somewhere on your site (without being spammy) all the areas, cities, neighborhoods and zip codes you cover.
- Make sure your target keyword is in the title tag and description.
- Make sure the local business category you chose to put your site in is listed somewhere on the page.
- The phone number you added to your business profile should be present on the web page.
- Add a internal link with the city in the anchor text pointing to that new page.
Another practice I’ve found useful is to create a link from a top level page or home page pointing to your business profile . Something like ‘directions to our San Diego location‘.
Well, that’s part 2 of 3 of my Local SEO tips. Tomorrow I will finish off with how to provide a better user experience for potential customers and how to make the best of your company’s reviews and descriptions.
Read More30 Minute Backlinks – Software Submissions
“30 Minute Backlinks” is a Video tutorial series that teaches you how to create free software and how to use brandable software in order to submit to 1,000′s and 1,000′s of software directories.
The concept has been around for quite some time; it’s just always been one of those industry secrets. Actually, there really is no secret to this program, however if you have never heard of the websites that you can use to create software, convert it, and submit it to a ton of directories then it’s secret to you.
Let me explain in more detail what 30 Minute Backlinks is all about.
Michelle MacPhearson created approximately 9 videos that walk you step by step through a variety of sites that allow you to create software. The videos also walk you step by step through the process of bulk submitting that software all over the web.
She pretty much starts off with an introduction to what you will be learning.
First you’ll learn which sites on the internet allow you to create software so you can promote for your company for free; thumbnail, zip, .exe, snapshots etc.
She also teaches you other ways to find some particular brandable software that you can use to promote your company. We also learn ways to turn other types of files into .exe’s to promote in software directories. Yes, you can write an eBook, convert it to an executable file and upload to all the software directories. Even sites such as download.com.
After that, she shows you how to upload your software to your server and how to make it accessible to all the software directories on the net.
The next step is one of the most important and most informative steps ever. This video is 36 Minutes and 20 seconds. She shows you how to convert files from .exe’s to simple announcement files that all the software directories on the net can read. This file contains variables like size of software (kb, mb), what version is it (2.1, 1.0, Beta); type (freeware/shareware), what operating systems is it compatible with (MAC OS, Xp/Vista) and so on.
Once you create this file. You’ll upload it to the world-wide web’s software library. Then you will submit it to all the free software directories on the net.
All the directories are always competing to have the most software available, so finding these sites are very easy. It’s actually so easy; sometimes software directories will extract software from other directories and use them for their site.
But it gets better; this is what makes the process so great. Earlier in the series when she teaches you how to create the software, you learned how to name it in ways so when these directories list your software, they link to you with the anchor text of your choice. Example for a friend’s dirt bike stunt site; Dirt Bike Engine 2.1 created by Stunt DVD Productions. You can literally name the software that you authored and company whatever you want. And the directories are forced to use those terms if they list your software. That’s just 1 of many SEO tips you learn throughout this series.
I left out much information, for it would be unfair to the people who purchased this program and to Michelle who obviously worked hard on this. But, here is a tiny portion of what you get when purchasing 30Minute Backlinks.
All in all, I recommend this because Michelle took the time to walk me through the whole process of generating tons of backlinks and she has taught me something I can do Again and Again and Again. And, in literally 30 minutes or less.
Thanks Michelle!
Visit 30 Minute Backlinks to learn more about the product and its offerings.
Another Good Link Building Source is My Link Building Video on Google.
Read More