Wouldn’t it be nice if writing interesting, relevant articles was all there was to blogging? Yes, quality content is extremely important. Your blog won’t take off without it. But you can write until your fingers fall off and never gain more than a few loyal readers if you neglect building links to your blog posts.
Link building includes a variety of activities, including commenting on other blogs, writing articles that point back to your blog, posting links to specific blog posts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and a vast assortment of social networking sites, getting involved on forums associated with your industry, submitting your site to blog directories and local business directories, even setting up feeder Web pages that point back to your main site.
Each of these activities were used to build readership on this blog. On a side note, I’ve not done enough of them to propel this site to the top of the search engines. But here’s a shocker: our blog’s traffic continues to grow and my business continues to grow even without being at the top. When I ask customers how they found me, it’s usually through this blog. They may not have found it directly through the search engines, but wound up here through links from my link building efforts.
As you can see, link building is far too large of a topic to cover in one blog post. It’s not a do-it-once type of endeavor, but something that is done systematically, and the results are cumulative over time. With that in mind, I’d like to suggest specific link building efforts that you can undertake each week. This week we’ll start with the most basic.
Your assignment: Leave a comment on three separate blogs that are relevant to your industry.
When you comment, keep in mind that you want to add value to what’s already been said. “Hey, great post” isn’t going to cut it. For instance, a useful comment on this post would be if you told me and my readers something about your experience with link building. Has a particular form of link building worked well for you and resulted in greater traffic? Is there a local business directory that has resulted in new business for you?
Be sure to leave your blog or Web site URL in the field provided for it. Use your name, even if it’s only your first name, but please don’t come across as a spammer by using a keyword phrase as your name. Many bloggers, myself included, automatically de-link the commenters Web site URL if they use keywords instead of a name.
So leave a comment here or on any other post on Express Marketing Memo, then go out and find two more blogs and do the same. Repeat this exercise at regular intervals and you’ll quickly build some quality links to your blog or Web site.
Recommended Off-Site Reading: Comment Etiquette for Do Follow Blogs
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This is a very nice exercise. I think that practicing this makes link building more effective.:) Thanks for sharing this post.
The most interesting link-building is when you can use keywords connected to the URL. Having a link with just your name does give you a small point with searchengines, but only in terms of quantity. And you need many many backlinks for a Pagerank increase. Commenting on sites takes a lot of time. I would advice to only comment on sites / topics you want to comment on… not just for the link.
Link Directories submissions are the fastest way to get many links based on keywords. Different service providers can submit your site for you to 100 or more directories. But do try to have your site submitted using different descriptions and link-titles.
And article marketing is a very good way to get backlinks and visitors. In your article you can use keywords relevant for you site. You can see fast results too, an article is many times approved within 2 days. Advice would be to create an article and then have multiple versions of this article so you can submit unique articles to the different article directories / sites.
I agree, to build your web cred aside from quality content you’ll need backlinks also. Using high traffic social networking site is also a good help in promoting your blog. You just have to make sure that you are “talking” to the right market.
I keep trying to get it into my own reader’s heads, that they need to leave relevant comments on other blogger’s sites. I personally do not allow comments that are really non-comments to appear on my blog at all. I recently wrote a post: Comment Etiquette For DoFollow Blogs to try and help them understand that they need to be part of the conversation and give as good as they get. Thank you for also emphasizing this concept here.
Joella, yours is the type of comment that is appreciated on any blog. Thank you! Relevance to the topic and being genuine are key to joining the conversation. And you’re so right … we put a lot of work into our posts. It IS insulting when that work is rewarded with non-comments only written for the purpose of gaining a link. I’m going to update this post with a link to your comment etiquette post so that nobody misses it.
Dutch, thanks for your comment. I agree about commenting only on sites that interest you, that it’s not just for the link. As I mentioned in my post, you only want to leave comments that add value to what’s been said. For one thing, it’s the right thing to do. For another, non-comments get deleted … so why bother?
As to the rest of your suggestions, stay tuned. We’re going to cover the topic of link building slowly. I want my readers to have the opportunity to implement the various forms of link building at a pace that’s somewhat reasonable for a busy small business owner. Link directories and article marketing will definitely be part of the mix.
[...] link building lesson continues today with a new assignment. Last week we went out and commented on at least three relevant blogs, adding to the conversation and gaining links to our Web sites in the process. This week, [...]
Hi Shari:
I’m glad I saw the “Do Follow Blog Directory” badge as I wasn’t aware of that directory. I listed my site at DoFollow.info and will now do this other one as well.
My two cents:
1. just because a comment box allows you to add in a website does not mean it will show in comments (but it will show to the owner of the website)
2. If I see a site is a WP one I will include a hyperlink with my keywords with my name – my logic is if I leave a good comment the site owner may or may not allow it in there. And it certainly never hurts to try.
However, my comments always contribute to the conversation. I would never just do a “this blog is great” comment.
On a separate note – though not necessarily link building one plug-in I just love for WP is CommentLuv – this allows the people who comment on my site to have their last post linked to their comment. I have found some great blogs that way-both from people who have commented on my blog and from other sites that also use the plug-in.
See you on Twitter and hopefully at BlueBerry Hill soon!
Michelle
Hi Michelle – Great to see you here! I’m visiting family in Texas this month, so I won’t be at a Blueberry Hill tweetup for awhile.
Regarding the “Do Follow Blog Directory,” I get a decent amount of traffic from it … but I also delete a ton of spam every week, not necessarily from any one source. I wonder how much being listed in do follow directories has to do with that?
Regarding points one and two: When I receive comments from people who leave keywords in place of a name, I usually de-link the Web site address. Maybe it’s all the spam that’s got my goat … I don’t know, but I’ve got a very low tolerance for it. It’s great to use keywords in the comment itself, but who wants to talk to a keyword?
Thanks for your comments, Michelle. Hope to see you soon.
Shari – have a blast in Texas – I heard Dallas got snow this week – which had me surprised!
I got sidetracked yesterday and forgot to add myself to the directory so I better do it now while it’s fresh in my mind.
On the keyword linking – yeah, it’s def something that can be deleted. Like I said, I try only where appropriate and if it gets delinked my feelings aren’t hurt either. Never know what you can get unless you try, right?
And indeed, we will meet IRL soon, I’m sure!
[...] haven’t quite nailed the two articles per week goal yet, but we are working toward it. Since link building is so crucial to Web site success, we’re going to continue to cover that topic once a week. [...]
Hi, i think i’m one of those who just used to leave comments like ‘interesting or great post’. But after going through this, i think i’m ready for a change. Thanx for reaching out to me
Hi all,
Here’s a good free PR4 business directory to help promote your business.
Free Business Listings
Thanks.
It’s a shame that not all commenters know how to add some value to the discussion. It’s been a personal rule of mine to always leave a comment on every blog post, not just for link building but as a way to interact with other people.
Sure blog comment links are valuable but the SEs have put less weight on it now. But I think comments are really there to make people interact with each other, which is what the internet is primarily built for.
Personally, the comments that i get from my blogs push me into writing more and better articles; I think its the same for you, Shari, and for other bloggers.
I dont mind getting nasty comments as long as they’re not purely unintelligible or insulting. As Oscar Wilde said “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”
Cheers!