Search Engine Marketing Blog

10 ways to cheat at link building. Quick, easy tips to get you and your new site going.

1. Directories - quick, easy, fast submissions. Usually free, sometimes a small fee. Links are usually set up in a timely fashion. Find suitable directories at the Open Directory.

2. Buy a Yahoo directory link.

3. Ask people you know - personal friends, family members, your kid’s school, your golf club, people you met on holiday - anyone you know who owns, or knows someone who owns, a site.

4. Arrange with your business partners to do a Partners page - you normally refer them to customers so why not refer them on your site and get them to refer you by linking to you.

5. Ask satisfied business customers for an endorsement. You add their testimonial on your site with a link to theirs and they add you as a preferred supplier on their site with a link to yours.

6. Don’t have a news page, have a blog instead. Just for having a blog you qualify for links a normal site can’t get - there’s a whole Dmoz section devoted to weblogs not to mention all the blog specific directories. Use the blog for posting news, press releases, product recalls, job openings, sponsorships, and so on. If you post something that’s actually interesting to someone you’ll get links without having to ask. Blogging software is like a free, easy to install content management system that can be administered by just about anyone who can type and you don’t have to give them access to the rest of your site.

7. Put up a “Link to Me” sign on your site with code for a professional looking button that people can simply cut and paste into their own site’s code.

8. Offer a “Listed On” or award button link for any site that qualifies. Believe it or not sites are still willing to stick an award or “Listed On” button link on their site.

9. Every time you do a press release make sure it carries your website address and is distributed to the online press release services.

10. Let other sites use your content providing they link back to your site. White papers, studies, surveys, research, product recall notices, tips, articles, jokes, anything that you post on your site that other sites may wish to use. Stick a politely worded permission note on the bottom of the content page letting other site owners know they are welcome to use the material - all you ask is that they credit the content to you using a direct link.

Ok, so there is no completely lazy way of getting links. Didn’t your Daddy ever tell you that anything worth doing is worth doing well?

Be number 1 on Google for a term the author is looking to write about.

I’m not kidding. Everyone, despite knowing better, uses Google as a reference tool. The number of authoritative websites that reference our sites without us ever having asked is amazing. The only reason they do so is because they do a search on Google for a topic they are writing about and there’s our little site minding its own business.

Obviously, having a professional and “correct” design seals the deal. Even if you’re number 1 for “ancient Egyptian artifacts” you’re not going to be referenced unless your site looks the part.

So the formula for gaining authoritative links without ever asking is:

Great content on a very specific subject X the right design

I have to stress here that the design is very, very important. It doesn’t have to be swish, flash, swirling or otherwise gorgeous - it does however have to be exactly what the searcher would expect a site on that topic to look like. But that’s a whole different post.

Have the right design, get to the top and get referenced!

Fine, I used to be one. That was before I realised how much money the G god makes out of having something to index. And giving them something to index is my job. So in reality I’m helping them make money and yet according to the puritanical white hats I’m supposed to be totally blinkered and never, ever, ever, ever try to game the system? Are you serious?

Google and every other commercial search engine is just that - commercial. They sell ads, they make money, good for them. I have no problem with that whatsoever. It’s what capitalism is all about.

But to then turn around and act as the keepers of all things true and good - it just gets me sometimes.

G says Don’t Buy Links - well, why not? They sell links don’t they? What is a PPC ad if not a link? It’s a link, people click it, G gets money, the advertiser hopefully gets a new customer, everyone’s happy. So why should they tell us not to do ad sales on our own sites in any way, shape or form that we see fit? It’s my site! I can do what I bl**dy well like.

G says Don’t Create Content for Search Engines, Write for People - Ok, now, I happen to agree with this one but only because I happen to know it’s one and the same thing - at the least the way I do it. You could argue (just cause I’m in a mood) that creating content for search engines is good for people and therefore you should only create content for search engines! So there!

The Self-Labelled White Hats say Don’t Do Anything at all ever just for the sake of search engines. Again, against my better judgement this is a rule I generally follow not because search engines are something hollowed and sacred but because designing sites in a user friendly manner with well structured navigation and keyword rich content is both second nature and good business.

BUT - and that’s a very, very big BUT - if search engines weren’t part of the equation do you honestly for a minute think that people would have been so ready to forsake Flash or other difficult to index technologies in favour of boring, old fashioned, easily spiderable code? Do you think so much time, effort and attention would be spent on ensuring that sites are W3 compliant and that meta tagging was all correct and accounted for? Give me a break.

The irony is that most tanned-to-black hat search engine marketers who know me would consider me a straight up white hat SEO puritan (I don’t do anything on Google’s no no list). The difference is that I no longer worship at the G god’s feet or think it’s a all knowing, all seeing, all loving deity. It’s a commercial organisation for Pete’s sake! They’re not hippies or even yuppies. They’re not trying to make the world a better place or save starving children or start a new religion. They make money, they horn in on anything that’s gaining prominence, they are out to rule the world (well, that might be taking it a bit far but this is a rant in case you haven’t noticed). And as long as they continue to give my sites prominent placement I’m happy to go along with it. But don’t tell me to be puritanical and not have impure thoughts or it’ll displease Google. It’s not my god and I really don’t care!

100% relevant to site we’re promoting.

An old site – pre 2000 is best.

Swimming in quality inbound links to the site from a variety of old, established sites (for the purposes of assessing a link buy inbound links from standard directories such as splut.com do not count).

Labouring under multiple listings on Dmoz, Yahoo, Wikipedia, .edu and other “safe” sites.

Offering permanent link buys and willing to negotiate on price.

A site owned by someone who has several sites that would be ideal for our other sites saving us time and effort.

Designed in a search engine friendly manner and the page we’re buying the link on is well interlinked throughout the site, especially from the homepage.

Not given to linking to anyone and everyone so there are no other outbound links on the page, or very few (internal links are fine).

Content rich and our link is placed inside the content as part of the text, not buried on the side or the bottom.

Now I’m a happy link buyer.