What NOT to Do in Link Building
Let me save us all a little bit of trouble, as I know we are all in the race together to get our sites and keywords ranked the highest. I want to give you a few tips on what not to do in link building- meaning that you won’t be wasting your valuable time, or the time of your users for that matter. Be cautioned that using the wrong link building methods can give a bad name to your brand and even get you banned or filtered from some search engines. Not what you are going for in your internet marketing strategies, as it is pretty much shooting yourself in the foot! Agreed?
Now that we are on the same page, picture these link building ‘Don’ts’ as the slick traveling salesman with the bad comb over- ie. so not who you want to be. The first link building misstep to avoid is submitting your site to hundreds of corny directories that will not only bill you around $15 a submission, but will also send you zero traffic and sell off topic run-of-site links. This is a complete money and time waster that would just be much easier to avoid all together.
Moving along, another way not to link build is to assume several identities in a forum to attempt to promote your site. This can also be called forum spamming, so don’t do it! An example of this would be to begin to ask questions on a forum about where one could find the ‘best non-stick pans to cook with that don’t get ruined after one use’. What you would not want to do is to create another forum account from the same IP address to answer your own question and plug how great your cooking accessory site is. Not a good idea because that is pure forum spam, folks. Another bad example would be to become a new member to various forums and then ask the same question relating to your site on all 15 or so forums within the same day.
The next forum spamming method to bad link building than you can avoid is posting on forums only when you can add links to your site in the post area. These forums are all about connecting to your clientele and generating real return traffic to your site. If you begin to attempt to ‘beat the system’, so to speak, then the system will in turn beat you as users can smell a rat a mile away. If you are spending your time flooding the forums you visit with spam content, then you will not have any credibility or personality to draw people to link to your site. On the flip side, if readers begin to see that you are an authority on your products, then they will look to you to provide them useful information and resources and want to link to your site as a result. Also, please try to resist posting your links to forum threads that are years outdated just to link to your vaguely related site and concept.
These are just a few things to avoid when looking to create some solid link building and rank your page even higher. The best advice I have for you would be to get in there (or hire someone to do it for you) and make forums a part of building your online community that will naturally link to your site as you get the word out there. Internet forums are full of people that want to relate, chat, and get their burning questions answered, so who better than you- a genuine site owner that can give them informed answers and comments on all they would like to know about non-stick pans and the like? Kick the traveling sales man to the curb.
Related Posts by the Niche Titans:
- How to Get Page Rank: Every Page Counts!
- How To Create More Links with List Building Articles
- More Niche Marketing Tips and Tricks
- How to Create Links for Free and Generate Traffic
- Using Trends to Get More Links
more Niche Marketing articles?
Subscribe via RSS Feed
or get free site updates by email:
These are great tips for anyone starting out in marketing or online etiquette! Building a good reputation can take a long time, but ruining it can be as simple as one bad forum post.
I don’t think there are any shortcuts to this stuff – success online is about relationships – an online or off these just take time to build
I just recently found your site and find it extremely helpful.
I like how you explain things in detail; not just do something but why and how.
Thanks!
When I noticed your post I thought let me see what this writer has to offer. What my eye was your Twitter title for this post and I quote “» link to Niche Marketing | Link Building | SEO | Affiliate Marketing | Niche Titans” As an SEO copywriter that peeked my curiosity. Then I come to read the article and it’s titled “What NOT to Do in Link Building” I almost walked away but, your picture grabbed my attention. Why am I giving you information you are well aware of? Simple, because you did a great job at bringing me here. Then keeping me. Your article actually taught me a few black hat SEO tricks. Really, I never considered that SEO service providers and link builders used those methods. Look that is not to say I was unaware of such devious tactics but, I would never have considered doing them or ever sen them spelled out. I like your style it’s very urban…almost gorilla.. great post and great job! Btw reciprocal links are always a big plus.
Thanks for the helpful information. I starting blogging last summer and I’m still learning the ropes. It takes time to establish yourself and create content and a brand that readers respect.
Like you said, there are no shortcuts. I’ll continue following your blog.
All of the above suggestions border on the obvious, but they really need to be posted for some of our non-English speaking friends at DP!
One of my competitors was downgraded to PR “0″, probably because he had bought a bunch of paid links in spammy directories. Ironically, these techniques only result in the PR downgrade, and had NO EFFECT on his SERP in Google!
They may be obvious to someone who has been doing link building now for over a year, but not everyone reading this blog has. There are a lot of people getting into link building, who may have read on other sites to actually do some of these things.
What is the best practice to convert website traffic into sales? Is it best to create unique landing pages or drive readers to the homepage?
Yes…. haha, it depends on your traffic. Try both, and see which one converts to more sales, and then stick with that one.