How many times in the past 2 months have you read a post about link building and SEO? I ask this because I have read 5 in the past day and most of them are saying that link building is dead. Now, is link building dead? No, link building is not dead, it has just changed.
The problem with the way most people would build links a few months ago is that they were getting links from very poor websites and this in turn go their websites penalized by Google. What you need to understand is that link building is something that doesn’t stop and there is no quick way to rank on the top of the search engines. If you ever hear somebody tell you that they will guarantee your rankings, and then just know that it is a lie and all they are going to do is get your website penalized. Trust me, I know because I hired somebody to do that with one of my experimental sizes about 8 months ago.
So, how has link building changed?
Link building has changed because now it is all about building a reputation. For example, if you have a blog then you should have reviews about that blog. This is where AngliesList comes in and even Yelp. The problem that many people have is they are too focused on building links on other sites just like theirs, through comments, through forum links, and even social bookmarks. What you need to realize is that everything is changing because now Google is not the only one running the internet, Facebook is there too.
Ways to Succeed With Link Building
Guest Posts – One of the best way to get more links is through guest posts. The best part about a guest post is that your link will show up on another person’s blog and with more than a million blogs out there, you are bound to get some on high ranking websites. Where most people make the mistake here is they submit their posts to really low quality blogs, if you want to succeed, then you need to put yourself out there and publish only on high ranking sites. One piece of advice that I have for you is to make sure you create a post that people will want to read and not just something that has been talking about for forever and a day.
Reviews – Yes, reviews are making a big hit these days. The reason review sites are starting to pick up as far as links go is because Google has realized that these are generated by users and that is the best way to tell a users experience on the site. If you have a few reviews on sites like Angieslist or Yelp, then you will notice that your rankings will be higher because of it. Now, don’t go out and plaster reviews all over the internet, instead, build a few each week.
YouTube – Yes, YouTube is a great way to get links. The best part about YouTube is that you can put your link on their site and when somebody comes and uses your video, your link will show up on their site. The reason I like this method is because more people are using video now than anything else. Trust me, this does work and that is why I suggest using it.
One thing that you will notice about link building is that it is only going to get harder and harder to affect your own rankings. Many people could do this without any problems a few years ago, but with all the changes you will notice that it is not easy anymore. Just remember, link building is a long and tedious process that you need to work at.
Steps To Proper Blogging After Google’s Over-Optimization Penalty
As you probably already know, the Over-Optimization penalty was introduced the other day. If you are like me and most of the internet, then you felt the impact of the penalty. Just to give you an idea Google’s, Matt Cutts said that this would effect roughly 3.1% of all English sites but from reading other blogs, forums and even getting emails I am convinced that this effected much more than that.
Now, Google is not going to come out and say they are going back to the pre over-optimization days, so we all need to get ready to change our sites and do things the Google way. Below, you will see a video that outlines what you should do first in order to get your site ranking again in Google’s search engine. It is highly recommended that you start there and then follow the steps below in order to blog the way that Google wants you to blog.
Steps To Proper Blogging
Write Quality And Unique Content
If you are not already doing this, then you need to start right now. The benefit of writing quality and unique content is that you will not be able to get more natural links and that is what Google wants. What you need to remember is that we are all playing Google’s game now and you have to follow their rules. Google loves quality and unique content and now, so should you.
Create A Community
Do you participate in Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and all the other community driven sites? If not, then now is the time to start. We all know that social media will be the future of the internet and Google is smart enough to consider that in their rankings. Whether they go by Twitter followers or Facebook interaction isn’t sure yet, but what is sure is that they love social interaction.
Build Quality Links
Google has always stated that they rank quality over quality and that is a for sure thing now. Instead of creating hundreds of article links or blog comments, create one web 2.0 article and link to that. Doing this will take the risk away from your website yet you will get all the benefits from it. I know this sounds a little strange but creating one PR2 link on a web 2.0 property is much more valuable than 50 PR0 links pointing directly to your site.
Blogging after this most recent Google update will be different but that doesn’t mean you won’t make it through. Just stick to what Google has told us already and make sure your site is compliant with Google’s best blogging practices.
Author Bio:
This is a guest post by Adam Snyder at DormRoomCash.com. If you want more articles like this, then you can get all DormRoomCash’s articles by email.