More On Link Building
I’m no SEO specialists. Or maybe I am. Who’s REALLY a “specialist” in this area anyway? Isn’t it all speculation? Well, this post is pure speculation, this much I know. I thought I would share some interesting information on what I’ve been finding in my backlinks lately.
I’m still digging for info, so right now I’m taking this all at face value. One could argue Google backlinks are not of importance anymore (right along side of the PR), but I’m thinking there just must be something to it. We already know backlinks are only part of the puzzle to good rankings, but just how big of a piece is hard to say. It’s also hard to say if what is being displayed in our backlinks (meaning when you search link:yoursite.com) is ALL of the links Google views as “valuable” to decide this piece. Is there more? Possibly, who knows.
Although what I’m now taking seriously is the few links that DO show up in my backward links. I had sent this in an email to Anita pointing it all out to her, but figured I should make a blog post on it as well. I looked at quite a few of my websites, and here were the common link types I found:
- Articles from EzineArticles.
Just that site, none others. My articles were showing up as backlinks for the pages I used in my byline. I’ve been suspecting for some time it was only necessary to post articles to this one site, and I believe that was just confirmed.
- Navigation Exchanges
Meaning my links in the navigation of some sites and vice versa. So their links show on all my pages, and my links show on their pages. Granted this didn’t give me TONS of backlinks as you would expect, but I did see a few here and there. Usually on random internal pages (like Anita’s “about me” page I keep seeing……figure THAT one out).
- Blogs and Blog Archives
More specifically, OUR blog. Mostly because of the navigation, but I do see some backlinks for specific pages because of a few posts. Apparently Google is looking pretty close at those navigation links as of right now. I see no links to posts I left comments in though. I think Google has pretty much wiped those clean thanks to spammers (THANKS JERKS!).
- Directories
Not spammy link directories, but rather the more “clean” directory sites, and niche directories. Even though I’m pretty sure I had to give them a link back somewhere, this was apparently alright with Google. I’m guessing because these directories are monitored pretty well, and normal junk sites are rejected. Plus that’s just far too much work for the average spammer. I’m pretty sure directories are safe for the time being.
- MomPack Text Links
This one blew me away. I was on the fence with this one for awhile, because I just wasn’t sure really what to think of it. If you don’t know what it is, you can see my page here. You would think it would be just like a regular link exchange or dare I say it - duplicate content. But apparently Google doesn’t see it this way. On the sites I use this, I actually see quite a few backlinks coming from these pages. Could it possible be because it’s updated and kept up pretty well? That very well could be.
- “Top Site” pages
Yeah this one surprised me too. Although I must give a great big disclaimer on this one - I was looking up backlinks on a NICHE site (the scrapbooking one), and the “top sites” I did join for that site and post on my site were specifically for scrapbooking. It doesn’t get much more relevant than that. I generally don’t join these types of things, but for some off the wall reason I gave it a shot with that ONE site. Much to my surprise it did some good!
Now that you have an idea what was being counted (at least what we can actually see Google is counting for some purpose), let me tell you what I did NOT find - link page link exchanges. You know where you send out an email and say “I’m looking for link exchanges” with the intent to put their link on a special page for “links”. No matter what you name it, Google is on to it. Not one single “link page” did I find in my backlinks. Do you realize how many of those I’ve done? If they were being counted, I would have seen it. Now maybe in some other way they are still being counted, but certainly not by Google.
So what I plan to do is write me up a nice link building plan based on what I was finding. More specifically link building that has to do with blogs, articles, and directories. Maybe even a few navigation exchanges as well, but mostly with the top three.
What other forms of link building have YOU been finding in your backlinks?
Increasing in Him,
Kara
Topics: Business Stuff |
September 6th, 2007 at 12:03 am
I’m really impressed with your research on this - it’ll be interested to see what comes of it!!
Amber
September 10th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
I love your blog, the info in it is wonderful, keep up the good work
KUDOS!
September 11th, 2007 at 10:49 am
VERY useful information. I am in planning stages right now and have a marketing plan to write, this is going into the folder for future reference. THANK YOU!