Link Building: Just Great Content, Blog Comments, and Guest Blog Posts?
-
I love SEOMoz. It has motivated me to dive way more into SEO.
I know all the shoulds. But what fascinates me about SEO is that shoulds don't always match up to what works.
I'm looking at Open Site Explorer, specifically my site. I see a lot of links I got naturally. By having awesome content.
So is there any point in emailing people asking htem to add my link? Or do I spend my time writing awesome content, sharing it on social media, and hoping someone comes across it and shares it?
I know blog commenting, when relevant, can bring me new visitors. I'm sure it helps SEO too.
Maybe I just need to reach out and write guest blog posts for grabbing some links?
Its just as Google wants it! OMG, how white hat. Is that it? or should I be even more active? I.E. emailing people and saying "hey, I have this awesome website, your readers would find it useful" sort of thing?
Love to hear your opinion!
-
Woot! Way to go!
-
Soooo... First off, thanks for your advice!
Second, maybe I'm lucky, but I wrote to a .edu site (a university), a professor built the site, and I wrote him saying I loved his resources, and that maybe he should add my site.
Well, he did! Wow, this morning! So that was cool.
Let's see if a .edu helps rankings!
I may do some cold call emails, but I think in the long run you are right, reach out to people I know already.
Thank you for the responses! I will be using Q & A more... may do more Q than A at first though
-
Hi Don. And it works. Here's a thumbs up to get you one step towards that t-shirt
-
Hi Hilary, Dana gave some great advice. Thumbs up for her.
Great content will generate links, but there is nothing wrong with taking extra steps to get them. You may find that including a little closing statement at the end of your blog post will go a long way in the amount of links you get. In fact I do this regularly when helping people on the forums to entice them for a thumbs up (I want a t-shirt).
Hope this helps,
Don -
Hi Endlessrange, I love SEOMoz too! Pretty much I agree with everything you just said. Is cold-emailing people to try to get them to link to your site worth your time? No. But I'm willing to bet there are tons of people who you haven't emailed already, who you have some kind of connection with. Those people are definitely worth emailing. But, if you email, maybe a better approach would be to have something specific in mind. Maybe you want to announce something. Maybe you just want to share some information. If you email them, make sure something's in it for them, maybe something more than just a link back. Maybe you offer them a guest blog spot. Maybe you interview them. Maybe you send them a gift. I don't know, be creative.
I personally discard all emails from people who don't have an "in" with me. By "in" I mean, they know enough about me to use my first name, perhaps know someone I know, or know enough about me to know what I'm really interested in. They have to talk to me in my language, and they better not start their email with "Greetings dear friend."
That being said, just today I contacted 4 editors of industry-related Web publications with whom I have had prior business relationships with. I had a press release I thought they might be willing to post on their sites. All four of them said yes. All four said yes because they know if I say it's a press release it's really a press release, not a badly disguised piece of marketing drivel. I also never presume anything. I don't contact them expecting them to do anything for me. I ask them really really really nicely, and I accept the fact that they just might say no.
Do everything you mentioned and always be on the lookout for an opportunity to contact with someone new. Then, do some research and find out how you might already be connected to them (6 degrees of Kevin Bacon right?). Figure out where the connection is and then email them.
Good luck and make the most of Q & A. It's awesome!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Link Building for Charities?
Hello there! I'd like to get some advice/tips about link building for charities. I am doing an internship on SEO in a charity in London and I have Moz Pro to work with. So, I have to work on the links building but I don't know how to start, what value I can offer, etc . Thanks! 🙂
Link Building | | Ignacio.Puglisi3 -
Quickest way to build links?
I'm in furniture e-commerce. I'm not new to e-commerce but I am new to SEO as I used to just hire everything out. What is the quickest way to build or should I say earn links? So far I've just been contacting bloggers and I've built about 4 links through guest posts in the past month. The problem is I can't tell if this is good or bad. I also contacted a niche directory and they liked my content so they are going to include my website in their directory for free next week. Should I continue doing what I'm doing? Do I need to be more aggressive? Suggestions? Thanks guys.
Link Building | | The_Kiwi_Man0 -
Link Building Recommendations Please
Hi - I am responsible for a small but growing number of websites for companies that serve the elderly population. I need help with link building for these websites and I'm looking for suggestions on finding one or two professionals to whom I can outsource that work. 1. Can you recommend anyone for this need, someone I can contact who you know to be qualified and professional? 2. Can you give me an idea of what such services should cost? Thanks!
Link Building | | tcolling0 -
Moving content archive from a new blog to a mature content website?
I'm working with a publisher who has a young blog that is 6 mos old and is considering folding it and moving it's archive of content into a relavent, more mature website. This blog already has numerous links directing readers to this more mature website. My question is would it make more sense to leave the blog in place and continue to publish new posts and benefit from the link relationship with the mature website? Considering the blog is relatively new, would it matter much if we folded and moved it's archive?
Link Building | | accessintel0 -
Should I remove links from my internal blog?
I have blogs/news sites on every one of my clients' websites (each representing a different business within the same industry - self storage). On each of these blog sites, I have a writer who places about 3-5 exact keyword match links (varying anchor text) to give interlink juice to the other off-site businesses owned by the client. Each of these blogs receive about five posts per week. I am sure this is mega-over-optimizing and a stupid thing to do considering penguin. So, my questions are: Moving forward - 1. Should i stop adding so many blog articles to each site? 2. How many interlinking anchor texts should I use per blog? 3. Should I go back and either get rid of all those interlinks on past blogs or just trash the blog articles altogether? Please help if you can - I very much appreciate the responses best bd
Link Building | | creativeguy0 -
Guest Blogging as an Agency
Hi, I have the following problem regarding guest blogging. When sending out the pitch one can utilise the client's email so it appears coming from the business/client itself rather than an SEO agency. However the problem that I am facing is what author bio to use. Is it good to sign the posts as the internal SEO agency copywriters, as the client or I have found some suggesting to create a fake persona. If the client or client staff as the author bio is not a solution what is the best way? I hope my question is not confusing but this would really help me out. Thanks in advance Kind Regards, Conrad
Link Building | | conrad880 -
Link building by inviting bloggers
Hi everyone, I'm relatively new to SEO, and I have a question on a link building strategy for a holiday resort I am working on. The resort has a paintball arena and zorbing facilities at their premises. I want to use this in the link building strategy and the owners have agreed to have an open day for bloggers. Basically the resort will invite 20 local bloggers for a day to their resort. They get to play paintball, zorbing and get to see the resort in exchange for an honest write up about their day at the resort. I am looking at asking the bloggers to write about the event twice (Once before, and once after they visit the resort) with a minimum of 4 links to the website. I want to know how I can identify the top bloggers? What factors should I consider while making a list of 20 bloggers, and how do I measure these factors? Also, is this a good strategy for link building? And please feel free to add anything else you think I am missing out on, or will help in the link building. Cheers! Arjun
Link Building | | ArjunRajkumar0 -
The Risks of Unrelated Guest Posts
Hi Mozzers! I'm really interested to get some opinions on whether a guest post on a blog that is far outside your niche could be a risky tactic. For example if your blog is about a technology product and you get a guest post published on an Elvis blog, will this appear manipulative or similar to a purchased link? Suppose your guest post is about Elvis, but at the end of the article is a link to a technology product with the anchor text "customized PC adapters". Won't that look manipulative to a search engine algorithm?
Link Building | | SparkplugDigital0