August 11, 2011
Link Building Ideas
Link building can be a difficult and time consuming task. And in fact, I started building this list of ideas out of a desire to return to the basics of links and why someone might want to link to you. Rather than focusing so much on what competitors are doing and trying to get in their same link profile, which is time consuming and really not much fun.
Types of links websites typically offer, follow or nofollow, and ideas for acquiring them:
To be clear, these are common link areas on websites and some ideas for getting into these areas. At the bottom of the post, I give some examples of creating content that will likely earn links, but the topic of content will be for another post, another day.
1. Link from their links, affiliates, or partners pages.
Become an affiliate or partner.
2. Link from their members or membership pages.
Become a member.
3. Link from their sponsors page.
Become a sponsor.
4. Link from their ad space.
Develop some ads.
5. Link from within their content or blog posts.
Think about why they might link to you.
This requires knowledge of their content.
Make a connection with them via twitter or facebook.
Develop content that relates to their content.
Mention them in your content.
Ask them, and mention your relating content.
6. Link from their related articles or related websites section after their content or blog post.
If they don’t have a section like this, would they consider it?
Would they consider adding your site?
Again, might need to make a connection via twitter and facebook.
Mention them in your related content sections.
7. Link from their footer.
Why would their visitors want to come to your site?
What could you offer their visitors?
Could you offer something to their visitors, that would boost their site’s appeal by having your link in their footer?
8. Link from a list page regarding a specific topic, resource, or event.
Is your content, resource, or event potentially part of a list someone is maintaining?
Search for lists that are relevant to you.
Since they are already building a list of offsite things, your chances of getting a link are good.
9. Link from their partner or affiliate discounts page?
Does it makes sense to offer their visitors a discount for your products, and vice versa.
10. Link from their news page.
Mention them in your news.
Write a review about their service, and tweet it to them.
Write how their service or product helps your company.
They might just link to you, or tweet a link to you.
11. Link from their testimonials page.
Write a testimonial for a company.
They might not link to you, but they will probably mention your company.
Content
Creating content that is likely to get shared or linked to, is another key component of link building. This relates to what you can do to get links, not really what types of links someone will likely give you from their website (the purpose of this post). The topic of content that is likely to build links deserves a blog post of its own. But here are some quick ideas for content that might likely earn links: infographics, brand wallpapers, tools, web apps, reviews, top ten lists, and helpful tutorials. Like our recent tutorial on mysql backup automation on a windows 08 server. I don’t understand it, but I’m glad our developers do.
If you have any good link building ideas or suggestions, please comment. Also check out my previous post on keyword optimization to build upon your link building efforts.
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