Build A Great Link Profile

Written by: Gary Horsman

Building a Powerful Link Profile

Link Building Advice

Back linking has become more difficult since Matt Cutts’s famous blog post on the use of guest posting to produce backlinks. He states in no uncertain terms that this is no longer acceptable. Therefore, this way of gaining backlinks is no longer effective.

Of course, this is due to the amount of abuse that guest blogging attracted. Many SEO experts were touting this way to generate links into your site. The resultant link profile did not look natural. It was not hard to figure out when most of the links came from blogs and even more obvious when they came from the comment section of blogs.

Here is some link building advice . . .

I will not make an argument that guest posting is bad as some of it is very valuable. It is when it is abused that Google took notice and essentially shut it down as a link-building SEO tactic.

Your guest posting activities should be approached with caution and with quality content in mind.

Here’s what Mr. Cutts (of Google) has to say about guest posting in the wake of the announcement he made last month:

“I’m not trying to throw the baby out with the bath water. There are still many good reasons to do some guest blogging (exposure, branding, increased reach, community, etc.). Those reasons existed way before Google and they’ll continue into the future. And there are absolutely some fantastic, high-quality guest bloggers out there.”

Translation: Good Posts = Good Links

I will continue to advise to build relationship with other bloggers, webmaster and marketing partners. To post on their blogs can create value. It means that you need to create delightful content just like you always should.

Let’s define the meaning of a powerful link profile.

When someone links to your content, or you link to it from an article you’ve written elsewhere, it must appear natural.

There are three key things that really should be going on when it comes to your link profile and they are:

• Link Relevance
• Link Diversity
• Link Velocity

Let’s examine each of these aspects of a link profile.

Link Relevance

Relevance is a very significant factor when it comes to link building. Each site that provides a link back to yours should be within your industry and the content associated with the link needs to be highly relevant to your content your audience. It does not make much sense to get a link from a dog grooming website or blog if you repair computers. If this does not make sense then why should Google count this link as relevant? The short answer is that Google doesn’t.

If the dog grooming blog has a section on technology and computer repair then it may make some sense.

Moreover, the anchor text (the text used to make the link) should also be relevant to the page content that the link is linking to. Note that links do not (in fact should not) always point to your home page. If you have deep content then links to this content shows the major search engines that this content is popular and valuable. This will increase the search position of the page and also the entire site.

Link Diversity

A good link profile should be diverse. Get links from an array of sources. Blogs, websites, social media, business directories and yes (some) blog comments all help to make your link profile more diverse. Note that the value of social media links are typically of lower value as many social profile links are of the nofollow variety.

Building a powerful link profile is all about diversity balance. Get links from other sites, industry directories, comments and forums. Each link should look natural and make sense. Build your links wisely. Don’t wander around the net attempting to comment on everything you find.

If you build strong relationships with other sites, you can comment on your own content when it attracts the comments of others.

Take care with reciprocal links. These are often viewed suspiciously by Google. Of course, if you write a lot of content for others, then you’re bound to get these, but keep them to a minimum. Anchor text should also be kept diverse in order to appear natural, so don’t just stick the same keyword into every bio or content link.

Link Velocity

This is the rate your link profile grows. If the quantity of links increases over a very short time frame, then this will not look natural. It may raise a flag with the search engines. To have too high a link velocity may look to Google that the links have been acquired by nefarious practices. A good link profile takes time to grow and the major search engines know this.

Content Marketing

I believe the best approach to building a good link profile is through relationships and content. Of course, you will also have to place directory listings and you’ll still have to pay attention to incoming links, but producing great content is a very effective means of obtaining links.

Your approach, however, really depends on your goals and resources. If you are a small business or a business without in-house content creation people, then build a team of out-sources resources that can produce content. This will help to lower your cost and you do not have to devote your employees to the task when an out-sourced resource can be much more cost effective.

The Bigger Picture

To do a good job with your search engine positioning you need to look at the big picture. Examine your search position enhancement activity from multiple angles. This means that a site should contain strong content that attracts high quality links through useful content All of the activity carried out off site should be done wisely and with a keen eye on relationships and the actual technical structure of your site and/or blog should be modern, enhanced for search and search engine friendly.

A healthy link profile isn’t difficult to obtain or grow, but it demands good practice and strong content if it’s going to look like the real deal to the search engines. Most importantly, it should always be carried out for the benefit of the visitor, not the search engine.