I've written a beginners guide to link building for webmasters who want to start the process of improving the link profile of their sites.
This is not an expert's guide, so don't flame me
Top 10 Link Building Techniques
Most webmasters who are interested in promoting their sites via search engines such as Google are aware of the importance of backlinks when trying to rank for their chosen keywords.
One of the things that set Google's patented algorithm apart from the lesser search engines was their use of link popularity to guide their SERP (search engine results page) positioning. As a result, backlinks matter - you can't do without them if you want to rank well in the major search engines.
Regardless of which methods you choose to promote your site, you should be aware of the following general guidelines that can make or break a campaign.
Black Hat Versus White Hat ? You'll hear these terms a lot. Techniques that are considered white hat are those that the search engines endorse, while black hat techniques are those that the search engines disapprove of. If you pursue a black hat strategy you run the risk of being penalised or even banned from the search engine indexes. If you're reading this article, that's not a good thing.
PageRank ? This is a logarithmic scale from 0-10. Sites with PageRank 10 have the highest level of importance in Google's eyes while sites with a PageRank 0 have the least. Install the Google toolbar. Make a note of your site's PageRank by moving your mouse over the green bar. Ideally, you want links from pages that have a higher PageRank value than your own. A site's PageRank is determined by the number and quality of its incoming links among other factors.
Nofollow ? This link attribute was introduced in 2005 by Google to thwart blog spam, whereby posts are made purely for the purposes of gaining backlinks. MSN and Yahoo also respect this attribute. Nofollow tells the search engine that the link isn't meant to be a vote of confidence for the target page, thus eliminating its SEO value. There's a great Firefox plugin that highlights nofollow links in pink, saving you from having to check the source code of every prospective page. Links can also bring traffic directly to your site, so if you do gain backlinks with nofollow attributes, they may still be useful, especially on high traffic/high relevancy pages.
Relevancy ? A few years ago this mattered much less. Then, the quantity (PageRank) of incoming links was the most important factor in a site's link profile. Nowadays quality (i.e. relevancy) is at least as important. So if your site is about fishing, you'll want links from other sites about fishing, or thereabouts.
Spam ? Any user generated approach to building backlinks can open the door to spam. Nobody likes spam, not the search engines, nor bloggers, nor users. Build your links for people, as well as for search engines and participate in the communities you're targeting for promotion. This is crucial if you're serious about your reputation.
Automation ? Keep it to a minimum. This is a hard subject to generalise about, since automation could refer to sophisticated black hat php techniques or the use of relatively innocuous link management software.
Anchor Text ? This is the most important thing to remember when link building. Anchor text is the text that is used to visually represent a hyperlink on a webpage. Search engine spiders use the anchor text of links to help determine the subject matter (and thus the keywords ) of the target page. Therefore, you want to use keywords that you're trying to rank for in the links and, crucially, make sure that the keywords are on the page that you're linking to.
It also helps to have keywords in your domain name, so that when someone links to you (without your control) using, e.g. yourkeywords.com, the search engine will use the url as the default anchor text. This is most applicable to viral/linkbait approaches but has value whenever you receive an unoptimized backlink from a third party.
1) Link Exchange
What is it? You contact another webmaster proposing that you link to them and that they link to you.
Hat Colour: Dark Grey
Pros: Large volume of links can be acquired relatively quickly. Anchor text can be arranged to suit. Exchanging links can open the door to wider affiliations between sites and has the effect of shaping web communities.
Cons: Google cracked down on reciprocal links a long time ago, so if the links are traded from site A to Site B without any triangulation, the value of the respective links goes down a great deal.
Should you do it? Use a three way liking structure if one of the potential link partners has more than one indexed domain. This makes it less likely that Google will discount the exchange (as it's not a reciprocal link in the classic sense) but don't expect miracles from link trades, even if a lot of PageRank is involved. Web sites with fully automated link exchange processes are close to the black hat border and so are probably not suitable for sites that have a reputation to uphold.
2) Buying Links
What is it? You contact a Webmaster directly or through a link rental network and offer money in exchange for (generally high PageRank) links from their site.
Hat Colour: Grey to black.
Pros: The advantages are potentially greater than those of exchanged links (due to their non ? reciprocal nature). Many agencies (no names) use this method to quickly buy powerful backlinks for their clients.
Debate in the industry seems to reveal a consensus that there are cases where paid links are legitimate, if they're serving a form of display advertising in their own right.
Cons: Matt Cutts, Google's anti search engine spam guru, has written a lot about the subject and has stated that paid links are an unacceptable means of acquiring links. Several high profile sites have been penalised for selling links by having their PageRank taken away so that their outgoing links have no value, while several have even been de-listed completely from the index.
This is easily the most controversial and potentially confusing item in the list.
Should you do it? Possibly, if you're careful. Make sure that the link is on a relevant page and in a location that won't appear spammy if checked manually.
By Joe Lewis