It is interesting how the 30 day challenge is turning to more traditional methods of building traffic. The video I watched today was on getting links by posting on forums and blogs. It would have been nice to see something a little more original. Although the challenge is primarily for beginners.
I usually don’t spend much time trying to build links, but I have realized that I really need a lot more links to one of my sites that I am currently working on for it to be more successful. I have even been emailing webmasters today who I believe might link to my site.
The kinds of sites I look for are .edu sites and non-commercial sites that have some authority. Commercial sites are very unlikely to even read your email for a link exchange request. I try to write an individual email rather than just a copy and paste job. I also try to think of an interesting email subject. Emails with “Link exchange request” will get deleted by most webmasters.
I submit to a couple of free directories, I definitely try and get into dmoz and Yahoo. I don’t bother with paid directories.
To quote SEO expert Dave Naylor in an interview with Aaron Wall from SEO book, “If it’s really hard to get one link from a site then it’s worth getting… if all you have to do it click a button to add your URL then don’t you think it’s pretty worthless (eg. Blogs, guestbooks, directories etc..)”
I think it is a great quote and one that webmasters need to consider more. I know from my experience a couple of really good natural links brings in more traffic and link juice than a bunch of junk links.
I’m not sure whether you are e-mailing .edu sites because their links are more valuable or because it’s easier to get a link from them. Anyway, I’ve heard some unconfirmed information, that search engines in fact do not put any more emphasis on .edu domains. Or, rather, the whole .edu as being more valuable links myth itself is unconfirmed.
Which free directories besides dmoz and Yahoo do you use? It looks like there are over a thousand from reading some threads at Digital Point. Are there a few general purpose directories that provide good traffic for you? Or do you focus on niche directories related to each of your sites?
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I thought .edu domains were more valuable, but I could be wrong. I have a link from one .edu and it does bring in some nice traffic. I would prefer to get links from niche directories than directories that have 1000s of different categories. Non-niche directories are a waste of time to me. The hardest links to get are going to be the most beneficial.
Link building is one of the worst parts about building a website, but the hours that go into it can make a huge difference on the success of the site. It’s all those hours of work that you must put in that don’t result in content per se, and then when a website does become successful, those from the outside think it looks easy 😉