The Maine SEO Blog

PageRank may be dead (dying?), but the authority powerful links give to a website is certainly not. But…where do you find these powerful links? Certainly not link building farms, but they may be easier to find than you think.

Submission

Directories. There’s a question as to whether directories have much value. They have little to none. That doesn’t mean they hurt though.

You can get a free listing (after more than likely waiting a very long time to be approved) at DMOZ, so it seems like a no-brainer. The most worthwhile paid listings are from the Yahoo Directory and Business.com (both $299 per year).

Forums. Every time you submit a forum post, you can attach a signature (not unlike an email signature) with links back to your website. Depending on the rules of the forum, you might also be able to include links within your post (although they are probably nofollowed).

Article Marketing. Submitting articles to article distribution sites (like Article Marketer and Hubpages), you can leave a signature just like you can with forums. Plus, these services (while usually paid), will distribute your article to the masses – and you don’t have to lift a finger!

Research

Competition. This is one of my favorite link building strategies. Head over to Yahoo Site Explorer and type in your competitor’s domain. After you sort by inlinks, except from the domain, and to the entire site, you’ll see all of your competition’s incoming links! Luckily for you, Yahoo will (generally) list the incoming links in order of authority, so (for the links that make sense), start going down the list!

Blogs and Articles. Google yourself. You might find old articles or blogposts that mention your company but don’t link to your website. Contact the webmaster and see if you can’t get them to fix that for you.

Then try Googling your best keywords and phrases using Google’s Blog search. Sometimes, you have to filter through the filth, but you’ll find the gems in no time!

Be proactive

Events, Sponsorships. Speaker at a conference? Sponsoring an event? Make sure the conference/event website is linking to yours. More often than not, those links are mighty powerful.

Social media. Links from your Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube accounts may be nofollowed (LinkedIn’s are not nofollowed, but redirected), but you only have to take one look at your Analytics to see the traffic coming from them. What’s more – social media websites are fantastic for viral aspects – and they might lead to other links!

Comment, comment, comment. Likewise, comments are also nofollowed, but still count as a link! Again, someone else commenting sees your insightful thoughts; theoretically resulting in a link!

What are your favorite ways to discover new possibilities for incoming links?

Nicki Hicks
Link Building for Dummies

What’s the difference between a search engine and a directory?

–Searching in Scarborough?

Dear Searching,

Search engines and directories are both tools people use to find information on the Web. The difference is in how they get and organize their information.

Search engines use little programs called spiders or bots that scour the Internet, follow links, and bring back this information to the search engine’s index. When you use Google you’re not actually searching the Web, you’re searching Google’s index of the Web. Search engines use complex algorithms to determine which Web pages are most likely to answer the questions you pose and return these pages on the search engine results pages (SERPs.)

Directories, by contrast, are human-powered. Site owners submit their sites to directories (sometimes for a fee, sometimes free) and human editors determine the value of the site and whether it should be included in the directory. Directory visitors can search the director or drill down to the appropriate category, i.e., Arts & Humanities > Museums, Galleries & Centers > Modern & Contemporary.

Although directories have fallen out of fashion (even Yahoo’s directory is now hidden at Yahoo.com under the “more” tab), there are still benefits to being listed there. Being listed in an important directory helps your search engine visibility because it counts as an incoming link, which is one of the variables in the search engine’s algorithm.

Rich Brooks
Maine SEO