Web SEO Tips
I've seen several questions on here regarding link building, and as most of you know I'm pretty against it - because in its most common form its just pure spam. Anyway, I thought I'd share a technique with you that I've had some success with recently that isnt worth a post on my blog, but may be of some help to people wanting to build up link equity.So, I hate link building in general because 99% of people think that link building is spamming your link across as many places as possible, and that it 'helps your rankings'And the answer is.. No. It doesnt. (highlight the black box to reveal the answer)Lets take it back to basics, Why do we build links?Because it helps build Page RankWhat does Page Rank do?Increases Google's "trust" in a siteHow does Google's "trust" benefit me?If your site is adequately coded, then you will be more likely to rank highly. This is crucial, it will not gain you rankings and it will not improve your rankings - but it will make your site more likely to rank highly for a larger number of key phrases.If you're wondering what the difference, think of it like thisI am a baker (bear with me) and I bake cakes, every day, I take my cakes to sell to the local bakery - at first the bakery arent really sure if people will like my cakes, so they put them towards the back of the shop, but as they get positive feedback from other people - they begin to trust me more. So when I bring in new cakes, they are more likely to place them in the shop window. They don't move my cakes around specifically based on what people say (inbound links), but they trust my cooking abilities more, and as such as less likely to scrutinise over a questionable looking chocolate tart.So, if you followed any of that cake crap - the higher your PR the more Google trusts your content to be of high quality, and as such worthy of ranking highly. If that makes sense?So, the next question is - How can I get Google to trust me?Well, lets go back to the cake analogy (very, very briefly because even I'm beginning to think that it was a bad idea now)On Monday, a thief, a spam artist, a child, and a prostitute recommend my cakes to the baker. He laughs.On Tuesday, a local bakery magazine recommend my cakes to the baker.He instantly takes notice, and trusts me much more.Google is very much the same,Spam your links around to 300 directories, and Google laughs.Get a feature on smashingmagazine, and Google is impressed.Google's trust in you (PR) is then updated accordingly.The problem with PR is finding a starting point, its a bit of a Catch22, you can't get high-PR sites to link to you unless you have high-PR, and you can't get high-PR unless high-PR sites link to you. (and if that wasnt a mouthful of cake then nothing is)A solution that I've used to good effect (that's right, we're actually getting to the point now) is to build your own external sites to generate PR, and then pass it on to your primary site.Wordpress.com - incase you're wondering.I set up 3 wordpress.com subdomains 3 months ago, and posted for the most part at least 3 times a week on all of them. I didn't limit myself to a niche, I stuck with current events to write about, and I tagged all my blogs properly (the most important part).As a result my 3 little blogs started appearing in 'popular searches' on the wordpress.com homepage (linked in through the tags).Now these links from the homepage results are PR6, which was passed down to my little blogs on the last update, which are now PR3, PR3, and PR2.So not only can I now pass on permanent 'power' or 'trust' to my own site, I can also utilise future blog posts for relevant external link building for my clients, and link to them when writing an article relevant to their industry.In closing,Before you start directory hunting - try building something yourself and using it. Its more work, but its worth a lot more in the long run.