Quality Sources For Incoming Links - Post Panda Penguin Poop

[mjtaylor]

What's Your Favorite Source for Links?

Links have always been the ticket to the SERPs. Early on, reciprocal links were traded and that worked like a charm until Google got smart about that. A healthy dose of one way links became requisite.

Obviously link bait is the best way to get one way links but how many times have you come up with a truly link worthy idea? How many "viral" ideas? Certainly I have written a post or two that got some friendly nods and links, but not enough to float my boat.

Quite a few folks resorted to link buying despite warnings of the risks ... and it would seem the Penguin has pooped on a lot of those sites. But links are still what we all need.

One of the best ways to create quality incoming links is off site content development -- the creation and placement of guest posts and articles on quality sites such as Squidoo, and Hubpages, Ezinearticles. I like morestar's article directory, too. And I am always in search of the opportunity for a guest post on a quality blog.

Where are you developing links and content these days?

[SteveGerencser]

I predict that pixel sites will make a huge comeback

The problem you have with posting content on other sites is that you still run the risk of the site changing hands or quality in the future. This is very common in blogging. When that happens the site in question tends to get devalued and you lose juice and rankings and then you freak out and try to get the content removed because it's on a junk site but there is no one running it to contact to get it removed and your rankings continue to slide.

Squidoo has turned to poodoo IMO, Hubpages are starting to get heavily abused, and many, if not most, article directories are junk to begin with and I suspect that they will follow the link directories within the next year.

So where does this leave us? The same place we were before there were search engines. Creating communities, linking to and sharing users with like minded websites, social, and all the other things that go with building a solid brand and community. Let the search engines figure it out for themselves. We don't really need them all that much any more so I'm not going to worry about them or what they think.

BTW, welcome back

[Tubby]

If I ever manage to create some good content. The last place I will want to place it is on somebody else's site, I prefer to link to and from my own pages. I am generally of the opinion that a new page title (and content) adds (enough) good value to my site.

The problem with many inbound links is that the text used is often 'general' and lack specificity. The result can be similar to having a food venue at the football ground amidst hundreds of hungry footy fans all searching for hot pies. . . . . While I am only selling cucumber sandwiches.

I suspect that an internal page title has as much value as a pointless inbound link and serves a better purpose in informing search engines "What I got" . .

On the other hand, I must agree that inbound linking is probably a 'horses for courses' method. Possibly a webmaster should give their pages a good coat of looking at, before deciding what will work best.

My preference still remains with a reciprocal link to any page that fits nicely for my users.

Note;
Of course I have never cracked the 'HUGE TRAFFIC' that most webmaster dream of, mostly the huge traffic pages turn up on my face book and seem to have absolutely no purpose at all.

I am a great believer in purpose. . I generally accept the inevitability that a sincere searcher will eventually find the page or service they are looking for. . . Despite every second site attempting to lure them away from the logical path.

[HTMLBasicTutor]

Over the years I have gone for the quality content on my own sites which in turn earned me incoming links and a good PR, even some links on real education sites without asking or link dropping, just earned them on the merit of the content. Some of my stuff is on course curriculums apparently because I can see incoming links in my Awstats from behind private doors.

Steve brought up a good point. If you guest blog you never know if the site owner will sell the blog and not keep up the standard it was when you wrote for them.

Have a Hubpages account. Wrote a couple of articles but never really got into it. Have enough trouble writing content for my own sites.

Never signed up for Squidoo even though I do read Seth Godin's blog.

I'm not afraid to link out to quality information that adds to the content I'm writing.

This is going to sound like a broken record but I do believe that quality content on your own site still outways any link building scheme you might find. Well, if you could write something controversial along link bait lines that would probably help.

[morestar]

and content these days?

With respect to Interlinking

I just start off with onsite interlinking, I always try to create the site from Wordpress, give it great structure and use the blog posts as interlinking next. This works for me. After a few weeks of the site relaxing and seemingly taking it's positions in the search results, I then go for directory submissions but keep in mind I'm sharing and cross posting the blog posts from the first stage of the game.

I tend to take off-site article writing a little slowly because of said reasons re: the quality of the site changing etc. but found they do work to give me that last boast I need to make it to the top - when I need one.

I'd like to say thanks MJ for mentioning my site, but I'll tell ya, I don't really like posting articles for clients there much cause it seems the articles written there show up on the first page for the keywords in question more than the clients getting a bump. Either way, thank you!

[kgun]

We may have reached the level where professionals more and more dominate the content, social and entertainment space.

An interesting simple book: http://searchpatterns.org/ that go beyond search engines.

Scammeres are getting more and more agressive here. They may call you and tell you about something you should care about.

Two important rules:

Rule 1: Be very careful. Don't rely on a voice that you don't expect and don't reckognize. Don't let the person advise you to touch a single key on your computer.

Rule 2: Don't forget rule 1.

And be careful when you link to other sites. You are who you link to.

Related:

Links::: Life or death of your eBusiness.

Quite a few folks resorted to link buying despite warnings of the risks ... and it would seem the Penguin has pooped on a lot of those sites. But links are still what we all need.

Proof or opinion?

[HTMLBasicTutor]

And be careful when you link to other sites. You are who you link to.

Very good point.

The same can be said about who you associate with in social network marketing also. i.e. if you buy or auto follow followers you may end up being associated with people you would not have chosen to be associated with if you had handled things naturally or manually.

[weegillis]

Nothing says authority like an authority site. Become a contributing editor somewhere like GMSV or elsewhere on the bubble. They treat you like true journalists. The fifth estate still rules, though the rules are changing. They have the link juice that adds up to something long term.

Hardly reachable for most, but at the professional level, very doable.

[AboutWeb]

My favorite source of links is commenting on blogs that have a related subject to my blog and are interesting for me and possible to my readers.
Second, I am allowing authors to submit guest posts on my blog so I get content and they get links.
Article directories and any kind of directories, hmm...I would not recommend them.
Social media sites and/or social bookmarking sites. You can see a good info here about social sites: http://www.addthis.com/services
Don't have too many backlinks to one page. Don't use the same anchor again and again.
Stay away from cross-site links.

[weegillis]

I'd take ten solid links to a million viral.

---------- Post added at 12:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:22 AM ----------

Might be why GM pulled out of Facebook.