Link building must be diverse, consistent and as natural as possible. Gravitate Online takes a slice of 9 different levels of link building to bring the blend required to deliver legitimate and long-term inbound links. The 9 Levels below are listed from low to high quality and from low to high time-investment required. The more time spent on the higher quality links will bring longer lasting results. Complimenting them with a few from the lower quality levels- when appropriate- will combine to make a nice cocktail of sources and a very healthy link building strategy. The 9 Levels of Quality Link Building:

1. General Directories [very low quality links]

Done in moderation: Low quality directories are no longer providing a lot of value to websites performing link building. Also, once a general directory link is obtained (and it’s easy to do so), they are often dropped, so a webmaster may end up playing a never ending game of whack-a-mole, trying to keep their link number up, if they are heavily using this technique. Don’t take very much time submitting to them, but focus your efforts on higher quality sources.

Watch competition: One of the few times we recommend using the general directory approach is if the competitors you are monitoring are also utilizing the strategy. You can often ‘out-link’ them with higher quality links, but if you see them obtaining many of them, and ranking well, then it may be beneficial to go after the same directories they are. However, keep in mind- even if they are linking well, and are showing many links from directories- there may not be a direct correlation. They are probably ranking well due to other links, even if these are fewer in number.

2. Selective Reciprocal Links [should be natural by-product of everyday business]

Natural partners: Reciprocal links are often discounted- because they are so often used in black-hat, illicit ways. However, in the normal course of doing business, you are likely to have partners or supplemental service providers that you have built relationships with. If so, it is natural to add a link to their site on a ‘Partners’  or ‘Recommendations’ page. These should be few and far between, but don’t be afraid to include a bio and link to a complimentary business. Just don’t try and game the system by rapidly gaining too many of these- or Google will pick up your scent and take actions that negatively impact your rankings. If it is natural and done in moderation, it’s a nice compliment to any link building strategy.

Let them come to you, but be picky: As your site starts to rank higher, reciprocal link requests will become much more common. If, from time-t0-time, a business relationship is legitimately possible, trading links may be a good idea. Be selective, however, as you don’t want to look too ‘cheap’. Playing a little hard to get is a fitting strategy when considering reciprocal link exchanges.

3. High Quality/Industry Specific Directories [the few, the proud...the dmoz]

Industry directories with value: Another higher level of directories, includes industry specific indexes of companies and websites. The more tailored to your industry a directory is, the more likely it will be to pass relevant link juice. When monitoring your competition, you are likely to find such higher-valued sites. Submitting your company and site information is a great idea in these cases, but know that they tend to be a little more selective, making them a more valued directory.

Respected general directories: Some directories, although not industry specific,  are quite valuable. These include respected directories, that are notorious for being selective and limiting the number of sites they will include. Often, these sites take longer to get into, and require verification of site ownership. Some even cost money, further vetting submissions with a payment requirement. Some of these directories include:

4. Forum/Blog Participation [add value or don't play]

One of the most common link building technique in the SEO industry is the use of forums and blogs. Like other approaches, there is a right way and a wrong way, and easy way and a hard way, an long term effective way and a short term non-effective way. Obviously, we’ll address the former- the more difficult method that provides higher quality and value over a longer period of time.

What is forum blog participation?  Google likes the concept of site owners participating in their industry and sharing their expertise. Remember, their goal is to index the world’s information, and much of that information resides in the heads of industry experts. Forums and blogs are a great place for these experts to share their knowledge and experience. In link building, many SEO will visit these blogs and forums and add comments and participate in the conversation. There are a few principles that must be followed to make these comments valuable.

You have the answers, now look for the questions: If you are continually creating high quality content on your site (and you should be) then a valuable technique is to visit blogs or forums within your industry and look for questions that people post, either in the forum or in the comments. If you have the answer within the content of your site, them be helpful and link them to it. Your link will then have a high probability of remaining, and not being removed by the forum moderator or blog owner.  Actually researching questions posted, and providing answers is a great way to participate.

Add value or don’t play: If you comment doesn’t add value to the post, then it shouldn’t be included. A spammy comment is easy to spot, it will usually say something like, “Great post, you really made me think.” or “Well said, I really enjoy the material from your blog, keep up the good work!” and similiar variations. These add absolutely no value, and finish with a link to a Viagra or supplement site. These types of comments will be removed quickly and any link juice obtained will be quickly lost. Instead, the comments should add value to the post, with a different perspective, asking a question, or including a link to more information about the topic.

Utilize articles and premium content: If you are creating premium content (infographics, videos, tutorials, etc.) it will be really easy to add valuable comments on others blogs or forums. If your content further explains the topic being discussed, or clarifies a point being made, then adding a link to it is not only natural, it’s quite helpful. You are actually making the blog or forum more valuable, as it includes links to other resources. You also increase the chances of your valuable content being spread by readers who find it helpful. From time to time, the blog owner may even request to use the material you linked to in their future posts- adding to the viral nature of your content.

5. Membership Links [reach out and do a little good]

Within the link building arena, there has been much said about purchasing links- and the harm it can do to your reputation in Google’s eyes. A related technique, but vastly different in intention is the use of Membership Links. These are links that you earn by joining legitimate industry groups, associations or by sponsoring non-profit events. Established businesses often participate in these efforts, and we highly recommend them as another link building tool.

Often, a site owner may already be a member of several industry groups. If this is the case, then the SEO should follow up with these groups and assure that on the industry site, a company bio and link has been included. Additionally, an SEO should seek out for other high quality associations that can be joined. These often require a small yearly fee. We recommend joining one of these groups every month. Over a year, a site will earn a dozen high quality links from sources that are usually filled with relevant information, and have highly trusted domains. If these groups cost a little money, then it is usually worth it. You want to make sure, however, of all the groups that can be joined, that the sites that pass the most link juice are pursued first.

The other option is to sponsor non-profits and local causes. These groups are almost always hoping for corporate sponsors and are more than willing to put a short bio, logo and link on their website. It’s the best way to earn a link, by providing much needed financial support to a local cause. Everybody wins- they get the resources they need to provide help to those in need, and your company has earned a link from a reputable online source.

6. Content Distribution [share it with the masses]

Writing quality articles for your own site blog is a great way to increase your site’s footprint and earn organic links. The problem is, these links may take a long time to come on their own. Supplement your article writing with some aggressive article distribution to get your high quality content out there and really get the ball rolling.

Quality articles and blog posts: Writing quality articles is not an easy task- but necessary to get any traction online. We have 4 writers on staff who create our content- each with a different niches that they specialize in. The first thing we do is try to identify topics that our customers will care about. At the beginning of each month, we will brainstorm ideas for each website and look for topics that appeal to each niche. They include a lot of how-to’s, historical summaries and current events within an industry. We want to the content to be specific enough to appeal, but not technical enough to require special training or experience. Then, we utilize our client’s expertise and have them write content, or post comments on our content that is more technical in nature. We find this makes for a nice balance of in-depth information with industry journalism.Each month, we try to write at least 10 of these articles, so that Google sees a consistent pattern of creation.

Distribute to trusted sources: Once we have 10 articles written, we first, post it to our own blog. Then, we distribute it to online sources that we trust. We stay away from content farms and low quality content re-purposing sites. Instead, we will post it to the client Facebook and Twitter accounts. Next, we will look for industry blogs, or specialty forums that regularly post industry news. We will submit the content to these locations. We stay away from automated submission engines and article manipulation programs. These tend to spit out low quality versions of our content, and distribute to even lower quality content farms. Most of our distribution is done manually, as we often revisit industry resources that we’ve posted to in the past. It takes a little longer, but we feel it is worth the extra time to get the content onto the sites that will pass quality link-juice for years to come.

Don’t kill the goose by getting greedy: Often, when one of these quality sites is located, it is a temptation to re-post everything there. We purposefully spread our content over a variety of sources, so that we don’t start to appear like we are spamming them with content. Additionally, it’s often a tendency for SEO’s to put too many links in the content to their own site. We refrain from this. The article usually includes a link to the site in the author reference box, and we may put one well placed link in the content itself (if the posting venue allows it), but we work hard to make these links natural and necessary. We also include links to other outside resources that we feel are helpful, so the reader is directed to online sites that will further explain the topic.

7. Juicy Links [follow the juice]

One of the most effective methods we use for building links, is using SEOmoz’s Juicy Link Finder. Using this tool is simple:

1. Enter a targeted keyword

2. Select from drop-down how many links to display- either 50, 100, 150 or 200

3. Click ‘Find Juicy Links’

A list of juicy links will display. You will see they are sorted by their overall ‘Juicy-ness’. Several hours could be spent on this one list alone, combing through and finding links for your site. The more time you can spend at the first couple pages the better, as these will be more worth your time. When we look through one of these lists, we are looking for blogs, forums, industry directories, social sites, link partners, guest blogging, potential memberships, or direct link request opportunities. If that’s not enough work for you, then simply add another keyword you’re going after, and start over. We find countless ways to use this tool and the lists it produces. Usually, we’ll export the list, so we can track (either in Excel, Raven Tools, etc.) the status of each link we are pursuing.

8. Competitor Links [don't reinvent the wheel]

An effective link building strategy is to look at your top online competitors, those that are already ranking, and glean from them the links that are driving them to the top of the search results.

A great tool for accomplishing this is SEOmoz’s Competitive Analysis Tool. Using the tool is pretty straightforward, simply enter your site URL and those of up to 5 competitors. You will then be shown a list of links that the competitors shares. When clicking on the number, a drop down of the exact URL shows up. We use it to look at the links that our high ranking competitors share- so we can target those links ourselves. We use it for two distinct functions:

1. Create a ‘Link Profile’ for each competitor. Looking over the types of links a competitor has, it is usually easy to indentify what types of strategies they are implementing. For example, we may discover that a competitor is achieving ranking success by submitting to low quality directories, while balancing their campaign with some very high quality sponsorships for several non-profits, and guest blogging on two well known industry blogs. If we see the same pattern with a couple other competitors, then it becomes much easier for us to create our own strategy, because we can see what is working within this particular niche.

2. Even without creating a ‘Link Profile’ for each competitor, we still can use the tool to find links that are passing a lot of juice and are fairly easy to obtain. Usually there are a couple ‘Low Hanging Fruit’ links with every competitor we analyze. Such as a high quality industry directory, that allows a free submission, or an industry blog that is open to comments and content. These are links we will go after right away, so we can achieve some quick wins.

9. Premium Content Link Bait [industry content worth sharing]

Make it shareable: When posting high quality content on your site, you want it to be shared, so make it easy to do so. Some of the best ways to do this include:

Post to industry specific locations: After a piece of premium content has been created and posted on your website, you’re work is just beginning. Now, it’s necessary to spread the good word and promulgate your creation. The best place to start is in industry specific forums, blogs and websites. At Gravitate Online, we comb through dozens of relevant sites, looking for a place to embed the content. Often, we will look for locations where people are asking questions or discussing the topic, and we will through the piece of content into the mix, trying to add value to the discussion.

The only thing Google loves more than content, is premium, high quality, engaging content. Google loves it, because users on the internet would much rather watch a video about ‘How to Saddle a Horse’ than to read 3 pages of boring text on how to do the same. The more engaging the content, the more likely other sites will want to link to it, and the more value your site will have in the eyes of search engines.

Gravitate Online is an industry leader in the creation of value-added premium content.

Premium Content Examples: