Link Building Campaign: Choosing Quality Link Partners

Written by Andrew Rondeau in search engine optimization advice | 23 Awesome Comments - Add Yours?

chooseWith links becoming more than just a way to get around the web, it is important to choose the right link partner.

While most webmasters set out with a dream of having a number of high quality inbound links from related sites that divert qualified click-through traffic to their site, thus boosting their search engine rankings, their idyllic notion about link building is shattered as soon as they kick start the exercise.

But the catch here is in selecting quality link partners.

Since this can be quite a task for new sites or novice web masters, quite a few of them seek professional assistance for this job.

One needs to consider multiple aspects of a web site before choosing it as a link partner.

To begin with, getting links from some sites will not be of any help for your link building purpose. In fact, you should be careful to avoid some black-listed sites completely as linking to them can attract a penalty or in the worst case even a ban by the search engine.

Some simple steps that you can follow to build a successful linking partnership are:

  1. Minimize the linking to non-relevant websites even if they have a high search engine ranking.
  2. Avoid linking to websites that use black hat SEO techniques such as having hidden links to a links directory on their home page.
  3. Stay away from sites that have over 25-30 links in a page. Categorizing the links does not help either, as your link will get lost in the crowd of other links.
  4. Try to avoid getting too many links from web sites with low search engine placement, as this will not prove to be of much help to your cause. In case you receive a request for back links from the web masters of some of these sites, exercise discretion and select those links that you believe will help in boosting your page ranking in future.
  5. It goes without saying that partnering with a penalized site or a site that has been banned by the search engine will lead you nowhere in your quest for a higher page rank. It will only attract bad reputation.
  6. Under no circumstances should you tie up with Link Farms. As these sites are like a directory tree that are literally overstuffed with as many links as possible, they are of no value in optimization. If truth be told, search engines consider this as spamming and linking to such sites will hamper your credibility and can even attract a penalty or ban.
  7. Avoid linking to FFA or Free for All sites. Such sites do not have credibility and allow all and sundry to leave a link to their sites on their pages. Google considers their sites as spam and their links are of no value in ranking algorithms.

The secret behind an effective link building campaign is working smarter rather than harder. Choosing quality over quantity should be your aim while scouting for link partners on the Web.

The next post in this series will discuss ‘How to prevent being banned by Google’

What’s your view on these steps? Have you fallen foul of such techniques?

Please share your views in the comments below. Thanks

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23 Responses to Link Building Campaign: Choosing Quality Link Partners
  1. Karl Foxley

    Great advice Andrew, especially when you say ‘choosing quality over quantity should be your aim while scouting for link partners on the Web’. I’d much rather chase one quality link that takes a while to secure than drop a 100 links around the web that have little to no future benefit.

    Regards,

    Karl
    Karl Foxley recently posted..Saying Thank You To Our Top ReferrersMy Profile

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  2. Frank Jovine

    Andrew,

    Great post and people should never use a service to build links because these services are automated and could put your website in a bad neighborhood which can result to a website being sand boxed by Google.

    Reply
    • Andrew
      Twitter:

      Frank,

      …especially in the first few months of it’s life.

      Andrew

      Sand Boxed = no longer in Google’s search engine results. Your domain can disappear for several weeks/months.
      Andrew recently posted..Blog Sponsors- How To Get ThemMy Profile

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  3. Dennis Edell

    Ahh, makes ya nostalgic for the old days, don’t it?

    My very first website…a static HTML e-commerce website, received a PR3 from ONE inbound link. One inbound link placed on an inner 100+ link-link page of another PR3 static HTML website.

    LMAO!
    Dennis Edell recently posted..Twitter Weekend 1- Now Would be a Good Time to Follow MeMy Profile

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  4. Patricia

    More good advice Andrew. I just got asked if I would allow a quote from one of my articles and they would give a link to my site.
    I checked out the site and “bad neighbourhood”!!
    I have a couple of reputable bloggers who have generously done in-bound links to my site. I didn’t ask but sure am grateful.
    Happy to build my authority slowly and as the traffic goes up and I increase my readers, I will then probably explore this more.
    Patricia Perth Australia
    Patricia recently posted..Lavender Growing-Pots on the patio or containers on balconiesMy Profile

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  5. Julius

    I personally don’t like the idea of choosing link partners. I think there are a lot better ways to build links. Don’t you think?
    Julius recently posted..Glimpses on Understanding LifeMy Profile

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  6. Chris

    You know I have done a few of those black hat techniques you stated above and they worked for me.

    Of course they would never work if you are in a very competitive niche but if you find a niche with little or no competition you can climb the rankings in google using some of these techniques.

    The key is to be smart about how you use them.
    Chris recently posted..Gold Miners Investors Change Their MindsetMy Profile

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  7. TJ

    CoWell I admit…this post has gotten me a little torn. While I agree with most of the tips in this post I do have a few different opinions for one getting links from pages is okay as long as you have a solid base of links coming in from authority domains.

    Second, links tend to sdrve more than one purpose, linking on low traffic domains is okay if you canspark a conversation with your link (mostly bloggers) conversations lead to other things who knows when you’ll pick up another customer a having another link pointing to your site is usually a bonus.

    Also , I,d probably add one more tip…deep link whenever possible…let’s not forget that big G also count overall domain link popularity too.

    Anyway, I love what you’re doing here and I’ll definitely be back.
    TJ recently posted..Getting Hardwired To The Pulse Of Your Target MarketMy Profile

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  8. Felicia

    Hey Andrew, thanks for the tips on link building, I’ve been avidly following your posts on this! “Quality is better than quantity” – Most still do not follow this principle. I encountered some sites with articles having irrelevant comments and backlinks. Seriously, it’s annoying for me, especially when on my personal blog a topic about animals were featured, then there was a comment on health supplements on it! I would accept the comment if it was related to my article, but since it only promotes the health supplements with links, I couldn’t do anything but delete it.
    Felicia recently posted..jymaster11 wins another big tournament at Full TiltMy Profile

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  9. JR

    I have really stopped link exchanges for the most part, only with a select few and I am very careful these days about who I link to, and never ever have a links page on any of your sites, it’s bad news.
    JR recently posted..29 Top Video Submission Sites 5 Free Video Creation Tools and MoreMy Profile

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  10. Nim from Jobs from home

    Thanks for this post! Getting quality link partners is the first task but maintaining those who are honest(still linking back to you) is another task.

    Reply
  11. john burnside

    I strongly agree with this. I have had the experience of going down drastically in the search engines for linking to the wrong person so be extremely careful!
    john burnside recently posted..Make money online selling photographsMy Profile

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