While the Mayans believed that the world as we know it is ending on December 21, 2012, practical Internet Marketers, webmasters, bloggers and others who practice SEO for their sites are still going to be asking for links up to … and most likely beyond … the date in 2012.

A Short History of Links

In the beginning of the Internet there were links. They were used by the few people who had “websites” to let others know about other content on the Internet. In fact, links were a kind of backbone of the Internet, falling under the umbrella of hypertext perhaps.

Then, two people put together the “Backrub” search engine that would eventually become Google. The main difference between it and current search technologies at the time was that it heavily weighed the amount of links coming into a website as  a way to show it’s value.

Attack of the Links

As you might imagine, as the Internet grew and the value of links was figured out, a whole marketplace evolved. Google was not too happy about this development, but the genie was out of the bag so to speak. Google eventually publicly began to warn about people who bought and sold links to “game the search engines.” They even went as far as asking people to report others who bought or sold links.

As you might imagine, this caused a huge backlash on the web – especially the blogosphere. The question of what would stop competitors from outing each other and reporting each other for the fun of it were not exactly easy to answer. Google, however, wanted to take a look at the accusations so they could try to pull the reins in on people who bought and sold links. This was not very successful, however. In fact, while their efforts at scaring webmasters into not buying or selling links worked a little bit, it also spawned Link Spam 4.0 (at least…)

Link Spam Evolved

As Google tried to crack down on buying and selling links, the spammers evolved. While selling and buying links was no longer done as openly, it was still talked about in some of the darker sections of the web. Additionally, many more just stopped talking about it publicly while still doing one or the other – buying or selling links.

Additionally, a whole new field of automatically creating websites and pages specifically for the links they would offer – someday worth something possibly – cropped up. Yes, SENuke and all the other auto-signup and auto-posting programs made it easy for link spam to propagate. And at first, even the newbie could find success with these new link gathering methods, but Google has been catching on more and more. This is even true for the many so-called “private blog networks” that are out there.

Now, however, the easy days of SEO are over. With so many junk links being created, their value dropped even more, making them pretty much useless. In fact, some might say that having a backlink profile full of these could be a footprint of sorts for Google to judge your website. (Although this still raises the question of competitors using these methods to harm each other!)

Acquiring Links the Good Way

While the arms race between Google and the Link Spammers will most undoubtedly continue for the foreseeable future, there are other ways to get links. These are the quality ones you should concentrate on – even if we’re talking about quality spam. (Note to reader: Are you paying attention? Is there such a thing as quality spam?)

Here are some quick tips and suggestions for acquiring links the Captain Quality way.

• Quality not Quantity – This seems like common sense – a few high-authority links are more useful than 1,000 or more low quality links – yet some think it is easier to spend a lot of money generating lots of low quality links to their websites … or, to other link spam sites or pages. Instead, it’s much better to spend the time trying to get high quality authority links. The thing is, to get these good links you are going to need to have a good website and quality content. (Ah, you can see now why links we’re used in the first place to categorize the web, huh, dear reader?) Trying to get high quality links to low quality pages or sites is very, very hard.
• Viral and Linkbait - While these terms have been used to death – then brought back as zombies and had their head blown off with a crossbow ala The Walking Dead – but when used correctly, they are worth the time and effort. The problem is that most people do not want to put the time and effort into coming up with a good idea and following it through to completion.  Be it a infographic that is rushed out or an entire website/domain set-up to capture new visitors without much thought, the effects can be disastrous. It is much better to take the time to come up with a good idea, plan how to put it into effect, and then put that plan into place. It sounds simple – and is – but it takes money, time and effort. Plus a little bit of creativity – or a team like Lease A SEO to help you out.

These are just a couple ideas. Instead of going on and on like I know everything in the world, I want to open up the discussion. If you had to give five tips for getting links, what would they be? Leave your comment below and let us know!

If you have any further thoughts or questions about acquiring backlinks, leave a comment below or contact us and we’ll do our best to answer them. When it comes to getting links in 2012 and beyond, the game is constantly changing and sharing is caring, ya know?

If you’re stuck in 1998, search engine optimization still mostly consists of keyword stuffing your site to get to the top of a search results page. In fact, back then, not many SEOs were concentrating on off-site SEO at all. But things have changed since then. Today, off-site SEO is weighed much more heavily by Google than on-site optimization. That’s one of the reasons linkbuilding is such a big part of SEO today.
But the mentality of most SEOs regarding linkbuilding is to simply spread a scattershot of emails to a wide range of niche blogs and hope some of them hit. This method is easy, but not extremely effective. Sending a canned link request email to 100 blogs may result in a 10-20% success rate, which doesn’t seem like the best return on your investment.
That’s because the recipients of those emails don’t know you, they don’t care about what you are offering them, and they probably threw your email in the trash without even reading it.
With a little more time and effort you can hit a 80-95% success rate with better, more personalized linkbuilding techniques and strategies. It just requires a little more personal investment. And here are a few tips to do it:
1) Build Relationships Not Links
This is the toughest (and most fun) part of effective linkbuilding. Our end goal is always to get a link placed on a well positioned site, but those links are put there by humans. And like the old sales adage goes, people are buying you not your products. When a blogger feels that you care about what they do and are paying attention to their blog, they’re much more excited and likely to post a link to your site.
So can your canned emails, and start a dialogue with potential link targets instead. Compliment their blog or mention something unique about their content. Or—better yet—express your opinion about a recent topic and start a conversation. In other words, start a dialogue with the site owner before even asking for a link.
When they respond to you, continue the conversation, and then ask for a link. But don’t be a jerk about it. You have to give them something they’ll want to put on their site. They have to see the value in it.

2) Offer Value
Why should a website put a link to your site on theirs? What will the site owner get out of it? Think about it from their perspective for a minute.
Sure, sometimes the link leads to content that is so unbelievably awesome that they really want to share it with their site visitors. But more often than not your link is about as good as any other link out there. So what can you give them? Things that work well are:
Content: Don’t just give them a link. Give them a whole article that they can post on their site. If the article is well-written and useful, they’ll want to post it on their site. Saving them time and effort while still giving their readers good information. This is one of the reasons guest posting is such an effective form of linkbuilding.
Awards: Bloggers like to post awards and badges on their site to show their readers how awesome they are. Offer them a cool badge that puts them in the “Top 100 Sportswear Blogs” on the internet. The badge links back to you, but it gives the site owner recognition and pride in their blog.
Traffic: Bloggers are always looking for increased traffic. If you can guarantee them increased traffic by placing a link (or a full guest post) on their site, they’ll be much more likely to help you out.
Stuff: Although paid linkbuilding is generally looked down upon, it still exists. I’m not saying you have to offer money to bloggers. But you can offer other incentives, like Adsense credit, movie tickets, or other swag that will make them feel special in return for a link.

3) Hustle
Justin Briggs, a super genius in the field of SEO and linkbuilding, is fond of saying that a good linkbuilder has “hustle.” That is, they are persistent, work hard, and don’t give up easily. Personalized linkbuilding isn’t for lazy people. It’s hard work. And it’s only successful if you are willing to hit it hard and keep at it.
Linkbuilding for the 21st Century
Personalized or organic Linkbuilding is quickly becoming the dominant SEO strategy for many top firms and websites that are looking to create long-term link juice and sustained results for their clients. It takes time, but it is ultimately more successful, more sustainable, and more fun than canned emails.

James Ged is an SEO and internet marketer who enjoys zombie movies and running long distances. Usually he’s blogging about social media and Comcast high-speed internet, but you can also follow his internet adventures at Social Buzzer.

It is said that 4 out of 10 website owners are not doing any linkbuilding proactively. This is rather shocking to know, especially if you consider that the main reason of creating a web presence is to garner audience and/or make some sales, or simply to make your pitch be heard.

However, if you realize how important linkbuilding is, congratulations are in order! You may already be doing some form of linkbuilding and you KNOW just how tedious this process can be. For this reason, you may want to hire your very own linkbuilder, or a team of linkbuilders if you will, to promote your web presence. Here are some essential characteristics that should be present in talented linkbuilders. PS: it may seem next to impossible to find one that suits your needs immediately, but it pays to try

1. Social Skills

Linkbuilders need to be social. Period. There are no ifs and buts about it. We’re not saying that linkbuilders need to be salesy and all that, but the right candidate need to at least be able to talk to other people, and be especially adept in communicating with you. He or she should be able to grasp your intentions, what you need and be able to understand instructions in order to complete the tasks set.

Testing it out: The best way to see if your candidate is adept in social skills is to interview him or her. Because it is a trend for staff to sometimes work remotely, you may want to have a short Skype session with potential linkbuilders. You can then also ask if he has social profiles you can check out.

2. Listening, Communication and Writing Skills

It’s great and all if your linkbuilder has 13,357 Twitter followers and is as socially active online as Kim Kardashian on steroids, but it will all be for naught if he does not possess adequate communication and writing skills. He can talk all he wants but he also needs to listen to your needs and wants.

Ask yourself: do you want a linkbuilder who is merely a do-er, or one who is also a listener AND a proactive contributor?

Test it out: During your interview, ask your candidate about an achievement he or she is proud of when working for a prior employer. If he is able to articulate that achievement happily, and at the same time detailing his contribution to the company, then you may just have a winner in your hands.

3. Online Personality

Is your candidate an online introvert or extrovert? Is the Twitter bird the first thing he sees when he wakes up and the last thing he sees before falling asleep? No matter what his online personality is, he needs to adjust accordingly and learn how to belong to each community during the course of his linkbuilding job. He needs to be believable, and put himself in other people’s shoes depending on which online community he is at in order to perform optimal linkbuilding tasks.

Test it out: Check out the online communities such as forums and message boards that your candidate belongs to and try to gauge if he is comfortable being an Internet community chameleon.

4. Creativity and Innovation

Creative and innovative qualities that are present in your ideal linkbuilder will help you net in more linkbuilding opportunities. It also helps to be able to see the current trend in a big picture, and think outside the box in order to find elusive links.

Test it out: An IQ test will be great, and so is this self-assessment creativity test here.

5. Organization, Management and Multi-tasking Capabilities

Right, so what if you have a secretary to handle your menial chores and duties? Your linkbuilder also needs to possess good organization, management and multi-tasking skills which will certainly come in handy when he is needed to handle multiple social media accounts, post in different blogs. A strong eye for detail and the ability to divide his time between work and personal life won’t hurt either.

Test it out: Gradually increase your linkbuilder’s task and you will soon see if he can manage it well throughout the day.

6. Business Ethics

Linkbuilding is a serious business. Your linkbuilder needs to possess a reasonably sound moral compass and business integrity in order to secure your company secrets and not divulge sensitive information.

Test it out: Get your employee to sign an Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).

7. People Skills

Along with sales experience (not a must, but would be nice if he has any!), good people skills are essential in servicing customers, solving problems and ensuring overall wellbeing in the working environment.

Test it out: Get your linkbuilding candidate to tend to some customers and gauge just how awesome his social skills and empathy level is.

Testing is the kind of advice that’s frequently recommended, but rarely acted on within the SEO community. The most common reasons I hear for SEOs not doing their own testing include lack of time, too busy optimizing client websites, or lack of resources.

No time for testing? Give me a break. While it’s true there are a lot of overworked SEOs out there, it’s no excuse for not testing. I mean, how will you even know the time being spent on various SEO tasks is even worth doing?

Testing: Anyone can do it.

From my experience, when it comes to conducting SEO tests you don’t need much in terms of time or resources to get started. Keep things simple and you shouldn’t have any problem running a test or two of your own each month. Here’s how I’ve done a couple straightforward SEO experiments in the past.

1.) Find Something You’re Interested Learning More About

One of the SEO items I’ve been really interested in learning more about in 2011 is whether or not spammy link-building software like Xrumer or Scrapebox really work. Yes, I understand that the white-hat SEO community is very anti-manipulative back links and that using them is a great way to get banned from the search engines. I heard that before… But I’ve never seen anyone actually test its effectiveness.

By the way if you’re interested in reading more about the results of those tests click here or here.

2.)  Decide What To Measure

When I conduct an SEO experiment, I usually track two different metrics.

1.) I get a sample of about 10 – 20 keyword rankings that I will track in Google before and after the test has been completed.

2.) I monitor overall traffic from search-engines to get a sense of whether or not the tested metrics actually drove any additional visitors to a website.

Of course, you can get really in-depth with testing there’s a lot of good information out there to learn all about the different search-engine metrics you can test.

3.) Just Do It!

Conduct the test, track the results and see what happens… even if what happens is nothing you still get a result. Additionally, you’ll have the piece of mind of knowing from your own personal experience whether or not something actually works.

Everybody reads blogs. Few SEOs take action, blaze their own trail, and verify what works versus what doesn’t. Which camp do you fall into?

About the Contributor

Brett Alan is the owner/operator of StartSEOCompany.com. Check out his blog to view his latest experiments and thoughts on internet marketing.

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily leaseaseo.com

Link brokers are those that promote links using the services of other sites. This is a punishable act but many are still very lucky to escape the penalty. The text link ads, on the other hand, are the ones that is being illegally produced by the link brokers. So how Google really penalizes this ads? Why are others still escaping from being penalized?

Link building has been greatly contended in terms of the best ways in executing it and the processes that are involved in accomplishing it.  Measuring it has also been done in concurrence with the processes to weigh the outcomes that results from it.  Building a link involves a series of steps that needs to be followed.   You will just have to learn to follow different techniques and strategies to help do the process.

Building a link might be  a piece of cake and takes only a short time to do, but if there are other interventions of any kind that can hinder the execution of the task, it will surely become more difficult to accomplish.  For example, when you want to build a link on a site that has plenty of regulations to follow, it will be more difficult and will take more time because there might be some things that you have to do or should avoid. This is the problem when you want to create a link in a site that is highly-standardized.

1.  Purchase the links from the best sites but limit your buying.

2.  Blog on the subdomain if possible. It may just the svere the chain that it is different.

3.  If only data sharing is possible and idea would be to do map mashups for you to be able to create applications that create authority backlinks.

4.  Try to create an application on other domains that will definitely lead back to your domain possibly in the form of a widget.

5.  If possible, blog only factual data.  Share only information that is not opinion- based.

6.  Give your opinions to different bloggers.  Let your articles be posed by them and use their domains to  lead  the visitor who is enticed back to your domain.

There are an unlimited number of ways to obtain high-quality backlinks. You’ve probably heard about many of them, including social bookmarking, linkbait, guest posting, directory submissions, press releases, etc. etc. etc…

Thankfully, we won’t be talking about those regurgitated strategies today. Instead, I have compiled over 100 out-of-the-box strategies to increase your link popularity and send tons of traffic your way.

This article contains all of my link building secrets, so I suggest you take some time to digest it. Grab some herbal tea (or Redbull) , whichever one works best for you, and don’t forget to bookmark the article for future reference.

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