Link Building Tactics - Relevance
None of the following is new, but I thought it would be helpful to publish it anyway, as a reminder and refresher of link building techniques we may have forgotten. The emphasis here is on tactics that will result in relevant links.
I think it's possible to go up a few relevance levels to a more general category, and even go sideways. Forget about widgets. I don't need no stinking widgets. :) Let's use our imagination and pretend we're discussing travel to Elbonia.
A good way to find sites horizontally and vertically related is to check the most relevant DMOZ cat for your site (or the one your competitors are in). In this instance, the DMOZ Category may look something like this:
Home > Regional> Europe > Elbonia > Tourism > Travel_Guides
If you go up one category you get horizontal variations often (but not all) found in the usual keyword searches
Attractions
Birdwatching
Camping and RVs
Chats and Forums
Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual
Lodging
National Parks
Restaurants and Bars
Roads and Highways
Transportation
Travel Guides
Travel Services
Travelogues
Leave no link behind!
Some of the above categories, such as chats & forums, may accept advertising. You could possibly buy yourself a one way inbound link. Always review every relevant website for an advertisement buying opportunity. Leave no link behind! Even if the search engines choke on it, it will still send relevant traffic, right? ROI may work out better than PPC, in my experience.
If you go up a couple levels you find yourself in the regional category, which in this case is Europe. Is this relevant? Maybe. Here's where relevance isn't as clear cut, imo.
What if you do a site search of travel guides for neighboring countries and find a reference to Elbonia? For instance, "and this road leads to Elbonia. Be sure to exchange your currency for chickens, Elbonia's national currency."
Well... is it possible to ask the site operator to turn the word Elbonia into a link to your travel guide? It generally doesn't hurt to ask (except in some cases if your domain is hosted on godaddy).
I'm not advising that you mine DMOZ for relevant partners. What I'm saying is that, if you are running out of ideas for where to search to find links, use the DMOZ categories for inspiration of what keyword searches to use in order to find relevant link partners.
1: Don't overlook link buying opportunities. Even if it's an image banner, buy it.
2: If the target is an old site, it's possible that they're linking to some defunct sites. Run Xenu Link Sleuth on it and if you find a link to a defunct site- or a misspelled domain name... Reg it!
3: For finding link buying opportunities, use the DMOZ categories to produce searches such as,
The -cpm is for weeding out cpm advertising pitches that don't use a direct link, and are often expensive. There's nothing wrong with CPM, but I find that the prices are sometimes geared more for branding than conversions.
Relevant links are important, but so is the trust factor relevant to neighborhoods. Producing a site with great content is the best of all link building strategies for attracting relevant and FREE one way inbounds.
I think it's possible to go up a few relevance levels to a more general category, and even go sideways. Forget about widgets. I don't need no stinking widgets. :) Let's use our imagination and pretend we're discussing travel to Elbonia.
A good way to find sites horizontally and vertically related is to check the most relevant DMOZ cat for your site (or the one your competitors are in). In this instance, the DMOZ Category may look something like this:
Home > Regional> Europe > Elbonia > Tourism > Travel_Guides
If you go up one category you get horizontal variations often (but not all) found in the usual keyword searches
Attractions
Birdwatching
Camping and RVs
Chats and Forums
Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual
Lodging
National Parks
Restaurants and Bars
Roads and Highways
Transportation
Travel Guides
Travel Services
Travelogues
Leave no link behind!
Some of the above categories, such as chats & forums, may accept advertising. You could possibly buy yourself a one way inbound link. Always review every relevant website for an advertisement buying opportunity. Leave no link behind! Even if the search engines choke on it, it will still send relevant traffic, right? ROI may work out better than PPC, in my experience.
If you go up a couple levels you find yourself in the regional category, which in this case is Europe. Is this relevant? Maybe. Here's where relevance isn't as clear cut, imo.
What if you do a site search of travel guides for neighboring countries and find a reference to Elbonia? For instance, "and this road leads to Elbonia. Be sure to exchange your currency for chickens, Elbonia's national currency."
Well... is it possible to ask the site operator to turn the word Elbonia into a link to your travel guide? It generally doesn't hurt to ask (except in some cases if your domain is hosted on godaddy).
I'm not advising that you mine DMOZ for relevant partners. What I'm saying is that, if you are running out of ideas for where to search to find links, use the DMOZ categories for inspiration of what keyword searches to use in order to find relevant link partners.
1: Don't overlook link buying opportunities. Even if it's an image banner, buy it.
2: If the target is an old site, it's possible that they're linking to some defunct sites. Run Xenu Link Sleuth on it and if you find a link to a defunct site- or a misspelled domain name... Reg it!
3: For finding link buying opportunities, use the DMOZ categories to produce searches such as,
birdwatching elbonia advertising -cpm
The -cpm is for weeding out cpm advertising pitches that don't use a direct link, and are often expensive. There's nothing wrong with CPM, but I find that the prices are sometimes geared more for branding than conversions.
Relevant links are important, but so is the trust factor relevant to neighborhoods. Producing a site with great content is the best of all link building strategies for attracting relevant and FREE one way inbounds.
Search Engine Commentary by martinibuster || Link Building Tactics - Relevance
