Thought I’d write a little post about link building for SEO. I’ve been doing a bit of it today and so I might as well capture some search engine traffic by documenting my benign experience with this post (notice the bot-friendly/user-unfriendly article title).

Link Building History

Putting it simply, link building used to be much more straightforward than it is today. The most difficult part back in the good old days was taking the time to email a few cohorts and trade links with them. For example: Let’s say that I operate a link building service in MN; I might want to contact local Web Design or SEO companies via email who offer complimentary services and swap links with them.

Keeping with the old school playbook this would most likely be done via some dedicated web page (often show on the main nav) called “links”– god those things are horrendous! If you have a “links” page bury it… please.

Anyway, this link building technique is called “reciprocal link building” which pretty much says everything you need to know about this link building practice.

What Can Link Building Companies in Minnesota Offer?

The more links you have to your website the more authority you gain. The more links your website has to other websites (especially regarding a topic that you want traffic for) reduces your authority. It does not, however, stop there.

These days when building links, you need to not only take into consideration the number of links that you obtain, but the authority (quality) of the site from which a link originates. Rudimentary evaluation of authority can be gauged by “published page rank” as it relates to link building (page rank unfortunately requires another post as it is a whole new topic that deserves its own complete analysis).

To illustrate how page rank affects your link building efforts lets use an analogy. Authority as it related to link building is basically analogous to “street cred”:

Let’s say you just drove across country from Minnesota to a strange new town in California– your new home. You only have one relative in this town and know not another soul. Imagine for a moment that just days after arriving your awesome 1987 Volvo diesel wagon breaks down. You, (being a nomad Volvo driving hippie) do not own a smart phone and cannot consult the web to make a wise decision.

So there you are at the closest gas station (after walking for miles) looking for a Volvo shop. But who do you ask for reliable information?

You look around and to your surprise you see a brand new 2010 (Chinese-made) Volvo. It’s a courtesy car for a local Volvo dealer… amen! You ask the leather-clad fella driving it if he knows where the closest Volvo shop is. Unfortunately it turns out he’s a Volvo salesman and directs you to his dealership where they will surely overcharge you.

Because you’re a smart hippie and skeptical of “the man” in the black leather coat with a shiny high school graduation ring, you opt to call your crazy uncle (the only one you know in town) for some advice from someone you trust.

It turns out your uncle has a buddy who restores old Volvos and, while he can’t do the work himself, he knows of a local Euro expert. He refers you to the shop and you go with full confidence knowing that this is someone you can trust. Why do you trust this person? Because you were recommended by an authoritative source who knows about the topic of discussion– Volvos!

To put it simply, and in terms of search engines, the car dealer is like having a link from some random site that has nothing to do with your business and can lend no credibility. Alternatively, if you create quality content and put thought into selecting authoritative directories and websites from which to build links (the uncle who knows his stuff) you will effectively inherit the authority from the source.

Makes Sense. Now What?

Anchor text! Once you’ve found authoritative sources from which to build links it’s important to get the most bang for your buck. If a website links to you and “Volvo repair” is a term for which you hope to be found, why would you want the actual text that link to be the name of your shop or any other term?

As an example, we’ll say that you now own the reapair shop and the name of your shop is Joe’s Euro Repair. Instead of asking for a link with the text “Joe’s Repair”, do everything in your power to make sure that the actual text within the link that leads to your site contains the keywords that you want to be found for. “Volvo Repair” for example.

Link Building Examples

I began this email by saying it would be a reflection of my Minnesota link building experience today. Below you will find an actual email communication that I sent to an authoritative directory requesting a link. It had all the right stuff;

• The domain name contained keywods for which I hope to be found (minnesotasearchengineoptimization.com)
• The subject matter of the website pertained to the topic for which I hoped to be found.
• The owners of the website were strict about which Link Building Companies they linked to.
• The website had a relatively high page rank
• When I performed local searches for keywords I wanted to be found for they ranked highly in the SERPS.

As you read the following request for a link note the fact that I made an effort to echo the lighthearted yet professional nature of the site on which I wanted to be listed. Also note that I did everything in my power to make it easy for them to list hire jacob.

I provided not only a logo image that seamlessly fit into their listings but I created an intelligent description of my business so that they wouldn’t have to write one for me. Them having to write a unique description about by link building business would make it far less likely that we actually get listed.

Example Link Request

Hello,

I’d like to request a listing. I know that you’re very selective. It shows by the quality firms listed.

My SEO tutorial which illustrates relatively in-depth SEO knowledge (for a
designer) can be found here http://hirejacob.com/handy_dandy_seo_tutorial.pdf .
Sorry about the PDF but it’s used as incentive to join my list so it’s not readily visible on the site.

If accepted I’ve attached a logo (properly sized and formatted for easy addition
to the site) and included a description below.

Regards,
Jake

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