BLOG SEO ENGINE

Link-Building Process

After writing the first edition of this book, I received literally hundreds of emails asking for more information and more insight into how I handle link building for my own websites and blogs. Based on the information you’ve read so far, you understand the importance of slow and steady link building. In fact, link-building cowboys are out there every day trying to get hundreds or thousands of links to their sites through automated services and shortcuts only to find that Google slaps them with a big penalty — setting their SEO back weeks or even months.

I’ve experimented with tons of paid services to support my "Search Engine Optimization Efforts". Nine times out of ten, they either can’t deliver what they promise or worse yet, have a negative impact on search results (ex: website submission services). In this section, I’m going to reveal the exact link-building science I’ve applied to achieve number one rankings for many of my websites and blogs. And, it all begins with a very simple spreadsheet :

From my Perspective, "Link Building" is a monthly process. Build links too quickly and you’ll be penalized or perhaps achieve top rankings for only a short while (e.g., press releases). Build links too slowly and your competition may always outrank you. Striking the perfect balance takes experience and experimentation. I’ve spent a decade creating a link-building process that can give you the results you’re looking for. The only variable is the competitiveness of your niche. I recently completed an SEO job for a well-known trucking company who wanted top rankings for a particular keyword phrase. This competitive phrase got nearly thirty thousand searches a month and had some very stiff competition. Although the company knew it would take a long time to achieve results, they understood the value in achieving a top ranking for this term. We applied the necessary "SEO Techniques" and got the result they were looking for—but it took almost nine months. This is because the term was very competitive and other sites that were in the top positions had been there for a very long time. This is why doing the Keyword Research up-front, to find less competitive terms, is so important.

Once you have developed a website or blog, identified the keyword phrase you want to rank well for, and implemented on-page optimization, the next step is to have a link-building plan. Start your link building by developing a comprehensive list of sites linking into the top few results for the keyword phrase you’re targeting. Systematically work through all those links and try to acquire links back to your site from each of them. Once your list has been exhausted, it’s time for a disciplined link-building program.

The best way to manage your activity is by creating a spreadsheet that allows you to track your activity. The previous image is a summary level but you should also create tabs on your spreadsheet that capture the sites you use for submission. This allows you to come back to authoritative sites on a monthly basis and reuse them for link submissions. Your plan should be as follows :

There you have it. This is the exact schedule, with minor tweaks from time to time, that I use on a monthly basis to optimize my own websites and blogs. I suggest that you spend the first few month of your SEO campaign working through each of the submission types on your own. Once you have a strong understanding and foundation for your link-building efforts, find an outsource partner that can help you with different aspects of the process. Before you know it, you’ll be able to reduce the time you spend with repetitive tasks and focus on your next big search engine optimization project!