‘expert ways’ and ’secrets’ of getting back links.

I have to laugh when I read these so called ‘expert ways’ and ’secrets’ of getting links.

Here is the reality.

You spend hours, and I mean many hours, hard labour trying to identify the competitor links who ranks highest [or higher than you anyway] and then the fun begins.

You now have to find out HOW the links were placed…were they reciprocal, were they via do follow comments or forum postings, were they via article submissions, and so on and so on.

This again takes AGES to sift through, because EACH LINK has to be investigated individually.

Let’s assume you use Yahoo site explorer…you follow the linked page, then have to see how the competitors link is placed; in what context? Was it paid for? Is it a comment on a blog? Is it a reciprocal link? And so on.

If the link is a comment on a blog, this is fairly straight forward (but beware the issue in paragraph below) If it’s a reciprocal link, you have to begin the process of contacting the webmaster, and then hoping your website will be accepted. If it’s a paid link, same thing.

But the most ridiculous aspect of all this is that you simply are not comparing like with like, apples with apples. Your website isn’t the same as your competitor (or at least it shouldn’t be!) your content will be different…how old is your site compared to your competitors? Will a link partner be willing to link to your website (with maybe less age, rank and PR) than the competitor’s site? Lots of the links will be on ‘no follow’ pages that once were ‘do follow’ but have now changed. (a real ‘killer’ this one, especially if you don’t know how to indentify ‘no follow’ pages on Blogs and Forums etc)

Any really valuable back links, one way back links in particular, which are THE most sought after, will likely be paid for links and you will need to set aside a sizable budget if you want to mimic these links. And that pre-supposes that the link site is still willing to accommodate more links of the same ilk.

The fact is, you should be looking to make your website as rich in excellent content as you possibly can, making every effort to ensure on-page optimization is carried out to the absolute maximum, covering every single aspect of this discipline. Then, and only then, should you start looking to build YOUR OWN back links.

Google’s Panda update has arguably resulted in placing even more emphasis on good content now, and less on back links. We have clients websites on Page 1 Google for keywords with over 4 million competition, and they have backlinks, yes…but no where near what some SEO gurus would tell you is required to get such ranking.

How have we done it then? By making these websites chock full of great quality content, and constantly adding to it. We educate our clients to the same mindset. Together this forms a very powerful cocktail that helps keep our websites on an upward curve.

Our analytics show 80% of our sites are increasing their traffic on month to month basis.  We must be doing SOMETHING right! And I can assure you it’s not slavishly following the back link bus.

There is NO QUICK FIX, no ‘SECRETS’….the methodology is already well established. There is a huge industry out there preying on people’s tendencies to believe that there is a magic way to garner hundreds of back links. This tendency is a trait of human nature, and when one considers just how much CAN be automated using software nowadays it becomes a potent attractor.

But don’t be seduced.

Create YOUR OWN rich content.

Identify and gather YOUR OWN back link strategy.

Copy cat tactics won’t work, will take too long to complete, and you’ll only end up becoming increasingly frustrated and disenchanted.

Be a leader, not a follower.