After listening to the Search Marketing Lab’s Webinar series, you know how inbound links from complementary websites make delicious "spider food." This month I'm going to give you some more dynamite tips for getting those invaluable links to your website.

We'll look at how to kick-start your linking strategy with directories, and then how to find and go after ideal link partners.

First, a quick review of what makes a great link… because a few good links are worth far more than hundreds of bad links. The first rule is Quality, Not Quantity!

Great inbound links DEFINITELY…

• Come from relevant sites. This is the first criterion of the search engines. If your site is about dog training, don't go after a link from a site that sells piano lessons.
  
  
• Look natural. If people were linking to your website naturally, they wouldn't all use the same anchor text, and they wouldn't all link to you in the same week. So when you're on the hunt for inbound links, vary the anchor text and build them up gradually over time.
  
  
• Come from a variety of online sources. Try blogs, PDF documents, e-zines and newsletters that get Web space.
  
  
• Come from sites with a regular flow of incoming traffic. Use the free Alexa toolbar to get an idea of how much traffic your target sites get. If a site is not even getting good traffic in Alexa, then it's probably not worth pursuing.
  
  
• Aren't lost among dozens of other links. You don't want the page your link is on to have more than two dozen outbound links… and the fewer the better (unless the link is from a directory).
  
  
• Are on sites that are indexed regularly. Look on your Google toolbar to see if the PageRank bar is grayed out… which means it's not being indexed at all!
  
  Check the Google cache date of the site and page where your listing would appear and make sure it's recent.
  
  You can also see how many pages of that site are being indexed. Use the siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com tool for Yahoo, or search site:http://www.nameofdirectory in Google. If only a few pages are being indexed, it's probably worth moving on.

Great links PREFERABLY…

• Are not reciprocal. Reciprocal linking is not dead, but is not nearly as effective as getting inbound links. A few reciprocal links on your pages are natural, but if all your links are reciprocal they'll just cancel each other out.
  
  
• Are on sites that have been around for a while. Domain age does come into play because the search engines assume that an older site is more credible… and because older websites have had time to do their SEO and build up their site authority.
  
  
• Are on sites with high Google PageRank. The more links you can get from high PageRank sites, the higher you'll get ranked in Google's listings. However, if you find a website that would be a great partner but the PageRank is 3 or lower, you still want to work with them!
  
  
• Are placed in a good position on the site. Negotiate to get your link embedded in a natural position -- usually within some text in the main body area. The search engines can discredit links found in the footer, right-hand side or other popular areas where advertising usually goes.
  
  Don’t stress about getting your link on the home page. Deep links within a strong complementary website are still great.

Great links are NEVER…

• Blocked from the search engines. Sometimes the page can change -- one version for the search engines and one for visitors (called cloaking or redirects). There are a couple of ways you can tell if a website is doing this.
  
  You can look at the Google cached version of the page your link would appear on. Make sure it's the same as the one you see. (View the cached version via the link under the listing.)
  
  
  
  Take a look at the code behind the links that are on the page now. (Use the View Source feature on your browser.) The links should look like this:
  
  <a href="http://www.link.com/">Link Text to Click On</a>
  
  You DON'T want to see any of these:
  
  <script language="JavaScript"… > </script>
  
  <a href="http://www.link.com/"rel="nofollow">Link Text to Click On</a>
  
  <a href="/portal/redir.php?http://www.link.com/">Link Text to Click On</a>
  
  These kinds of links are not going to help you.

   

Get links FAST with directories

A directory is an indexed list of web sites that is created and maintained by human editors rather than electronic spiders or robots. Editors review submitted sites and then rank and categorize them based on specific criteria.

But of course so many directories popped up using a completely automated submission process that they were basically just link sellers. Since Google has really clamped down on selling links, a lot of directories have been delisted, their rankings have dropped, or they're just not worth your time. Also, if the directory buys links from other websites, it loses authority.

So now you have to do a bit of research to make sure a directory is worthwhile. Check the PageRank bar on your Google toolbar and take a look around to make sure it seems legitimate.

Make sure the directory is indexed regularly too.

You can still find a lot of value in niche directories (related directly to your subject area) and high-authority directories (like Yahoo).

The Open Directory Project (DMOZ) is the granddaddy of free directories, but it's so overwhelmed with submissions that it can take two years to list a site. It is rumored that DMOZ will be either abolished or updated. Either way it's free to submit, so why not?

Your best bet for getting a timely listing is to submit to a niche category, e.g., instead of Dogs (18,148 listings), submit under Dogs: Training (188 listings) or Dogs: Activities: Obedience (39 listings). The editors for the more specific categories aren't as snowed under with submissions.

• Submit to the right category. Read the guidelines of each directory you submit to and do your homework to make sure you are submitting to the best possible category.
  
  
• Keep a spreadsheet of the directories you have submitted to, with the listing and keywords you used as well as the date you submitted and category page you should show up on.
  
  
• Use keywords. Every directory you submit to will ask for a short description of your site. Make sure you use your top keywords strategically throughout your description. Vary the title, anchor text, and body of your description for each directory you submit to. It'll make these links seem more authentic in the eyes of Google.
  
  
• Write a detailed description. Don't forget the end user either. Use your description to tell the potential customer "what’s in it for them" so they click on your listing. Give as much detail as possible under each directory's guidelines. Studies have shown that people are more likely to click through from listings that give them solid information.
  
  
• Take your time to submit. You don’t have to do it all in a day. Remember, you want everything to look and seem natural -- as if they picked your website.

Don't expect to get much traffic from the directories themselves. That's not what this is about. It's about getting those links! (That said, not all directories work to help your SEO efforts, but if the directory in question can bring you traffic and sales it is still worth your while.)

You can expect to pay anywhere from $10 - $300 for each submission, with the majority falling in around the $30 - $40 range. Although this isn't the cheapest way to get quality links to your website, it's definitely one of the fastest. And the extra traffic you'll get from a good ranking with Google will easily pay for your investment!

Here's a list of directories that are Search Marketing Lab approved:

Guerilla tactics for getting links from relevant sites

Listing in directories should definitely be part of your strategy, but shouldn't the WHOLE strategy.

In the long term, you should also devote part of your time each month to finding complementary sites and negotiating to get links from them.

One of my favorite ways to get links is to get social. Get out there and play in your community. If you become a regular part of forums and groups related to your niche, people will just naturally link to you.

In previous issues of the Search Marketing lab we've discussed using audio, video and free articles as linkbait. Video is a fantastic, viral way to get links, but you can go one better! Follow who is linking to your YouTube video and see what else you can do for them. To do that you just need to click on the Links number.

You can also look at videos that are related to your niche and see who is linking to them so you can contact them.

I recently wrote a blog post about articles. This gives a fantastic start to get going, but remember, the links within the article directories themselves will not help you -- it is the relationships you can create through them that are valuable, the same as with video.

First, monitor who is posting your articles so you can build out a further relationship with them.

For even further search engine benefits, offer customized content just for them. This will put you in the search engine rankings for sure because it is not duplicate content and will have a link back to your website.

When you're placing the link to your website in your article or column, do it strategically. Use anchor text and place it within the body of the article. Remember to always mix up your anchor text with different phrases. Another good hint is not to have all your links going to your homepage. You should also have links going to your main theme pages too or even to content related to that article.

I stand by the Google Code of Ethics almost always -- but sometimes you need to waver, even if just a little.

To get the ball rolling, it still can be worthwhile to buy some links from high-PageRank sites, especially when you are just starting out.

Please be aware you can be penalized for buying or selling links so be careful out there!

You need to look at how old the website is, how well it does in the rankings, what their inbound links look like, and how complementary the site is to your website. You want converting traffic too! Try this calculator to help you determine a value.

Inbound links to your site tell the search engines that other sites respect your content… and nothing is more convincing than that. For more ideas on getting links, read through the Search Marketing Lab Report archives for more ideas and how-tos.