This is my personal list of processes which I follow for SEO(many of them are outdated though). I will try to keep on adding more Processes in free time and will take the tally to 100+.
You are also welcome to add more resources as comments in every process to make them more useful.
Submission...Submission...Submission...
1.1 Directory submission
Though nowdays they have fairly lost there value but still doing them on smaller scale never hurts.
You can check our Directory list http://directories.nbridges.com/ to find good number of directories.
Its few months old so few links may not work.
I had also purchased a 3000 directory list which you can download from http://www.nbridges.com/files/dirlist.txt .
I have not verified the list but you should be able to get good list of directories from it.
You can also get good Directory list from http://www.directorycritic.com/
You can also check DigitalPoint’s Soliciation section http://forums.digitalpoint.com/forumdisplay.php?f=65 .
Daily it gets a dozen new directories listed and you can get good free listings in them.
1.2 Deep link Directory Submission
There are few directories which allows deep links.
I think its worthy enough to submit in them too.
Don’t over do it though.
Directory critic has good list of Deep link directories http://www.directorycritic.com/deep-links-directory-list.html and some of them are still accepting deep links.
Tip - Do it slowly. If you submit way too many links of same site than obviously you wont get accepted. Be kind to the poor webmasters who are running Free deep link directories for free
1.3 Social Bookmarking
Some of the tag pages of del.icio.us ranks pretty well for that phrase. Find such pages for your niche and submit your site in those niches. Again don’t spam or try to play with del.icio.us.
Talking about social bookmarking, if you have a funny site, http://www.fark.com/ can give you tons of traffic, similarly if you have a programming site, http://www.dzone.com/ can give you lot of traffic. If you have tech site, http://www.digg.com/ can give you good traffic if the article is good enough.
You can check my list (again few months old) for social Bookmarking websites - http://social.nbridges.com/
1.4 Submit to Digg Clones aka Pligg Sites
There are lot of Digg Clones on the web, to which you can submit your pages. Make sure you don't spam any.
You can get list of Pligg Sites for your niche from Pligg Sites
1.5 Create a video and submit to youtube
Ok, its not that tough as you think it is. Make a nice tutorial or something funny (anything which will make others to link to that video or will make them watch again). Ofcourse you will be putting your sites name at the right lower end of the video. Do give a reason so the viewer types the url and come to your site like may be if you want more such videos than check our site http://www.example.com/
There are many other sites too where you can submit the video.
You can use Camtasia screen capturing software. I haven't used it but ppl say its good
1.6 Bookmark to niche and local social Bookmarking websites
For funny websites, I have seen http://www.fark.com/ giving insane amount of traffic. Similarly http://www.dzone.com/ gave one of my client tons of traffic just because it was related to programming.
I have put this as a separate entry from Social Boookmarking to stress on the point.
For example, check out http://www.searchles.com/ to know there are other sites than Del.icio.us/Reddit too.
You can check this list to get a nice list of niche social bookmarking websites.
1.7 Use Stumbleupon but Smartly
OK, most likely you have heard of Stumbleupon and probably have also tried to misused it by going through all the stumble exchange rings.
Instead of spamming and degrading such a nice website, you will be good to spend some time on it. Believe me, its totally worth it. Add lot of friends in your niche (ok, again, hire someone if you don’t have time) and also stumble good pages other than yours. Also write reviews for your friends.
One tip – There is a limit to number of pages from one site you can stumble(is it 15? can someone confirm it), so don’t overdo it. I think it is better if you stumble your best content pages, lists and tools.
It won't hurt to message your friends on MSN/Yahoo IM to stumble it too. (but follow the above tip too
Do Content Syndication
2.1 Article Submission
Article submission – Well you can get a good number of article directories from our own list, http://articles.nbridges.com/ its not perfect but most of them works. Personally I won’t advice you submitting one article to 100 directories, so better stick with the Best Article directories.
In my opinion, here are some of the few better article directories –http://ezinearticles.com/
http://goarticles.com/
http://www.articlesbase.com/ (they have put links as NOFollow)http://www.articlealley.com/
http://www.articlecity.com/index.shtml
http://www.articlebiz.com/
http://articletrader.com/
Ideally you don’t want to do lot of article submission in one go. Do slow article submission and keep track of the work. Sometimes its good to submit to smaller article directories as well as your article will get good exposure.
Tip - NO need to submit to the sites which have No Follow because honestly, I have seen any kind of traffic coming from any of the sites other than Ezine and Go Articles.
2.2 Buy Review Blog Posts
Buy Review Blog Posts – You can buy review blog posts from the following services – http://www.payperpost.com/
-http://www.sponsoredreviews.com/
- (Not that Good!)
http://www.blogsvertise.com/
–http://www.payu2blog.com/
-http://www.smorty.com/
–http://www.linkworth.com/
By the way, do note that you will be required to spend some time in finding proper listing for yours. I didn’t had a very good experience with blogvertise. Google is probably about to crack down on such services, so be careful.J
Tips - Unfortunately after using Sponseredreviews and checking others, it seems the quality of the links is fairly poor. For a $20 link for a client's site of mine, I got a link from a PR3 spam blog, and that too after 2 weeks.
Use these services if you have deep pockets
2.3 Submit Press Releases
You can create a Press Release either by paying someone(it will cost probably $15 to $40) or can use this online tool (there are many available, check Google)
As far as the list of Free Press Releases are concerned here is the list.
http://marketwire.com/
http://businesswire.com/
http://www.1888pressrelease.com/
http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/
http://www.addpr.com/
http://www.california-press-release.com/
http://www.click2newsites.com/
http://www.clickpress.com/
http://www.e-xl.com/
http://www.ereleases.com/
http://www.florida-press-release.com/
http://www.free-news-release.com/
http://www.free-press-release.com/
http://www.freepressreleases.co.uk/
http://www.georgia-press-release.com/
http://www.i-newswire.com/
http://www.illinois-press-release.com/
http://www.maryland-press-release.com/
http://www.massachusetts-press-release.com/
http://www.media-press-release.com/
http://www.newyork-press-release.com/
http://www.ohio-press-release.com/
http://www.pr.com/
http://www.pr9.net/
http://www.prbot.com/
http://www.press-base.com/
http://www.press-service.net/
http://www.press-world.com/add
http://www.pressbox.co.uk/
http://www.prfree.com/
http://www.prnewswire.com/
http://www.texas-press-release.com/
http://www.theopenpress.com/
http://www.virginia-press-release.com/
and few More sites –
http://www.clickpress.com/
http://www.webwire.com/
http://www.emediawire.com/
http://www.businesswire.com/
http://www.prwebdirect.com/
-http://www.theopenpress.com/
http://www.free-press-release.com/
http://www.pressbox.co.uk/
http://www.i-newswire.com/
http://www.pr9.net/
http://www.pr-inside.com/
http://www.newswire.ca/
http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com/
http://www.marketwire.com/
http://www.urlwire.com/
http://www.prweb.com/ (small contribution)
http://www.prurgent.com/
http://www.prleap.com/
-http://www.prnewswire.com/
http://www.prfree.com/
http://www.openpress.com/
http://www.softpressrelease.com/
NOTE:- 1. The list is old and I am copy/pasting as it is, The last time I had checked some of the sites were not accepting free submissions.
2. Though FREE is good, but going for paid is totally worth it. I think PRweb costs $80(there are other packages too), so if you think the News is worthy enough and can be picked by others than go for it.
2.4 Create Squidoo Pages
I would be really surprised if you have not heard of http://www.squidoo.com/ :)
Its like ezine 2.0 with better marketing team, and they too tell a lot that "they like you". ;-)
You can create pages there and link back to your site. A useless page with NO decent original content won't take you anywhere so I think its worth spending 30 minutes on ir or better, Pay someone $50 to create 3 really nice lenses on your niche and than ask the person to promote it too.
2.5 Create Hub Pages
Less Popular (but still pretty big) clone of Squidoo is http://hubpages.com/
They are just like squidoo in terms of concept. You have to create pages and the better the page is, it will get score.
Check our the No Follow links though. I haven't explored HubPages fully but they do keep nofollow for pages below a threshold
2.6 Create Zimbio pages
Other than creating Squidoo and Hub Pages, You can also create Zimbio Pages.
Its more like a News site so stick the theme rather than posting any random content about "mesothelioma lawyers
Commenting and Posting
3.1 Blog Commenting
Start Commenting on Others Blog. Dofollow or Nofollow, don't matter.
If you are VERY particular about Dofollow blogs than use this software to find dofollow blogs.
TIp - DO NOT user automated blog commenting softwares which claims "Great results" since the only result you will get is your site getting banned from Google.
If you don't have time than you can hire a Freelancer and pay him like $25 to make nice sensible comments.
Tip 2- Start commenting on A List Bloggers, because sensible Comment + A list Blog - decent traffic. Make sure, you keep the relevancy, dropping a mortgage link on a designing block is not very cool. And putting "Buy Cheap links" on this blog won't help either. :)
3.2 Forum Posting
Make a list of around 10-12 forums related to your niche and post in them. If you have a health site than hang in health forum and you can link back to your related content at appropriate positions. For example, you can use Adobe’s community forum to get links and traffic if you have a photoshop or design website. This is just an example, don’t even think of spamming there.
Some of the Middle size forums are more appropriate for your site promotion since they are way more generous in rules as compared to bigger sites.
Use "your niche + forum" and such key phrases to find relevant forum.
I will try to add more pointers in this section later, you can also share your tips/softwares/tools with others here as a comment
3.3 Forum Signatures
While doing Forum Posting, dont forget to add Signatures too.
Almost all good forums (and mostly webmaster) allows you to have signature links. Now I don’t think this will help you to get good serps rankings but can give you decent traffic if the links are related. For example, if you have a boating site than posting in boating forums with signature surely helps.
There are some really Big forums which have DoFollow for signature links like Drupal's forum and Adobe's community.
Tips – You can find threads which rank high on serps and post a nice reply, so you may get traffic from serps as well. But don’t bump dead threads or don’t spam. Always follow community rules.
DigitalPoint has a nice list of forums which allow signatures. Use it but don't spam.
3.4 Yahoo Answers
I hope I don't get flamed for this but well, as they say, there is No white or black, just shades of Grey (or Blue?)
You can use Yahoo Answers service to get decent traffic. Not to mention, a properly phrases question can easily get you on top of Serps.
The rest is on you. But don't spoil a nice service by spamming it since it wont help you much
3.5 "Review My Site" in Webmaster forums
Review My Site in forums – Many webmaster forums have this “Review my site” section where members can put there site for review. Will surely get you some nice links, though make sure you don’t overdo it. Just don’t post for the link, also try to get more from your posting. Sometimes people do give Great advices in forums
Distribute Things...and Stuff
4.1 Build Tools and Apps
Build tools and apps – If it is possible and is in some way related to your site, than its always worth spending in building tools. Say if you have a mortgage site, than build a mortgage calculator. If you can’t code, than hire a Coder from http://www.rentacoder.com/, http://www.elance.com/ or http://www.getafreelancer.com/ and pay him $150 to get one. Try to get something flashy or some web 2.0 using ajax or javascript libraries. A additional $50 can really make lot of difference.4.2 Create Facebook Apps and firefox plugins
Create Facebook Apps and firefox plugins. But really don't create it , just for the hack of it.
First think, will you get any benefit of having a facebook app/firefox plugin. Ask yourself, why should anyone user/download your app ? is it cost effective, since it can easily cost few hundred dollars ? How you are going to manage/up gradation ?
4.3 Create Free eBooks
You can create small ebooks and can give them for free. It can be a Great way to get long term traffic. Make sure the content is worthy enough.
You can always pay someone $100 to create such ebook. Try to put a List of 101 to make it more sell able.
4.4 Distribute Free Themes
Submit Free themes to http://www.oswd.org/ and such sites4.5 Create Scripts and Submit to HotScripts.com
You can create simple php/javascript Scripts and Submit to HotScripts.com. You may not get lot of traffic but it will be continuous. The better thing to is to create a "Resources" or "Tools" section and put the tools there. Don't forget to ask the viewers to link back to it or better, give them the code which they can use to link back.
Instead of doing direct reciprocal link exchange, you can link to others tools and they can link to your tool
4.6 Create Flash Game and Distribute
Create Flash Game – You can create a nice Flash game for as little as $200 on freelancing website (with so much competition, the coders rates have gone down to ridiculously low level). Put the game on your site and also allow others to freely download it.4.7 Create and Distribute Widgets
Create Widgets using your RSS and ask people to use them. Infact sharing widgets is a better way than sharing links.. I have used http://www.widgetbox.com/ for this and if you have a site with good traffic, say a jokes site or celeb or proxy sites, put your widget there and it can turn into good traffic.
Infact proxies can be a good way to get nice traffic
4.8 Write for Others Blogs
Well other than Giving away free content(with your inlinks ofcourse), you can write for others. This may not apply for all the niches but say if you are a marketer or SEO than it does helps you to establish yourself and get some clients.
*cough**cough* I will be more than happy to write for some bigger SEO blogs. I myself wanted to keep a blog here but because I know I won't get time to frequently update it, so I dropped the idea. May be in future, I will put a Blog of my own.
Anyway coming back to "Writing for others", Go to webmaster forums and start looking for possible blog owners
4.9 Distribute Free Content
Distribute Free Content – I often ask my write to put a nice article and than put the links to it and than give it on forums as free incentive content. We even pay (sometimes) $10 if the blog is good. What this does is, it gets a you a very nice in content link from a relevant page.
Asking bloggers to write the blog post has 2 draw backs, they will charge more and secondly, they can never come up with proper content of your wish. So spend 10 more minutes and make sure you get the best
4.10 Offer a Free Service related to your site
Offer a Free Service related to your site – Well it can be anything from simple “reminder email Service” to “some Cool Calculator”. Be original.
As always, you can pay few hundred dollars to some freelancer to do the job for you.
Think laterally and ask yourself, what your visitors want? For example, finance websites can offer On/offline Stock tickers
Buy Things and Stuff...
5.1 Buy Links from Directories
Buy Links from Directories – Unfortunately Google has penalized almost all the directories who were involved in link buying but still there are few trusted directories left. They are costly, but if you can afford it, than its worth going for Yahoo Directory(http://dir.yahoo.com/) for review fees of $300. BOTW (http://botw.org/) for $80 per year or $240/permanent. If you have a business site and have deep pockets than its worth going for Busness.com Directory http://www.business.com/directory/index.asp although don’t expect much traffic from it.
For more Paid Directories, you can again check Directory Critic http://www.directorycritic.com/paid-directory-list.html
5.2 Buy Related In Content Deep Links
Buy Related In Content Deep Links5.3 Buy Cheap Direct Traffic
Buy Cheap Direct Traffic – Celeb sites, proxies, games, warez and similar sites get really good traffic and since traditional PPC/CPM don’t pay well, you can buy banner space for like $20/month on them and get easily 1000’s of visitors.
But Make sure your site appeals to the crowd. I mean showing “Mortgage calculator” or “debt relief” links won’t work on a Manga site but a “Gadget” site or a “sports car” site have more chances to work on it.
Use a catch banner and make sure you are not directly linked from that site. Either use nofollow or some javascript code for your banner.
5.4 Become a Sponsor
Become Sponsor – Many open source project look for sponsors and will be more than happy to give you links on there project pages. Most often such pages are PR5 and higher so you will not only be getting a nice strong link, you will also be helping Open Source Community. Check http://www.sourceforge.com/ to find such projects.
Your Blog...My Blog...
6.1 Build Partnerships and make friends
Build Partnerships and make friends – When you starts hanging out in forums, you will surely make some friends. So add them on yahoo/msn/skype. You can anytime ask or discuss something and can get immediately help. If you are new to seo and have time, than this is the Best way to learn the most of SEO. Ofcourse you can always do link exchanges with them6.2 Create a Blog
Create a Blog - Try to run a blog on your site or may be on wordpress/blogger and use it as a supporting satellite revolving around your site. Update it 2 times a week and talk about your site and also about others sites whom you visit. Do not forget to link to good bloggers (A list bloggers) as the trackback will surely get you some traffic.
Be generous in linking as the karma will get back to you.
6.3 Promote your blog
Promote your blog – Well, now you can promote your blog and get some good indirect links and traffic to your site. You can use same strategies mentioned in this article on your blog too. But make sure you don’t spend too much time on it. After all, its your mail site which should be your primary priority6.4 Submit your Site/ Blog Feed to Feed directories
Submit your site/blog feed to feed directories – Check http://www.nbridges.com/ for list of RSS directories6.5 Don't forget to Ping
Use service like http://www.pingomatic.com/ after making a post to inform crawlers that you have put new content.
The Rest ...
7.1 Build a Mailing List
Build a mailing list – Whether you are selling a product or not, its always nice to have mailing list to build a membership. You can give free stuff and can make a list like this. Respect the feeling of others7.2 Get a Serial Chain rather than a Loop of Links
Whenever you are creating the squidoo, hub and zimbio pages – always put quality content. It is better to make one page, that’s it and promote it well. I mean you can social bookmark it on all your accounts. If it is good, than will surely be marked by others as well.
Another good tip – if you have lot of squidoo pages than instead of making all of them pointing to your site, let them point to one another and make a linear chain(linked list) and let the final node point towards your site. The link value will be way more powerful
7.3 Submit New Site to these Sites ...
If you have a new site than you can submit it to http://www.sitelaunched.com/ (http://www.sitelaunched.com/launch-your-site/) (Thanks to a DP member tip). If you have a web 2.0 website with something NICE than you can also submit it to http://www.killerstartups.com/ (better go for paid $49 listing)
You can also go for Mashable
7.4 Run Contests
If you have a new site than you can submit it to http://www.sitelaunched.com/ (http://www.sitelaunched.com/launch-your-site/) (Thanks to a DP member tip). If you have a web 2.0 website with something NICE than you can also submit it to http://www.killerstartups.com/ (better go for paid $49 listing)
You can also go for Mashable
7.5 Ask People to subscribe to RSS feeds 7.6 Ask people to Subscribe by email7.7 Ask People to bookmark the site 7.8 Build a list
Build a list – Lists can be a Great way to get good traffic and links.
Though unintentional but this whole article is also turning out to be a list(though slightly unorganized).
Tip - Always use a catchy title like "21 ways to ..." or "101 things..." etc
7.9 Create a list on Listible
Well there are few sites where you can create a list. A good example is Listible where you can create nice list and ofcourse will be putting your own link.
Than, you can push this list by doing some social bookmarking.
Edit - There were few other list sites as well but right now I am not able to remember them. I will appreciate if others too put similar list sites.
Edit 2 - Is listible dead? I think the developers have stopped working on it. :(
7.10 Exchange Links from related sites
Exchange Links from related sites– Ok I am not sure if this even works or not and how effective it is but if you are in very competitive field and each link matters than probably its worth going for reciprocals. You can of course outsource the work to someone else do the work for you.
Make sure the links come from internal pages and instead of being it reciprocals. Also try to get it from some strong internal pages.
Link Partner Finder - from 4th media.Find Link Partners – from zebonline
Few other tools which you may find helpful are:
Link Popularity Check - quick and easy to use web tool from Marketleap.Arelis Link Builder - reciprocal links solution from Axandra/Voget Selbach Enterprises GmbHZeus Internet Robot - automatic reciprocal link generator and link directory creator from Cyber-robotics.OptiLink Software is a link analysis program that reveals how top ranked pages achieved their search engine rankings.
Thanks to Mr.Kumar of DigitalPoint for providing the name of the tools.
7.11 Use Craigslist and Other Local Classifieds
Use Craigslist Classifieds – Not all sites fits into this but if it does, than its worth using craigslist to spread the word about your site. There are many such classified sites on internet as well as niche and localized Classified sites. Spend few hours to find them as they can really give you good directed traffic7.12 Use Flickr to get links
Use Flickr to get links – I have never used it but have seen many using it (though most of them spamming badly). A good example of Bad spamming is this http://www.flickr.com/photos/17658185@N05/2216395579/ (look at bottom comments, all are spam)
If your site is anyway related to images than flickr can certainly help you.
7.13 Look/Create Link Baiting and Viral Opportunities
Look/Create Link Baiting and Viral Opportunities – Well make some list of 10 ugliest Web Marketers (its just an idea, don’t do it and better don’t put my pic). The chances are, you will get links from there blogs for sure, and from others too.
I think you have got the idea, right ?
7.14 Create Groups and Communities
You can use the power of Yahoo Groups and Ning to create your own communities to which you can post regular content.
These are just 2 examples, you can create many such communities on various sites
7.15 Create an AboutUs.org Page
Create a page for your website on AboutUs.Org.
And if you are wondering how to create a page on there site, its simple. Just type http://www.aboutus.org/ and if your page don't exist, it will automatically gets created. Nice Huh :)
To Do and NOT To Do
8.1 Be Patient, Things will take time
The Foremost, things now takes time, It is NOT 2004 where some reciprocals would had fetched you higher rankings. So be patient. Its 2008 and nowdays things take time to rank but with the 70+% increase in internet traffic annually, lets be assure once when you are up, its gonna give you some Great Leads and Sales.
Saying that, its good to keep track of your growth and how you are doing, where the money is going and are you achieving some kind of rankings or not ? I think giving yourself 3-4 months is a good time to get onto google top page for decently competitive keywords
8.2 Don't Overdo anything - it Can harm you8.3 Automated Link Exchange Programs are Dead
Link Vault and DigitalPoint Co-op are dead so Don’t waste time on such tools. Also pretty much all kind of reciprocal exchange programs are dead.
Even if they work, the returns over the effort is so low that there is NO point in doing it.
8.4 Never spam as It don't work8.5 Don't do BlackHat unless you know what you are Doing8.6 Don't buy too many softwares/ebooks
OK, this is from my personal experience and I may be wrong. If you are slightly short on money, than don't buy the costly books or softwares. Most of the books that I have seen are just fillers and they don't teach you anything. I think, if the marketer is trying too hard to sell it(too strong sales pitch) than most likely its a shit product because good products sales for themselves.
I think one book which you can buy is Aaron Wall's SEO BooK. I have Never heard a bad review of it. (I think now Aaron has changed his business model and has started training but still, you can get hold of the book) or else can buy another similar book(I think SEO unleashed is also good). But really, NO need to buy more than one book.
Browse the forums and you will learn the things on your own.
As far as software is concerned, most of them are created to perform automated work like Automated directory submission, article submission, blog/forum spamming which will only get you in trouble. So avoid them and do things manually or outsource the work.
8.7 Never participate in any kind of traffic exchange programs
Never participate in any kind of traffic exchanges programs or banner exchange program. They are just not worth your time and effectively you are loosing a visitor, so the common sense says, use adsense so you can atleast make money from it.8.8 .edu Links from blogs are Useless
.edu links from blogs are useless. Don’t waste time on them.
I have seen many trying to sell .edu links from .edu forums/blogs which are not worth the money. So don't fell for them.
8.9 If something looks unreal, than most likely, it is
If something looks unreal, than most likely, it is.
Someone selling a PR5 link for $10 ? a Homepage .org PR6 link for $15 ? Well good chances are they won't be what they look. So be careful on internet.
Resources
9.1 List of Webmaster Forums
There are lot of webmaster forums online but I think being a member of these should be enough.
1. http://forums.digitalpoint.com/
2. http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/
3. http://www.webmasterworld.com/
Some other Good forums are -
4. http://www.v7n.com/
5. http://www.webmaster-talk.com/
6. http://www.namepros.com/
7. http://www.dnforum.com/
8. http://www.webtalkforums.com/
Some other webmaster forums are,
1. Webdigity webmaster community
2. DaniWeb
3. ABestWeb
4. Computer Forum
5. eBizBoards.com
6. Total Web Talk
7. Cre8asite Forums
8. Geek Valley
9. Geek Valley
10. HTMLForums
11. Master Of The Web Forums
12. Newbie Developer Webmaster Forums
13. Open Directory Project Public Forum
14. Sell Some Stuff Webmaster Forum
15. Singapore WebMaster Forum
16. SiteOwnersForums
17. Talk Freelance
18. Tech Support Board
19. techies.co.za
20. TutorialForums
21. w3Exchange.com
22. watoti
23. Web Design Talk
24. Webmaster Bin
25. Webmastery
26. Ozzu
27. WebmasterForum
Thanks to PaymentBlogger for such a nice list.
If you Have a Good webmaster related forum than you can put it as commment. I will try to put it in the list too
9.2 List of Niche Forums
Other than Webmaster forums, you can also use Niche forums to great effect.
Instead of copying, I will gladly Link to Complete List of Forums and List of Forums.
Feel free to tell us about your forums. I will make a separate list of my own later to keep things more organized.
9.3 List of Webmaster Tools
I am still adding in the list so will take few days to make it substantial.
1. Complete Link Checking Tool
2. List of Backlink Checker Tools
3. Check out Web CEO's Software too
4. List of Webmaster Tools from Webconf
9.4 Other Link and Traffic Building Resources
There are many such resources like Mine on Internet. Some of them are -
1. 50 Ways To Get Backlinks And Traffic To Your Blog
2. 101 Link Building Tips (slightly old but still effective)
I will add more in coming days
9.5 List of Keyword Research Tools
Here is the list of Keyword Research Tools -
1. Google Keywords Tool
2. Good keywords Desktop Software
3. WordTracker
4. Keyword Discovery
9.6 List of SEO Tools
January 1, 2009
Ultimate Link and Traffic Building SEO Tips
TOP 101 Link Building Tips to Market Your Website(Recommended)
71 Good Ways to Build Links
Love for Lists
1. Build a "101 list". These get Dugg all the time, and often become "authority documents". People can't resist linking to these (hint, hint).
2. Create 10 easy tips to help you [insert topic here] articles. Again, these are exceptionally easy to link to.
3. Create extensive resource lists for a specific topic (see Mr Ploppy for inspiration).
4. Create a list of the top 10 myths for a specific category.
5. Create a list of gurus/experts. If you impress the people listed well enough, or find a way to make your project look somewhat official, the gurus may end up linking to your site or saying thanks. (Sometimes flattery is the easiest way to strike up a good relationship with an "authority".)
Developing Authority & Being Easy to Link At
6. Make your content easy to understand so many people can understand and spread your message. (It's an accessibility thing.)
7. Put some effort in to minimize grammatical or spelling errors, especially if you need authoritative people like librarians to link to your site.
8. Have an easily accessible privacy policy and about section so your site seems more trustworthy. Including a picture of yourself may also help build your authority.
PPC as a Link Building Tool
9. Buy relevant traffic with a pay per click campaign. Relevant traffic will get your site more visitors and brand exposure. When people come to your site, regardless of the channel in which they found it, there is a possibility that they will link to you.
News & Syndication
10. Syndicate an article at EzineArticles, GoArticles, iSnare, etc. The great thing about good article sites is that their article pages actually rank highly and send highly qualified traffic.
11. Submit an article to industry news site. Have an SEO site? Write an article and submit to WebProNews. Have a site about BLANK? Submit to BLANKinformationalsite.com.
12. Syndicate a press release. Take the time to make it GOOD (compelling, newsworthy). Email it to some handpicked journalists and bloggers. Personalize the email message. For good measure, submit it to PRWeb, PRLeap, etc.
13. Track who picks up your articles or press releases. Offer them exclusive news or content.
14. Trade articles with other webmasters.
15. Email a few friends when you have important relevant news asking them for their feedback and/or if they would mind referencing it if they find your information useful.
16. Write about, and link to, companies with "in the news" pages. They link back to stories and blog posts which cover their developments. This is obviously easiest if you have a news section or blog. Do a Google search for [your industry + "in the news"].
17. Perform surveys and studies that make people feel important. If you can make other people feel important they will help do your marketing for you for free. Salary.com did a study on how underpaid mothers were, and they got many high quality links.
Directories, Meme Trackers & Social Bookmarking
18. This tip is an oldie but goodie: submit your site to DMOZ and other directories that allow free submissions.
19. Submit your site to paid directories. Another oldie. Just remember that quality matters.
20. Create your own topical directory about your field of interest. Obviously link to your own site, deeplinking to important content where possible. Of course, if you make it into a truly useful resource, it will attract links on its own.
21. Tag related sites on sites like Del.icio.us. If people find the sites you tag to be interesting, emotionally engaging, or timely they may follow the trail back to your site.
22. If you create something that is of great quality make sure you ask a few friends to tag it for you. If your site gets on the front page of Digg or on the Del.icio.us popular list, hundreds more bloggers will see your site, and potentially link to it.
23. Look at meme trackers to see what ideas are spreading. If you write about popular spreading ideas with plenty of original content (and link to some of the original resources), your site may get listed as a source on the meme tracker site.
Local & Business Links
24. Join the Better Business Bureau.
25. Get a link from your local chamber of commerce.
26. Submit your link to relevant city and state governmental resources. (Easier in some countries than in others.)
27. List your site at the local library's Web site.
28. See if your manufacturers or retailers or other business partners might be willing to link to your site.
29. Develop business relationships with non-competing businesses in the same field. Leverage these relationships online and off, by recommending each other via links and distributing each other's business cards.
30. Launch an affiliate program. Most of the links you pick up will not have SEO value, but the added exposure will almost always lead to additional "normal" links.
Easy Free Links
31. Depending on your category and offer, you will find Craigslist to be a cheap or free classified service.
32. It is pretty easy to ask or answer questions on Yahoo! Answers and provide links to relevant resources.
33. It is pretty easy to ask or answer questions on Google Groups and provide links to relevant resources.
34. If you run a fairly reputable company, create a page about it in the Wikipedia or in topic specific wikis. If it is hard to list your site directly, try to add links to other pages that link to your site.
35. It takes about 15 minutes to set up a topical Squidoo page, which you can use to look like an industry expert. Link to expert documents and popular useful tools in your fields, and also create a link back to your site.
36. Submit a story to Digg that links to an article on your site. You can also submit other content and have some of its link authority flow back to your profile page.
37. If you publish an RSS feed and your content is useful and regularly updated, some people will syndicate your RSS content (and some of those will provide links… unfortunately, some will not).
38. Most forums allow members to leave signature links or personal profile links. If you make quality contributions some people will follow these links and potentially read your site, link at your site, and/or buy your products.
Have a Big Heart for Reviews
39. Most brands are not well established online, so if your site has much authority, your review related content often ranks well.
40. Review relevant products on Amazon.com. We have seen this draw in direct customer enquiries and secondary links.
41. Create product lists on Amazon.com that review top products and also mention your background (LINK!).
42. Review related sites on Alexa to draw in related traffic streams.
43. Review products and services on shopping search engines like ePinions to help build your authority.
44. If you buy a product or service you really like and are good at leaving testimonials, many of those turn into links. Two testimonial writing tips — make them believable, and be specific where possible.
Blogs & the Blogosphere
45. Start a blog. Not just for the sake of having one. Post regularly and post great content. Good execution is what gets the links.
46. Link to other blogs from your blog. Outbound links are one of the cheapest forms of marketing available. Many bloggers also track who is linking to them or where their traffic comes from, so linking to them is an easy way to get noticed by some of them.
47. Comment on other blogs. Most of these comments will not provide much direct search engine value, but if your comments are useful, insightful, and relevant they can drive direct traffic. They also help make the other bloggers become aware of you, and they may start reading your blog and/or linking to it.
48. Technorati tag pages rank well in Yahoo! and MSN, and to a lesser extent in Google. Even if your blog is fairly new you can have your posts featured on the Technorati tag pages by tagging your posts with relevant tags.
49. If you create a blog make sure you list it in a few of the best blog directories.
Design as a Linking Element
50. Web 2.0-ify your site. People love to link to anything with AJAX. Even in the narrowest of niches, there is some kind of useful functionality you can build with AJAX.
51. Validate and 508 your site. This (indirect) method makes your site more trustworthy and linkable, especially from governmental sites or design-oriented communities. There are even a few authoritative directories of standards-compliant sites.
52. Order a beautiful CSS redesign. A nice design can get links from sites like CSS Vault.
Hire Help
53. Hire a publicist. Good old fashioned 'PR' (not PageRank) can still work wonders. Andy Hagans now offers a link baiting publicity service.
54. Hire a consultant. Yes, you can outsource link building. Just make sure to go with someone good. We recommend WeBuildPages, Debra Mastaler and, ahem, Andy Hagans.
Link Trading
55. Swap some links. What?! Did we really just recommend reciprocal link building? Yes, on a small scale, and with relevant partners that will send you traffic. Stay away from the link trading hubs and networks.
56. In case you didn't get the memo — when swapping links, try to get links from within the content of relevant content pages. Do not try to get links from pages that list hundreds of off topic link partners. Only seek link exchanges that you would consider pursuing even if search engines did not exist. Instead of thinking just about your topic when exchanging links, think about demographic audience sets.
Buying Sites, Renting Links & Advertisements
57. Rent some high quality links from a broker. Text Link Ads is the most reputable firm in this niche.
58. Rent some high quality links directly from Web sites. Sometimes the most powerful rented links come direct from sites not actively renting links.
59. Become a sponsor. All sorts of charities, contests, and conferences link to their sponsors. This can be a great way to gain visibility, links, and a warm feeling in your heart.
60. Sell items on eBay and offer to donate the profits to a charity. Many charities will link both to the eBay auction and to your site.
61. Many search algorithms seem biased toward older established sites. It may be faster to buy an old site with a strong link profile, and link it to your own site, than to try to start building authority links from scratch.
Use the Courts (Proceed with Caution)
62. Sue Google.
63. Get sued by a company people hate. When Aaron was sued by Traffic Power, he got hundreds or thousands of links, including links from sites like Wired and The Wall Street Journal.
Freebies & Giveaways
64. Hold a contest. Contests make great link bait. A few-hundred-dollar prize can result in thousands of dollars worth of editorial quality links. Enough said.
65. Build a tool collection. Original and useful tools (and collections of tools) get a lot of link love. What do you think ranking for mortgage calculator is worth?
66. Create and release open source site design templates for content management systems like Wordpress. Don't forget the "Designed by example.com" bit in the footer!
67. Offer free samples in exchange for feedback.
68. Release a Firefox extension. Make sure you have a download and/or support page on your site which people can link to.
Conferences & Social Interaction
69. It is easy to take pictures of important events and tell narratives about why they are important. Pictures of (drunk?) "celebrities" in your industry make great link bait.
70. Leverage new real world relationships into linking relationships. If you go to SEO related conferences, people like Tim Mayer, Matt Cutts, and Danny Sullivan are readily accessible. Similarly, in other industries, people who would normally seem inaccessible are exceptionally accessible at trade conferences. It is much easier to seem "real" in person. Once you create social relationships in person, it is easy to extend that onto the web.
71. Engaging, useful, and interesting interviews are an easy way to create original content. And they spread like wildfire.
30 Bad Ways to Build Links
Here are a few link buiding methods that may destroy your brand or get your site banned/penalized/filtered from major search engines, or both.
Directories
72. Submit your site to 200 cheesy paid directories (averaging $15 a pop) that send zero traffic and sell offtopic run-of-site links.
Forum Spam
73. List 100 Web sites in your signature file.
74. Exclusively post only when you can add links to your sites in the post area.
75. Post nothing but "me too" posts to build your post count. Use in combination with a link-rich signature file.
76. Ask questions about who provides the best [WIDGET], where [WIDGET] is an item that you sell. From the same IP address create another forum account and answer your own question raving about how great your own site is.
77. As a new member to various forums, ask the same question at 20 different forums on the same day.
78. Post on forum threads that are years outdated exclusively to link to your semi-related website.
79. Sign up for profiles on forums you never intend on commenting on.
Blog Spam
80. Instead of signing blog comments with your real name, sign them with spammy keywords.
81. Start marketing your own site hard on your first blog comment. Add no value to the comment section. Mention nothing other than you recently posted on the same subject at _____ and everyone should read it. Carpet bomb dozens of blogs with this message.
82. Say nothing unique or relevant to the post at hand. Make them assume an automated bot hit their comments.
83. Better yet, use automated bots to hit their comments. List at least 30 links in each post. Try to see if you can hit any servers hard enough to make them crash.
84. Send pings to everyone talking about a subject. In your aggregation post, state nothing of interest. Only state that other people are talking about the topic.
85. Don't even link to any of the sites you are pinging. Send them pings from posts that do not even reference them.
Garbage Link Exchanges
86. Send out link exchange requests mentioning PageRank.
87. Send link exchange emails which look like an automated bot sent them (little or no customization, no personal names, etc.).
88. Send link exchange requests to Matt Cutts, Tim Mayer, Tim Converse, Google, and Yahoo!.
89. Get links from nearly-hidden sections of websites listing hundreds or thousands of off topic sites.
Spam People in Person
90. Go to webmaster conferences and rave about how rich you are, and how your affiliates make millions doing nothing.
91. Instead of asking people what their name is, ask what their URL is. As soon as you get their URL ask if they have linked to your site yet and if not, why not.
Be Persistant
92. Send a webmaster an alert to every post you make on your website.
93. Send a webmaster an email every single day asking for them to link to your website.
94. Send references to your site to the same webmaster from dozens of different email accounts (you sly dog).
95. If the above do not work to get you a free link, offer them $1 for their time. Increase your offer by a dollar each day until they give in.
Getting Links by Being a Jerk
96. Emulate the RIAA. When in doubt, file a lawsuit against a 12-year-old girl. (Failing that, obtain bad press by any means necessary.)
97. Steal content published by well known names. Strip out any attribution. Aggregate many popular channels and just wait for them to start talking about you.
98. Send thousands of fake referrals at every top ranking Web site, guaranteeing larger boobs, a 14-inch penis (is that length or girth?), or millions of dollars in free, unclaimed money.
99. Wear your URL on your t-shirt. Walk or drive your car while talking on a cell phone or reading a book. When you run into other people say "excuse you, jerk".
100. Spill coffee on people or find creative ways to insult people to coax them into linking at your site.
101. Sue other webmasters for deep linking to your site. Well, this is more "hilariously dumb" than it is a "bad linking practice".