1. Is the site relevant to your site.
   Many will argue relevance isn’t important but I say to hell with them, a lack of relevance is a spammy approach, don’t do it.
2. Does the site link out?
   There’s no point sending a request for a link or guest post if the site clearly doesn’t link out.
3. Is the site indexed?
   If the search engines don’t know about the site why bother unless it’s a new site and you expect it to get indexed.
4. Do they invite submissions and suggestions?
   If the site actively asks for suggestions for content or links all well and good but some sites actually advise they don’t, why not check?
5. Is the site established?
   An established site is always a good thing when it comes to link building, but don’t rule out fledgling sites, they might be the next BIG THING.
6. Can you find the people behind the site?
   If it’s an automated blog (splog) it might not be worth the effort of making contact.
7. Is the content current?
   Establish if the site is a living breathing thing that’s still being developed. It’s amazing how many false positives link building tools throw up to sites long since defunct but still live.
8. Is the content any good?
   This is a hard one. What I think’s good you might think’s rubbish but be sensible and objective and you could save yourself some effort.
9. Do they invite and police comments?
   If they do it’s a good bet the site’s active with real people behind it.
10. Do they provide editorial links?
    Look at the type of links they have, if they only have “here are some of our friends” type links maybe don’t bother.

Link building is hard enough without wasting your time going after links you’ll never get. Hopefully this check list will stop that from happening.

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As you will know link building is a key aspect of SEO. Links tell the search engines how important your pages are, without this link signal your pages won’t rank in search results unless they are about something really niche that no other pages exist for.

So software that can help you with your link building has got to be worth having right? Software that is guaranteed to improve your search rankings, software that builds links that stand the test of time,  real top quality links that will propel your site up the rankings.

Software like that has got to be expensive right? After all search rankings can bring lots of valuable traffic to your site so software that does that has got to be costly yes? Well no, its totally free.

So let’s make this crystal clear. This software:

1. Is guaranteed to build top quality links to your site
2. Will propel your site up the rankings
3. Is 100% FREE with no catches

Although this software is free it does require some effort on your part. If you are going to use it you have to be prepared to do some work, the software will do a lot of the work for you and it’s incredible software, but you will have to put some effort in.

The link I’m going to give you may only work for a short while. There are commercial versions of this software, at least software that’s very similar, that costs over £400 so make sure you grab it soon to make sure you benefit.

So before I give you this link I’ll recap one more time.

The link I’m going to give you is for some 100% free software for link building. If you use this software properly I guarantee you will build powerful links to your website and propel it up the rankings. You will need to put some effort in but the software will do all the hard stuff for you. This really is amazing software and I’ve used it to build some amazing links to my web properties.

Before I give you the link there’s just one more thing. Please don’t share this information with others. There’s a chance the link I’m going to give you will stop working if too many people use it so grab it quickly, start using the software and keep it too yourself.

OK, here goes, here’s the link to the software that’s going to change your link building activities for ever. This link is going to make your website a true powerhouse.

Grab your copy NOW!

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I’d suggest grabbing a coffee/tea/coke/beer/wine and some snacks, perhaps some blankets, a tooth brush and maybe your PJ’s as it’s going to take a while to read, but it’s worth the effort

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I know link building is hard but ask yourself why it’s hard. It’s hard because your website is rubbish. If your content is rubbish or simply copied from somewhere else other sites won’t link to it. If you’ve got nothing original to say people won’t listen and link to you to share your insights with others. If your site doesn’t offer a funky widget that actually helps people do something or in some other way intrigues people they won’t share it with others.

People will however share good content with others. Here’s a simple example. Google the phrase day rates or if you are lazy click here and it will be done for you. The result shows a well known web development company ranking at number one for this phrase. Why would a web development company rank number one for a search about day rates? Surely you would expect an HR or recruitment company to be number 1 in Google for a search relating to salary and day rates?

The answer’s simple, we picked up on the fact that day rates were contentious so we decided to give some info about our take on them. We wrote the article and that was that.

Currently the piece has 40 links and a PR of 4. The links have all come in naturally and we haven’t done any link building on the page. No forum spam, no blog spam, no purchased link farm spam no social spamming nothing, just good content people wanted or needed.

I know it’s not a popular point of view because it requires hard work and the application of some grey matter but it’s a simple fact that if you create something people need the links will come in and instead of looking natural they will actually be natural.

It’s a point of view.

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Large companies with an extensive web presence, newspaper companies for example, have realised the value not of adverts, banners etc, but of links. The latest offering was for 40 links added to articles in their news pages over a 12 month period for £3000.

Apart from being unethical, what these companies are doing is ensuring only companies with deep pockets can buy the links and benefit from them, assuming they work.

I mentioned in a previous post that we’d nearly succumbed to the charms of a corporate link pimp but thankfully we saw the light before it was too late. Mind you, this ethical stance is expensive, there’s good profit to make re-selling this stuff and we’re missing out! So Matt Cutts, come on fella, nail these bloody people!

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To cut a long story short we were approached by a very large publisher who has a number of web properties offering article space in return for a fee. Each article presented a link building opportunity and the links were not NO FOLLOWED.

The web properties in question are already heavily monetised but the publisher – a well know and large organisation – has realised the value of links and decided to cash in. In short these greedy bastards don’t give a damn about the ethics or Google’s clear statements about not selling links that pass pagerank.

This once again begs the question of what Google can do about situations like this and I wonder if they can do anything at all. Apart from me and the link pimp nobody would have known any cash changed hands and as such no proof the link had been purchased.

Sure enough the page itself clearly states the article to be an advertorial (heaven forfend anyone should confuse link spam as quality journalism) but will Google’s spiders make that distinction.

I’ve ranted many times about link spam even referring to it as Internet Cancer but even I was almost seduced by this latest offer, it’s just so easy, hand over some cash, write some words, get some links.

Anyway, this close scrape has re-enforced my commitment to stay on the right side of the line where link building is concerned sticking firmly to the ethical SEO approach we have always adopted. So far as our clients are concerned we are very happy to point them at link spammers if they don’t see things our way.

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There are also a shed load of people who have created crap websites in the hope of generating an income from Google Adsense or from affiliate marketing. It’s all about creating crap nobody needs to generate income by doing nothing.

Google have started banning affiliate marketers from their AdWords programs and I wonder if this is the beginning of Google realising their index is in danger of disappearing up its own arse in a puff of blue smoke. Just in case Google needs a hand with this here’s my list of things Google can do right now to clean up their index….

1. Discount all links from forums
   They are 99% self promotion and spam. Sure you will kill some links that merit being counted but for the most part you won’t. Bin ‘em.
2. Discount all links from blogs comments
   Again, 99% of blog comment links are self promotion. Most people comment in blogs to generate links. There are some great blog comments out there but it’s for the greater good to simply bin them all.
3. Discount links from Article Sites
   I’ve used article marketing to good effect but the links are not based on merit so although it will hurt me I’m happy to do what’s right for the greater good. In the bin with them.
4. Discount social book marking
   This is a classic example of yet another great idea being abused out of all usefulness. Sorry but in the bin they must go.
5. Discount link farms
   If we, the great unwashed, can find these sites surely you can, so do so and bin them.

So what does that leave? Well heaven forfend we’ll have to revert back to creating something that’s so useful other site owners will want to link to it!

But seriously……. none of the above will happen even though it’s so out of hand that Google’s index is becoming increasingly irrelevant. People are going to become more reliant on old fashioned networking and referrals when looking for products and services, albeit facilitated by 21st century tools (Twitter, Facebook etc). Who knows, maybe Google with it’s new smart phone will move more and more into other areas too as it’s flagship product becomes mired in spam.

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Here’s a simple basic SEO overview and description.

What does Google do?
Google lists websites in response to a users request for information. The request is sometimes simple such as “taxi Aberdeen” and sometimes more complex such as “luxury taxi service in Aberdeen”

How does Google do that?
Google’s software trawls the web indexing pages of information. The software tries to ‘understand’ what a page is about so it can list the page in response to a users search.

How does Google decide which page to put first?
Search results, the list of websites you see when you use Google to find something, are listed in order of relevance and importance. Relevance will depend on the content of the page, importance will depend on links to the page.

Why are links important?
Remember, Google’s search results are automated by software. The software measures the number and quality of links to a page and uses this information to ‘decide’ a pages importance. For example, if 100 pages in the Google index match the search “luxury taxi service in Aberdeen” Google’s software will use the number and quality of links to each page to ‘decide’ which is the best page, which page should be first.

What constitutes a good link?
This is a tough question. There’s plenty of empirical evidence to suggest any link is a good link. However, as a rule of thumb the harder a link is to secure, the more value it will bring to your page.

Can you give me an example?
If you participate in an online forum and add links to your pages from your posts and forum signature these may not provide much benefit as they are not merit based links, they are simply self promotion. If on the other hand you create some very useful content and other people link to it this will often bring more search engine benefit as it’s a merit based link.

Is this always the case?
No, you can enjoy search engine success by using one of the many search engine spamming techniques. The downside to this approach is you run the risk of a sudden fall from the search results if your technique is discovered by Google. Here’s some link building advice detailing  the up and downsides of several link building methods.

Can I simply buy links?
Yes, but Google advises against it.

In Conclusion
Trying to rank your site in Google can be frustrating. When we receive requests for SEO Advice or SEO Reviews we are often told by the site owner that they ‘need to be number one in Google when people type ……………… (insert your keyword here)’. A search result is not a right, if your site is new you will struggle to rank for anything worth ranking for. If your site isn’t well structured the search engines won’t be able to ‘understand’ it. If you don’t have any links Google won’t know if it can trust it.

Work methodically and if you’ve got the budget get some help from an SEO specialist.

But is this the only reason not to buy links, after all Google is missing plenty of paid links and the sites who have bought them are doing very nicely thanks. I suppose it boils down to two things:

1. Will I get caught or am I comfortable doing it?
2. Will  the results last?

Well we don’t do it and it’s because of 1 & 2. With a Pagerank 7 homepage we could do very nicely selling a few links, perhaps I could buy a new car with the proceeds, I certainly would like one. But no, it’s wrong and we don’t do it.

In a world where cheating seems to be almost acceptable from the top of sport to the bottom of politics and everything in between I’d like to think the Internet could become one of the last bastions of meritocracy. Naive though this is it’s what I believe and for that reason I play by the rules.

But what of point 2? Well, I’ve been watching a few sites that rank very well for some heavy duty search phrases and they do this on the back of some really spammy links. One I can think of hasn’t budged for about 2 years! They probably wouldn’t care if they lost their rank now, they’ve made their money anyway.

But if your business is around for the duration I’d advise building it on bedrock not sand. It’s just a hunch, I may well be wrong, I may well be a naive dreamer.

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Reciprocal links are not always bad. If a site selling diving holidays links to a site selling wetsuits and the wetsuit site links back that’s normal linking. Where reciprocal links look spammy is where a site about bird watching links to a site selling birthday cakes. Relevance is the byword with reciprocal links.

Now the thorny question of ‘what is a good quality link?‘

Your dream link would be an article on this page about how quality curtain poles add so much to the feel of a room, where the words ‘curtain poles’ link to your homepage. That’s a pagerank 5 page, that means it’s trusted, and the value of that page linking to your page could be significant.

Your complete waste of time link would be being one of the footer links on this page, pure spam. Of course the BBC are not likely to offer you a link from that page whereas that spam page would no doubt sell you a link for thirty bob.

In the end it’s the quality of your content that dictates the quality of the links you attract. Eric Ward sums it up perfectly in this link building article.

In a nutshell to attract a great link you need something worth linking to on your site. Something that adds value to the page where the link is coming from. This takes us full circle back to quality content because there’s no point wasting time asking people with quality sites to link to your site unless your site is offering something unique. This is why people resort to buying links, it’s quicker and takes less work so long as you have the budget.

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