How to Build One Way Links for SEO

Link building is the most important part of search engine optimization. While the Google Panda Updates have made it even more important for you to engage your site visitors, link-building still has the most dramatic affect on your search engine rankings. However, there are different types of links that must be understood since Google, Yahoo!, and Bing do not view all links as equal.

The Perfect Link: One Way Link from a High Page Rank Webpage

The absolute most perfect link that anyone in the world could acquire would be a one-way link from the home page of Facebook. This is because Google views the one-way links as much more credible than reciprocal links, and considers links from trusted sites much more credible than links from lesser sites. Facebook is the only PR10 website in Google’s Page Rank scale (0-10), so a one-way, “dofollow” link from Facebook would be the most powerful link you could get. However, this is impossible.

How to Obtain Powerful One Way Links

Since your website (and website pages) will benefit most from one way links coming from trusted websites (in Google’s eyes), then you must think creatively on how you can obtain these. Here’s some helpful tips that will open up many ideas that you may not have thought of:

  • Paid Directories are a great way to build one-way links from high PageRank websites. The top directory sites to consider include:
    • DMOZ – Free but difficult to get listed in
    • Best of the Web – $149.95 annually, near instant listing
    • Business.com – $299 annually ($50 off if you click that link!), near instant listing
    • Yahoo! Directory – $299 annually, near instant listing
  • Linkbaiting is probably your most effective way of building powerful one-way links, and this is exactly what Google, Yahoo!, and Bing want you to do. Linkbaiting is a fancy term for publishing content that is so compelling that it attracts links from other websites (news sites, bloggers, social media sharing, etc.). Consider your unique knowledge, ideas, and assets and position them on the web. Need to get a particular page ranking highly? Consider placing a really helpful, and exclusive tool on it that will attract links. The core strategy is that you won’t have to request the links. They will come naturally, and your page will shoot up the search engine rankings.
  • Requesting links from high page rank websites will require the most work, but is an absolutely essential strategy in link-building. Install the SEO Toolbar for Firefox (as mentioned in the page on choosing the best keywords for optimization), and you’ll instantly be able to see the Google Page Rank of any website or webpage.
  • Request links from vendors and business partners since you already have a business relationships. Oftentimes, these vendors/partners will have links to other partner websites, and it might just require you sending a quick email requesting a link. You could even submit a testimonial for displaying on the vendor website, and request a link back to your website in exchange. If they request a link back, it’s best give it to them, but know that reciprocal links are not as valuable as one-way links. Other easy sources of links can be from employee blogs.
  • Develop relationships with schools and government organizations to obtain one way links from .edu and .gov websites. Websites with these domain extensions are highly trusted by Google, Yahoo!, and Bing and links from these types of websites are (in turn) given much more credibility than a random blog. These can be difficult to acquire, so think of ways that you can provide value to these organizations in order to obtain such links.
  • Publish guest blogs and articles on other websites, and include a link in your bio (or within the page content) to your website. eCommerce websites, for example, often lack high quality content since they are focused on selling products, so ask to publish guest articles on such websites.
  • Submit press releases to industry-related news websites and watch links come in by the boatload. If your news is newsworthy (within your industry), it will get published on related news websites with links pointing to the page(s) that you specify.
  • Offer a unique value (even consider a discreet monetary payment) to high Page Rank websites linking to your competitor pages in exchange for also linking to you, or better yet, replacing the link to your competitor’s website with a link to yours.

Key Points to Remember in Link Building

  • Do everything possible to ensure that your incoming links are keyword-rich. If a website is linking to you with the phrase “click here,” reach out to the webmaster and ask that he or she change the link to instead include the keywords that you are trying to rank that page for. Be careful how you ask, however, as they will be doing you a big favor!
  • Avoid “run of site” links such as links that appear in the sidebar or footer of every page on another website. These are not as powerful as ” deep links” (which are links from a single, high ranking webpage on another website) since these look a little spammy to search engines. They are still valuable, but not as valuable as a deep link on another website’s high Page Rank webpage.
  • Avoid requesting links from low Page Rank webpages, and avoid linking to low Page Rank webpages wherever possible. While it’s true that most any link is a good link (as long as it’s not from a banned or flagged website by Google), your website (or webpage) will get much more value from a single link from a high page rank webpage than many links for lower page rank webpages. Similarly, try your best to only link to high Page Rank (highly credible) websites and webpages. This will go a long way to helping Google understand that you are a website they can trust, and your own Page Rank will benefit as a result.
  • Obtain links from webpages that have the fewest possible links already on them. The more links on an external webpage, the less valuable a link to your website will be.
  • Obtain links from webpages that are topically related to yours, and request your link be placed in close proximity to other related keywords within the content of the page.
  • Vary the anchor text of your incoming links to avoid a spammy nature (in the eyes of search engine) and also to boost your chances of ranking for the various keyword variations.
  • Avoid links with the “nofollow” attribute which will not give your website any link juice from search engines. The “nofollow” attribute essentially tells search engines not to follow the link…and thus, your website (or webpage) will get no credit. Also avoid javascript and redirect links, as search engines cannot easily read these (although Google has gotten better at reading javascript links).
  • Never ever buy links from link brokers. Links should be acquired naturally, by specific request, by contributing content to another website, by participating in forums, or by commenting on blogs that offer “dofollow” links. Link brokers will essentially push your links out to hundreds (if not thousands) of potentially unrelated websites, and this is a clear signal of link spamming in the eyes of Google. Your website will run the risk of getting banned if this is detected by the major search engines.
  • Obtain links from frequently updated websites. One way to do this is to check for the latest blog post, or article, on a website. You can also check the Google cache date. Links from more frequently updated websites are more valuable since the major search engines will index them more regularly.