The Link Building Matrix – Reloaded
The blue pill or the red pill? If you were given a choice, which would you choose? If you take the blue pill, you’ll go back to your website online and everything will go back to the same as before (including your ranking), or take the red pill and let’s see how far down the rabbit hole you go.
So what is the Matrix? The Matrix is a simulated world where nothing is real, and yet we use it to communicate, share, and do business on a day-to-day basis. When the Matrix started, it was a simple experiment, but as the Matrix grew, it became more and more complex to find whatever it is you were looking for. Along came search spiders moving one link at a time, scanning through the virtual world, and finding information became easy.
But The Matrix has a fundamental flaw. The Matrix was available only to those who were linked to it.
What is the link building matrix?
The Link Building Matrix is the strategy for building the “right type (Matrix) of quality links” in order to create multiple doors to your site from various sources, all leading back to you (or your website). The more credible related websites and popular user communities that point to your website, the better your link reputation will be. Building a strong link reputation will ensure a higher search ranking.
So, let’s explore the various sources for building quality links that can enhance your link building campaign and build link reputation. Please note that the points below are not listed in any particular order, prominence, or importance.
1. Submissions to the directory: Submitting your website to highly ranked and relevant web directories will provide you with links and access to the community of web users. Web directories are like the yellow pages, and who among us has not opened a yellow page to find a service, product or person?
2. Article shipments: Submitting your articles to relevant, high page ranked article submission sites will provide you with links, access to the community of readers and increase your credibility as an expert in your domain.
3. Social Bookmarks: Submitting your stories/articles/blog posts to highly ranked and relevant social bookmarking sites will give you links, access to user communities and add to your link reputation (once the votes start coming in). User generated content and user communities are gaining more importance with search engines every day.
4. Blogger Reviews: Submitting your website to relevant, high-ranking blogs will give you high-value links, access to those bloggers’ community of readers, and build a link reputation. A recommendation or review from prominent bloggers with a good reader base is a very credible link, and readers generally trust the blogger’s recommendations so they can visit your website. If you find it difficult to get bloggers to review, start your own blog and link from there to your own website.
5. Advertise PR: Submitting your press releases to highly ranked PR pitch sites will give you the links, access to the PR community and often journalists looking for a good story.
6. Social networks: Building your business profiles on various relevant and highly ranked social networking sites (Facebook, Linkedin) will provide you with links, community access and often new friends.
7. Video submissions: Submitting your videos (how-tos, interviews, tips and advice, promotions, etc.) to relevant video sites will give you links, access to the community (YouTube) and increase your viewing base with users who love to watch instead of read.
8. Vertical Motors: Submitting your website to the relevant vertical search engines (that are tailored to your industry/service type) will get you links (sometimes), access to your search engine community, and targeted traffic.
9. Industry portals: Requesting a link from your industry-specific portal can go a long way in gaining a quality link, gaining access to your user community, and increasing your credibility in the business.
10 Forum discussions: Also participate in industry-specific discussion forums and add value by providing input and feedback. All comments are linked to their website. Although these links (with comments) don’t have much value with search engines, they can be painful to get, and if your comments are interesting enough, you can get a reader to click through to your website.
eleven GoLocal: Get your address on Google Maps, Yahoo Local, etc. Not only will it be a quality link, but it will also appear in local listings on the search results page. Local listings are always displayed before global listings. For example, a Mumbai user seeking the services of a Mumbai SEO expert would prefer to first check local listings to find a provider nearby.
12 Wikipedia: Getting a page or pages on Wikipedia with a link to your website will increase your link reputation. However, please note that you cannot promote a person, product or company on Wikipedia. All Wikipedia content must be verifiable, written as if it were an encyclopedia.
13 Blog comment: By leaving wise and meaningful comments on relevant blogger sites, you will get a link, but make sure your comments add value to the blogger user community.
14 Answering questions: There are many sites where users ask questions and other users answer those questions. Sites like Yahoo Answers are a great way to get links, access the user community, and be the helpful person that you are.
fifteen. Make friends: In the world of links, building a link is like making a friendship. So make friends with someone who has a lot of friends…you know what I mean. But be careful, as between friends there can be misunderstandings, in the construction of good links there can be misunderstandings. Make sure there is a win-win for all parties involved.
sixteen. Building content: At the end of the day, if you have great content, other websites will want to link to your content so that the user community can benefit from your content. Many times they can do this directly (depending on copyright), or even ask you if they can link to your website. This is by far the best link building strategy.
BEWARE: In the Link Matrix there are many Agents giving sweet promises of seemingly impossible feats of creating thousands of quality links to your website overnight. I guess the truth is out. Some of us SEO idiots spend months and months toiling away to implement a link building campaign. If there were some shortcuts, believe me, I would have been the first to do it, but in the world of link building there are no shortcuts, just good passion, knowledge, contacts, and persistence.
Reload your link matrix?
So, what are you waiting for? Boost your link building campaign with a healthy mix of directory submissions, vertical engine submissions, discussion boards, article submissions, social bookmarking, PR ads, deep linking, special friends, blogger reviews, blog comments , social networks, video submissions, Google Maps, Yahoo Local and more…
