Building a Good Link Profile: Measure Twice, Cut Once

A prospect calls up and asks you to “do this search engine optimization thing” for their website. After checking their website against identified keywords and the competition, you check their link profile, only to find no links (or very few of them).

For whatever reason – whether it’s due to the website being brand new or having never been marketed – these guys are starting from scratch. But they want rankings now and SEO is the hot topic for the CEO/owner/whoever.

Sound familiar?

The best advice you can give these people is to slow down and be prudent.

What is a Link Profile?

It’s important to understand that search engines are trying to rank the best results that they can for their users. In this process, Google – especially – has put quite a bit of emphasis on trying to rank “big brand” websites. There’s a lot of debate on how this is determined, exactly, but one major factor is a website’s link profile.

A link profile is made up of:

The types of links to your website (sources such as directories, forums, news articles, press releases, social, etc.).

How these links were acquired (all at once, or slowly/steadily over time).

The anchor text (words used) in those links (perhaps the most important piece).

Building a Link Foundation: Getting Started

For any website just beginning to build its link profile – sites with no/few backlinks – it’s important to establish a sound foundation of links.

To start, reach out to partners/vendors, trade associations, local Chambers of Commerce, Better Business Bureau, business.com, and other “good” directories. Another way to get things off the ground is to send press releases with links to their website and use their company name in the anchor text of these links.

Above all, especially for a new website, it’s important to create great content that is link worthy,

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Article source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2169465/Building-a-Good-Link-Profile-Measure-Twice-Cut-Once