When first starting out on a new site, webmasters often get caught up in building as many links with targeted anchor text as fast as they can. For high profile start ups with large advertising budgets this may work, as they will likely generate many natural links as a result of their advertising, marketing efforts, and buzz if done properly. But for those of us who are not operating with large marketing budgets this is a plan that will likely lead you to lots of time spent away from the top of the rankings. It will be a while before individual webmasters realize that their ‘quick solution’ to build links will likely cease to produce results in the future.
Ignorance is Bliss
A person who knows nothing about SEO but has a solid handle on being social and genuinely cares about helping people will likely generate more high quality links in long run than a person who thinks they know SEO and link building. When I first started out on the web, I thought I knew about SEO and how to get ranked. I was sure that the key to high rankings was submitting my site to as many directories as I could (I purchased a package for $15 that got me submissions in 500 directories) and using my keyword terms as many times as I could on the page and in the anchor text. I thought the fact that I even knew about anchor text was going to separate me from the pack. I thought rankings were everything and once I got there I was going to be able to quit my job and move to a warm island in the
Doing it right the first time
I chuckle now when I think of what my mindset was back then and how I was convinced I was going to the top with my plan. My biggest problem was that I thought I knew SEO and had a rankings mindset instead of a traffic building mindset. Had my focus been on building traffic streams to my site I would have been better off and would never have done the directory buy, as I did that to get links to improve my search engine ranking. Little did I know that I was nuking my link profile right off the bat and consequently minimalizing the chance that I would be able to rank for anything mildly competitive. Although I was able to achieve a small bit of visibility in Yahoo and MSN, they were not driving traffic and it was going to take a lot of hard work to legitimize my link profile in the eyes of Google.
(Artificial) Ignorance is Bliss
So knowing what I know now about building links and SEO, what would I do if I could start all over again? I would attempt to simulate as much as possible the link profile of somebody who knew nothing about SEO. I would avoid all large directories off the bat (I like to get those links a little later after topical relevance has been established), and try to get two or three quality topical links from within my industry and maybe submit to more industry specific directories and/or local directories. I think large directories have their place, but they are links that anybody with $500 can get and in addition to being a pretty obvious SEO footprint, they really don’t tell the engines too much about your site that can’t be achieved using more effective means. I would also buy an advertisement where most of my prospects would likely be. If I get a link out of it, great, but it’s not my primary concern. My main goal with my first few links would be to establish myself in my desired community of sites by getting links from the sites that rank well for my keywords. Yes, this is much easier said than done and could take time (possibly a few months depending on industry), but I think by starting off on the right foot you are setting yourself up for success in the long run and the wait will be worth it.