It ‘s been one helluva busy month this June, and it seems i failed to keep my commitment to write this Backlink 101 topic, 1 subject for each day. It was kinda hard to catch up with many sites I should ‘ve work on my daily work. So, I ‘ve decided to skip the past days.. and guess what?
I ‘m gonna close this June with some ultimate Backlink resources for us blogger / webmaster would definitely need. It’s the Backlink Checker Tools.

Why We Need the Tools?

Anchor text is a major ranking factor – it is hard to manipulate – well, at least it is getting harder now after Google started its anti-paid-links war and got really good at spotting link schemes. Thus by exploring the anchor text of the site backlinks, you will:

1. Get an idea of the competitors’ link building strategy
2. Understand what people think of your site
3. Get help with your keyword research (webmasters usually focus on their most important keywords when building links).

So based on Ann ‘s awesome article about the same subject, here ‘re the 7 Ultimate tools to check our site’s backlinks in regard gaining the above purposes.

The 7 Ultimate Backlink Tools :

1. BacklinkWatch – Tool Type: Web Based

BacklinkWatch is a bit stuffed with advertisements and slow, but it’s free. It will take time visiting each page linking to your site and find the anchor text.

2. Smart backlinks tool – Tool Type: Web Based

Smart backlinks tool is the next Web based tool. Offers a handy FireFox extension and viewing options (anchor text on/off; nofollow on/off) speeding up the checking process.

3. Analyze Back Links – Tool Type: Web Based

Analyze Back Links a new but promising tool also allowing for a number of useful settings and ofcourse anchor text being one of them. Some figures however – total backlinks, for examples – seems inaccurate, or I didn’t understand what they stand for.

4. Link Diagnosis – Tool Type: Web Based, Firefox Extension Required.

Link Diagnosis tool takes a lot of time but that’s worth it. The utility offers the widest variety of sorting options, anchor text is one of them, enabling you to quickly find any page you need. The result will include how many PR your site has, anchor texts, no-follow information and more.

5. Seobook BackLink Analyzer – Tool Type: Desktop application (Windows-only)

Seobook BackLink Analyzer is a great free application that has a number of useful options:

• backlinking TLD
• backlink anchor text
• linked page URL
• backlinking site IP address
• linking page outbound links
• backlinking domain Dmoz and Yahoo directory presence
• backlink nofollow flag.

It also has a handy export feature, and offers overall backlink summary, link summary per IP address and keyword-in-anchor-text summary. One more promising option I haven’t tested effectively include reciprocal link check.

6. SEO SpyGlass – Tool Type: Desktop Application (Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X)

SEO SpyGlass is another impressive – paid application – that offers an exhaustive backlinking report:

• backlinking page Google PR
• backlinking page title
• reciprocal link presence
• link anchor text
• linked page URL
• backlink page outbound and total links
• backlink domain IP address
• backlinking site Alexa rank
• backlinking domain Dmoz and Yahoo directory mentions

You can also save the project and enjoy a range of analysis options: anchor text, PageRank distribution, etc.

7. BackLinks Master – Tool Type: Desktop Application (Windows only)

BackLinks Master looks neat but I had some problems to get it running. The good news is that it’s free and has a number of good features:

• you can view all links or links sorted by domain
• it will also check the anchor text and link type.

So what about you? Got other tools you use the most to analyze your – or your competitor’s – backlinks? Feel free to share them here!

All we ever hear is numbers numbers numbers. So and So has this many links, we need this many links, how many links can you get us, buy 100’s of links cheap, get your link on 100 pages, argghh!!

The Numbers Game Died

The numbers game died a few years ago. There’s another line of thinking out there that you might not know about.
It’s not always “He with the most links” who wins the game. Often, “He with the right links” can win the game as well. Really, pretty often. He with the right 10 links can beat the guy with 1000 of the wrong links. I see this last one, all the time.

I’m sure most of us have looked at search results, and followed it up by checking the backlinks of the top 10 sites, and then scratched our heads and said “Uhm, why is that site in the top 10? It only has X amount of links! Doesn’t make sense.” I know I used to do that a lot. Upon closer inspection I’ll usually find that the sites with fewer backlinks that rank on the first page of search results have links that are more relevant, or more trusted, or seem to come from the “right places” (trusted industry related sites).

Sure, there’s different ways to play the game of SEO. Go for volume of links or go for Trusted links. But few go on the angle of “get the right links” and you might not need as many links as you thought you did.

Problem with the Volume War

See, a problem with going for volume is that you can’t stop. You and your competitors might be running in a dogs race always trying to get one more link than the other guys….you buy ‘em in volumes…you trade ‘em in volumes, you 3 way ‘em, you site-wide ‘em. You do what ever you can to get your total backlinks up, up, and away.

Problem with that is, is that you often get links from non-trusted sites (artificial backlink sites) or you get them on “Links” pages. Which this officially tossing a sign on your site saying “Google, kick me, I’m an artificial SEOd trying to artificially inflate my backlinks”. You get them for 200 directories, which another “Google kick me, I’m an artificial SEOd” sign.

And the more you get, the more you fall. The more you fall, the more you cry : “I must need more, more, more”. That’s when the more further you slip. It’s really a bad SEO trap that’s been laid out for you.

Getting trusted backlinks, Map the Neighborhood

Now, getting trusted backlinks is way better. Finding sites that have “Real backlinks” (not SEO’d sites), and getting your links on real pages is really cool. Winning by trust can be done, until the engines start to say “here’s the neighborhood, but you’re not in it” and wa-la, yea, you’re trusted too. Just not by your peers, and your rankings slip again.

I truely believe that the engines are trying to find the neighborhood. And that the numbers game is dying big time. So, remember that site that ranked high, yet had few backlinks?
Take a look at the drawing below:

Ok….see the dot I pointed with the red arrows? Those sites might not have the most backlinks, BUT they’re in the center of the activity. They got the right links, the hubs and the authorities. They don’t have a link from everyone, but They got the right links.

Getting a few of the right links, from the right places can be more valuable than getting 100 links from the wrong places.

( Jim Boykin, Internet marketing specialist, and CEO of We Build Pages )

Our Day 7 discussion is the Love for Lists. There’re 5 things you need to take a closer look about lists.
Here goes..

1. Build a “101 list”.

People tend to love lists. 101 lists, 10 easy tips, top 10 myths.. They seem to drive the most traffic.
These get Dugg all the time, and often become “authority documents”. People can’t resist linking to these .

2. Create a “10 easy tips” articles.

10 easy tips to improve your Alexa rank, 10 easy tips to help our pagerank boosted, 10 easy tips to help you gain more adsense earning. You know, that kinda stuff.
These are exceptionally easy to link to.

3. Create extensive resource lists for a specific topic.

Provide users some useful lists they might need in a particular area. List of Competitive Research Tools, list of Weblog Promotion Tools, list of SEO and Web Development Sales Tools, and stuff.

4. Create a list of the top 10 myths for a specific category.

Ever heard a myth? Or have heard some myths? List them, sort them, create a top 10 or top 5 or top whatever. Chosen category is yours to choose. Make sure it still the same as your site ‘s niche.

5. Create a list of gurus/experts.

If you impress the people listed well enough, or find a way to make your project look somewhat official, the gurus may end up linking to your site or saying thanks. (Sometimes flattery is the easiest way to strike up a good relationship with an “authority”.)

As you guys can see, I did it all the time, and is one of the greatest strategy of link building.

Here’s the Day 6 topic. “8 Things to Avoid!” Why should we? Well, some of us still practicing these 8 things below in this link building area. Bad things happened. Got penalized, hurt our site’s reputation and stuff.
Make sure to read each, so they won’t happened to yours.

Don’t participate in link popularity farms.

Don’t participate in link popularity farms. Don’t participate in programs that send out e-mails soliciting people to swap links (link spamming). Never place a link on your own site for the sole purpose of trading link popularity. Only place links that are valuable to your readers. Never try to get low-integrity Web sites to link to you. The link will actually hurt your site, not help it.

Create your link directory to be tightly themed. DO NOT include directory listings unless they match the themes or subjects of your Web site.

Tell people to LINK OFF.

Yes, it’s really odd. Turns out my marketing site was also known for wicker furniture and adult chat among other things. What?

Yes, a couple of sites thought it would be a good idea to link to me, just because I do well in the search engines. The problem was their links didn’t make sense as they were totally off topic. We both ended up getting penalized.

Usually you cannot make people remove incoming links, unless they are infringing on some kind of patent. But if you kindly explain that what they are doing is actually giving their site a penalty and hurting their findability, the links come down pretty fast. What they are doing is building the reputation of my page with what they say in their outgoing links. If what the links say do not match the topic of my page, the search engine gives the page containing the link a penalty.

Simply put:
Reputation is what a page is known for. What incoming links say the page is about. Topic is what the page is really about. The actual content of a page. The Reputation must match the Topic.

Stay out of “Bad Neighborhoods”

Be careful about who YOU link to. Stay out of “bad neighborhoods.” Don’t submit to FFA (Free for All) sites or join link exchange programs or farms. Using bulk submission programs won’t increase your link popularity either.

Never send out a “Blanket” e-mail

Never send out a “blanket” e-mail to hundreds of sites asking for a reciprocal link. Make each e-mail personal. Mention something that you like on their site. Give the URL for their links page. Discuss one of their products. Ask them a question. Do ANYTHING to make it clear that this is a personal request and not a mass-generated e-mail.

Don’t apply to sites that have hundreds of links on one page
Just like with the search engines, “If you’re not in the Top 10, you’re Cyber-Road Kill” ( Quote from Ginette Degner of Search Engine Services )

Don’t solicit sites that have their reciprocal links pages so deep in the site it’s difficult to find. If you have trouble finding the pages, so will the spiders.

Don’t solicit sites that have nothing to do with your business.
Keep your link directories clean of 404s or dead links.

Alrite, it’s the day 5 of our 30 Days Backlink 101, the in-depth discussion for the oh so called backlink. Fasten our seatbealt, coz we’re on our way to begin the discussion to this Day 5 Topic, “7 Ways to Be a Content Provider.”

How come, being a content provider could be such a way in link building subject. Well, read on. You ‘ll found out the why and the how pretty soon.

1. Provide the best resources on a particular topic

The bottom line is the easiest most obvious answer. It’s also the toughest to do. Give people a reason to link to you. Think about it. Sites get linked to for a reason: usually if they provide the most information or the best resources on a particular topic. Is there any reason WHY people should link to your site? How is your content? Even if you are not a writer, ask the writers if you can use their stuff. The answer is usually yes. The writer gets a link from you. And you get great content. Now people will start linking to you.

2. Providing an Asset

We all want to get on the top ranking sites listed in Google with few, if any outbound links. But what if they don’t have a links program in place? Here’s one way to get yourself linked from these choice sites. The top sites in a keyword category often don’t have a links program, but they do have an e-zine or content library on their site. So… Write a 300-500 word article on a topic of real interest to their target market and submit it to the Webmaster, as well as to other e-zines reaching the same target audience. Include in your article sig file (or credit box) your site link and an enticing description. In other words, give the site owner something they can use that delivers real value to their constituents.

By providing them with an asset, you’re reaching them in a new way that goes beyond a simple link request. A couple of notes:

• Don’t market in your article. Deliver real value instead.
• Before writing anything, subscribe to their e-zine first or go through their site content. Fill any gap you see create something new that they don’t already have on file.
• Market in your sig file only – and be sure to include your full site URL!

3. Become an “expert” in your particular field and write related articles.

Become an “expert” in your particular field and write related articles. Market those articles to online content providers. Be sure to include your byline at the end of your article, including your name, company name, and URL’s, and make sure to use appropriate keyword-containing link text. Coachmaria.com has this list of places that accept articles.

4. Write a testimonial for a product or service

Write a testimonial for a product or service that you particularly like in your topic area. Many companies will put testimonials throughout their site, with links back to the company providing the testimonial. (Robin Nobles of Search Engine Workshops, Online Search Engine Marketing Courses, and the TNT-Guides for Successful Web Sites.

5. Create teaser articles

Create teaser articles. See if you can get the first third of the article listed on their site with a keyword rich text link leading back to your site where they can find the rest of the article. Be sure you get the bio with an additional link to your homepage as well.

6. Offer something free

Offer something for free (such as a downloadable report), and then ask for a link back to your site if the person finds value in the free item. This works because you’re giving away something of value, and when people find it valuable, they’re likely to reciprocate.

7. Use emotional content

Use emotional content to give people a reason to link to you. A site built on a single theme may often benefit from using content which employs:

• unique theme-related information which appeals to the emotions
• original and appropriate humor
• content of extremely useful nature (references materials)
• original cartoon work
• animation that appeals to the senses or tells a short story
• something with an uncommon emotional element

Web sites that employ emotional elements often find that other sites with a similar theme will automatically link up to them just because of that emotional appeal.

Next is, Who Should You Target? Well, there’re 14 pointers from the seo pros, we could take a look at to.
You may need to pay more attention on each below, to get things in its proper way.

1. Inktomi’s link analysis program policy is that sites that link to its relevant topic category page on Yahoo! receive improved hub factor rankings because of Yahoo!’s popularity. A reciprocal link with Yahoo! is even more beneficial. Get your site listed with Yahoo!; it is easier today than before with the Business Express option.
( Detlev Johnson with The Ascendant Group )

2. While you’re at it, link back to the search engines. Does it help? I don’t know. But what if it does? What if the search engines check if your site leads back to them? What if they give 1% boost if you do? Would 1% matter if everyone else had 99% relevancy and you got an extra 1%? Hmmm, something to ponder. I always link every important site back to the major search engines and directories as a little thank you gesture.
( Michael Campbell with Internet Marketing Secrets )

3. Get a link in an appropriate category from an About.com Guidesite. The popularity of About and the extent of their quality links positions the network as a mandatory stop in a marketing campaign. Also, make sure to thoroughly annotate links on your Web site with targeted keyword phrases. This will aid Google and other engines in their partial indexing.
( Marshall Simmonds of About.com )

4. Your homepage is not the only part of your site that you can get links for. If you offer an online newsletter, there are directories just for newsletters you can get links from. If your site has multimedia files, there are multimedia search engines you can submit to. If you have other files, like .pdf files or even image files, there are search engines you can get links from.
( Eric Ward, President, NetPOST and URLwire )

5. Go to Google and search for “submit a link” AND “put your keyword phrase here.” You’ll be shown a list of sites that have link pages on them in your keyword area, and some of them may be worth writing to. “Submit a URL,” “add a URL,” etc., will work too.
( Elbert Flores of Position Research )

6. Think in terms of related fields as opposed to actual competition. Are there any organizations or associations connected with your industry? What about educational establishments? Publications? News sites? (Robin Nobles of Search Engine Workshops, Online Search Engine Marketing Courses, and the TNT-Guides for Successful Web Sites.
How many links do you need pointing to your site? More than your competition.
( Stephen Mahaney of Planet Ocean )

7. Find as many themed directories to submit to as possible. Make sure the directory is already in Google, has a good PR, and doesn’t use dynamic script in the address. Think about your theme. If you are a marketing firm, look for marketing directories/hubs/portals/vortals, do the same for business to business or b2b. If you are niched or focused on one aspect of marketing, then also look to that for your directories. You can probably stretch it to advertising directories. Be creative but stick with your theme. Once you are listed, it’s good to have a page on your site that you use to feed the spiders: a “Where we can be found on the Web” page. Link directly to the page you can be found on.
( Debra Paynter with Promotion Strategies )

8. Ask your upstream or downstream suppliers to link to you and you to them. If you are a wholesaler, you don’t sell to the public, only to retailers. List your top 10 retailers as a reward to them. Same with retailers, link to your main wholesalers, unless they have to remain a secret for some reason. Advertising agencies and printing shops can link to their customers and vice versa.
( Michael Campbell with Internet Marketing Secrets )

9. Paying for a link at Overture.com (formerly GoTo.com) that is not in the top five in the search results is, in most cases, a waste. Results of six and lower are not made available to the Overture partner sites, which collectively have millions more users than Overture does alone. Like AOL, for example. If the cost increase is just a few cents, get in the top five, and your site could be found across all of Overture’s partner sites rather than only at Overture.com.
( Eric Ward, President, NetPOST and URLwire )

10. Download Google’s Toolbar (http://toolbar.google.com) to ensure that inbound links are from decent sites, with a minimum of 3 out of 10 on the toolbar.
( Dixon Jones with Receptional )

11. Link quality simply means how well positioned are the pages that link to you. There are also boosts and penalties involved. If you are linked to by a spammy link farm, you get a penalty. If you are linked to by a directory like Yahoo, LookSmart, or Dmoz you get a boost. What about the hundreds of free directories? Yes, they all help. In my Vault, I list about 80 search resources. Dozens of them are directories. Take a few days and MANUALLY submit your site to every directory that will take it. I was surprised to find several directories for my own city. Regional directories can often supply plenty of incoming links. Every relevant link helps.
( Michael Campbell with Internet Marketing Secrets )

12. Go after authoritative sites. Look for vertical engines and directories in your topic areas. Look for popular sites. One or two authoritative sites linking back to you will do you more good than 1,000 irrelevant links. Visit Search Engine Guide and Beaucoup for a listing of vertical engines and directories.
( Robin Nobles of Search Engine Workshops, Online Search Engine Marketing Courses, and the TNT-Guides for Successful Web Sites. )

13. Work on building rapport with other Webmasters. By building up a “working rapport” with other local Webmasters or affiliates, there are lots of ways that you can mutually benefit by trading links with several similarly themed sites, which are non-competing. Once you start working with other Webmasters, it’s surprising what synergies may develop. Remember to give your very best to your fellow Webmasters as these relationships are win/win.
( John Alexander with Search Engine Workshops, TNT-Guides for Successful Web Sites, and Beyond-SEO ).

14. I am not a fan of reciprocal links unless they are complimentary. Portals and directories will naturally work better. My logic with outbound links is, “You have already lost the client for today, Dixon, so get a better product tomorrow.”)
( Dixon Jones with Receptional )

Strategy Number 1

1. First, build a content rich site, narrow in scope.
Say half a dozen high potential keywords, with a smattering of lessor important but still related keywords.

2. Then, contact other sites that have the same scope as yours does, and ask for a reciprocal link.
After you have already linked to them, of course!]. If you build a site that is content rich, informative, and above all else has unique content, then all your peers will beat a path to your door, asking you for a link!

3. Get your site listed at Yahoo
Yes, it does force you to yank out your wallet, but it IS one of the best links you can get. Do the research necessary to find the most appropriate category [which is where the Link Relevancy comes from], and get that title and description optimized!

4. Get into the ODP.
Do the same research as you did at Yahoo for the best category.

5. Find out which of the thousands of specialty SE’s and directories that your site is a good fit for, and submit to them.

6. After you are done with 1 – 5, build another content rich site.
And on this one, concentrate on your next batch of kw’s. Cross link the home pages. Repeat.

7. Even though blogging is all the rage these days, I think it will go the way of link farms in the not-too-distant future, especially if/when the SE’s determine that it is just another case of spamming.
We are staying away from it, and concentrating on the 6 tactics above.

8. Of much less importance is cross linking within each of your individual sites.
I have gotten away from heavy cross linking, relying instead on good site maps [which addresses spiderability, not link pop].

(Rocky Rawstern with 7th Wave)

Strategy Number 2

Like Links:

9. Identify useful linkages.

If you’re a Web developer, break your clients (or willing contacts from the industry) into relevant linked groups: e.g. realtors, travel and tourism, technology companies.

10. category-page.html.

Build a link list for each group (one for realtors, one for travel and tourism, etc.), plain html, listing a keyword-relevant title for each description which links to the site for each client, with one or two paragraphs about the site. Example: “Travel accommodations and resorts in Australia”

Save this page as say, travel-sites.html, and perhaps to remember where it lives easily, and make it easily updateable, save it in a directory like www.yourclientsite.com/accommodations/travel-sites.html

11. Make each of the pages different within each site.

Now apply your site template for each site in the list, to that raw html page, (in other words cut and paste the list into a blank version of one of your existing pages for each site and save it as /accommodations/travel-sites.html) so that you have different look, feel and byte size, for each of the pages built, in line with the look of each site. This will stop most SE’s viewing pages as duplicate content when in fact what you’re validly doing is provided useful related links to other resources on the Web.

12. Make a site-map.html.

Build a site map within every site in the above list, if you haven’t already. In each site, have the site map linking to every internal page, set out like the one above, with at least a one paragraph description of what is on the page, with relevant keywords, which is also useful to humans. Hyperlink the main keyword/phrase to the pages within your site. Also include a link to the above link page (/accommodations/travel-sites.html) which lists all the other related sites. Save the site map as something like site-map.html.

13. Make a link to the site map from each home page.

On your home (index/default) page include a link to the site-map.html page.

14. Submit to search engines.

Submit your home page to major SE’s if it hasn’t been submitted in a while. So now you have a link to a site map on your home page, with that site map listing one paragraph descriptions and hyperlinks to all the pages in your site, including your new accommodations/travel-sites.html (which now looks just like the rest of your pages in the site).

This simple 6-step process is a popularity and relevancy boost for ALL the sites you have on the travel-sites.html list. Firstly, from the home page on each site, SE spiders and humans now have access to relevant descriptive links to all pages in your site and other related sites. They have the addition of some useful “related resource” information within the site content using the travel-sites.html page. And most importantly, they have “x” more relevant sites as incoming links. If all the sites are full of valid and unique topic-related content, you’ve built a nice little interlinked network of sites for very little effort. And with a resubmission to the major SE’s of this new content, you should see some increased results within 3 months when checking link relevancy. (Carl Watney with Unearthed)

Complete Strategy 3

Begin a Link Exchange Campaign to create high quality content, high PageRank links to your site by utilizing the following steps, in order:

15. Create a links or resources page on your site.

16. Establish a list of at least 50 related but non-competing, high quality content sites
with a high Google PageRank that you would like to exchange links with by doing the following:

• 1. Download Google toolbar (http://toolbar.google.com) to be able to establish PageRank grading for the sites that come up in the following search results

  2. Do searches on Google for:

  - terms that will show search results displaying sites that relate to your own site, but are not direct competitors

  Check out these sites, one by one, beginning with the ones listed first in the search results, for quality content, non-competitiveness, and Web master’s email address, and note down in a list the sites that meet these criterion, recording as well the site’s title and description from the homepage source code

  - terms that will show search results displaying sites that directly compete with your own site

  - terms that will show search results displaying sites that directly compete with your own site

Beginning with the ones listed first in the Google search results, check out each site with a linking tool (e.g. of tool, go to http://chatologica.com.) Click on Web Site Popularity Check at the bottom of the page to establish what sites link to theirs, and make a list of these linking sites. Then check out each of these sites that are linked to your direct competitor for quality content, non-competitiveness, and Web master’s email address, and note down on the same list you began in b., the sites that meet these criterion, recording as well the site’s title and description from the homepage source code. (Chris Genge with 1st on the List Promotion Inc.)

Be very clear with your request for reciprocal linking. After you have thoroughly researched a potential site to ensure they are appropriate and actually do have links to other sites, consider the following:

- Start with a very brief description of your site’s content and how it relates to their site.

- Provide the exact URL of their page you think the link would be most beneficial. Show them that you’ve actually visited the site and given some thought to the link.

- Finally, give the HTML code for the link so the Webmaster can cut and paste it directly into his page code. That gives you some control over the link placement and lets you include your keywords into the link text.

(Terry Plank with the Academy of Web Specialists and Search Engine Marketing Consultants)

Creating the Letter

Take care in crafting your reciprocal links letter. Make sure it’s the best it can be before sending it out. Remember, you’re asking for a favor (a mutually beneficial favor, but a favor nonetheless), so be polite and respectful in your letter. Otherwise, you’ll get nowhere fast.
(Gil Sery with Search Engine Optimization Pros)

Create a “Link Exchange Letter,” requesting a link exchange with your site, to each of the sites you have noted in your list. Make sure you’ve come up with at least 50 good quality content, non-competitive sites with a decent PageRank score of their own to email.
(Chris Genge with 1st on the List Promotion Inc.)

Example of a Link Exchange Letter:

( – End of sample letter – )

The above example is for a non-reciprocal link request, and it resulted in a link being obtained for my client. It could be changed easily to make it a reciprocal link request by adding one sentence that says where you gave them a link. (Eric Ward, President, NetPOST and URLwire)

In search engine optimization, “off page” factors have become more and more important as they relate to rankings. In particular, solid link popularity can literally make or break a site with the search engines.

Before we go any further, what is “link popularity”?

In very simplistic terms, link popularity refers to the number and quality of the incoming links that are pointing to your site. These other sites consider your site important enough to link to. So, in the engine’s view, your site is considered important as well. What is meant by “link popularity” can get much more complex, which will be discussed further in this topic series.

However, one of the most difficult areas of SEO is building link popularity. Why?

Because the engines don’t want “artificially created” (or useless) links, so there are no easy ways to build link popularity. The days of link farms and huge link exchange programs are over. Try those strategies now and you can easily find yourself booted out of an engine.

Rather, the engines want links from authoritative sites, or links from sites that share the same focus as your site.

But besides the link popularity you gain by getting an authoritative site to link to you, you also gain additional visibility for your Web site. So, when working on building link popularity, don’t forget those two basic reasons for requesting links.

Direct Email Exchange Request

This is by far the oldest and best-known method of improving link popularity. Basically you email or contact the Webmaster of a site that is complementary but generally not competitive to your own. You ask them to link to your site while outlining the benefits of doing so. You would generally offer to link back to them in exchange for this courtesy. Be sure you have developed genuine content on your Web site of interest to the trading partner. Explain the advantages to them and to their visitors by providing a link to your content. Tell them where the link on your site will be or set the link up in advance with the stipulation that you’ll be glad to leave it there if they’ll add a link to you in kind. Take the time to look over their site and then suggest where a link to you might be appropriate. Most importantly, personalize your emails! You must distinguish yourself from all the spam they receive daily. If the link is particularly important to you, call them personally or write them a letter or send a fax to show them you’re serious.
(Brent Winters of First Place Software)

Here’s the simple means to find those good links :

Go to the major search engines. Search for your target keywords. Look at the pages that appear in the top results. Now visit those pages and ask the site owners if they will link to you. Not everyone will, especially sites that are extremely competitive with you. However, there will be non-competitive sites that will link to you — especially if you offer to link back. Why is this system good? By searching for your target keywords, you’ll find the pages that the search engines themselves are telling you are good, as evidenced by the fact that they rank well. Hence, links from these pages are more important — and important for the terms you are interested in — than links from other pages. (Danny Sullivan with Search Engine Watch)

SEARCHDAY NOTE: Search Engine Watch members have access to a long article by Danny explaining both link analysis and appropriate link building in depth.

When asking for a link:

• ALWAYS have a link already put on your own site BEFORE you ask for a link in return and give the location of the link. It’s harder to say no if you can provide the URL of where their link is.
• ALWAYS give them the exact link text to use, even going so far as to put it in HTML so they can just cut/paste it onto their page.
• MAKE SURE they actually have a links page!
• GIVE THEM as much information as needed in order to make it easy for them to link to you. If they have a big site that’s divided into sections, give them the exact URL of where your site would fit in. Then, provide the HTML for the link to your site.

(Robin Nobles of the Academy of Web Specialists and Search Engine Workshops)

Use voice instead of email to reciprocate and try contacting people by voice instead of email.
More people are inclined to respond to your request when you introduce yourself by phone and let them know that you were visiting their site. Ask permission to link to their site. In return, you might state that a link back is appreciated but not required. Assuming they say yes, then you simply link up to them and confirm by email once you have confirmed. Warm personal voice contact goes a lot further than a cold email or even a warm email letter. (John Alexander with Beyond-SEO and Search Engine Workshops)

Pre-qualify the people you solicit for reciprocal links.
They must have links from other sites like yours, and they must have the ability to make changes to their own site. If they don’t respond to your solicitation, at most send ONE second request. Otherwise move on and take their site off of yours. Send a thank you note if they give you a reciprocal link. (Gary Woods with Beautiful Santa Barbara Real Estate)

Search for sites that rank high for search terms that are important to you
Then look through the search results for sites that do not compete with you. These sites should be high on your list of link targets. Piggy back on their high ranking. (Eric Ward, President, NetPOST and URLwire)

Check the link popularity of your competitors

And find out who are linking to them. Contact those Web sites, and ask them to link to you in return for a reciprocal link. (Robin Nobles of the Academy of Web Specialists and Search Engine Workshops)

Search the sites of the people who have linked to you for other possible link partners. (Gary Woods with Beautiful Santa Barbara Real Estate)

Find URLs that are currently linking to one or more of your pages and ask the appropriate Webmaster if they might also find value in other pages on your site (that you might suggest). (Mike Adams, the Email Doctor)

Manually search for Web sites that have the same theme as your Web site.
When requesting a link, make sure to highlight what your site has to offer their visitors and why they should link to it. A compelling case will increase your success. (Becky Thompson with Inter@ctivate Inc.)

Review any Web site to which you want to link *before* writing to its Webmaster asking for a link.

Like all SEO, do it manually. Automating the task is asking for trouble, especially if you haven’t reviewed the site before asking for the link. (Gil Sery with Search Engine Optimization Pros)

If someone says they can not or do not wish to link to your site, I would still ask their permission to link to them. Instead of sending them a confirmation, try sending them a pleasant thank you for permission to link to their Web site. Don’t be surprised if they DO link back. (John Alexander with Beyond-SEO and Search Engine Workshops)

If you’ve moved your site and you’re asking those who have linked to you to change to your new URL, give them as much information as possible. I have over 300 pages on my personal site, but I still have people who will write and tell me to change their link to: http://www.mynewwebsite.com. Yet, they don’t tell me their old URL (so I can easily do a search), and they don’t tell me which of those 300 pages their link exists on. Do I have the time to dig through those 300 pages to find their old link? (Robin Nobles of theAcademy of Web Specialists and Search Engine Workshops)

Well, well.. It’s been a while since my last post. Just finished my latest compilations and scheduling, for this next interesting topic. The Backlink. I ‘m planning on to write the in-depth discussion about backlink and this June is about a great timing.

I ‘ve sorted the backlink materials to be post each day, starting now, and will be ended by the end of this month, June the 30th. There will be 30 Hottest topics we ‘ll discuss. So be sure to check back often ( read: daily ), ‘coz this month is gonna be the Backlink month!

Let’s call it, 30 Days Backlink 101.

The Goal

I ‘m hoping, by the end of this month, this topic answer all questions which mailed to me all the time.
Self educational purposes still my best goal to reach, but the most is,

Educate our self to educate others freely.

That’s what open source all about, right?

Here goes..