“I’ll share your link if you’ll share mine!” It sounds pretty good…after all, you know Google looks for other people linking to your site to see if your stuff is useful. But does link exchanging work?
Myth #2: Getting put on someone’s “Links of people who link to me” page is going to make Google happy.
Link exchanging in this manner does NOT work. Google has a nose-up-in-the-air reaction to link directories whose sole purpose is to link to people who have linked to them. They might even dock you a couple of points…just to prove a point.
And the point is?
It’s too easy. It’s too controllable. These websites are not (necessarily) related to what you do. They just want a link, and you want a link. Google sees this as link manipulation and feels like you’re going behind her back.
Let’s make an honest guy/gal out of you
Let’s get serious here. You DO need links. Number and quality of backlinks are one of the biggest determining factors in your search engine ranking. You need highly relevant, Google-approved websites to link to you in a natural, not-suspicious way.
How?
Well, it’s not easy. In a nutshell, you follow the same rules as for building your site’s traffic.
- Write good stuff. Write stuff nobody else is writing, or at least write it in a way that nobody else is writing it.
- Be unique. Be yourself…in a way that nobody can forget. Take your strongest qualities and BE those things. All the time. Or you know…build your personal brand.
- Don’t view every interaction as a pitching opportunity. None of us like to be pitched to. It feels like “Let me lick your toe so that you’ll make me some money.” Eww…who wants their toe licked? No one. Not one person in this entire universe likes toe-licking. I hope.
- Do something that’s actually going to benefit the people that you want to notice you. So toe-licking is out. What about mailing a hand-written note thanking them for bringing their awesomeness to the world? How about sending them an article that solves that “what-kind-of-pet-to-get” dilemma they were having? Don’t expect them to link to you. Just do it out of that authentic place inside of you that wants to really get to know and appreciate these cool people.
- Be involved in an online community. Whether you’re connected on Twitter, Facebook, or some other place where a bunch of people get together, be there. Don’t be there for five hours a day (after all, why would an awesome person like you spend most of their time in the proverbial break room?) But spend 15 or 20 minutes building great relationships.
There is no “get-links-quick” scheme
Sorry. It takes most websites 2-3 years to get to that “Oooh…that website is so totally cool, and I MUST link to it” stage. But to get there, you’ve got to do the work. And go ahead and get rid of your links page, unless it’s a hand-picked collection of relevant resources that will be fabulously valuable to your audience — because that, you know, is who this is all about.
2 Comments
Great advice… most people forget that links really are purposeful connections, saying “something I want to share, because…” and not just a bit of code or text. Artificial linking will become more and more frowned upon, not just by Google and other search engines, but by savvy web users who understand the connectivity of the new web.
Absolutely. Google is even really paying attention to sponsored links within posts (have no clue HOW, but apparently, they do.) They frown horribly on those because they see it as a breach of journalistic integrity.