What Not to Do with Link Building

Before we get started with the 75 ideas, let’s put some ground rules in place. Whenever you embark on any link building, keep these ideas in mind:

1. Don’t go requesting reciprocal links from every website on the planet. This might have helped several years ago, but you can be penalized for it today.If you do engage in reciprocal links, make sure they are with related sites and make the links natural within your site. In other words, don’t just make a “Links Page” and list links. Add your partner’s link to relevant content pages or wherever it just “makes sense” to do so.
2. Don’t engage in comment spam. In most cases it’s a complete waste of time, because filters do a good job of catching spam comments. It’s also a good way to make bloggers angry with you. Only add your link in the space provided for your link and don’t add links within the body of your comment, unless it’s very relevant and you know it’s acceptable to the blogger.
3. Don’t submit every page of your site to social news sites. We’re talking about sites like digg.com, reddit.com, etc. You’ll just end up getting ignored, and you’ll probably be banned too. A better idea is to encourage others to submit you instead.
4. Resist the urge to submit to every directory you run across. There are only a few that are worth your time. Directories that post sites without reviewing them are usually considered link farms, and their links are penalized in the search engines.




5. Show Restraint and Be Relevant. Avoid posting links to your site in forum posts unless they are extremely relevant to the subject at hand and is allowed. That’s what your signature is for.
6. Don’t bother with webrings and other dated link building techniques. Concentrate on creating good content and promoting it, and links will come.

Now that we have that out of the way…

Next: 75 Ways to Build Quality Links to Your Website
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photo credit: dnak