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5. Soliciting and Exchanging
Relevant Links
Sending a few friendly emails to get a link from a neighbor may result in a few high-quality links. Exchang
-
ing links in
moderation
with various related
relevant
web sites may also help with search engine rankings.
“Moderation,” as usual, is difficult to define. However, a good metric is whether you believe that the link
could realistically appear on its own regardless. If not, or it’s on a “directory” page referenced at the bot-
tom of the page with a sea of other random links, probably not!
6. Buying Links
Because relevant links are a major factor in search engine rankings, they have an equity — a “link equity.”
Predictably, individuals and businesses are now in the business of selling links. There is some disagree-
ment, however, as to whether this is against the terms of service of the various search engines.
This topic is discussed in Chapter 8, “Black Hat SEO,” although we do
not
consider buying relevant
links a black hat practice. Several reputable companies are in the business of selling or brokering links.
We strongly recommend only buying relevant links. This is not only because it is definitely against the
terms of service of many search engines to buy irrelevant links, but also because such irrelevant links
do not work as well in the first place. Some reputable link brokers are listed here:
?
Text Link Ads (
http://www.text-link-ads.com
)
?
Text Link Brokers (
http://www.textlinkbrokers.com
)
?
LinkAdage (
http://www.linkadage.com/
)
Text Link Ads also estimates the value of a link on a given web site. The tool is located at
http://
www.text-link-ads.com/link_calculator.php
.
Chapter 2, “A Primer in Basic SEO,” discusses the essentials of link building and related concepts at
length.
7. Creating Link Bait
Although link bait can be difficult and hit-or-miss as far as results, it can frequently be an extremely
economical way to build links. Link bait can vary from useful information and humor to intricate site
tools and browser toolbars. For example, the link value calculator cited in section 6 is a great example
of link bait.
Link bait is discussed in Chapter 10, “Link Bait.”
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Chapter 15: Site Clinic: So You Have a Web Site?
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