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7 reasons why link building needs patience

By Erik-Jan Bulthuis

Tags: backlinks, Link building, marketing efforts, relationships, SEO, tactics

Lets just paraphrase this article; link building costs time. Lots of time. Because a lot of people want immediate results I will focus a lot of time and energy on this post to clarify why it is important to have loads of patience. To name a few:

• it takes time to become an authority
• it takes time to do link building for a large set of keywords
• it takes time before Yahoo! Will give us the appropriate information we need
• it takes time before a link is paying off
• it takes time to write good content that is link bait worthy
• it takes time to build a good network
• it takes time to do everything…manually

It takes time to become an authority

When we take a look at the real deal we see that big authorities find it more easy to earn links than sites that are less known. Authorities are more likely to be mentioned when someone has to pick a name in a specific segment. For example; when someone wants to name a bookstore they are more likely to mention Barnes & Noble, Amazon, etc instead of the corner shop running a website.

Authorities also have the advantage to have a good network of followers. An authority posting a research on a specific topic is taken more seriously than a smaller competitor who would have published the same research. These authorities also find it easier to get regional or even global press, often resulting in a link building snowball.

Authority websites usually generate more traffic. The appealing content will be noticed by more people and thus receiving a good inbound link will be more likely to happen. This is something I noticed when I wrote some articles on B2B SEO. The posts that were published as guest posts on authority blogs like Yoast.com received a lot of inbound links, while the one published on Netters (in Dutch) only received a few. Relatively speaking the number of inbound links compared to traffic are the same but the net result is a lot higher on authority blogs.

It takes time to do link building for a large set of keywords

A good link to your website will increase the rankings on all your keywords because your domain is becoming stronger. However in a competitive market you won’t get stunning results with just a few extra links. We all know that good deep links with the right anchor text can really benefit your rankings on your top keywords. I estimate that a website needs about 8 focus keywords (of course this depends per site). This means you will have to do link building for all those 8 keywords phrases.

Branded links

One way to achieve good branding results is to use your business title in anchor texts. You can use a wide variation of keyword combinations including your business title. An example for Onetomarket would be that instead of just using `Onetomarket` as the anchor text it would be wise to use `Onetomarket online marketing`.

Do not ask for links, write your own articles and submit them!

A different way to achieve good quality links with the right anchor text is to write your own articles and submit these to informative websites, blogs, or online magazines in your area of expertise. Most of the times you are allowed to use your own links! Be sure to check in advance if the website that is willing to publish your article is using `nofollow` links. If appropriate you can also use press releases in the same way, but often these don’t include links.

Keyword focused link building always takes time

When you are focusing on 8 keywords and you need about 5 links each, you’ll have to find a numerous amount of websites to help you with your link building. It is important to use every available opportunity (of good quality!). That’s why it is important to invest in your relationships with website owners or PR contacts. Make a phone call instead of resending that email if you feel you are being ignored.

Some articles worth reading on this subject are:

Getting the anchor text you want and Using KW research to diversify link profiles

It takes time before Yahoo! Will give us the appropriate information we need

Yahoo! Isn’t always that fast with indexing new links. It could take weeks before Yahoo! Will show those inbounds links, and in some unfortunate cases, never – while they are there. A good way to check is to see if Yahoo! has indexed the specific page.
As this is slowing down the monitoring of your link building it is wise to use different tools as well. Tools to use for example are Mint to see what new link is providing you new traffic. Another tool you can’t miss of course is the Google Webmaster Central.

Yahoo! and 301’s

Aside, Yahoo has the nasty habit to count 301 redirects as backlinks. I’m wondering if Yahoo will ever recognize a 301 as a 301. It surely will take some time before we will see this happen and the garbage being cleaned out of the results.

It takes time before a link is paying off

It is a known fact that old websites with old links rank easily. According to Google this old domain has earned its stripes and thus deserving a higher ranking. It is not just domain age that counts, also the period the old links already exist. Domains that have been parked for years haven’t increased in value a lot over time.

Unfortunately, ‘getting old’ takes a lot of time. Two years is not old. However a website dating back from the nineties with some good links can rank top 10 with little text on the most competitive keywords. Can’t wait that long? Buy a whole website!

Wayback Machine

The Wayback Machine does not seem to be updated or rarely as of February 2008. This means that new domains have age background according to tools that use the Internet archive as their source of information. Note that it is possible that information is being updated, but is only available to some people.

It takes time to write good content that is link bait worthy

I’ve got a strong feeling that link bait nowadays is the magic word for everything and everyone that needs a bit of link building.
Its true, link bait is offering good opportunities to get you a few nice links, but make sure your content stands out of the crowd.
Some background information:

gathering link bait (in Dutch)

differences between link bait and link building (also in Dutch).

The same counts for link bait as mentioned before; if you reach the authority websites first, your project is much likely to succeed.

Cloning behaviour

Lists are always good. But everyone knows that. The Internet is flooded with lists on top 10s, 20s, 30s, 101s. Some are of high quality. Many of them are the result of poorly copy/paste behaviour.

But what makes it attractive to link to such a list? With each new version the list just has to be more complete!

Work half done right. The One Million Dollar Homepage was a good idea and worth linking to (43000 inbound links). But clones of this idea like The Most Expensive Domainname in the World aren’t worth more than a nofollow link.

SO what is good link bait??

Good link bait derives from your Unique Selling Points. Do you have the credibility to bring thorough research? Do so! Are you known as an informal, spontaneous club of people? Cover some gossip! Are you quick, fast and a real sponge? Earn those scoops and benefit from the momentum!

It takes time to build a good network

By building a network I don’t mean building a good linknetwork. Invest in useful contacts and bond with them so you’ll have a good audience who are more likely to spread the word or happily offer their help to reach your set of goals. Sometimes its plainly simple.

1. a woman is more likely to share.
2. someone who is leaving happy or funny comments are more likely to share than people who are just ‘consuming’
3. someone who sends presents now and then is more likely to share than someone that is `just being nice`.

Identify top decision makers in your segment

Invest in site owner relationships for your segment. Take a look at the top 50 of your most important keywords and interact. Give them some food for thought or even real food and invite them for dinner! You’ll soon notice that getting those links will be a lot more easier for you.

Wiep has a nice tip about this on his blog:

Set up a campaign in Google AdWords’ content network, to determine which (relevant) websites generate traffic and conversions. Contact those websites directly and try to get a link.

Authority, authority, authority

If your brand is well known it will be more easy to get things done. Make sure your brand is part of your link building as this will help you in the future.

It takes time to do everything…manually

Lot of the things that have to be done manually take time, lots of time. Keyword reviews, identifying good ranking websites. Analysing and building profiles of competitors, etc. But also engaging in link building. Spreading press releases, optimizing link profiles, cleaning out paid links and things as such.

Another thing that will take a lot of time is changing an organization. Once engaged in link building they will need to ‘think’ link building. Making it clear that this is important with all players involved takes time and lots of patience.

About Erik-Jan Bulthuis

Erik-Jan Bulthuis is a SEO consultant and works on customers like: Hewlett Packard, Free Record Shop and Wegener.

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4 comments to “7 reasons why link building needs patience”

• Comment by Link Marketing this Month (02.2009) | Wiep.net on March 2nd, 2009 at 9:15 pm
  

  [...] 7 Reasons why link building needs patience – Erik-Jan Bulthuis [...]

• Comment by Jim Morrison on April 2nd, 2009 at 1:55 pm
  

  Hi Erik-Jan, read your article with interest, would like to meet up with you to discuss our link building platform which fully automates the link building and baiting process,keyword research ranking etc etc. It might be of interest, at least it’s worth a cup of coffee and a chat.

  Regards

  Jim

• Comment by Link Building Resources » SEO Archive on May 11th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
  

  [...] 7 Reasons why link building needs patience [...]

• Comment by CI on October 6th, 2009 at 12:13 am
  

  [...] 7 Reasons why link building needs patience – Erik-Jan Bulthuis [...]

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