Columns > Link Week
Link
Week looks at one of the most fundamental and
yet challenging aspects of search marketing: Building and
nurturing those all-important inbound links to your web
site. Columnists offer insights and tips for effective
link building and discuss controversial techniques like
linkbaiting and buying links. The Link Week column
appears on Mondays at Search Engine Land.
To get this column via email or feed, visit our columns page.
Jun. 24, 2008 at 2:42pm by Rae Hoffman
What's A 404 To Do?
Have you ever written a blog post or an article and after publishing it, gotten an email telling you that one of your links is broken? It happens to all of us once in a while. But what happens to the links that slip through the cracks and remain...
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Jun. 10, 2008 at 2:54pm by Eric Ward
Trust The Linkers, Not The Links
As much as I hate to pile on, run it into the ground, or beat a dead horse, when the topic is link bait I can't resist; thus this week's Link Week column. The recent fake-news-story-as-successful-link-bait event and the surrounding firestorm has bugged me and had me thinking, which...
See Related Stories In: Link Building: General, Link Week
May. 27, 2008 at 11:31am by Rae Hoffman
Don't Call Me Linkbait
When use of the phrase "linkbait" first started to achieve critical mass, some dismissed it as nothing more than a fad that would be dead in a year. Some truly understood linkbait and tried to explain it while some of those who grasped it ran with it and went...
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May. 13, 2008 at 10:40am by Eric Ward
An Embarrassment Of Dead Link Riches
Sometimes link building is more difficult and painful than a root canal, and sometimes it's so easy it happens in spite of us. It can be especially frustrating when you are trying to build links for a site that is perfectly deserving of the links you are requesting, yet...
See Related Stories In: Link Building, Link Week, SEO: Redirects & Moving Sites
May. 6, 2008 at 10:30am by Debra O. Mastaler
It's Hip To Be Link Square
We recently had a great turn out at our quarterly lunch meeting of the Virginia SEO MeetUp. The afternoon flew by as the group talked and shared ideas on everything connected to SEO. There were lots of questions on things like which conference should they budget to attend and...
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Apr. 29, 2008 at 9:27am by Eric Ward
The Art Of Opportunistic Linking
A couple weeks back I wrote a LinkWeek column here titled "Your Site's Manifest Linking Destiny". At the end of that column I closed with the following thoughts......
See Related Stories In: Business Issues: General, Google: General, Link Building, Link Building: General, Link Week
Apr. 23, 2008 at 6:04pm by Rae Hoffman
Link Development Tool Shortcuts For Firefox
A few weeks back I did a post on my blog about creating Firefox quick search bookmarks. I was surprised at how well received it was, though I think people were most pleased with the fact that I had created a download of a very small selection of the...
See Related Stories In: Link Building: General, Link Week, Search Features: Commands
Apr. 15, 2008 at 10:46am by Eric Ward
Your Site's Manifest Linking Destiny
One of the challenges link builders face is pursuing links that will differentiate one site from competing sites in a way that still produces a natural ILP (inbound link profile). Backlink forensics is a method I use to see who already links to who, and part of that process,...
See Related Stories In: Link Building: General, Link Week
Apr. 8, 2008 at 11:00am by Debra O. Mastaler
Holiday Links Come In Lots Of Different Packages
Did you know there's only 261 shopping days left before Christmas? That might seem like a crazy thing to worry about in April but you know what they say, the early bird gets the link. Using the holidays to attract links is fun, good for trend watching, and an...
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Apr. 1, 2008 at 10:46am by Eric Ward
Defining Link Building Best Practices
There are plenty of business processes where the development of a set or list of "Best Practices" makes really good sense. But what about link building? Is/are there a core set of link building best practices that really work? Fourteen years of link building for 1,000+ clients indicate to me...
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Mar. 25, 2008 at 4:05pm by Rae Hoffman
Public Relations: The Other Important PR In Link Development
Link development, before search engines polluted the process into a currency for search engine rankings, was all about promotion. Links were simply a natural side effect of promoting your website. And one of the most tried and true methods of promotion is PR (as in Public Relations, not Pagerank)....
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Mar. 17, 2008 at 10:36pm by Eric Ward
Life, Death, and Links
Imagine for a moment that you need to find some information on the web, and it's really important. You need to be able to trust what you find, and you need to have confidence that what you find is truly the best-of-class content you could find, or darn close....
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Mar. 11, 2008 at 8:09pm by Debra O. Mastaler
Building Referral Links While You Sleep
Most webmasters have two goals for their online businesses: to be financially successful and to be self-sustaining. Ideally, webmasters want to be fully established and top of mind so the business they have supplies all the business they need. A sweet scenario if you can get it, but the...
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Mar. 4, 2008 at 11:31am by Eric Ward
How Social Media Becomes Link Fertilizer
The title of this article doesn't mean I'm changing my position on social media as link driver. Yes, it's possible, but for the overwhelming majority of web sites, a widespread and costly social linking strategy is a waste of time and money. Go ahead, call me a heretic, but...
See Related Stories In: Google: SEO, Google: Web Search, Link Building, Link Building: Linkbait, Link Week, SEO: Spamming, Search Engines: StumbleUpon, Social Media Marketing
Feb. 26, 2008 at 12:51pm by Rae Hoffman
How Depending on Quality Content Can Actually Cost You Links
"Content is king." If you're like me, you've heard that phrase more times than you can count. And for the most part, it's true. Truly unique content can make or break your link development campaign. If you have it, you'll find attracting quality links takes minimal effort for exceptional...
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Feb. 19, 2008 at 10:00am by Debra O. Mastaler
A Big Roundup Of Link Building Tools
Ask any link builder what link issues they're consistently asked about and one of them will be linking tools. Link building is such a time consuming and detailed process that it's only natural people look for tools and techniques to maximize their time. Those who spend a lot of...
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Feb. 12, 2008 at 10:55am by Eric Ward
LinkSpotting - Headlines That Lead To Links and Why
My last column, When Linking Experts Go Underground, elicited some interesting responses, and a private email with the following awesome request: OK Eric - if you really follow hundreds of SEM news sources every day, you are seeing literally thousands of headlines every week. How do you spot the...
See Related Stories In: Google: Maps & Local, Google: Partnerships, Link Building, Link Building: General, Link Week, Locals Only, Search Marketing: Local Search Marketing, Strictly Business
Feb. 5, 2008 at 9:16am by Eric Ward
When Linking Experts Go Underground
For years I've seen a free and flowing stream of information and advice about how to build links, and as the engines have improved detection of the junk, the better link builders continued to thrive while those who sold crappy services to crappy content ran for cover. At least...
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Jan. 29, 2008 at 1:35pm by Eric Ward
No Recession For Link Building
In 2007, half your links stopped helping you and in 2008, half your budget has likely been whacked. Now what do you do?
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Jan. 28, 2008 at 2:53pm by Chris Sherman
Search Engine Land Column Switcheroo
Heads-up to all of you faithful Link Week and Paid Search column readers: Today we're swapping days for the columns. Paid Search will now appear on Mondays and Link Week on Tuesdays. No worries if you've subscribed to the feed for either column—you'll still get the content you've asked...
See Related Stories In: About Search Engine Land, Link Week, Paid Search
Jan. 14, 2008 at 1:26pm by Debra O. Mastaler
There's No Such Thing As A Worthless Link
With certain linking strategies under fire and others frowned on by the search engines, I thought I'd focus on what links do count and share how and where I find them. The short answer to the question "what works" is: they all do. All the link building tactics we're...
