Q&A With Link Building Experts

Rae Hoffman posted a group interview with not just one link building expert but five. Rae asks Eric Ward (a columnist here), Rand Fishkin, Roger Montti, Todd Malicoat and herself ten questions where each expert gives their opinion. Here are the ten questions. For the answers, you’ll have to check out the post.

1. What are the factors you would take into account before buying a link from a directly contacted site (not a link broker or seller)?
2. In sectors where links are particularly tough to come by (retail, B2B in boring industries, etc.), what are content tactics you’ve taken to appeal to relevant sites in those industries (specific examples would rock)?
3. What is the current climate with paid links, and how can I navigate the paid links landscape so that I come out smelling like a rose on the other side?
4. Automating the link acquisition process: How far do you recommend going with it? What are the benefits and pitfalls of automation?
5. Name 5 specific techniques (queries, tools, process, or starting points) you would use to get links for a statewide real estate agent.
6. What are the top 3 over-rated and under-rated criteria for determining how valuable an individual link will potentially be to your site’s search engine rankings?
7. If you were in control of the search engine algorithm at Google, what are the top three changes you would make specific to how Google values/counts links?
8. What’s the most common mistake you see people making in their link building activities?
9. How do you think that nofollow links and redirected links are treated by the various search engines and do you see any value in obtaining these types of links?
10. So many people complain about competitors who are ranking solely on reciprocal links. Do you believe reciprocal links still works as a complete strategy or do you believe age, trust and grandfathering (for lack of a better word) are taken into account? How important do you feel age is to a link?

If that isn’t enough for you on links, also check out Rand’s Tracking Temporal Trends in Content and Link Growth and How Do I Link Thee, Let Me Count The Ways from Performancing.com.

Both are new this week.