Link building is usually the most time-consuming part of an SEO engagement. Search engine optimization requires not only focusing on the still-King “content,” but on gaining authoritative inbound links. You don't have to believe me, just look at what Google says in its Webmaster Guidelines:
In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages.Google even goes so far as to have two very vocal and helpful emissaries to the community, guiding us to the rights and wrongs of building links. Sometime, though, people get too focused on trying not to do the wrong thing.
A thread at Cre8asite Forums from a few weeks ago takers a nice hypothetical example and draws some interesting suggestions. The original poster asks if he wants to link to a "football boot" site, should he consider a link from a hiking boot site? The answers are very helpful, and most of the other posters agree that the hiking boot site would be relevant. Senior members Joe Dolson and Adrian provide a glimpse into how many experts vary in their performance of the task of finding relevant sites, which I consider to be looking for the "seven degrees of separation."
Joe suggests that the individual words in the focus keyword phrase should be analyzed for relevancy:
..."blue raincoats" and "blue heeler". One site is about outdoor gear, the other is about dogs. Blue is NOT a significant relating factor. However: "dancing lessons" and "dancing slippers" or "dancing lessons" and "piano lessons" are both reasonably relevant.Adrian says that if he is looking for links for a hiking boot site, he would not consider the football boots to be relevant. I feel Adrian may be in the minority on this subject.
A “seven degrees of separation line exercise” for the term "football boots" could go something like this: "Football boots > football socks > sporting gear > football clubs > local football organizations > state/county football organization > national football organization" Yes some may argue this particular seven degrees in the comments, but in my opinion each is somewhat relevant to the other. This "seven degree line" is a great exercise in thinking out of the box...and that is what is required to gain those links beyond the 4th or 5th month when all the hyper-relevant links have been either achieved or denied. I do hope that others will share an example of a hypothetical seven degree line in the comments.
Join the discussion at Cre8asite Forums.
