Link Building 101

I wrote an article for unitedbands.com, a band networking site where one of my client's site is listed. If you substitute your business or site name for bands name, it will apply to your site too.

How do I get my band's website to rank higher in the search engines?

One of the most effective ways to do this is through "Link Building"!  Search engines follow links throughout the internet to find new web pages. They also tend to consider websites with more incoming links as more important and thus rank them higher.

What exactly does this mean?

1. Link Building means acquiring incoming links from a variety of websites that point to your website (or interior pages). Have the majority of the links point to your home page, but have a few pointed to important interior pages, such as your download or band's schedule pages.
   
   
2. You should try to find link partners that are themselves highly ranked in the SERPs (search engine results pages). This helps to avoid “Bad Neighborhoods”. Make sure the site you are requesting a link from is related to music, bands or your geographical area. Links from directories in an appropriate category will help boost your visibility and might bring in some visitors too. You do not want lots of links from "Car Repair" sites (for example), since your site does not have anything to do with cars. Also get links from newer sites to have a variety of incoming link quality.
   
   
3. Request that the site that links to you use the "keyword(s)", in the "anchor text" (yellow highlighted in the example of a link below), you are trying to focus and rank for.
   
   This is an example of the simple html code for a link: 
   <a href="http://your-band-name.com/">Your Band Name or Keyword</a>
   
   
4. Use a variety of "anchor text phrases" in your link building. Do not just use the exact name of your band repeatedly. Add a word or two. Use a long version and short version of your name (if possible). Search Engines don't like "artificial anything" and if you use the same "anchor text" in every link, you will definitely look "artificial".  Variety is the secret to success in link building!
   
   
5. Have some descriptive text surround your link's "anchor text". Make that text "related" to your name or mission.
   
   
6. Avoid "Link Farms", "FFA or Free For All Sites" and other “Bad Neighborhoods”. They probably will not help you and if you link back to them, it can harm you. Bad Neighborhoods are websites that use questionable and/or spammer tactics to inflate their rankings, usually only for a short time until the search engines catch them and remove or penalize them. If you link back to them, you might get penalized too, when they are caught.
   
   
7. Try to get one way (incoming links without having to link back) links when you can.

This is just a basic introduction to Link Building. Check out my site's Webmasters Resources for reviews of directories that accept free listings and other link building tips.

Networking is what United Bands is all about and linking on the internet is a great way to network

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As always, feel free to comment below or email me by clicking on my name.

martin

Why don't you have a Free Directory Listing for the Open Directory Project?

I was asked this question recently by a visitor to my site. As I state in the preface to the Free Directory Listings, I am compiling this free directory list based on the actual submission experience of this website. I felt these directory reviews would be more helpful if they were based on real experience and not just copied from other sites that offer similar information.

The Open Directory Project , also called the ODP or http://dmoz.org is the granddaddy of all the free directories and I did not want to submit my site until the content matured a bit. Since the ODP results are used as the basis of Google's Directory, this is a very important directory in which to get listed. The ODP also syndicates it's results to numerous sites worldwide. A link from this directory will result in several links to your site.

The ODP is run by volunteer editors and is the largest human edited directory on the internet. It is also probably the most difficult directory to get a listing in. They have very strict submittal guidelines. Make sure you read and comply with all the submission guidelines.

Since this site was recently listed in the ODP, I added this directory to my reviews. I will try to add more information at a later date.

As always, please feel free to comment below or email me by clicking on my name.

martin

Robots.txt resources added

I have recently added some information to the Webmaster Resources section on how to create robots.txt files. This file controls access to your site by spiders, bots, and other web crawling thingies, both friend and foe. These robots are generally used by search engines, but they are also used by spammers to harvest email addresses. Unfortunately, the bad critters usually ignore these files. There are alternatives to control the ill mannered bots and we will address that in the future.

The easiest way to create valid robots.txt files is to use a generator program. I have found Robot-Manager and Robot-Manager Pro to be excellent tools. I use Robot-Manager Pro, which includes the capability to analyze my log files for spider activity. I highly recommend these programs.

Free Directory Listings - Update:

I have made several updates and additions to the Free Directory Listing reviews section. PageRank™ was updated to reflect Google's April 22, 2005 Toolbar PageRank™. I have added a few more directory reviews and updated the listing status.

I just received an email advising me that several of the Search Engine Friendly Directories on the http://info.vilesilencer.com/ list are temporarily suspending free submissions until June 15, 2005, to clear their submission back log. The effected directories are listed here http://www.overthemark.com/seoblog/item/11. Currently, I only have one reviewed directory on that list, Easy Eraser Pro Directory . They are offering a express review submission option - $5 reviewed in 24-72 hours for all the effected directories. I will monitor this to see what happens.

That's it for now. Sorry to have been so long between posts. I have been very busy with client work.

As always, please feel free to comment below or contact me by email by clicking on my name below.

martin