2nd hand Link building for the Link Puppy

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Feb 24, 2007

Lately I'm spending more time spamming (cough - I mean adding useful and relevant content) to forums and blog comments. Even if they are nofollow links, it's all about brand building and getting your name out there. Good comments on good blogs do bring in traffic.

2nd hand link building

A friend of mine, known as the "shadi-master" (you know who you are) used to date another friend's ex-girlfriends. We called this a second hand girlfriend - a crude phrase I know, but I'm older and nicer now.

Same concept applies to link building. Find a site you like, find their backlinks in MSN / Yahoo, and then run round like a little puppy picking up the same links.

I have used this trick before a few times.

It's happening to me

I know the SEO world isn't all that vast, but I have recently noticed the same guy posting at the same blog comments and forums that I'm posting at.

I could be wrong, but I think they are sussing out my link profile from a backlink check. They are my link puppy.

Nothing wrong with this of course, but it feels like I'm being watched. I'm half expecting an email to turn up saying, "dude, can I have the password to such-and-such site so I can place a link there".

So....

The thing to take from this is to build links where other people can't get them. I got a great link last year by writing an article for A List Apart, but it took 2 weekends of writing and tweaking after coming up with a unique idea initially.

The best links are not easy to copy. And the flipside of that is, if you are out to copy someone elses link profile, you may only end up getting their rubbish links and not their good ones.

Don't base your entire link strategy over throw-away second hand links.

Link Puppy

I quite like this little phrase, so consider it coined.

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Comments

Lynn Bishop - May 23, 2007

Link Puppy

I love this phrase too.... I also had to laugh at your very first comment about spamming forums..... oh I know where you are coming from. hehehe.
I suggested to a SEO email companion the other day, I forum I frequent, saying that the site is well indexed, and will eventually provide a backlink. The companion looked at the forum, and said it wasn't his cup of tea, to which I replied that I was obviously more of a link sl*ut than I realised, since a lot of the reason I post is to get a backlink... So I guess that makes you priviledged.
Great site BTW.
Lynn

Harvey - May 23, 2007

Thanks Lynn.
For sure, it's quite possible you only posted the above comment to gain a free link, and because you have cleverly used flattery as a part of your linking strategy, I have removed the nofollow and you got yourself a nice PR5 link.

Is this spam?

No way. I get some free content for my site. My readers get to enjoy more of a community feel on the site. You get the link.

And that's what is so damn cool about spamming blogs with *genuine* comments. It's win-win for all involved.

Michael - May 26, 2007

This is Funny, I like when people actually write about things that seem to make sense then add in little things that are just Humor, makes the reading more fun. Especially since I'm sick of reading poorly written articles, blogs, etc.

Boston Web Design - Jun 13, 2007

"...Good comments on good blogs do bring in traffic..."
This is the truth, and furthermore incredibly important to increasing your incomming links which naturally increases your page rank (albeit slowly).
Nice dog by the way :)

-Ken