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The Really Easy SEO Link Building Strategy For Startups

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Re: The Really Easy SEO Link Building Strategy For Startups

#31

Post by dchuk »

JeremyMorgan wrote: post #30
InfinityX0 wrote: post #27

This is not a good strategy - generally, these links won't benefit you for SEO purposes. If you want an "SEO for startups", I heavily recommend this guide: http://www.distilled.net/blog/seo/seo-for-start-ups/ which comes from one of the top agencies in the field. In general, blog commenting is good to build relationships, which then can get you links that pass value. However, in the short term, they probably do not h…

Great advice. The days of quick spammy links are way over. Now posting a link on someone's blog for obvious SEO benefits is just tacky, and will get LESS people to link to you. Organic is the key word here. Make links with people not websites.

There's nothing spammy about leaving a genuine comment on a real blog. This method simply automates the collection of possible blog posts to post on, there's nothing spammy about it at all.

Re: The Really Easy SEO Link Building Strategy For Startups

#32

Post by InfinityX0 »

dchuk wrote: post #29
InfinityX0 wrote: post #27

This is not a good strategy - generally, these links won't benefit you for SEO purposes. If you want an "SEO for startups", I heavily recommend this guide: http://www.distilled.net/blog/seo/seo-for-start-ups/ which comes from one of the top agencies in the field. In general, blog commenting is good to build relationships, which then can get you links that pass value. However, in the short term, they probably do not h…

I've ranked quite a few sites with variations of this exact technique, so I'm not quite sure where the idea that these links won't benefit you is coming from. I absolutely respect your opinion though and do agree that reaching out to influencers and engaging them is a big big deal. This strategy is simply a component of an overall outreach and SEO campaign for any product. It very much needs to be mixed in with a var…

It's very likely what you did made ranking a correlative rather than causative effect. Most of these comments were probably no-follow, and even if not, devalued b/c below the fold - reasoning: the Reasonable Surfer patent -http://www.seobythesea.com/2010/05/googles-reasonable-surfer...

I agree that this can be helpful, but the way it is framed in this article is dangerous, because it can easily be misinterpreted.

Re: The Really Easy SEO Link Building Strategy For Startups

#33

Post by kaedus29 »

InfinityX0 wrote: post #32
dchuk wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've ranked quite a few sites with variations of this exact technique, so I'm not quite sure where the idea that these links won't benefit you is coming from. I absolutely respect your opinion though and do agree that reaching out to influencers and engaging them is a big big deal. This strategy is simply a component of an overall outreach and SEO campaign for any product. It very much needs to be mixed in with a var…

It's very likely what you did made ranking a correlative rather than causative effect. Most of these comments were probably no-follow, and even if not, devalued b/c below the fold - reasoning: the Reasonable Surfer patent - http://www.seobythesea.com/2010/05/googles-reasonable-surfer... I agree that this can be helpful, but the way it is framed in this article is dangerous, because it can easily be misinterpreted.

That link you posted seems to be 404'ing

Re: The Really Easy SEO Link Building Strategy For Startups

#34

Post by kaedus29 »

InfinityX0 wrote: post #32
dchuk wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've ranked quite a few sites with variations of this exact technique, so I'm not quite sure where the idea that these links won't benefit you is coming from. I absolutely respect your opinion though and do agree that reaching out to influencers and engaging them is a big big deal. This strategy is simply a component of an overall outreach and SEO campaign for any product. It very much needs to be mixed in with a var…

It's very likely what you did made ranking a correlative rather than causative effect. Most of these comments were probably no-follow, and even if not, devalued b/c below the fold - reasoning: the Reasonable Surfer patent - http://www.seobythesea.com/2010/05/googles-reasonable-surfer... I agree that this can be helpful, but the way it is framed in this article is dangerous, because it can easily be misinterpreted.

While I don't condone the methods posted in this case study, I think that it goes to show that no-follow links do have value, that your on-page doesn't have to be perfect, and that the types of links that you claim don't work actually do.

http://serpfu.com/case-study-insurance/

Once again, let me clarify that I don't condone the type of link building here, but I don't think that you can argue that it doesn't work.

Re: The Really Easy SEO Link Building Strategy For Startups

#35

Post by itsprofitbaron »

Firstly I think I should point out that, I have previously used manual blog commenting to rank for highly competitive keywords.

The strategy was extremely effective however, it isn’t any more and doing SEO this way isn’t a strategy your startup should adopt.

Google Penguin and to some extent Panda, were brought in to stop this kind of SEO and some of the changes they made have been very effective in stopping the effectiveness of this type of Grey-Hat SEO.

Similarly, your startup is probably on a new domain & with the changes to Google Penguin/Panda to ensure you aren’t sandboxed the first 500-1000 links you acquire are extremely important. By doing Grey Hat SEO – blog commenting, directories, article sites you are putting yourself at risk of getting your site placed in the sandbox.

After that you’re probably going to get a manual review and that is something you don’t want & if you don’t think Google Penguin is effective, then don’t but Google are going to keep making Penguin smarter & more aggressive about punishing sites that have built non-authentically earned links.

Additionally if you’re an E-Commerce startup a completely different SEO approach is needed & blog commenting is definitely not the way to do it (as is the case for any startup).

Re: The Really Easy SEO Link Building Strategy For Startups

#36

Post by dchuk »

itsprofitbaron wrote: post #35

Firstly I think I should point out that, I have previously used manual blog commenting to rank for highly competitive keywords. The strategy was extremely effective however, it isn’t any more and doing SEO this way isn’t a strategy your startup should adopt. Google Penguin and to some extent Panda, were brought in to stop this kind of SEO and some of the changes they made have been very effective in stopping the effe…

I think that's quite the slippery slope you just played out there. Per the logic you presented, all blog commenters who put in a url in their comment are Grey Hat SEOs? Come on now, that's a massive stretch.

Penguin and Panda were introduced to combat blatant spamming practices, both with link building and content based spamming. Manually commenting with thoughtful replies is just being a good community member, getting a link back to your root domain is a nice little token for your efforts, and I would love to see a single case study of someone employing the strategy outlined in my post (at the volume I suggest) getting slapped by Google.

Re: The Really Easy SEO Link Building Strategy For Startups

#37

Post by itsprofitbaron »

dchuk wrote: post #36
itsprofitbaron wrote: post #35

Firstly I think I should point out that, I have previously used manual blog commenting to rank for highly competitive keywords. The strategy was extremely effective however, it isn’t any more and doing SEO this way isn’t a strategy your startup should adopt. Google Penguin and to some extent Panda, were brought in to stop this kind of SEO and some of the changes they made have been very effective in stopping the effe…

I think that's quite the slippery slope you just played out there. Per the logic you presented, all blog commenters who put in a url in their comment are Grey Hat SEOs? Come on now, that's a massive stretch. Penguin and Panda were introduced to combat blatant spamming practices, both with link building and content based spamming. Manually commenting with thoughtful replies is just being a good community member, getti…

As I said in my comment, I have previously used manual blog commenting techniques to rank for highly competitive terms. Regardless of it being manual or not, it is a Grey Hat SEO technique. The way the spammers do it via spinning comments & blasting them out is Black Hat SEO along with the likes of XSS injections, Xrumer etc.

My comment was mainly referring to the first 500-1000 links of a website & avoiding being sandboxed etc due to significant changes with Penguin & Panda.

If a startup wants to link back then they should only do it if they aren't putting the keyword they want to rank for as their "name" which receives the link. However, this is still a Grey Hat SEO technique & whilst the risk reduces after the first 500-1000 links, it is much greater in those first core set of links & can easily see a website sandboxed.

Re: The Really Easy SEO Link Building Strategy For Startups

#38

Post by dchuk »

itsprofitbaron wrote: post #37
dchuk wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's quite the slippery slope you just played out there. Per the logic you presented, all blog commenters who put in a url in their comment are Grey Hat SEOs? Come on now, that's a massive stretch. Penguin and Panda were introduced to combat blatant spamming practices, both with link building and content based spamming. Manually commenting with thoughtful replies is just being a good community member, getti…

As I said in my comment, I have previously used manual blog commenting techniques to rank for highly competitive terms. Regardless of it being manual or not, it is a Grey Hat SEO technique. The way the spammers do it via spinning comments & blasting them out is Black Hat SEO along with the likes of XSS injections, Xrumer etc. My comment was mainly referring to the first 500-1000 links of a website & avoiding being sa…

Well in my post, I never advocated using anything other than your actual name, site, etc. In the comments, I explicitly recommend creating real profiles and using your real name. So I agree with you there.

As for the 500-1000 links thing, I assume you got that number from one of Rand's posts (http://moz.com/rand/the-first-500-links/).

First, those numbers and guidelines are entirely anecdotal. Yes, there is a "honeymoon" phase with new domains, but that's entirely unpredictable and there's no hard limit of links before you're in the clear (or in the danger zone for that matter).

Second, if a comment is put into moderation, and then must be approved by the blog owner, how is that anything but authentically earned? The blogger can approve or disprove your comment at her discretion, you're not exploiting any systems or anything.

I simply can't ever agree with someone who says that leaving a blog comment with your url in the website field makes you a Gray Hat SEO. If that were the case, there would be tens of thousands of mommy bloggers yelling at Google for banning their sites.

It's natural engagement with the community, with backlinks as a nice little perk.

Re: The Really Easy SEO Link Building Strategy For Startups

#40

Post by throwawaythis »

bhartzer wrote: post #15

If SEO and link building/link earning was this easy, then everyone would be doing it and there would be no need for SEO firms. There would be no SEO industry. Companies wouldn't be hiring SEOs to do link earning for them. Go ahead and try all of these methods described in that post and then see how well it works. Shortly thereafter you'll be contacting a good SEO firm to clean up the mess, remove bad links, and start…

SEO is one of those types of skills you really don't want to be outsourcing to SEO firms. And why would they be the ones creating the link worthy content in the first place?
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