PageRank has been pretty dependent on linking for a while now.  It’s well known that the more incoming links you have pointing to your website, the higher the authority Google assigns to it.  Linking has progressed to be more detail oriented in relation to Algorithms.  In fact most of your page’s ranking on Google is not just dependent on the amount of quality links pointing to your website, but how it is linked.

Google now takes into account several attributes which include, but are not limited to:

• Authority level
• PageRank
• IP class

In order to procure several good quality inbound links to pages on your website, it is imperative to have a dynamic strategy to your approach.

Blogs
Blogging is a very effective way to acquire quick links.  A good strategy is review related website blogs and comment to promote your own website.  There are several websites out there that offer professional blog reviewers for hire, or you yourself can commit your personal time to accomplish similar goals.

Search Engine Optimized Articles
Writing good quality articles with keywords strategically placed is another great way to get high quality inbound links.  Obviously you’ll want to stick with content related to your website. Submitting them to article directories provides a very speedy way of obtaining those links.  Adding these articles into your newsletters will add to the incoming links as well as keep your reader/client/customer involved with the presence of your services.  To top it off, it establishes you as an expert in your field.

Good Old Fashioned Reciprocal Linking
There is an ongoing debate whether or not reciprocal linking is as effective as it once was.  Obviously, a good, organic one way link from an authoritative site to your own is definitely the best link to procure, however just not easy in multiples.  In my own 4+ years of experience with-in the field, I have found that reciprocal links continue to offer great value.  Not only have I seen PageRank increase because of reciprocal linking, but it also introduces all kinds of other advertising opportunities.

(Reference: http://www.sitepronews.com/2008/07/29/top-3-google-seo-linking-strategies/)

Jennifer Kaufman
Linking Strategist

One of the easiest automated methods of acquiring links these days is using software to auto-fill comments on related blogs, forums, Pligg sites, etc. (Note: MorePro does not use automated methods of building links; we build all links manually).  There are many blog commenting tools to choose from, including Comment Kahuna, which has a pretty simple interface and good reporting tools.  Kahuna is not an auto-filling blog comment tool, but it does walk you through each blog step-by-step as you attempt to build incoming links to your website.

The problems that occur, of course, are that most of the blogs that get identified are using “nofollow” tags in their commenting systems.  To some, including the creator of the Kahuna program, links are valuable regardless of where they are placed or if the nofollow tag is being used.  While I have some belief that this is accurate, I don’t feel that submitting to nofollowed blogs is a good use of time & resources.  I believe that all references to a domain, nofollowed or not, can help to build the authority of that website (or author) and that at some point, the authority may help factor into the site’s rankings.  But in the interest of client’s money and the work that we complete, our intentions are always to target high-quality, relevant links.

The argument also exists that commenting on blogs with the nofollow tags enabled will help drive additional traffic to your website (via browsing readers).  While not completely far fetched, the amount of traffic you could get from something like this is minimal at best.

Ultimately, the process of acquiring good blog links (comments or other) boils down to participation and community involvement.  If you add value to an existing conversation and slowly build yourself up as a contributor, it becomes more likely that links you include in your comments and/or relationships you build with the blog owner will develop into something tangible.

Cory Howell
SEO Strategist