Best place to get an authority link

[Andy]

Now that most of the easy links such as from forums, blogs and free directories are being devalued (at least I think they are), where is the best place to go to get an easy, but authority link to your site?

I think DMOZ.org is still useful apart from having to wait a long time.

Another way is to produce templates that others will use so you get links back from a variety of IP addresses. But it helps to maybe target a related topic to your site and get keywords in the anchor text. For example, if your site is about dog training, you could provide free web templates featuring doggy themes and vary the anchor text amongst dog breeds, plus deep link to your site pages.

So rather than submitting to 1000's of directories, I think it is better to try and find just a few authoritative links.

Or if you can't stand link building, seek out social traffic if it suits your market.

What are your ideas on the subject?

[Queen Bee]

Now that most of the easy links such as from forums, blogs and free directories are being devalued (at least I think they are), where is the best place to go to get an easy, but authority link to your site?

To be honest, I never thought directory submissions were particularly helpful. They are more like link dumps. Even after targeting particular keywords in my anchor text and being accepted into over 50 directories, I did not notice much difference on Google. Beside that, nobody seems to click on the links. Overtime, I received the most traffic from DMOZ and Pharos Search... and that was only about 10/12 clickthroughs a month.

Another way is to produce templates that others will use so you get links back from a variety of IP addresses. But it helps to maybe target a related topic to your site and get keywords in the anchor text. For example, if your site is about dog training, you could provide free web templates featuring doggy themes and vary the anchor text amongst dog breeds, plus deep link to your site pages.

I think this is an excellent way to bring in traffic. Concerning my free SMF themes, it was very easy to get into the top 10 on a few targeted keywords simply because of the mass quantity (over 2000 downloads, at least 50 recorded usages) of people displaying my themes on their forum.

I still think web awards are a reliable way to bring in traffic. Many of them are given out by legitimate webmasters with content-rich websites who spend a great deal of time reviewing and then awarding qualified applicants. You can avoid the web award farms and go directly to a reliable source:

http://www.awardsites.com/

Applying for awards specifically related to your website theme (and there are a few) may be a good way to bring in traffic and links. The only catch is that most (if not all) require you to display the award on your website, and many ask for a linkback. During the time that I used to apply for awards was when I received the most traffic to my website, I remember that much.

[Andy]

The only catch is that most (if not all) require you to display the award on your website, and many ask for a linkback.

Well, this is a form of SEO regarding link-building.

[Queen Bee]

Well, this is a form of SEO regarding link-building.

Right. I see nothing wrong with it, as I'm grateful for the time they've spent evaluating my website... but I guess for webmasters looking to acquire more inbound than outbound links, it might be a deterrent.

[Menard]

Interesting timing for such a discussion.

I have been working on a way to get backlinks across several domains, and for several of my websites at once.

The idea is to create a website, one with real content and features, which can be hosted on most any free hosting service. It can be updated easily, providing a website with unique content for each free hosting service chosen.

I was going to continue to work on it tonight, but I don't have time, so I'll pick it back up on Thursday.

When I get it ready, I'll post a link to it.

[Andy]

When I started out on the web I coded a hit counter and got over 10,000 inbound links which helped get my site to PR 6. Even now it is PR 5, but I didn't change the site much and this site made me a staggering amount of money compared to the work I put into it. So what you need is a viral web application that people will copy and paste to their sites. A while back I posted about using big G Gadgets which seemed to make it possible to have huge numbers of sites linking back to you. The site I focused my gadget on is PR 2 so not bad for minimal link-building effort for a .ws site with dashes in the domain name I think. But it all hinges on the popularity of what you are offering.

So that is why I mentioned web templates, a great template that many people will want to use could get you a lot of backlinks.

Expanding on this ...

What you should do I think is to provide something in the form of a widget that huge numbers of people will want to host on their site and it links back to your site. So you need some special skills that the majority of webmasters do not have such as artistic or programming expertise. Then you can make widgets, templates, graphics, data feeds etc.

One day, in the future, people that used great SEO techniques that made them a lot of money in the internet boom years will spill the beans about exactly how they capitalized on it via books, blogs, brain infusions or whatever. But due to a webmaster/SEO code we will only suggest you use your own creativity for now. Good luck with your innovations! 

[agbattery]

These are all great ideas for ways to increase links.  i wish I had the talent and skill set to develop templates.  I will work on aquiring those skills in the near future.

[bosmolskate]

The best authority sites are those .gov .edu

[Andy]

The best authority sites are those .gov .edu

Kind of hard to get those links though, isn't it? I think ShoeMoney Tools offers a database of vulnerable sites where you can plant your link though.

[rachelbles]

I never thought directory submissions were particularly helpful.

don't you know that every single back link from a directory is already helping your website? If you have courage and passion for your website then I am pretty sure that you will get what you wanted for your website.

[Queen Bee]

don't you know that every single back link from a directory is already helping your website?

I would not claim that every single link back from a directory would help my website. Some can be damaging, especially if the directory is linked into "bad neighborhoods" or is viewed, for SEO purposes, as a link farm. In the case of directories, quality is far more important than quantity.

If you have courage and passion for your website then I am pretty sure that you will get what you wanted for your website.

It is good to stay optimistic. It is essential for success. However, when it comes to web presence and marketing, I think you need a little more than passion. I had been passionate about my website for years-- I loved web design and CG art, and I wanted everyone to recognize my worksmanship. However, that's useless without directed action. A good strategy and goals are what is really needed-- and to speak from experience, I failed miserably in that department...

Many directories are only fair for keyword targeting, and poor for real clickthroughs. They have no real content and most subpages are not indexed in Google-- the subpages that are actually important for SEO.

Also, you must be careful of fast inbound link growth. Google views that as potential search engine spam and will penalize your site for it.

[Andy]

A lot of webmasters are now going down the social traffic route i.e. finding out where their target audience hangs out online and posting content that answers their questions with a link back to their website. So rather than trying to rank high in organic search, you show up in the gathering places of your target consumers as a helpful "expert" and people will hopefully migrate to your site and subscribe to feeds, bookmark it and join your mail list in exchange for a freebie download etc.

This technique works well for even nofollow comments in blogs.

[Karen Stphens]

Cold calling, telemarketing, telesales and email marketing could help to grow your business.   In some cases, you pay hourly rates or monthly fixed costs.  If you need sales leads and you only want to pay for each qualified sales lead, go see Indirectchannel Ltd
 
You still need to sell - nobody can replace your sales team.  After sign up and register they start to connect you to buyers for your products and services.  You might save time and money by paying only for each lead and you might bet a better ROI than you would get through your own marketing.
 
Their main focus appears to be business technology, marketing and telecommunications. In addition to online marketing and advertising, they also have a community of buyers who they approach for comments and feedback to improve the service. These buyers register and sign up to use the service to find the right supplier.  I suspect that they could use individual buyer supplier reviews and comment to help suppliers improve their offers and pitches.  They could also use this to deal with any claim or complaint from
a buyer.
 
Hope this helps you out.
 
_____________
http://www.indirectchannel.com/qualifiedleads/categories

[Ryanok]

Templates are a good way to obtain quality links. But it seems too hard for those with little knowledge of CSS. At least for me, it is quite difficult task. Else, although directories is being devalued currently but a link is still a link. If you got enough quantity back links from directories with high PR, it still generate good result as well. In addition, diversify your link building strategy and never put all eggs in just one basket.

[dougadam]

I like to write articles and then submit them to all the best article sites