Pleasing spiders: Best and worst sites to get links from

By Monte Enbysk

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It’s all about link popularity, many people will tell you—the more sites that link to yours, the better. But if you talk to search marketing experts, most will quickly counter with this: Choose quality over quantity, always.

"I’ve seen sites with 25 high-quality links outperform those with a thousand or more low-quality links," professes Shari Thurow, a Chicago-area search marketer and the author of "Search Engine Visibility," a 2003 book with a second edition published in August 2007. "Small businesses should focus on getting 20 high-quality links—all relevant to your business," says Elisabeth Osmeloski, a former SearchEngineWatch.com editor who is now marketing director at travel site Zonder.com.

"I’d rather have 10 links from 'authority' Web sites than 100 links from lesser-quality sites," chimes in Catherine Seda, a Southern California-based Internet marketing strategist and author of the 2007 book, "How to Win Sales & Influence Spiders."

These are people who should know. But … how do you determine what is "quality" in your link-building efforts? And how do you know a low-quality site when you see it?

The answers today are hardly black and white. While you might think a certain directory or press release service will provide a quality link, it may be so spam-infested that search engines penalize it, rendering their link to your site useless.

So, yes, you do need to build links to your site to improve your rankings. But know that search engines today banish those sites that attempt to outsmart them and "game" the system.

 Tip   In general, seek out links from sites with lots of useful content, and avoid those with limited content but a ton of links. The guidelines below can help you stay out of bad places.

The good

• Professional, industry, and trade associations.   These often are the "authority" sites Seda refers to, rich in the type of content your audience seeks. A link from the association’s site to yours may be included in your membership fee. If not, Seda says, submit your URL and ask that a link be included, write an article for the association site, or even pay for an ad. (Need a directory of professional associations? See these pages on Yahoo or Google.)
• Web directories.   Yahoo Directory and Business.com are two reliable places for high-quality links, Thurow says. Both require annual submission fees. If their links don't offer a boost to your site's link development, she says, don't renew.
• Noncompeting sites in your niche.  Content-rich sites in your industry are a good bet unless they’re direct competitors. Seek out sites that complement yours—a travel agent, for example, should hook up with bed & breakfast and currency exchange sites, among others. Contact owners of the most appealing sites and offer to write an article, Seda says. Include a byline and link to your bio; the spiders will notice.
• Social networking sites in your industry.   Unless you’re targeting a particular demographic, you can waste a lot of time pursuing links from such sites as YouTube and Facebook, says Osmeloski. A better bet is a social networking site within your industry (such as Gusto.com in the travel industry), she says. "Social networking sites are growing in each industry." If you find the right one, contribute to its knowledge base with a thoughtful article or commentary, and include a link to your site.
• Quality blogs in your niche.   The rap on blogs is that many will not survive a six-month anniversary. Many others, however, have devoted followings. Look for ones with worthwhile content and discussions; for small businesses, locally focused newspaper and other blogs may be your best bet, Osmeloski says. Blog engines such as Icerocket and Technorati may help your search. Post a helpful comment (not a sales pitch), and oftentimes you’ll be given a link back to your site.
• Press release services with archives.   Newswires such as PRWeb and Newsforce can help you get your message out. For a fee, they can provide keywords that boost your press release’s visibility on news engines such as Yahoo News and, in turn, on general search engines. Expect to spend $70 or more per release. Be aware: Your press release must be considered newsworthy. Also: Not every press release service archives releases. "Long-term storage is what you want," says Thurow.

The bad

In her book, "How to Win Sales & Influence Spiders," Seda details the "bad neighborhoods" to stay away from:

• Web rings.   These are groups of Web pages that only link together—one to another, and another to another, and so on.
• Link farms.   These are groups of Web pages that all link to each other, and often have little or no content, only links.
• Free-for-all-sites.   These are free link directories where you submit your URL and, oftentimes, your e-mail address too for spamming purposes.
• Link-infested directories.   These differ from "free-for-all sites" in that they may be focused on particular topics or niches. Also, they screen link submissions but accept those relevant to their directory. Yet they contain minimal content, mostly links.
• Guestbooks.   These might allow participants to include a link to their site or an e-mail address. The problem here is that spammers trying to trick search engines have created software programs to post links to thousands of guestbooks at a time. You don’t want to be a part of this.

The exceptions

• Not all Web rings are bad.  Thurow points out a group of regional domestic-violence shelters that formed a Web ring, for purposes of safe networking rather than search engine optimization (SEO).
• Some good Web directories are link-infested.   The Open Directory Project and Yahoo Directory are major search engine directories with limited content; yet they remain great links to have, Seda says.
• Some professional associations and other "authority" sites also spam search engines  Such sites do cut corners, which is why there isn’t always black and white in the SEO world. Even so, Osmeloski says, the penalties they receive from search engines may be trivial compared to the traffic they generate, making them worth the risk.
• Text-link brokers may work for some, not others.   Paying brokers such as Text-link-ads.com, TextLinkBrokers.com, and others for your link building is not recommended for newbies. These businesses are not well understood and results have been mixed. The pros and cons here require a separate article.

5 rules of thumb

1. Use search engines to research link development.   Determine the quality of a link you are seeking by finding out what other links that site features (check your competitors’ links too!). The major search engines enable you to do so. See Live Search, Yahoo Site Explorer, or Google’s Webmaster Central.
2. Reciprocal links shouldn’t be a requirement.   Be wary if you feel "forced" to link to another site. Always ask yourself: If it wasn’t for search engines, would I link to this site?
3. Unsure about a site? Use the "no-follow" attribute.   Search engines hold you responsible for the links on your site. By including the code rel="nofollow" after a URL in any "href" link you include, you’re telling a search engine that you can’t vouch for the quality of that site. Learn more.
4. Avoid trying to amass a lot of links quickly.   Your best bet is to be diligent and persistent in acquiring links over time, the experts agree. "If you need 1,000 links overnight, you probably don't have high-quality content," muses Thurow.
5. Be genuine.   "Link development is based on being a kind, courteous human being—and sending out a blanket links request is not being a kind, courteous human being." Thurow adds. "Prove to [those you seek links from] that your content will benefit their target audience."

About the author   Monte Enbysk, a senior editor at Microsoft Office Live, writes about Web-related issues for small businesses. He previously was a columnist and managing editor of the Microsoft Small Business Center, and prior to that was a writer and editor at MSN Money, Washington CEO magazine, and daily newspapers in Washington and Oregon. Send Monte an e-mail.