Don't do what JohnChow did....

[mayank]

I hope that this title would have grabbed your attention. If it has then...I think I'm Learning what chris teaches us

Now, lets come to the point. I wanted to say that lets not get into the link building campaigns because that will actually hurt ourselves only. LiewCF has given a good reasons for that.

Because, John was playing with the guidelines set by Google, Google thought of penalizing him and that mean, that can happen to us as well. So, its better to learn these lessons instead of getting hit by something like this.

So, now my question to you is that what can be done to make sure that we get ranked high in search engines. C'mon share your tips and tricks...I know you want to share it with us

Good content is one thing which will automatically give you the links and you won't have to ask for them. What else do you think can help?

[nusuni]

Going on forums and discussion boards and letting people know about good posts I've written up. Gets a link from the forum, and hopefully some links from people who didn't know about the blog previously.

[BlogEx]

Oi, apparently trying to separate my SEO blog and my blog on Blogging isn't going to work out so well... seo keeps creeping into the discussion.

Ok, let me clear one thing up right now. Link building is not what killed John Chow's rankings. Link building is a very good thing to do, provided you go about it correctly. John does at least two major things that are against Google's quality guidelines and he does them blatantly. He did a BUNCH of reciprocal link exchanges. Every one of those reviews he posts is a reciprocal link. When you get something like 800 or more reciprocal links, that's not going to be good for your rankings.

Also, he sells links on his site in a very open and obvious manner. Not only that but they are to obviously off topic sites. Again, that is against Google's quality guidelines and in fact, they now offer a reporting tool for paid links.

Those two things are what hurt John's rankings, not building links. Also thumbing his nose at Google, sticking to this, I'm so big that I make Google look foolish by not listing me is one of the most idiotic things I've seen in print. If you want to avoid getting g-slapped like John, I'd say don't link out to sites that aren't topically related to your blog, don't do reciprocal linking, and for the most part, don't participate in any type of linking schemes. Try link baiting or good ole fashion link building (directories, social bookmarking sites, press releases, etc.).

[evelester]

I generally try to comment on at least 10 blogs per day (per my blogs) Being that I run 3 blogs, that means 30 comments a day. I don't always hit that number, because I refuse to comment just for the sake of commenting (do unto others like you would want done to you) <something like that!

I also try to write at least one 'flagship/pillar/long/good article per blog per week. And I try to post daily, they are not all 'pillar' articles, but they are something.

I noticed a HUGE decline in unique visits when I took a week off of posting, as a matter of fact, I am still trying to rebuild the amount of traffic I had before my one week vacation.

[chromegrrrl]

I noticed a HUGE decline in unique visits when I took a week off of posting, as a matter of fact, I am still trying to rebuild the amount of traffic I had before my one week vacation.

This won't help you now but might help next time you plan some time off, you can write posts ahead of time and then set them to publish when you're away. On WordPress this is super easy just change the time stamp.

Most of the time link building efforts get in the way of writing good content, it's just a matter of time dedication, I don't alway have time for both so I try to focus more on the content (at least at this point.)

[BlogEx]

Most of the time link building efforts get in the way of writing good content, it's just a matter of time dedication, I don't alway have time for both so I try to focus more on the content (at least at this point.)

With traditional link building efforts, you're right, it can get be a one or the other proposition. However, good link bait by definition is great content that prompts lots of people to link to it. This is where I spend a majority of my time these days. I've struggled a bit coming up with good link bait for my experiment but I think I've got a few ideas now.

[evelester]

thanks chromegrrl, looking back I wish I had done that! I don't know if it was even possible at the time though, I took a week off becasue I was super burnt out, I didn't even want to look at the blogs LOL

[pelf]

I had always scheduled posts to publish automatically while I was away but I didn't last weekend (because I was busy preparing for the Blogathon) and I left for a short vacation to Chiang Mai. When I returned, my readership dropped and my Alexa ranking upped.

Lesson learned!

[mayank]

So, this means that commenting and trackbacks on other blogs is the only other way of building the links or increasing the visibility of the blog?

Of course regular posting will help in keeping the readership intact..any other tips?

[BlogEx]

So, this means that commenting and trackbacks on other blogs is the only other way of building the links or increasing the visibility of the blog?

Not at all! Do some searching on Link Bait and see what you come up with. Often times, your Flagship content will turn out to be great link bait and vise-versa. It's not just about writing great content though, it's about formatting it in a way that prompts people to link to it, or digg/stumble/reddit etc. it. A story hitting the front page of Digg, for example, can generate hundreds of links, if not more.

Another great way to generate links is to have a contest. As long as you're not linking back to the sites that link to your site, you should be fine. You might not want to require one specific phrase as anchor text but for the most part, contests are great link builders as well.