Work Smarter, Not Harder to Link Build
My Junior year in college I had a brilliant professor for my Computer Science class, I mean brilliant. Every day he would drill into our heads the phrase “Work smarter, not harder.” I remember I was never ceased to be amazed by the keyboard or program short-cuts he showed us. Although, it still took time and effort to accomplish our task it cut the time in half and doubled the results. So, when I first started to think about link building it's that phrase that came to mind- how can I work smarter not harder?
I believe it is fair to say that the ultimate link building goal is to get one-way links from well established sites. The how to do this is the part where the tips and tricks enter the stage. I have gone ahead and selected three from the hundreds out there that I believe are the “short-cut keys” to link building.
The first is to simply ask. SEOmoz has this placed as their top tip for link building tactics. Ask the people who have mentioned your page and forgotten to link to it and ask your friends and family. By running a search such as “LevelTen”- link domain: leveltendesign.com the sites where you are mentioned should pop up in your search engine. Then very kindly write to that site/person and ask if they would please add a link back to you where they have mentioned you. If your friends/family have blogs or websites send a mass email and ask them to do the same. Sometimes all they need is a little push to put in the extra effort.
The second tip is to make it easy. People are great at doing what needs to get done to accomplish what they need. To take that extra step and do what is needed for someone else - not so much. Which brings us to Hotlink Images. When someone goes to copy your image provide them with the code to link it back to your page with the image. Then all they have to do is simply cut and paste taking the step of extra work out of the equation for them.
The third and final tip is to use anchor text. When you use the exact keyword you are wanting to optimize for it links text to the relevant landing page. SEO’s goal is to always have relevant search results – and with the hyperlink words being relevant to the landing page that is exactly what they are going to get in return. It is a two-way win!
Creative effort and time are always going to be a part of link building. However, taking the time to ask, doing the work for them and making the most out of your anchor text could all help you work smarter and not harder during the link building process as well as optimizing your results in the end!
