Human Involvement in Link Building

Its very difficult to get a link from DMOZ (open directory project or simply web directory that organizes websites) because each link is approved by human editor before it is listed. Human involvement in link building is an organic SEO technique and will definitely result in the generation of valuable content for users. Conversely, unethical approaches will focus on questionable strategies that may prove costly in the long run. It is not enough that you "get" links; you must "earn" them. Human involvement or research involving human participants is essential for successful link building.

Understand Your Niche

While building links for your site, the first thing you need to do is understand your niche that is understand your industry and the challenges you will have to face. If you have no idea about your competitors, the best bloggers in the relevant field, the issues related to implementing your business goals and other details regarding your niche, you can’t understand the real purpose of links that you are building for your site. Backlink research, advanced link building tools or search operator strings are not going to work for you unless you have a clear idea about the real purpose of link building. The human brain is the perfect tool available to analyze the latest developments in the relevant industry and interpret how they are going to affect your site.

Popular Research Techniques

The second and the most important phase of the link building process is to identify the sites to which you want to link. Here are the most popular research techniques you can use for this task.

• Simple Search - This technique is nothing but putting basic search strings or complex ones on search engines (Google, Yahoo or Bing) and finding the niche sites.
• Link Building Tools - You can use link building tools like Ontolo to discover suitable sites automatically. Tools like Google News and Reddit can gather articles/posts from different sites and show up in a common space. You can try out every imaginable keyword with these tools and pick up good sites.
• Browse Various Industry Sites - Rather than using google, you can browse various industry sites. Check their blogs and also the websites to which they are linked. This is somewhat similar to basic research and can bring you a variety of results.  
• Competitor Research - Checking the backlinks of your competitor sites will help you understand the different ways in which link building is done for your business niche. This will help you to develop a better strategy for finding suitable sites.
• Utilizing Social Media Outlets - Search through different social networking sites and gather information of good sites. For example, you can search hashtags, search profiles and tweets through your Twitter account and generate enormous number of results. 
• Networking - Communicate with different people who have experience in your industry. This can bring you better results. If you build relationships with these people and expand your network, you can gather more relevant results.

The human element is essential for executing most of these techniques successfully. Undoubtedly, only the human brain can analyze and understand the content in the competitor site more clearly than any other research tool. Besides the information you gather can be processed only by the human brain. A dedicated researcher who knows what to do with the sites that you find through these techniques is very important for successful link building.

Determine Website Quality

Assume that the link building tool you select is not a good one. You would end up linking with a site that does not exist or is corrupted with some viruses. Link building will be effective only if you choose reputable sites. So, what makes a reputable site? There are several factors that determine the quality of websites such as domain authority (how well a website performs in search engine ranking), fresh, updated content written by real people, good advertisements, large number of audience and much more. Only the human brain is capable of determining all these factors accurately. Moreover, communicating with blog owners and webmasters can help you to understand whether the link resource is good for your site. You can also analyze the requirements of their audience and find some new link prospects.

Pick Up Quality Links from the Huge Numbers

If you think you can drive more traffic to your site by building a large number of links, you are mistaken. Only quality links (links that are relevant to your content) can bring better, consistent traffic. If you distribute links indiscriminately in your content, it will lead to link spamming which can invite penalty (negative ranking) from search engines, particularly Google. A good researcher is required to track search rankings, efficiency standards, time and link building goals while building links and ensure the quality of links. Even though there are research tools available for this purpose, all of them require a human brain to analyze data and results. Only the human brain can communicate effectively with raw data, hyperlinks and complex search operators and pick up quality links from the huge numbers available.

A professional SEO company can help you with effective link building strategies for your website. With a reliable firm, you can obtain tangible benefits with the support of experienced SEO specialists rather than rely on automated solutions that may or may not bring the desired results. 

Can Anchor Text Ever Get Irrelevant?

The SEO industry is always filled with surprises, some of which are more shocking than others. But along with these challenges are rumors that spread through the industry, based on wild guesses or short-sighted observations about the seemingly unexpected changes that take place whenever an algorithmic update is launched by Google.   

Poor Anchor Text Diversity Penalized

One popular rumor is that anchor text is no longer relevant. The origin of this idea was the Google Penguin algorithmic update of April 2012. While the Penguin update was initially categorized as a move by Google to penalize over-optimization, it was then observed to impact websites that did not have good diversity in that they were employing the exact same link text again and again in links that point back to the site. This was something that Google’s couldn’t accept as it was an indication that rankings were being fabricated with the same keyword again and again in a link text from some external website.  

Linking With Target Keyword

Search engine optimization experts and webmasters have discovered that linking to one website with the target keyword forming the anchor text would give Google an indication about the content of the website which would also affect the rankings for that keyword phrase directly. However, Google modified its algorithm to detect a disproportionate number of matching anchor text links pointing to a website as unnatural. Google worked to ensure that such websites are penalized, or at least, not rewarded. Google’s algorithm changes fueled predictions about a collapse of SEO.

Countering the Issue

But all problems have a solution. Google wants natural linking. So the answer lies in diversifying while ensuring naturalness. This could prevent your site from being penalized. Here are some ways to go about this: 

A natural, straightforward method would be to place your URL as the anchor text. You can also use your brand name as the link text - another natural method. In some cases, it would work to create a version that is unassuming, such as one that does not contain a keyword. Another somewhat cheeky technique would be to position your keyword phrase close to one of your website links. The same long-tail version should not be used much. 

Seek the Assistance of Experienced SEO Services

Shuffling these strategies should provide the desired results. If you’re in the dark about the links that are currently pointing towards your site and the anchor text they contain, it is highly advisable to do some research on your link portfolio. This would require quite some effort and time. The ideal solution would be to seek SEO services that include link building solutions and keyword research. The right SEO company can provide effective and affordable link building services using innovative resources and tools. 

An experienced SEO company can minimize the effect of nasty surprises that can drastically affect your rankings or earnings. Professional SEO services can think ahead of the competition, anticipate the impact of algorithmic updates, and shield their clients from factors that can affect their search result ranking. The experience and innovation of a genuine SEO company are vital assets for your business.