I wanted to revisit that post and update it for the new year because some new ways to build backlinks are now possible. Please understand that this is not a full-proof guide and I am not guaranteeing you that all these techniques are legit nor liked by the search engines BUT they do work for getting better rankings.

Buying Words – There are new services out their such as InLinks where you can buy links within blog posts in related blogs to your niche. This is risky as is all link buying but I have seen and heard a lot of hype about how wonderfully this works so I have to list it!

Blog Commenting – Last year I also wrote a post on this but as a brief overview you can simply comment on do-follow comment blogs to gain better rankings. It takes a lot of them though so be ready for some work ahead!

Directory Submissions – Even though this is a 1999 way to build links it still works because Google trusts in the directories! If you want to guarantee a better ranking then spend some cash on good quality directories such as the yahoo directory or another big one like www.botw.org. If you want to know which directories are good to submit to then checkout this post I made on the topic!

3 Way Link Trades – This method has been around for a while and its pretty much impossible for google and the other engines to trace so let it work its magic! You can read how to do a 3 way link trade here if you do not already know how!

Social Bookmarks – Social bookmarks are still big but are being taken over, get in on them now to get that extra link-juice before its to late! If you don’t know whats taking over social bookmarks then checkout our Social Media section, it explains it all!

Link Baiting – This technique has been around since the birth of the first search engine, the funny thing is it’s not really all that hard to do. Checkout the end of this post if you want to understand link baiting a little better.

With that said guys…

If you can follow all of those techniques and apply them to your blogs you should have no trouble taking over virtually any term you want. It really boils down to the time and effort you put into making it happen for yourself! I have spent a whole year working on building links organically and its no easy task but I still would rather do that then buy links myself and get nailed by google for doing so when it can be avoided!

Well today I want to list my top 5 social websites that I like on the net. Granted these are not all the biggest but I love them because they work and don’t have a ton of spam in them which devalues each submission!

Here we go….

Digg.com – Although your not supposed to submit your own site the Digg people do it anyhow. However if you can get your readers to submit your posts to Digg regularly your well on your way to massive traffic and visitors that will signup!

Blurpalicious.com – My buddy owns this one and at PR4 its a great way to get power from the search engines! Try it out and see your site get indexed in about 1 hr from this social site!

Propeller – This is one of my favorites because its PR7 and I have gotten sites to pr5 and even a pr6 using this one site alone! Its all about how you and when you hit this one to get page rank benefits!

StumbleUpon – When it comes to getting traffic from a younger generation community you really cannot get any better then StumbleUpon!

YouTube – Although this is a video site its one of the easiest ways to get traffic from people because everyone loves videos! Try it out and see for yourself!

Here is a small video to seal the deal on this post! Be sure to comment!

While I do not believe in selling pagerank links myself I know lots do and want to make money at it so I have to cover it in some way to ensure those readers stay happy as well.

To build an inner pagerank you first need to understand what a true inner pagerank is, then we can learn how to achieve inner pagerank quite easily.

Basically inner pagerank is a sub-page of your website that has a pagerank. Don’t ask me why I wanted to clarify that as you all would be laughing for days at some of the thoughts ive heard from clients and forum members but remember that inner pagerank is pagerank on a websites sub-page!

Now, the big question is how do we get inner pagerank without to much work? Well there are several techniques we can implement to our website to ensure we get inner pagerank. Here are a couple of the main ones and be sure to comment below if you have any other inner pagerank ideas!

1. Get a SiteMap- The sitemap is a file (usually .xml) that the search engines can read and index all your pages properly. When your pages are indexed correctly the search engines can automatically assign the proper pagerank to your inner pages.

2. Hyper Link Your Pages- One of the reasons blogs do so well in the serps is because they are nearly perfectly interlinked from page to page. If your not using a blog you need to link to the pages you want inner pagerank on. I find it best to link to these pages in the header, sidebar or lower right sidebar. This way when the search engines read your page they are directed to your sub-pages. Not only that but by cross-linking like this your homepage pagerank can and will be carried over to these inner pages.

3. Link To Them- One of the best ways to get inner pagerank is to simply link to the page you want to have pagerank. I have built several sites where I tested this and have had great results! In fact I had one site that had a pagerank 6 inner page and the rest of the site was all PR5. The same principle applies to homepages, if your homepage is a pr6 whatever you link off of it will generally be a pr5 to pr4. Again this is why blogs get such good rankings, its all about the links for the search engines!

Once you understand the above 3 techniques you should have no problem getting inner pagerank to your pages. What about you, do you have any other or deeper thoughts on inner pagerank and how to get it?

Have you ever asked and SEO company to work on your site and help you gain rankings? If you happened to tell them the ways you have built your sites rank thus far (buying links) they probably ignored your emails or replied back saying something along the lines of “Sorry but we don’t have the time to work on your project”. If you have been told anything along these lines don’t worry I’m about to turn your Frown up-side down!

Seriously though, Google is alright with you building links, they just don’t want you to do it to the point that you rank in terms you should not be ranking in. For instance my blog ranking in the term “Hot Dogs In New york” makes absolutely no sense. I should be ranking in terms like “make money online, make money blog, blog to make money” etc…

So you ask? How can I rank correctly and avoid unrelated rankings to my site? Well that is what today’s post is all about. Before I go any further though I have to say (I think that’s the longest post intro I have ever typed!) ok now onto the serious part of this post.

Instead of just telling you what not do do like I did back in my 2008 Link Building Donts today I’m going to list what you can and should be doing. Its a ancient method you have probably heard before but trust me when I say “It’s The Only Legit Way To Build Links The Engines Like”.

Link-bait 101 - That’s right people, its all about link-baiting! When you hear link-bait you instantly think something bad because it says the two things google really hates… “Links & Baiting” However the truth is Google would love it if everyone would simply link-bait instead of buying links. Why? Because link-baiting closely follows how there search engine wants to discover sites and rank them.

Let me explain…

Here is how link-baiting basically works, you start off and create an awesome resource, video, page, article, download or whatever you want to use as you bait. After you have this thing created you somehow get it into the hands of the masses and if they like it they will return your hard work by linking to you (generally with your chosen anchor text). Pretty simple formula really….

Thats it, link-baiting truly is as simple as that, you just need to figure out how to get your content or video to the masses and for that you can read my other posts on the blog that talk all about it!

Lets begin…

Link Bait – Link bait is simple, you create something that people want to link to. Its Automatic (blogs are perfect for this), it will take some research time but once you know your audience the rest is like eating pie!

Directories - Directory submissions have been around for a really long time, it has not change and you should still submit to directories whenever possible!

Article Submissions – Articles Submissions is a new topic for this blog to talk about, I have never needed to do it for this blog but I have done it for clients in the past, it truly is a quality way to build links the engines LOVE!

You might be saying to yourself “Wait that’s it?” YES! Link building is really not that hard, and if you want to do things the right way you won’t need to BUILD BACKLINKS, people will do it for you!

There are more ways to gain links that the search engines like but these should get your started and keep you busy for quite a while. However I would love to hear any other ways you believe are good quality link building methods!

Today I want to discuss the top ways you should no longer be building backlinks in 2008. In a post tomorrow I will cover the top ways you should be building backlinks for 2008!

Lets get started…

Buying/Selling Text Links- Sometimes it seems as if people have been buying and selling links since the age of the dinosaur but fact is they have only been doing it for a short while. However the search engines found this problem early and pretty much put a stop to it this last year by hitting link sellers hard!

Its kind of like drug dealers, if cops just go after the users its pretty much a losing battle. But if they hit a seller who supplies the users on a daily basis they just took out the seller and the users in one shot!

Google has done the same by taking out link sellers when they can.

Buying links for your sites these days is tricky and down right dangerous, you don’t want to be caught buying links when google comes knocking on your door, trust me!

Social Bookmarking – I am not really sure why but people seem to have the notion that social bookmarking is a great way to get higher rankings in the search engines. While I will admit they are great for a short boost its simply impossible to stay on top with this method for very long.

Social bookmarking puts you into a relative category but not onto a relative website so your pretty much just spinning your wheels after the initial search engine boost (that will drop in a week or two).

Forum Signatures – This is another method that people seem to have a notion about that needs to be put down. Forum signatures will not help you get better search engine rankings unless your in a super small niche that is easy to overcome.

The main problem with forum signatures is its timely or expensive to buy signatures for the sole purpose of better rankings. If you read my “Maximizing your signature clicks” article you will see what signature links are really all about these days!

Link Trades (Reciprocals)- Link trading whether it be two-way or a three-way has been around for some time as well, the problem is the search engines can spot these right away. But don’t worry not all of you are in trouble for doing these, it really depends. Did you trade links with a relative website or a site about pickles?

If you are going to link trade at least do it with relative sites so it appears your trying to help the search engines provide good results for its users. Not just gaining ranks for yourself to make more money!

The first free link building technique I want to look at is often overlooked by seo’s and others for some reason. Its actually a very powerful way of marketing and branding yourself while you gain good back links to your site.

Blog commenting is the first method we are going to discuss, I have talked about it before (Blog Commenting) and I told you what it was about and good ways to get your comments approved. However that post fails to tell you where to look for the right blogs to post on. Today we are going to cover where to look so you can benefit the most!

While there are many ways to find blogs you can comment on, this technique is the one I have used the most and it produces some excellent results for me. First step is to open Google.com’s homepage. If you have the Google Toolbar then you can just use the search box in it.

Next you need to put the following into the search box…

“[your keywords here]” “powered by wordpress” “leave a comment” -”no comments”

Before you hit go be sure to change the text “Your Keywords Here” to contain the most important keyword to your site. It should be the one that is first mentioned in your title tag, generally speaking of course.

In short this string tells the search engines to look for sites with the words powered by wordpress that also say leave a comment. But it doesn’t stop there, it also tells the engine only to display the pages that contain your keywords.

You may be a bit confused but don’t worry. It works great and it will pull up hundred’s if not thousands of results that you can use to your advantage. Just remember to make each comment to high quality to assure it gets approved. Most of these blogs will be auto approved, just sit back and watch your rankings soar!

Before we can talk about how to avoid being penalized first we need to know why google would want to eliminate paid links. Google has said “Do Not Do It” in the past, but a few months ago they have really started cracking down on people and they are allowing people to snitch on each other so Google can eliminate people easier.

Google wants to eliminate paid links for the simple reason that it effects their algorithum and they have no control over it. Google wants you to think that they are in control and have the BEST search engine known to man kind. However with some of there recent actions and crackdowns on paid links they are not doing themselves any favors to speak of.

This is what I basically gathered from ShoeMoney in his excellent video. You can watch his video right here or visit his blog at www.ShoeMoney.com to read more tips and updates about this matter.

ShoeMoney brings up many interesting points but he doesn’t answer the question of how to avoid a penalty. I want to go on record saying “I do not buy links for any of my sites”. I have not needed to as I create content that people like and link to. I have been blessed in this regard and I still believe its the best method for success instead of cheating through paid links. But for those who want to know how to buy links and not receive a penalty lets continue.

If you use services such as TLA or TNX to buy / sell links of any kind you are already in deep water. These services make it easy for a human google editor to go into and see who is and is not buying / selling links, you need to avoid such public venues for buying or selling links.

Its best to contact people individually asking for a link and that your willing to compensate them for linking to you. While it may seem like a primitive method it works very well as you can then specify which type of links you want (relative links are best). Just remember not to email your competition or they may snitch on you and get your penalized or banned!

To wrap up all you have to do is avoid public venues, this raises the all interesting question “Where do I get links then?”. I have talked about blog commenting in the past as well as other techniques for building back links for free.

However these free link building techniques can only do so much if your on a tight schedule and you need to get things going quickly. Let me emphasize one last time how I do not endorse buying links and I highly suggest you never do it.You sure you don’t want to change your mind now? Alright read on then you google cheater you!

To buy links safely just sign up to the multiple webmaster forums around the net. The best ones are probably BzImage, DevHunters, DigitalPoint, V7N and NamePros. If you cannot get links from these 5 forums then you should probably quit your job as an seo wannabe!

I Know I know, your saying wait… I already know about these sites and buy links at these forums. How are these going to help me avoid a penalty? To put it bluntly you only buy the links that are not displayed publicly within a thread. The links you want are the ones where you have to reply to a thread or pm the seller to get the url, these are the links you want as Google reps are to busy to contact hundreds of thousands of members about buying and selling links via private messages.

It really is that simple, just avoid publicicty at all costs. If you can do that you should be safe from penaltys now and in the future. Try it out and be sure to share your results with me below.

When does one know if they are indexed in the search engines?

I looked up my “Ask Me Anything” thread on my webmaster forum at Bzimage.org, much to my surprise there was a question I skipped (sorry about that) so I thought instead of adding it to a video I would just explain it via a post instead.

The question I received was a general one, that’s probably why I skipped it in the first place. But as promised I will answer every question I possibly can. Here was the question I received in the thread…

“When does one know if he or she is indexed in the search engines?”

First off, this is kind of a two fold question even though it doesn’t seem like it. Mainly because it’s asking how to know if your indexed in the search engines but we also need to know how to get indexed to complete the question properly. Guess what guys, you don’t get indexed without wanting to, plus there is no reason to create a blog and post in it if you’re not indexing, it’s just plain silly and we all know it!

Alright to answer the original question in style, all you have to do is visit www.google.com and type your website URL into the input box and hit search. When the results are listed to you if your site is not one of the top spots on the page then you are not indexed. Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean your banned from the search index, it simply means your not indexing properly yet.

See now doesn’t that questions answer leave you with the feeling of ok, so I am not banned but I am not indexed either. So how do I get indexed relatively quickly so I can start gaining ground and readership? Great question, I have covered this topic in-depth before, however for a quick fix here is the basic story to getting your site indexed fast.

All you need to do is get maybe 5-10 regular links pointing to your site, while simultaneously getting anywhere from 5-25 friends to social bookmark your site. These socials will help your site get indexed really fast while the links give the search engines a link profile to go off of at the start.

Doing one without the other is a bit silly IMO, also if you already have a blog going with links and you are indexed but you just published a great article and you want it indexed in just a few hours apply the same technique minus the extra links. If you’re already indexed it’s just slow from cache date to cache date then your link profile is already in place, you just need a power booster and that is where the socials come in handy!

That raises another question, if after you get the socials and links to your site yet you still remain not included in the indexed within 48 hrs what should one do?

Check and see the history of the domain, see when it was last registered and what the last page indexed by archive.org is. Once you know this you can start dissecting the page to see what may have caused google to ban or deindexed the site.

It’s a long a tedious process, so if it has happened to you by some small chance of fate I suggest you drop that URL and get a brand new one and start with it. Don’t buy into the lie that an aged domain is way better for a site then a new URL, which is only true if you keep the old website with it. As soon as the site is taken off you drop nearly all the authority and have to rebuild anyhow. Trust me on this one and take it to the bank, there are so many scammers on the net that will scam you into anything just for a couple of bucks!