Jessica Foster ^🎓
Maybe I am a psychopath but I think the content/outreach bit is fun. But I'm also an SEO copywriter sooo I have the patience of Job lol I think if you have the right strategist, you can get really creative with it – and those tend to show the best results anyway. I have never gone the Private Blog Network (PBN) route.
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Colbert
Haha.. Yeah if you enjoy that sort of thing you'll save thousands of dollars in content and labor for the outreach side.
PBNs work like crazy, but not all PBNs are created equal. If you buy from reputable sellers like Freedom Links, Diggity, or Lion Zeal, then you can pretty much count on it being safe. Just stay away from public networks like Links Management.
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Jessica Foster ^🎓 » Colbert
A lot people outsource their content to me for that reason, but yes, I agree outreach can be very tedious (and full of disappointment). But I also feel that a lot of SEO users do it the "lazy way" by writing content and throwing it at the wall (ie a bunch of blogs) and hoping it sticks. People are much more receptive to custom-tailored content, which does take more time, but is usually a better use of time than tapping out your connections by sending meh blog posts. My two cents 😉
Colbert » Jessica
Yeah I agree. It's just hard to do it the way you mention at scale. If you have a large pool of local biz clients with low/med budgets, you have to be able to scale what you're doing across your business. "Joe Plumber" doesn't care about that awesome mention in Plumbers Weekly, he just wants the phone to ring. So when you consider budget, labor, and the results, sometimes the "lazy way" as you put it, is sometimes what makes the most sense for your business.
On the flip side, when you have that large brand, you want to do it exactly like you're suggesting (IMO). You can't go back to a client like Amex and be like, "got ya some sick niche edits brah… pay me." They'd be like, "you should inform your insurance company there's going to be a claim against you." haha
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Jessica Foster ^🎓 » Colbert
You make a very good point. Several, actually. It was interesting to me that the comments on the original post seemed to be unanimous re link building being the hardest. As usual in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), "it depends".

Troy
What link building tactic works the best for your team?
Ali
Troy Partnerships on LinkedIn, round ups did not fail me yet 😛

Madil » Roger
I think you meant to say sites that are selling links aggressively or having guest post/sponsored page instead of sites that accepts money for links…
Because no matter what, even outreaching to a site that is legit, real will demand some money in the name of publishing fee most of the times.
So i think the difference here should be sites that sells links aggressively/sponsored posts and or are made for the sole purpose of selling links vs on the other side, sites that are real, have traffic, and they don't accept each and every link/article instead they carefully vet links/articles they accept on the basis of quality/relevance factors they have in place.
Recently as you know johnmu on twitter appreciated digital PR.. And PR is all about money.
Roger » Maher
I've been in link building for about twenty years. I will share some of my lived and experienced history so people can understand where I'm coming from and a little bit of the history of link building. 🙂
Back in the day, people used to say that directory links were okay as long as the directory was quality and the links relevant. Then directory links were burned.
SEO users used to say that reciprocal links are okay as long as you do it with quality sites that are relevant. Then reciprocal links were burned.
SEO users next turned to services like Text-Link-Ads dot com and said buying links was okay as long as it's done with quality sites that were relevant. Then Text Link Advertisement (TLA) was burned.
Conductor came along with ten millon dollars in VC funding and they said that Google approved of their link selling because selling links was fine as long as it was done with quality sites on the selling and buying side that were relevant. Then that business model got burned and they pivoted to tools and whatnot.
That "quality sites" thing is an excuse that's been used for decades to justify all manner of schemes. I've seen it many times.
I don't share your confidence in the ability of site operators to vet the links they accept.
To put it in perspective, I don't have confidence in the average SEO users ability to properly vet whether a site is clean or poisoned.
When I say "average SEO" I mean someone who is new to SEO with 5 years of activity or less, learned what they know from reading Patel, Backlinko and Moz and never actually launched a successful site for themselves but rather are relying on what they read about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and not necessarily experienced.
https://web.archive.org/web/20080129113846/text-link-ads.com/testimonials.php
TLA Testimonials
Madil » Roger
Yeah, i would agree with you here.
Many newbie SEO's don't do the research that is required rather they just focus on increasing sales. SEO person could always check the outgoing links of a site to assess the quality of site but its not often the case since most aren't willing to do research and update their knowledge with latest information obtained both from trusted, legitimate sources + their own experiments.
I could still remember in 2012 i would just use spammy comment backlinks and rank easily but its not the case in 2021.. But still sellers are selling such links on Fiverr and people buying without knowing/considering that such links could potentially harm their sites.
Blame goes both to sellers/SEO's and Google too for not clearly explaining what's good vs what's bad link in detail (they just say building link yourself would be considered as un-natural link while the available data and experiments suggests otherwise)
Roger » Maher
You're right. 2012 was a pivotal year for search. That's when the modern era of Search began imo. Google and Microsoft got on the path to Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Thomas » Roberto
Cool story. I never said I didn't know how to do it myself. It's asking people's opinions between the two. 🤙
Roberto
That's exactly why I wanted to make clear that I'm not presuming anything.
But, if you know the outreach process, how about training a Virtual Assistant (VA)?

Vamshi ^✍️ » Swaraj
I want to rank a .com website in kenya from India. For this can I post a guest post on any .com extension websites?
Jyothi » Vamshi
It's difficult to get geo location links most of the time but you can use proxy and VPN for getting exact target websites from other location. This way you build not only .com extension but specific location extension. I hope this helps for you too.
Колев » Jyothi
that's true , but what do you do with native language and internal knowledge of the best local sites? Usually when I want Kenya links, I always aim to reach local SEO expert. Everything else is compromise with quality.
Vamshi ^✍️ » Jyothi
Thank you
Jyothi » Колев
I agree to what you want to convey. Can't completely compete with local experts but to get links we have to try somehow.
And yes contacting local expert is a great idea. but is it that easy?

Vamshi ^✍️ » Mann
How can I find a niche relevant forum?
Jyothi » Vamshi
Forum links needs a lot of time investment and lots of knowledge in the subject. If you invest 1 year commenting on the forums you may get one quality backlink and it's generally not worth if you really want to build good links and that too at a faster rate.
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Mann » Jyothi
that is the key about SEO… It is marketing basically… Through forums links which your competitors miss out mostly due to time investment, you can gain audience and authority higher than your competitors. And it does not tak a year to get 1 link.. all you need is spot a right place to share your informative blog post link which users are looking for in your niche.. that's it
Jyothi » Mann
Most of the forums(which are niche forums) and will add value to your link will mostly not allow direct links without you spending a lot of time on the particular site.
For example https://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/ They have a policy of 30+ responses on site before you can even have a signature link.
My point is it's usually not worth the effort. It's great if you can get a link instantly but it's not the case in most of the sites.
UKBUSINESSFORUMS.CO.UK
UK Business Forums

Mann » Marley
why not? Except paid guest posts what do you prefer for niche relevant links?
Marley
Good luck trying to rank with forum links… Havent used those tactics since 2010 along with web 2.0's, bookmarks and directory links lol
Mann » Marley
oh really then which tactics are you using to rank?
Tim
Manual, relevant, follow fourm links still work and can also send direct traffic.
Marley » Mann
guest posts, link inserts, PBN's and also tier all the links I build. I rank in some pretty competitive niches so I know these work.
Mann » Marley
tier 2 we all follow and except guest posts you have only options of PBNs??
Luke
Forums still work, it just takes a lot of time. You can outsource it to a virtual assistant.
Luke » Vamshi
We've ranked sites with all PBN's and we've ranked sites entirely with comments. In terms of time, comments take a while. But they still work, despite what Google would have everyone believe.
Aim for a mix of No-Follow and Do-Follow links that are relevant to your niche and location. The goal is to look as natural as possible.
Many people make the mistake of hammering a website with exact match anchor text over and over again. But the chances of that happening naturally are zero, which is why those websites are often stuck in the search results or get penalized.
If you're in Miami Florida for example, start with the local chamber of commerce and local blogs. These links will add trust and city-based relevance to your website.
Example searches:
– City + chamber of commerce
– City + directory
– City + business directory
– City + "add your business"
– City + "list your business"
– City + blogs
– City blog list
Then, find some links related to your niche. If you're a roofer for instance, put up a profile on niche-specific directories like roofingcontractor(.com).
Example searches:
– Niche + directory
– Niche + business directory
– Niche + "add your business"
– Niche + "list your business"
If there's a spot for a description, fill it out using your primary keywords and related synonyms, taking up all the available space without keyword stuffing.
You can also start with the top ranked companies and work backwards.
1. Pull a list of the top 10 companies for your primary keywords.
2. Sign up for a free trial of Majestic or Ahrefs and download their backlink profiles.
3. Combine all the rows into one spreadsheet
4. Add a custom filter and sort by Trust Flow, highest to lowest.
5. Visit each website and check whether you can add yours.
This is a good way to uncover quality links that you might not find using standard searches.
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Vamshi ^✍️ » Luke
Thanks a lot for the great tips.

Mike
hey man, don't tell them the truth. Let them waste time using dark link building techniques.
I don't have time to deal with competitors.
Better answer: "Oh yah, throw 1 million backlinks at your site and that should do the trick"
Fredrik » Mike
I would say that "Competition" is the worst focus you can have – it's also a totally wrong mind-set whatever reason you have with your site. "Together" is a part of the algorithm! 😉