What Kinds Of Links Do You Have?

Link building is without doubt one of the major aspects of search engine optimization.With all these new techniques, such as social media optimization, coming up, manual link building stands as a proud old-school method of ranking top in SERPs (Search Engine Result Page).Link building can be summarized as the process of setting up hyperlinks that will point to a particular site for which the link building strategy is being carried out.The link building strategy comprises of 3 major departmentsOne way LinkingReciprocal Linking3-way LinkingOut of the above three, the most used is reciprocal linking and the most sought-after is one-way linking.3-way linking is not that much used and is detected as “egregious linking activity” by search engines, especially Google, if the sites that are carrying out the process have enough trust and authority.One-way Linking:The link building strategy is carried out to increase the PageRank of a website and to increase its prominence in the SERPs. All of the above mentioned link building strategies work. But which one is the most efficient or which one is the best?The answer to that would obviously be one-way linking. SEO experts have been screaming at the top of their voices to prove that one-way links are the most useful way to build links. It is because one-way linking is the most natural link building strategy.Then the question arises that if this is the case, then why do people mostly use reciprocal linking? That is because reciprocal linking is the easiest way to increase the volume of links pointing to a particular website. A website without quality content and relevant one-way links may still rank well in SERPs due to the sheer amount of links pointing to it.The catch here is that excessive reciprocal linking may lead to decrease in trust and may be detected as spam by the search engines. Hence, one-way linking is undoubtedly the best way to promote a site. One-way linking can be of two types:Free one-way linksPaid one-way linksFree one-way links:Free one-way links are the major targets of search engine optimizers because these links are free, provide more weight and add more value to link popularity.These links can be acquired by putting up links in top directories such as Google, Yahoo, DMOZ (otherwise known as the ODP- Open Directory Project), Business.com, etc.They can be also acquired by enlisting the list in the first and second tier directories and niche directories. If proper submission guidelines and a combination of anchor text and targeted keywords with a suitable description is used, then these links will boost the link popularity of the site for sure.It will also provide the site with value and weight, hence increasing the trust and authority of that site. Free one-way links can also be obtained through content, tools, articles, blogs and forums. All these techniques are natural, hence, there is no chance of being marked or be identified as spam.Good, quality content draws tons of links which are of course free and one-way. It is because the way the human psychology works. If the information is useful and valuable to a customer, he/she would obviously link to it. Here enters the social networking sites which can be used to promote a site. The promotional strategy must be discrete as the editors of these sites are extremely biased against promoting a site through these sites.Any hint of a marketing strategy would mark your site and may result in undesired consequences. Blogs also provide to be an important source for one-way links because if a link builder posts a relevant comment in a blog which has similar content to that of his site with a link to his site, then that link would be also counted.The similar case is with the forums, except that the link builder should use the link to his site as the signature and the link builder should be an active member of that forum. As for the tools, it is similar to the content – if a person finds the tools useful, then he/she would obviously link to it and also spread the word about it.The advantages of these types of links are that they provide more value and weight to the site and hence, boost link popularity of that site. They also increase the PageRank of the site. Free one-way linking is a completely solid white-hat SEO technique; hence, there is no chance of getting banned. And last but not the least, they are FREE! On the other hand, there are disadvantages – these links are hard to come by.There are plenty of directories, but when it comes to relevant quality sites, there seems to be a huge scarcity. Link builders experience eye and back strains by staring at the SERPs for long hours in order to find relevant sites that would provide a free one-way link to their site. And even if a relevant website is found, it will not provide the link so easily.The website has to go through strict editorial supervision to be approved. This is also the case for certain top directories where the editors prove to be extremely cynical, sarcastic and vengeful. Another disadvantage is that it takes time – a free one-way link submission at a second tier directory takes 2-4 weeks at the minimum to be approved or rejected. During this time, the competitors of the site may have a boost by their reciprocal linking strategy. And also, free one-way linking is a stressful manual job which takes long hours of hard work.