When Link Building, Don’t Worry About Percentages

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

Reading this article on SiteProNews reminds me of the Geico commercials you see on TV. Call me a caveman, but here’s my response, “Uh, what?”

Let’s break this down. The writer starts off by saying there is some sort of link building “constellation” that is ideal for a link building campaign. Far out, man. Like, you mean, Pluto is still a planet?

I’m not quite sure what he’s getting at, but the logic is murky at best and appears in the night sky as a streaming array of lights much like the Milky Way. In essence, that SEO is spaced out, dude.

1. Internal satellites – 10% of total links

These are internal links, particularly links on sub domains. The suggested examples are subdommains of the main domain which stray from the main content of the site and therefore justify their own domain but are very much part of the main website.

Que?

In the Milky Way substance of the universe there is a Milky substance of the universal way and la la la la. Play me another Jefferson Airplane tune, please.

Excuse me, Mr. McElbow, but subdomains by definition are under the main domain. That’s why they are subdomains. You know, like subways are underground? Only they don’t stray. They are usually about topics other than what the main website is about and that’s why they are not on the main website. Most people who use subdomains do so because they are too cheap to buy a real domain name. But there is a legitimate reason for using a subdomain and that is when you want to test a particular idea but are not ready to commit to a full domain until you know the idea will fly.

Still, linking from the subdomain to the main website is a good thing to do. I’m not sure why you would limit yourself to 10% of your total links. Why would you even count the links? Your main concern should be quality links and if your main website has been around longer than your subdomain then you might want those links pointing in the other direction. Of course, there are no gospel rules. And that’s my point. 10% is just bunk. Link when it’s necessary.

2. External satellites – 10% of total links

External ‘satellite’ links are links that come from content created on external domains but operated with full editorial control by the main website (or the link builders). Examples include external blogs, microsites and community portals setup by the optimizers, usually for the sole purpose of creating new quality links to the main website.

This is actually a proven useful strategy and very effective. I highly recommend setting up your own blog on another domain name from your main website and using it to link to your primary site. Those inbound links will prove to be valuable over time. Again, I don’t understand why you’d dole it out in 10% increments. Do it as often as you can.

3. Quality links – 25% of total links

Quality links are usually built entirely by the link builders on quality, relevant websites. Gaining these links will involve approaching the relevant websites and getting a link put somewhere on their site by asking, adding to their content (i.e. comments on blogs). A common method combines “link baiting” with article distribution.

You see, here’s the problem with this whole link building strategy. You have no control over what someone else does with their website. If you shoot for 25% of your links on other websites then you could very well be disappointed when it doesn’t happen. What if no one wants to link to you? What if you end up with 100 inbound links from your external blog and only 25 links from other websites over the period of a month or two? Do you pull back from working on your blog? Do you spend more time approaching other websites hoping that they will see value in yours? Just focus on building quality links. Don’t worry about 12.5% gallons of link love bottled with 35% of relevance and 10% of PageRank. All of that is just red light refracting like a sun ray through a river bed. OK, forget I said that. Just build quality links. You can do this with articles, your blog, and, yes, by asking other webmasters to link to you.

4. Free links – 15% of total links

The old school of link building is still a very important part of creating total link volume. The link profiles of some of the most successful SEO link building campaigns are based on free link building but this is increasingly becoming a difficult area of utilise to maximum effect. Free directory submission is the most common type of free link building but social media distribution of site content through RSS and tagging is a more modern spin on free link generation.

5. Paid links – 10% of total links

I debated wither this should be included but ultimately accepted that somewhere in any large scale link building campaign paid links would be used to increase total link volume, target some quality relevant sites and also build up link numbers from some high PR (PageRank) sites. It happens.

Well, Mr. Elbow decided to sponsor a Web-only debate with himself and lost. Paid links – 10% of your total linking strategy? If you have a lot of links that could get expensive. Again, this is just ridiculous. It’s like calling Pluto a planet.

I’m not saying you should never pay for links, but what if Google decides to play God and make all paid links illegal, you know, as they are flirting with now? And what if Yahoo and the almost irrelevant MSN follow suit? Then what?

If you must pay for links, do so because you believe those links will deliver you some high quality and relevant traffic – you know, like pay-per-click ads do. Don’t pay for PR. If the search engines decide to diss those links then you’ll just be throwing good money after bad. If that happens, you might as well move to Pluto and gawk at the Milky Way through 3-D rose-colored glasses.

6. Organic links – 25% of total links

I strongly believe that no successful link building program is complete without a substaintial contibution from sites which are not sourced for links as part of the SEO campaign. These sites choose to link of their own accord based on the quality of content on the main website or the internal satellites.

Like, totally cool, man. 25%? Really?

Again, here’s something you have little control over. Yes, make your site so damned good only a fool would pass up a chance to link to it. Build some linkbait into it if you must. But realize that you can’t hold a gun to anyone’s head and force them to link to you. Well, I guess you could but then you might go to link jail for link extortion. Link hostages aren’t really all that fun anyway. Eventually, they need to eat and use the bathroom and that just gets in the way of your main objective.

OK, I’m getting silly. Really. Build a great site and people will link to you. But forget about that 25% business. Control what you can and leave the rest to the link gods. You hear that Mr. Elbow?