New Article - Using Blog Search Engines To Build Links

[thejenn]

Authored by: Jennifer Laycock

Full Text: http://www.searchengineguide.com/laycock/009699.html

A Snippet:

One of the questions that often pops up when I teach small businesses about link building is where to go to find sites to request links from. While most businesses understand the idea of going to directories and search engines and finding sites that way, many don't yet understand the power of using blog search engines to seek out blogs to target with your link building campaign.

[vangogh]

This is a great idea Jen. One of the advantages of seeing blogs for links is that bloggers are usually looking for others to link to. You're approaching someone who is more likely to be willing to link to your content.

This fits in nicely with the series Rand posted last week about the 'linkerati' and appealing to them to generated links into your site.

[Joseph]

Thanks Jenn

Some great information I'll give Technorati a try. I should be focusing on the quality links. The idea of searching for blogs that are relavent to my site should be a rewarding adventure. Thanks again!


Joseph

[Kaipoleimanu]

Aloha Jenn,

I just wanted to let you know that I read your article on using blog search engines to build links. I looked up Technorati and it inspired me to change a couple of things on my blog. Yes, among a couple of other things I'm trying to learn how to get my blog out there.
I'm really new to all of this but it is fun even though a little overwhelming!

Thanks, I'll probably read more from you!

[bajooter]

Another great place to start is, of course, your favorite blogs. I recently read a post on a high profile blog that sparked my interest so I posted about it on my blog and then commented about it on the post of the high profile blog. I STILL haven't stopped getting hits from that site. I guess this is several lessons in one:

1. Comment on your favorite blogs
2. Comment on high profile blogs with lots of readers
3. Make your comments useful, not just a stupid "hi, great blog"

[SimonHeseltine]

I would say nice article, but I think that's almost becoming a catchphrase of mine in this forum, so I'll go with well thought out, informative article.

Don't forget though that you don't necessarily want to just search for blogs that are related directly to your services or products, you may want to find some good blogs that talk about your local area and get some good geo-relevant links. One other site that I've used for this purpose in the past (although not that far in the past, as it's not been around for that long) is placeblogger.com, who groups blogs based solely on their locale, you may find some there that haven't been claimed in Technorati, but the quality does vary, so you'll still want to do your research.

[Vipdev]

Do you guys think commenting on other blogs carries any significance in terms of link building..? Coz most blog site out there have "no flow" enabled which means SE's will not pick up those links under any circumstances, but sure you will get few clicks out of it but other than that blog commenting is useless specially if you do it for back link development purposes. Although it is a very good tactic in order to promote your own blog. And having a blog is extremely useful specially in terms of promoting your own site. and That’s why lot of people go for blogging because for some reason SE's just love the fresh and frequent content which are posted on blogs.

[krtup]

The article was great! Thank you Jenn.

[mbm]

In fact, it does not matter so much whether it is blog's comment or forum post or regular web page. It is important to provide good and valuable content for the visitor. This is what makes visitor to come to your web site and to come back again and again.

Now it is not about link building for search engines, but more about capturing direct visitors' clicks. The 'competition' to make more posts, to make more comments on different blogs is making these links less and less valuable in terms of search engine optimization.

The major (if not the only) value is for the blog owner, because he/she gets free content and this way the page becomes more important for the search engines

[Anita]

Vipdev, What you say about "no follow" is a consideration. However, there is a growing "just say no to no-follow" movement afoot:

http://battellemedia.com/archives/001198.php

Anyway, even if there are no-follow codes, the comments still lead people back to your site where they may well find something else they want to link to. I've done that numerous times myself, and I have had it happen to me numerous times, also.

Everything you do online is cumulative -- look at it that way.

Anita