Link building is something that has been going on since before the search engine days (it was the only way people could originally navigate around the web before search engines came to be) and it was done way before Google started recognizing that it was a valid way to count links as a credit to whether a web site is quality or not.
From the day that people figured out that back-links are what Google recognized as the most valid way to rank web sites in the search engines, “SEO’s” have been trying to game the system.
Building links is something that just comes hand in hand with SEO and is a must have job to add to your daily blogging routine. People develop all out strategies (some white hat and some black hat) and attach every procedure with the hopes that it will gain them one of the top spots in the SERPs. Link building has become so important that entire businesses (e.g. a company that provides SEO services) that survive on providing a link building service and entire companies that offer software to help people with their link building campaigns are able to populate the Internet airwaves.
You can find all sorts of link building software out there. Some of them are completely useless, some of them are for using spam techniques, and some of them are for completely “white hat” purposes.
The question is: Are they even helping you be more productive?
First of all, all of this really depends on your situation. If you are really trying to scale up white label link building – something that can be extremely hard to do – you may absolutely need some sort of link building software, or relationship management software as they are usually equipped to do. I haven’t tried every single link building software platform out there, but that being said I have tried a lot of them, and most of them actually have hindered my productivity rather than increased it.
Let me tell you why…
So the fact that there comes a lot of data entry with link building is something that many people are aware of. People want this time consuming task to just disappear, especially if they have to keep track of many different metrics for somebody that they are providing services for.
The link building software world offers people at chance at solving this problem. Many software programs allow people to keep track of all sorts of different metrics like page rank, Alexa rank, IP address, and so on and so forth with the click of a single button. This then results in these web sites being stored in a big database that stores all of your information very nicely for you to pull up at any time.
Here are just a few number of things that any good link building software provider can keep track of for you:
- Web site
- Relationship status
- Names and Contact Information
- IP Address
- Anchor Text Used
- What page the link is linking from and to
- A database of emails by using a BCC
- All of the Metrics that you find on your SEO quake bar
- Action Steps that need to be taken
- The ability to create custom fields
- Any notes that you may have for that particular contact
My question to you is: Do you really need to keep track of all of that stuff?
Prospecting for links is one of the easiest things to do. The problem with most people is that they are prospecting with one thing in mind: “Who is going to let me get the least amount of quality up the fastest and easiest.”
This type of mindset arrives when you are trying to do link building on a high level, but this is a whole different story. The point of the matter is, is that you should spend more time worrying about the quality of your articles rather than how much information you can horde on each and every contact you have in your data base.
Here is a list of reasons why you can be much more productive without using software.
- One of the cool things about using link building software is that you can build your own little database of prospects. It’s like building a search engine for guest posting opportunities – The only thing is, is that you don’t even need to do that; it has already been done for you. Sites like Technorati, the ability to use advanced search operators for finding guest posting opportunities, and forums like MyBlogGuest make this extremely pointless, and a huge waste of time!
- Spreadsheets do a way better job of keeping track of info. You are probably going to have to report to somebody unless you are working for yourself, and since you are using a spreadsheet anyways, you might as well use it to keep track of all your data. Software, although automatic, is a lot slower at updating fields, and you can even color coordinate your spreadsheets!
- The human memory is a lot more efficient at keeping track of what you’ve done in terms of link building than software is. Yes software can probably horde a lot more information than your brain can, and make it more readily available, but it isn’t as efficient. This is because you really don’t need to know all of that stuff that it keeps track of, and the time you spend keeping track of it doesn’t outweigh the time you spent actually doing all of your link prospecting.
- When link building, you usually have a workflow of priorities, and only a few actionable steps at one time. Link building software forces you to look at the big picture, and when you do so, you end up “doing work” that is not priority and isn’t something you should be doing anyways – like figuring out how to mass email 3,000 people at one time (pointless)
Conclusion:
All this being said, link building software still is pretty cool, the only thing is, is that sometimes it’s just absolutely useless. It only works amazingly right when you have the absolute best system put in place. You will find that you will actually build more (and better quality) links when you focus on your writing rather than your “system.” See this 10 step SEO checklist to help you on your way.
This article was contributed by Jet Russell. Jet blogs for www.inetzeal.com – an SEO company where you can find a SEO Quote for many different services.
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Mitz – who has written 759 posts on Computer Tips.
Hi guys…I am a computer freak but I do not always talk in tech language. Hope you enjoy my website and learn everything you need to know in an easy to understand way.. If you like what you see please join: Follow Tips4pc On Twitter | Become A Facebook Fan | Subscribe RSS Feed | Tips4pc Youtube Channel
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
Glad to see you here mitz , thanks for creating another site for computer tips , really i don’t know about this . I’m one of the regular reader of your wordpress website builder blog , from to day i’m reader of this blog also .
sai krishna recently posted..Top 5 Best Ultimate Smartphones
I have created a blog site and i need some good tips for link building. And from here i got it thanks a lot.
I have a created a new blog. I was to much concern about my site ranking. I got a lot of useful information from your post. I think, now I know the right way to promote my link. I could not but give you a lot of thanks from my deep heart. Many many thanks.
Where I am they don’t call this SEO they always call it SEM Search Engine Manipulation. But I think manipulating a search engine to rank good quality content higher is not a bad thing.
I think linkbuilding automation software generally fills the internet with crap. Software that helps you organize is fine, if you need it. And software to make things easier which basically still is automation for example to send out a tweet when you write a new post. Or to connect several social media platforms to post the same thing on different platforms faster is still fine, as long as you control the content and it’s quality.
Danny recently posted..Husqvarna 327P5X Pole pruner 25cc 12 inch bar
Enjoyed your article on Link Building Software. I am not into internet marketing; but, merely looking for ways to popularize my new site on anxiety attacks. You have provided me some very helpful tips regarding the usefullness of automated link building software. Thank you
Ellie
Ellie recently posted..Staving Off Panic Attacks
If used right, the SEO software can really help out the link building process. Many believe that a huge number of backlinks over night will help their site and that’s not true. In my experience the best link building startegy is having 3-4 new backlinks pointing back to your site every day for around 3 months.
Marty recently posted..Benefits of Using an Air Purifier in Your Home
I haven’t tried any single link building software. I cant afford their prices too. I agree and will go with Guest posting. Because It is a great tool not only to build links but also to build image for the author and brand name to the blog.
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Hi mitz, do you know any social bookmarking submitter tool? thank you
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From my experience your main focus should always be on quality instead of quantity.
If you are able to get back links from relevant authority sites, a few of those links would carry more juice to your sites than thousands “off topic” forum profile links.
If you look at Google´s way of ranking results, you would realize that Google would show rankings for videos, websites, pictures and stuff.
From my experiments I can see that a lot of links from different IP´s would make a difference, so its about not only to putt all of you eggs in the same basket.
Many time consuming tasks like social bookmarking are tasks you can speed up by using software.
Article distribution/submission is another task that is too time consuming doing by hand.
I have about 15 reviews on my site of different SEO Software I use, and more to come soon.
It is indeed true, it depends on what software you are using. But we know that the organic way is still what google looks for. We know how smart google is.. I better use organic although it takes time to rank but the result is worth it.
Unless you work in a very tiny niche, you only have 3 options when it comes to link building.
1. Do everything manually by hand
2. Use software combined with manual link building
3. Hire a lot of freelance link builders
Or even better combine the 3 options!
If you are working in a competitive niche, you would often face that you need thousands of back links to beat your competitors.
You simply need to be able to be able to control the battle and keep track on your work. The good old days using an Excel spreadsheet and build a few links every week are gone.
Sadly a lot of webmaster misunderstand the purpose of link building software, and rush into creating thousands of spammy back links.
The does not improve your ranking, it does not bring any value to the users and you might face a penalty.
Use link building software to organize your link building tasks – you can be sure your competitors are doing it too!
You are right that people using the link building software usually overdo it and get themselves in trouble! It can be very effective if done the right way!
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Hi Mitz,
Back link building really consists of several different things that have to happen in exactly the right measure if the back link is to be of use to your website.
1) You have to identify websites that offer similar or parallel information to yours.
2) You have to obtain the Email ID of their web masters and ask for back links from their websites offering back links in return
3) You have to follow up such Emails dispatched very carefully until you decide that the web master is not going to respond to you ever
4) If a web master agrees to a back link you need to set up the corresponding back link on your website while asking for evidence the a reciprocal link has been created on theirs
And so on
Attempting to do all of this using a simple spread sheet while being possible is really very time consuming.
There is some excellent software available that automates most of these processes. This helps leave you free to actually focus on the back link building itself, which is so important to rank well in search engine result pages.
Regards,
Ivan Bayross
Ivan Bayross recently posted..New Home Page
No one does this (reciprocal linking) these days. If you want a link on someone elses site you offer them fantastic content and there you have one or two one way backlinks. You get traffic immediately and you get SEO benefits.
Hi MItz,
I can definitely see your point of view on reciprocal links.
I’m not 100% certain that Google ( and other search engines ) simply ignore these links or worse knock down your website ranking because of these links.
In addition, if the reciprocal linking is between two, well crafted websites, whose content does add measurable value to both their site visitors this just cannot be wrong.
I have never been wholly convinced that reciprocal linking is a – bad thing – like a lot of SEO specialists make it out to be. I’m still of the opinion that if the websites content compliment one another, reciprocal linking can be excellent.
Having said that, I do have an open mind and I’m always willing to learn.
Regards,
Ivan Bayross
I still totally believe that reciprocal linking is still effective but Guest posting is also….but with many more benefits. Thats all. I still think the link exchange is valuable, especially with an aged website in your niche, however these links seem to mysteriously disappear after time..
Best tip in this article, and it’s excellent is creating a spreadsheet to track all linking opportunities. I track most links to each website I publish and ever since I started doing this it’s made a huge difference in my link building campaigns. It’s a little time-consuming, but now I have a huge database of ongoing linking opportunities plus a huge network of like-minded bloggers in my niches with whom I can comment and engage with.
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Everything is right …But we can’t deny the fact that it depends on the software used too !!
Lucy R. recently posted..How to Avoid the Google Sandbox
It depends on which software you are using. Some are great but then there are some which will only waste your time and even give you worse results than before. As a website owner one needs to be very cautious with link building software.
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Hi Mitz,
I truly think a lot of people waste too much time with some of these softwares keeping track of every little thing.
To me, that time is better spend if you use it to actually build links. I mean, we all know you got to build quality links, so focus your time on that and eventually you will rank for whatever keyword you are trying to rank for.
Now I could understand if you are a SEO company or someone trying to experiment with different things to get precis results, you may want to keep track of all the details, but for the average blogger and webmaster, I think its a waste of time.
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Hi Satrap
I got hit on one of my sites from Google panda…I kept a record of what links I built and now I know what works and where to make the links… I don’t have to try and remember what to do.. That was great when I did keep track but I just forgot to track the other 10,000 before that!
It is essential that we are aware of this because there are several link building softwares which are reliable and there are some which are not. This is the reason why it is important to choose the most appropriate software for us and I think this post will really help all users.
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Definitely. I read a lot of stuff about these software. Frankly, I don’t think I’ll ever have need for them. I’m not into that sort of thing. I know it may be beneficial on some levels, but I’m a long way from there. On the other hand, I used to think that if I write well enough, link building will just happen. I’ve come to the conclusion, after years of it not happening, that it won’t.
I feel as though I’m caught somewhere in the middle, but it will take me some time to figure out just where that is. I need to do this before I can move on.
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First, Google likes only link exchange within websites that have the same topics, so when it comes to this type of link building I’d rather pass software.
Second, many people pay bloggers to keep their link active and do-follow – here I find a great utility for link building software, just like you said, for keeping track of all sorts of stuff
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