Blog Link Building – Not All Links Are Created Equal 
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Check out my new guide for starting a blog to learn how to go about properly creating your own blog.
So what do you get when a website marketing professional starts a personal finance blog? You get a weekly blogging tips series!
I have to say this series has exceeded by expectations. Originally I just wanted to share some advice with my blogger friends. Since a lot of you guys e-mail me with blogging questions anyway, it makes sense to answer some of them here for everyone. A little unexpectedly this series has really helped with marketing my blog.
Unfortunately this may be the last post in this series for a little while. I’ve built up too large a queue of guest posts which I’m feeling guilty about not publishing more promptly. So I feel obligated to free up another weekday to publish those. I’ll eventually be back with more blogging tips posts. Or if you want to contribute a blogging tips posts, I can squeeze that in sometime soon.
Check out some of the previous posts from this series:
Since this is the last blogging tips post for a while, I’m going to cover something that I am extremely knowledgeable about. It also happens to be a very important topic that many bloggers do not know enough about.
Blog Link Building – Not All Links Are Created Equal
All the time I see blogs that are written quite well and have a decent sized following. Then I see a low PageRank or high Alexa Ranking and realize they are likely missing out on a lot of extra traffic. The problem is usually that they are not effectively building links to help their search engine rankings. They often don’t realize that it’s more than just getting a ton of links. The kinds of links you get play a big role too.
Dofollow Vs Nofollow
I’m sure most finance bloggers will have heard of nofollow and dofollow links, but I suspect many don’t really understand much about them.
The nofollow link attribute was introduced as a way to link to websites without passing PageRank. I personally believe Google was careful with that definition. It was widely assumed that it meant that nofollow links did not help search engine rankings either. I think they still affect a different ranking called TrustRank, which in turn affects search rankings. Also search engines can look at the balance between dofollow and nofollow links to detect unnatural linking patterns. This isn’t a problem with most bloggers since they get plenty of nofollow links via blog comments. By default most blog comments produce nofollow links.
If you’re not intimidated by looking at html code, you can recognize a nofollow link as they look something like this: <a href=”…” rel=”nofollow”>. Or you can download browser toolbars or extensions that can automatically highlight nofollow links.
Because a dofollow link helps search engine rankings to a much larger degree than nofollow links, it is important that you find ways of attaining those kinds of links. This is why you don’t want to rely too heavily on blog commenting as your primary marketing tactic. Instead try to find ways of getting links within post content or from other dofollow sites.
Links From Strong Domains or Pages
While search engine rankings are essentially a popularity contest with links counting as votes, certain links are given a lot more weight. The most significant factor is the strength of the domain and page that is linking to you blog. This is where checking PageRank is quite useful.
The stronger the domain’s backlink profile, the more that domain’s links usually help your rankings. Each individual page also has its own backlink profile, but that is highly influenced by the domain’s internal links. A strong domain can have weak pages with few backlinks. Links from those kinds of pages will help your search rankings less, but they may still help contribute to your TrustRank.
If you can consistently get some links from strong pages it will have a major effect on your rankings. Again, search engines can detect if you are focusing too heavily on links from strong pages. So it is important to balance those links out with links from other sources.
Keep in mind that a website’s homepage is almost always its most heavily linked page. This means it is usually the most beneficial page to get a link from.
Location On Page Matters
This factor might be debatable, but it is believed that the location of your link on a page affects its weight. Most internet marketers at least agree that in-content links are the ideal place for links. Not only will readers notice those links more, but it’s also likely that search engines give more weight to those links.
A link in the footer area of a website is thought to be the weakest position on a page for a link. This is where the least people will see it. Also because footers were abused for link selling and keyword stuffed internal links, search engines probably devalued that area of a site. Links in sitewide navigation areas may also be worth less. The catch is that if you have a link in a site’s footer or in its main navigation, you likely still get strong benefits from a link from their homepage and some benefit from having links on most of their pages. Links ‘above the fold’ might be worth more too.
With Link Building, Spread Yourself Thin
With many backlink analysis tools, it will tell you how many total links you have and how many domains link to you. This is because it is better to have lots of links from many sites rather than lots of links from fewer sites.
When you get multiple links from the same site, each new link is worth a little less. That difference is probably rather minute when it is under 10-20 links from that site. It also depends if those links are all pointing to the same page or whether they are passing PageRank to a variety of pages.
This factor is a little tough to address with blogging since the tendency is to overly focus on your favorite blogs. It is well worth your time to make the effort to ‘get around’ a bit. Focus on your favorites, but try to find links from new sources regularly.
Relevant Links For Keyword Boosts
If you get links from pages directly relevant to the keywords you are targeting, it will help your page gain more relevance for those keywords. So if targeting specific keywords, pay attention to the keywords in the page title, url and headings.
This one is also tough to address with blogging. First of all, usually we are most interested in links from recent pages where we have little control over how relevant the page is for our keywords. Secondly most of us put our efforts into building the overall strength of our domains instead of trying to build links to specific pages.
Think of how you can address this with tactics such as guest posting and commenting on older posts. We can even use strategies that are used more with traditional website marketing such as article distribution and forum posting.
Summary
There are other factors that affect how beneficial a link is, but these are some of the most important factors to consider. So if search engine traffic is a priority, keep these things in mind when you are building links for your blog. The strategies you have been using might not be enough to build up the rankings that you want. Maybe it’s time to switch up your routine and build up your traffic more efficiently.
64 Comments
Thank you for the detailed explanation Jeremy, I had a little idea about no follow and do follow but you made all the rest pretty clear. I saw there is an option on WordPress for the links to be do or no follow, does that have an impact for your own site too?
Pauline recently posted..Are you a good tenant? Lower your rent!
Good question Pauline. The problem with making your own comments dofollow is that it may limit how much PageRank you send to your own internal pages. Plus you are at more risk when you might have dofollow links that are not in Google’s good books. The sites may may be fine when you approve the comment, but down the road the domain might get dropped and registered by someone else or it might get hacked. Having those kinds of links as nofollow adds some level of protection between you and the search engines.
thanks for the clarification!
Thanks again for such helpful info Jeremy. This is something I am finding to be looking at more and know that it is quite important to do. I have been looking for some of this info for a while and you definitely communicate it in a clear and helpful fashion.
John S @ Frugal Rules recently posted..How Budgeting is Like Potty Training
Good to hear it was helpful. With some of these topics I do get a bit worried that I’d use too much SEO jargon and things wouldn’t be clear.
ugh. i love this article, I’m sad it’s going away. You bring up things I have never even HEARD of. You need to write an ebook or something. I’d buy one.
That might be an idea one day when I have more time. As for this series, it will likely come back eventually, but maybe as a bi-weekly series. While traffic is picking up I really should be focusing more on finance anyway.
I agree, book would be awesomesauce!
Cheers mate another great post in this series. I try to focus on new blogs each week even if only a couple. I like to keep in touch with the main blogs I follow weekly as I always like to give to those that help me out but like you enjoy branching out, meeting and learning from other sites. I’ll miss this series so I hope some of your mates might buckle up and guest post for you… would be nice to learn more from the pros like you! Cheers Jeremy
Mr.CBB
Canadianbudgetbinder recently posted..Making Money on Parental Leave In Canada
I personally need to do a better job of branching out a bit each week. I do end up getting links from different sites via strategies like carnival submissions, but some weeks it’s repeat sites. When I get more time to work on my blog it is something that I’ll have to focus on more.
This was very helpful. This gives me more information as I plan to start my own PF blog. There are many sites out there that give start up blog advice, but this piece of advice hasn’t been mentioned any where else as far as I know.
I’m sure it’s discussed on the more technical SEO or blogging tips blogs. It is valuable advice, especially if you haven’t even started your blog. This should help you get off on the right footing from the start.
Thanks for this great post! It’s really interesting to me and I’ve definitely learned that I’m making a few mistakes.
Jordann recently posted..Congratulations It’s a Dud!
The good news is that you can adjust your link building strategy at any time. The previous links you built up will all still help in some way. You just might have been getting as much from them as you had assumed.
Jeremy – Awesome as usual! I do hate you for making this series go away. It has been exceptionally helpful! I have known about dofollow and nofollow links for quite a while. My SEO plugin seems to like when I add a little of each to my post. I also have SEO for Chrome installed in my browser which helps me find blogs that give out dofollow links.
Question: I always read that beyond guest posting and finding dofollow comments, people always recommend doing articles for Ezine or similar release sites. Do you ever try these, or do you just stick to the basics to build your links?
My Money Design recently posted..Maxing Out Your 401k Matching – Don’t You Dare Leave Money on the Table!
I do use articles for marketing other websites, but I haven’t got around to using that strategy for my blog. It is something that I will probably do when I get some more affiliate pages up. To me that is a pretty standard marketing strategy, but it has become quite diluted compared to how effective it previously was.
Awesome compilation, especially for this fumbling newbie blogger! Since my site is slowly gathering steam, a guide like this is highly beneficial in navigating murky territories such as link building. I’d like to grasp the technical minutiae more and this is a fabulous starting point.
Perfect. That’s exactly the point of these blogging tips. People are still welcome to reach out to me with any questions. I know some of the technical stuff is a bit tough to grasp at first.
While I do try to get links through guest posts I don’t focus solely on getting links. People link to my good content and I hope Google will pick up on these as they are the most natural links. Admittedly they probably can’t tell any difference but I can hope.
Lance @ Money Life and More recently posted..Should I Pay Off My Car Loan Update
Nope they can’t tell the difference at all. You can wait for natural links or you can be proactive and get out there and manually build links. I know you do that too Lance
Do you know does google discount links when there are a TON of outgoing links on the same page? Take a carnival that includes 50+ posts vs one that has just 5. All else being equal on the hosting site, does google count the outgoing links on those pages with different weights? I guess maybe you don’t know the exact algorithm, but didn’t know if you had intuition from your experience so far.
Thanks again for the series – it’s been really helpful for us beginners. And I second Lbee’s suggestion for an e-book. Ya know, when they start adding more hours to the day!
The assumption is that links count for more when there is less links on a page. I had meant to mention something about that. People believe that a page only has so much PageRank to pass to the pages it links to. And let me know when they do add more hours to the day. I’ve been waiting for them to do that for a while. Maybe the smart phone I get will buy me some time.
Oh, and Jeremy, would you ever be willing to address a post regarding blogging carnivals: how they affect link building, and whether carnivals are beneficial to the host and/or contributors? Carnivals have always generated a bit of confusion with me.
Jen send me an e-mail and I can clarify that. I have reasons why I’ve never discussed how blog carnivals work. Basically it’s technically not something Google would be too favorable about.
Jeremy, the blogging guru, thank you again for these awesome tips. I like the idea of spreading yourself around a bit, something I need to continue to work on. I do love the fact that we can all help each other out in this regard, makes the PF world a friendly place. Also, sounds like getting links from big sites is weighted much more, so guest posting on those sites (if possible) would be a great option.
And I agree with Lauren, write an eBook!
Jacob @ iheartbudgets recently posted..Our Mortgage Refinance
Yes guest posting on those big sites can help a lot, both in terms of referral traffic and the SEO boost. Just keep in mind that those links quickly slip into a blog’s archives. So after that initial SEO boost, the effects reduce over time. I do really like how the blogging community is all about cooperation. I’m happy to do my part to pay it forward.
Hi Jeremy, Based on your description of strong domain backlinks, is it safe to assume building profile links on .edu and .gov sites still works well with the changes in Google? Thanks.
Adam Hathaway recently posted..How I Am Generating Passive Income by Dumping My Savings Account and How You Can Too
I can’t say I’ve tested that or really looked into it. With .edu and .gov links it was never the domain extension that made those links powerful. It was the fact that those domains usually had very strong backlink profiles and other trust factors. So I don’t see why they wouldn’t still be effective.
Jeremy, you’re a knight in shiny armor for many PF bloggers!
lol thanks Veronica. I like how you are also doing your part to help fellow bloggers too. Is there such thing as a female knight? Was Joan of Arc a knight?
Hmm, I’m not really sure…
As always, thanks for the info
Anne @ Unique Gifter recently posted..Creative Cash Gift: Dynamite!
No problem Anne. I think this post should be a bit more helpful than some of my other posts in this series.
I was recently approached with an interesting tactic. Instead of trying to get a link from my sidebar (which I don’t do), he wanted a link on the homepage to the guest post he wrote for me.
I’m guessing the idea is to try to pass more PageRank to the post so it would have more link juice to pass on.
Sounds like a solid tactic. I know a lot of SEO pros make an effort to strengthen their existing links by building more links pointing to those pages. Some even use that layer of protection to their advantage by using grey hat link building strategies.
Great information (in both this article and the series itself) and tips Jeremy!
Thanks Ted. I know a lot of finance bloggers are still learning the technical side of things. So I don’t mind passing on some of what I already know.
Another great post Jeremy! I’ve been busting my butt to learn about all of this stuff. Thank you for being around to help us as we’ve learned. Again, congrats on all of your success!
Greg@ClubThrifty recently posted..Making a Lot of Money: The Opportunity to Not Be Broke
No problem at all Greg. I’ll always be around if you have any other questions. It’s often easier to ask someone for help rather than trying to scour the web for info hoping that it is up to date and accurate.
Thanks for the tips. I am learning a lot of new information about blogging every time you publish new tips!
Terry recently posted..Claiming a Tax Exemption When Selling a Home That is Now a Rental
Good to hear Terry. With all the kind comments, I’m sure I’ll be adding to this series again at some point.
I needed this post! What a great explanation. I don’t know a lot of the professional side of blogging (as you can of course guess).
I am sad that you won’t be doing blog tips!
Michelle @ Making Sense of Cents recently posted..Holidays and Vacations
I have to admit that your blog is one of the ones I was thinking of that has a great following and great content, but the SEO related stats could be better with more efficient link building. If anything is unclear, shoot me an e-mail.
Another great and informative post Jeremy!
Mo’ Money Mo’ Houses recently posted..Minding Your Own Business When It Comes to Other People’s Money
Thanks Jessica. I guess I’m just a great and informative guy
Thanks for the great tips Jeremy! I do love this series even though I feel like I know most of the stuff. Overall, I think I’m following most of the advice; the only part I may be falling short though is diversifying where my links are coming from. I’ll work on that but it’s tough to reach out to a lot of bloggers or read so many different blogs.
I have noticed that you have TWICE the number of linking sites according to Alexa…so I need to step it up a bit.
Well the trick is that not all of your links have to come from blogs. It would be tough to get dofollow links from hundreds of blogs. I do realize that some of you will have a grasp on some of these blogging tips topics already, but hopefully there is enough info to help everyone.
I’m really happy with the way my blog is heading so far but this area of SEO is really confusing so thanks for this post Jeremy! You’ve helped me a lot on my journey so far and I appreciate it.
Money Bulldog recently posted..Why Missing A Debt Payment Isn’t Always The End Of The World!
It is an area that bloggers really do need to figure out if they want to grow as quickly as possible. SEO does take care of itself naturally, but that can be an extremely long wait, especially since all of the competition is being proactive about it.
Thanks for sharing. I was interested in nofollow vs. dofollow, and appreciate the brief description of each.
I would’ve liked to get into that a bit more but I figured the post would be fairly long as it is. Also I didn’t want to make things too confusing for bloggers who are just starting out.
I just thought I would mention that having an extension like SEOquake loaded into Chrome (or Firefox) makes it very easy to check what types of links various pages have. If you want to see what blogs allow do-follow comments, that’s the simplest way to see it at a glance.
Garrett recently posted..Trading with Range Bars – What They Are and Why You Should Be Using Them
Thanks for sharing that extension name. I was aware of some plugins or extensions that existed but got lazy about looking up the names.
Another awesome article in your series! This one is definitely going in my Weekly Round-Up. It took me a while to understand link juice, do follow and no follow but I got it now. Sometimes I wish good content is all that’s needed. Google decides though.
John recently posted..Volunteerism | Men Should be an Influence of Good
If you are very patient good content will eventually rise to the top, but I’m personally not that patient. Well that and my content probably isn’t good enough other than these blogging tips posts. There is a lot to learn about how to really do effective link building. So hopefully this has been helpful for people.
I always feel like you are writing just what I’m thinking. I am going to have to read this again several times and when I have a bit more time, work on those strategies. Will miss your weekly series, but I’m glad your job is working out.
Kim@Eyesonthedollar recently posted..Fun, Fabulous, Free Things To Do in My Favorite Vacation Cities
lol I guess I’m just in your head Kim. Well that and I know link building and SEO is on a lot of bloggers’ minds. If it isn’t, it probably should be. Don’t worry, this series will be back again in some form.
This is my favourite article yet Jeremy! I agree with Lauren – you should seriously consider writing an eBook. You could have all your blogger friends sell it on an affiliate program!
Savvy Scot recently posted..Change Your Life Series – Step 2 Eat Healthily
I think it was the most useful tips in the series too. It better be with how much experience I have with this stuff. A lot of the other tips was stuff I learned just this year. I’ll think about the ebook option, but I suspect there are already lots of great blog marketing ebooks out there.
Great article, Jeremy. I now wonder if WordPress by default has ‘nofollow’ option for comments. What’s the best way to check?
Sorry for the delay in responding. They easiest way to check is to use a firefox addon or extension that allows you to highlight nofollow links. Personally I’d just view the source. For your own blog you can check the settings easy enough. I’m not sure what the default is.
Very helpful, thanks Jeremy. I just started looking at the pagesource, and found that most of my comments have been on nofollow sites.
You write: “Instead try to find ways of getting links within post content or from other dofollow sites.” Guest posting would fit that description. What else falls in that category?
That’s not surprising as most finance sites have nofollow comments. Other strategies to get dofollow links include blog carnivals, link round ups, link swaps, press releases, article submissions, etc.
Ya relevant anchore texts can boost our SEO and I learned from your blog that interlinking worked for you greatly.
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