What Semi-Ethical Linkbuilding Really Is

Glen Allsopp / 4 Comments / August 2nd, 2007 / Subscribe via RSS

To understand what semi-ethical linkbuilding really is, I guess we have to go into what semi-ethical linkbuilding really isn’t, that way we can see whether you or I have been going to the dark-side with our linkbuiding campaigns. A link building campaign can actually better the web in my view, it helps the world see a quality site that they may not have noticed before, as the old saying goes ‘build it and they will come’ doesn’t really work in online terms.

So looking at what linkbuilding isnt. S-EL (Semi-Ethical Linkbuilding) is not going to the corner of the web looking for places to plant your links, it’s not commenting on edu blog’s without a nofollow tag, it’s not spamming forums with your signature link on show and it certainly isnt emailing random people with some ‘clever spam’ asking them to link to your website.

S-EL is using the webs resources to be able to build links to your site, but still offering something quality in the process, ill give some examples:

Creating a Squidoo Lens, this can add content to the web that wasn’t there before whilst being helpful you can also link back to your website or a clients website

Small Directory Submissions, by this I mean submitting to no more than 50 quality directories in order to start off a good base for the link building campaign. These shouldn’t be directories that accept any site and should regularly monitor old listings

Writing Articles for Article sites, although there’s debate on the quality of these types of links, if they get picked up for the right reasons you can see them all over Google and Yahoo groups. Having a link in an authors box doesn’t take away from the quality of the article and still builds links.

Doing something Original / Unique, this is what I meant by improving the quality of the web. It’s not easy doing something unique that people will enjoy or talk about, but if you do it then you deserve all the use and linkbacks it gets.
Linkbuilding really can be an enjoyable process. Brainstorming ideas on the type of content that can appeal well on digg related to your site, then something more political for netscape then maybe something humorous for Stumbleupon. If you get traffic to the right people you can easily genearte links for any website, don’t go spamming on the corner of the web.

Disclaimer: The reason I mentioned Semi-Ethical Link Building is because I dont believe Link Building can truly be called ethical by anyone, the reason behind link building is often some form of Search Engine Manipulation after all.

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