There are many ways to gather links online. Some are more easy to get than others, and this does not necessarily have to imply that the ‘harder-to-get’ links are of more value. There are other things to consider than the effort and time that took you to get that link on which I will not elaborate in this blog. In this blog I want to compare two methods that are relatively easy to get links online. These are reacting on existing weblogs and adding your website in open directories.
Reacting on weblogs
An effective way to gather links is reacting to blog posts that are related to your website. Of course you have to keep in mind that some blogs tag the links in the reaction as non-follow and other blogs first require an administrator to ‘accept’ your reaction in order to fight spam reactions. Furthermore it will take you some time to read the blog before being able to have a response that is of value.
However, by reacting on weblogs you know for sure the text around your comment is related to your website and thereby increasing the strength of the link. Next, in blog posts and reactions are not that many links on one page and thus is more likely to add strength. Also, popular blogs usually are indexed more often because of the new content every now and then. Therefore new links are faster indexed. Last, as discussed previously non-follow links are also of value for your SEO campaign.
In sum:
| Pros | Cons |
| Related to the topic
Link between text Few links on one page Faster indexation |
Time consuming
Often non-follow Sometimes requires administrator to ‘accept’ your comment |
Directories
Another effective way to gather links is by adding your link to a lot of directories. A directory is a website organized with categories and under each category are links related to that specific category. Hence, links in one category are related to each other and thus are also related to the topic of your own website. Although on most directories in a broadened sense. Directories are not that hard to find. Start with one and usually they also have a category of other directories online.
Although directories are of value there are also some remarks. Many directories on the internet are not that active anymore and free links require a lot of time before being approved by the webmaster. Sometimes it can take up to four months if you get listed anyway. Furthermore, links in a webdirectory are on pages with 10+ links and are therefore of less strength. Even though you would have budget to pay featured links this would not help your SEO campaign.
Thus,
| Pros | Cons |
| Related to the category (broad)
Easy to find, require less time to submit |
Slow acceptation rate of links
Often inactive 10+ links on one page |
Conclusion
If you have enough time for your SEO campaign I would advise you to do both. This will also make your link building strategy more natural than only having in-links from directories or blog comments. But if you do not have that many time for your SEO campaign, you are more likely to get quality links from commenting on blog related blogs. This is because: faster acceptation rate, links between text, links between more relevant content, and fewer links on one page. Consequently, better quantity of links, link juice and relevant content.
Stijn Driessen is SEO strategic at Easy Internet Marketing.