We all read the experts’ advice on proper SEO: “Minor Link building build great content so you’ll get linked naturally, use social networking”. With all due respect to Moz’s experts, matt cuts and others it is a load of bologna.

Every self respecting SEO professional knows, you must build links and a lot of them if you wish to get results for your clients or even yourself, depends how competitive your market is.

Not long ago I wrote an article about Link building tactics that survives algorithms changes in Google Israel, I will know reveal to you Link building tactics which survives algorithms in the International arena. I do so because I believe that there is a middle ground between dirty SEO work and clean SEO work, and I’ll show you that middle ground now.

Link building works properly only if two conditions happen:

• Your onsite optimization is perfect
• Diversity of links, anchors and pages linked on website

If these two conditions happen, your link building will work like magic, achieving you the rankings you want.

Link building works like magic if your ONSITE optimization process was done correctly

Link building works very well if your infrastructure is done correctly, ONSITE optimization is crucial for rankings. Make sure you have done everything there is to do ONSITE before you start doing the OFFSITE work. Although some might suggest combining the two, I strongly suggest getting your ONSITE in order before starting the link building tactics so you’ll have a way to monitor the effect of each change you make ONSITE and OFFSITE.

A checklist of ONSITE optimization tasks you might want to check before doing Link building:

• Loading time issues
• Meta tags (Title, Description, H1)
• Canonical tag
• Content hierarchy
• Using the right technology (make sure everything is accessible)
• Internal link structure
• Content and fresh content

Loading time issues

For loading time issues you might want to use Gtmetrix.com, this website uses tools for both search engines (Google and Yahoo). It analyzes your website with PageSpeed and Yslow to give you all the issues you should fix and how to fix them based on the knowledge base of each plug-in.

http://gtmetrix.com/

Meta Tags

Meta tags are the corner stone of SEO. Choose the right keywords and content for each Meta tag and make sure to use unique content in each. Don’t forget that Title tag is the most important of all Meta tags. Google is updating and changing the way Title tags appear, make sure to stay updated at all times.

https://plus.google.com/+JonWiley/posts/AuUAQCWJpki

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3HX_8BAhB4

Canonical Tags

Canonical tag will help you prevent duplicate content on your website, and will contribute to the general health of it, make sure to use it wisely as it has the potential to cause great damage if used wrong, also make sure you fill in the canonical correctly.

http://moz.com/blog/complete-guide-to-rel-canonical-how-to-and-why-not

Content hierarchy

Google has an algorithm that knows the relations between certain phrases and words, that algorithm got upgraded when “Hummingbird” algorithm was released last year. With that said you must take under consideration the relations of keywords and phrases inside your website.

Content hierarchy is one of the most important foundations for your progress on Google’s rankings. Make sure you do the correct keyword research and that you implement it correctly inside the website, content is no longer the king but it is still important more than other factors in SEO.

Using the right technology

It might be that flash is nice, and will look good on your website but keep in mind that Flash technology will not rank well on Google’s search results. The same goes for WIX based sites or any other complicated technologies, remember that you need to build your website to be accessible for users and search engines together, use simple and clean technologies and design and you’ll do great.

Internal link structure

Very similar to content hierarchy, the internal link structure of your website will determine which page or pages will get strong while others will be left out. Think of yourself as an architect that needs to emphasize certain parts of your building.

For example: If your business is a shop which sales electronic devices you might want the product pages to get the strongest rankings, so you’ll appear in brand names, versions etc.

As seen in this example the product pages gets most of the links internally which will strengthen the pages. You might want to consider using Google webmaster tools to map your current internal link structure; it is shown inside the tool under “Search traffic” – “Internal Links”

Content and fresh content

Many Business owners make the mistake on cutting back on Good quality content writers or even writing the content themselves, Yes we know running a business is important but so does your business face over the internet, The website is not only your business card for your potential clients but for search engines as well and today Google is getting more and more aggressive in the war against spammy low quality websites with poor thin content.

Make sure you market yourself well and provide all the support for your clients in the form of guides, articles and video guides. Google is rolling out algorithms every other month which targets low quality websites. Panda algorithm was released yet again on the 21.5.2014 affecting more than 7.5% of queries, alongside another payday loan algorithm.

Make sure you can answer the following questions in regarding to your content (These questions are from the official Google guidelines on quality websites found here: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.il/2011/05/more-guidance-on-building-high-quality.html

• Would you trust the information presented in this article?
• Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?
• Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?
• Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?
• Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?
• Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
• Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?
• Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
• How much quality control is done on content?
• Does the article describe both sides of a story?
• Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?
• Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?
• Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
• For a health related query, would you trust information from this site?
• Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?
• Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
• Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
• Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
• Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
• Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?
• Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?
• Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?
• Would users complain when they see pages from this site?

The ONSITE optimization is crucial for your SEO and rankings, having poor onsite optimization will cause your progress rate to slow until stop and in many cases ever demote your rankings when you’ll start doing active link building.

Putting an end to the Myth of “Regular link building VS real link building”

There are many ways to generate Backlinks to your website. Don’t be fooled by the “Real link building VS. regular link building” concept, for those who are not familiar with the concept it basically says that real link building is a long process which involves creating expensive time consuming content which will generate you natural high quality links in comparison to regular link building which generates low quality to medium quality links which compromise your website every time “penguin” algorithm comes along.

The actual facts are that you MUST do them both and all the time, it is not about regular VS real, it is about balance between two tactics which are crucial for the rankings of your website on Google’s SERP’S.

Creating great content is not about getting links it is about winning over your market

You should always create high quality, real value and detailed content for your website, not because you want to achieve rankings or backlinks these should be your secondary targets when creating content, your first target is your client and potential market. Doing a long term content strategy will increase your chances in getting to your potential market and generate greater traffic and awareness to your brand and products or services, great content helps you build your brand as an authority in your field.

Building your brand relays on the quality of your content, marketing messages and marketing strategy. Don’t forget that online marketing is not that different from other channels you work with, but it is much more direct and focused than traditional advertising.

Therefore when you create great content such as videos, infographics, guides and case studies you do it according to your content strategy with pure intention to win over your potential clients, if you do a good job you’ll get linked naturally and those are the best links you’ll ever have.

Link Building – Diversity of links, anchors and target pages

It is a common well known fact that Google is putting a lot of resources and effort to try and sabotage the work of SEO agencies, SEO is not natural it is quite the contrary. There is a very thin balance you have to preserve while doing White hat SEO and frankly it is always Grey SEO, Link building for itself is a violation of Google’s guidelines but you must do it if you want to achieve results and in a timely manner.

There are many tactics to achieve these results some of them may potentially damage your website while others not, the two main tactics for generating balanced results are direct link building and tier link building. Only by doing them both dynamically you will tap to your full SEO potential.

Direct Link building – creating new backlinks each month which directs to your website (or Money site).

Tier link building – Creating two layers of backlinks, direct links to your website and indirect links which leads to the articles linking to your website.

It is quite easy to understand it while looking at the example of these two methods below

Direct Link building

Tier Link Building

Types of different Links you need to implement into your Link building strategy

If you want to create a winning link building strategy you need the two tactics to complement one another while the tier link building tactics is the leading one. Why the tier link building is the leading one? Because it relays on Good Unique high quality content while the direct link building relays on several free sources as forums and such which does not need content.

Here is a quick list of Tips you should take under consideration while Link building

• Existing free infrastructure platforms – Here are 4 Good ones, there are a lot more.
• Blogspot.com
• WordPress.com
• Squidoo.com
• Blog.com
• Good quality Expire domains which you will put on Blogspot.com \ WordPress.com

You can look for expired domains here: http://www.expireddomains.net/, Make sure to check them with MOZ’s backlink tool (http://www.opensiteexplorer.org/) and with (https://ahrefs.com/) and (https://www.majesticseo.com/) tools to make sure these are good quality domains.

After buying the domain you need to connect them with wordpress.com or Blogspot.com you opened, which will cost you an extra 8-13 bucks. After that, you’ll have a very nice veteran domain which strengthen your money site.

How you should do these blogs and domains?

What are the specific guidelines to do an optimal harvest and blog setup?

• Social networks profiles and activities

Here is a list of useful links of social network platforms you can use, remember to use wisely while direct link building or tier link building

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Linkedin
• Stumbeupon
• Digg
• Pinterest
• Google+ (must use with caution)

Build network of persona’s which will share, like and engage with your Money site and Tier building websites. Make sure to do it as naturally as possible (Creating empty profiles and building links from them is not natural), make sure to create a full profile, with Bio information, images and interests.

• Forum activities \ Social bookmarks \ Free Directories

While some will disagree on the value of low quality links, they are a part of a healthy and natural backlinks profile; therefore we do them under special guidelines.

1. Post only in sites which require you to Register a user
2. Post only in sites which not advertise or post articles or links to Gambling, Generic pharmacy or porn.
3. Post only in website that are relevant directly to the website your advertising or promoting
4. Forums demands users that are legit, Naming, Bio, activity and other factors are critical for the user not to get burned or deleted, opening an empty profile and posting a link is not a very successful way to go.
5. Free directories and social bookmarks needs to be less than 3% of your entire link profile at any given time, it is not a quantity game it is a quality game, and you need to understand SEO is not a project it is a branch of online marketing which demands the same attention as your marketing strategy.

If you want your Link building strategy to work like magic, you need to remember it is 90% preparation of the correct high quality infrastructure work onsite and offsite and 10% of maintaining and growing naturally, if you do it with good balance you’ll get results in 3-9 months, and after 12-16 months you have a chance to rule many Keywords on the #1 ranking on Google Search results.