Our previous blog discussed 5 basic link building techniques that can improve your search authority and rank in search engine results pages (SERPs). Link building, also called inbound links or backlinks, relates to having other, authoritative websites, blogs, or directories link to your blog. Those 5 basic link building techniques included interlinking, obtaining reciprocal links, naming your links properly, social profile linking, and social bookmarking.
If you want to take your link building initiative a step further, consider some advanced link building techniques. Advanced link building includes submitting your website, blog, articles or white papers, and news releases to online directories to achieve links.
Directory Submission For Your Website
First, ensure that you have submitted your XML sitemap to search engines. Then, submit your website to web directories in order to build links. Below are some of the top website directory submission sites (paid and unpaid):
Top 3 Web Directory Submission Sites (PAID):
- Yahoo Directory – The Yahoo directory is the best paid option for submitting your website. Cost: $299 per year
- Business.com – Business.com is a great paid option, also a little pricy but worth looking at. Cost: $299 per year
- Best of The Web – Best of the Web is a cheaper option for a paid directory and is quite popular. Cost: $149.95 per year
Top 3 Web Directory Submission Sites (UNPAID):
- All The Websites – Allthewebsites.org has been around for some time and is one of the top free directories that hasn’t switched to paid yet.
- IllumiRate – Illumirate is a top free directory, but does take time for your listing to be verified.
- ExactSeek – ExactSeek requires membership in order to add your URL to their directory.
Blog Submission
There are a large number of blog submission sites out there. Make sure to research each individual site you are considering, as some may be spammy or require you to add code to your website. In some cases, adding code to your website is ok, especially in the case of a blog submission site like Technorati, where adding the code is only temporarily needed as verification. Consider these blog submission sites:
Technorati – Technorati is a very well known blog submission site. However, they have a tedious submission process. You must create a profile and then you are allowed to “claim” your blog. When doing this, Technorati will ask you to provide your feed link (rss feed burner), your facebook page link, your twitter link, and any blog profiles you know of that link to your blog currently. This shows how important it is to connect all of your social profiles, website, and blog! You will need to put a small code within a blog post, have Technorati check that it exists, and only upon approval can you then remove that token.
Blog Search – BlogSearch.com allows you to quickly submit your blog and confirm that you are the owner through an email verification process. Upon verification, they will review your blog and add it to the category you chose. The submission process takes under a minute!
Blog Catalog – Blog Catalog is another great blog submission site that requires you to validate your account through email before submitting your blog. Then, you can add your blog through your profile. A positive aspect of Blog Catalog is that there are a ton of categories to choose from to make sure you submit your blog to the most relevant listing. You will be required to verify your blog through adding Blog Catalog’s link somewhere on your home page (you can do the footer if you do not want it overly visible).
Article Submission
Consider submitting your original articles to these top three article submission sites:
Ezine – Ezine is a great site to submit your white papers and articles to. Membership is free and you create a profile as a person, not an organization. So, if you are the person who writes for you company, be sure to sign up as yourself. In your profile, you can connect your Twitter, Facebook, Google, YouTube, and LinkedIn accounts, which is great if you are trying to build a link relationship back to your website. Search engines can recognize that you are the original author of the content and give you authority in search results. It is important to follow all the steps Ezine outlines in generating article content. They will contact you if your first submission does not pass all of the guidelines and allow you to go back multiple times to fix it.
Articlesbase – Articlesbase is the easiest and quickest article submission site to submit your articles and they get back to you about whether or not your articles have been approved quickly. Like all article submission sites, this one offers statistics on the number of times someone has viewed your article. Notably, they have a keywords performance, like Google Analytics, that shows you what people searched to arrive at your article.
Yahoo! Voices – Yahoo! Voices is the most strict article submission site. It is difficult to get your article or white paper submitted to this site as they seem to be a “three strikes you’re out” type of site. So, make sure that your article follows all of their guidelines and is practically flawless in errors. They only give you two chances to resubmit your article and will then reject it if you do not pass the test. If you can get your article submitted to this site, it will certainly help you in search.
White Paper Submission
You’ve spent a ton of time creating content. Consider adding your white papers to the article submission sites above and the follow white paper specific resources below to further demonstrate your subject matter expertise:
Edocr – Edocr is a great site for generating leads from your white papers. It allows you to submit, for free, up to 5 documents of your choice, title them and give them a description. In addition, you can view who has looked at your white papers and commented on them. If your business has many white papers, you may consider upgrading to their paid options.
Compliance Home – Compliance Home is a regulatory white paper submission site that allows you to submit white papers quickly after you sign up as a member. Keep in mind that this is a regulatory whitepaper submission site and good for construction firms that have various resources and regulation documents to post.
PR and News Submission Sites
Newsworthy items can get your organization a lot of attention. Leverage important news items by submitting press releases to various newswire sites, like PRWeb, BusinessWire, and PRNewswire. For more information, read New Rules of PR: A Guide To Modern Publicity.
These advanced link building submission techniques can help you build search authority and improving your rank in search engine results pages (SERPs). In your quest for links, avoid blackhat SEO techniques like link farms or robot linking. For more information on what NOT to do read, Bad SEO: Blackhat Techniques are a No No. Google actually penalizes sites for engaging in these link building tactics. A large quantity of links will not benefit you if they are not quality links.
Have you ever used submission sites or website directories? Please share this post with those who are interested in submitting their website, blog, or articles to submission sites and directories.
