Be Positive with Link Building Efforts
The idea of building links is to attract visitors as well as improving your search engine credibility. Therefore it is counterproductive (or at least partially so) to leave links in places that do little to attract the attention of potential visitors.
Here, let me give you an example. It is good SEO practice to comment on blogs and other forums that allow you to leave links. Invariably many will be no-followed, but still, a link is a link – no matter how much it may have been weakened.
Some people try to exploit this. They will find blogs of little or no relevance to their site or the online space that they’re trying to promote and leave a nonsensical message. Even the token ‘Thanks for the information, great article’ response is better than some. Whether English isn’t their first language or they are just otherwise ignorant to the ideas of effective SEO, random gobbledegook isn’t going to inspire traffic.
If you want to make sure that your comment stands out and gets some attention, you need to provide a credible response. Whether it is in complete agreement with the subject or perhaps offers a contrasting view; you need to show your understanding of the subject and respect the writer. Only then will you actually encourage others to take what you write seriously and tempt them to follow the link created in your name.
Speaking of names. Whilst SEO dictates that you try to include a keyword into your link for maximum effect, this too can deter potential visitors and may even stop your responses from being published. If I were to comment on a blog post, I would probably refrain from using SEO Consultant as the anchor text. Yes, it is good practice to do so on the website and my own blog, it isn’t likely to be all that beneficial elsewhere.
So just use your real name. This sounds simple and it certainly won’t do much good promoting your name as a keyword for the target page, but it won’t attract suspicion or derision. If you want to use both, a good technique is to write your name followed by the key phrase; so for example Ben Norman | SEO Consultant. Okay, so it might still look a little spammy, but ultimately it is a good deal better than leaving an illogical key phrase.
Of course much of this goes against the SEO grain. But it is often a question of respect and it is ultimately about giving your site the best exposure. If you become associated with spam and continue to leave messages that have little bearing or add nothing to a conversation, that will reflect badly on you.
When setting up directories, profiles, blogs, articles and everything else, by all means use keyword optimised embedded links. When you’re commenting somewhere else, just keep it straightforward and make sure you are giving a genuine response and really earn that link back.
