No matter how often people are told, there is a never ending stream of questions on forums about getting backlinks to your site.

Lets be clear, it is not as tough to find links to your site as some people are making it.  All you need is to have the right information to hand, the right tools and an open mind and eyes to spot new opportunities.  All I would point out is that getting links to your website is a never ending process.

If you are under the impression that you can build a few links, rank, and stay there forever without doing anything else, then you are mistaken.  It is like a never ending car race.  Although you might be out in front now, unless you keep filling the tank and putting your foot to the floor, you will get overtaken quickly.

The most vital types of link you need are one way anchor text backlinks.  Getting those types of backlink to your site is achievable in volume every day, IF YOU KNOW HOW.

My first recommendation is to recommend you try out the free trial on our website here at IBL Builder.  Our members build one way backlinks with anchor text they choose,  a fact that should be enough to convince you to try it out free.

The second recommendation is the fantastic ebook that hit my inbox last week. Now I have seen a ton of “how to” guides on SEO and linkbuilding over the years, and none have lived up to their hype of being a “whole of subject” guide in detail.

The LinkBuilders Bible does achieve that aim. It covers everything involved in linkbuilding, and explains technical subjects such as co-citation and trustrank in a way that anyone can understand and benefit from.  It is 83 page packed with linkbuilding strategies.  I am really enthusiastic about this ebook and I hope it does well for its author as it really does deserve a bit of credit.

For example did you know you can build links using your RSS feeed on your blog or website?  Did you know how you can get an anchor test link into forum posts even when admins do not allow it?  Do you know how you can get an anchor text link from an area of facebook that is PR9?  Its all in there along with tons of other stuff I can’t really reveal or it would infringe on their copyright!

So if you are serious about getting your site up the rankings and a higher pagerank, then you need to build links.  In two paragraphs I have told you the resources you need to do just that.

You may have heard the saying:

“you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink”.

Here is the water, now its up to you.

We have today received a copy of a new ebook called the linkbuilders bible.

It looks very comprehensive and full of top quality information on link building tips, tricks and strategies.

We have been sent a review copy as IBL Builder is recommended in it.

We are currently negotiating a special IBL builder members price for it, and hope to be able to pass this on in the next few days.

It is official, Google’s “Caffeine” algo-update is coming very soon.  Described by Google as “next-generation architecture for Google’s web search,” Caffeine will be the largest update for several years.

According to Google’s Webmaster Central blog, Caffeine will be “the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions.”

Sounds serious…

You may or may not know that Google has been soliciting feedback from the online community for months now, by making their Caffeine update publically available at http://www2.sandbox.google.com. However, that URL now just displays a “thank you” message.

So if you already know via checking that your site will take a nasty SERP fall, or you are unaware of how your site will react to Caffeine, then now is the time to take action and educate yourself, rather than leaving yourself open to a nasty traffic drop as a New Year present.

If you employ an SEO company, and have not heard from them about Caffeine already,  phone them and ask them what impact Caffeine may have. If they cannot tell you then I would recommend making a new years resolution to find a new SEO company!

Matt Cutt’s has now confirmed that the Caffeine update will go live “after the holidays” (not particularly clear terminology for those of of use living outside the USA, but hey Google has always been bizarrely global in audience, while at the same time failing to educate it’s spokespeople to talk in a non-USA-centric manner).

“The feedback on Caffeine has been very positive, so we’re ready to move from the developer preview to the next stage of the roll out: going live with Caffeine at one data center. This means that a small percentage of Google’s users will benefit from the technology behind Caffeine in their regular searches.

I know that webmasters can get anxious around this time of year, so I wanted to reassure site owners that the full Caffeine roll out will happen after the holidays. Caffeine will go live at one data center so that we can continue to collect data and improve the technology, but I don’t expect Caffeine to go live at additional data centers until after the holidays are over. Most searchers wouldn’t immediately notice any changes with Caffeine, but going slowly not only gives us time to collect feedback and improve, but will also minimize the stress on webmasters during the holidays.”

I found this wonderful clip on YouTube, which shows how Google can be perceived by two people.

I have to say I personally am starting to find the control Google has over the internet pretty scary. The evidence is also that they are harvesting and using a lot more info about you than you can possibly imagine.  The scariest bit from a website owners point of view has to be Googles social graph and XFN link developments.  Look them up and read – Google is starting to associate you with all sorts of people, websites and neighbourhoods through its own assumptions in many cases.  Not good.

For example did you know that Google profiles people involved in the SEO industry?  Why?  To head off paid linking which Google hates, apparently.  Matt Cutts also classifies incentivised linking as having the potential for getting closer scrutiny from Google.  Who made them the Police, and what does investigation involve?  Well a lot more than you think apparently.

Do a search for Google android phone on ebay, and read all about it.  Basically, Google gave away a load of Android phones at a conference earlier this year.  Within days they had 50K links to Android.  Now it does not take a huge amount of brain power to work out that if you give free phones to people who write online that they will talk about it and Android.  Incentivized links?  Damn right.

You try the same thing and watch your site plummet if Google finds out.

So enjoy the video, and just think, whatever you *think* Google knows about you and is using, multiply it by 10 and you will come closer to the truth.  And ten years down the line it could still be impacting on how you are treated online.

Hi

This is the email sent out to over 2200 link exchange members today.  Please check your links are in place and open a support ticket if you have any issues:

Hi IBL Builder members,

It was reported to me today that we have had to suspend 32 member zones this morning.  The reason was that the bot reported them as not displaying agreed outbound links.  It took one of my staff two hours to verify that this was the case by visually checking each site.

If you have received a suspended zone message, please act on it and help us to get your zone working for you. 

Could I ask everyone who knows they agreed an outbound link, to have a glance at their site and check the links are visible.  The reason for asking this is two-fold, firstly to make sure you don't get the hassle of a suspended zone, and secondly so we can check there is not a bigger issue here, such as the automated display option not working for example.

On a happier note, we have today launched a new feature.  If you login and visit the "settings" link, you can now enter up to 9 sub-categories into a form and submit it.  You will then be notified by email once per day displaying any new zones listed in the member directory for those sub-categories.

This means that you can jump straight in and offer/request links with new members, getting ahead of the queue!

Thanks

Jason

Remember the film Clue?  Based on the game Cluedo if you live in the UK, it was a classic whodunnit in a country mansion. There were several endings, and in each one Tim Curry said “Communism was just a ‘red’ herring….”.

In terms of linkbuilding, you can now use this phrase when talking about the near-dogma of  building only relevant links:

“Link relevancy was just a red herring….”

Google, especially Mr Cutts are happy to bang the drum about relevancy, as are many in the SEO community.  But ask the simple question “how is link relevancy evaluated”, and everyone looks at their cyber-feet and shuffles off to write another blog post.

For my sins I am a miniature wargamer.  I am into “historicals”, ie,  real wars and history such as the WW2. I view Warhammer and Dungeons & Dragons as almost a different hobby, and for most historical wargamers it has no relevance whatsoever.

So does Google understand that vital distinction within what an outsider views as a single hobby?  How can they understand that although a gaming site might link out to sites in all those genres, to each of those groups the other links are completely irrelevant? Of course Google can’t, and that is why relevancy is nonsense.  How can Google make arbitrary decisions about the weight of links when relevancy is a very individual thing.

Of course there are obvious ones like a David Beckham blog linking to a football boot manufacturer, but how can it give more weight for some links as relevant but ignore others that are just as relevant or not because it simply cannot determine that relevancy.

We are lead to believe that Google determines relevancy through associations as well as through keywords and text relevancy.  This conjures up an image of the Googlebot poring over the newspapers everyday and understanding that names within the same text are actually associated and relevant to each other.  It is of course all possible in this day and age, but is that how it really is?  Or is it a red herring to make us comply?

Fear is Google’s friend, and the SEO industry by and large stokes the same fire, making joe public scared that their website will plunge into an abyss should they dare to have one more instance of their keyword on-page, or from getting a link from someone they are not sure about.  It is of course mostly nonsense, but it feeds the fear that keeps people in line.

If you parallel it with how religion was used to control the masses throught history, with the threat of eternal damnation for not following a set of rules that nobody understood and that changed all the time, then you will understand more about the  tactics Google is employing.

What clinched it for me in the relevancy debate, apart from the evidence of our own test sites, was this comment from Rand Fiskin of SEOMOZ.org on 2nd October, in their company blog:

“To be totally honest, I don’t think the content relationship (relevancy) or matching subject matter has much of an impact in the algo right now. Off-topic links, so long as they’re from powerful, trustworthy sources, seem to help just as much as those with topical matches.

It may seem weird, but I know I’m far from the only SEO to have observed this phenomenon…..”

So the message it appears is clear, and even the experts are saying it now.

Relevancy is a red herring.

Build good quality links, and lots of them.  If they happen to be relevant as well then whoopee-do, but never, ever pass up a good inbound link because it’s not relevant.

We are adding a series of “snippet” articles on building one way backlinks to the site.  You can find them here:

One Way Link Articles

Well this blog was packed with a years full of posts.

However the other day no posts could be found, gone, vanished.

I emailed people, posted on forums etc, zilch.  It seems lots of people use wordpress but view people actually know what makes it work.

So a years worth of blogs down the pan on the day I should be happy, due to our website facelift.

I hope you like it.