I’m still a firm believer that, if you have a site worth linking to, you will get links. Other than that, I just don’t chase ‘em as hard as others. Great post dude.

Eric Ward is about the best of the linkers who shares his insiights, in my opinion. He tends to discuss concepts as well as techniques and doesn’t really burn useful resources.

People who fill their blogs with “Where to get the best links this week” kind of posts are not people whose link building skills I would want to depend upon.

Unfortunately, in this business, sharing techniques is not nearly as beneficial to the community as sharing principles. People don’t act with moderation. People don’t engage in linking resource conservation.

A lot of good, useful sites have been burned out quickly because someone wanted to write some linkbait.

First you create the visibility, then you prove your worthiness, then the links come. It’s a time-proven approach to Web marketing and really goes far beyond search engine optimization.

I think that we don’t have to ask people for links. However, in my work, I try to do solid link exchange.

Generally, I propose to have a dedicated page about a company, linked from my homepage (generally a link in my footer). In this page, the company choose it’s writing content and links to pertinent pages of its website. I ask to do the same on the website company for my website. Thus, there is no cross linking and there are a solid wording base.

Michael, what do you think of that ? In my opinion, it’s clean.

Thanks

Arnaud

NB : sorry for my english, I’m a french seo analyst.

Michael: I don’t ask people for links. I only evaluate sites where I am allowed to place links. If a site doesn’t have much value, I may do something to help it build that value. Giving back to those who give to you is always a good thing.

But I also evaluate my own sites for link building. Remember, it’s always easier to give yourself a link than it is to ask someone else for a link.

If you create the kind of resource that other people will want links from, it’s just as good a resource for you to use for your own linking.

Thanks for the great post. I’ve often found though that if I come across a good solid page where a link would hold value, these are normally the ones where the site owner will not give me a link. I can understand why but obviously it can be frustrating to carry out analysis and then find you won’t be given a link anyway. Is this a problem you encounter much?

Thanks.

Maybe because the next update will exclude your link?