Search Engine Optimization Class: Link Building and Social Bookmarking

Search Engine Optimization is of prime importance to web developers, especially in light of Google’s new Caffeine-powered search mechanism. Link building, and off-site SEO development are as important, if not more important, for improving your site’s pagerank.

One thing to keep in mind as you are working on link building is that not all links carry an equal weight. Reciprocal links are no longer good enough. It takes high quality links from sites which themselves are respected in order to bring up your rankings–and one-way links count even more.

Some of the ways you can effectively create one-way links have been used in the past, including directory listings, article marketing, discussion forum posts, press releases and paid links. Others are just beginning to be taken more seriously, and at the top of that list is social bookmarking.

Social bookmarking sites include Digg, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Yahoo! Buss, Reddit and Twitter. These sites enable their users to add links to sites and blogs, which can be a very efficient way to build effective one-way links.

In order to create valuable one-way links to your site, you need to come up with a link building plan of sorts. Such a plan would potentially include the following:

• Add links slowly and naturally
  
• Focus on your homepage
  
• Become a part of your site’s community
  
• Create a good profile
  
• Build a focused friend list
  
• Vote on articles and stories