Let’s say you go through every single webpage on your site and start doing some on page optimization. You run through the pages and change the tittle, meta, and html tags to be more appropriate; you even revise the content while doing some keyword optimization. All of those images missing alt tags get fixed, and the anchor text of links on pages gets adjusted and refined as well. It’s possible your ambitious enough to do this entire process again just to fix some of the things you overlooked on the first run through.  After you do one thorough or a few quick passes through of on page optimization, you are going to stop seeing benefit for the time you spend and things are going to flat line near that theoretical maximum.

Let’s take a look at link building now.  Maybe your website’s niche is extremely small, and it’s possible that you could tap out the number of links to your site.  That means you would have hit the theoretical cap for links.  Didn’t I say that was impossible?  Yes and no; if a website’s niche is very small and targeted, it is probable (but also very hard) to hit that max.  For the vast majority of people this will not be an issue, but if it does happen to be a problem, don’t worry because it’s really not.  Expand your options and and look at the broader picture; start link building from the more general niche that your website belongs to.  So if your website sells hypoallergenic suntan lotion and you think you’ve hit the link cap, you haven’t.  You just need to look into the hypoallergenic or suntan lotion supplies market.  It’s always possible to take a step back up in your vertical.

When it comes to seo, every other factor aside from links can only do so much.  Although, you are a fool if you only improve upon a few factors affecting your serps because search engine optimization is the sum of these factors.  Yeah, you can build a successful website with pretty much only links or incredible content, but that same site could be substantially more successful if all factors were focused on.  Plus, whenever search engines modify their algorithms, your website is going to be that much more stable in the serps.  That being said once you’ve approached the cap of all other factors, links are the only thing that can take you higher.

Writing superb content just doesn’t cut it anymore.  You can create a website or blog with cutting edge and novel content, but unless you promote it no one will find it.  Well, a few people might accidentally type in the url for your site and discover it, but the market you are targeting will be oblivious to your existence.  In order for people to find your website, you need to market it.

Linking

Don’t be afraid to link out to what you believe may be your competitors.  Obviously if you are running an ecommence site, do not link every product page to a cheaper competitor.  That is just plain stupid.  However if you run a blog, linking to useful and related posts or comments is beneficial to your readers and to your website in terms of seo.  Matt Cutts says that linking out is a smart thing to do.

Q: Okay, but doesn’t this encourage me to link out less? Should I turn off comments on my blog?
A: I wouldn’t recommend closing comments in an attempt to “hoard” your PageRank. In the same way that Google trusts sites less when they link to spammy sites or bad neighborhoods, parts of our system encourage links to good sites.

Not only are there benefits in terms of seo, but I’m sure your readers will appreciate it when they want more information on that topic.

What does it say when you have a website that has no outbound links?  If you fail to recognize your resources, why should other people bother linking to you?  Linking is part of the web, and by failing to link you segregate yourself.

If you start linking out, people will start linking in (assuming that your content is worthwhile).  People are inherently curious; visitors on your website will click on those links.  When the webmaster of the other website looks at his backlinks or traffic referrers, that person is going to proceed down the same path as your visitors.  Curiosity will capture them, and they will visit your site.  When they arrive, that first impression will be lasting.  Would you rather them leave thinking – “God dam copy scrapping blogs” or “wow this person really has some incredible knowledge”.  Even if you only plant a seed in the back of their mind instead of leaving a monumental impression, it’s a start at the very least.

Commenting

Interacting with readers on your own blog, as well as, writers of other blogs helps increase your exposure.  It will alert others to your existence, and allow you to participate in discussions beyond the post. Commenting can have the same effect as linking.  If you write an thoughtful respond or question, people will be overcome with curiosity, and they will want to see what else you have to offer.

Commenting is a means of attracting new visitors, and increasing your visibility within your niche, but it also helps with seo.  The majority of blogs may have no follow comment links, but that doesn’t mean that those links lack value.  These links might be unable to pass pagerank and be treated differently by search engines, but the fact of the matter is that no follow comment links are still seen and thus they provide some benefit.

Networking

It encompasses a pretty wide range of mediums from social networking to networking while at a conference. The means by which you network doesn’t really matter, but the message you convey does.  Whether you are talking to someone at a business conference or expressing yourself on Twitter, it is a powerful tool.  Enlarging your contact circle, sharing opportunities and ideas, and marketing yourself is what networking is all about.

When you are networking, do not be self absorbed and have a one track mind.  Just as with commenting, you need to be interactive, engaging, and care about what the other person is saying.  No one likes a person who just pushes their own agenda, while essentially ignoring the other person in a conversation.  You might as well just talk to a mirror if that is how you are going to go about networking.

Linking, commenting, and networking are resources that can be utilized to improve your exposure and gain you credibility.  They are all tied together in a sense, but if you try to squeeze by only using one of these things, increasing your visibility will be hindered.  Don’t ostracize yourself, instead interact with the people involved in your niche.

For the rest of you, utilizing your time and budget effectively while link building can improve your return on investment in projects substantially.  There are a lot of factors to consider:

• How much time do you have available?
• What sort of budget do you have available?
• What do you value your time at?
• What is your link building plan?

Your budget is essentially the inverse to the amount of time you have at your disposal; a substantial budget can substitute for minimal amount of time or vice versa.  Be aware that if you are lazy or don’t have the time, you will be paying a markup when you don’t do things yourself.  A large budget will allow you to outsource some of the work load; something to consider when outsourcing is that you get what you pay for.  If you pay the neighborhood kid only $2 to cut your lawn expect a shabby performance – he might even “accidentally” mow down some of your favorite garden flowers; however, if you pay a professional service $100 to cut your lawn you can expect them to weed whack the grass next to your stone wall.

With regards to websites, a reputable and professional content creation company will deliver quality results, whereas a person you found on some forum is likely not going to provide an expert article in your niche.  So ask yourself this: When (and if) you ask another webmaster to link to an article on your website because it serves as a perfect resource for an issue that they were discussing, what type of content are you pushing?

A whole other topic to examine is, do you consider purchasing links while link building?  Obviously this is a risky business, but there are ways to reduce the risks involved.  Personally, I’d avoid the area all together and concentrate that time and money on creating quality content and relationships instead.  Another way to spend that money more effectively (since it is a one time fee) is to purchase related established websites or keyword rich domains; what you do regarding the relationship between these and your own websites depends on what color your hat is.

So how are you spending your time while building links?

• Are you blog commenting and networking with others?  – Bouncing and challenging the ideas of others is a great way to gain exposure.
• Are you utilizing social bookmarking and submitting your website to directories? – Getting your content out there will increase exposure and the likelihood that others will link.
• Are you writing unique and interesting content?  – Link baiting is a fabulous tactic of generating backlinks.
• *Insert long list of link building methods*

Utilize a variety of link building strategies and diversify your link profile.  If you have a diet of only rice, how are you going to fare with survival compared to an individual that has 100’s of foods to choose from?  It is perfectly fine however to take advantage of certain approaches that provide more results than others; this will take quite a bit of experimenting to see what produces the most value.  If you like steak, eat steak; just understand that to survive you will need to eat other types of food now and then.

Examine and evaluate your budget, time, and plan prior to initiating your link building.  Look at how you can best use your resources to provide the maximum amount of benefits.  Whether you are looking at effective resource management in serps or in link building, the same strategy follows: take what works best and (ab)use it while still rounding out your link profile.

Write one or a couple (if you are felling particularly ambitious) answers including your link(s).  Copy and paste this answer to as many relevant questions as possible.  If you post this answer to unrelated topics, you will greatly increase you’ve chance of being suspended.  Try to achieve level 2 prior to getting suspended, so that the links you leave behind are clickable.  You can do this by voting for questions to gain points (prior to your massive spamming), posting questions on another account and choosing your own answer as the best answer, or by being more conservative regarding what questions you answer.  Have multiple accounts, so suspensions don’t halt you spamming.

Borderline Spammer:

The same concept as being a full out spammer, except you are much more selective with the questions that you pick to answer.  You only answer questions that your prewritten answers match quite well with.  The likelihood of getting banned is slim, but you might as well have multiple accounts just in case.

Genuine User:

You write a custom answer to each question and include your link when appropriate.  One might even include the links of other websites to give an answer more depth and validity is necessary.  The likelihood of getting banned is extremely slim, but it still does happen; luckily, you can appeal all suspensions.

Whichever method you choose to (ab)use, remember that you are creating and defining a reputation for the website that you link to.  I view Yahoo Answers mainly as a traffic promotion source rather than as a means of improving serps.  Granted the links are nofollow, they still provide some benefit when it comes to search engine optimization.

Above is a graph of what Yahoo Answers did for a website of mine; the posting method used would fit into the borderline spammer category.  I started to post ~250 answers over the period of 2 weeks starting on November 13th.  After posting was stopped on November 27th, traffic from Yahoo Answers asymptotes down to ~50 visitors per day.  As January continues though, you can see that traffic rebounds to ~150 visitors per day.  I am not quite sure what caused this slight rebound, but I believe that the questions started to rank for long tail search terms.

In terms of revenue generated regarding time spent, Yahoo Answers has done quite well so far.  The niche promoted earns $10 CPM, which means that approximately $150 was generated from Yahoo Answers traffic thus far.  Estimated time to post an answer is 1 minute, which means that this earned $36 / hour.  Not too shabby considering the fact that minimum wage is only $7.25 / hour.  This may just be mindless copying and pasting, but aren’t all minimum wage jobs exactly that?

The other side to this determining trust is who you link out to.  If you link to non-reputable and spammy resources, then your website will lose trust.  One last factor may play into the trust that is designated to a certain domain or websites; this is registration details.  Google is a registrar of domains; thus they can see who owns what domains, and they already know what these websites link to.  If the majority of your portfolio contains spammy or link farm like websites, one could make the assumption that on a whole, domains with your contact details could be flagged as having a greater chance of not being trustworthy. These are the factors that play into determining the trust a domain or website has.

Website authority is a bit simpler to understand; authority is a measure of how many website link to your domain and how these websites link to you.   Different links hold various authorities; the sum of these links and the authority associated with them determines your authority.  Google PageRank was once a good measure of authority, but it has recently been tainted by manipulative webmasters.  Google likely accounts for this tainting by adjusting the trust of these websites.  The diversity of a websites link profile is another factor.  If your website has 100 links from 1 different website, this will not be as affective at raising authority as having 100 links from 25 different websites. 

Authority can also be considered on a webpage to webpage basis compared to trust which is generally viewed as a global website factor.  A singular webpage of a website may have authority, while the rest of the website might be filled with non-authoritative content.  This touches upon the concept of deep linking and the importance of building deep links.  Domain / website authority and trust can be broken down into these concepts, but their value to a website in seo is clearly significant.