I wrote about whether to exchange links with “competitors”, and I also wrote about how to find the best link partners to exchange links with. I mentioned that Google organic search should no longer be your only or major traffic source that you rely on, because since Panda and Penguin were born, the world has changed.
Unless you enjoy dancing with uncertainty and have an acute sense of smell as Frank Slade (in Scent of a Woman), Google is not the basket you should put all your eggs in. There’re always other baskets, even though they may not look so glamorous and almighty.
While Panda, Penguin and their possible siblings (Polar Bear?) are moody, there’s a certain something quite evergreen. It’s a link from a highly relevant site, almost your competitor.
Whatever the Panda Group does, this link is always there. Then not being ranked on Google doesn’t sound so detrimental, as long as your link partner is still around. Newton said “on the shoulders of giants”, right?
Who Are Your Competitors and Partners?
A page ranked on top for a keyword is not always from a site that looks gorgeous with high homepage Pagerank or “authority”, but as long as it ranks higher for a competitive keyword highly relevant to your site, a link from it is equal to moving your ranking up a few positions.
What I Learned from Google
I do learn a lot from Google though and still “admire” it in some way.
I learned not to make a fuss about any mood swings caused by Panda Group, to just be as natural as possible, even more natural, absolutely natural, and compulsively insist on doing so.
Back to the topic, if you’re looking for a reliable second basket, and finding a way to sustain your website’s traffic, regardless of the Panda Group, take a look at Google Analytics or Statcounter and tell me who’s your top referrer, then you’ll see the hope, your alternative basket and it might be even bigger than Google.
Each site is unique; you should treat each individual site uniquely. But all in all there’re two major streams with sub streams:
- Social share: Facebook and Pinterest play influential roles in different sites, but it’s not the focus of this post.
- A relevant site: A niche directory, a competitor…
I’m always drawn to relevant, especially highly relevant link referrers. You can submit to a niche directory, exchange links, submit to a niche resource page, or a niche forum. They do work as long as the two sites are highly relevant.
Blog Commenting That Is Not Dreadful
The best way to get those targeted sites is to search your keywords, and those that rank high must have decent traffic for ranked keywords. One of the ways to get a link that will drive traffic from them, is by blog commenting.
I’m not talking about automatic or poor comment-spam trick that generates spun comments or amusing generic comments. I’m talking about genuine commenting. You actually read the article and communicate with the author naturally (yes, I’m addicted to being natural). So your comment will be approved and readers will be more likely to read it and follow the link to your site.
You Are Always Late
Forget about DoFollow or NoFollow. Don’t follow Google, because it changes; follow the game rule of being compulsively natural.
When Google invents something new, don’t follow it, rather, keep being natural, because the new rule will change, and you are always behind the game.
What once works will not work, because there’re black hats and you may even have been one of them, and this vicious cycle has already driven Google crazy.
Back to the topic, to leave a comment you wish to get approved, comment nicely, don’t intend to link in the comment body, especially don’t drop some “keywords”. Do you ever ask what if Google no longer recognizes keyword anchor texts? Why should you follow Google and always be behind?
As long as you notice the links of the usernames, you’ll be able to link your username to your site if the comment is approved. If you notice that others leave a link in the comment body, you can try a natural non-keyword link, such as a URL or anything else you feel natural.
Not because everyone tells you that “click here” is good, so you use it, rather, you should be compulsively natural about your links.
Blog commenting benefits both the posts and the commenters because the posts will be ranked higher (yes, this has something to do with the organic search) and the blog comments become part of the content that is rich and very original. That’s why I’m certain that as long as your comment is great, the author of the post will love it and will reply to you.
Forget about Google, think about readers, then Google will fall in love with you.
Bingo on the blog commenting. I pay n o attention to the Follow/NoFollow aspect. I also pay (fairly) little attention to keeping on-topic or on-niche in where I comment. I comment on whatever I feel inspired to by the post. With diversified interests, that means I also have diversified comments, all of top quality on generally good quality pages. The links can’t help but be overall good quality, having faith in my own good taste in topics and in blog posts. 🙂