Summary: Choose a key word or phrase, find its variations and then perform these checks in all the major search engines to identify target sites to request links from.
So you want good quality links for your website and you’re wondering how you can methodically locate those links. The first thing to bear in mind is that everything suggested here should be performed on all of the major search engines – not just Google – so we’re looking at Yahoo, MSN and Ask. But this post focuses on how to search for these potential link targets in Google only.
First be clear about what keyword you’re targeting. We’ll use an example of a website based in Nottingham who wants to target the key phrase ‘mobile phone chargers’.
The next step is simply to search for every variation of the key phrase you’re targeting. Use Google’s keyword tool to find those variations and then use Google to identify targets for link acquisition. Example….
- mobile phone charger
- solar mobile phone charger
- emergency mobile phone charger
- wind up mobile phone charger
- mobile phone car charger
- mobile phone battery charger… and so on (Google’s keyword tool gave me 24 variations for this key phrase).
Apply the strategies below to find potential targets for requesting links, for each phrase you’ve decided to go for. Remember – relevancy – if you’re trying to get links for ‘solar mobile phone charger’ you’ll enjoy more success if you target the link at a page which is genuinely about solar mobile phone chargers!
Step 1 – look for ‘submit’ type searches
These perhaps have the most potential as they should reveal sites that actually value you adding your website or link – so I’m including these first! Examples: (use copy and paste to replace ‘mobile phone chargers’ with your key word or phrase.
- mobile phone chargers “add * site”
- mobile phone chargers “add * url”
- mobile phone chargers “add * website”
- mobile phone chargers “add a url”
- mobile phone chargers “add site”
- mobile phone chargers “add url”
- mobile phone chargers “add website”
- mobile phone chargers “add your site”
- mobile phone chargers “submit * site”
- mobile phone chargers “submit * url”
- mobile phone chargers “submit * website”
- mobile phone chargers “submit a url”
- mobile phone chargers “submit site”
- mobile phone chargers “submit url”
- mobile phone chargers “submit website”
- mobile phone chargers “submit your site”
- mobile phone chargers “suggest * site”
- mobile phone chargers “suggest * url”
- mobile phone chargers “suggest * website”
- mobile phone chargers “suggest a url”
- mobile phone chargers “suggest site”
- mobile phone chargers “suggest url”
- mobile phone chargers “suggest website”
- mobile phone chargers “suggest your site”
Step 2 – use parameters
Search engines have a number of query parameters letting you search for specific information. These are fairly self explanatory!
For example:
allintitle:mobile phone chargers
allinanchor:mobile phone chargers
allinurl:mobile phone chargers
allintext:mobile phone chargers
Step 3 – identify other potential sources
As well as looking for links in Google and the other major search engines, you can check some other sources to help identify potentially valuable links that can also bring a good contribution in terms of traffic.
Check your key phrase in:
- Ask.com blog search
- Delicious
- Dmoz
- Google blog search
- Google news
- Google news archive
- Technorati
- Wikipedia
- Yahoo! News
Remember you’re looking for potential sites that could provide you with a link (rather than trying to get listed on the above!).
Step 4 – look for blogs/forums
You’re on the hunt for places you can join in – not spam but make a genuine worthwhile contribution to the blog or forum. Examples: (in reality you’re unlikely to find many mobile phone charger forums….!! Tip: just use find and replace to create a list using your own key phrase)
- “add comment” mobile phone chargers
- “mobile phone chargers forum”
- “post comment” mobile phone chargers
- intitle:blog mobile phone chargers
- intitle:forum mobile phone chargers
- intitle:group mobile phone chargers
- intitle:post mobile phone chargers
- intitle:tag mobile phone chargers
- inurl:blog mobile phone chargers
- inurl:forum mobile phone chargers
- mobile phone chargers blog
- mobile phone chargers forum
- mobile phone chargers group
- mobile phone chargers join
- mobile phone chargers members
- mobile phone chargers tag
Step 5 – look for directories
Add the word directory to your search to look for further valuable hubs. Examples:
- “favourite links” mobile phone chargers
- “favourite sites” mobile phone chargers
- “list * mobile phone chargers * sites”
- “list * mobile phone chargers”
- “list of mobile phone charger sites”
- “mobile phone chargers sites”
- “mobile phone chargers websites”
- “recommended links” mobile phone chargers
- “recommended sites” mobile phone chargers
- directory * mobile phone chargers
- intitle:directory “mobile phone chargers”
- inurl:directory “mobile phone chargers”
- mobile phone chargers * directory
- mobile phone chargers catalog
- mobile phone chargers directory
- mobile phone chargers sites
- mobile phone chargers websites
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Further Discussion
3 Responses to “How can I identify sites that might give me links?”
Leave a Response
Make sure you enter the * required information where indicated. Responses are moderated so please no link dropping, no keywords or domains as names; do not spam, and do not advertise!
said at 8:02 am on July 23rd, 2010
[...] This post was Twitted by ZoeAngelSeo [...]
said at 7:37 am on November 5th, 2010
Here’s a good post on getting great links: http://www.gospelrhys.co.uk/2010/10/forget-social-bookmarking-500-places-to-get-great-links-from.html and a free download of suggestions: http://www.supercarly.co.uk/576/free-social-media-links/
said at 8:45 am on November 10th, 2010
Thanks for adding my posts Jen, I hope they help people out! There are loads of really useful places to get links in that free download.