2011 marked a significant year for those who use link building techniques to garner traffic to their websites and to rank well in search engines. Although old school link building tactics still work in 2011, they are falling behind new techniques after Google's series of Panda/Penguin updates.

1. What Linkbuilding Looked
Like in 2011

2. • 2011 marked a significant year for those who use link
building techniques to garner traffic to their websites
and to rank well in search engines. Although old
school link building tactics still work in 2011, they are
falling behind new techniques after Google’s series of
Panda/Farmer updates. Many in the search engine
optimization community are switching up their link-
building methods to prepare for whatever Google may
throw them in the future.
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3. • Social media has been drawing attention for a few
years now, but has not been a priority for link builders
until this year. However, this year Google has released
the plus one button and give many indications that
social media plays a role in how well a page ranks in
the search engines. There is also rumours that social
media popularity will plan a big role in future
algorithm updates.
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4. • Basically, it’s only a matter of time before old link
building strategies take a back seat in Google’s
algorithms. Link builders are taking advantage of this
buy creating profiles on Twitter, Facebook and Google
Plus and adding buttons to their content that make it
easy for readers to share on their social networks.
Working to engage readers and encourage them to
share in other ways may help get social media links as
well.
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5. • For the same reasons, using article directories is falling
out of fashion. Although many SEO proponents still
say it works well, there are many who fear that in time
these links will be nearly useless and are adjusting
with the future in mind. An alternative is getting guest
post spots on authority blogs that are relevant to the
website you are trying to rank for. This is not an easy
task, however, requiring a link builder to build
relationships with a number of bloggers over time,
then create quality content for the actual guest posts.
To get the most of this venture, it’s important to
select blogs that are relevant to the keywords you are
working on.
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6. • Quality is another aspect that link builders are
beginning to re-evaluate. In recent years, almost
anything could rank well if the link building strategy
was consistent and thorough. This is still true for the
most part, but Google has made it clear that it’s not
something they like. They are working day in and day
out to create a search engine algorithm that will rank
quality websites well. To get ahead of this trend, those
interested in using link building are also spending
more time developing good content that answer
questions posed by keywords.
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7. • The intention is to create content that will stand the
test of time. Although link-building may get a page to
number one in the search engines, it’s of no use if a
future algorithm that factors in quality knocks it out of
the results. Link building techniques in 2011 have
moved from just link building, to creating quality
content and building relationships that will last despite
what Google does.
• Visit Upper Hand Technologies for more: http://www.upperhandtech.com
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