So, I recently got called a black hatter for encouraging people to start their link building efforts out at directories, high PR sites and .edu sites instead of what many other industry pundits recommend.  Well, surprise, surprise... a whole panel of SEOs at one of the biggest SEM conferences out there (SMX) are on my side of the fence (could it be because I stay up to date on what SEO/SEM industry people say?).  So, imagine my shock when I found out my advice was well researched and not, indeed, black hat...  That was what sarcasm looks like on the web, for those of you playing along at home.

Read also: Is Mary McKnight a Black Hat SEO?

SMX is one of the biggest Search Engine Marketing conferences with events in many major cities across the world.  This event particular is SMX Advanced (Advanced means this info is from Big Boys for Big Boys) and is being held in Seattle as I type... OK, right now all the leading SEOs are out buying each other beer and laughing about how the little people (like me) hang on their every linkbaitable morsel of Google wisdom.

Today's most interesting panel: Blow your mind link building techniques

The usual suspects: Moderator: Greg Boser, President/CEO, 3 Dog Media, Q&A Moderator: Matt McGee, SEO For Hire (a personal fav since he has graced our blog with his illustrious presence), Roger Montti, Founder & Owner, MartiniBuster.com, Jay Young, Owner, Link Fish Media, Inc., and Stephan Spencer, Founder and President, Netconcepts.

Things to take away from the link building panel

1.       EDU links are the "whitest hat" links you can get. No one gets banned for having EDU links. 

That being said, they may also not be the magic bullet to your site's success.  You need to look for links from EDU pages that have some authority and some valuable content.  To find these pages you use common operators in Yahoo:

• linkdomain:example.com site:.edu sponsors
• linkdomain:example.com site:.edu donors
• linkdomain:example.com site:.org sponsors
• linkdomain:example.com site:.org benefactors
• inkdomain:example.com site:.edu hotlinks
• linkdomain:example.com site:.edu bookmarks
• linkdomain:example.com site:.org directory
• linkdomain:example.com site:.org resources

Read also: How to get .edu backlinks, the holy grail of backlinks

2.       Trusted directories still pass lots of link juice and authority. 

Jay Young recommended that you start every link building campaign with directories and try becoming a DMOZ editor.  Recommended directories to start with are:

• Best of the Web
• Yahoo
• DMOZ
• Joe Ant
• Blog Catalogue

Read also: Use Trust Distance to avoid the Sandbox, Boost Rankings and Basically Spank the SERPs with your real estate blog

3.       Social networks you must have profiles with include

• Digg
• Reddit
• Stumble
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• FaceBook

4.       Buying some relevant links that will still look natural by having varying anchor text is still acceptable (although this is considered a gray behavior).   

The speaker that using Text Link Brokers can still work but I (Mary) don't recommend it in the real estate industry.  The farthest I will go is saying that you can buy some directory or article submission posts from Best Web Directories.

5.       Totally going to avoid this one because it is gray/black hat and I prefer to steer clear of mentioning these tactics in this industry. 

But if you want the totally shady stuff, just ask my dear friend over at Slightly Shady SEO. (Shady... I got your back no matter how black you get)

6.       Do the stuff that costs money and makes you think out of the box. 

This includes setting aside a few thousand in programming funds for the creation of truly unique and useful widgets, template sponsorships, and valuable contests like iPhone giveaways or content trades.

7.       Go after high value link targets, don't waste your time on the little fish (i.e. low PR sites) 

One of my all time favorite brains in the industry, Stephan Spencer of Netconcepts made some great points:

• Go after high PR sites
• Look for sites that are one click away from Google
• Put some money into sponsoring high PR sites or donating something to them so you can leach some link love from them
• Link build from the existing sites that already link to you
• Comment on do follow blogs
• Submit to blog carnivals
• Contribute to a blog group
• Guest blog on another high PR blog
• Build rapport with other bloggers with high PR then ask for a link
• Sculpt PageRank: this means turn no follows on useless links out to form/conversion pages or commenters that are not members of your blog or pagination links and create more links from high PR pages on your site to other pages you want to improve the PR of. For example, I could boost the PR of an internal page by linking with a PR 3 by linking to it from my home page (a PR5).

8.       Ask people that are linking to you to use better quality anchor text

So I would ask those that link to me that instead of using our company name, RSS Pieces, to use a more keyword rich term like: Real Estate Blog Provider

Read also: How to Build Quality Backlinks for your Real Estate Blog, Part 1

9.       Contribute to wikis like

• Wikipedia
• Inman Wiki
• Zillow Wiki

10.   Use link bait. 

Create a quiz, a poll, a video, a widget or plain old cool content to get other people to link to your site naturally. 

Check out the linkbait posts Steve Hundley of the Real Estate Lead Generation Blog is giving all Realtors for free.

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