SPONSOR POST: Buy and Sell Simple Text Link Ads

Text Link Ads has a unique solution for both publishers and advertisers. Publishers can sell simple text ads while retaining editorial control. Advertisers can purchase static html ads that can drive targeted traffic while building link popularity which is a top factor in search engine rankings.

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EXCLUSIVE: Announcing ReviewMe!!

LBB readers, by way of apology for and explanation of my slow posting lately, I’d like you all to be the first to know about my new company:

It will be launching in less than a month, and the team and I have been working around the clock on it.

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Links to Rankings – A Test Of Wills

One of the biggest changes in the seo world in the last few years is the time it can take to rank a website, particularly in Google.  A bit back Rand noted that even established "trusted" domains were taking 10+ weeks to see some traction in terms of higher rankings after building links to these pages.  The amount of patience needed to see results is even greater when talking about new domains.

Our own LinkBuildingBlog.com has not earned top rankings in Google until just the last few weeks when we have spotted our blog jump from out of the 100’s for "link building" all the way to the top 10 on most data centers.  We registered the domain May 12, 2005 and our first post was May 16, 2005.  Our blog was a site that seemed to receive all the right links since the first day Andy and I started posting.  A quick search on Yahoo shows over 20,000 links into our domain!  Even with this nice linkage from many quality sites it seemed we had to wait for our domain to age past that magic one year mark before we saw what we thought made sense for our blog… a top 10 ranking.

The good news for new sites is I have personally seen three unique sites (12 to 14 months old) that I track recently break out of no where into the top 15 on Google with their latest index tweaks.  Andy is also reporting some sites that were created much more recently showing signs of ranking in Google much faster than what we have seen in the last year.  Now we all know results can be seen in MSN and Yahoo much faster but the holy grail is top Google rankings for most sites.  As a very general rule for link building (always exceptions of course)…

Established Domains (domains that are over 1+ year old or are already ranking for many terms)   
*build links -> 10-12 weeks later see results.

New Domains (domains under 1 year old and are showing no strong ranking results) *build links -> 12 weeks to 16 months later see results. 

There you have it, I have oversimplified a very complicated issue.  Readers, what are you seeing in terms of time it is taking you to see traction in search rankings after building new links?

Turn Off Comments for Links

Link building for blogs carries its own set of (sometimes odd) strategies and tactics. Graywolf and Problogger have both posted on how turning off comments on a blog ensures that it gets more links. I have to admit I find the whole thing a bit funny… because it really does work.

Another benefit of this tactic is that it removes the need to deal with comment spam

Jim Boykin

… is now a blogger. Some initial reactions:

• His posts actually contain some original ideas (pretty rare on SEO blogs these days)
• That might be the goofiest portrait I’ve ever seen