Effectiveness of Link Building Tactics for SEO

Effectiveness of Link Building Tactics for SEO

1.
Linkbait + Viral Content Creation
67% very high value
67%
8.8% light consensus

2.
Blogging and Engagement with the Blogosphere
66% high value
66%
8.6% light consensus

3.
Classic "Create Valuable Content" Strategies w/o Promotional Marketing
58% high value
58%
12.4% moderate contention

4.
Public Relations (beyond just press release publication)
56% high value
56%
11.7% light consensus

5.
Direct Link Purchases from Individual Sites/Webmasters
54% moderate value
54%
14.2% moderate contention

6.
Widgets and Embeddable Content
54% moderate value
54%
11.1% light consensus

7.
Conferences, Events and In-Person Networking
54% moderate value
54%
11.9% light consensus

8.
User Generated Content (which then incentivizes links to profiles/content/etc.)
53% moderate value
53%
9.9% light consensus

9.
High Trust/Authority Directories (DMOZ, Yahoo!, Lii, etc.)
52% moderate value
52%
10.7% light consensus

10.
Niche Social Media Communities
51% moderate value
51%
11.3% light consensus

11.
Local Link Building (via geographic lists, organizations, portals)
51% moderate value
51%
10.1% light consensus

12.
Social Voting Portals (Digg, Reddit, Mixx, etc.)
50% moderate value
50%
10.4% light consensus

13.
Quizzes + Results Badges
50% moderate value
50%
11.1% light consensus

14.
Social Bookmarking Services (StumbleUpon, Delicious, etc.)
49% moderate value
49%
11.2% light consensus

15.
Contributing to Charities, Non-profits, Events, etc. to Earn Links
45% moderate value
45%
11.6% light consensus

16.
Leveraging Twitter for Link Building
43% low value
43%
11.8% light consensus

17.
Generic Directory Links (BOTW, JoeAnt, Business.com, etc.)
42% low value
42%
9.6% light consensus

18.
Contacting Webmasters or Sites with (Non-Paid) Direct Link Requests
41% low value
41%
14.9% moderate contention

19.
Offline Advertising Branding and Media
39% low value
39%
11.5% light consensus

20.
Press Releases
39% low value
39%
11% light consensus

21.
Long Tail Directory Links (niche directories, small generic directories, etc.)
39% low value
39%
11.5% light consensus

22.
Social Networking Services (Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn)
37% low value
37%
8.5% light consensus

23.
Purchasing Links from Link Brokers
37% low value
37%
12.9% moderate contention

24.
Launching & Later, Redirecting Microsites via 301s
36% low value
36%
11.9% light consensus

25.
Buying Old Domains & Placing Links on Them
36% low value
36%
14.5% moderate contention

26.
Buying Old Domains & 301'ing Them
32% minimal value
32%
12.8% moderate contention

27.
Reciprocal Linking (trading links with other sites)
29% minimal value
29%
8.2% light consensus

28.
DoFollow Blog Comments
29% minimal value
29%
9.6% light consensus

29.
Web Advertising (Banners, PPC, etc.)
25% minimal value
25%
10.5% light consensus

30.
Forum Link Building (Signatures, Link Drops, etc.)
23% very minimal value
23%
8.8% light consensus

31.
Automated Blog, Guestbook and Open Form Comment Spam
10% very minimal value
10%
8% light consensus