Blogging Can Be Great For Link Building – Or Can It?
There is a popular suggestion that blogging is great for building links and to a certain extent the suggestion is correct. However, if you don’t understand the concept behind blogging and how it helps to build links, you may find you are spending a lot of time and money for very little reward.
Having several blogs can be a great asset to an online business, particularly if that business deals in a wide range of products. Having a blog for each section of your business is a smart move as it allows you to concentrate on and promote that sector of your business.
You have two choices. You can host your blog with your web site(s). As a link building exercise, forget it. Any links coming from the same server are generally treated as internal links. Even if the web site is not yours, if it is on the same server then you won’t receive much link value.
Having blogs on different servers is a different matter. Each blog is then treated as a separate entity and each link treated as a bona fide link. There is one proviso to this, yet I come across it quite frequently. Links from blogs on separate severs are treated as links only because the search engines don’t associate the two entities.
Now think about that statement. You have a web site on server A and a blog on server B. They are two separate entities in the eyes of the search engines. So why on earth would you use the same Google Analytics account for both entities? The moment you do that, they effectively become one entity.
Search engines are becoming smarter and one of the issues they try to address is the creation of artificial links. Let’s face it, blogging is one way to increase links, but they can be viewed as artificial. Having said that, they are not by any means black hat links. The content of each blog, if well written, is valuable in its own right. If it is related to a particular product or service on another web site, it is only natural to develop that link.
If you have four blogs and you write to them every day, that is the equivalent of 1400 links in one year. However, over time search engines like Google will reduce the strength behind those links simply because of the volume from one source.
Link building requires variety. Links from blogs, directories or article submissions form only one part of the link building process. You also need to develop some organic links. These are acquired as users visit your sites, like what they see and decide to link back. Create a broad diversity and the links from the blogs can become lost in the masses. Create few other links and they stand out like sore thumbs.
Blogging is a good tool for link building, but only if done correctly and as part of a broader link building program. The old saying of not putting your eggs in one basket is so true – in fact, don’t even collect the eggs from the one hen house.
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