March 25, 2009

New Guide Release: The (Updated) Professional's Guide to Link Building

The author's views are entirely their own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.

We've given a face lift to an oldie but a goody: The Professional's Guide to Link Building has been updated and is available in web and document format. Written by link builder extraordinaire Eric Enge, the guide is a great resource for beginners who want to know why link building is important and how it impacts a site's rankings. Additionally, it covers various link building strategies and lists a ton of tools and resources to help you find links.

Here's a sneak peek of the guide's Table of Contents:

Section I: The Theory and Goals of Link Building for SEO

   1. Why Link Building Matters
   2. How Search Engines Evaluate Links
   3. Structuring a Link Building Campaign
   4. Determining a Link's Value
   5. The Role of Content in Building Links

Section II: Professional Link Building Strategies

   1. Asking for a Link
   2. Directories
   3. Content-Based Link Building Strategies
   4. Back-Linking for Links
   5. Press Releases and PR
   6. Partnerships and Licensing
   7. Buying Links for SEO
   8. Reciprocal Links
   9. Links from Pages Without Editorial Control
10. Nofollow
11. Helpful Search Terms, Phrases, and Advanced Query Parameters

Section III: Valuable Tools and Search Queries for Link Building

   1. The Basics
   2. Competitive Backlink Analysis
   3. Linkscape
   4. Link Diagnosis
   5. Other Tools
   6. Determining Link Value
   7. General Link Building Tools
   8. Advanced Tools
   9. Recovering Lost Links

Section IV: Tracking Link Campaign Results

Section V: Putting It All Together

   1. Starting Strategically
   2. Execution
   3. Conducting Strategic Reviews
   4. Creating a Link Building Culture
   5. Never Stopping

Section VI: Conclusion
Section VII: Appendix of Link Building Tools

   1. Search Engine Supplied Link Tools
   2. Backlink Analysis Tools
   3. Firefox Add-Ons
   4. Other Useful Link Building Tools

If you're a PRO member, you get free access to the Professional's Guide to Link Building. If you're not a PRO member, you can purchase the guide in the SEOmoz Store for $39 + tax.