How To Best Use Blogs and Forums For Link Building

Link building is an important element of search engine optimization but can also provide a number of benefits in its own right if used correctly. How should you use blogs and forums for building links to your website?

Choosing Blogs and Forums for Link Building

The first step in using blogs and forums to build links to your website for search engine optimization is to choose relevant blogs and forums which will be good to use.

Firstly, some blogs allow commenting while others don’t and some forums allow URL’s in your signature or posts whereas others don’t. Look for blogs and forums that will allow you to add comments and posts with links in them.

Another point that many people look for when choosing blogs and forums to comment on is their page rank. The higher the page rank, the more likely the blog or post is to be found and therefore the more people will see your comments. Generally internet marketers look for a page rank of 3 or above. Page rank is not necessarily exact but it does provide a useful guideline on finding blogs or forums to comment on.

How do you find the page rank of a blog or forum? One indicator you can use is the Google Toolbar. When you have this toolbar installed in your browser, navigate to the forum or blog you are considering using and you can see a PR value in the toolbar which gives a possible PR value for the blog or forum. Another tool you can use if you have Firefox is the SEO Quake plug-in which provides a lot of information regarding different websites including the page rank. You can set this so that each time a search is done on Google you see the page rank displayed below each search result.

How You Comment is Important When Using Blogs and Forums for Link Building

Not only should you look at the blog or forum you are commenting on but also how you comment – what should you write? The most important point is not to spam – make sure that your comments are interesting and represent some value to the reader. If a reader doesn’t like what you have written then they will not visit your website and so although it may hold some value for search engine optimization, if it doesn’t get deleted by the owner, it will not attract any other traffic.

Make Blog Commenting and Forum Posting a Regular Habit

Link building using blog commenting and forum posting is not a once-off activity but an ongoing habit to develop in terms of your internet marketing strategy. Even if you can only manage a few blogs or forums a day make sure that you comment or post regularly.

Blog commenting and forum posting is a useful way to build links to your website and so improve search engine ranking as well as get traffic directly from the blogs or forums you use. Look for blogs and forums with a page rank of 3 or higher as a guideline on which blogs or forums will bring the best results and make sure your comments or posts add value.