Link building on external sites, whether it’s through article directories, video platforms or blog directories, can increase “link juice” and drive traffic to your site. The more high quality your “link juice,” the higher Google ranks your site and the more links pointing to your web page translates into higher traffic referrals. Here are several ways to maximize impact for each article by building links on external sites:

Quick jump: Article directories / Blog directories / Video optimization

Article directories. Re-publishing content on article sites, such a ezinearticles.com and ArticlesBase.com, can increase traffic referrals and Google Page Rank. In-bound links to a site indicates its value according to Google and figures the number and quality of links when determining a web pages Page Rank.  When re-publishing, try to create a different article so search engines will pick up the article on your site and the article directory. That means adjusting the title tag with different keywords (within the same keyword family), shifting content and rewording sentences. Also, shorten the article to around 400-500 words in length. If that means cutting several paragraphs, that’s fine — it will only further differentiate from the original article.

Once you have adjusted the verbage and article structure, it’s time to insert links. Typically, article databases will allow 2-3 links. Try to incorporate a link to the original article in the first paragraph and insert a link to your services or About page in the signature (where you say something about the company). Nearly all article directories have different link-building rules. For instance, Ezinearticles.com does not allow links “above the fold,” meaning in the first several paragraphs. So ensure you’re following their guidelines to get published.

Here are the top three article databases based on Google Page Rank and Alexis Rank:

For a complete list of article databases, go here.

Blog directories. Unlike article repositories, blog directories house entire sites, not specific articles (necessarily). Therefore, a blog will submit its site once, unlike article repositories where you must submit individual articles. Although directories can drive traffic to your website, its primary benefit is to build link juice. The more directories you can post your blog to, the more in-bound links you have to your site — increasing the importance of your site to search engine crawlers. To monitor the number of in-bound links to your site, log into Google Webmasters.

Here are the top three blog directories to get you started:

For a comprehensive list, go here.

Video optimization. Optimizing video is similar to optimizing blog content: it should be 1) engaging and 2) optimized with keywords. As YouTube (with 81.9 percent of total video embeds on the web) factors views, likes and dislikes, shares, comments and other indicators of engagement, the video must be interesting. We typically recommend 90 seconds in length but no more than 2 minutes. Try to increase the video’s visibility by embedding within several blog posts, in a static part of the site, such as the sidebar and push it to your social circles on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Secondly, the video title, description, tags and in-bound links should be optimized with keywords.

Here are the top three video sharing sites:

To learn more about optimizing video content, browse this presentation:

How to Optimize YouTube Videos – YouTube SEO – ReelSEO Presentation

Image by Zsuzsanna Kilian from StockXchng

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