LinkMoses Linking Commandments

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19 years of link building strategy, advice, and a little philosophy. So ignore it, because what would I know?

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LinkMoses Linking Commandments - Part I
by Eric Ward

Updated September 2012 (original 2003) | more from Eric

I - Linkest not to seek favor from false idols*
(*Google is not a false idol. I heard this from a trusted authority anchor text hub linkwheel (nofollow, sorry).

II - Those who link in exchange for gold are link whores*
*Caveats:
a) Linking only in exchange for return link is kinda slutty
b) Philosophically, it's true that all links are paid in one form or another, but this discussion gives LinkMoses a headache.
c). Paying a membership fee to join a non-profit association just to get a link from a .org domain is not genius. It's been happening for years, and watch it blow up.

III - Thou shalt not social link thine own site, at least not more than once, and not from 367 different social venues where the only reason you created an account was for the link. And don't get me started on the idiocy of link wheels.

IIIb - Thou shalt not take advatage of Google's current love-fest with Pinterest (look who ranks#1 for link building inforgaphics even though LinkMoses has never created one), nor will thee send an email to all employees telling them to Plus the corporate homepage, nor ask your children to teach you what Faceboook is so you can "Like" the company homepage*

*Caveats
a) It is acceptable to include a couple of those cute little share, add, tweet, plus, etc., buttons on your own content. They work nicely. Here, try this one

.
b). If you seed YELP with fake reviews, a swarm of locusts will follow you to the next SMX conference.

IV - If thou beginest thy link request email "To whometh it may concern", it shall hastily be deleteth

IVb - Please stop telliing LinkMoses "Youwere just on my site and think we should swap links". A lie is not the best way to start your communication with someone.

V- Thou shalt not refer to content as "link bait", any more than thou shall refer to your site's users as "carp"

VI - Thou shalt study or analyze, but not covet, thy neighbor's links*
(*if thou doest covet them, please try and limit your desires to highest trust TLDs. Links from .info domains are pretty much penguin bait already. Extra shame is reserved for those who volunteer to be webmaster at child's school and then secretly add anchor text links back to company site.

VII - Thou shalt never use the name Matt Cutts in vain*
(*at least not where it can be crawled, and be careful with javascript and flash, I think he can index it)

VIII - Just because you thinketh ~~MS LIVE!~~ bing search is stupideth does not giveth thee permission to link spameth them

VIIIb - Although if you do so under the guise of "testing", it's not a formal violation of this commandment.

IX - If thou has truly reformeth, beg forgiveness via the reconsideration formeth
(If you receive no response, do not hang thine head. Contact LinkMoses and he may be able to deliver a formal scroll documenting your heathenism so it can be cleansed in an attempt at link reformation. LinkMoses does of course charge for this as he has three children who require 15 Happy Meals per week)

X - The link schemer may eat today, but the link farmer eateth from a bountiful table for a lifetime*

Link wisely,

Eric

About the Author
Eric Ward founded the Web's first services for announcing, linking, and publicizing Web sites back in 1994. Ward is best known as the person behind the linking campaigns for Amazon.com Books, Weather.com, Rodney Dangerfield (Rodney.com), the AMA, and PBS.org. His services won the 1995 Award for Internet Marketing Excellence, and he was selected as one of the Web's 100 most influential people by Websight magazine. In 2009 Eric was one of 25 people profiled in the book Online Marketing Heroes. In 2013, Eric wrote The Ultimate Guide To Link Building for Entrepreneur Press. Eric has spoken at over 150 industry conferences and now publishes LinkMoses Private, a subscription based link opportunity and strategy service. Eric has written linking strategy and advice columns for SearchEngineLand, MarketingProfs, ClickZ, Search Marketing Standard, SearchEngineGuide, Web Marketing Today, and Ad Age magazine. Learn more about Eric and his content publicity and link building services at ericward.com