by Ana Hoffman 158 comments

One Way Link Building: How to Find the Best Links Every Time



one way link building mapMost SEO’s will tell you that one way link building from quality “linkable” sites is the single most important factor of a successful SEO campaign.

And I am not the one to disagree with it.

I strongly believe that building a variety of links from quality and preferably high PR pages is what will make or break your efforts to place your website on the first page of Google for your desired keywords.

This post is all about the “HOW” of link building.

You are looking for a treasure, and I am about to give you a perfect map that will lead you right to it.

Use the searches below to find the best sites in your niche to link from. Just copy and paste the entire code into a search engine search box, insert your target keyword where it says “add your keyword” (duh! :) ), and prepare to be amazed at what you find.

One Way Link Building with Authority Codes

One Way Link Building with WordPress Blogs

•    site:.com inurl:blog “post a comment” -”comments closed” -”you must be logged in” “ADD YOUR KEYWORD”
•    site:.org inurl:blog “post a comment” -”comments closed” -”you must be logged in” “ADD YOUR KEYWORD”
•    site:.gov inurl:blog “post a comment” -”comments closed” -”you must be logged in” “ADD YOUR KEYWORD”
•    site:.edu inurl:blog “post a comment” -”comments closed” -”you must be logged in” “ADD YOUR KEYWORD”

(I do most of my link building with these commands.)

One Way Link Building with ExpressionEngine Blogs

•    site:.edu “powered by expressionengine” “ADD YOUR KEYWORD”
•    site:.gov “powered by expressionengine” “ADD YOUR KEYWORD”
•    site:.com “powered by expressionengine” “ADD YOUR KEYWORD”
•    site:.org “powered by expressionengine” “ADD YOUR KEYWORD”

One Way Link Building with BlogEngine blogs

•    site:.edu “Powered by BlogEngine.NET” inurl:blog “post a comment” -”comments closed” -”you must be logged in” “ADD YOUR KEYWORD”
•    site:.gov “Powered by BlogEngine.NET” inurl:blog “post a comment” -”comments closed” -”you must be logged in” “ADD YOUR KEYWORD”
•    site:.com “Powered by BlogEngine.NET” inurl:blog “post a comment” -”comments closed” -”you must be logged in” “ADD YOUR KEYWORD”
•    site:.org “Powered by BlogEngine.NET” inurl:blog “post a comment” -”comments closed” -”you must be logged in” “ADD YOUR KEYWORD”

Why BlogEngine and ExpressionEngine blogs? For some reason, these blogging platforms are especially popular with academics and government agencies, which a lot of times translates into high authority and PR.

The reason you should add your keyword to the searches is that you are better off linking from related sites. If you can’t find any sites to link from for your specific keyword, just widen your search, i.e. from “tractor parts” to “tractor”. (did I just give away my most profitable niche? :) )

One Way Link Building with Directories and Submission Sites

•    intitle:add+url “your key word”
•    intitle:submit+site “your key word”
•    intitle:submit+url “your key word”
•    intitle:add+your+site “your key word”
•    intitle:add+site “your key word”
•    intitle:directory “your key word”
•    intitle:sites “your key word”
•    intitle:list “your key word”

Most directories will not give you high quality links, but they are good to for straight URL links, like http://www.TrafficGenerationCafe.com – yes, you need these as well to appear “natural” when doing your link building. It’s especially true when building links to your home page.

One Way Link Building with Forums

•    “Powered by SMF” your keyword
•    Phbb your keyword
•    “powered by IPB” your keyword
•    MyBB your keyword
•    “powered by PunBB” your keyword
•    “Powered by Phbb” your keyword
•    “Powered by vBulletin” your keyword

One Way Link Building with Squidoo Lenses

•    site:squidoo.com “new links plexo” “add to this list”
•    site:squidoo.com “your keyword” “add to this list”

Many don’t realize that many Squidoo lenses have high PR and most of them are DoFollow (not that I think it matters that much.)

Link Building Marketing Takeaway

I am sure you are itching to try these out, so I won’t hold you up much longer.

One last thing though: I want to know what you think about these codes and link building in general.

Do you believe that link building will remain a strong factor in determining your SERP standing? Comment below.

ana one way link building


traffic generation cafe comment below

{ 158 comments }

Lukas October 12, 2012 at 6:05 am

First of all i have to say Hi :) , then i have to sorry for my broken English.
Link building is and WILL be important in future – in my opinion ofc.
Footprints you have posted Ana looks very useful, i ill try them for sure.
As rematch i can tell you that i`m using default Google footprints(the ones on left side when u press more button on google search view) to search thematic, useful high ranked in SERP: forums(discussion category), blogs .
Its always good to register there and take a part in conversations, first- you prove community that you are authorized in this area, second-you can always create link in profile, signature, and the last one you most important you can create good source of thematic, niche related traffic.

Regards

Ana Hoffman October 12, 2012 at 11:43 am

Good point, Lukas.

Andrew Riedel October 11, 2012 at 3:14 pm

Love your style and sense of humour Ana. You share plenty of really useful information and it’s appreciated. Some of the codes I haven’t used yet so keen to give ‘em a try.

Ana Hoffman October 12, 2012 at 8:39 am

Thanks for the compliment, Andrew.

Bob Siddoway September 23, 2012 at 5:10 pm

Hey Ana,

This seems super useful and I appreciate you posting these!

Unfortunately, however, when I’m trying to build links using these, many of the sites that show up won’t actually let you post a link for your comments. Am I missing something here? Or is it just trial and error and continually combing through site after site? Perhaps I just need to put in the time.

Anyway, thanks again.

Bob Siddoway

Ana Hoffman September 24, 2012 at 12:06 pm

It’s been a while since I double-checked these codes, Bob, to see if anything changed. Sounds like it’s time.

Karen August 23, 2012 at 5:43 pm

Hi Ana
Just read your free report which is worth much more than I paid for it.
One question. In light of The Penguin Parade are the link building strategies in the report still current? Or are you planning a post-Penguin update?

Ana Hoffman August 24, 2012 at 8:41 am

Thanks, Karen. :)

I am currently halting all my link building, other than working on encouraging my readers to link to me more.

I am writing a short ebook on all the recent changes, how they affected us, and what to do to survive.

Hope I’ll stop dragging my feet and actually finish it soon.

Kater September 9, 2012 at 9:16 am

Hi Ana,

What a great share! Yes I was itching to try these out, but then I read your reply above! Now I can’t wait for your report. That said, I did find this post very helpful AND will share with my own readers. Count that as one more link well earned!

Ana Hoffman September 11, 2012 at 9:19 am

Thanks, Kater!

Pierre August 16, 2012 at 6:43 am

Very very useful codes Ana! Thanks.

Ana Hoffman August 16, 2012 at 6:55 am

You are welcome, Pierre.

Jamie July 6, 2012 at 12:55 am

Hi, ana, have finished read your freebies ebook, i really likes the way you put the information. Very funny but educative as well. thumb up !

Ana Hoffman July 10, 2012 at 11:28 am

Glad you found it useful, Jamie!

Alex Barcelona June 20, 2012 at 9:53 am

Hi Ana, aren’t these way-out links a damage to your ranking? how does it work? that is how I know to get bad rank.. having links going out ?? thnx. .sweet article by the way…

Ana Hoffman June 20, 2012 at 8:18 pm

This post is really about linking TO your site from other sites, Alex, but to answer your question, it’s only natural for any site to have links out to other sites; that’s the very nature of blogging.

To not have any outgoing links is usually an indication of an overly SEOed site.

So yes, do link out to other sites; and add rel=”nofollow” tag to the links if it makes you feel better.

Ricky April 19, 2012 at 5:21 am

Awesome, thanks for sharing. I need all the pr I can get. I really appreciate you for sharing this. The search query strings you posted worked fabulously. Thank you so much.

Thanks again,

Ricky Strode

Ana Hoffman April 19, 2012 at 1:44 pm

No problem, Ricky – we all could use more links, huh?

Jonathan April 15, 2012 at 2:50 am

Hi Ana,

Thanks for the link building suggestions. I really believe they’ll help me. I’ve been reading your site for ages through nothing but organic searches and I’ve only just joined your e mail list now. I’ve just finished reading your SEO report and I can’t believe the the simple things that I’ve been doing wrong due to the fact that I was arrogant enough to believe I couldn’t learn from ‘another free ebook’. I believe you’ve saved me a huge amount of time and work with your tips and I look forward to using them in my new projects and to relook at my ‘failures’ and fix them.

Thanks

Ana Hoffman April 16, 2012 at 12:27 pm

That’s the best thumbs up I was given in a long time, Jonathan – thank you and glad to hear my book helped.

Would you mind if I use your comment for a testimonial of sorts?

Jonathan April 16, 2012 at 10:49 pm

Not at all. Please feel free to use it.

Farhan April 14, 2012 at 2:59 pm

Hi Ana
This is my first visit to your blog and i like your thoughts on link building. I have a question what is an unnatural link? Is it the link with a blog comment

Ana Hoffman April 16, 2012 at 12:34 pm

I find it peculiar, Farhan, that you are asking a simple SEO question while linking to an SEO services page from the comment.

Cathi April 3, 2012 at 1:53 pm

Hi Anna
Love your emails (hope the move went OK) and find your site full of interesting tips and ideas. We’ve been playing around and haven’t really started off page seo so far and have still managed first page of Google just using opseo (managed 1 and 2 on Google for a couple of days) so we are going to ramp it up and see what happens.

Many thanks and will keep you posted to how we get on.

All the best

Cathi

Ana Hoffman April 3, 2012 at 9:25 pm

It looks like you are competing for a low competition keywords, Cathi, which is why it’s much easier to rank just on the content alone.

Good job!

And yes, the move is ongoing… lol; thanks for asking!

Cathi April 4, 2012 at 10:58 am

Hi Ana

That’s the thing that was really hard to get my head around…the global searches are low but the pages on google for that term are 20 million +, so I am not sure whether I should be scratching my head or patting myself on the back.

It makes me wonder what 20 million + other pages are doing that is so easy to rank above. Can’t imagine what implementing your ideas will do to my sites page one stability…going to find out though…wicked grin!

Ana Hoffman April 5, 2012 at 7:25 am

When Google lists 20M pages for a search term, they are listing all sites that in any way, shape, or form mention those words in their content/titles/etc and not in any particular order.

So you are competing against people who are not really competing for the keyword, Cathi.

A better test is to type “get rid of butt fat” in the search box or do a intitle:get rid of butt fat search. When I did those searches, only about 100K pages came up; that’s more or less your true competition.

And, by the way, you are still on the first page! It’s just that this keyword might not bring you that much traffic if not too many people actually search for it…

Mark March 29, 2012 at 9:45 am

Are Phbb even maintained anymore?

Ana Hoffman April 1, 2012 at 7:44 pm

As far as I know.

Paul Ascalon March 2, 2012 at 5:58 am

Ana,

What can you say about Market Samurai’s change in their algo recently. They no longer source out their competition SEOC data from Google. They get it from Bing. I own one, but now I don’t know if its still reliable or not.

Paul

Ana Hoffman March 2, 2012 at 7:48 am

My computer is in the shop right now, Paul, so I don’t have access to MS.

However, from what I remember and from everything I’ve read I don’t have much concern about the data being unreliable in any way.

After all, Bing is a solid search engine, plus they now merged with Yahoo, which of course owned the Yahoo! Explorer that MS used to use for the backlink info.

Richard Blandford March 1, 2012 at 4:50 am

Hi Ana,

A quick question for you…is there a way to filter out and find only dofollow sites when searching for one-way links?

Many thanks in advance
Richard

Ana Hoffman March 1, 2012 at 12:57 pm

You can try this tool, Richard: http://www.trafficgenerationcafe.com/dofollow-blogs-finder-tool/, but it’s not perfect.

You still might get some NF blogs mixed in.

Richard Blandford March 1, 2012 at 2:08 pm

Ana you’re a SEOper Star!
I’ll try this tool out.

Thanks…I’ve added you to my Google Circles.

John Kremer February 25, 2012 at 4:36 am

Ana – I found this post via your recent post on traffic tips. I keep forgetting to search Google this way. So a great reminder.

Ana Hoffman February 25, 2012 at 10:19 am

Sticky notes are great for that, John, but then we need a sticky note to remind us of other sticky notes. lol

John Kremer February 25, 2012 at 4:51 pm

Alas, sticky notes just aren’t sticky enough for me. So I have to place the notes inside my glassed.

Oliver February 17, 2012 at 10:28 pm

Great site Ana. Got your free SEO Report awhile back. Great stuff. Thanks for the codes I haven’t used some of these yet.

Ana Hoffman February 18, 2012 at 10:59 am

You are welcome, Oliver.

Oliver October 25, 2012 at 1:27 am

Hey Ana,

This backlink search engine does all the query strings for you.

http://bit.ly/BacklinkEngine

Does all the ones you’ve mentioned.

Ana Hoffman October 25, 2012 at 8:53 pm

Definitely, a huge time-saver, Oliver; thanks for the link.

Latha February 15, 2012 at 5:25 am

Thanks a ton.. I have read your report just now. I was thinking of purchasing a software to get one way links and I saw this article. Thanks

Ana Hoffman February 15, 2012 at 9:52 am

You are very welcome, Latha.

Leon February 13, 2012 at 10:02 am

Hi Ana,

I have a question in regards to quality of links. I recently had someone do some backlinking for me. When he sent me the report basically all the links he had gotten me are like forum member profile links… If you look at the bottom under bio there are 3 links under keyword “Learn to dance” which is the keyword i asked. Are these links legit? They are do-follow, I checked. And the home page rank is quite high. I just want to know if those Member profile bio links are any good for SEO?

Ana Hoffman February 14, 2012 at 10:19 am

Forum profile links are not the highest quality links, but they still have their place in the link building chain, Leon.

The only thing I’d point out is the fact that since all three of those links lead to your home page, only one of them will count.

Take a look at this post to learn more: http://www.trafficgenerationcafe.com/first-link-priority-rule/

Lenia February 13, 2012 at 7:10 am

Hi Ana,
I believe that link building plays a very important role on a website ranking. The thing is that this is the first time I read that I have to pay attention specifically on which sites, blogs, forums I build links in order to get the best result. I didn’t know that these sites must use the same keywords as my desired keyword.
I know that I am a beginner and I read many sources to understand how all that stuff works. I had no idea about this type of codes in order to find where I have to go and post my comments.
I will apply these tips from now and then…
that is a lot of work, isn’t it? Nevertheless i cannot understand the result of the One Way Link Building with Forums…pfff
I mean if I put in search box this code: “powered by IPB” a keyword…
I don’t get forums as a research result.
Do I do something wrong here? I apologize if the question is too easy.
Thank you for your help. I appreciate it.

Ana Hoffman February 13, 2012 at 8:42 am

Now that I’ve been doing this of a while, Lenia, I think relevance is overrated.

Since you are in SEO and internet marketing (forget that it’s in Greek), when you search for relevant places to drop a comment, I’d just use “marketing” as your keyword.

If you use a keyword that’s too specific, then it might not have any results.

Lenia February 14, 2012 at 5:10 am

Hi Ana,
I really appreciate your help and answers. You provide such valuable information here and you help me a lot. Many thanks!

Leon January 29, 2012 at 10:58 pm

Wow I had no idea it can be this easy to find one-way link sites…thanks very much! Looking forward to try this

Ana Hoffman January 30, 2012 at 7:33 am

You are welcome, Leon.

Ruan January 10, 2012 at 6:03 am

Hi Ana!

Yep, it’s me again…LOL! Just wanted to let you know I just finished your SEO Report, and all I can say is WoW! I have been looking for some good practical advice on this for a very long time, and today, well actually a couple of days ago already when I donwloaded your report, but today I finally made the time to read it, and I was blown away with the helpful tips and advice.

I will be putting my Market Samurai as well as Keyword Elite to good use right away and start off with the SEO and then move onto quality link building.

Thanks a mil!

Ana Hoffman January 11, 2012 at 9:15 pm

Just left a comment on your blog, Ruan – looked a little lonely there. lol

SOOO glad you liked it!

Ruan January 12, 2012 at 7:18 am

Awww thanks a mil Ana, how thoughtful of you!

Hahaha, yeah, gets lonely at times, but (don’t tell too many ok?) I’m still busy with a lot of experiements with my design and development, and I wouldn’t want too many people “judge a book by its cover” before everything is quite done. :)

I’ll keep on keeping on though, as I’m sure and confident (more excited than anything else) that Ebook Tutorials will become a huge success in future!

Thanks again!

Cheers!

Ana Hoffman January 12, 2012 at 9:23 am

That’s the spirit!

Ofer January 3, 2012 at 11:37 am

I think your ideas are wonderful,
I did similar things when I started – but never got to all this combinations!!

As I keep adding new products – will keep trying a bit of that again.
Google already give less attention to directories and more to traffic behind the links. So if it a stupid list that no ones read it – may not worth the time to have a link from there.

Ana Hoffman January 3, 2012 at 5:57 pm

Things are certainly shifting all the time, Ofer; it’s our biggest challenge to keep up with the changes.

Bob December 21, 2011 at 4:22 pm

Hi Ana,
I found you today by listening to Leslie Samuel’s podcast.
You were great!

This is the first blog I’ve ever seen where the comments show the most recent at the top.

Cool!
And thanks for the link codes.

Bob

Ana Hoffman December 22, 2011 at 6:38 pm

Thanks for following me to my blog, Bob, and you are very welcome!

Aniket December 20, 2011 at 12:05 am

Surely, I knew some of them.
But I guess this is the master compilation of search codes from Anna. :P

Lots of Thanks.

Marc December 18, 2011 at 6:14 pm

This is the best list I’ve seen thus far…I’ve been using code that has more characters. The returning results are ok, but your list is more targeted to many different areas, which will return a wide variety of different links. This is a really good list Ana! Thanks!

Ps.
Your site is very informative! I’ve been on here nearly an hour lol taking notes for my new blog I’m working on too make sure I set it up properly for the SERP’s.

Thanks Again For all you do!

Marc

Ana Hoffman December 19, 2011 at 9:49 am

So glad to hear that, Marc, and welcome to Traffic Generation Cafe!

ruku December 16, 2011 at 10:36 pm

I found very useful information from your post on how to find best links. I appreciate your nice presentation of search codes that helps to find the sites easily. Thanks for your informative post.

Ana Hoffman December 17, 2011 at 8:16 pm

Glad to hear I could help, Ruku.

Scott December 3, 2011 at 8:59 pm

Ironically enough, I found this site when using one your suggestions. It actually is a great method.

Ana Hoffman December 4, 2011 at 8:29 am

I suppose it works then! LOL

DaveAngel November 29, 2011 at 5:52 am

Great tips I have been searching for this kind of “exact how to” on link building for a while. I have jsut signed up for your e-newsletter and I VERY rarely do that anymore as so many “hawkers” out there. Cheers Dave

Ana Hoffman November 29, 2011 at 9:00 am

You are welcome, Dave – look forward to staying in touch in a “non-hawkie” way. LOL

DaveAngel November 30, 2011 at 2:14 pm

Thanks for the reply.

Is this some sort of plug in you used to create the email to me that told me you answered my post?

If it is could you tell me what it is as it’s great.

Dave

Ana Hoffman December 1, 2011 at 8:39 am

Sure, Dave – it’s called ReplyMe; you can find the link to it in this post: http://www.trafficgenerationcafe.com/internet-marketing-tools/

Adam Clarke November 29, 2011 at 2:00 am

This is a great strategy, I have been using authority codes since the beginning of my seo career. I am a little surprised in your 7 steps to complete search engine domination report you haven’t mention, (or even linked to with an affiliate link ;) , commentluv.

Ana Hoffman November 29, 2011 at 8:14 am

When I wrote the report, Adam, there was no CL Premium. I think my report is due for a makeover…

Vedika November 28, 2011 at 2:15 am

interesting tips Anna on link building. I have even got your 7 Steps report and is indeed very useful. i do circulate your blog details to others as well so others can also benefit. Thanks a lot.

Ana Hoffman November 28, 2011 at 9:15 am

Glad to hear that, Vedika.

Thomas November 18, 2011 at 5:16 am

Thanks for all of these codes Ana. I have learnt so much about SEO since I have been visiting your blog, you really have a wealth of information on your pages.

You said that most Squidoo lenses are DoFollow and that you don’t think it matters that much. Could you elaborate on that a bit please?

Ana Hoffman November 18, 2011 at 7:37 am

Truth about Do and Nofollow, Thomas is that we need both to show Google a natural link building pattern.

That said, if I had a choice between two types, I’d definitely take dofollow.

Makes sense?

Thomas November 19, 2011 at 8:10 am

I have come across several different views on Do and Nofollow, and yours makes perfect sense to me Ana, thanks.

Lisa November 14, 2011 at 8:06 am

Thanks so much for this. I have been trying to get my blog on the first 3 positions of Google, and with what you have shared here, I truly believe that I will be able to.

Ana Hoffman November 14, 2011 at 8:07 am

Hope so, Lisa.

Mads Singers November 12, 2011 at 12:55 pm

Thanks for some good “getting out there” advise for a new Blogger ;)

Kind Regards
Mads

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