How to Initiate and Consolidate Backlinking Partnerships. 4 Major Points.

Getting backlinks from other niche related sites is probably the hardest process of Off-Page Optimization. The reason why so few succeed in obtaining a handful of quality links from realted webpages is because these are competitor sites and no one intends on sabotaging his rankings in SERP by promoting his competition.

The challenge is even bigger especially if you're new on business, with no authority and little value for veteran online marketers to share.
Putting aside the tactical aspects that will be covered in this article, I can declare that building backlinks, whether they are reciprocal or on way links, is a matter of personal determination and perseverence.

Presuming that I didn't overdo it commenting the difficulties of this process, I'm going to lay down the strategy behind finding quality link partners.

Here is what we're going to cover in the following lines:

1. General rules that must guide your link partners research campaign;
2. Where to look for one way backlinks;
3. How to sort out potential reciprocal link partners;
4. Five tips on how to make your paid links invisible for Google's senses.
Firstly, here are some…
General Rules when searching for Link Partners

- Limit the search for webpages to those that have a a maximum of 25 outbound links. As you know, a webpage shares its PageRank amongst all the outbound links. Above the 25 range, and you won't make any notable difference in your PR;
- Make sure the webpage you're targeting is indexed by Google or any other prefered search engine. Non indexed pages are worthless. Check this by accessing the "cached" section in the SERP. Look for an index in the last three weeks;
- Stay away from adult or gambling websites - unless you happen to do business in these kind of niches, stay away from them. Also, keep your distance from link farms and webpages with spammy activities;
- Don't respond to impersonal link exchange proposals;
- Use multiple anchor text variations; Keep in mind that there is a -5 Google penalty associated with having narrow anchor texts pointing to your webpages.(applying it to submission directories, you should change the title and description across different such platforms).

Next…
Where to look for One Way BackLinks

Advice - the best way to get quality backlinks is spying on your competition. The results will not always be complete and satisfying but, if done persistently, can give you a pretty well documented report of your competition and their backlink resources.

All you have to do is take action towards establishing contact and building partnerships with those link sources.

I reiterate my recommendation for using Yahoo! Site Explorer to digg into our competition's link building secrets, but if you want to get really analytical, I suggest you invest 47 bucks and get SEO Elite Software.

With it you'll be able to find exactly what pages are providing backlinks to your competition, what's their PageRank, Alexa Ranking, whether there are no-follow/do-follow links, PR averages, etc.

After building your list of potential one way link partners, you have to contact them or create a link bait on their content pages.

One way links, although more valuable then a reciprocal link, are hard to get because whenever you make a proposal, instantly the "what's in it for me" question appears.

If you're met with a "NO", try establishing a reciprocal link for mutual benefit.
How to sort out potential Reciprocal Link Partners

Although not so effective as on way links, they produce good results because usually your inbound link doesn't share the same page with large numbers of such links.

There are many who initiate reciprocal links with spam emails and the ones who respond to this kind of approach are marketers with poor websites struggling with SEO.
The right way of finding reciprocal link partners

- search for link partners that are targeting keywords placed outside the first hundred. In this area the competition is not direct and you stand better chances of finding people who want to link with you.
- search for possible partner websites throughout submission directories such as Yahoo Directory, DMOZ, Best of the Web, Gimpsy and Search Sight. A great tool is SEO Elite.
- contact webmasters with content pages that provide complementary information for your readers; being in the same market doesn't necessarily mean that you are in competition.
5 tips on how to make your paid links invisible for Google's senses

- buy only one link per page.
- use 5-7 variations of anchor text and make sure it's congruent with your Page title tag.
- make sure there is themed content surrounding your anchor text.
blend your paid backlinks into more natural links.
- you decide which keyword phrase will be the anchor text on the partner webpage.

As a rule of thumb, search for backlink partners that provide valuable content for your prospects. First build a solid reputation and your website authority will grow naturaly.