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When we talk about link building and SEO and search engine rankings, we usually focus on positioning and things that work for Google. Rightfully so as at last check, Google owned upwards of 70% of the marketshare for US search. However it certainly can’t hurt to be familiar with and make sure your website is performing and ranking as best as is possible on search engines beyond Google.

Notably, the only other major engines we feel should be considered (at least at the time of this article) are Yahoo and Bing. And within a few months time those may be consolidated down to one. In recent months Yahoo’s share of the search market has been declining while thanks to a pretty hefty marketing budget, Bing’s has been going up. However when the fated “Bing-hoo” merger takes place, both Yahoo and Bing will be using the Bing search algorithm ? so Bing is where we should keep our eyes.

Based upon some testing, we’ve compiled a list of the best link building tactics in consideration of Bing’s algorithm. Much of the list is similar to what is on Google’s “best practices list” as you will find. Bing gives much power on the quality of the incoming links. By quality we mean sites that have good reputation (don’t link to link farms, have many of their own incoming links, are topically related, and it helps if they are considered authority sites. To have a successful link building campaign, you must be committed to long term, steady link building made of quality content and quality sites. Think of it as a long term investment into the success of your business.

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Some no-no’s when it comes to Bing?

If you’re looking to rank well on Bing, here are a few things you should stay away from. If a question is raised about your account, you will be given a possible spam ranking factor is given, based upon the severity of your egregious link building. Doing these types of “grey hat” link building tactics will give you a higher likelihood of your site being reviewed by Bing staff and a possible drop in rankings or even delisting if your offenses are big enough.

1. A sharp increase in the quantity of inbound links in a relatively short period of time (as compared to your usual link gathering frequency) ? if you want to increase your link building for a site, do it gradually over time.
2. Link Cloaking ? Using hidden links and hidden text on your page
3. Lots and lots of links coming in from forum posts and blog comments on sites that are completely unrelated to what your site is about.
4. Linking to or from paid link farms, link exchanges, linking “rings”. Hard to explain what it is, but you usually know it when you see it. If a site offers no other value other than linking and they require reciprocal or 3 way links, stay away.
5. Linking TO well known web spam sites ? takeaway, be very careful who you link to

What you SHOULD be doing:

Following are Bing’s recommendations for effective link building:

1. Find experts, bloggers, product reviewers, potential partners, media outlets and affiliates ? make sure they are aware of your site and your products and your content.
2. Focus on building your business as a “brand” and make sure you are marketing it as such, consistently.
3. Use social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to connect to industry influencers and potential customers. Make sure you have links to those networks on your website.
4. Write and publish quality, topically related and interesting articles to online article directories.
5. Be active in relevant conversations on blogs and industry related forums and associations, referring back to your site’s content when applicable. Make sure you are contributing valuable content to these sites, otherwise it could be easily classified as spam.
6. Publish concise, informative press releases online anytime there is newsworthy activity on your site.
7. Strive to become a trusted expert voice for your industry, while promoting your site
8. Launch a blog or community forum on your website for user generated, topically related conten
9. Create an email newsletter with notifications of new content, promotions, and providing helpful articles for your readers.

Don’t we love it when a search engine lays out specifically what they want to see for top rankings? Now get to it and dominate on Bing!

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