Short Tail vs. Long Tail links: What should your strategy be?

Link Building: Get quality long term links

Link Building in with Jim Boykin at SES San Francisco was an extremely information session. He discusses short and long tail links and the differences between these. In addition, he informed us on how to secure those highly valued .gov and .edu links. Here are some key takeaways:

Types and values of links:

  • Short tail links: (cost associated): these links will bring 5-7% of overall traffic. The odds of being penalized are very low, but you still run a chance of being banned from search engines.
  • Long tail targeting (natural links): These links show trust of domain and trust of page. Excellent in the long term and show deep relevance.

So, how can you get links that will not cost you? These are not easy to obtain by any means, but they definitely will benefit you the most. The following is needed:

  • Time to research
  • Significant writing and editing
  • Time to contact sites
  • Time researching: research topic you think will be popular and relevant
  • Writing and editing: write great article on topic and write to all people linking to trusted resources
  • Time in contacting sites: write to all people linking to trusted resources

Your next steps should be:

  • Find related content to your topic that has significant back links.
  • Write a page about that specific topic.
  • Write to those sites that link to that topic. You must prove that you are “human” and not Spam. Subject Line should be unique and real. You can use majesticseo.com’s tool to find the exact domains for those back-links.

This is the best way to build authoritative and trustworthy back-links.

Below are a few more points beyond links:

  • CTR on 1st search results page is 89.85% and on 2nd page it significantly decreases to 10.18%.
  • The 1st position on the 1st SERPs get 42% of all clicks.
  • When writing your Title Tags you should think SEO and clicks.
  • Description: think keywords and clicks, compelling and conversion driven.
  • Look at top PPC ads for ideas on how to write for conversion.
  • Look at who you are linking to. Type “Linkfromdomain:yoursite.com” into Google to see sites that you are linking to.

Speaker:
Jim Boykin, CEO and Link Building Ninja, We Build Pages Internet Marketing Services

Contributor for Milestone Internet Marketing Inc.: Zulema Romero

SEO SEO

Recent Posts

Webinar: Top Tips to Create AI Visibility for Your Hotel

AI engines are changing how travelers discover and evaluate hotels. Join Milestone Founder Benu Aggarwal; John…

4 days ago

US Search Awards 2026: Milestone Shortlisted in Three Categories

We’re excited to announce that Milestone, Inc. has been shortlisted in three categories at the 2026…

1 week ago

Building the Knowledge Foundation for AI Discovery: From Schema to Entities

For more than two decades, being found meant earning a place on the results page.…

2 weeks ago

NLWeb: The first step toward AI-ready Knowledge Layer

AI is creating a new front door to the web. Every major shift on the web…

2 weeks ago

Webinar: 5 Must-Haves for Hotel Websites in the AI Era and Product Roadmap

AI is changing how travelers discover, evaluate, and book hotels, and the hotel website must…

3 weeks ago

Milestone CMS Is Now PCI DSS 4.0.1 Certified

We're happy to share that Milestone has earned PCI DSS 4.0.1 certification, confirmed through an independent…

4 weeks ago