Natural links are one of the key components of building an effective Internet poker SEO strategy, as we’ve discussed here before at the PAP Blog. A strategy for natural links, or backlinks, can also be the most difficult part of SEO, since it requires you to rely more on other parties than taking your own initiative.

Or does it? The truth is, although natural backlinks are something you can’t fully control, there are ways to help the process along.

Your best bet is to proactively submit new site content to social media websites. Especially Digg, which Google seems to love. “[Digg] is spidered very frequently and the domain has a lot of authority in terms of link building,” writes Chris Charlton at WebStrategies101.com. But don’t overuse Digg: “For the best long term effects only submit good quality articles to Digg. Or better yet, let your users submit the articles that they think are worthwhile. You will quickly get a reputation as a spammer if you keep posting unpopular content.”

Other worthwhile social media sites include Delicious, Twitter, and LinkedIn (you can submit your articles as News or Discussion topics to the groups you’re in, such as the PokerAffiliatePrograms LinkedIn group).

You can also actively seek out other sites and try to set up linking deals with them. And there’s a great tool for doing just that: SEOChat.com has a PageRank Search tool that shows you, in a bar graph, sites associated with the Google keywords you choose. It’s a good way to find out what sites rank highly for the keywords you’re interested in. Find the sites, then reach out to them to set up linking arrangements.

Of course, the best idea when hunting for backlinks is to simply create good, unique content. But how on earth do you do that? It’s one of those pieces of affiliate marketing advice you hear a lot, but how do you actually do it?

It’s not as hard as it sounds, really. Take a moment to search Google for the terms you’re targeting. Check out the top 20 or so sites. What do you notice? How many of them are really that original? Most likely, not that many. There’s probably a lot of room in there to do something different.

Be different, be interesting, but be worthwhile. Write content online poker players and poker affiliates will want to read. “So instead of doing what everyone else is doing, you must try and find something to add to the mix,” writes Randy Layman at his PokerSEO Blog. “Maybe you can offer your players some videos on strategy, maybe you tackle some event focused content or maybe you just try out some new things and see if it works. The point is that you must set your website apart from the million other poker affiliate websites to have any chance of making serious money.”

Be creative and it’ll show. Be audacious, take new angles. In an overcrowded web space, that’s a great way to get attention. And the backlinks will follow. Naturally.


 

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