Link Building Through Design
Posted on January 18, 2007 by
Adie 
SEO, Web Development 
48 Comments
Alright, so I admit it, I sort of left my article on Building a Niche Minisite (Part 1, Part 2) hanging a bit there at the end on the topic of link building. I promised to come back to it, so here I am. I’m not going to bore you right now with all of the stuff you should already know and have heard at every SEO blog ever (”Submit to directories, ask other webmasters to trade links, yadda yadda yadda”). Instead I’m going to take it one tip at a time including the things I’ve found to be most helpful for generating a good number of quality backlinks to my sites.
The first link building tip is acquiring backlinks through your design.
Over the past couple of years there has been a design movement hell bent on creating pages using this new-fangled “CSS” (cascading stylesheets) versus the old-world table-based layouts. Using CSS gives you better control over your frontend, makes your code easier to read by spiders, and makes your website more accessible. I’ll be writing more on the benefits of CSS and its possible future later.
“How in the world does all this help me build backlinks?” Aside from being a good way to build your website, CSS is also a very trendy little fad within the web design world. As Digg users turn giddy when they hear about a new Apple product, web designers go out of their way to get their eyes on the latest CSS-based designs. This has lead to a modern day internet explosion known as the CSS gallery. CSS galleries are basically link depositories which display links, little screenshots, and usually a rating of the latest and greatest CSS-based designs. They are usually very easy to get into, and there are a ton of them on the net. Starting to see where I’m going with this?
The concept really is pretty simple:
- Step 1: Design your site (try to make it look decent)
- Step 2: Code it or have it coded in CSS (which frankly you should do anyway)
- Step 3: Submit it to every CSS gallery you can find
This will instantly generate at least a few dozen good backlinks for you. A couple dozen backlinks isn’t anything to jump over joy for, but if you have a good (doesn’t even have to be great) design then it will get picked up and added to other design directories, blogs, forums, etc much like a link to a good article gets passed around. Of course the better the design the more backlinks you’ll most likely get from it.
Here is a list of some of the top CSS galleries I was able to find:
- CSSBeauty
- CSSImport
- CSSElite
- CSSVault
- CSS-Website
- Unmatched Style (hey an original name!)
- CSSMania
- Best Web Gallery
- WebCreme
- CSSGreen
- CSSHeaven
- CSSTux
- Most Inspired
- CSSPrincess
- CSSRemix
- BWDOW
- CSSBloom
- CSSHazard
- CSSCollection
- CSSGalaxy
- CSSLove
- Inspiration King
There are a ton more out there, but these should be a good start for you. I also found a nifty little tool that supposedly automatically submits your site to over 25 of the “most popular CSS showcases” - CSSInsert. I can’t vouch for how good this site is because frankly I’ve never used it until today, but if it works like it claims to, it will definately save you some leg work.
Well there you have it - my first little link building tip. Use this and you will certainly get some backlinks. I did this with my personal blog a couple of months ago and was able to generate over 3,000 backlinks in about a month’s time. It’s definately worth the minimal time and effort. This little tidbit is nothing ground-breaking, but in all honestly, is anything about SEO really groundbreaking? On second thought, maybe I’ll save that argument for another post.
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I love this as well… Do you ever make posts that are anything less than brilliant.
Now, I will have to use my own design skills…
hi matt.. another great post… anyways i hope you make a post on where to submit or get one way quality backlinks for free..
thanks,
http://myagloconetwork.blogspot.com
“Code it or have it coded in CSS (which frankly you should do anyway)”
Does that mean no tables at all… or does it just mean that I should use a stylesheet to control the look of my site?
Yes Rich, these galleries want no use of tables at all (aside from displaying tabular data).
Ok, let’s see how it goes. I made a new site with a very simple CSS design and submitted it CSSInsert.
Cross your fingers and wish me luck :)
http://www.sharkcars.com
[...] This SEO tip of link building with Web Design is a very good one. Be sure to check it out. To further add on to his tips of building a css compliance website and submit to list of CSS showcase sites, another great way to increase a vast amount of backlinks is to design a wordpress theme and submit to the theme site. [...]
Hi matt, has allways a superb post, 5 stars! absolute CSS is no doubt the definitive technology of web2.0, aside javascript. I’m also in the phase of rebuilding all my blogs with just pure and clean CSS.
no mention of the fact that trying to create good looking CSS designs is ADDICTING?
[...] This is another link building tip for you web designers out there (the first being the CSS gallery tip). Theme distribution is basically creating a design, skinning it into a CMS or forum (WP, PN, vB, and IPB to name a few) and then distributing it for free to anyone who wants to use it. A lot of designers hate the idea of giving away free designs, but I’ve used theme distribution as a way to promote my design company since day 1, and I’m positive that the majority of its initial growth was due to this method. [...]
CSS? What’s that? ;)
Um, http://www.csszengarden.com/ CSS Zen Garden is a pretty big one as well.
Sohbet Web pretty big one as well.
Hey great articles, keep up the good work.
http://aglocohype.blogspot.com
Hi dude…
once again a nice post…and thanx for css galleries.I will wait for more articles.
Link Building Strategy…
I have to admit I am lousy at on page SEO. I am not sure why this is - I suspect that because for a few years on page factors weren’t that important relative to off page links. As a……
CSS? What’s that? ;)
it will also allow you to store the results into a variable by simply using the “name” attribute. This variable can then be written to disk and used later at the developer’s discretion. With this functionality
I have to admit I am lousy at on page SEO. I am not sure why this is - I suspect that because for a few years on page factors weren’t that important relative to off page links. As a……
it will also allow you to store the results into a variable by simply using the “name” attribute. This variable can then be written to disk and used later at the developer’s discretion. With this functionality
Good site - you’re a pretty good writer….. Very creative…
Is there REALLY a need for such sarcasm, SomeOne?. How childish!. We are not all as perfect us you… forgive us !.
thanks…
Thnx.
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Is there REALLY a need for such sarcasm, SomeOne?. How childish!. We are not all as perfect us you… forgive us !.
Thnx.
it will also allow you to store the results into a variable by simply using the “name†attribute. This variable can then be written to disk and used later at the developer’s discretion. With this functionality
mp3 Thnx.
Is there REALLY a need for such sarcasm, SomeOne?. How childish!. We are not all as perfect us you… forgive us !.
The best is not always the most popular. My favorite scientific blogs….
I think CSS Based is the best one out there.
MN Web Developers
Thank You.
thanks for links..
thanks very good
yeah very good
The best is not always the most popular. My favorite scientific blogs….
I’ve never tried such a way of linking. Thanks for useful information. I’m going to use it on my new web site.
thanks a lot
Another great article. I didn’t know anything about CSS Galleries, but now I think I’ll start using them as new link source.
rulman
yurtd??? e?itim
I am curious if there is something like css galleries but for the websites which use tables. We have new design and I think that is worth submitting to some gallery but it is not tableless…
thanks.
yea, good idea, the same idea when you create blog template and put your links there, share it with other.
Fantastic post, there really is some excellent css sites out there, with more & more everyday. One i believe you did not mention is one of my favorites & believe he really should be noticed for his work which he offers for free. His portfolio is Dezinerfolio at http://dezinerfolio.com/.
What do you think? Good isn’t he.
Thanks for the tip and the list. I tried CSS Insert but got a domain parking page at Godaddy. They must have taken it down or something. Back to the old manual submissions!
A great way to increase your links, this should be applied by any web designer. SEO is very important, the design and graphics looks great and you should show the entire world your work.
Exactly like sponsoring WP themes? It works extremely well