Link building is the process of building a strong network of relative outreach given a certain product, topic, or subject matter. Though there are many parts to the link building equation, the first step is prospecting; the necessary evil of searching though Google’s index for relative information.

To prospect properly there are a few skills needed to obtain the right type of information for your audience. John Cashman, Digital Firefly Marketing Founder and President, details these skill in a video here.

John will cover search operators, and how to use these in conjunction with your search. Using Greek Beaches as the example, one could type this into Google and go to town on the millions of sites related to them. Or, a user could use extra operators to narrow the results to find better content and take less time.

Here are some basics:

· “ “ – Quotations mean “exact phrase”. Your search will only show the order exactly as you type it. With out these, Google will search for any rendition of the phrase.

· Site: – Site: means what type of domain extension. Following .com, .net, .org, .gov, etc. This tells Google to only include the specified type of domain in results.

· Inurl: – Inurl: means it will search for said term in the url aside from other operators.

So to bring this all together, here’s an example:

“Greek Beaches” site:*.com inurl: links.

I am telling the search engine that I want “.com” domains about Greek Beaches and their links pages. If all goes according to plan, a plethora of sites will show within these operators. Many more operators can be implemented in search and can be found here.

Best practices are key when prospecting for links. Use the eyes test; if it looks spammy, it probably is. Only request links from related information, if you are looking for Greek Beaches, a Venice Beach like directory isn’t going to be the best place for you. Take your time and do your due diligence. Link building is a long process that takes time and effort.