This link-building technique can be used by everyone. However, the precise mechanics of it are available to you only if your website:

1) Is Canadian, eh?
2) Features informational content, such as a blog, a photo gallery or an articles directory.

The first webmaster to notice 15,000 new backlinks from one domain was puzzled. He had only submitted two of his blog posts to the site. How come he suddenly had 15,000 backlinks from the domain (sound of scratching head).

The second webmaster described a “sudden increase of inbound backlinks – 25,000 brand new ones” – and all from the same domain. The support team at his stats tracker confirmed that the stats were correct (sound of scratching head).

The site – or should I say “the domain” (I’ll explain the distinction shortly) – is Zoomit Canada, a social bookmarking website just for Canadian news, blogs, articles, etc. If you are familiar with Digg and Reddit, you will understand how this site operates.

The question du jour – what was also puzzling these two webmasters – is how this might happen (and perhaps how you could surprise yourself this way).

The answer is simple enough. Go right now to Zoomit.ca and look down the right side. There is a “Top Domains” list similar to the “Top Commentors” lists you’ll find on some blogs. That list appears on every page of the website.

But how did those domains get there? Did they grow out of a handful of magic beans the webmasters got in exchange for a cow? NO, nothing that spectacular.

They submitted their blog posts to Zoomit

They did a little bit of networking (voting for/commenting on other people’s submissions).

They were surprised.

Because both webmasters submitted good quality content and supported the good quality content of others, other folks also voted for their submissions – enough to be voted “popular” and published to the home page.

And after getting on the home page a couple times, their domains became two of the “top domains”. And – Presto! – 25,000 extra backlinks.

Another question you surely would like answered: “What are these links worth, SEO-wise?” Some people don’t believe sitewide links like this carry much value. This makes a great case study to separate fact from fiction. here are four things to consider…

First, 25,000 links from one domain are better than 24,000 links from one domain. And both are better than a single link from that domain. Yes, every link counts.

Second, 25,000 links from one domain are nowhere near as useful as 25,000 links from 25,000 domains. Link diversity does count for both Google and Bing.

Third, a sitewide link includes a home page link, something everybody agrees is of great value.

Fourth, (this is a nice little secret most people would not look for) check out the Zoomit Canada architecture. Each province and each news channel is hosted on a separate subdomain. Subdomains are generally treated by the search engines as separate websites. In all, this website – oops, sorry… I mean this “domain” – includes 13 province subdomains, 21 channel subdomains, plus the main domain. That adds up to 35 home page links by being a “top domain” on Zoomit Canada.

Given the effort in building quality links, and the unlikelihood of finding any better surprises in your analytics data – and possibly not even from 2,500 domains, the effort to get those 25,000 links from one strong domain is worthwhile.

Don’t despair if you post non-Canadian content. Social bookmarking and other social sharing is a great strategy, and every great piece of content (quality stuff, not $25 articles written offshore by someone who knows about as much of your topic as my neighbour’s cat and writes in something that almost exactly fails to resemble English) you create and promote creates links back to your website.