A Beginners Guide to Link Building
November 21, 2008
Dave J. Davies asked:
Link building is an essential ingredient in ranking your website highly on the major search engines. There, now that we’ve got that brilliant grasp of the obvious out of the way let’s move on to what you can do to actually create them. Before we launch into the nitty-gritty of link building, no beginners guide would be complete without a brief explanation as to why links are important and the different elements of them. Being a beginners guide this won’t be an entirely complete list but it will be enough to get you going on the right path. Understanding what you’re trying to do will help you do it better and more importantly, understanding the “why” of the situation will help you stretch your tactics outside of this and other articles on link building.
Why Are Links Important?
To put it simply: a link is a vote. Every link pointing to your site from another website tells the search engines that the other site finds your resource valuable and thus, the engines read this as a vote for your site. So it must be about getting tons of links and you’re done right? Wrong. This is incorrect as …
Not All Votes Are Created Equal
Unlike your own vote in an election, some votes are worth more than others and some votes are worth SIGNIFICANTLY more than yours (unless of course you’re a content writer for the Google.com domain in which case you obviously have the top vote). The basic factors that affect a link’s value to your website are:
The site strength – the strength of the site that is pointing to yours is a significant (and historically abused) factor in the valuation of links. In the absence of other easily-visible criteria let’s look at PageRank as a key valuation of a site’s strength. If a site with a PageRank 8 links to your site, this vote is worth significantly more than a link from a PageRank 3 site. This is because a PageRank 8 site is, in Google’s eyes, a more important site than the PageRank 3 site.
Relevance – the relevance of a site linking to you is, if anything, more important than a site’s strength. If you run a bed a breakfast in Utah a link from a PageRank 3 bed and breakfast will be worth more than a link from a PageRank 5 web design site. This area is a bit grey in that it relies on the engine’s ability to determine what is relevant and what is not however we’ve seen evidence that this area is strong at this stage in the game and is only becoming more important over time.
Anchor text – the actual text used to link to your site is extremely important. I’ve seen extremely strong sites get beaten out by weak ones simply due to the poor use of anchor test. If you’re building links to your site be sure to include your keywords in the text that links back and, if possible, the exact phrase you are trying to rank for. At the same time, you can’t make all your anchor text exactly the same – how can that possibly look natural?
Position – the position of a link on a page and the number of other links on that page impacts the value of a link. A link in the footer of a page is given less weight than a link near the top, a link in the content of a page is given more weight than a link in a list of links and a link on a page with 50 other links is given less weight than a link on a page with only a few other links. If we think about it – this makes sense. All of these things indicate whether the site with the outbound links actually intends for one of their visitors to click the link or not. From an engine’s perspective – the more it appears that a site wants a link to be clicked on, the higher the weight that link (or vote) is given.
Admittedly there are a number of other factors but this is a beginners guide. Following the considerations above will insure that as you make each link decision – you’re odds of making the right choices will be significantly higher than if you ignore them. Ignoring them may not get you penalized or banned but it will make your task far more time consuming as you secure less valuable links and thus need to build far more than following he right methods.
So far we’ve covered briefly the why of link building, now let’s get into the real-life, here’s-how-to-do-it side of things. Below I’m going to cover three of my favorite link building tactics. These are tactics that apply to virtually every scenario. The number of ways to build links is only limited by your imagination however and this should not be viewed as a comprehensive list. This is, after all, a beginners guide and I’m trying to list the tactics that apply to virtually every scenario.
Side Note: Reciprocal Link Building
I’m not going to count this as one of my favorite and so it won’t count as one of the three noted above and I’ll only touch on it briefly. There have been a number of assertions that reciprocal link building is dead. This is simply not the case. I have seen and competed against sites that were very successful with reciprocal links as their primary link source.
The problem with reciprocal links isn’t so much in their value which does seem to be a bit lower than non-reciprocal links however often more easily attained. No, my problem with reciprocal links is in the management. Unethical webmasters’ removing links after you’ve put the link up to them, sites expiring and not being renewed, sites getting penalties of their own due to their bad tactics are all inconveniences the reciprocal link manager must deal with.
As an SEO company, a huge issue we faced was leaving our clients with this task after a campaign was over if they decided not to go on a maintenance package. Non-reciprocal links may be a bit harder to attain in some cases however that issue is much easier to overcome than the sum of all these issues.
And now on to the top three …
Articles
If you’re paying attention as you read this you’ll probably have guessed that I’m a fan of article writing as a link building method. If you look to the “about the author” section you’ll notice a link to the Beanstalk site (and if you don’t, well … let me know as somebody’s stealing it without permission). While I genuinely enjoy writing and sharing my experiences with others – the purpose of getting the article distributed is primarily as a link building tactic, secondarily as a great source of qualified traffic and thirdly for my own enjoyment.
You are an expert in your field. Who knows more about your business than you? So share. Writing an article may not be easy but it is rewarding. If you can’t think of a topic, think of what you get asked. If you’re asked common questions repeatedly then chances are, it’s a good topic for an article. I often get asked about link building, and you’re reading the result.
Once the article is completed you need to get it syndicated. Using an article submission service is a simple way to get your article out to a large number of publishers quickly. On top of this you’d do well to seek out specific sites in your field using one or all of the major search engines to find highly relevant sites that accept articles and submit to them.
And oh, don’t forget an “about the author” section.
Directory Submissions
Directory submissions are likely the most painful of the link building tactics you’ll employ. Why? Because it’s tedious and time-consuming work.
To be done right directory submissions must be done manually, the titles and descriptions must be tailored to the specifications of the directory in question and often, you’ll have to decide if a review fee is worth it.
While there are a good many directories that accept free submissions there are also a large number that’s require a review fee. The fee can range from a few dollars to a few hundred. If you see that a directory has a low PageRank, is general in it’s nature (i.e. it isn’t about your specific field) then it likely isn’t worth more than a couple dollars if that. If the site is strong, and strongly related to your site then it’s obviously worth more.
There is no hard-and-fast set of rules for how much a listing is worth. I’d recommend to start your hunt for directories (don’t forget the topic and/or region specific ones), submit to all the free ones and make a list of all the ones that require a fee. After you’ve gotten a solid number in you “needs to be paid list” you can get a general idea as to what’s out there and what you can get and for how much. This will enable you to make solid choices knowing what all your options are.
Forum Posting
I just know I’m going to get a couple comments and/or emails for listing this as a link building tactic but if it’s done right there’s nothing wrong with it. Forum and blog posting got a bad reputation as a link building tactic when it came under huge abuse by unethical webmasters spamming forums with useless garbage just for a link. They even went so far (and still do) as sending out spiders to automatically submit posts. To this end, I have to agree that it’s a bad tactic however …
If you’re seeking out forums related to your site, reading the threads and responding with solid advice or with questions and not just firing off some sales-pitch then you’re doing what you’re supposed to be. Another perk to this is that, like articles, if you do this right you’re gong to see traffic as well and what more can you ask from a link building tactic than traffic as well as links.
Conclusion
Above we’ve covered the basics of link building. As I’ve noted repeatedly, once you’re done reading this and applying some of what you’ve read you’d do well to read other articles, forums and blogs. This isn’t a complete breakdown of everything link-related (that would be a full book) but it will keep you out of trouble and save you countless hours of wasted time getting poor links that haven’t held value since 2003.
Link building is an essential ingredient in ranking your website highly on the major search engines. There, now that we’ve got that brilliant grasp of the obvious out of the way let’s move on to what you can do to actually create them. Before we launch into the nitty-gritty of link building, no beginners guide would be complete without a brief explanation as to why links are important and the different elements of them. Being a beginners guide this won’t be an entirely complete list but it will be enough to get you going on the right path. Understanding what you’re trying to do will help you do it better and more importantly, understanding the “why” of the situation will help you stretch your tactics outside of this and other articles on link building.
Why Are Links Important?
To put it simply: a link is a vote. Every link pointing to your site from another website tells the search engines that the other site finds your resource valuable and thus, the engines read this as a vote for your site. So it must be about getting tons of links and you’re done right? Wrong. This is incorrect as …
Not All Votes Are Created Equal
Unlike your own vote in an election, some votes are worth more than others and some votes are worth SIGNIFICANTLY more than yours (unless of course you’re a content writer for the Google.com domain in which case you obviously have the top vote). The basic factors that affect a link’s value to your website are:
The site strength – the strength of the site that is pointing to yours is a significant (and historically abused) factor in the valuation of links. In the absence of other easily-visible criteria let’s look at PageRank as a key valuation of a site’s strength. If a site with a PageRank 8 links to your site, this vote is worth significantly more than a link from a PageRank 3 site. This is because a PageRank 8 site is, in Google’s eyes, a more important site than the PageRank 3 site.
Relevance – the relevance of a site linking to you is, if anything, more important than a site’s strength. If you run a bed a breakfast in Utah a link from a PageRank 3 bed and breakfast will be worth more than a link from a PageRank 5 web design site. This area is a bit grey in that it relies on the engine’s ability to determine what is relevant and what is not however we’ve seen evidence that this area is strong at this stage in the game and is only becoming more important over time.
Anchor text – the actual text used to link to your site is extremely important. I’ve seen extremely strong sites get beaten out by weak ones simply due to the poor use of anchor test. If you’re building links to your site be sure to include your keywords in the text that links back and, if possible, the exact phrase you are trying to rank for. At the same time, you can’t make all your anchor text exactly the same – how can that possibly look natural?
Position – the position of a link on a page and the number of other links on that page impacts the value of a link. A link in the footer of a page is given less weight than a link near the top, a link in the content of a page is given more weight than a link in a list of links and a link on a page with 50 other links is given less weight than a link on a page with only a few other links. If we think about it – this makes sense. All of these things indicate whether the site with the outbound links actually intends for one of their visitors to click the link or not. From an engine’s perspective – the more it appears that a site wants a link to be clicked on, the higher the weight that link (or vote) is given.
Admittedly there are a number of other factors but this is a beginners guide. Following the considerations above will insure that as you make each link decision – you’re odds of making the right choices will be significantly higher than if you ignore them. Ignoring them may not get you penalized or banned but it will make your task far more time consuming as you secure less valuable links and thus need to build far more than following he right methods.
So far we’ve covered briefly the why of link building, now let’s get into the real-life, here’s-how-to-do-it side of things. Below I’m going to cover three of my favorite link building tactics. These are tactics that apply to virtually every scenario. The number of ways to build links is only limited by your imagination however and this should not be viewed as a comprehensive list. This is, after all, a beginners guide and I’m trying to list the tactics that apply to virtually every scenario.
Side Note: Reciprocal Link Building
I’m not going to count this as one of my favorite and so it won’t count as one of the three noted above and I’ll only touch on it briefly. There have been a number of assertions that reciprocal link building is dead. This is simply not the case. I have seen and competed against sites that were very successful with reciprocal links as their primary link source.
The problem with reciprocal links isn’t so much in their value which does seem to be a bit lower than non-reciprocal links however often more easily attained. No, my problem with reciprocal links is in the management. Unethical webmasters’ removing links after you’ve put the link up to them, sites expiring and not being renewed, sites getting penalties of their own due to their bad tactics are all inconveniences the reciprocal link manager must deal with.
As an SEO company, a huge issue we faced was leaving our clients with this task after a campaign was over if they decided not to go on a maintenance package. Non-reciprocal links may be a bit harder to attain in some cases however that issue is much easier to overcome than the sum of all these issues.
And now on to the top three …
Articles
If you’re paying attention as you read this you’ll probably have guessed that I’m a fan of article writing as a link building method. If you look to the “about the author” section you’ll notice a link to the Beanstalk site (and if you don’t, well … let me know as somebody’s stealing it without permission). While I genuinely enjoy writing and sharing my experiences with others – the purpose of getting the article distributed is primarily as a link building tactic, secondarily as a great source of qualified traffic and thirdly for my own enjoyment.
You are an expert in your field. Who knows more about your business than you? So share. Writing an article may not be easy but it is rewarding. If you can’t think of a topic, think of what you get asked. If you’re asked common questions repeatedly then chances are, it’s a good topic for an article. I often get asked about link building, and you’re reading the result.
Once the article is completed you need to get it syndicated. Using an article submission service is a simple way to get your article out to a large number of publishers quickly. On top of this you’d do well to seek out specific sites in your field using one or all of the major search engines to find highly relevant sites that accept articles and submit to them.
And oh, don’t forget an “about the author” section.
Directory Submissions
Directory submissions are likely the most painful of the link building tactics you’ll employ. Why? Because it’s tedious and time-consuming work.
To be done right directory submissions must be done manually, the titles and descriptions must be tailored to the specifications of the directory in question and often, you’ll have to decide if a review fee is worth it.
While there are a good many directories that accept free submissions there are also a large number that’s require a review fee. The fee can range from a few dollars to a few hundred. If you see that a directory has a low PageRank, is general in it’s nature (i.e. it isn’t about your specific field) then it likely isn’t worth more than a couple dollars if that. If the site is strong, and strongly related to your site then it’s obviously worth more.
There is no hard-and-fast set of rules for how much a listing is worth. I’d recommend to start your hunt for directories (don’t forget the topic and/or region specific ones), submit to all the free ones and make a list of all the ones that require a fee. After you’ve gotten a solid number in you “needs to be paid list” you can get a general idea as to what’s out there and what you can get and for how much. This will enable you to make solid choices knowing what all your options are.
Forum Posting
I just know I’m going to get a couple comments and/or emails for listing this as a link building tactic but if it’s done right there’s nothing wrong with it. Forum and blog posting got a bad reputation as a link building tactic when it came under huge abuse by unethical webmasters spamming forums with useless garbage just for a link. They even went so far (and still do) as sending out spiders to automatically submit posts. To this end, I have to agree that it’s a bad tactic however …
If you’re seeking out forums related to your site, reading the threads and responding with solid advice or with questions and not just firing off some sales-pitch then you’re doing what you’re supposed to be. Another perk to this is that, like articles, if you do this right you’re gong to see traffic as well and what more can you ask from a link building tactic than traffic as well as links.
Conclusion
Above we’ve covered the basics of link building. As I’ve noted repeatedly, once you’re done reading this and applying some of what you’ve read you’d do well to read other articles, forums and blogs. This isn’t a complete breakdown of everything link-related (that would be a full book) but it will keep you out of trouble and save you countless hours of wasted time getting poor links that haven’t held value since 2003.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Why Should Link Building Look Organic?
November 21, 2008
Jason Kamara asked:
Google hasn’t gotten to the top of the very lucrative and competitive web search industry by being complacent. Their engineers are constantly thwarting the hordes of webmasters attempting to illegitimately boost their site rankings in the search results. For starters, the incredibly advanced search and ranking algorithms are as top secret as the recipe for Coca-Cola. And they are constantly modified to offset the numerous search engine spam tactics.
Webmasters that attempt to artificially bolster their site rankings by creating link farms and doorway pages or by purchasing links are penalized by demotion in the search results or by having their sites blacklisted entirely. Internet spammers who use automatic content creators or site copiers are facing similar penalties. The ranking algorithm used by Google can easily detect duplicate content and other anomalies by comparing them against the norm.
The unfortunate downside is that legitimate website owners are sometimes penalized for no apparent reason. How can you improve your position in the search results while decreasing your chances of being penalized? One way is to build links to your site organically.
The number of backlinks to a new website buildup over time as the website builds its loyal base and establishes its presence. So it is natural for links to increase steadily with some minor fluctuations. It is unnatural for a new website to suddenly increase backlinks thousands at a time. This smacks of paid links, over-seo, or seach engine spamming. Google picks up on this quickly and may “sandbox” a site, penalize its ranking in the search results or ban the domain altogether.
Instead of increasing your backlinks in huge spurts using one or two link-building methods, you can mix things up so that you increase links steadily using multiple promotional methods. You can increase backlinks by participating in forums and using a signature file with active links to your site. You can buy some links in quality web directories and submit articles to free article directories. You can also leave comments on blogs and bookmark some of your site pages on Digg and Technorati.
Don’t use the same anchor text every time either. Use a few targeted keyword phrases to link to your site. You should also link to other pages besides your home page. If links to your site have really been built up organically, then it seems logical that they would be to other pages within your site in addition to the home page. You can submit “deep links” to deep link directories and within your article resource box when submitting to article directories. A good rule of thumb is to have a bare minimum of 20% of your backlinks be deep links.
It may seem like a lot at first glance, but organic link-building becomes routine over time. Most of these link-building methods are free, and don’t cost anything but your time. No one other than the Google engineers knows exactly how and why they penalize some sites and not others. But it is always better to promote your site in accordance with their webmaster guidelines and optimize your site in a way that appears completely natural. Organic link building has become a critical component of any website promotional strategy.
Google hasn’t gotten to the top of the very lucrative and competitive web search industry by being complacent. Their engineers are constantly thwarting the hordes of webmasters attempting to illegitimately boost their site rankings in the search results. For starters, the incredibly advanced search and ranking algorithms are as top secret as the recipe for Coca-Cola. And they are constantly modified to offset the numerous search engine spam tactics.
Webmasters that attempt to artificially bolster their site rankings by creating link farms and doorway pages or by purchasing links are penalized by demotion in the search results or by having their sites blacklisted entirely. Internet spammers who use automatic content creators or site copiers are facing similar penalties. The ranking algorithm used by Google can easily detect duplicate content and other anomalies by comparing them against the norm.
The unfortunate downside is that legitimate website owners are sometimes penalized for no apparent reason. How can you improve your position in the search results while decreasing your chances of being penalized? One way is to build links to your site organically.
The number of backlinks to a new website buildup over time as the website builds its loyal base and establishes its presence. So it is natural for links to increase steadily with some minor fluctuations. It is unnatural for a new website to suddenly increase backlinks thousands at a time. This smacks of paid links, over-seo, or seach engine spamming. Google picks up on this quickly and may “sandbox” a site, penalize its ranking in the search results or ban the domain altogether.
Instead of increasing your backlinks in huge spurts using one or two link-building methods, you can mix things up so that you increase links steadily using multiple promotional methods. You can increase backlinks by participating in forums and using a signature file with active links to your site. You can buy some links in quality web directories and submit articles to free article directories. You can also leave comments on blogs and bookmark some of your site pages on Digg and Technorati.
Don’t use the same anchor text every time either. Use a few targeted keyword phrases to link to your site. You should also link to other pages besides your home page. If links to your site have really been built up organically, then it seems logical that they would be to other pages within your site in addition to the home page. You can submit “deep links” to deep link directories and within your article resource box when submitting to article directories. A good rule of thumb is to have a bare minimum of 20% of your backlinks be deep links.
It may seem like a lot at first glance, but organic link-building becomes routine over time. Most of these link-building methods are free, and don’t cost anything but your time. No one other than the Google engineers knows exactly how and why they penalize some sites and not others. But it is always better to promote your site in accordance with their webmaster guidelines and optimize your site in a way that appears completely natural. Organic link building has become a critical component of any website promotional strategy.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
What Link Building Can Do For Your Internet Marketing Business
November 21, 2008
Daniel Trainor asked:
There are several things you can do to strengthen your internet marketing business and link building is certainly one of them. Although it can be a difficult method for search engine optimization, it can also be one of the most valuable pieces to your success. When done correctly, you will receive more traffic to your site than you know what to do with.
Link building consists of getting other sites to place your web site link on their site. In return, you usually have to place their link on your site. Sometimes you can find one way links, which are by far the best for you. This consists of a site putting your link on their site without you having to do so in return. Typically this is done because you have done a good deed for them in some manner.
The key to link building is finding quality internet marketing businesses to exchange links with. To benefit from link trades you typically will want to exchange with sites that have a Google page rank equal to or greater than your site.
Trading links with other sites, however, is not the only method to link building. If you have the money to spend, buying links can be beneficial to your business because you can purchase according to quality. Obviously it will cost you more for better quality links, but you will know exactly what you are getting. You just have to determine if it is worth it to you to spend money when there are so many free methods available.
Another option is through article writing. You may not have realized it yet, but writing articles is a great way to build links and get backlinks pointing to your site. By writing an article with a resource box included, you will have your web site link within the resource box. This gives people an opportunity to easily be directed to your site if they like your article. After writing an article, submit it to as many article directories as you can and watch the traffic flow in.
Lastly, writing testimonials can be a way of getting your name and link out on the web as well. By writing testimonials for your web hosting company, article writer, program coordinator, or anybody else that has helped you, you are benefiting them as well as yourself. This is a great way to potentially get linked with a large web site.
Link building is a vital piece to having success with your internet marketing business. It can drastically increase your traffic volume in a short period of time. The more methods you use, the better opportunity you have of people seeing your link on the web.
There are several things you can do to strengthen your internet marketing business and link building is certainly one of them. Although it can be a difficult method for search engine optimization, it can also be one of the most valuable pieces to your success. When done correctly, you will receive more traffic to your site than you know what to do with.
Link building consists of getting other sites to place your web site link on their site. In return, you usually have to place their link on your site. Sometimes you can find one way links, which are by far the best for you. This consists of a site putting your link on their site without you having to do so in return. Typically this is done because you have done a good deed for them in some manner.
The key to link building is finding quality internet marketing businesses to exchange links with. To benefit from link trades you typically will want to exchange with sites that have a Google page rank equal to or greater than your site.
Trading links with other sites, however, is not the only method to link building. If you have the money to spend, buying links can be beneficial to your business because you can purchase according to quality. Obviously it will cost you more for better quality links, but you will know exactly what you are getting. You just have to determine if it is worth it to you to spend money when there are so many free methods available.
Another option is through article writing. You may not have realized it yet, but writing articles is a great way to build links and get backlinks pointing to your site. By writing an article with a resource box included, you will have your web site link within the resource box. This gives people an opportunity to easily be directed to your site if they like your article. After writing an article, submit it to as many article directories as you can and watch the traffic flow in.
Lastly, writing testimonials can be a way of getting your name and link out on the web as well. By writing testimonials for your web hosting company, article writer, program coordinator, or anybody else that has helped you, you are benefiting them as well as yourself. This is a great way to potentially get linked with a large web site.
Link building is a vital piece to having success with your internet marketing business. It can drastically increase your traffic volume in a short period of time. The more methods you use, the better opportunity you have of people seeing your link on the web.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Top 10 Link Building Strategies
November 21, 2008
Oudam Em asked:
This list of top 10 strategies for building links is based on my own experience of building links to my sites throughout the years. It is important to keep in mind that when it comes to SEO, nothing is set in stone. SEO is a cat-and-mouse game, so I will revise this list from time to time as the field continues to evolve.
Please note that the order in which these methods are listed do not necessarily reflect their order of effectiveness. Some methods may work better than others for certain sites.
1. Submit to web directories
Submitting to web directories is a vital part of every successful link building campaign. Apart from driving traffic to your website through direct referrals, web directories provide static, one-way links to your site, boosting your link popularity and improving your rankings on the major search engines like Google and Yahoo.
It is important to note that not all directory listings are equal. Listings from trusted, established directories like Yahoo! and DMOZ are more valuable than those from the thousands of others on the net. All else being equal, a link from a directory focused on your niche is worth more than one from a general directories.
Submit to both free and paid directories. Free directories provide one-way links to your site with no strings attached, but they can take forever to review your link. Paid listings can be a good investment if the fees are reasonable and the pages on which your link will reside have decent PRs. Your sites will be listed with fewer competing links on paid directories.
2. Write articles and press releases
Submitting your article to directories is a highly effective way to build one-way links to your site. First, you write a thoughtful and informative article on an topic in your area of expertise. Then you submit it to article directories to be read by the general public and reprinted on other web sites. Appended to the end of your article is a resource box which contain links to your site and email address.
While there are hundreds or even thousands of article directories on the web, you should focus on writing a high quality article and submitting to a handful of the more popular ones. Having your article published on a top directory can be worth more than a hundred less reputable ones. If you write something that people find useful, they may pick it up and reprint it on their blogs, newsletters, etc. This is how a quality article propagates virally in cyberspace– it virtually distributes itself without your having to manually submit to a thousand article directories.
3. Exchange links with related sites
Online forums like Digitalpoint are an excellent place to find reciprocal linking partners. Avoid sending out spammy e-mail solicitations like those generated by many SEO software programs. I get dozens of these everyday.
4. Make use of social bookmarking sites
Social bookmarking sites help bring together internet users from every corner of the world into a virtual global village. Submitting content to sites like Digg.com, YouTube.com and Del.icio.us can bring lots of visitors in a hurry.
It is important to understand that sites like Digg and YouTube are not necessarily shock sites. Although there is some publicity to be gained from the shock value of an article or video, one must not resort to tasteless and offensive materials to gain attention. There is only so much value in the attention gotten by being the village idiot.
5. Buy text links on other sites
Although link buying is somewhat an unnatural way to build links, it may be the only way to increase your link popularity if your site is not unique or interesting enough to get people to link to you on their own. Most commercial sites fall into this category.
You should buy links in a way that simulates natural linking as much as possible. Buy text links from sites that are related to yours. Vary anchor texts and descriptions. Buy links from internal as well as home pages. Buy links from both high- and low-PR sites (which can be gotten at a bargain prices).
6. Participate in online forums
Sharing knowledge can be a very powerful way to establish your online presence and credibility. If you check your backlinks on search engines like Google and Yahoo!, you may notice that a number of them come from the signatures of forum posts, that is, if you post in forums. Most forums allow signature links. I don’t participate in forums that don’t as allowing them is the least the forums can do to compensate me for contributing to their contents.
7. Write testimonials and reviews.
Writing a glowing review about a product or service and submitting to your vendor or service provider can give you a very high quality link back to your site. But this strategy can prove time-consuming as many vendors publish only a handful of testimonials from their customers. Don’t waste your time by sending a testimonial to a vendor who does not have a “Testimonials” page on their site. When submitting a review or testimonial, don’t forget to mention to your vendor that they should be feel free to publish your comments on their site (along with a link to your site).
8. Ask vendors and clients to link to your site.
I once bought a $350 script package and asked my vendor if they could feature my site as site made with their script. They obliged and gave me a PR7 text link from their site. Since the link is worth at least $40 a month, my initial investement for the script has paid for itself many times over. Besides the SEO benefits, it is responsible for thousands of visitors to my site a month through direct clicks. The moral of the story: don’t be afraid to ask. The worse that could happen is that they say “no”.
9. Blogging
Setting up a blog is a no-brainer. Even if you’ve no web designing experience whatsoever, you have a blog up and running in no time. Blogs allows for a more informal setting to get your words across. So, it’s much easier to write a blog entry than an article to submit to article directories. Use your blog to share knowlege, voice opinions, connect with others with similar interests, and of course, to link to your other sites.
Avoid spamming blog networks like Blogger and MySpace. These spam blogs (“splogs”) are a waste of time as they will not get much attention from people and will yield little, if any, SEO benefits. Write about something you know and have a genuine interest in. Focus on quality rather than quantity.
10. Content is king.
Yes, content is still king. In fact, content is by far the most important of the ten strategies I’ve mentioned. Having fresh, unique, engaging content is an excellent way to attract natural linking from other sites. This is the type of links that search engines like.
You may have heard of the buzz phrase, link-baiting, that is being tossed around in the SEO community nowadays. The idea is to get others to link to you voluntarily, perhaps by causing some type of sensation or controversy on YouTube, Digg, the message boards, or whatever. Link-baiting, in my opinion, is no more than a new play on the old “content is king” mantra.
This list of top 10 strategies for building links is based on my own experience of building links to my sites throughout the years. It is important to keep in mind that when it comes to SEO, nothing is set in stone. SEO is a cat-and-mouse game, so I will revise this list from time to time as the field continues to evolve.
Please note that the order in which these methods are listed do not necessarily reflect their order of effectiveness. Some methods may work better than others for certain sites.
1. Submit to web directories
Submitting to web directories is a vital part of every successful link building campaign. Apart from driving traffic to your website through direct referrals, web directories provide static, one-way links to your site, boosting your link popularity and improving your rankings on the major search engines like Google and Yahoo.
It is important to note that not all directory listings are equal. Listings from trusted, established directories like Yahoo! and DMOZ are more valuable than those from the thousands of others on the net. All else being equal, a link from a directory focused on your niche is worth more than one from a general directories.
Submit to both free and paid directories. Free directories provide one-way links to your site with no strings attached, but they can take forever to review your link. Paid listings can be a good investment if the fees are reasonable and the pages on which your link will reside have decent PRs. Your sites will be listed with fewer competing links on paid directories.
2. Write articles and press releases
Submitting your article to directories is a highly effective way to build one-way links to your site. First, you write a thoughtful and informative article on an topic in your area of expertise. Then you submit it to article directories to be read by the general public and reprinted on other web sites. Appended to the end of your article is a resource box which contain links to your site and email address.
While there are hundreds or even thousands of article directories on the web, you should focus on writing a high quality article and submitting to a handful of the more popular ones. Having your article published on a top directory can be worth more than a hundred less reputable ones. If you write something that people find useful, they may pick it up and reprint it on their blogs, newsletters, etc. This is how a quality article propagates virally in cyberspace– it virtually distributes itself without your having to manually submit to a thousand article directories.
3. Exchange links with related sites
Online forums like Digitalpoint are an excellent place to find reciprocal linking partners. Avoid sending out spammy e-mail solicitations like those generated by many SEO software programs. I get dozens of these everyday.
4. Make use of social bookmarking sites
Social bookmarking sites help bring together internet users from every corner of the world into a virtual global village. Submitting content to sites like Digg.com, YouTube.com and Del.icio.us can bring lots of visitors in a hurry.
It is important to understand that sites like Digg and YouTube are not necessarily shock sites. Although there is some publicity to be gained from the shock value of an article or video, one must not resort to tasteless and offensive materials to gain attention. There is only so much value in the attention gotten by being the village idiot.
5. Buy text links on other sites
Although link buying is somewhat an unnatural way to build links, it may be the only way to increase your link popularity if your site is not unique or interesting enough to get people to link to you on their own. Most commercial sites fall into this category.
You should buy links in a way that simulates natural linking as much as possible. Buy text links from sites that are related to yours. Vary anchor texts and descriptions. Buy links from internal as well as home pages. Buy links from both high- and low-PR sites (which can be gotten at a bargain prices).
6. Participate in online forums
Sharing knowledge can be a very powerful way to establish your online presence and credibility. If you check your backlinks on search engines like Google and Yahoo!, you may notice that a number of them come from the signatures of forum posts, that is, if you post in forums. Most forums allow signature links. I don’t participate in forums that don’t as allowing them is the least the forums can do to compensate me for contributing to their contents.
7. Write testimonials and reviews.
Writing a glowing review about a product or service and submitting to your vendor or service provider can give you a very high quality link back to your site. But this strategy can prove time-consuming as many vendors publish only a handful of testimonials from their customers. Don’t waste your time by sending a testimonial to a vendor who does not have a “Testimonials” page on their site. When submitting a review or testimonial, don’t forget to mention to your vendor that they should be feel free to publish your comments on their site (along with a link to your site).
8. Ask vendors and clients to link to your site.
I once bought a $350 script package and asked my vendor if they could feature my site as site made with their script. They obliged and gave me a PR7 text link from their site. Since the link is worth at least $40 a month, my initial investement for the script has paid for itself many times over. Besides the SEO benefits, it is responsible for thousands of visitors to my site a month through direct clicks. The moral of the story: don’t be afraid to ask. The worse that could happen is that they say “no”.
9. Blogging
Setting up a blog is a no-brainer. Even if you’ve no web designing experience whatsoever, you have a blog up and running in no time. Blogs allows for a more informal setting to get your words across. So, it’s much easier to write a blog entry than an article to submit to article directories. Use your blog to share knowlege, voice opinions, connect with others with similar interests, and of course, to link to your other sites.
Avoid spamming blog networks like Blogger and MySpace. These spam blogs (“splogs”) are a waste of time as they will not get much attention from people and will yield little, if any, SEO benefits. Write about something you know and have a genuine interest in. Focus on quality rather than quantity.
10. Content is king.
Yes, content is still king. In fact, content is by far the most important of the ten strategies I’ve mentioned. Having fresh, unique, engaging content is an excellent way to attract natural linking from other sites. This is the type of links that search engines like.
You may have heard of the buzz phrase, link-baiting, that is being tossed around in the SEO community nowadays. The idea is to get others to link to you voluntarily, perhaps by causing some type of sensation or controversy on YouTube, Digg, the message boards, or whatever. Link-baiting, in my opinion, is no more than a new play on the old “content is king” mantra.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
One Way Link Building The Easy Way!
November 21, 2008
Murray Hubick asked:
One way link building can be done very easily and quickly by building your own software and submitting it to software directories via a pad file. Sound complicated? Only if you are under 3 years old and if that’s the case you are probably not going to understand much of what I am about to say.
Barring that, it really is that simple. The only thing you have to do is fill in a form and use a wizard that does everything for you. There is literally nothing more than that to it and when you’ve finished you will have a massive amount of quality high page rank links back to your site.
It’s all about back links. Specifically one way back links. Why? Because Google and all the other search engines (SE) prefer one way back links. Generally speaking it has always been thus. Originally the emphasis was on reciprocal linking which is a method of linking where websites trade links; I link to you if you link to me etc.
Now, in an ever changing cyber world such is no longer the case and reciprocal linking really doesn’t count for a whole lot. In reciprocal linking you are only trading links with another willing site and that says nothing about who or what you are. One way back links however, mean that the site linking to you is saying you have something to offer. Why else would they be doing it?
The SE’s essentially want to give the user the best viewing experience they can. They want to make sure that that individual sees exactly what he/she asked to see because only then will they come back for more. Simply put, the more sites linking to you means the more you have to offer, the more you have to offer the more the SE’s want you. If you add into that mix high page rank authority sites linking to you this can be one seriously good thing.
There are any number of different method’s out there to achieve this. You could write articles and submit them to directories, do a blog and again, submit it to social bookmarking sites; you can leave comments on other people’s blogs that link back to your site or blog. In all every one of these methods have two things in common; they provide one way links back to your site and they are all, without exception, a lot of work.
If you haven’t done it I have and believe me it takes a lot of time and effort and then even more time to actually see any results. Quite frankly that’s much too much work for me. I’d rather be doing other things. Fortunately, there is a much better way and that way is creating and submitting software to software directories. Doing this you will Get large numbers of free, high page rank back links as easily and quickly as is possible and you will be amazed at how quick the results will be.
One way link building can be done very easily and quickly by building your own software and submitting it to software directories via a pad file. Sound complicated? Only if you are under 3 years old and if that’s the case you are probably not going to understand much of what I am about to say.
Barring that, it really is that simple. The only thing you have to do is fill in a form and use a wizard that does everything for you. There is literally nothing more than that to it and when you’ve finished you will have a massive amount of quality high page rank links back to your site.
It’s all about back links. Specifically one way back links. Why? Because Google and all the other search engines (SE) prefer one way back links. Generally speaking it has always been thus. Originally the emphasis was on reciprocal linking which is a method of linking where websites trade links; I link to you if you link to me etc.
Now, in an ever changing cyber world such is no longer the case and reciprocal linking really doesn’t count for a whole lot. In reciprocal linking you are only trading links with another willing site and that says nothing about who or what you are. One way back links however, mean that the site linking to you is saying you have something to offer. Why else would they be doing it?
The SE’s essentially want to give the user the best viewing experience they can. They want to make sure that that individual sees exactly what he/she asked to see because only then will they come back for more. Simply put, the more sites linking to you means the more you have to offer, the more you have to offer the more the SE’s want you. If you add into that mix high page rank authority sites linking to you this can be one seriously good thing.
There are any number of different method’s out there to achieve this. You could write articles and submit them to directories, do a blog and again, submit it to social bookmarking sites; you can leave comments on other people’s blogs that link back to your site or blog. In all every one of these methods have two things in common; they provide one way links back to your site and they are all, without exception, a lot of work.
If you haven’t done it I have and believe me it takes a lot of time and effort and then even more time to actually see any results. Quite frankly that’s much too much work for me. I’d rather be doing other things. Fortunately, there is a much better way and that way is creating and submitting software to software directories. Doing this you will Get large numbers of free, high page rank back links as easily and quickly as is possible and you will be amazed at how quick the results will be.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Link Building Service- Lift Up your Page
November 21, 2008
Steve Waganer asked:
Your site is your sacred possession and you definitely want to see it flourishing day by day. A person sheds his sweat in popularizing his site. He wants that his site be used by one and all. Once your site comes in the World Wide Web, you want it to rank high. Today, the online businessmen are fighting tooth and nail to make their site famous. If any searcher tries to find any information and your site does not appear in spite of having a strong content then it is a big loss for the company. Therefore, promotion is a very important factor. There are various methods to promote a site but the best way is link building service. This service will remove your entire headache and make your site use by lot. Once your site gets a respectable position, you will feel job satisfaction.
Link building service is capable to bring traffic to your website. It should not be ignored at all. It is one way of advertising your site. It is a method of linking your website to a host site. Whenever he or she visits the host site, they will find the link of your site on the host page and their queries compel them to click that particular site. In this manner, your site comes before the eyes of a new user. In addition, your site will get a new visitor. However, the most important thing is that once a new user views your page it is very necessary that they get all the answers of their questions. Therefore, it is very important that your content is sufficiently rich. Keywords should be very much appropriate to get your page appear on the first page of Google, Yahoo and MSN. There are many books on keywords that need to be referred every time.
For effective link building, online businesses hire expert professional or often hire firms that are involved in providing link-building services. It is very important that the person whom you hire is well experienced and efficient; otherwise, it would invite problems for your website. The host link should be very strong and popular because if nobody visits the host link then obviously there is no question to clink your website. Before you exchange link with any host site, be sure that the host site is complete.
Link buildings services will definitely improve your position in the web world. It will help to increase the traffic on your site. There are certain guidelines to establish those links and one should be acquainted with those rules. Links are the important elements that helps search engine in determining the level of popularity of any site on the web. In simple words, if you have more links to your site from other site all the major search engines will rank your site highly. Once your site reaches its desire position, then only your work will successfully finish. You will feel your existence in the market. Link building service will make your dream come true.
Your site is your sacred possession and you definitely want to see it flourishing day by day. A person sheds his sweat in popularizing his site. He wants that his site be used by one and all. Once your site comes in the World Wide Web, you want it to rank high. Today, the online businessmen are fighting tooth and nail to make their site famous. If any searcher tries to find any information and your site does not appear in spite of having a strong content then it is a big loss for the company. Therefore, promotion is a very important factor. There are various methods to promote a site but the best way is link building service. This service will remove your entire headache and make your site use by lot. Once your site gets a respectable position, you will feel job satisfaction.
Link building service is capable to bring traffic to your website. It should not be ignored at all. It is one way of advertising your site. It is a method of linking your website to a host site. Whenever he or she visits the host site, they will find the link of your site on the host page and their queries compel them to click that particular site. In this manner, your site comes before the eyes of a new user. In addition, your site will get a new visitor. However, the most important thing is that once a new user views your page it is very necessary that they get all the answers of their questions. Therefore, it is very important that your content is sufficiently rich. Keywords should be very much appropriate to get your page appear on the first page of Google, Yahoo and MSN. There are many books on keywords that need to be referred every time.
For effective link building, online businesses hire expert professional or often hire firms that are involved in providing link-building services. It is very important that the person whom you hire is well experienced and efficient; otherwise, it would invite problems for your website. The host link should be very strong and popular because if nobody visits the host link then obviously there is no question to clink your website. Before you exchange link with any host site, be sure that the host site is complete.
Link buildings services will definitely improve your position in the web world. It will help to increase the traffic on your site. There are certain guidelines to establish those links and one should be acquainted with those rules. Links are the important elements that helps search engine in determining the level of popularity of any site on the web. In simple words, if you have more links to your site from other site all the major search engines will rank your site highly. Once your site reaches its desire position, then only your work will successfully finish. You will feel your existence in the market. Link building service will make your dream come true.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Link Building and SEO Link Development Strategies
November 21, 2008
Jeffrey Smith asked:
Depending on your link building and development strategy, finding the right link velocity (the rate in which you acquire or lose links) can determine how your pages rank respectively in search engines.
Although the title may sound like a jingle, all cliches aside, building the ideal quantity and type of links each month to maintain a stable search engine ranking is a unique formula for each site (which could be 20 links per page or 40 links per month per term for every competitive top 10 keyword).
Although link building is not the “magic bullet” for creating a high ranking position, it’s contribution to the process is undeniable. Finding the elusive number of links for each of your keywords is crucial for managing hang time in the SERPs (search engine result pages).
Here is a basic SEO technique you can use to quickly determine how competitive a keyword is. For example, if a keyword has 10,000 or less competing pages using the exact match form of the term “in quotes” in Google, then hitting the top 10 for a keyword like this would only require 15-20 quality inbound links & a few pages of great content.
If a keyword returns search results “in exact match” in the 500,000 to 1,000,000 result range, that is considered a competitive keyword.
Competitive keywords may require hundreds of links to impact them with an entire series of pages supporting the sites most relevant page via internal and external links. Each market has it’s own unique ranking criteria, but if you are working with a site that has acquired ranking power, acquiring terms under 50,000 results in Google is like picking the low hanging fruit.
To see how competitive some of your keywords are, try looking at your keywords in “exact match” form, just “type your keywords in the quotes instead” then see how many competing pages are targeting that keyword.
In the beginning building links with the throttle wide open and developing a plethora of links is typical. Then after you hit the top 40-50 results (with that page), then ease back and use finesse to climb the remaining positions into the top 10 search results.
Experimentation is the key, and each site reacts differently to different circumstances (so don’t rely too heavily on any one tactic). The key is finding the best line of SEO defense, which is to add a stream of fresh links as well as focusing on link quality above link quantity (all it takes is one from the right source).
Link velocity (the rate in which you gain or lose links) is an important component in maintaining how your pages will pass vital link juice and nourishment to the rest of your site. If you slack off, you lose your footing, or if you create a spike by building links too fast, you could invoke a penalty (and actually lose rankings).
Using deep links (linking to specific pages using optimal anchor text) has a profound impact on search engine placement. Deep linking capitalizes on the perfect marriage of content and strategic link building and hastens the development of authority for your site. As a result, you require less links (per keyword) over time to maintain and defend your position.
When initiating a link building campaign, aligning the fundamental aspects needed to acquire a high ranking position are rather elementary, what may not be so apparent is the amount of time it takes until all of the off-page and on-page criteria align and you gain access to the top 10.
Getting there is half the fun, but staying there requires a constant vigil as the demands for competitive phrases have a high churn rate (top 10 one day slipping 10 positions the next).
In closing, here is one of many methods for determining the best page to build links to with the highest occurrence of the keyword on that page.
Just use Google and add the following search command:
[keyword] site:domainname[dot]com in a search box & hit return (brackets around the keyword are not required and replace the word dot with a period). Then Google will return the page with the highest relevance for those keywords for the respective domain.
The value in this strategy is, the pages lower on the screen in the top 10 results returned are the ones with the least amount of relevance for that term, so you can either develop addition links to them (to build them up), or use the top 2-3 results to add more weight to those pages.
In either case, you entire site gains additional allinanchor relevance (the number and quality of the keywords in the anchor text/link) which is a major facet to defending your position as well as climbing higher up the rungs of the ladder in search engines.
Depending on your link building and development strategy, finding the right link velocity (the rate in which you acquire or lose links) can determine how your pages rank respectively in search engines.
Although the title may sound like a jingle, all cliches aside, building the ideal quantity and type of links each month to maintain a stable search engine ranking is a unique formula for each site (which could be 20 links per page or 40 links per month per term for every competitive top 10 keyword).
Although link building is not the “magic bullet” for creating a high ranking position, it’s contribution to the process is undeniable. Finding the elusive number of links for each of your keywords is crucial for managing hang time in the SERPs (search engine result pages).
Here is a basic SEO technique you can use to quickly determine how competitive a keyword is. For example, if a keyword has 10,000 or less competing pages using the exact match form of the term “in quotes” in Google, then hitting the top 10 for a keyword like this would only require 15-20 quality inbound links & a few pages of great content.
If a keyword returns search results “in exact match” in the 500,000 to 1,000,000 result range, that is considered a competitive keyword.
Competitive keywords may require hundreds of links to impact them with an entire series of pages supporting the sites most relevant page via internal and external links. Each market has it’s own unique ranking criteria, but if you are working with a site that has acquired ranking power, acquiring terms under 50,000 results in Google is like picking the low hanging fruit.
To see how competitive some of your keywords are, try looking at your keywords in “exact match” form, just “type your keywords in the quotes instead” then see how many competing pages are targeting that keyword.
In the beginning building links with the throttle wide open and developing a plethora of links is typical. Then after you hit the top 40-50 results (with that page), then ease back and use finesse to climb the remaining positions into the top 10 search results.
Experimentation is the key, and each site reacts differently to different circumstances (so don’t rely too heavily on any one tactic). The key is finding the best line of SEO defense, which is to add a stream of fresh links as well as focusing on link quality above link quantity (all it takes is one from the right source).
Link velocity (the rate in which you gain or lose links) is an important component in maintaining how your pages will pass vital link juice and nourishment to the rest of your site. If you slack off, you lose your footing, or if you create a spike by building links too fast, you could invoke a penalty (and actually lose rankings).
Using deep links (linking to specific pages using optimal anchor text) has a profound impact on search engine placement. Deep linking capitalizes on the perfect marriage of content and strategic link building and hastens the development of authority for your site. As a result, you require less links (per keyword) over time to maintain and defend your position.
When initiating a link building campaign, aligning the fundamental aspects needed to acquire a high ranking position are rather elementary, what may not be so apparent is the amount of time it takes until all of the off-page and on-page criteria align and you gain access to the top 10.
Getting there is half the fun, but staying there requires a constant vigil as the demands for competitive phrases have a high churn rate (top 10 one day slipping 10 positions the next).
In closing, here is one of many methods for determining the best page to build links to with the highest occurrence of the keyword on that page.
Just use Google and add the following search command:
[keyword] site:domainname[dot]com in a search box & hit return (brackets around the keyword are not required and replace the word dot with a period). Then Google will return the page with the highest relevance for those keywords for the respective domain.
The value in this strategy is, the pages lower on the screen in the top 10 results returned are the ones with the least amount of relevance for that term, so you can either develop addition links to them (to build them up), or use the top 2-3 results to add more weight to those pages.
In either case, you entire site gains additional allinanchor relevance (the number and quality of the keywords in the anchor text/link) which is a major facet to defending your position as well as climbing higher up the rungs of the ladder in search engines.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Link Building For Beginners
November 21, 2008
John Tremblay asked:
Link building is the process of adding links between two or more web sites. A link is somewhat like a short cut through the millions of web pages. Links are presumed to indicate which sites visit other sites for information gathering or receiving.
Link building is done primarily for one of two reasons. Either the link building is done in order to build traffic to your web site, or it is done for the purpose of search engine optimization.
Building traffic to your web site is primarily for the purpose of Pay per Click programs and these links are often different from those which are for the purpose of search engine optimization. There are even a few links which are able to build traffic AND improve search engine rankings.
When you are building links for search engine optimization, you will not necessarily get more traffic. The converse is true as well. Just because a link provides good traffic, doesn’t mean that it is good for search engine optimization.
Some web sites and forums have been set up for the primary purpose of building Pay-per-Click revenue, but because these sites are known for this purpose, they do not increase the page ranking in the search engine optimization aspect of link building. The algorithms used by the search engines do not consider such traffic building sites in any appreciable sense when developing page rankings.
Some search engines, more specifically, Google, use the link building feature of the web site as a primary part of the page ranking algorithm. The Google search engine wants to see web pages with a good number of quality incoming links and only a few outgoing links. This would indicate that the information on the specific web page is recognized as being the definitive information on the particular subject or category of information.
Some of the early search engine optimization efforts used link farms, in which thousands of web page links were bought and sold through the medium of ‘link farms’. Of course, this was not hard to detect and eliminate by the search engine indexing process. Links from known link farms were simply eliminated from consideration in the page ranking algorithms.
As some web page owners found to their dismay, the continued use of such link farm links to a web page could result in a lower ranking than would otherwise have occurred, or even to complete removal of the affected web page from the rankings completely. This tactic when used by those claiming to perform search engine optimization has led to law suits and while not technically a black hat method for search engine optimization, definitely has detrimental effects.
It can take a web page owner weeks or even months of begging, explanations, negotiations and promises to get back in the good graces of the search engine spiders after an experience such as this.
Entire books have been written on ways to use link building correctly to improve your web page standings, but it not that difficult as a web page owner to review carefully the type of presence which is desired on the internet and make sure any links foster the desired view.
Link building is the process of adding links between two or more web sites. A link is somewhat like a short cut through the millions of web pages. Links are presumed to indicate which sites visit other sites for information gathering or receiving.
Link building is done primarily for one of two reasons. Either the link building is done in order to build traffic to your web site, or it is done for the purpose of search engine optimization.
Building traffic to your web site is primarily for the purpose of Pay per Click programs and these links are often different from those which are for the purpose of search engine optimization. There are even a few links which are able to build traffic AND improve search engine rankings.
When you are building links for search engine optimization, you will not necessarily get more traffic. The converse is true as well. Just because a link provides good traffic, doesn’t mean that it is good for search engine optimization.
Some web sites and forums have been set up for the primary purpose of building Pay-per-Click revenue, but because these sites are known for this purpose, they do not increase the page ranking in the search engine optimization aspect of link building. The algorithms used by the search engines do not consider such traffic building sites in any appreciable sense when developing page rankings.
Some search engines, more specifically, Google, use the link building feature of the web site as a primary part of the page ranking algorithm. The Google search engine wants to see web pages with a good number of quality incoming links and only a few outgoing links. This would indicate that the information on the specific web page is recognized as being the definitive information on the particular subject or category of information.
Some of the early search engine optimization efforts used link farms, in which thousands of web page links were bought and sold through the medium of ‘link farms’. Of course, this was not hard to detect and eliminate by the search engine indexing process. Links from known link farms were simply eliminated from consideration in the page ranking algorithms.
As some web page owners found to their dismay, the continued use of such link farm links to a web page could result in a lower ranking than would otherwise have occurred, or even to complete removal of the affected web page from the rankings completely. This tactic when used by those claiming to perform search engine optimization has led to law suits and while not technically a black hat method for search engine optimization, definitely has detrimental effects.
It can take a web page owner weeks or even months of begging, explanations, negotiations and promises to get back in the good graces of the search engine spiders after an experience such as this.
Entire books have been written on ways to use link building correctly to improve your web page standings, but it not that difficult as a web page owner to review carefully the type of presence which is desired on the internet and make sure any links foster the desired view.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
