Archive for the ‘Link Building Strategy’ Category:
Link Building - What To Look For
Whilst considering the variables and details of your link building campaign you must check out the number of backlinks pointing to your site. There are a few ways of doing this, one of which is by using Yahoo! Site Explorer. If you currently only have a very small number of links I would suggest building your backlinks slowly. Concentrate on the most beneficial backlinks for you. The number of links you have is not always the most important part; remember that a few high quality links could increase your page ranking far more than many inappropriate ones. You can also use a process known as ‘deep linking’ in which you point backlinks to important pages on your site. These could be promotional pages or product information. Deep linking is also a good way to ‘trick’ the search bots as links appear more natural. As with all linking strategy, deep linking must be done with thought and care. Search algorithms are trying to find the most relevant information for their users so make sure your pages are targeted accordingly. The process of targeting your links is also a good marketing strategy and may generate potential sales or keep users on your site longer.
What to Look for in a Link Partner
You need to make your links count. Every single one must be relevant and worthwhile. As said before, you should choose your potential link partners based on the theme of their website and also check out their PageRank (PR). You want to aim for pages with a PR of three or more. A good tool for this is the Google Toolbar. It displays the PR of each page that you visit so it’s as easy as browsing to the page and looking at the number displayed. Here is a quick breakdown of how to check your competitors sites for backlinks:
- Enter the keywords you wish to search for in Google,
- Look at the top twenty or so organic results and note the URL of the one you wish to look at,
- Type the address into the Google search box preceded by link: and search. (i.e. link:www.competitorsurl.com)
This procedure will bring up a list of all backlinks to the URL in question. These websites have already created links to similar pages as yours and my be persuaded to do the same for you. A one-way link from their site to yours will be far more beneficial than a reciprocal link with regard to search rankings. Always remember to check the authenticity of the sites in question and aim for the highest PageRank possible for maximum effect. You can also talk to other Webmasters and try to gain links. The best way to do this is to have information rich content on your site, content that other websites may find useful.
Another way to check out potential partners once you have found a few through the method above is to take note of the HTML Title displayed on a link partners page (the text displayed at the very top of the browser window). You can then enter this (or the first few words) into Google and search for similar sites that may be interested in your content and links. The top 10 rankings in a Google search are generally trusted sites or they would not have been able to get to the top so you can be pretty sure that they are worth the link. That said, always check the sites first as you don’t want to destroy your hard work by choosing a dodgy site! Another thing to consider is that a high PR doesn’t always mean high trust so again, just do the research before committing!
In summary, you want as many one-way backlinks from reputable, trusted and relevant websites as possible. These factors are what will get you your rankings so MAKE SURE you have chosen well.
I hope this article has been helpful and always welcome any suggestions for improvement. Please feel free to leave comments or constructive criticism and don’t hesitate to contact us for more advice.
Link Building - Campaigns
Search providers are not stupid and will notice sudden changes to your activity. You have to be careful how you build your links and check all sites you are linking with. Normally, the more backlinks a website can attract through natural means rather than artificially, (such as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and banner ads) the higher it will score in search query results. This means that your content and that of the sites you link to needs to provide valuable information and knowledge to visitors to keep them coming back. Providing valuable information will, in itself aid in your search for those natural backlinks and will help to promote your website and increase your search engine marketing position.
There are many websites on the Internet that will have trouble attracting the volume of natural backlinks needed to reach top page rankings, normally due to the nature of their business. This is where a link building campaign can be useful to ‘fill in the gaps’. You don’t have to spend much money, and there are several companies that can help. Always be careful if choosing a link building company as many will claim that they can do more than they promise and some may even incorporate bad practices, causing penalties to your search ranking. ALWAYS research the company before committing to anything.
Link building companies do a lot of the work for you but that does not mean that you cannot do the legwork yourself. Contact desired webmasters and request a link exchange. You should have something to offer in return, be it advertising space, positive reviews of their site or other positive initiatives that will benefit them. It can be much more difficult uncover your own artificial backlinks but this should not stop you from trying. Any backlinks that you go after should be researched first to ensure that the site is trusted and valued.
One thing that you should realize is that search engines asses a websites acquisition of links over a period of time. This means that a sudden influx of backlinks could create suspicion and again, gain you penalties in your search rankings. You must attempt to create artificial links as naturally as possible. Many links that include the same or similar anchor text may also arouse suspicion. If Google believes that you are attempting to manipulate the results of a search they will attach a link devaluation penalty to your website for backlink over optimization (BLOOD). The same would apply if Google suspect you of creating many sites for the purpose of link building. DO NOT think that you can create a network of sites with the sole intention of boosting your search results. This is not an SEO tool by any measure and will incur serious penalties from Google.
Link Building - A Quick History and Reasoning Lesson
This is the first in a eight part series of knowledge packed articles designed to help you understand and implement the various techniques used in backlink creation. The information provided has been tried and tested and includes proven Search engine optimization (SEO) strategies.
I will endeavor to show you how to encourage natural backlink growth as well as explaining ways to setup and manage a successful, low cost link building campaign. I will also show you those areas you should avoid and the reasons why.
Many areas will be covered, including the use of ‘link bait’ to increase your Google ranking, the dangers associated with artificial link building, how to avoid the Google backlink over optimization penalty (BLOOD) and exactly why and how links affect your ranking.
Please Note: I will mainly use Google in examples but the methods are basically the same for all search providers.
A Quick History and Reasoning Lesson
Search engines have proven their worth time and time again and the algorithms used have evolved significantly within the last few years. Although content and keyword density still plays an important role in SEO, an increasing emphasis has been put on search spiders to consider ranking pages based on the quantity and quality of their incoming links (known as backlinks).
Because of this evolution you cannot rely solely on the optimization of your content for SEO. In order to gain the best possible search results you must include various methods, the most predominant being link building. Your aim is to create relevant backlinks with unrelated websites that base their content around the same ‘theme’ and search engine marketing strategy as you. In short, you are looking for similar pages with relevant information to boost your search ranking.
One way of explaining the reasoning behind link buildings prominence in search engine rankings is to look at it almost like an online voting system. As you increase your backlinks you increase the number of ‘votes’ in your favor. Any website that has a direct link to yours is effectively saying “I trust this web page and believe it to be relevant”. This approval from other sites helps the search spiders to weed out spam sites and other, just as useless content. The idea is that these ‘bad’ sites will not gain popularity and backlinks from others as their content appears to be of no use or relevance.
The need for substantial links from reputable web pages has encouraged many online vendors and others to find ways to artificially boost the amount of backlinks to their content. This is a must if you wish to compete with others on a level playing field. It is a good idea to consider setting up a link building campaign that will increase your standing in Google and with other search providers. This has to be undertaken with great care and careful management as it can be very easy to create the wrong links in the wrong way. This will attract the attention of search providers and gain you penalties, especially from Google.