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Inbound Link Building growing in popularity
With all the news breaking on the subject of Link Building and it being referenced many times this week by Direct Traffic News and the BBC, we thought that it would be helpful to publish Link Marketing tips and advice and simplify some linking jargon.Volume of Inbound Links vs. Quality of links
The volume of inbound links to a website has always been a factor for ranking well in Google, but now your site needs quality in volume. Without links websites will not rank at all, but without quality links, your site will not rank well.
Basic linking vs. powerful links
Volume: There are millions of blogs and websites on the Internet that are hosting content of very little value; generally they generate very few references or links.
Quality: A powerful site is a site that rank well, it ranks well because it has inbound links from quality sites. Powerful sites usually display high Google Page Rank (5/10 to 10/10), but there are some rare exceptions.
Trusted links vs. Authority links
Trusted links: Educational and government domains, in most cases, carry a vote of trust with them. It is very difficult getting links from these trusted sites, that being one of the reasons why they are trusted. Generally it is also difficult matching relevance on trusted sites; since they cover specific themes.
e.g. gov, .edu .edu.mx in Mexico, .edu.au in Australia, .ac.uk and .sch.uk …
Authority links: An authority site is basically an authority in its subject or function,
e.g. for news - the BBC, online auctions – ebay, search engines – Google, online shops – Amazon. If your website has an inbound link from an authority with the same theme, that link should indicate that your site has authority on the same subject matter.
Ultimate Quality: Gaining One way links from trusted or authority sites will make a very significant impact on nearly any site’s web presence.
Relevance in linking vs. general links vs. irrelevant linking
Relevant links: Google and other search engines read words around the link text and throughout the page searching for subject relevance. Sites linking to your site should be as relevant as possible.
General themed links: News websites often have general themes covering multiple issues and may pass on major value despite not being 100% relevant e.g. bbc.co.uk. The link text and words near the link pointing to your website’s landing page should be consistent with the subject that the link is pointing to.
Tip: The link text pointing to your site should appear on the destination page and if possible in the title.
Irrelevant linking: Irrelevant links will more often than not simply be just that; irrelevant. Closely relevant sites could sometimes quality as quality e.g. property and mortgage advice, but a software development site and health products will be suspect.
Top quality links come from contextually relevant sites.
Link text or keywords in link
"Click Here" and "Follow This" links will strip an inbound link of nearly all its value, link popularity will be passed on to the destination page, but the main ranking boost will be for “click here”.
Link text should contain high value keywords that your customers will be searching for.
Reciprocal links VS one way links
Link Exchange or reciprocal links - do they work? No and yes.
Volume: We have noticed that the effect of software generated link exchanges have been nullified by a Google algorithm update more than 12 months ago. We believe that this update happened because of the large volumes of random links that were being generated by link exchange software solutions.
Quality: Yes, manual, in content link swapping will still deliver linking value.
Free directory links vs. paid directory links
Free directory links: The ultimate free directory: DMOZ the effort? Absolutely! ODP data powers directory services for many of the largest search engines and portals, including Google, Netscape Search, AOL Search and Alexa.Other free directory submissions are hard work and may not be worth the effort.Paid directory links: As far as paid directories are concerned, directories specific to your industry could be worthwhile and it may be worthwhile paying for a Yahoo submission.
If you have more questions on issues like:
In-content links vs. out of content links
Manually linking vs. software managed links
Site Wide Links vs. positioned links
Link baiting vs. link buying
Click here ;)
SEO News posted on 13 April 2007
