|
The Value of Links and Targeted Link Text Results
In
the field of search engine optimization, experts tell you
link building is very important and the link text is also
an important factor to determine where your site ranks in
search engines. This article explains the details about the
importance of link building and how to get relevant and valuable
links through a number of ways.
A wander around the various search engine optimization forums
reveals that people are divided into two groups as to how
search
engines rank web pages. One group insists that "content
is king",
and the other insists that "link text is king".
The 'content'
group recommend adding good quality, on-topic, optimized,
content
pages to the site and the rankings will come. The 'link text'
group recommend adding links to pages, with the targeted
searchterms in the link text, and the rankings will come.
So which group is right?
Certainly, the 'content' people are right in that good quality,
optimized, content pages will get some top rankings, but only
if
the targeted searchterms are not being competed over very
much.
Page content is what search engines ranked pages on in the
old
days, and they still do to some extent. But that began to
change
when a couple of engines introduced "link popularity"
(linkpop)
into the equation. The more links that a page had pointing
to it,
the better it did in the rankings. Even so, content was still
the
king.
Then along came Google with a new idea. Instead of using
links to
a page as simply an additional ranking factor, they based
their
whole engine on them, to the extent that they called their
engine
a "Hypertextual Web Search Engine" - "hyper"
as in hyperlink
(clickable link), and "textual" as in the link text
that is clicked
on. The Google search engine was, and is, based on links and
link
text (sometimes called "anchor text"). Google's
idea was that a link
from one page to another page is a vote by one page for the
other
page, thus making the recipient page more important. They
also
decided that the clickable link text is likely to provide
an honest
and condensed idea of what the recipient page is about.
With their new idea, the relevancy of Google's search results
far
surpassed that of the other engines, and Google grew to become
the
#1 search engine of them all. The other engines had no choice
but
to follow suit. Page content still plays a part in the rankings,
but
the biggest single ranking factor of all is link text. Links
to a
page, with targeted link text, can push the page to the top
of the
rankings. As an example, type "miserable failure"
(without quotes)
into Google and look at the #1 result.
An even better example is a search on Google for "computers"
(without quotes). Look at the source code of the #2 result
(Apple).
The word "computers" doesn't appear anywhere in
the page, and yet
"computers" is a very competitive searchterm. Google's
cache of the
page states that "These terms only appear in links pointing
to this
page: computers". It is the link text in the links pointing
to that
page that has pushed it into the #2 position for a very competitive
searchterm.
Those are examples of the ranking power of link text. The
reason it
happens is that Google stores each word on a page in what
they call
"barrels". But they have two groups of barrels.
The small group
contains words that occured in URLs, Titles, and link text.
The
large group of barrels contains words that occured anywhere.
When
processing a search query, the Google engine first tries to
find
enough results (about 40,000) from the small group of barrels
that
contains link text words. If they can compile enough results
from
there, they don't even look in the group that contains the
rest of
the words on a page. The group of word barrels that contain
link
text is the first place that Google looks for results to a
search
query. That's why link text is such a powerful ranking factor,
and
it's why link text alone can push the recipient page to the
top of
the rankings for competitive searchterms.
Do All Links Count?
----------------------
There is some discussion around the seo forums as to whether
or
not some links count less than others. One idea is that multiple
links from the same site, whether internal or from external
sites,
are devalued. Another idea is that internal links count less
than
external links. There may be some truth in the ideas, but
they are
just ideas and nobody outside Google really knows, so it is
best to
assume that all links to a page count.
Link Acquisition
------------------
Acquiring links can be time-consuming and tedious. There
are a
number of ways to get them, some being easier than others.
Wherever
you get them, make sure that their link text is the searchterm
that
you are targeting, and that each link points to the page you
are
promoting for the particular searchterm. Pointing all the
links to
your home page, with various target searchterms, won't achieve
the
same as pointing targeted links at specific pages within the
site.
Forums
Join forums and place links to your site(s) in your signature
line.
Use your main searchterms as the link text. But before spending
time writing lots of posts with your signature line in each
post,
make sure that the forum is spiderable by checking the robots.txt
file, and make sure that non-members don't have session IDs
in the
URLs (some engine won't spider URLs with session IDs in them).
Also
make sure that links in signature lines are not hidden from
spiders
(view the source code to make sure that signature links are
in
plain HTML and point directly to the site).
Link exchange centers
Find and join free link exchange center like
http://www.bigcatcat.com/sites/
There you can find a categorized directory of websites that
also
want to exchange links. Be careful not to sign up with FFA
(Free For All) sites because they are mostly email address
gatherers and you can expect a sudden increase in email spam
soon
after you sign up. Also, only sign up with centers where you
can
approach other sites personally, and where they can approach
you
personally.
Do not join any link farms!!! Link farms, such as LinksToYou.com,
sound excellent, but search engines (Google in particular)
disapprove
of them as blatant attempts to manipulate the rankings and
they
will penalize sites that use them. Once a site has been penalized,
it is very difficult to get the penalty lifted, so avoid all
link
farms.
Email requests
(a) Search on Google for your main searchterms and find the
websites that are competing with you. Then find which sites
link to them by searching "link:www.cometitor-domain.com".
Email them and ask for a link exchange.
(b) Search on Google for websites that are related to your
site's
topic, but not direct competitors, and ask them for a link
exchange.
Buy them
There are websites that want to sell links, and often the
link
will be placed on multiple pages, or all pages within the
site.
It's possible to approach individual sites where you would
like
your links to appear, but it is much quicker, easier and more
reliable to use a middle-man service (or broker).
Link brokers offer links for sale on behalf of other websites
(
you could use the service to sell links on your site!). With
these
services, it is usual to be able to choose the topic of the
website(s) where you want to place your links.
Auctions
There are even links for sale by public auction, such as
the one at
LinkAdage Auctions.
Summary
-----------
Inbound links are important for websites that want to move
up the
rankings. Inbound links, <i>with the right link text</i>,
are
essential for achieving top rankings when there is any competition
for the searchterms.
Most websites do not naturally attract links, and link acquisition
can be time-consuming, tedious, and frustrating. Many websites
that
are approached by email will say no, but some will say yes.
For top
rankings, it is a almost essential to take the time and get
many
inbound links. It should be treated as an ongoing task.
About the Author:
--------------------------------------------------------
Phil Craven is a well-known SEO and author of many widely
read search engine optimization articles. His top-ranked "Seo
Forum", at http://www.webworkshop.net/seoforum, helps
many novices and webmasters to learn and improve their search
engine optimization skills.
<More
Link Exchange Tips and Recommendations>
|
