Link Building Dynamics
By placing links, both internally and externally to AND on your site you will gain credibility with the search engines. When done improperly, it can backfire and cause problems. Often some SERIOUS problems will result!
You can link keywords within your site to related pages. You can also provide links to the same page, but use caution and do not repeat the same keyword anchor text instead alter it for other keyword anchor text.
Wikipedia Quote: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_text
Anchor text usually gives the user relevant descriptive or contextual information about the content of the link's destination. The anchor text may or may not be related to the actual text of the URL of the link. For example, a hyperlink to the main Wikipedia page might take this form:
<a href="http://www.wikipedia.org" mce_href="http://www.wikipedia.org">Wikipedia</a>
The anchor text in this example is Wikipedia; the complex URL http://www.wikipedia.org displays on the web page as ‘Wikipedia’, contributing to a clean, easy to read text or document.
As another example, if you have used the words ‘employment injury’ for the anchor text in one link, you could use something like, ‘employment injury compensation’ for another link. This way, you have variety in your keyword phrases and the linked pages will be relevantly defined. This gives you more chances to rate with the search engines, as you will have more and different keywords for the crawler to find.
Link building can increase traffic to a site by increasing rankings with search engines and by generating traffic from the links. The search engines recognize the links and increase the visibility of your site. If links are from sites that are relevant to your site then ‘quality and targeted’ visitors/traffic is achieved.
I will offer a car linking example. If you have a website on car accessories, it would only be logical and practical to link back and forth to sites that are related to cars or vehicles only. This is called targeted linking. If you ask for links from completely unrelated sites, like cosmetics or linen vendors, it will be obvious to everyone that the sites are not well matched.
As a web marketer, the only way to get targeted traffic to a site about cars from a site selling baby toys is to include links that relate to toys for babies to play with while traveling in the car. So make the connection and get ‘relevant’ links.
Link Tips
Allow the link to open in a new window, (use _blank in html) rather than over yours. The following link will open over your website if you placed that link on your site.
<a href="http://www.wikipedia.org" mce_href="http://www.wikipedia.org">Wikipedia</a>
If this happens and the site you are linking to is presented or provides better value than yours then YOUR visitor will stay there and not return back to your site. The next link will open in a different browser leaving your page STILL open.
<a href="http://www.wikipedia.org" mce_href="http://www.wikipedia.org" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>
However if you allow it open in a new browser then even if the referring site is better, your site will still be open for the user to come back to.
Include a keyword description next to the link, rather than just a link.
More Words = More MONEY
This to many is called work. Well quite frankly work needs to be done in order to be successful and for your website to be known. I don’t neglect a single free traffic technique and I highly recommend you don’t either. This may seem obvious but think about it.
Why does Google STILL spend millions every year in advertising? It is one of the most powerful and influential sites in the world … so why advertise? To get more exposure across the globe and ultimately MORE MONEY! No I’m not asking you to advertise as we want free exposure… right? Well submitting articles to relevant sites with back links to your site is a great way to generate exposure, i.e. traffic.
Up to date and captivating articles will make people want to see more of what you have to offer. Article submission is STILL a fantastic way to gain visibility, regardless of what anybody says otherwise! Press releases, articles, and news are ALL content. Have they STOPPED writing and submitting? Why not? Because it WORKS!
An article that is new and fresh with useful information or compelling ideas will take on a life of its own and will spread the news about what you have to offer. Do not post the same article to your own site, as this will cause problems with duplicate content.
Rather, revise your article into something new that has an edge. Then you can refer back to the information on your site, whether it is a more involved article or a white paper in order to draw the reader to your site.
The most popular articles are often new stories, tips, bulleted and numbered articles,and simple informational articles; such as articles explaining how to accomplish a certain aim. The most important thing is to keep them fresh and to target the audience.
Another tactic you can use is to make a top 7, top 10 or top 20 article list of your market or niche. People love the use of condensed content that gets straight to the point.
Also consider court links with the following Businesses and Organizations:
1-Trade Organizations
Trade organizations are a great resource for linking and networking.
2-Local Government Agencies
When appropriate, contact local government agencies with an online presence for possible links.
3-Local Community Services
Local libraries, social groups, or other community services offer a growing presence online.
4-Special Interest Groups
The individuality of the myriad of sites online leave the options wide open. Any special interest group that could benefit from the content of your site may be willing to link to it. Be sure to review their sit and make sure there is a connection that will benefit your site in the long run.
5-Any Similar Organization or Group
Check out similar sites or groups in the area. Creatively review the groups and organizations that could take an interest in the site.
6-Find Interests in Your Niche
Do a directory or URL search with your keywords to find sites that may take interest in your unique offering. For example, if you have a site with an attractive gallery, other sites may want to link to it. If you offer business calculators for specific accounting or other functions,find sites for which these calculations would be helpful to. Whatever you have that is fresh and useful can be used to attract links.
Rent or Buy Links As a last ditch effort, it might be necessary to rent or buy links. When free links are not available or the time to court them is beyond your reach, there is the option of renting or buying links. This is not a process to rush into. Give yourself time to gain experience as you ease your way into this area.
It may be worth paying for high quality links, but not always. I bought some links once and the following happened. It was on a PR5 and PR6 site and cheap as hell if you know where to look for them. I’ll tell you that in a minute but first the story.
Iused several keyword anchor text and placed them on their site back to mine. It was great until … their PR dropped. I still haven’t got a clue why, plus they didn’t have the heart to tell me either.
Their PR went down and then my PR went down! It was a test to see if there was any real value in buying links. Don’t get me wrong. Some people base 100% of their business on this and it CAN work. But it didn’t work for me plus I didn’t have the time to find more. So effectively they got killed and they killed me as well.
Ididn’t know the FULL history to the site as there must have been something they weren’t telling me.This is where you can get VERY cheap links as hundreds of them don’t know the ‘real’ value of them. http://www.sitepoint.com/forums
http://forums.digitalpoint.com
Both have collection people across the globe with different categorized websites. Do a cost analysis to determine if the size of your site warrants an investment to get the traffic from a high quality link. If you are trying to generate a high volume of traffic, don’t think that you are going to get it from a cheap, low quality link. An investment of time, money, or both will be required.
When renting links and banners, carefully select them so that they do not scream,‘Ignore me. I am an advertisement’. People have trained themselves to ignore anything that looks like it is selling something. Make your link lead people gently, yet obviously to the information and resources offered on your website.
It is important to look for certain characteristics in a paid link. You want to preferably be placed on a page without another ‘paid’ link which is hard to distinguish. Every page of a site attracts on a certain number of links,referred to as page rank or web rank. The more links to different sites on a page, the more diluted the results ‘could’ be. Rather than share the potential for links with another website,try to be the only link on the page to maximize the results, thus your article (hinthint).Keep track of the number of links on a page from which you are buying a link from.
You will get much better results if you choose a page that works in tandem with your site.It will be much easier to incorporate natural and relevant links without themstanding out as a sales ploy. The ideal page will have inbound high quality links that you may not be able to access normally, such as sites that do not actively cooperate with search engine optimization practices.
Link Analysis Tools
In general, it is more beneficial to spend time and money on locating and building high quality links personally. Link analysis tools use outdated statistics to perform their analysis. With the ever changing and evolving nature of internet marketing, a link analysis tool does not put you on the cutting edge. Tools can be used to perform some specific functions. For example, Yahoo! link search is a helpful tool for looking for potential sites for links. You can perform a backward link search from similar sites to find out who is linking to them.You can then pursue this source of links as well.
http://www.BacklinkWatch.com
allows one to find link anchor text and page rank values.
http://www.Gsnatch2.com/SEOElite/
performs similar functions and in addition, it checks links for back links plus has some extended tools within.
Another example of a link analysis tool can be obtained free from Firefox.If you haven’t installed Firefox then I highly recommend you do this immediately.
http://www.Mozilla.com/firefox
Firefox has a ton of free resources that millions of people are paying for otherwise.Just go to their homepage and click on add-ons. You’ll be surprised by the number of FREE tools that you can use for free. There are over 2,400 add-ons, some are even for tools that you could be paying for right now.
So I’m going to say it again… download FireFox NOW!
http://www.Mozilla.com/firefox
http://www.GoLexa.com
is a robust system that performs many functions. A user should thoroughly review this system to make sure that it performs needed functions,as it does not provide some specific analysis.
Linking? A Word of EXTREME Caution!
Even unethical sites may boost rankings temporarily. This is a dangerous situation to be in, because the ten seconds of success may encourage a webmaster to continue exchanging links with sites merely for SEO purposes, regardless of the stability and reputation of the sites they are linking with.
A link farm is a linking assemblage with no relevant ties and no rhyme or reason to connection. After a period of time, search engines penalize unethical SEO behavior.
(Don’t worry as I keep talking about SEO as that’s not the main primary concern in this book. I’m making you aware of both pitfalls and successes which you can ultimately use to your advantage. SEO is just a foundation for a websites success. So bear with me!)
Anyway a website may be guilty by association. You could be penalized for links. It is important to keep up with your links and understand who your name is being linked with.
There are a lot of websites that are online temporarily to make a fast buck before going under. They do not concern themselves with ethics of rules. They will gladly offer links and then find ways not to reciprocate in a fair way.For example, they may arrange for a reciprocal link and then bury your link in their site where it cannot be accessed.
They may also have you link to their main site, but they link to you from a ‘junk’ site that is simply part of a link farm. It is not a problem for them if this disposable site is penalized, but you will suffer with them. There are also webmasters who will put your link in a prominent position on your site for a short period of time and then delete it in the hopes that you will not monitor your links and take their word for it.
Rising to the Top
Just like a really well written and inspiring article takes on a life of its own, a successful website with high quality links, good content, and ethical SEO practices will attract attention that only comes with time, perseverance, and quality.I can vouch for this as I STILL have content across the internet since 2003!
Once a site gains a good reputation and maintains popularity, extremely high quality links will become available that could not have been achieved any other way. Once a website gains a reputation for being the leading authority on a subject, people will readily refer to it. Sites that are established will seek you out, rather than the other way around.
Remember where one site might NOT have high ranking but otherwise has relevant traffic … submit to it. Just because at present it looks like a small player … but what happens when it goes BIG and you were too arrogant to use it? Now they can ask you to pay and you don’t want to do that do you? Sites become popular over time … so don’t neglect any relevant sites! Use them to your advantage.
