Link Building
Search engines rely heavily on links from other web pages to rank pages. This is understandable, since if search engines were to rely only on web page copy, it would be too easy to manipulate results. Inbound links from quality sites are more difficult to get and take time. Precisely for this reason, they carry significant weight.
Google's Pagerank™ search algorithm heavily favors inbound links. Other search engines, although they have their own algorithms, also place significant importance on inbound links.
Perhaps focusing on Google's Pagerank™ system will best help explain how links can help your page's rankings in search engines: When page A links to page B, part of page A's PageRank™ (Google's measure of web page importance) trickles down to page B, increasing page B's PageRank™. The more links to your page from important pages you can get, the more important your page will become.
Goggle PageRank™ (PR from now on) is a grade (on a scale from one to ten) that Google gives a page after performing a series of elaborate calculations (Google's PageRank™ algorithm) that take into account the number and quality of pages linking to it.
The closer a web page gets to a PR of 10, the higher its importance. A PageRank of 4 or 5 is considered good. Very few pages attain a PR of 10 (among those few are Yahoo! and Google itself, although PR is not constant and can change over time). Although nobody knows for a fact, it is widely believed that PageRank is determined using a logarithmic grading scale instead of a linear one. What this means in layman's terms is that it is much more difficult to move from a PR 6 to a PR 7, than it is to move from a PR 1 to a PR 2. To read Google's explanation of PageRank™ go to http://www.google.com/technology/index.html .
To be able to see the PageRank™ of a web page, you have to download the Google toolbar, a free plug-in that works with your web browser. The Google toolbar provides you with a PageRank™ indicator (green bar) that automatically shows you the PageRank™ of the page you are viewing (a yellow textbox that spells out the page's PR will pop up automatically when you place your cursor over the green PR bar):
To download the Google Toolbar go to http://www.google.com/toolbar.html .
To learn all about the Google Toolbar go to: http://toolbar.google.com/help.html
The Importance of On-Topic Links:
Focusing excessively on Pagerank is misleading, though, since it is not the only factor influencing rankings. It is very important that the content of the page linking to you be closely related to your page's copy for best results. A link from a high PR 'soccer' page to a 'mortgage broker' page may very well transfer PR, however, it is unlikely to result in any significant ranking boost for the mortgage broker page for search queries relevant to mortgage brokering. On the other hand, a link from a real estate agent's page to a mortgage broker's page will be considered a relevant and very helpful link from the ranking standpoint.
Link Anchor Text and Search Engine Behavior
As important as getting a large number of quality, on-topic inbound links is to have the right wording on those links (the link anchor text). Search engines are paying a great deal of attention to the anchor text of the links pointing to your site.
To give you an example of how important link anchor text is, let's suppose that you run a web design site, and that you want it to rank very high with the search engines for the search term "web design". If you had 100 links pointing to your homepage, and the anchor text of all of them said "click here", they wouldn't tell the search engines a whole lot about your site. The search engines will have to rely on your page copy or the copy of the page linking to you to try to find out if your page is relevant to web design.
However, if instead of "click here", the anchor text on those links said "web design", the search engines will assume that your site is an authority on web design, and will most likely give your site a higher ranking for that keyphrase.
Another proof that search engines pay a lot of attention to the link anchor text is the fact that most companies rank very high when the search term is their company name (since a company's name is normally the most popular anchor text used to link to it).
Good ways to build links:
Getting listed in quality directories
Since good directories use qualified human editors who choose listed sites very carefully using strict criteria, and place them in tightly focused categories, they are given significant weight in search engine algorithms. In other words, if a link to your page is found by search engines in a quality directory, your page will receive a boost. Therefore, listing your pages in quality directories is very important.
The two biggest directories are Yahoo! ($299/year listing fee) and DMOZ (free, but listing your site can take months). To learn how to submit your site to the Yahoo! directory, go to this page: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/ . To learn how to submit your site to the Open Directory Project, go to this page: http://dmoz.org/add.html . There are also many smaller, high quality directories that are either free or charge reasonable listing fees, like:
Zeal: http://www.zeal.com
GoGuides: http://www.goguides.org
Wow Directory: http://www.wowdirectory.com
Joe Ant: http://www.joeant.com
BlueFind: http://www.bluefind.com
About.com: http://www.about.com
They should be an important part of your link building program.
Exchanging Links
Exchanging links is another way to get inbound links, provided that you be very selective with whom you do it. Exchange links with an unreputable site and you may be setting yourself up for severe search engine penalties. As a rule of thumb, exchange links only with sites that you think will be beneficial to your visitors. When exchanging links, give the other party the exact link anchor text they should use to link to you, and try not to use the same keywords all the time, since using the same anchor text all the time can alert search engines of excesive link exchange, or unnatural linking patterns.
Submitting articles:
Writing articles as the best way to get your site indexed by the search engines. It is also one of the best ways to promote your website and get hundreds of quality links to your page. It will also help you develop credibility and establish yourself as an expert. The way you do it is by including a small bio (called resouce box) at the end of your article, and allowing other parties to freely reprint it provided that they include your resoucebox. You can submit your articles for publication in sites like http://www.ideamarketers.com , http://www.goarticles.com or http://www.articlecity.com .
Renting links
Many high Pagerank™ websites rent text links to other pages. These links are really a form of adversising, although their main objective is not necessarily to generate traffic but to pass along Pagerank™. Links from pages with Pagerank™ of 7 and higher can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month. Links from pages with Pagerank™ of 5 and 6 are less expensive. Google is catching up to the practice of selling and renting links and is taking measures to discourage it. I do not recommend renting links from unknown services with the intention of pumping up your Pagerank™. It is also recommendable to try to establish inbound links by other means (like directories) before you engage in link renting.
Posting in forums and weblogs
Since forums and weblogs offer plenty of fresh content, search engine spiders tend to crawl them often. If you are a prolific contributor to these types of site and use a signature file with a link to your page, having many entries may give you a relevance boost with the search engines. This technique, however, has been abused so much that as of January 2005 Google and other search engines have decided to support a 'no-follow' filter, an attribute that can be set up by blog and forum owners so that guest comment links and signature links will not be followed by search engines.
Getting unsolicited links
The unsolicited link (also called natural link) is the most valuable link, and the most difficult to get. It occurs when you have content that is so remarkable that people feel compelled to link to you. You will most likely get unsolicited links when you post original ideas, voice strong opinions, serve a specific niche very well, or offer something of value for free (for example a useful online tool). An example of a site that has achieved high Pagerank™ mostly on unsolicited links is Jakob Nielsen's site ( http://www.useit.com ). The 'guru' of web usability has an extremely plain and unattractive site from the graphic standpoint, however, his great content and original ideas have compelled so many people to link to it that it is one of the world's most visited sites.
Making Inbound Links Look Natural
Search engines are becoming more sofisticated in detecting unnatural linking patterns. For example, if all you inbound links come from the same site, or if they all have the same link anchor text, it will look abnormal and search engines may devalue your link profile. Make sure that you get links from many different places, coming from pages with different PR (many links from low PR pages and some from high PR pages are better than all links from high PR pages) and that you use variations of your keywords in the link anchor text. Also, try to get more one-way links (like directory links or resource box links) than reciprocal links. The more you can make your link profile look natural, the better your pages will rank.
That concludes our online tutorial. You can now read our articles section for more search engine optimization tips. You can also subscribe to our ezine for the latest search engine news.
